Why Christians are Idiots

Yes, I realize that you people aren't reading this blog anymore, but I hate TweetLonger and some things that need to be said are probably not as Pyro-Worthy as others.

Earlier today (maybe last night even), Collin Hansen let us know what he thinks about the Chic-fil-A social carnage:

The world gave the SBC grief over boycotting Disney. Then decided to imitate these intimidation tactics. Go figure.
— Collin Hansen (@collinhansen) July 26, 2012

Which, of course, is just barely right.  A little laters this morning, Glenn Reynolds of InstaPundit fame instead blogged this:

JULY 26, 2012

BOSTON GLOBE: Stop Picking On Chik-Fil-A. “If the mayor of a conservative town tried to keep out gay-friendly Starbucks or Apple, it would be an outrage.” Except that doesn’t seem to happen, does it? What I think is funny is that if you have the same view on gay marriage that Obama had when he was elected, now you’re an enemy of humanity or something. It’s some sort of, I don’t know, Liberal Fascism or something. . . .

Posted by Glenn Reynolds at 8:43 am

Now, think about this for a second. What InstaPundit is saying is this: Conservative politicians on the local level lead by example and don't try to go die on hills that don't matter.  An Apple Store or a plethora of Starbucks shacks are probably good for the local economy, and letting one open someplace properly zoned is a good ideaer.

What Collin is saying is that the SBC had a good ideaer by boycotting Disney and the world persecuted them for it -- and now the world is using the same tactics. "Go Figure."

What Collin seems to miss, it seems to me, is that the SBC chose a hill to die on which didn't work at all and made them look utterly petty and stupid -- and now that the World is imitating these tactics, and is now looking petty and stupid.  And our response to them looks, at best, staged when we say that this boycott is bad but our boycott is good.

You know: if only Christians had something to teach the rest of the world when it comes to finding a solution to culture.  Then we would really have something worth getting worked up about.

The one in which I get cross-eyed angry

OK -- so I'm minding my own business, and someone sends me a link to this video:



It's from the BBC so I am inclined to watch it because I love the BBC every time even when it is appalling. But as I watch this video, I get to this frame:

If you can't read the text and the graph lines, let me improve them for you:

Now: what gets me cross-eyed angry here is that he called this "per person income". What he most certainly means, if you listen to his talk here, is "per capita income" -- which is in no way the same thing. The per-capita income in the US, for example, $46,000 in 2007. (thx, Bartleby.com) What that DOES NOT MEAN is that every man-jack person in the country makes $46,000 a year: it means when you take the total personal income in the US and divide it by the total population, you get the average income per person. But he says, "per person income," doesn't he?

Now: why does he say it that way? Here's my theory: the crypto-socialist in the video wants to sneak in on you that $46,000 a year as a person's income is rich!

If the US really had an income "per person" of $46,000/year, my house would be making twice what I bring home today. But my house doesn't come up to that standard.

And let me say something clearly: I'm OK with that. I'm OK with not making $46,000 per person in my house. We make plenty of money and we live extremely well.

Bookmark this post, because the next time someone wants to complain to you about "the rich", you have to show them this and stop on that frame at about 53 seconds in and ask them: "who do you mean by 'the rich'?" Because this fellow with the edgy Euro-intellectual accent would tell you that anyone who makes more than $46,000 a year is rich.

The Limits of Science

Turns out that a fish well-known to be extinct wasn't extinct at all. It moved.

It must be true. Science has said so.

How we know what we know about what we know

Briefly today as this cannot go without comment.

FIFA takes flack about comments at press conference.

Note the content of the criticism of Sepp Blatter (no punchline there, I am sure): telling people not to break the law in Qatar is "epic ignornace", meaning that of course gay people are going to have sex in Qatar. Apparently that's what they are going there to do -- not watch the World Cup.

Keep this filed for when the next time you hear that being gay in not just about having sex: it is most certainly, primarily, about having sex. If you say otherwise in a meaningful way, you will take absurc levels of criticism -- including calls for you to give up making a living.

Forgot he was a wanted man

Quick link to a story from Associated Press via Yahoo about Frank Dryman, aka Frank Valentine, aka Victor Houston, who is 79 years old and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

This is a real man's life, so let's not make light of it: he's a criminal, and a lawbreaker, and he's going to spend his last years in prison for two crimes -- murder, and the violation of his parole.

But it seems to me this is a parable as well -- something written by God's providence that we must see through the eyes of faith. When Frank Valentine didn;t want to be a criminal anymore, he simply said he wasn't that man anymore -- and did his work to prove he was a different man.

