Target Takes Sites Off Bloggers , Doesn’t ‘Participate With Non-Traditional Media’

-By Warner Todd Huston

Target department stores apparently haven’t gotten the memo that dissing the Internet and bloggers can be a dangerous game for a retailer these days. And, Target isn’t just dissing blogges and “non-traditional media” they might be claiming they won’t even interact with them. All this over a new advertisement that shows a woman in Winter clothing, spread-eagled atop the Target logo, the center of which appears right between the model’s spread legs. Just what the “target” here is, can be a pertinent question to ask and several consumer advocates are asking just that question.

Amy Jussel of the organization Shaping Youth (shapingyouth.org), for instance, raised her concerns that this Target advert places an unwanted emphasis on a woman’s genitals and points out that it is part of the overly sexualized nature of too much of our advertising industry. Jussel says, “This Target ad is senselessly subversive on so many levels,” and wonders if Madison Avenue types care if “kids’ psyches are being trashed” in this country.

Jussel has also been following other ad campaigns that feature women in spread-eagled poses and pointing out the overly sexualized nature of our media.

Jussel wrote to the Target corporation about her concerns and received this curt reply:

Good Morning Amy,

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets. This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.

Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.

Smooth move, Target. Does Target not “get” that blogs and the Internet ARE the people that they want to reach to bring into their stores? Is Target completely unaware of the power of the Internet? Did Target not notice that Dan Rather, for instance, was laid low by the power of the Internet?

You’d think that Target would have learned their lesson when they banned the Salvation Army bell ringers from collecting donations in front of their stores last year. That Internet storm caused Target some heartburn.

Someone needs to update the Customer Relations Department at Target that the Internet is not something that you can just blow off and that the future resides on the world wide web!

So, I’ve got a little advice for you Target. Why don’t you set your aim on the FUTURE! Stop imagining the Internet is just a few nuts that no one cares about. Your unconcern with “non-traditional media outlets” may come back to bite you.

Continue reading “Target Takes Sites Off Bloggers , Doesn’t ‘Participate With Non-Traditional Media’”

God Is Closer Than You Know

-By Thomas E. Brewton

A Christmas reminder: Jesus, Immanuel, means God with us.

For Sunday’s sermon topic at the Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut), Pastor Steve Treash chose “God’s Presence is Closer Than You Think.” Michelangelo symbolized the relationship in his famous Sistene Chapel ceiling painting of God stretching down from heaven to touch Adam and bring life to humanity.

Christmas calls us again to thank God for the miracle of His Advent through the birth of Jesus Christ, bringing Grace and the Holy Spirit to all of humanity who choose to hear and accept the Gospel.

God literally is everywhere in everything, but the world is not God.

God is existence preceding essence. The entirety of the universe – past present, and future – existed beforehand in the Mind of God. He imparted the qualities of the universe to it at the moment of creation.

If you prefer scientific terminology, God IS prior to the Big Bang. At the instant of the universe’s creation, God imposed an intelligent design upon it, from which come the laws of physics, chemistry, and quantum mechanics. The laws of science, in Biblical terms, are the Word of God.
Continue reading “God Is Closer Than You Know”

Christmas Contemplations

-By Michael M. Bates

The Beatles were right when they sang money can’t buy me love. I guess if they’d wanted to be more precise, they’d have crooned that money can’t buy authentic love although in some instances it can acquire a reasonable facsimile of it, but that might have been tough to rhyme.

What money can buy are material possessions that may well bring some transitory pleasure. Far be it from me to disparage the enjoyment of such items. If someone wants to take away my high definition TV, they’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. Not that I’m shallow or anything.

Still, it’s quite clear that money and the things you can buy with it often don’t bring lasting happiness. When a rich person kills himself, a typical question is why did he do it, he had everything he needed, everything to live for. Obviously, the deceased didn’t view it that way.

We see that also with celebrities who either take their own lives or engage in behavior that ineluctably will lead to an earlier than normal demise. Few exhibit the apparent self-introspection of George Sanders, an Academy Award winning actor who overdosed on pills in 1972. His suicide note read: “Dear World. I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.”
Continue reading “Christmas Contemplations”

The Spirit of Truth

-By Thomas E. Brewton

How to put it to work in your life.

Pastor Rick Allen’s sermon on Sunday, December 2, at the Black Rock – Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) focused on understanding the Holy Spirit as a helper and supporter in our daily lives.

