whereisjodi.

The first time I gave more than a passing thought to ethanol as an alternative fuel source was when I was driving from Pennsylvania to Idaho last summer. I drove for four days, and it seemed to me a good portion of the time I was driving through corn fields with signs posted every so often identifying them as destined for ethanol production. That was right in the middle of the China food and toy scare, and almost as an aside I found myself wondering why we were growing all this corn that we wouldn't be eating. Why not have the Chinese grow the ethanol corn and have us grow our own food so we wouldn't have to check the labels on everything we eat?

Somewhere in the middle of my four day spree I filled up my motorhome with 10% ethanol fuel...not too much later I vapor-locked because of that self-same ethanol and lost an hour of travel time waiting for the engine to cool down.

Needless to say I was unimpressed with ethanol.

Continue reading "Ethanol Arrogance." »

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I'm pretty sure I haven't watched a full episode of Oprah since I was living in Scotland ten years ago teaching English to 25 Korean and Chinese adults. I'd been teaching in Seoul, but the Korean organization I worked for thought it'd be a good idea to take us to Scotland for English immersion.

Aberdeen is home to the thickest accent in Scotland so my teaching partner and I were really relieved to find the church we chose had a visiting Brit as interim pastor. We had difficulty understanding the announcements and singing, but at least we heard the sermon...so you can perhaps imagine how well our students did with their immersion experience. But I digress.

It was a fairly stressful episode in my life, and one thing my teaching partner and I did was institute routine whenever we weren't working. We got home to our flat around four, completely exhausted from the day's efforts, and flipped on Oprah. After that hour I'd drag myself off the couch to make dinner while she watched Star Trek, then she'd clean while we watched another American show I can't quite remember.

Continue reading "Oprah Does Her Best to Legitimize Polygamy." »

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The pithy worldnetdaily headline is worth a laugh by itself: "Bill Clinton: I have a dream, literally."

Poor President Clinton <former, not hopeful> has been campaigning too hard. He apparently fell asleep today during an MLK service. My favorite scene is around :41 where his head falls off his hand and he quickly nods like the speaker's made a great point. At the end he checks his watch, which is also snort-worthy. I understand he's been working hard and I'm all for giving a guy a break -- but you'd think sitting right behind the speaker when you know you're on camera would make you a little more circumspect.

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That's my new name for Simi Valley. I almost got blown off the road coming back to my lovely home. Three more nights in the hotel and I'll be on my way back to my real home. I'm hopeful that the snow hasn't passed me by -- I've got an invitation to try out snow-shoeing if enough snow piles up before spring showers.

Someone I find mostly entertaining and sometimes off-her-rocker-and-overboard is Ann Coulter. I see tonight that she's given her endorsement to Mitt Romney. I hope that carries at least as much weight as a snippet of news I saw last week when Will Smith endorsed Obama at a press conference for his new movie...

Read about a sweet contest I'd seriously consider entering if I had school-aged children. It's a video/essay contest called "The Sky's Not Falling" and it's designed to "highlight the absurdities, untruths and downright lies that children are being taught daily about 'climate change' in public school."

Reminds me of a silly story I saw on the news a couple months ago about the top "stressers" for young children. They put global warming as number one and showed some poor kid explaining what he'd learned in school -- something along the lines of "we're melting all the ice and killing all the animals." No wonder kids are stressed out! Click here for more details about the contest and to learn the meaning of Globaloney.

And finally, the ACLU is at it again. Now they're claiming folks who engage in sexual activity in a public restroom "have an expectation of privacy." Unreal.

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QuickLink:

A German family has completed its flight to Great Britain after the mayor of their hometown filed a court action to give custody of the children to the state because the parents have been homeschooling...

Read more.

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I'm cackling as I sit in a hotel room in California watching the new version of American Gladiator. I remember watching the show as a child...and it's as campy now as my memories of it. And my oh my, they just showed a commercial for a remake of Knight Rider. Hopefully it'll be better than the disaster they made of my childhood fave: Bionic Woman...

Anyway. :p My old company called again so I flew down today for two weeks of consulting. Last year at this time I was living in my motorhome, so I guess living out of a hotel is sort of similar. There were two inches of fresh snow on the ground when I left Boise and I arrived to a deluge. Hopefully it'll stop raining long enough for me to enjoy a little sunshine.

On a much more serious note -- here's an interesting article you might want to read. It discusses a Canadian city considering some new guidelines for churches, including these doozies:

• A limit allowing only one "place of worship" for every 10,000 residents.
• Ban religious meetings in homes if they involve more than 20 people, children included.

Posted by authorjodi at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh now I really want to vote for this guy! :p <via WorldNetDaily>

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A friend forwarded this link. If you've got two minutes, it's a wonderful watch --- not just in the arena of Presidential politics, but for standing up for what you believe in a winsome, non-combative, but still firm way:

Posted by authorjodi at 06:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Thanks to the diligent efforts of my friend Stacy over at Active Christian Media, I've just about settled on Mike Huckabee as my candidate of choice. I like everything I've heard and read about him so far -- I think I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop, as it were, the skeleton just about to come out <one thousand times bitten, one thousand and one times shy>. That, and the fact that I'm appalled to have to choose a candidate so stinking early!

That said, I've spent a couple hours over the past few weeks reading up on Mr. Huckabee and watching different speeches he's made. Last night I watched his interview with Charlie Rose on PBS and found myself a little bit tickled that Mr. 2nd-Tier GOP Candidate <according to the MSM> was the first in Rose's candidate series. 

Two things I enjoyed: his anecdote about how it's not much different going from Baptist Church politics into national politics -- because you can't find a more politically charged environment than a Baptist Church. I'm sure that's an old joke, but it was the first time I heard it and I laughed.

Second, I appreciated what he had to say about candidates who have no idea how a normal person lives. He got through college in just over two years because he couldn't afford to dilly dally, pastored for a number of years, sent his kids to public school, lost 100 pounds after being diagnosed with diabetes -- all fairly normal pursuits.  