But history and the Law say differently: he is who he is, guilty of his crime, and worse for pretending it never happened.

This is a parable about us, dear reader. It is a parable about me. I dare say it is a parable about you.

Just for the record

Instapundit just called President Obama "Jimmy Carter".

He's only 18 months late to the party.

You've got to have standards

On the Global Warming front, James Lovelock opines about global warming and human stupidity.

This is quite ironic from a guy who also thinks that science has standards.

Read it and weep.

Fiction and non-Fiction

Fantastic news over at MediaBistro.com:

The pink line there is Cartoon Network's rank among the cable networks. The blue lines are FoxNews and the next highest-rated news network after Fox in each category.

For the record, more people watch Cartoon Network than CNN or MSNBC.

I love that.

You're Fired

Trump says "take away Gore's Nobel Prize."

I love it.

Death from below

You totally needed to know this.

Your seat belt is useless as a floatation device when it's in the belly of a 40-meter long Dino-Shark. Just another reason that people need Jesus: we are helpless to defend against MegaShark.

The other side of a day like today

The world doesn't turn into gumdrops and soda pop just becuase the sun comes out.

This report from Yahoo!/AFP reports from the UN that 96 million women are "missing" in Asia.

Female infanticide and sex-selective abortion have caused a severe gender imbalance in Asia, and the problem is worsening despite rapid economic growth in the region, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report said.

The actual UN report is listed here. And the stunning thing is that this is reported by the Un of all orgnaizations in the world. here's how they describe it:

The problem of “missing girls” ―in which more boys are born than girls, as girl fetuses are presumably aborted, and women die from health and nutrition neglect— is actually growing. Birth gender disparity is greatest in East Asia, where 119 boys are born for every 100 girls.

China and India together account for more than 85 million of the nearly 100 million “missing” women estimated to have died from discriminatory treatment in health care, nutrition access or pure neglect ―or because they were never born in the first place, the Report found.

A tenth of women here report being assaulted by their partners, and a majority of women who do work —up to 85 percent of South Asia’s working women― are engaged in unstable low-end work in the informal economy.

Now, here's something the UN folks don't want to tell you: the population in Asia is still growing. For example, in China the population growth rate is 0.6%, compared to in the US which has a growth rate of 0.98% -- but that means that in the US, our population grows by about 2 million people every year -- and China grows by about 8 million every year.

Here's why I point that out: the problem outlined here by the UN is not that discrimination against women is the cause of economic distress, and it's not causing depopulation (yet). Moreover, improved economic conditions and medical treatment have not diminished this trend.

Somehow women aren't treated well just because there's more money around.

I wonder why.

Human interest

This is just a story about a guy who had a rare video game in a stack in his basement, until you get to this part:

"After taxes and tithing, the rest of our part will be going to a retirement account that has been decimated by the dot-com bomb, 9/11, and the recent market problems. Not very sexy, but needed." He's also going to auction off the rest of his Nintendo paraphernalia.

I like it just because they reported what he said. That he did it or would bring it up is pretty good, too -- regardless of your view of "tithing".

HT: Instapundit

link to original entry

Good Morning Holy Spirit

Not to make light of a terrible thing, but Benny Hinn's wife of 30 years files for divorce.

Personally, I just don't get divorce -- especially after 30 years, and when frankly everything about the marriage is past the problems normal people will have. Are they bickering about money or missed opportunities? Imagine that this is about some third person -- how does that happen after 30 years?

Wow.

How to win others

Ed Morrissey of Hot Air highlights Sally Jenkins' essay in the Washington Post. My favorite part in Jenkins' essay?

Apparently NOW feels this commercial is an inappropriate message for America to see for 30 seconds, but women in bikini selling beer is the right one. I would like to meet the genius at NOW who made that decision. On second thought, no, I wouldn’t.

There is a parable about evangelism in there someplace, but I don't have time to work it out for you. After 6 years of me blogging and you reading it, you can make up your own Turkism here, I am sure.

3 envelopes - a parable

So this guy gets elected president, and when I say "this guy" I mean some fella who has spent his life in politics in some sense for the good of his country, but of course he's a politician so he's also in it for pragmatic reasons.

The day after his inauguration he gets a phone call from his predecessor to ask him how things are going. Now, it was a war of attrition that year and a hard-fought victory for the new President, but the Oval Office looks a lot different from the leather chair than it does from the other side of the desk. In a moment of kindred connection, he says to his former adversary, “It’s a big job. I have an agenda, but I don’t know where to start.”