Existence itself is the Mind of God, God’s Word, eternal truth, towards which we can make our Pilgrim’s Progress with the help of the Holy Spirit.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-4)

Existence, the Mind of God, Truth, is not a “thing” that can be touched, weighed, or analyzed in the manner of purely worldly things that are the subject matter of chemistry and physics. Focusing exclusively upon the materiality of our physical world is scientific, but it is only a small part of Truth. The laws of physics, chemistry, and quantum mechanics are merely subsets of the Mind of God, whence come those laws of science.
Continue reading “The Spirit of Truth”

Pimples, Perverts, and Politicians

-By Lee Culpepper

After sexually molesting her 13-year-old student, 25-year-old middle school teacher Kelsey Peterson deported the illegally immigrated kid to Mexico. Peterson left the boy marooned south of the border when officials hauled her off to the local jail.

Reports uncovered that Peterson’s victim is an alleged gang member and father of a two-year-old child. One judge from the hoodlum’s past has described the boy as an “uncontrollable juvenile.” Peterson’s attorney, Jim Davis, also claims “the young man” is 16 years old, not 13. Moreover, the attorney suggests the teen is not a victim, but instead the aggressor who groomed the relationship.

Not surprisingly, Mexico wasted little time returning a wanted child molester to her own country. In contrast, American authorities’ efforts to reward an illegally immigrated gang member are disturbing. The juvenile delinquent and his family will probably receive American citizenship in exchange for the little thug’s testimony. The scenario is made possible by the new “U” visa, passed by Congress to encourage illegal aliens to become victims of crimes.

Have we ever heard of a teacher-student sexcapade that did not strike us as jarringly bizarre?
Continue reading “Pimples, Perverts, and Politicians”

He’s Gonna Find Out Who’s Naughty or Nice… or Stupid

By Selwyn Duke

Sometimes I could believe I was living in the Matrix. Only, I can’t imagine sentient programs creating a world as irrational as ours.

We’ve come to expect the usual Christmastime attacks upon tradition in the name of the mythical “separation of church and state”; the nativity scene on public property and school Christmas celebrations are favorite targets. Then we have those wonderfully inclusive “holiday trees.” But now, hell’s sleigh bells, Santa Claus is under assault.

Is it because his image smacks of religion? Is it because he is also known as St. Nicholas? No and no. It is far, well, more stupid than that. Here’s the first of two examples of Santa insanity:

Some people don’t want Santa Claus to say “ho-ho-ho” because it could be demeaning to women.

I kid you not.

I first heard about this idea being posited by some rubber-room candidates in Australia, but now it’s happening here, too. Writes the Austin American-Statesman,
Continue reading “He’s Gonna Find Out Who’s Naughty or Nice… or Stupid”

A Wizard of Oz Where Evil is Dorothy’s Fault? Ask Sci-Fi Channel!

-By Warner Todd Huston

As the Sci-Fi Channel’s new mini-series Tin Man comes to a close, it is sad to say that what we ended up with was a show that takes a family favorite and turns it into a dark, mangled mess not suitable for children that makes good responsible for all that is evil. It’s all a perfectly ghastly example of moral relativism and the sort of nihilism we have become so boringly used to from our current forms of entertainment.

Remember the Wicked Witch of the West in the original The Wizard of Oz? She was green and ugly, she only wanted what was bad for everyone but herself and she had the love of no one. Remember Dorothy, the pure of heart who would bring light to the land of Oz? She was beautiful and true, the personification of good. To many, the story of The Wizard of Oz was one where a plucky girl with self-confidence could beat evil and make the world a better place. But, not to the Sci-Fi channel. Noooo, in this day of cynicism we certainly can’t have a traditional tale of good vs. evil, now can we? With it’s re-imagining of the venerable children’s classic, the Sci-Fi channel’s Tin Man gives us a Wizard who is a drug addict, a Tin Man that is a bitter ex-cop, a cowardly lion that is… well, we aren’t sure what he is… a scarecrow that is a victim of a lobotomy, the dog To To as a shape shifter who betrays Dorothy, and a Wicked Witch of the West who is really Dorothy’s beautiful older sister and not “just” a witch at all. And what of Dorothy? Well, first of all, not only is she not from Kansas, she isn’t even human (She is from Oz originally, not Earth). But worst of all, the evil of the Wicked Witch of the West is all Dorothy’s fault in the first place. You read that right, evil is the fault of good in this new Oz flick.