Shoot, I know I said two things, but now that I think of it there was one more that nearly caused me to stand up and cheer even though it was midnight and the folks were asleep -- he advocates the fair tax. He actually said the words "I'd abolish the IRS." Poor Charlie Rose looked apoplectic. 

Posted by authorjodi at 01:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Although I do try to resist talking about the Presidential election <or even reading about it myself> so as not to become even sicker of the process than I already am...two recent articles made me snicker. Yesterday the Idaho Statesman had an article entitled "Just how unelectable is Hillary Clinton?" I've searched around and can't find the article online, but seriously, how negative is that headline? It made me laugh a little.

Kind of like the article I read awhile back that discussed why she was laughing more in appearances -- the article suggested it was her image-makers who'd told her she was too cold, so now instead of appearing cold she appears robotic: humorous anecdote coming, lean back head, open mouth and guffaw. How low have we sunk that we have to discuss whether a person is genuinely laughing instead of their political positions?

However, not quite so funny was an article I read this morning that quoted a number of terrorist leaders in Iraq and Palestine who went on record as stating they hoped Hillary won the election because it would further their goals for the region. What a terrible endorsement!

But there I go getting serious when I only wanted to have a little fun. There was one funny part to that last article -- one terrorist said if Hillary followed her husband's foreign policy and stood up to the evil Israelis, she might suffer a conspiracy like he did:

...White House intern Monica Lewinsky really was an Israeli Mossad implant sent to destroy President Clinton's career after he pressured the Jewish state to evacuate territory to the Palestinians.

and the piece de resistance: 

If Hillary goes too much against the Zionist interests, she will face the same conspiracy like her husband who fell into the trap of Lewinsky. I have no doubt [Lewinsky] was planted by the Zionists, who wanted to send a message to all future American presidents – do not go against the Israeli policy. Bill Clinton made the Oslo agreement and promoted peace but the Israelis did not give him a chance.

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Just kidding. Actually, the study says Prime-Time TV is not gay enough. ABC got graded "good" for having 171 hours, some 15% of their total programming, that was "gay-inclusive." Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters helped bump up the grade, including Betty's casting of the "first series regular transgender on a network comedy."

Other networks didn't come out quite so well which I assume is the whole reason GLAAD released their study. I've got a study I'm considering releasing -- about how every one of the major networks gets a failing grade for their negative <or absent> portrayals of Evangelical Christians. Maybe if I come up with a snappy acronym for my organization I can get some news coverage. How about ECAAD <Evangelical Christian Alliance Against Defamation>? Ok, I know, that's not very creative...

In other news: are your elderly relatives getting too difficult or expensive to take care of? Maybe you should outsource them to India. 

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A judge in New York has ruled evidence of "hatred" is unnecessary for a prosecutor to pursue a "hate crimes" case against three men arrested for the death of a homosexual man.

Because they allegedly thought "this is an easy way to rob someone," the three men apparently went onto a homosexual website to lure a man into meeting them, whereupon they robbed him. He then ran into the street trying to get away and was struck by a car, later dying from his injuries.

I'm all for throwing the book at these three men -- the book for premeditated murder in New York is 15 years to life and I'm inclined to vote for life. However, because the Big Apple has a Hate Crimes Act, the book ratchets up to 20 years to life.

So let me get this straight. Criminals have been looking for "easy targets" for centuries, but now the punishment for victimizing certain individuals is significantly higher. Those three men could have logged onto a knitting website and lured a little old granny out of her apartment, robbed and murdered her, and her life would be less valuable in the eyes of the law when looking at sentencing.

Continue reading "No 'Hate' Required in Hate Crime." »

Posted by authorjodi at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Blogging is very intense -- physically, mentally," she said. "You're constantly scanning for news. You're constantly trying to come up with information that you think will mobilize your readers. In the meantime, you're sitting at a computer and your *** is getting wider and your arm and neck and shoulder are wearing out because you're constantly using a mouse."

I'm sorry, but I laughed out loud when I read this story of bloggers trying to form a union. I'm not generally a fan of unions anyway, but one for nerds who sit in their closet or basement <or RV> writing in their freetime? Get real!

Not coming as a complete shock, the article says this movement is headed by a "loosely formed coalition of left-leaning bloggers." I imagine most right-leaning bloggers, such as myself, are too busy trying to figure out how to get more readers so they can attract more advertising dollars so they can buy gas for their motorhome... ;)

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A new movie coming out has some folks up in arms. Adam Sandler and Kevin James play single fireman who pretend to be gay so they can get 'married' and qualify for partnership benefits. WorldNetDaily blasted the movie as anti-Christian, pro-homosexual propoganda here. You can decide for yourself by watching the trailer below -- one viewing was about all I needed.

In fact, the trailer reminded me of a phrase oft-quoted in the pro-homosexual movement: Ghandi's path for victory. I think it went something like first they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.

The most thought-provoking part of the article, in my opinion, was a 1772-era quote by John Adams:

"We see every day that our imaginations are so strong and our reason so weak ... the belief of future punishments so faint that men find ways to believe any absurdity … their reason becomes at last an eloquent advocate on the side of their passions, and they bring themselves to believe that black is white, that vice is virtue, that folly is wisdom, and eternity a moment. ... I dread the consequences."

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Why am I so put-out by Ted Kennedy's attachment of Hate Crimes legislation to a defense spending bill? Because in every other country where hate crimes legislation has been installed, religious liberties have taken a hit.

England has enacted several anti-discrimination laws, including the Sexual Discrimination Act of, I believe, 2003 that states "Equality rules bar bias against workers on grounds of sexual orientation." However, there was to be a religious exemption allowing churches "to turn down gay candidates for clerical posts."

