News Weakly - 6/10/23

This will be a shorter one. I'm traveling this week and next and have less time and access to do this than usual.

Mixed Metaphors
Great. Now Mike Pence is taking a shot at becoming president. Pence is someone for whom I have sufficient respect that I could actually vote for him without holding my nose or crossing my fingers, but, like so many times before, it would be a pointless vote. Trump stabbed him in the back. The far right railed against him. The left can't stand any actual Christian for president. And, of course, the media hates Christians, so the sheeple of America would never vote for him. So Pence is dangling a carrot and I'll expect a stick.

Values Clarification
For a while now the PGA has been loudly protesting golfers that played in the LIV. It's immoral. It's unfaithful. It's an insult to all who died in 9/11. So the answer appears to be money. The PGA agreed to merge with the traitorous, offensive, insulting LIV. Individual golfers mustn't, but as long as the PGA does it, it's good. It was simply wrong for professional golfers to do it. Clearly. Okay, so now we understand. It wasn't principle on which they stood. It was money. "Pay us enough, and we'll agree with you."

Not Innocent
The FBI is reporting an increase in extortion cases where individuals have been threatened with "deepfake" images. Deepfake is the technology that allows you to take an innocent image or video and convert it so realistically to something else that the casual observer can't tell it's not real. So they're taking images from private messages, video chats, or online posts and doctoring them into something sexually explicit for purposes of extortion. Just to show you that science in general and technology in particular can be for good or not good. An important lesson in a society that seems to think that technology will be our salvation. And to highlight the danger of innocent exposure on the Internet.

Exhibit A
As if to support that last item, we have this piece. A report is out that policies at Instagram provide a connection to a "vast network" of accounts devoted to trafficking in pedophilia content. "Wait," I say, "are you telling me that people are using a wide-open media platform aimed at open and outlandish expression from young people in particular to gain access to young people in particular for immoral purposes??? How can that be?" Or, to put it another way, "Duh!" Technology is neither moral nor immoral, but people dedicated to opposition to all things godly will surely use the tools for ... all things ungodly.

So That is a Bumble Bee
This week we learned that Trump was being indicted for having classified documents at Mar-O-Lago instead of in the trunk of a corvette or something. Seems right. After the (real) news that New York City is ranked with the worst air quality in any major U.S. city, Mayor Eric Adams is calling on residents to look toward Canada and blow really hard at the count of three. Finally, Rick Warren is boasting that he has ordained more female pastors than Jesus.

Must be true; I read it on the Internet.