The other guy laughs a little and says that it is a big job, but if he’s man enough to win the election he’s man enough to run the country. But just in case, in the top center drawer of the desk in the oval office, there are three envelopes. If he doesn’t know what to do next, just open the first envelope.

The new president thanked his former adversary, and hung up – certain he would never really need the envelopes. He started to work with his new cabinet and advisors, and while he tried to make good on his promises, making real advances was nearly impossible. And after a few months, his poll numbers started to slide. Then about Christmas of the first year, the bottom fell out of his first major policy change and he found himself alone in the oval office on Christmas eve not too sure what to do next.

Just then, he remembered the three envelopes, and he opened the center drawer of the desk – half-expecting to find it empty. But there they were, numbered 1-2-3, in very fresh-looking Presidental stationary from the previous administration. So he took envelope 1 out and held it for a second, thinking it might be a prank of some kind of biochemical revenge tactic from his former adversary who might just hold a grudge. But he held to up to the light and could see a single piece of paper in there, so he opened the envelop and read these three words:

BLAME YOUR PREDECESSOR

The next morning he showed up at the daily White House briefing, and after a few words from his press secretary he gave a brief but impassioned statement that framed the problems of the country in terms of the last administration. If things were every going to change, the old ways of the last president had to be pushed over – and he needed the help of the American people to do it.

The brief statement went over like gang-busters, and his poll numbers shot up. He pressed forward with a modified legislative agenda which many people supported as he governed a little more to the center, and for the next year his agenda made some forward headway. However, taxes went up, employment waivered, and his poll number started to slip. Again.

On the eve of his second Christmas, a bombshell revelation was released to the media that several of his cabinet members had shady dealings while in office, and he was himself a little ashamed of them – even though he knew in his heart he might have done the same thing in their shoes. It was going to take a renewed center of energy to fight the fight necessary to continue to make progress and refute allegations that his administration was simply corrupt. He wasn’t sure he had it in him, and he didn’t know what to do.

Then he remembered the envelopes. The first had worked so well, he thought maybe there was some strategic prophecy in the others. He took out the second envelope and opened it, and the message said:

BLAME THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES

As the words sunk in, they made perfect sense to him – the problem wasn’t his but the problem of people just being down-right un-leadable. Especially those who opposed his agenda.

The next morning he showed up at the daily White House briefing, and after a few words from his press secretary he gave a brief but impassioned statement that framed the problems of the country in terms of the lack of charity, compassion and wisdom of those who were making charges against him and his administration. If things were every going to change, the old ways of the last president had to be pushed over – and he needed the agreement of the American people to do it.

The brief statement went over like gang-busters, and his poll numbers shot up. Again. He pressed forward with a legislative agenda which some people supported as he governed a little more to the center still, and for the next year his agenda made some forward headway. However, his message of “us vs. them” left a lot of people cold – all politicians talk that way, and they thought they elected a leader they could trust to lead the whole nation and not just the few who agreed with him.

On the eve of his third Christmas in office, his poll numbers were simply pathetic – and it was time to run for re-election in earnest. But his agenda was now a lot more moderate than it used to be, and his ability to lead a coalition was severely compromised by his message against his enemies. He wasn;t sure how to proceed – and then he remembered the last envelope.

He opened the drawer and paused for a moment, wondering for a second if he was the first president to ever receive these pearls of wisdom, and somewhat perplexed by his former adversary’s intentions in leaving those envelopes for him. He paused to consider whether he should follow the advice on a letter-sized envelope from someone who was his political enemy. But he realized he didn’t have any idea where to start the new year, so he opened the envelope.

It read:

MAKE THREE ENVELOPES

Steyn of Beck's

Mark Steyn explains why Glenn Beck is the only sane person in the national discourse.

Must-read.

Professional

I read this story today about Katie Couric and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and I loved it.

You know: the point here is not that somehow someone outsmarted Katie Couric. She's a bright and ambitious lady, and we should respect her. The point of this story is that CBS and Ms. Couric expected this guy to be an ignorant shlub. Somehow, they expected him to care what public opinion says about him.

This is a guy who publicly denies the existence of the Holocaust, and is trying to gain a place at the Nuclear weapons table.

She's lucky he didn't pull out a cane and beat her for dressing like that in public in defiance of Sharia Law.

He's the enemy, Katie: not a misunderstood and ignorant dupe.

That explains everything

The results of a survey of more than 17,000 university students from 32 countries "show that the higher the percent of parents who used corporal punishment, the lower the national average IQ."

You know: obviously. Right?

That's not a snake

That's a dragon. If that link is dead, try this pdf.

And don't say I never post any Fing Fang Foom pictures.