Continue reading "Hate Crimes, Gay Pride Month & Persecution in Iraq." »

Posted by authorjodi at 08:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm steering Bertha toward South Carolina today, but as there is one whale of a storm going on I decided to pull off at a rest area and do a little work. Of course, in the midst of sending follow-up e-mails to the contacts I made last week, I also found it necessary to read a little news and see what's up. ;)

Since I mentioned the Mickey Mouse-like character in this morning's post, this article caught my attention as I scrolled through worldnetdaily. It seems the poor fellow was recently 'martyred' by an Israeli 'terrorist' and 'killer of children.' Luckily his cousin Nahool, a bee, has come to town to continue to teach Palestinian children "the path of heroism, the path of martyrdom, the path of Jihad warriors."

I know international politics, especially Middle East politics, are a tangled, tangled web -- but it just blows my mind that we haven't yet figured out a way to tell these people they're not getting one more red cent from us in aid until they yank this kind of death-worship indoctrination of their children.

I hear over and over lately how fundamentalist Islam and fundamentalist Christianity are the same, how they're both equally threatening to civilized, respectful and tolerant humanity -- but when was the last time <or ever> that you've heard of something similar being taught in Vacation Bible School?

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Read an interesting commentary on that Montgomery County sex-ed curriculum I wrote about a couple weeks ago. My favorite quote:

Those in eight grade, for example, may be asked to ponder their "gender identity." Is this the same thing as your actual gender, which should be, ummm, obvious by this time? No. Students are told that it's "your identification of yourself as a man or a woman, based on the gender you feel to be inside." You could be a boy trapped in a girl's body, or vice versa – or something in between, it seems. Since when did knowing one's gender get so … difficult? My goodness, isn't there enough out there to confuse our children without asking them to question whether they are really a boy or truly a girl? Have we gone mad?

You can read the whole column here. 

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How many times has a school district refused to allow a Christian club to meet on campus, or a student-requested, student-led prayer at graduation, or even a kindergartner to pray quietly over her morning snack? The issue is more and more often resolved, but only after someone like the Thomas More Law Center marches in and threatens a lawsuit to bring the district in line with prevailing legal precedent.

On the flip-side, how many times has the ACLU come to the rescue of some poor kid forced to sit through one minute of silence so other students could say a silent prayer if they so desired? 

Students at Carver Elementary public school are having the option to "read or write" during a 15-minute "non-instructional" time, created for the express purpose of allowing Muslim students to say their prayers. Can you imagine a public school taking even five minutes out of the day for a non-instructional prayer time, say before lunch, for students who wanted to pray before they ate? Oh my word! The ACLU could not get there fast enough. But maybe they don't have an office in San Diego...

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I always hate to even bring up the subject of Hillary Clinton, but her wildly hypocritical response to the President's pardoning of Scooter Libby is just too funny to let pass:

"This commutation sends the clear signal that in this administration, cronyism and ideology trump competence and justice."

I'd say she needs reminding of the cronyism and ideology of her husband's administration...or a list of the crooks her husband found a <financial> reason to pardon in the last minutes of his Presidency...but I don't think it would do any good.

I chuckled several times reading some of the political responses, but I think my favorite comes from former VP-, current P-hopeful John Edwards:

"Only a president clinically incapable of understanding that mistakes have consequences could take the action he did today." - former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

Most of the time I fall into the sick-and-tired category when it comes to politicking, but I enjoyed today's stand-up-comedy-worthy soundbites.

Posted by authorjodi at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland has made a breakthrough of earth-shattering magnitude. Somehow they've proven what hundreds of scientists and millions of dollars have, to date, been unable to confirm: homosexuality is present at birth and is unchangeable.

Oh wait. I guess there's different definitions of "prove." In this case, they've just decided the above fact is true and have instituted it into their curriculum.

Unit 8:2 of the new 8th grade textbook includes a definition of innate from the 2006 edition of the Merriam Webster's Dictionary as meaning "determined by factors present in an individual from birth." The curriculum then instructs teachers to "Say to students, 'Sexual orientation is innate and a complex part of one's personality."

I have a question for you. Suppose a Board of Education decided to institute a curriculum that threw the theory of evolution out the window and only taught creationism. I wonder if they'd get away with it? Or, sticking with the sex ed theme, suppose they decided to teach abstinence as the best and only way to prevent teen pregnancy, STD's and etc. Oops -- that one's actually empirically provable as true.

Homosexuality is not the same as math, it's a controversial issue with vehement feelings on both sides. Exposing children to curriculum that includes homosexuality is bad enough, but teaching them unproven theory as fact is unconscionable. (Thanks to Hal for mentioning the article)

Posted by authorjodi at 10:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Bertha will soon be back to her old self, guzzling large quantities of gas as she takes me down the road tomorrow. With that in mind, I just read an article whose headline caught my eye: "Top Gas Gouger? The Government!" Whaddya know, but that the government takes a larger cut than the oil companies. When gas is $3 at the pump, most companies profit about 10 cents a gallon, while the government pockets a national average of almost 46 cents.

Anybody remember Ms. Clinton's infamous speech wherein she stated about oil company profits: "I want to take those profits and..." blah blah, make better use of them blah blah. Personally, I'd like to get my hands on the record profits the government is "earning" and put them to better use.

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New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is piloting a program that pays poor people for 'making good choices' such as going to the dentist, holding down a job, attending parent-teacher conferences, and etc. He's managed to raise more than $43 million in private donations for his pet project, scheduled to begin this fall.

An opponent of the bill was quoted as saying:

"It just reinforces the impression that if everybody would just work hard enough and change their personal behavior we could solve poverty in this country, and that's not reflected in the facts."