It’s a common a trope of entertainment and literature that the existence of good is always countered by that of evil, of course. There have also been many times when good and evil are personified in relatives, such as the brothers of the Bible, Caine and Abel; the good son and the bad. For the most part, though, we’ve had a literary tradition of good triumphing over evil, even if it might mean relatives somehow vanquishing each other. Naturally, the theme of brother against brother, or son against father, and vice versa is meant to add even more tragedy and pathos to the story, but evil is still usually evil.

But, these days it seems that Hollywood and the creators of our forms of entertainment feel they are somehow beyond the traditional roles of good and evil. These writers simply cannot stomach an evil character that just IS evil, nor can the good really just be good. Just as the new version of Beowulf at theaters today makes Beowulf the good and pure hero into a braggart and liar and his enemy into a misunderstood grotesquerie, this new Wizard of Oz suffers from that refusal to make good, good and evil, evil. In today’s entertainment, evil must always be explained away. It’s all not so bad, these stories tell us, evil is just misunderstood.

Continue reading “A Wizard of Oz Where Evil is Dorothy’s Fault? Ask Sci-Fi Channel!”

Be the One to Thank God

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Occasionally people are aware that there is more to Thanksgiving than stuffing a turkey and themselves at the dinner table.

In Sunday’s sermon at Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut), Pastor Steve Treash’s text was Luke 17:11-19:

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, each of us should follow the example of the leper and be the one to give thanks, praising God.

Reflect upon our many blessings, instead of lamenting what we don’t have.
Continue reading “Be the One to Thank God”

My Mother Is A Feminist

-By Nancy Morgan

My mother is a feminist. A die-hard, take no prisoners, true-blue feminist. Armed with a hard-won PhD., she has made her life’s work the counselling of the transgendered, the gay and the sexually confused. Honest work in which she is passionately invested. The only fly in the ointment is me, her conservative daughter.

I am as passionate a conservative as my mother is a feminist. It’s hard to imagine two more diametrically opposing viewpoints. I view the current state of feminism as doing more harm than good. As undermining the traditional and family values that I consider the backbone of our country. On the other hand, my mother considers conservative values as outdated, invalid, and as having absolutely no intrinsic value.

I understand how mom came to be such an ardent feminist. Though I thoroughly disagree with her views, I respect and admire the courage and sacrifices she made in attaining them.
Continue reading “My Mother Is A Feminist”

The Law & Gospel Dynamic

-By Frederick Meekins

In classical Lutheran theology and homiletics, a two part approach is often taken referred to as Law and Gospel. For it is through this dynamic duo that the individual is made to realize that he is a sinner in need of salvation and what the solution is for this vexing dilemma.

In old detective movies and police shows, when a suspect was interrogated often a tactic was used referred to as “good cop/bad cop”. In this approach, the suspect is at first confronted by a seemingly harsh officer whose task is to bluntly tell the suspect what the suspect is alleged to have done, that the evidence as to such is overwhelming, and that the best thing the suspect can do for their own sake is to confess to what they have done. Once the suspect has been worked over psychologically, the good officer arrives on the scene to offer the best deal possible in terms of the suspect’s interests in exchange for cooperation.

Though the analogy is not perfect, one can roughly think of the Law as the bad cop and Gospel as the good cop.
Continue reading “The Law & Gospel Dynamic”

For Sake of Science They Abused These Girls

-By Warner Todd Huston

“Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind.” –Albert Einstein

Secularists today love to frame the religion vs. science debate as one of “superstitions” against fact as if theistic truth, morality and the spiritual aspect of humanity is meaningless fluff not to intersect with the hard fact and incontestability of science. But, as I quoted Einstein, the patron saint of scienceists, there is a part of science that dangerously crosses over into religion’s realm of morality even as secularists try to deny that fact. And here is a story that does, indeed, show scientists crossing over into the realm of evil to satisfy scientific curiosity. It is an evil not as bad as that of a Doctor Mengele to be sure, but one that rises to a level of evil that few would expect in today’s modern age.

Imagine taking twin baby girls and purposefully splitting them up merely as an experiment to observe their lives as they grew up keeping them from knowing of the existence of each other? Would you find justified this dispassionate decision, this coldly scientific decision, to take away a lifetime of sisterhood just to satisfy a scientific curiosity? Apparently Doctor Peter Neubauer, an internationally renowned child psychiatrist, found no struggle with his conscience over such a scientific experiment because that is exactly what he did to identical twins, Paula Bernstein and Elyse Schein, when they were infants. In 1968 Doctor Neubauer used the twin girls for a bizarre and immoral social experiment splitting them away from each other in order to observe how they would progress. They grew up neither knowing that they had an identical twin sister out there.

