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Saturday, April 01, 2017

News Weakly - 4/1/2017

A Truly Interesting Story
Not all weekly news is bad. Try this interesting story, not just in content, but where it comes from. This New York Times article tells the story of Bashir Mohammad, a 25-year-old "jihadi who turned to Jesus." Yeah, imagine that! A terrorist who turned to Christ, and the story is in the New York Times. Will miracles never cease?

Not all news on April Fool's Day is foolish.

Pardon me ...
... you're contradiction is showing.

So, what do we know? Well, today we know that the body parts that accompany you at birth do not determine your actual gender; you do. We know that when a male identifies as a female he changes his appearance to look "female" or vice versa (ala Bruce Jenner). Now, this seems odd, doesn't it, since body parts don't determine gender but gender determines body parts? And then we find the inevitable next contradiction. A leading ethics expert at the British Medical Association has said that women should be allowed to abort babies based on gender. The doctor tells the (not yet) mother that the (not yet) baby is a boy and she doesn't want a boy? She should be free to kill that (not yet) child on that basis. Wait ... wait! Didn't we just agree that we can't know the gender before ... the child is old enough to tell us what it is? How can the baby be the wrong gender? How can it be a baby? How does any of this make sense?

For the Birds ... NOT
Based on the date of the story, I clearly came upon this late, but it's the first I heard of it. After Captain "Sully" Sullenberger's famous "Miracle on the Hudson" crash landing due to bird strike, New York City's three major airports undertook a sort of "nuclear option" program to decrease the risk to aircraft from birds. The Associated Press has determined that "nearly 70,000 gulls, starling, geese and other birds have been slaughtered, mostly by shooting and trapping, since the 2009 accident, and it is not clear whether those killings have made the skies safer." It appears that bird strikes have actually gone up since the program began.

Hey, wait! I thought we were supposed to be saving the environment, not annihilating it. Make up your minds!

A Case of Mixed-Up Priorities
You remember those videos where they recorded Planned Parenthood folk elaborating on the evil things they did about abortion. You know, selling body parts, killing live-birth babies, that sort of thing. Last year a Texas grand jury was convened to investigate Planned Parenthood and ended up charging the two who made the videos instead. The charges were dropped. Now California is bringing charges. No, again, not against Planned Parenthood. They're charging the two who made the videos with 15 felonies for filming without consent. "Invasion of privacy." That ought to teach them. "You can’t target women & health care providers without consequences." That's for sure. Ensure privacy for illegal activities? Absolutely! Protect babies? No way! We as a society have arrived at the point where we embrace the murder of the most innocent of children and punish those who wish to curtail it. Not something to be proud of.

Just When You Thought ...
"Come into the 21st century," they've told me. The suggestion has been, "We're much more advanced now." I'm not so sure. As it turns out, witchcraft has gone mainstream with healing crystals, incense, horoscopes, and mystical spiritual powers. "Spiritual but not religious" is in vogue and witchcraft is in use by ex-churchgoing millenial women, often as part of anti-mysogynistic views, women who are "fully sane and high-achieving young professionals". And in Uganda and elsewhere child sacrifice is on the rise. "A thriving business," the article says. Tell me again how we're so much more advanced now.

The Billy Graham Rule
Story after story over the last few years have surfaced of women crying "Rape!" who were not. Or were. We'll likely never know. The well-documented failure of Rolling Stone magazine last year to properly verify the rape accusation is a prime example. Do rapes and affairs happen? Sure. But not all such accusations are created equal. So the story comes out that Mike Pence practices the 'Billy Graham Rule' of not eating alone with women other than his wife to avoid any possibility of scandal, and the media has exploded over his "sexism". Either he thinks that women are untrustworthy or he's a latent womanizer, but he's evil. One writer said, "It's not cute, it's incredibly sexist." The Internet is sure. It's all about him being a bad man. It cannot be about avoiding the appearance of impropriety or possible false accusations. How do we know that? I suspect it's because he's President Trump's vice-president, and everything connected with Trump is evil, right? In our day of "guilty until proven innocent" by the media and the public, I'd consider it wise, but, hey, who am I to say?

Seen on the Internet
Maybe you've heard of John Piper; maybe not. Maybe you've read his book, Don't Waste Your Life; maybe not. However, the Babylon Bee is a great site for fake Christian news, and this one really had me laughing ... and it was just with the headline alone. New Video Game Simulates Not Wasting Your Life. Classic. The only discouraging thing is the thought of how many millennial-types won't get it.

6 comments:

David said...

"The Billy Graham Rule".

Well, I guess it's possible that he could have a gay sex scandal, and this should only ready alone with his wife. But really, what's the greater likelihood, a woman claiming sexual misconduct or a man? I mean, are there even any stories out there​that turned out to be merely accusations of gay sex scandal? Lines of men lining up to accuse some guy of using his position for sexual favors from them? Or even men lining up to accuse some woman of the same?

It's like saying, "I'm allergic to bees, so I avoid beehives" is "racist" (not sure what the "-ist" would be in this case) against bees. The smart person will avoid things that could potentially harm them.

Stan said...

They thought it was sexist because, "What's wrong with him? He can't have dinner with a woman without wanting to have sex with her?" or "Apparently he thinks that any woman that wants to have dinner with him wants to have sex with him" or the like.

Marshal Art said...

I read your roundups and think, "Hurry, Lord!!"

Stan said...

Me, too.

David said...

I heard more about the Pence story and it got me thinking more. A while ago my wife stumbled upon a list of things women never have to worry about that men do. One of the items listed was that solo men have to be cautious around children or they might be thought of as pedophiles, even though they aren't. I know for myself it's in the back of my mind if I'm around children "unsupervised". The best way to avoid even the hint of impropriety, it's just smart to have witnesses. People that are bothered by his stance is that he's either worried about his actions or the actions of women, but it's simply to avoid even the chance of it being misconstrued as inappropriate. You know, like the Bible says.

Also, I heard a new term, Evangelical Catholic.

Stan said...

It seems like the wise move to avoid the hint of impropriety. For reasons unknown, the public and lots of Christians alike are only able to see it as a claim that Pence either believes he can't control himself around women or they can't control themselves around him. Don't get it at all. Avoiding the appearance of evil is a good thing, isn't it?

And I've heard your new term before. Like "unicorn" or the like, right?