Continue reading "Cash for Good Behavior." »

Posted by authorjodi at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I can't stand the fact that Presidential candidates are already vying -- it seems like campaigning never stops and since I'm no fan of that lie-laden endeavor it gets wearisome. However, I did read one story this morning that I found really interesting. Apparently undeclared candidates Al Gore and Fred Thompson are the new dream matchup. A recent poll put Fred one point ahead of Giuliani, who's been the front-runner...and poor old Hillary's negative numbers are reaching 50%. If I were Al Gore, I'd make sure I had Secret Service protection before I announced anything...but that's just me. ;)

What I find most interesting about this is that no single candidate on either side has managed to capture the hearts of their party. Most of them are incredibly astute, skilled in the political game <slide sideways, then duck> and have spent millions of dollars in their efforts to prove they should get the job. They speak in soundbites, morph in their positions like speedy chameleons, and have huge staffs advising them on what America is looking for. But again, not a single one is getting the job done. I dream a little dream that this is because America is looking for integrity and honest leadership instead of good hair and slick soundbites...but maybe that's just a pipe dream. 

Posted by authorjodi at 09:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Unbelievable. In the wake of the failure of the amnesty bill, you'd think local politicians might take a breath before making any statements on illegal immigration. Sadly no. A village in New York has reached a "tentative agreement prohibiting police from routinely asking workers' immigration status or otherwise discriminating against them." This after ILLEGAL day laborers sued because the village closed a site where the illegals hung out waiting for jobs. Apparently this travesty resulted in "forcing the workers onto the streets."

First, I disagree with their argument that closing an illegal site is wrong. That'd be like suing because a bank hired a security guard...thereby forcing the robber to hold up the next bank down the line. Second, how is asking someone their immigration status discrimination? Again with the bank robber metaphor: if a policeman walked into a bank and saw someone standing there with a gun and a sack of money...would it be discrimination to ask that person if they were a robber? In fact, the policeman might not even ask, he might just assume and make an arrest.

Some might say it's not an apt metaphor, but an individual standing in a place where ILLEGAL immigrants are known to congregate while looking for work is in danger of guilt by association. An ILLEGAL standing there looking for work IS breaking the law, so a policeman's ability to ascertain their status is a necessity.

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In anticipation of a vote this week on the Amnesty Bill -- excuse me -- Comprehensive Immigration-Reform Bill, Grassfire.org has launched a tv and internet ad campaign. I find their ad completely hysterical. I hope you enjoy it, and I hope you take five minutes to call the number at the end to report your concerns.

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When I lived in Southern California there was a furor raised over Spanish-language channel Unavision broadcasting tips for illegal immigrants who wanted access to free healthcare and other government services generally reserved for legal citizens. The Mexican Consulate is working hard at the same game.

Not satisfied with issuing consular id's sometimes mistaken for US driver's licenses that allow illegals to "establish credit and apply for government services," the consulate is now straightforwardly teaching illegals how to get free healthcare.

Continue reading "Free Healthcare for Illegals." »

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I was just reading an article about Senator turned actor turned possible Presidential candidate Fred Thompson. Speaking about why he left politics for acting, he said:

"After eight years in Washington, I long for the realism and sincerity of Hollywood. That's no joke, my friends."

I know it's completely irresponsible to vote for someone on the basis of a single quote, but Mr. Thompson just leaped above several other hopefuls in my book. ;)

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What I wrote last night about leaving LA too soon -- I take that back. According to worldnetdaily, today the California Senate passed SB 777 which redefines sex from it's current definition:

"Sex means the biological condition or quality of being a male or female human being."

...to a new, more tolerant gender-based definition:

"A person's gender identity and gender related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned sex at birth."

In other words, if a boy feels like he's really a girl at heart, he should be allowed to use the girl's bathroom, go into the girl's locker room and be elected prom queen. 

Continue reading "SB 777." »

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Once again, the tolerance police have decreed that we should be tolerant of everyone except those who express a belief in Biblical truths. In opposition to their school's participation in the National Day of Silence, 100+ students at San Juan High School in California wore t-shirts with "Biblical quotations against sodomy and homosexuality." One t-shirt proclaimed "Don't touch God's rainbow."

Now you may or may not agree with student activism -- peaceful or otherwise -- in public high schools. Honestly, I'm not certain myself where I stand on that issue. However, let me tell you a little bit about what these students were protesting when they decided to put on those t-shirts.

Continue reading "Tolerance Schmolerance." »

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"I am going to encourage you to have sex and encourage you to use drugs appropriately."

So says Joel Becker, associate clinical professor of psychology at UCLA. Why?

"Why I am going to take that position is because you are going to do it anyway...I want to encourage you to all have healthy, sexual behavior."

If this was Joel Becker's psychology class at UCLA, that'd be one thing, but he made these remarks to a Boulder High School assembly that students were required to attend. Interestingly enough, when a mother went before a school review to complain, as she read excerpts from Becker's presentation she was asked to stop "because the language was inappropriate." Inappropriate for an adult review board, but not inappropriate for teens as young as 14?

My favorite quote: "Teenage abstinence was dismissed as an unwise choice and indicative of religious hang-ups."

The final quote is so bad I'm going to put it on the next page so you have the opportunity to skip it if you want. However, instead of keeping our collective heads in the sand, I think we need to be aware of what's going on out there.

Continue reading "Public School Strikes Again." »

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Well I'll be a horn-swaggled magpie! Ok, so I've been in the South too long... ;)

But seriously, I'm impressed with something a Frenchman said and that hasn't happened in as long as I can remember. Brice Hortefeux, head of the newly created Ministry of Immigration and National Identity, has made a statement regarding illegal immigrants that our politicians would do well to pay attention to:

"We have to put aside massive legalization. It doesn't work and it penalizes, even immigrants."

Newly elected President Nicolas Sarkozy created the Ministry "to manage the inflow of immigrants and protect French values and cohesion." I'm glad to see someone's taking action -- from the toleration of the riots over the past couple years I'd begun to wonder whether the French had any values and cohesion left.

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I've never been a believer in global warming caused by man. The issue seemed to me too politicized, the science too debatable, to blame everything solely and completely on our piddly little influence. My opinions became more entrenched when I read of the measures believers were willing to go to to reverse this so-called man-made rush to destroy the planet. Measures like keeping third-world countries in their natural state of poverty and despair, rather than letting them better their lives with industrialization. Measures like setting our own standard of living back hundreds of years.