Nature versus nurture has been a nagging question for scientists for generations. Are we the result of our genes or of our environment goes the raging debate. Apparently, Doctor Neubauer decided to use the lives of these two girls to satisfy his curiosity over the ages old question. And evidently he knew what he was doing would be considered wrong because he ordered that the results of his study be locked in a Yale archive, not to be opened until 2066, long after all concerned should be deceased.

He didn’t have the spine to own up to the consequences of his actions, obviously.
Continue reading “For Sake of Science They Abused These Girls”

Oprah finds answers aren’t so simple

-By Michael M. Bates

Oprah Winfrey’s heart was in the right place. She used a significant portion of her abundant wealth to start the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa earlier this year.

The $40 million facility would give about 150 students from disadvantaged families a quality education and, ultimately, a better life. Unpretentious as always, Ms. Winfrey expressed the hope her academy will help change the face of a nation.

Oprah is as big an alarmist on the topic of AIDS as Al Gore is on global warming. So she identified another reason for establishing the school: “Girls who are educated are less likely to get HIV/AIDS, and in this country which has such a pandemic, we have to begin to change the pandemic.”

Whether or not her assumptions on changing South Africa and reducing HIV/AIDS are true, Ms. Winfrey was trying to help. When targeted for criticism by those who thought she should have set up the academy in her own country, her response was starkly direct. “If you ask the kids (in our inner-city schools) what they want or need, they will say an iPod or some sneakers,” she told Newsweek. “In South Africa, they . . . ask for (school) uniforms.”
Continue reading “Oprah finds answers aren’t so simple”

Deficit Gone Wild

-By Vince Johnson

YOU OWE ME $29,000.00

BUT DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT

As of October 2007 every American citizen owed me over $29,000! This includes little babies, students, teachers, parents, grandparents and great grandparents. All of you owe me over $29,000 right now and next year it will be even more.

The Public Debt now exceeds $9,000,000,000,000 (trillion) dollars. There are about 302,000,000 (million) American citizens. Divide 9 trillion by 302 million and see what you get.

But don’t worry about it. Congress is very aware that anyone over 18 won’t live long enough to pay it off, so they’ve relied upon actuarial probabilities that will shift the vast bulk of this debt to your kids. This is being done to every American under the age of 18 without their approval and without their consent.

It is simple. You want things you can’t afford, so you borrow trillions from your children and when they grow up, they make the payments! Oh yes! You are making payments now. That’s why your taxes are so high. But these payments aren’t anywhere near enough. In September 2007, Congress lifted the debt ceiling by $850 billion dollars and it is now over $9.8 trillion! Your payments are not reducing the debt a single cent. It is getting BIGGER!

But like I say, “Don’t worry about it.” The kids will handle it when they grow up.

Congress has seen to that. If they don’t make the payments (by paying their taxes) they will receive substantial fines, or go to prison, or both!

Take this to a CPA or a lawyer. Ask them if a single word is misleading or inaccurate. After doing that, ask a politician running for office to take this to a classroom filled with high school students and explain why they will be held liable for a multi-trillion dollar debt their parents could not pay off.

Don’t forget this. America’s children will be making payments on this debt as long as they live. The least you can do is help your kids understand why they will be making payments on money you borrowed from them.
Continue reading “Deficit Gone Wild”

A Dangerous Church

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Christian churches should be noted for living and preaching the Gospel everywhere, though confronted with every degree of hostility.

Sunday’s sermon at Black Rock – Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) was preached by Rev. Larry Fullerton.

The word dangerous has more than one meaning in contemporary culture. It can refer, of course, to the threat of physical harm. It can also refer to someone with special skills, like an athlete who is always a potential scorer. Christian churches must become dangerous in both senses.

Missionary work comes to mind in the first sense. Black Rock – Long Ridge Congregational Church supports many missionaries around the world, for example in China and Muslim countries, where the threat of jail, torture, and execution is very real.

As churches here in the United States how do we become dangerous in the second sense?
Continue reading “A Dangerous Church”

Evil

-By Selwyn Duke

Man has long asked how a loving God could allow evil to exist in the world. It’s an age-old philosophical question that can cause those who want faith to doubt and those who want to doubt to mock faith. A Christian’s answer to this question is “free will,” a concept critics may regard as something reduced to a convenient cliché. The truth is, though, that this is a most fascinating subject to inquisitive minds.

