MInTheGap

Bookmarks for August 24th through August 27th

These are my links for August 24th through August 27th:

• My Way News – Bikini-clad strippers protest church in rural Ohio – Which church is right– the one that protests or the one that tries to get along with the strip joint in this small town?
• Glenn Beck rewrites civil rights history – CNN.com – It's always good to read what the other guys are saying, and this is definitely one of these times. The author of this article believes what he believes, and anyone that says otherwise is inventing and twisting history. Of course, it's a whole lot easier just to say that the other guy is wrong rather than produce facts. And, granted, it's difficult to rebut things in the space that he's probably limited to, but the question is– who is right? How does the author know that he is?
• Cutbacks force police to curtail calls for some crimes – USATODAY.com – Does this mean it's time to take self and property defense into our own hands? Does stating publicly that you are not going to answer calls for theft increase the incidents of theft? "Cutbacks in such places as Oakland, Tulsa and Norton, Mass. have forced police to tell residents to file their own reports — online or in writing — for break-ins and other lesser crimes. 'If you come home to find your house burglarized and you call, we're not coming,' said Oakland Police spokeswoman Holly Joshi. The city laid off 80 officers from its force of 687 last month and the department can't respond to burglary, vandalism, and identity theft. 'It's amazing. It's a big change for us.'"
• Yes Folks, Hindenburg Omen Tripped Again – MarketBeat – WSJ – Is it time to get out of the market?
• Althouse: "But tolerance is one of the first and most awkward questions raised by any examination of Islamism." – Tolerance for each other's beliefs part of the Christian heritage of this nation– the idea that a soul is a free moral agent that must choose to except Christ freely. It cannot just be assumed of other religions, like many are doing with Islam. As even Christopher Hitchens points out in the quote of this blog post, Muslim leaders have a way of utilizing religious freedom as a way to get in, and then making demands under the guise of persecution. Sounds much the same as the homosexual lobby, come to think of it.

Bookmarks for August 19th through August 24th

These are my links for August 19th through August 24th:

• Say Anything » Missouri Pizzeria Offers Obama, Pelosi Specials – I hope they don't go out of business with the deals they are offering. I mean, if you start giving a small for the price of an X Large…
• Althouse: "It’s a sad commentary that it even has to be stated what faith the president observes, as if it should matter whether he follows Christianity, or any religion at all." – Interesting comment on Obama and Christianity: "He describes how moved he was by the service, but what moves him is the others around him as they respond to a sermon about black culture and history. He never says he felt the presence of God or accepted Jesus as his savior or anything that suggests he let go of his skepticism. Obama's own book makes him look like an agnostic (or an atheist). He respects religion because he responds to the people who believe, and he seems oriented toward leveraging the religious beliefs of the people for worldly, political ends."
• Does Barack Obama want to be re-elected in 2012? – Telegraph – This article makes a compelling argument for why President Obama may not even run for a second term… Interesting…
• Pajamas Media » Top Muslims Condemn Ground Zero Mosque as a ‘Zionist Conspiracy’ – I'm not sure what I think about this mosque (aside from the fact that it promotes a false religion), but from a Constitutional perspective I can't see a problem with it. From a practical perspective, I agree with this article: "Al Azhar has it right: from negative media attention to subliminal associations with the 9/11 strikes, the “9/11 mosque” has great potential to backfire on Islam. Many other Muslims agree. That Al Azhar has labeled it a “Zionist conspiracy”— an appellation usually reserved for especially heinous charges attributed to fellow Muslims, such as the strikes of 9/11 — is indicative of how absurd the mosque project must appear to them." — It's a bad idea because of what it has done and will do to the Islamic people.
• Vox Popoli: Ending the gay defect – Here's the funny thing on the supposed "gay gene". If you could prove that there was a gene that impacted whether you were gay or not, then what would you think about if they could have therapy to "fix" the problem?