Continue reading "Global Warming." »

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"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history."

Has there ever been an ex-President as critical and irresponsible with their remarks as Jimmy Carter? Does he not understand the adverse impact on the nation around the world that his continually critical and highly inflammatory statements have made? What if we'd listened to his opinion on Reagan's handling of the Cold War? We'd still be sitting in a world where all nuclear weapons pointed at us or them. I won't even get into his deluded opinions about why Israel should leave the front door unlocked so the suicide bombers won't have any trouble getting in.

That the man won a Nobel Peace Prize has mystified me almost as much as Yasar Arafat being awarded the same. That he shares my faith tradition is even harder for me to understand. And the final straw, that he made this statement while promoting his most recent product -- Bible studies.

UPDATE: Former President Carter appeared on the Today Show this morning and said Saturday's remarks were misinterpreted. He said he was comparing Bush's administration to Nixon's when he made the "worst in history" remark.

"And I think Richard Nixon had a very good and productive foreign policy and my remarks were maybe careless or misinterpreted. But I wasn't comparing the overall administration, and I was certainly not talking personally about any president," Carter said.

"I think this administration's foreign policy compared to president Nixon's was much worse," he said, but he said he did not mean to call it the worst in history.

Make of that what you will. 

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I don't talk much about the immigration nightmare we're currently in because it's beyond frustrating to me. I read an article this morning where a gentleman is quoted who perfectly expressed my feelings:

"What part of illegal does the Senate not understand? Any plan that rewards illegal behavior is amnesty," said Rep. Brian Billbray, R-Calif., chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus.

Illegal. Plain and simple. Setting that whole issue aside, what about our security? What about the fact that terrorists are sneaking over the border in the midst of all the illegal workers? And my final question...what in the world were they thinking when they put Ted Kennedy in charge?

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I read an article this morning about a change to England's laws regarding fertility treatment. Previously, fertility clinics had to "consider the baby's need for a father before providing treatment." Now they don't need to bother with that and can offer "equal rights" to same sex couples.

This reminds me of a story I meant to write about -- last month when I was in North Africa I saw a very disturbing story on CNN <it was a Muslim country, of course they didn't have FOX!>. The health reporter talked about a research team that was close to announcing they could make sperm by jerry-rigging female tissue. She spoke in giddy terms that soon it would no longer be necessary for men to be involved in the reproductive process.

England's new standards also provide for "Frankstein" embryos -- part human, part animal.

Sir David King, the Government's chief scientific adviser, said he welcomed the move: "I believe that the approach to the creation of embryos containing human and animal material is the right one."

In other news, Hillary Rodham Clinton receives a strong endorsement from "the world's most famous porn star" Jenna Jameson. Well that oughta give her the edge she needs!

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I feel like I've talked up Hate Crimes legislation ad nauseum here on the blog and with my podcast, but I've got to write another post today. HR 1592 made it through the House a couple weeks ago and it's being discussed in the Senate as we speak. The White House has intimated that the President will veto the bill if it passes in the Senate as well, but if I remember correctly this would be the third time he's had to do so.

Tomorrow 'Repent America' is organizing a petition day for those who disagree with Hate Crimes legislation to contact their Congressman. Let me give you a couple reasons to get off your duff and get involved:

1. In Canada similar legislation has redefined the Bible as hate speech. Focus on the Family has to edit their Canadian radio broadcast so that they don't say anything that might be construed as offensive toward homosexuals. 
   
2. In Sweden similar legislation led to the prosecution of a pastor for simply reading what Romans has to say about homosexuality in his sermon.
3. Hate Crimes legislation creates a specially protected group of individuals and wildly increases the penalty for committing a crime against them. Plainly put: the murder of a white, heterosexual male will get you less jail time than the murder of a white, homosexual male. Don't believe me? It's already playing out that way in New Hampshire.
   
4. Finally, if you so much as say something publicly that is perceived as negative by a specially protected class, you could be looking at a lawsuit or prosecution. Your right to freedom of religion is infringed upon by their special rights to not be disagreed with.

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Great news over at Stacy's site this morning. Liberty Counsel has won a court victory for Child Evangelism Fellowship. Apparently the Anderson School District in South Carolina was charging them for the use of facilities for after school Good News Clubs. However, they waived the fee whenever it was 'in the best interest of the district.' ie. 'Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA, Students Against Destructive Decisions, the local Democratic Party.' I love that last one -- of course the school district would think the local Democratic Party was in its best interest!

The court said, in part:

"government may not bar religious perspectives on otherwise permitted subjects ... [and] communities of faith may not be arbitrarily excluded from the protections of the Free Speech Clause ... Government need not fear an Establishment Clause violation from allowing religious groups to speak under the same reasonable, viewpoint-neutral terms as other private parties ... In sum, speech is not to be selectively permitted or proscribed according to official preference." 

The school district has been ordered to pay almost $100,000 in attorney's fees and costs. Well done Liberty Counsel!

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...but you haven't done enough this year to make Time's list of the 'Top 100 Influencers.' Maybe you should have feuded with Donald Trump -- Rosie O'Donnell made the list. Or written and acted in a movie that skewered America a la Borat <Don't know who Borat is? Don't worry, if you're over 30 it's quite possible you haven't heard of him>. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio made the list, as well as Michael J. Fox who, if memory serves, is best known this year for the furor he created when making a television appeal misrepresenting a state bill.

At least they called you President Bush in this article, instead of the tiresome and offensive Mr. Bush. 

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Continue reading "A Future for Christian Schools?" »

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Did you know Utah is the only state where college students are allowed to bring concealed weapons onto campus? I was reading the Longview News-Journal this morning and discovered that little gem right beneath an article discussing the VTech tragedy.

