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You are currently browsing the monthly archive for December 2008 @ 10:00 pm.
I couldn’t help but chuckle at this quote at Utah Policy:
“These guys don’t understand them. I use them every once in a while, but that’s who I am. They have to ask somebody else, ‘What the heck is this guy talking about.’”
– Utah Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan, asked in an interview with the Utah Farm Bureau News [PDF] if he ever uses farming analogies with his players.
Perhaps a strange thing to muse on, but I fear the same will happen to General Conference talks. So much of the gospel applies references to agriculture and many church leaders have told wonderful stories of growing up on farms.
But as we became less of an agrarian society, I wonder how many future lessons will be taught using farm references or who will even understand what the heck they’re talking about.
» N.Y. Boy Scout earns all 121 merit badges
» Did it seem like a long year?
Not only did we get an extra day this year we get an extra second tomorrow night.
» YouTube Censoring the IDF?
» Study: religion correlates with greater self-control
» Counsel vs. Council: A Guide for Latter-Day Saints
» Slavery spreads from Africa to the US
» The theology of liberation
» Media redeploying over the event horizon from Iraq
The Pope’s speech that ran for several pages, and the reference to sexuality occupied a couple of sentences. That didn’t matter. It is axiomatic, among critics of Catholicism, that the Church is obsessed with sex. So when a Catholic leader says something about sexuality, the media fixate on it. Never mind the other 3,500 words of the papal address; these 50 words are the important ones– the only important ones– because they’re about sex.
[via Get Religion]
The vote was necessary only because the California Supreme Court had imposed gay marriage on the state earlier this year. As in so many other culture-war battles, the traditionalists were the ones in a fundamentally defensive posture. They defended an age-old definition of marriage, while the left sought – using its favorite tool, the courts – to run roughshod over majority sentiment . . .
The attacks on Warren are part of this strategy: If Pastor Rick can be defined as a hatemonger undeserving of a prominent public stage, surely the same can be done to any opponent of gay marriage.
In a story about Hollywood’s outrage at Obama’s choice of Warren, Democratic political consultant Chad Griffin told the Los Angeles Times: “Rick Warren needs to realize that he is further dividing us at a time when the country needs to come together. I think he needs to gracefully step aside.”
Ah, yes, “gracefully step aside.” That’s essentially what the cultural left has been asking traditionalists to do for 30 years now, to politely shut up while it goes about redefining the country’s mores. The answer must now be, as it has always been, “No way, no how.”
» A note on comments
This picture summarizes so much about the internet. Much more than a thousand words.
» Doctrine and Covenants Lesson 1: “Introduction to the Doctrine and Covenants and Church History” (Sunday School)
New U.S. Census findings on the state of two-parent black families.
The good news:
The number of black children being raised by two parents appears to be edging higher than at any time in a generation, at nearly 40 percent, according to newly released census data.
The bad news:
The Census Bureau attributed an indeterminate amount of the increase to revised definitions adopted in 2007, which identify as parents any man and woman living together, whether or not they are married or the child’s biological parents.
A great effort was made to preserve the traditional definition of marriage. It seems like a lot of that will go to waste if the government is allowed to quietly redefine what a parent is, regardless of relation or responsibility to children.
[via Best of the Web Today]
“The Politics Of ‘A Christmas Carol’”
A Christmas Carol is a conservative story. Does Scrooge complain about taxes? Not much, but he sure complains bitterly about private sector charity. As far as Ebeneezer is concerned the government-run work houses are sufficient to take care of the poor. And like many Leftists, Scrooge doesn’t believe in guilt. His taxes funding the government are a Get Out Of Guilt-Jail Free card. . .
Scrooge’s transformation is into an individual who, like a true conservative, comes to truly care about the poor, and with that true compassion comes the revelation that the government does more harm than good. The new Scrooge doesn’t run down the street demanding higher tax rates and that the goverment do more.
It may be gauche to read your politics into such a Christmas classic but I think the point is a good one. Plus, a testament to great literature that one can have a different takes on its meaning.
» Huckabee’s Faulty Strategy
“Yet there seems to be one small glitch: Huckabee and his handlers have entirely neglected their content control duties. The most notable example is his book, which made headlines for its cheap shots against former rivals Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, thus casting doubt on Huckabee’s genial public persona. But Huckabee’s television show – which I imagine nobody actually watches – is far more incriminating: far from presidential, Huckabee comes off like a mildly conservative version of Ricki Lake.”
» First Presidency Christmas Devotional
» Sure, Now I Endorse Mitt Romney
The Olympics was one thing, but the auto industry may indeed be Mission:Impossible.
In response to the NY Times ad placed last week defending the LDS Church and others for the Prop 8 backlash, a NY group “Truth Wins Out” is placing an ad in tomorrow’s Salt Lake Tribune.
Rather than refuting the claims of the NY Times ad, the SL Trib ad, “Lies in the Name of the Lord,” seeks to make out some of the signers of the ad into “some of the most notorious Mormon bashers in America.” But the ad merely shows that they have theological differences with the Mormon Church. Not quite Mormon bashing. It turns out that the Mormon Church has theological differences with the Becket ad signers too.
While Chuck Colson, William Donohue and others may not believe what the Mormon Church teaches, they at least agree that Mormons and other religious people have the right to express themselves, politically and religiously, without threat of intimidation or fear of losing one’s job.
» OBAMA: Still smoking….
It’s probably not ideal to try quitting when you’re running for president.
» Agreeing with Chaffetz: No vote for D.C., move residential areas to Maryland
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