The two qualities that make us like God are intellect and free will, despite the fact that the former can seem as lacking as the latter is abused. Why intellect has prerequisite status is obvious, but why free will? If God is omnipotent, He can prevent the immeasurable pain and suffering we inflict on one another with the blink of an eternal eye. Why doesn’t He do it? Perhaps this problem is what caused people such as Thomas Jefferson to embrace deism, the belief that God set the Universe in motion but then receded into the background, indifferent to our plight. So let’s examine free will.

Imagine you have a child, and technology has advanced to a point where you can implant a computer chip in his brain, one that would ensure he never acted wrongly. If everyone were thus controlled, we would have a world in which everyday transgressions were unknown. Yet, would you view this as an acceptable remedy for your child’s human frailty?

A good father certainly would not, for it would render the child something less than human. He would then be nothing more than an organic robot, an automaton, controlled by an outside agency whose will has supplanted his own. Just picture the Borg in Star Trek.
Continue reading “Evil”

The Family Golden Rule

-By Thomas E. Brewton

The survival of human dignity and individual rights depends upon vitalizing Christian churches to fill the role that the socialist political state endeavors in vain to play. That role centers upon the family.

For several weeks, Steve Treash, Senior Minister at the Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church (North Stamford, Connecticut) has preached on the Bible’s messages for family cohesion and happiness.

Our church is an outreach oriented one, aiming to continue the ministry of the earliest Christian churches, which in the turmoil of the early Roman Empire, were the principal refuge and solace for the poor, widows and orphans, the ill, and the persecuted. In addition to Sunday services focused on the elements that engender a fulfilling family life, Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church offers to all comers a full range of support services, from marriage counseling to family financial planning and assistance.
Continue reading “The Family Golden Rule”

Is Lutheran Polemicist Falling For The Early Marriage Racket?

-By Frederick Meekins

Despite their inherent stuffiness, one does not usually have to worry about conservative Lutherans such as those in the Missouri Synod falling for too many of the fads constantly popping up in the contemporary Protestant world.

Though conducted in the form of an open discussion, one gets the impression that the idea gaining momentum in the Evangelical community probably thanks to Albert Mohler constantly beating this drum (one wonders if for no other reason to spread the misery) that the truly devout wed at an early age may be seeping into the propaganda organs of this denomination, however, such as Issues Etc, a prominent LMS radio program..

Rather than counseling single Christians to wed earlier or later, shouldn’t both parents and clergy counsel those in their spiritual circle of influence to marry wiser?
Continue reading “Is Lutheran Polemicist Falling For The Early Marriage Racket?”

“E Pluribus Unum”

-By Nancy Salvato

My sons are both in high school and are under the common teenage misconception that they are liberals. They parrot what they hear from their teachers, their friends at school, and their father from my first marriage. They don’t necessarily want to engage me in debate about my conservative beliefs. They just want to tell me I’m wrong and that I don’t know of what I speak. When I provide an explanation for my observations or present facts for why something occurs in our government, they don’t listen. It’s almost as though they stick their fingers in their ears and hum until I’m through talking, yet neither one of them can provide any concrete evidence for their opposing beliefs when I ask them to prove why I’m incorrect.

Like many who are unhappy with the current administration, they blame our president for legislative spending even though the Executive Office doesn’t create the budget. They blame our president for global warming, even though there is evidence that it is not the problem Al Gore wants us to believe. Press them hard enough and they blame our president for every ill that befalls our country. They sound very much like MoveOn.org followers, spewing their venom for all those who do not adhere to the MoveOn.org philosophy or mentality, especially conservatives. What bothers me most is that they lump conservatives into this group of people who don’t care about the earth, can’t enjoy shopping at Trader Joe’s, and couldn’t possibly appreciate wearing Birkenstock sandals.

My present husband, who to the Code Pink crowd is as conservative as they come, doesn’t fit the common perception of the conservative mold. This is mostly because he’s about as open as they come to meeting new people and withholding judgment about the way they live their lives (as long as they aren’t hurting anyone or forcing their views on him) and the circumstances in which they might find themselves. He believes that it is their different personalities and beliefs that add to the richness and the colors of the palette in his life. On the other hand, he doesn’t get along with people who are intolerant and believe the world is all about them. He has drawn the line with those who want to engage him about his beliefs, this being that if you want to argue, bring some facts to the table. Otherwise, don’t waste his time “Damnit”.
Continue reading ““E Pluribus Unum””

A Murderer’s Memorial Plaque in Minnesota and Other Maudlin Tributes

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another example of the upside down nature of our nation today, a man who murdered his ex-girlfriend and then killed himself is getting a nice memorial plaque in a Minnesota kid’s ballpark because his love for the kids was “greatly appreciated.”