It reminded me of a town I read about in college, where it was a law that you had a firearm showing at all times. They were about an hour from a big city -- Chicago, if I remember correctly -- and they had a big problem with gangs coming to town and committing crimes. Once the show-your-gun law passed that problem pretty much disappeared.

Continue reading "Guns & Chocolate." »

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I listened to a little of NPR the other day when I was driving and heard someone talking about a biography of the Koran. The most interesting thing about the ten minutes or so that I heard was when the author compared Osama bin Ladin's "cherry picking" of passages that talk about killing Jews and Christians to how evangelical pastors preach the Bible. This isn't the first time I've heard terrorists compared to so-called Christian fundamentalists. As someone who would probably be called a member of the vast right wing conspiracy, I guess I take umbrage to this comparison. Anyone else noticed this going on?

The other thing I want to ask, totally unrelated, is if any of you have an opinion on ethanol as an alternative fuel source. Though I'm a proponent of Fox News I rarely have a chance to watch so I've got it going in the background here at the hotel. President Bush just gave an interview, the bulk of which seemed to be about how great ethanol was. I've always looked at it with some degree of skepticism -- not because I'm so thrilled about our dependence on foreign oil, but more because I can't see Americans giving up their SUVs to drive tin cans that need to be pushed up the hill <see...skepticism>. Anyone have a thought?

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Continue reading "Appropriate Curriculum." »

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For those of you who haven't heard, Focus on the Family had some big doings on Monday. A lesbian couple visited the campus and asked to speak to Dr. Dobson. When their request was denied they sat down in the lobby and refused to leave. They were then apparently arrested for trespassing and escorted off the premises.

Continue reading "Focus on the Family." »

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I read this story last week about Bank of America offering credit cards to illegal immigrants and I was so hacked I didn't write about it. I'm not one to boycott, but if I still had a Bank of America account I would go through the hassle of closing it and opening somewhere else <Washington Mutual, if you're reading this, please don't make the same stupid decision!>.

For some reason, this reminds me of the illogical argument about teaching abstinence as a legitimate sex-ed program. Everyone says, well heck, the kids are gonna do it anyway, we better just give 'em protection. Whereas teaching abstinence might actually make a difference... So B of A considers, well heck, the folks are still gonna be illegal whether we make a mint off 'em or not, we might as well cash in.

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Continue reading "HR 254" »

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On the heels of the Governator's universal healthcare plan, lawmakers in California are also writing a bill that would make it a misdemeanor to spank your child if they're under 3 years old. I tend to agree with this quote:

"Where do you stop?'' asked Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, who said he personally agrees children under 3 shouldn't be spanked but has no desire to make it the law. "At what point are we going to say we should pass a bill that every parent has to read a minimum of 30 minutes every night to their child? This is right along those same lines.''

Or maybe we pass a bill that every parent has to teach their children to be tolerant of all religions and lifestyles. Oh wait, that's my book. ;) My favorite quote of all is this, regarding the woman who is sponsoring the bill:

For the record, she does not have children and says she was not slapped as a child. But she does have a cat named Snoop, which her veterinarian told her never to hit. "And if you never hit a cat,'' Lieber said, "you should never hit a kid.''

Nanny state, here we come. Read more here.

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A few interesting articles, some new, some I held onto during my no-bad-news-for-Christmas moratorium:

• A restaurant chain in Texas will soon be accepting Mexican pesos for payment, rather than the traditional greenback. Read more.
• All My Children is introducing a transgender character who will be transitioning from man to woman. GLAAD consultants were brought in to help the writers so that they wouldn't do anything offensive like refer to the man as "he." Read more.
• Naked parties in the Ivy League. How nice to know these are some of our future statesmen. Read more.

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The Governator is taking another step toward his goal of running for President. He's already on record for supporting an amendment to revise the Constitutional requirement that naturalized citizens are not eligible to run for President. Mr. Schwarzenegger thinks 20 years as a citizen should be good enough -- coincidentally that number is coming up for him.

But today's announcement that he will be pushing universal healthcare for all children, including those who are here illegally, gives him another shot in the arm of popularity. After all, if President Bush moves forward with his intention to declare another blanket amnesty for illegals, the Governator will already have secured tens of millions of new loyal voters. Read more here.

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Oregon State and OHSU are conducting experiments to determine whether they can change the sexuality of "gay" sheep. Apparently 1 in 10 rams prefer other rams, rather than ewes. The study gives some sort of hormone stimulant aimed at changing this. You can imagine the uproar from gay rights activists comparing the study to ones performed by the Nazis and saying this could one day be used to cure homosexuals in utero. Which, on a side note, makes me wonder whether there would be any difference of opinion on abortion if you could determine sexuality pre-birth...

The article quoted a wide range of folks, but the one I found most humorous was tennis star Martina Navratilova, whose expertise and qualification for commenting on scientific studies seems to be that she's a well-known lesbian. Read the article here. (thanks rita!)

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How in the world have we let this man get as much power and international acclaim as he has? The man is a self-proclaimed believer in the fact that he is supposed to bring about Armageddon. Oh sure, let's impose some economic sanctions, that'll take care of the fact that he's desperately trying for the Bomb...

"Today, it is the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime which are doomed to disappear as they have moved far away from the teachings of God," he said in a speech in the western town of Javanroud.

Read more here.

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This is just too funny -- a group of Christmas carolers was asked to stop singing at an ice skating rink in California because Jewish skater Sasha Cohen might be offended. I could get really bothered over this and start wondering what must the world think of us when we put up with this nonsense...but I'm just going to laugh it off.

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Someone sent me this USA Today opinion piece a couple weeks ago and I've been mulling over talking about it ever since. The title "When religion loses its credibility" refers to the author's insistence that the church needs to accept homosexuality because it is genetic --> therefore the person has no choice --> therefore there is no moral culpability. He suggests the Church will soon need to issue a statement along these lines:

Correction: Despite what you might have read, heard or been taught throughout your churchgoing life, homosexuality is, in fact, determined at birth and is not to be condemned by God's followers. 

