For those involved with college students, take a look at this promotional video about a campus outreach project run by a local Presbyterian church (and the students themselves!) near Cal Poly University, San Luis Obispo, California. It’s a coffeehouse which also serves as a study hall / gathering center where people can interact at all levels. My friend Keith Plummer has dubbed it “L’Abri-Like”. 

#LAbri #outreach #evangelism #21stCentury

Imagine if being a “Deadbeat Dad” received the same level of national publicity – and scorn – as, say, the publication of private conversations where one sport’s team owner made racist and homophobic statements? From Joe Carter’s article,

Men who have the ability to provide financial support for their children but refuse to do so should be among the most shamed groups in America. Yet there isn’t much stigma attached to being a “deadbeat dad”—and in some communities there is no disgrace at all to being an absent father.

Last March, two pro-life female high school students, in a free-speech zone [sic] on the campus of UCSB, had their display board stolen right in front of them by an associate professor. They were then assaulted as they attempted to retrieve their property. In August, the professor was convicted and given a slap-on-the-wrist sentencing (imagine, if you will, the results if it had been a conservative professor assaulting two underage gay-rights protesters).

You can see video of them following the professor at the following link. Note the sophomoric attempt at logic some of the university students hurl at the girls (e.g., “you don’t attend this college” or “you don’t pay to attend here”).

Take off your cultural blinders… This is the thinking of the next gen.

#prolife #freespeech #abortion

Concealed Carry permits are up in O.C. after the sheriff quickly followed the court’s recent ruling on the matter and began issuing permits. Interesting to note, however, 

“According to the analysis, permits are spread throughout the county, but certain cities — including Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and Yorba Linda — have a higher concentration of licensees. Others, including Santa Ana and Garden Grove, have had much fewer approved permits.”

For those not in the know, the cities comparison above is an excellent “affluence” variance demographic. Therefore, one reason for the disparity could be the added costs of classes and permit fees required by the county before issuance of a CCW. If the courts have ruled that 2nd Amendment rights extend beyond self-defense in the home, and if the gov’t is forbidden from “infringing” on said rights, then isn’t the requirement of classes and fees essentially an infringement / tax on what the courts have ruled is a right?

#2ndAmendment #SecondAmendment #CCW

Good, err, day.

1. A post sort of against profiling. Profiling is racist when the criteria chosen are inappropriate. if race is a factor predictive of crime then race is not an inappropriate criteria. In setting a defensive line, you put your forces where the bulk of the attacks are expected. This isn’t “profiling”.
2. Rape culture.
3. Scraping the ugly barnacles from the underside of civilization as a job.
4. The prior reality is why “slower to draw” is a death sentence for many.
5. Fun and snow.
6. Somebody fulfilled their photographic bucket list.
7. Government waste examined.
8. ‘gainst mines and IEDs … a tool.
9. The constitutional right to be an ass. Wonder if the left would be defending that U of I Urbana professor if he wore that in public (and not at work).
10. Apparently 83% of American’s are out of their freaking minds. Or the poll is just another damn cricket race. I’d rather the law went the other way.
11. Embrace your coming disrespectability. There’s even a beatitude about that.

G’day, hump day (of my 15 day workweek) is over.

1. More grist for the Ferguson discussion.
2. Here too.
3. Some silliness. Signs like this are pertinent, when people who accidentally do this roam the earth.
4. Film.
5. I’d go with #10, #9 and #1.
6. Some basic points in theology which everyone should agree, here and here … but a whole lot of people get stuck on them.
7. Piketty points.
8. Confused about the outrage. So ‘splain it for us, eh?
9. Well, you always have the two choices, are they stupid or evil?
10. I don’t see what’s wrong with being liked because you are smart. Do you?
11. Very cool.

Travel travel.

1. So. I sorta missed a lot of Ferguson kerfuffle. Aside from the “we’re angry, scared, and affronted … therefore let’s loot lots of innocent bystanders shops” logic fail. Very few facts are out so most noise and nonsense seems to me to be just that. This however, may give some useful information going forward.
2. In the context of Ferguson, liberals still striving to keep the black man down.
3. Of course, she’s waiting for the GOP field to flesh out. (or not)
4. Mr Perry was indicted apparently. So, if the GOP was not behind the indictment … explain why since everyone (pundits and others) “knows” that an impeachment of Mr Obama would (a) not lead to a conviction and (b) aid the Democrats in 2014 midterms, why do the similar (presumably Democrats) think that a weak indictment of Mr Perry which (a) would not lead to conviction and why the don’t think the “b” supposition is also not true.
5. The wisdom of our press.
6. An answer to the eagles in book one LOTR question.
7. I ordered the book … (see item 2 above … alongside the why do liberals hate Asians?)
8. Well, guesses 1-10 are wrong, and likely somewhat bigoted. The right answer is “one who forgets (a) “judge not lest you be judged” and from which follows the question who is the righteous judge, to which we know the answer.
9. The greatest sentence? The Orthodox Christian answer would be the Jesus Prayer. A physicist would say Emmy Noether’s theorem.
10. Drones on the move.