Never mind that he stalked his ex-girlfriend and murdered her. Never mind that, like a coward, he killed himself afterwards. It was enough that after this mental case died the Park District remembered he was a cool guy. That’s all they needed… their maudlin warm “feelings.”

In early September a plaque was placed in Erskine’s Athletic Park. It reads: “In loving memory of David DeFrang, whose love and devotion to our children is greatly appreciated.”

According to reports, DeFrang became unhinged when girlfriend Tina Gerving broke off their engagement. On January 23, 2005, he shot her to death and then turned the gun on himself.

Two years later the Park District dedicated this absurd plaque to him.

Their explanation? Folks liked the killer.
Continue reading “A Murderer’s Memorial Plaque in Minnesota and Other Maudlin Tributes”

Dating Violence/Abuse Hypocrisy

Richard L. Davis

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.
Thomas H. Huxley

October is domestic violence awareness month. Studies document the dangers presented in dating/domestic violence/abuse physical assaults that occur in our secondary schools and college campuses. It is generally agreed that this behavior often continues into adulthood.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control define dating violence as the physical, sexual, psychological or emotional violence within a dating relationship. The National Domestic Violence Hot Line (NDVH) defines abuse as a pattern of coercive control that one person exercises over another.

Dating violence/abuse studies consistently document that males and females equally abuse and/or physically assault each other. Despite these empirical studies, many advocates continue to dismiss the dangers of female initiation, claiming that most studies do not consider the “meaning, context, or consequences” of female assaultive behavior (O’Keefe, 2005).

Hypocritically, dating/domestic violence/abuse organizations and many research journals publish the ubiquitous “1 in 5 female high school victimization” data while ignoring male victimization. This “1 in 5 fact” was first published in Dating Violence Against Adolescent Girls Linked with Teen Pregnancy, Suicide Attempts, and Other Health Risk Behaviors, and was gleaned from the 1997-1999 Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MYRBS).
Continue reading “Dating Violence/Abuse Hypocrisy”

Please Stop the Aid

-By Nancy Salvato

“Economic freedom, in and of itself, is an extremely important part of total freedom.” — Milton Friedman1

“In 1996, the UN declared that 70 countries, aid recipients all, were poorer than in 1980. An incredible 43 were worse off than in 1970.”2 Experience has consistently shown that simply providing money to Third World countries will not buy political stability, spur social progress and eliminate poverty, yet this strategy continues to influence charitable efforts aimed at helping the impoverished people residing in these areas.3

It may sound cruel, but there are many valid reasons to stop the billions of dollars in aid given to poor countries. Often, it ends up in the hands of officials who repress their people. Many of them spend this money on arms and military instead of necessary infrastructure. Foreign countries acknowledging leaders, in this way, legitimize their rule. With money comes influence; not only of corrupt officials but with the countries providing the donations. Donors determine which projects to support. As a result, beneficiaries lose their autonomy and any possibility of true self government. Instead, allegiance is offered to those in power who can distribute aid or provide public service.4
Continue reading “Please Stop the Aid”

Resolution 590: Is Congress Not Aware of Male Victimization?

-By Richard L. Davis

To see, to hear, means nothing. To recognize (or not to recognize) means everything. And what I do not recognize I shall continue not to recognize.
Andre Brenton (1989-1966, French Surrealist)

This is an online open letter to the members of the 110th U.S. Congress
I agree with the 110th Congress Resolution 590 about raising the awareness of domestic violence in the United States and the devastating effects domestic violence has on families and communities. The Resolution can be viewed online at http://thomas.loc.gov/ and then enter HRES 590 in to the search engine block. A critical analysis by http://www.mediaradar.org/ of House Resolution 590 is available online at http://www.mediaradar.org/docs/RADARanalysis-HRES590.pdf.

Although the 110th Congress Resolution 590 claims that Congress wants to raise awareness of domestic violence, Resolution 590 accomplishes just the opposite concerning male victimization; i.e.: “Whereas one in four women will experience domestic violence sometime in her life” and “Whereas 13 percent of teenage girls who have been in a relationships report being hit or hurt by their partner.” No awareness of male victimization there!
Continue reading “Resolution 590: Is Congress Not Aware of Male Victimization?”