He gave his opinion. Here is mine.

Continue reading "What if we're wrong." »

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The government discriminates against blind people by printing money that all looks and feels the same, a federal judge said Tuesday in a ruling that could change the face of American currency.

Read more.

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My oh my. I was getting ready to write today about how I went to a kind of Festival of Trees on Saturday night -- different companies decorated trees and you wandered around enjoying them and eating funnel cakes while the kiddies rode past on a train. Quite fun. I was impressed that there were several prominent "Merry Christmas" signs and the music they were piping through carried songs I would clarify as actually Christmas-oriented instead of Happy Holi-daisy. It was a pleasant surprise since I'm so used to the toning down of Christmas in public events.

But never fear, the pc police are on the move. This morning I read that Chicago had booted New Line Cinema from being a sponsor at their German Christkindlmarket. They were concerned non-Christians going to a Christmas festival would be offended by a repeating trailer for the movie The Nativity Story. The final quote was from a New Line representative and just cracked me up:

"One would assume that if (people) were to go to Christkindlmarket, they'd know it is about Christmas."

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I've been waiting for something like this for years. The College Republicans at BU are offering a small "whites-only" scholarship to highlight something I have long believed.

The application itself offers an explanation: "We believe that racial preferences in all their forms are perhaps the worst form of bigotry confronting America today."

It's only been a couple days so nothing has happened except widespread news reports -- but I wouldn't be surprised if someone sued them in the near future.

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A 57-year-old Palestinian grandmother of 30 became a suicide bomber in Gaza. In her standard pre-suicide Hamas video she said "I offer myself as a sacrifice to God and to the homeland." The family released a statement: "I am very proud of what she did. Allahu Akbar (God is greatest)," one of her sons, Fuad, 31, told Reuters.

I can't work up any energy to comment on this other than to tell you I cried when I read it. Sometimes the evil and pain in this world is too much to bear.

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I was horrified last week to discover that a gay man had been beaten on the Greenbelt in my hometown of Boise. I'm always sad at mounting evidence of the "big city" problems forcing their way into the small and polite town I grew up in. However, it now turns out that the man made it up, beating himself with a stick and his fists in order to report a hate crime. I'm glad that my town has been vindicated and eagerly await charges being brought against him for filing a false report. I hold out no hope that the truth will be reported as widely across the nation as the lie was. By the way, my favorite part of the lie was a widely reported e-mail that the man's friend sent out:

"This heinous act proves that the good-ole-boy mentality of the back woods small town evangelical Christian community lacks the true Christian kindness they profess."

I'm sure my fellow Boiseans are already aware of this, but those of you outside that burgh can read the article here.

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Interesting development in regards to personal privacy -- a Colorado HOA has ordered that a couple cannot smoke in their own townhome. If they want to smoke they have to go out into the street. 

Other homeowners believe, as with loud music, that the rights of a community trump the rights of individual residents. The HOA is also concerned that tenants will sue those homeowners for exposure to second-hand smoke and this could be a liability issue.

I'm, of course, not a smoker and have always applauded the laws that mean I don't have to walk through a haze to get into work or try to enjoy my dinner with the smoking "section" drifting over to me. However, for awhile now I've wondered if the anti-smoking campaign is a precursor to an anti-religion campaign. For the good of the individual, and of course the community, we're going to start limiting your rights to make it harder and harder for you to continue your destructive behavior.

I know, I know...call me a conspiracy nut. :p

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If I'd have read this article a couple days ago, I would've made a point to stop and congratulate the town council.

"All of the illegal alien protesters are waving Mexican flags, and we just got tired of it," town board clerk Paul Willis told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Amen to that. In my humble opinion, their most important move was:

"The meeting also pushed through measures to deny services to illegal immigrants..."

This town council has a better handle on things than the Republican so-called conservatives who just got trounced. Maybe the former majority should have paid a little more attention to the illegal immigrant <not undocumented alien> influx that is threatening to cripple key industries nationwide. Not to mention, in their rush to be PC, they've left the border wide open for terrorists to waltz across. 

And the most interesting part of the article:

Hispanic groups slammed the flag ordinance as a blow to first-amendment rights to free speech but thought it unlikely that the community would enforce it.

I'm sorry, but first-amendment rights to free speech apply to American citizens, not illegal aliens. If you come here legally and go thru the legitimate process of becoming a citizen, I welcome you with open arms -- but if you sneak in you are simply not eligible for the rights and privileges of citizenship.

Well done Pahrump.

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This story just makes me sad. Toys for Tots decided that Jesus dolls that quoted Scripture were inappropriate for their annual toy drive.

"We're not naive," he said. "We know most of these folks are celebrating Christmas, but there's always a chance that giving them a doll citing Scripture could be inappropriate."

I have absolutely no idea what Scriptures the dolls were quoting, but I guess I just don't see the harm in some needy kid getting a doll for Christmas that spouts "God loves you." Heaven forbid Scripture of any kind leak into someone's life. Which reminds me of a quote I just read. Can anyone guess who said this:

"The future of this nation depends on the Christian training of our youth. It is impossible to govern without the Bible."

That would be George Washington.

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World leaders today received a clarion call from an internationally-renowned sociological expert who has spent the last several years exhaustively researching the effect of religion in the lives of various cultures around the globe, collecting indisputable data to support his surprising conclusion. I, for one, hope they give his advice the serious thought and consideration it deserves.

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The head of MI5 in Britain says they know of at least 30 plots against them by Muslim extremists. How many do you suppose our intelligence services know about? But wait, I'm sure we can talk them out of it...they can be reasonable if we just offer the right compromise.

The head of al-Queda in Iraq released a taped statement today in honor of Rumsfeld's retirement. In it he said, among other things:

"I swear by God we shall not rest from jihad until we...blow up the filthiest house known as the White House."

That sounds like someone who would be open to compromise.