Bookmarks for August 16th through August 18th

These are my links for August 16th through August 18th:

• CNSNews.com – Fix the Constitutional Falsehoods Congress Carved Into the Capitol’s Marble – "To interpret the general welfare clause 'as giving a distinct and independent power (to Congress) to do any act they please, which might be for the good of the Union, would render all the preceding and subsequent enumerations of power completely useless,' Jefferson said." This is exactly what has happened in our country today. Congress does whatever it pleases and finds the right to do it in the General Welfare clause.
• Vox Popoli: You might want to check that – There's definitely reasons to be skeptical about global warming: "In one example swiftly taken down by NOAA after my first article, readings for June and July 2010 for Lake Michigan showed crazy temperatures off the scale ranging in the low to mid hundreds – with some parts of the Wisconsin area apparently reaching 612 F. With an increasing number of further errors now coming to light the discredited NOAA removed the entire set from public view."
• Althouse: "This list isn’t about the mindset of the class of 2014. It’s about the mindset of the people who write it." – What interests me in this post is the quote from Jefferson. The first section is what's quoted by just about everyone in a defense of pure libertarianism, "what do I care what a neighbor says about how many gods there are or that there are no gods," but it's the second, longer passage that's interesting. When he gets into the point that the multitude of ideas would be present to prove and refine Christianity, it points to the fact that Christianity was the preferred and best religion at the founding and that it was not expected that it would not continue to be. Far from being a statement about religious equality or pluralism, it's a statement about the supremacy of Christianity and it's place in American life. Fascinating.
• Court halts Calif. gay marriages pending appeal – Yahoo! News – Looks as though the discussion on whether or not to have gay marriage in California, and eventually all the U.S.– or whether states can ban gay marriage– has yet to be decided. For now, no gay marriage in California.
• Obama uses daughter to promote tourism with swim in Gulf of Mexico | Mail Online – I don't know… Is it wrong for the President of the United States to have pictures taken of him with his kids for public use? I guess the problem here is that it was a controlled photo-shoot instead of an impromptu one. What do you think?

Bookmarks for August 13th through August 16th

These are my links for August 13th through August 16th:

• Court halts Calif. gay marriages pending appeal – Yahoo! News – Looks as though the discussion on whether or not to have gay marriage in California, and eventually all the U.S.– or whether states can ban gay marriage– has yet to be decided. For now, no gay marriage in California.
• Obama uses daughter to promote tourism with swim in Gulf of Mexico | Mail Online – I don't know… Is it wrong for the President of the United States to have pictures taken of him with his kids for public use? I guess the problem here is that it was a controlled photo-shoot instead of an impromptu one. What do you think?
• Teachers union threatens ‘massive boycott’ of Los Angeles Times for reporting on teacher performance | Washington Examiner – Unions are a big problem with public education. If you could remove them from the mix you'd be doing everyone a favor: "In the past decade, LAUSD officials spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven of the district’s 33,000 teachers for poor classroom performance — and only four were fired, during legal struggles that wore on, on average, for five years each. Two of the three others were paid large settlements, and one was reinstated. The average cost of each battle is $500,000."
• The Perils of Hipster Christianity and Why Young Evangelicals Reject Churches That Try To Be Cool – WSJ.com – "But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to? In his book, "The Courage to Be Protestant," David Wells writes:"The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God." — This part hits the nail on the head. Is God not big enough to get young people in the churches if He so pleases?
• Vox Popoli: WND column – It does seem pretty ludicrous that we count debt as economic growth, since we're simply spending tomorrow's money, hurting tomorrow's change for growth.
• Sen. Schumer: ‘Sour’ electorate reluctant to give Democrats credit for efforts – TheHill.com – "Asked why the Democrats are still expected to lose seats in November after passing major bills like healthcare reform, credit card reform, a fair-pay act and Wall Street reform, Schumer said voters are frustrated and don’t feel the effects of the legislation. “It’s the world we’re in. It’s a much more negative, critical world, and people are sour now,” he said. “The thing they’re most sour about is the future, not the present. In other words, if people were sure that things would be better five years from now, they’d be less sour." — Or maybe it's because they don't want the big government solutions that you are pushing? Na– that would violate the view of the people that you have in your head. They can't be against you, can they?
• CNSNews.com – ‘Three Sides’ to the Sestak Story: Clinton Denies White House Claim That He Intervened in U.S. Senate Race – So, if former President Clinton says that he didn't try to get U.S. Rep Joe Sestak out of the race in PA, who did?