Newsweek Proclaims Woman is ‘Approved’ Catholic Priest

-By Warner Todd Huston

In keeping with the MSMs constant denigration of organized religion, Newseek has published a story proclaiming a female as an “approved” Catholic priest accepting the claims of rogue Catholic offshoot organizations over that of the official cannon of the real Catholic Church. Everything is relative to the MSM and their fellow nihilists, so the fact that the actual Catholic Church still doesn’t allow the ordination of women as priests doesn’t seem to matter a whole lot to them as they give this woman the benefit of being called a “Catholic priest.” It would be as ridiculous as the MSM calling Bill Clinton a black president… oh, wait. It certainly seems as if “truth” is a meaningless concept to the MSM.

Looking like an aging cheerleader instead of a “priest,” Newsweek featured the story of 25-year-old Jessica Rowley in Higher Calling, published on the 13th. In it they absurdly accept as fact her supposed ordination as a “Catholic priest.”

Sept. 13, 2007 – Last week 25-year-old Jessica Rowley became one of about a dozen women nationwide to make a highly unusual career move: she was ordained a Catholic priest. Rowley’s ordination—which took place at Eden Theological Seminary, a progressive institution in Webster Groves, Mo.—is approved by the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, a group of churches that decline to recognize the authority of the pope but see themselves nevertheless as Catholic. This week Rowley—who is also married—begins working full-time as an associate pastor at Saints Clare & Francis, a breakaway parish in Webster Groves.

Certainly, these offshoot groups have every right to create their own organizations and to reject the tenets of the actual Roman Catholic Church, but they just cannot claim themselves to be Catholics. Even Martin Luther realized he had to come up with a new brand!
Continue reading “Newsweek Proclaims Woman is ‘Approved’ Catholic Priest”

Indoctrinating Children With Global Warming TV Shows, Movies and Books

-By Warner Todd Huston

Here are chilling words for any parent to hear: “Hollywood recruits kids to fight climate change.” It isn’t every day that someone admits that they are basically out to indoctrinate children with an ideological position, but Helen Andrews of Politico.com reports to us just such an admission from the globaloney forces in Hollywood. Not only do they intend to brainwash our children (and already are, for that matter) with their anti-capitalist, anti-growth ideas using fuzzy animals and cartoonish figures, but they are presenting it as a “moral” issue and, just as badly, trying to convince our children that humans aren’t any more special than the animals — because, you see, kids are “an animal,” too. Naturally, these globaloney pushers imagine there isn’t a thing wrong with their actions despite that they are trying to inculcate political positions on unsuspecting children, undercutting their parent’s ideologies, and undermining the American way of life.

Citing the success of such films as “Happy Feet” and even “Bambi,” Andrews brings us the ruminations of several folks who imagine that children are ripe for indoctrination with globaloney hysteria.

A significant amount of “moral learning” happens during the formative ages — generally beyond pre-school, Anderson explained. Kids roughly 7 and older begin to understand, remember and reflect on serious topics like death — including the Earth’s death. Elementary school students even start becoming interested in political positions.

So the “earth’s death” is a “moral” position, now?

Instead of teaching children about the American way of life and our Christian mores, these “experts” want that supplanted with global warming hysteria. Many feel that doing so with movies and TV is the perfect solution and the key to it all is fuzzy animals, the best way to grab little one’s attention and hold it. The 1940s debut of the forest fire prevention campaign with “Smokey Bear” is used in Andrews’ piece to illustrate the success of appealing to the young. Dave Walsh, president of the National Institute on Media and the Family, who fondly recalls his love for “Smokey Bear,” believes that the global warming crew can easily use the forest fire prevention campaign as a template for their own agenda.
Continue reading “Indoctrinating Children With Global Warming TV Shows, Movies and Books”

Chgo. Sun-Times: Pregnancies to Rise in US Colleges — It’s All Bush’s Fault

-By Warner Todd Huston

The Chicago Sun-Times is blaming the Bush administration for what they claim is sure to be a rise in unplanned pregnancies at colleges and universities across the country. It hasn’t happened yet, mind you, but they are sure it’s gonna! Naturally, the paper cannot imagine we should place any blame on the stupid students who are getting themselves pregnant. I mean, it HAS to be Bush’s fault, you see, with personal responsibility being so last century and all. No, the Sun-Times is sure that a cut in the amount of Federal money doled out to our institutions of higher learning for cheap birth control is going to wreak havoc with the student body. Our kids are obviously too stupid to get by without that government spending.