Oooh. I get to work this weekend in the land of hot and dry.

1. Stupid human tricks.
2. Something about history and ignorance from the prior post is recapped here, uhm, Poul Anderson’s High Crusade comes to mind.
3. What to do if your car gets a browser.
4. Until a baby sitter attaches it to the family dog and lets it run.
5. Academics often tout “there are no stupid questions” … this blog site contradicts that premise with the “multiple attempts … (to ask the world’s dumbest question)”.
6. So. Is that a maxim? Is it true that “No coerced virtue is a virtue?” It’s true for charity?
7. $11 billion. Yikes.
8. Is real?

G’day.

1. Meta-ethics and theology.
2. He’s got the look. (had?)
3. Appropriate force, a suggested metric.
4. This is not unrelated. And besides, the way Palestine wages war is designed to increase Palestinian civilian casualties. Guess what? It works.
5. Ban having wrong effect.
6. So. Do you love it? My advice for people who hate exercise, is to use a rowing machine as it has the most bang for your minute giving you strength + cardio hitting all your big muscles at the same time.
7. Well, if the headline doesn’t take things out of context, that’s a self-refuting statement. I suspect however, it was merely a laugh line.
8. Slurp.
9. Unintended irony provided by government incompetence (or is it intentional malpractice?)
10. State and the 2nd.
11. With that in mind, it seems signs suggesting most efficient behavior would be better than just “merge ahead”.
12. A gadget to watch for.

Thumbs up on Guardians …  links?

1. In spite of? The rest of the sports world calls it a “contract year” and typically athletes (oddly enough) excel at such times.
2. I disagree, lives both American, Japanese and others were saved. How about returning eastern bloc captives (to the Germans) in WWII to Stalin against their protestations or post WWII repairing Kolyma transport ships which we sold them in the first place as unforced “bad things” in our past?
3. Those many socialist medical advances.
4. Technology and the poor.
5. Good or bad?
6. Training. Which brings to mind the immortal Fausto Coppi quote on training for cycling, “Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike”.
7. Pretty.
8. If this administration (or other beltway knuckleheads) ask for “loyalty oaths” … grrrrr.
9. Possibly confused about the Michael Phelps set, which mixes strength and endurance leaning toward the former, not the latter.
10. Because our Administration and the Democrats are absolutely certain they don’t want another repeat of the Martin Luther King Jr debacle.
11. More on Piketty.
12. Democracy in a nutshell.
13. Stupid democracy tricks are not confined to this side of the pond however.
14. A pattern begun.

Well, worked hard enough that I think I can come home (sort of) a day early, Thursday night instead of mid-day Friday.

1. Our press missed another one. Or did I miss the flood of reporting and in depth analysis (I don’t think I did).
2. Spot on, for myself Cassian trumped Augustine and I crossed the Bosporus.
3. A proposal. Comments?
4. So … do you think it worked or not?
5. Western Europeans should not be proud.
6. Speaking of which, … a suggestion.
7. A bad anti-gun argument, which makes a case for women to be armed and trained, which I’m (just) guessing wasn’t the point.
8. Boredom. Never a problem with the universe, which is endlessly fascinating, but with you. Kids don’t appreciate being told that however.
9. Liberals will never ever believe that even though true.
10. So, why illegal (besides government is up to it’s normal tricks, e.g., being stupid). And seems to me you should be signing things to get not refuse liability coverage. Our society has it bas-ackwards.
11. Hack. Spit. (all I have to say, except geesh Biden is contemptible)
12. No, no no. Democrats are the cargo cultists in that analogy, Kerry is the faux airplane.
13. Pride in your country, eh?
14. Love of sport.
15. Criticism of Pickety (HT).
16. A good response to the “plagarism because of PTSD” excuse.
17. If you didn’t think people were incredibly weird … just sayin‘

From the city of Henderson, affixed to the somewhat ghastly garish city of Los Vegas comes … links