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Continue reading "Grudges." »

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Continue reading "American Exceptionalism vs. John F. Kerry" »

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Heard an interesting quote today:

"No one has the right to choose to do what is morally wrong." Abraham Lincoln.

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I've been noticing a trend lately in the news. I don't know if I'm the last one to notice or not, but it seems to me that conservative Christians are being equated more and more frequently with Islamic fundamentalists. Two sides of the same coin and both bad for the world. The former leader of Germany, Gerhard Schroeder, is the latest one to comment:

"We rightly criticize that in most Islamic states, the role of religion for society and the character of the rule of law are not clearly separated," Schroeder wrote. "But we fail to recognize that in the USA, the Christian fundamentalists and their interpretation of the Bible have similar tendencies."

I had a short discussion with someone just the other day about the war -- basically who did we think we were trying to impose freedom on them and change their religion. How would we feel if they came over here and tried to change our religion? First, I don't know that changing their religion is what we're trying to do, but I'll let that pass. The real crux of the issue, in my mind, is the implied notion that there's no difference -- no moral right or wrong. I'm not talking specifically about the war, why we went, what we're doing, etc. I'm simply asking if I'm really in the minority because I see a moral difference between a free society where people are not going to get arrested for making and selling t-shirts that use expletives to describe the current leader...and a society where people are executed if they convert to another religion. If there's no moral right and wrong, no absolute truth, then we may as well be at war to make the Iraqis prefer chocolate ice cream over vanilla.

I do believe that the Bible says there is one Way. However, that belief in no way, shape or form means that I subscribe to the notion of conversion by force. If I believed we should be in Iraq, or any other country, to force people to say the sinner's prayer at gunpoint -- well, quite frankly, I'd probably want to start bringing troops to Venice Beach. But that's not the essence of free will. And free will is the cornerstone of both our fallen, sinful society and our opportunity to accept Jesus' sacrifice on our behalf.

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My father brought this story to my attention. I've certainly lost all track of the current news on this trip, not seeing much of headlines from one day to the next, so I don't know if this is old hat to you all...but I just had to share. An elephant and a mariachi band crossing the border with immunity. Yikes.

It's funny because, last night, in an attempt to figure out how I could stay more up-to-date with the news while traveling, I watched a short news clip that reported on a man who had been granted entrance into the headquarters of Homeland Security with a fake ID that listed his address as 123 Fraud Street. I was curious, so I just googled another story about it.

You know, I spent literally hours dreaming up scenarios for getting folks out of the country in my book. This was at least three or four years ago now -- I guess at that point I wasn't aware how loose our borders really were.

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I read an interesting story in the Oregonian the other day (tried to find a link for you but the Oregonian website is acting wiggy). It was in reference to the TV show Nip/Tuck and how it has had two characters become Scientologists this year. The writers researched for about six months and interviewed members to make sure they portrayed the religion accurately. When the President of FX (the channel that broadcasts the show) heard about what they were doing he only had two questions: first, did they have a history with Scientology and second, did they have an axe to grind. When the creator said he just wanted to portray a balanced view, he got the go ahead with no problem.

My question is, would such good research and concern about grinding axes be involved if the characters had, say, become born again Christians? I know the answer -- I saw it when I watched five minutes of the new show Studio 60 and they referenced a "Crazy Christians" segment.

Another interesting thing in the article was when Nip/Tuck's creator was quoted as saying:

"My view of the world is that everybody is medicated on something: plastic surgery, drugs, sex, religion, shopping. We're a culture that anesthetizes ourselves with things. And we're also a culture that really tries hard to find meaning where sometimes there isn't any meaning."

Truer words I've never heard from a person related to TV...up until the last point. There is meaning somewhere. It's our job to help him find it.

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My parents and I were in Vegas this past weekend for my brother's engagement party. On the plane ride back my dad was reading the USA Today (Monday, May 15) and came across an article on the Da Vinci Code movie. I have a paragraph ripped out so I don't know who to attribute it to, but here's an excerpt:

We have made a cult of his work in part because we hope the church may be the worst villain we must face. The truth is anti-Catholicism is the last respectable prejudice in the USA. The church remains an easy target because it doesn't play by the rules laid down for modern institutions. Its lack of transparency and accountability give rise to popular resentments and paranoia that are exploited by Brown.

I would argue that it is not just anti-Catholicism, but also anti-Evangelical Christianity, that is the "last respectable prejudice." Look at our beleaguered President. I think the real reason people hate him with such intensity is that he is sure. He believes something with the core of his being, so intensely that he doesn't let the media or public opinion sway him. That is a scary thing for some people. And that is certainly one root of the problem people have with true Christians. We look at the Bible and make our case and stand firm on it -- that is lunacy in the eyes of people who think the fact that they don't believe in God means that God will annihilate Himself to suit them.

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I've had this article for awhile. It's from the LA Times and describes a new legal push to give Christians the right to be intolerant toward homosexuals. Very interesting article. One of my favorite parts is where they quote Scarborough:

The Rev. Rick Scarborough, a leading evangelical, frames the movement as the civil rights struggle of the 21st century. "Christians," he said, "are going to have to take a stand for the right to be Christian."

Amen to that. At some point we have to take a stand, although that point is different for every individual.

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Read this article a couple days ago. There was a big Christian youth rally in San Francisco and here's how the city government responded:

Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution condemning the "act of provocation"  by what it termed an "anti-gay," "anti-choice" organization that aimed to "negatively influence the politics of America's most tolerant and progressive city."

The article was from a San Francisco paper, so it's bias might be evident. I found it interesting that they made a point of calling the rally militaristic.

Military metaphors abound in Luce's descriptions of the struggle. He tells young people of how "an enemy has launched a brutal attack on them." At a pre-Battle Cry rally Friday afternoon on the steps of City Hall, Luce told his mostly teenage audience that "terrorists of a different kind" -- advertisers -- were targeting them and that they were "caught in the middle of the battle."

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