Who Do You Turn To For Help?

There are two kinds of problems people face, and they both feed each other.  The two kinds are spiritual and physical.

If you have a spiritual problem—a problem where you are caught in a sin—you can find that you will easily have physical problems.  If you have physical problems you can also compound them by dwelling on them and falling into spiritual problems as well.

So what do you do to get out?

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Watches Are Great

The other night my family and I were out at night waiting to watch a fireworks display in my old hometown.  One of the things that happens when we’re out at night is that, invariably, one of my children will remember that I have a Timex Indiglo watch, and if I’m not careful, arm hair will suffer the fate of being pulled once again.

For me, I’ve worn an Indiglo watch since 1994—when I received my first one from my late paternal Grandmother for Christmas.  It was the watch that I used all through college, and lasted me up until just about a year ago.  It may not have been a jacques lemans watch, but it was special to me just the same.

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A Holiday Getaway in a Villa!

Are the four walls of your house beginning to look like their closing in around you?  Do you feel like that you need to get out of your house or you’ll go nuts?

Maybe what you need is to arrange for a stay in one of the many Florida villas that are available for rent.  The neat thing about renting a villa over getting a hotel room is that you’ll have the whole thing to yourself, and it’ll be like your home away from home.

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Bookmarks for August 10th from 02:19 to 07:21

These are my links for August 10th from 02:19 to 07:21:

• Cal Thomas Official Web Site – Vigilante Law – It's about more than homosexuals wanting to get married, this is only the latest: "We have been spiraling downward for some time, beginning in the ’50s with the Playboy philosophy that gave men permission to avoid the bonds of marriage if they wanted to have sex. In rapid succession came the birth control pill (sex without biological consequences), “no-fault divorce” (nullifying “until death us do part”), cohabitation, easily available pornography, and a tolerance for just about anything except those who deem something intolerable. Such persons are now labeled “bigots” when once they were thought to be pillars of society. A nation that loses its moral sense is a nation without any sense at all."
• CNSNews.com – Obama Overtures to Business Fall Flat – "The truth is that not even the Franklin Roosevelt administration was as hostile to and ignorant about free enterprise as this administration is," declared magazine publisher and one-time GOP presidential contender Steve Forbes. — So much for Obama's pro-business charm offensive.
• Cal Thomas Official Web Site – Vigilante Law – It's about more than homosexuals wanting to get married, this is only the latest: "We have been spiraling downward for some time, beginning in the ’50s with the Playboy philosophy that gave men permission to avoid the bonds of marriage if they wanted to have sex. In rapid succession came the birth control pill (sex without biological consequences), “no-fault divorce” (nullifying “until death us do part”), cohabitation, easily available pornography, and a tolerance for just about anything except those who deem something intolerable. Such persons are now labeled “bigots” when once they were thought to be pillars of society. A nation that loses its moral sense is a nation without any sense at all."
• CNSNews.com – Obama Overtures to Business Fall Flat – "The truth is that not even the Franklin Roosevelt administration was as hostile to and ignorant about free enterprise as this administration is," declared magazine publisher and one-time GOP presidential contender Steve Forbes. — So much for Obama's pro-business charm offensive.
• Vox Popoli: Homogamy and civilizational decline – One of the arguments that homosexuals use– and was used by the judge in California– is that heterosexuals have been involved in discrimination for thousands of years: assuming that there have never been places where homosexuals could marry. They don't know their history, nor the grave warnings that go along with it: "But that doesn't change the easily observable fact that the forces pushing homogamy and open homosexuality are actively engaged in attempting to destroy one of the more successful civilizations in human history. As I showed in yesterday's WND column, there is no genuine "progress" being made here, social or moral, this is simply a return to the pagan decadence of a society that was in decline 18 centuries ago. The observations of one of the first historians of women, Alfred Brittain, made at the turn of the 20th century about Roman women, was an insightful harbinger of the subsequent success of the suffrage movement."