1. Re Piketty.
2. Non-violence and guns, what you didn’t know, part one and two.
3. Ballet noted.
4. The unimpressive Mr Kerry’s impressively bad idea. The “bad” is the reason for the repeated adjective.
5. Foodly notions.
6. Surprise, not.
7. Diogenes failed to find an honest man. Liberal’s arguing that the “state” in the Obamacare mandate included the feds … are evidence he’d still be looking. Liberals who argue that way are impressively dishonest. Look when you specifically design a thing to exclude the fed subsidy as an incentive to get states to buy in … then you can’t down the road argue you mean to include fed subsidies. You just can’t, and retain any sense of respect.
8. Won’t end well.
9. A top ten headline.
10. What is it.
11. Failing, as so many do, to replace “terrorist” with synonyms like “mass murderers” and/or “serial killers”. Because that is what they are. And no, “this isn’t personal it’s political” doesn’t excuse mass murder. Sorry.

Gotta run.

Man. It’s hot down South, especially when where you work isn’t air conditioned. I kept wiping sweat from my laptop keyboard today.

1. Hmm.
2. or should the be Mmmm.
3. So. Is turnabout fair play?
4. Up up and away.
5. First off … as far as I can see Putin and Russia have nothing to gain (and perhaps some to lose) by doing so. Anybody out there think they can see a gain for them? If not, then this is not a surprise.
6. Let’s see, those who study gun violence find said violence has little sensitivity to gun control legislation yet the left promotes that above all else to control said violence. A pattern emerges. Stupid travels in packs.
7. Statism and its effects.
8. I travel quite a bit. This I’ve never noticed.
9. Mr Dungy’s remarks. If Mr Dungy had said, “I wouldn’t want to draft the President’s son (assume for a moment the President or some similarly famous individual had entering the draft as a prospective 5th (!!!) round offensive linemen) because of the press and attention and non-football related distractions surrounding him.” People would nod understanding. Guess what. Same thing here. You people who want to find a bigot under every rock … are practicing what you wish to detract.
10. From the opinion, the salient quote. Principled objections?
11. A film noted. I think it’s important to point out, realistic gun behavior (unlike the film in question) improves not detracts the story, the drama, and the tension. It works in books. Why doesn’t the US film industry get that?
12. Musing on the future.
13. The other way the “health care costs” are bent down. And it’s not a good way, which is to say eschewing progress.
14. Demographics.

G’day

1. So. A bad year for Malaysian airlines, a flight from Kuala Lampur to Amsterdam (I believe) was shot down over the Ukraine.  True to form the talking heads say stupid things, here and here. “May be a tragedy” Hmm. What more do you need to know to figure out that this was not a tragedy but a horrible act of terror. And “Hell to pay”? What?! You’re going to do what!? I’ll make my prediction on the outcome of this. The conventional wisdom or generally accepted wisdom of what actually happened will be a lie. Decades down the road when the truth comes out, it won’t be the story that you hear a month or two from now.
2. Here is some reaction from the East.
3. How Obamacare bends the cost curve. They didn’t promise which direction it would bend, eh?
4. Not what you want to see.
5. Probably not a site to warm the cockles of the hearts of the pro-abortion crowd. (with that in mind … )
6. A suggestion for a best piece. I’d go with Shostokovich’s 10th.
7. From the crowd that misunderstands the Constitution and Bill of Rights. When it doesn’t make a difference a thing should be allowed, not restricted. Hint: Where gun laws are relaxed it leads to no perceptible increase in gun violence. Duh.
8. The UN and legal responsibility.
9. Imaging the earth’s interior.

G’day.

1. This is said a lot (that good teachers don’t insist a student “believe”, or pretend to believe, what the teacher believes to get a good grade). I don’t think it is true. A commentor remarks that this may not be true in science but is in philosophy. Let’s see a student decide that predicate logic is random nonsense and see how that flies. The point is, that even in philosophy or other “soft” sciences you can’t just believe whatever you want willy-nilly and pretend that’s just your opinion … so you should get a good grade no matter what you say. I’m not saying this well. The point being all fields have parts which are bedrock, which make up the framework of discussion and are not negotiable. Then there are those points on which reasonable people can differ. You can’t disagree that 1+1=2, but you can on the axiom of choice. Same goes for Philosophy, Econ and other such fields of study.
2. Continuing with the right’s inability to grok what the left is all up in arms about with respect to Hobby Lobby, e.g., how is “not buying you something” an imposition.
3. Of what interest would the justice department have in a parade (answer: Constitutionally speaking none at all). Y’all on the left can now explain.
4. So. Does that conservative pass the liberal Turing test?
5. Betcha it won’t be sold here.

Hmm. Slow news day?