The Sun-Times, worrying that the cost of birth control available to students in colleges is going to rise, imagines a law reducing Federal spending is somehow forcing students to have unprotected sex. “Birth-control costs soaring at colleges — Pregnancies could rise now that law limits drugmaker incentives”, they proclaim. This calamity is all being blamed on the “Deficit Reduction Act signed by President Bush last year” according to the Sun-Times.
Continue reading “Chgo. Sun-Times: Pregnancies to Rise in US Colleges — It’s All Bush’s Fault”

Atheistic Desperation

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Atheists thought that God really was dead.

French revolutionary philosophers and the socialist theoreticians who followed them in the early 1800s were captured by what British socialist Graham Wallas called the liberal fallacy: the self-absorbed assumption that whatever their reasoning told them had, by definition, to be the truth and, furthermore, that everyone else on earth would naturally agree with their conclusions. It is a form of tunnel vision that ignores all factors other than what interests liberals.

We see this today in the prescriptions of liberal Republicans and liberal Democrats. They are confident that, because they abhor war, so too does Al Queda. Because liberals are willing to relinquish our national sovereignty to the UN, confident that every dispute can be resolved by rational discussion, they assume Islamic jihadists are wired the same way.
Continue reading “Atheistic Desperation”

Seriously Needing Oxygen

-By Lee Culpepper

I joined the Marine Corps after college because I felt compelled to serve our country and to defend the rights of others. I feel proud to have served in the Corps, and I believe my experience taught me a greater appreciation regarding the incredibly high cost and value of freedom.

Consequently, I simply cannot think like those Americans who take our freedoms for granted. I also fail to understand how any American can recklessly abuse our freedoms. My father used to describe such people by saying, “Son, some folks live their entire lives with their heads between the wrong two cheeks.”

Even armed with my father’s wisdom, I could hardly believe two stories I was reading recently, except that they involved The New York Times and the ACLU. Last week, Steven Levitt, co- author of Freakonomics, published his Freakonomics Blog on The New York Times website. In “If You Were A Terrorist How Would You Attack,” Levitt gleefully offers some ideas for how terrorists could most easily wreak chaos in America, and he smugly solicits more ideas from any oxygen-starved readers willing to respond. Naturally, I question why our government has not exercised its primary responsibility to protect us from such a menace. At a minimum, officials should question Levitt to see if he’s actually smart enough to deny serving as an al Qaeda-propaganda strategist. Being so full of himself, who knows what he might reveal? As a courtesy, government agents could at least encourage Levitt to breathe some fresh air. People who honestly believe they are assisting the government by publishing such treacherous garbage, a claim Levitt makes, are clearly lunatics that present a danger not only to themselves, but also to others. On the other hand, if they are intentionally undermining the American effort to protect us from terrorists, they should be tried for treason and hanged. Certainly during a war, the government should keep such people under surveillance for those individuals’ own protection.
Continue reading “Seriously Needing Oxygen”

Down by the School Yard

-By Nancy Salvato

I’ve been following the news story on the execution style killings of three college bound students in Newark, NJ. It is just so horrific that I wanted to find some justification, no matter how slight, for such an atrocity to befall this particular group of victims; young adults whose gruesome fate was decided because they chose to hang out in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was particularly disappointed when Bill O’Reilly’s guest, Jesse Peterson, a professor of hip hop culture, had absolutely no concrete suggestions on how to prevent kids from turning into thugs –except to suggest paying teachers more money so that the schools can better address troubled youth.

If O’Reilly’s producers want to continue with this thread of discussion, a solid case could be made that offering parental school choice would go a long way toward solving many of the problems that plague our young people. By offering parents without economic mobility the means to provide their children a place to explore without fear, or being forced to grow up too fast, where administrators can enforce standards of behavior and create a culture of learning, these kids might stand a chance. As it stands now, in many lower Socio Economic Status (SES) areas, public schools have become dumping grounds and even the kids who are excited about learning, are left behind. In this atmosphere, students will not come close to receiving the level of intellectual stimulation from their teachers or peers to which higher SES students are exposed. Why has this been allowed to happen?
Continue reading “Down by the School Yard”

Major Rehab

-By Thomas E. Brewton

We who make up the church are God’s temple. We need an extreme makeover.

Rev. Ron Tyler, who heads the Bridgeport Rescue Mission, preached Sunday’s sermon at the Black Rock-Long Ridge Congregational Church in North Stamford, Connecticut. His theme was surrendering ourselves to the Holy Spirit to make the body of Christ, the Christian church, into a congregation of purity, power, and praise.

Our model is Jesus’s actions when he visited the temple, corrupted by worldly commerce.

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, ” ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a ‘den of robbers.’ ”

The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.

But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
Continue reading “Major Rehab”