Low-wage workers may lose what health benefits they do have because these "mini-med" plans used for high-turnover workers don’t spend enough, according to the government. 

Don Sensing has the details.

Keep your insurance if you like it?  Yeah, right.

Good morning.

1. Two “thousand word” commentaries.
2. A fable.
3. Separation of Church/State, from the other angle.
4. Inflation in our future.
5. One reaction.
6. The elephant in the evangelical marriage discussion.
7. Volokh conspirator in a bigger venue.
8. In the context of Hawking’s talk of God, Wittgenstein.
9. Physical dexterity.

To clarify,

A coalition of Mexican mayors has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. to Mexican border cities, saying the deportations are contributing to Mexican border violence.

Meanwhile, President “Mexicans were here before America was an idea” Obama is trying to pitch the notion that there is no “us” and “them”, with regards to illegal immigration [sic].

Sorry, Mr. President, but we’re not buying this whole one-world idea and, just as a reminder, you swore an oath to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States of America.

Good morning.

1. A prediction on Presidential ratings.
2. On his message.
3. He should know, he was one of them.
4. How not to put yourself in others shoes.
5. 2.7kg bike.
6. Tea Party and the starfish (note I got malware warnings from the sidebar blogroll provider site going there).
7. A picture for the day.
8. Look where the libs want to take us, if you think unemployment is bad now.
9. Verse.

In this video, slam poet Chris Tse apologizes for being a Christian (warning: a couple of instances of foul language). Before you watch the video, think for a moment which actions Tse might have singled out as worthy of apologizing for. Consider our culture, its worldviews, and especially how Christians are portrayed in secular media.

How did you do? It really wasn’t that difficult to guess which sins he’d be apologizing for, was it?

As one would expect, some of the politically correct sins presented were: the crusades, homophobia, anti-abortion protests, culturally insensitive missionaries, etc. Now, regardless of whether or not Christians, in general, are guilty of some or all of these infractions, does anyone else find it unsettling that the infractions listed match up with how the Christian and Christianity is portrayed in secular media?

While it appears that Mr. Tse is sincere, albeit naive, I’m concerned about how this type of “apology” dovetails with the secular worldview of the liberal west. I find it interesting that we live in a world which considers all ideas valid, yet demands apologies from those whose ideas which, truth be told, they consider wrong (i.e., not valid). It’s the old, “We will not tolerate intolerance!” mantra. Recall that one of President Obama’s first actions, as President, was to travel ’round the world apologizing on behalf of the United States.

Apologizing, evidently, is in vogue.

I’ve read some commentators who state that we live in a post-modern society which is not really interested in viewing the world through rational, enlightenment eyes. Therefore, any discipline which presents an argument to make its case, such as that of apologetics, is considered old-school. Instead, we’re told, we need to expend our efforts to reach the heart of the person – namely by means of anything relational.

Hence, we see efforts such those to administer so-called social justice to the less fortunate in our midst – or – to deliver apologies for hurting other people’s feelings.

Yet we humans are neither wholly rational or wholly emotional creatures – we are much more than that. We have, after all, been stamped with the Image of God.

As such, worldviews which tout the truth of pluralism are self-defeating, not because they don’t feel right but because they don’t work. In the same vein, apologies for the past actions of a particular group had better have the facts and context of those actions objectively correct, lest such apologies be nothing more than a meaningless flapping of wind.

References: (which I don’t apologize for listing)

The Crusades – Rodney Stark – God’s Battalions

Abortion – Christians offering help and healing to those who’ve chosen abortion

Jim Elliot – ’nuff said

Focus on the Family (yes FOTF) – an article that must surely be filled with hate towards the homosexual…

With regards to stories such as these, of U.S. military personnel committing crimes and atrocities, take care to note “The Difference”. While murderous actions of terrorists are considered the norm, such acts, when committed by U.S. soldiers, justifiably result in outrage here in the U.S.

As graphically illustrated, by Michael Yon’s photograph of a U.S. soldier cradling an Iraqi girl, mortally wounded by the normal actions of terrorist insurgents, there is a difference between us and those who would wage terror on the innocent.

Image © 2005 Michael Yon

All things are better in Koine! And my friend Joe Carter should get a kick out of the shot of Biola’s infamous hippie Jesus mural.

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Bad News / Good News The Bad News? 49% of Protestants think Mormons are Christians. The Good News? Those same Protestants are looking forward to having a whole lot of fun at church this coming Sunday.

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Mexico tosses us a red herring From CNN,

Violence in the United States is not related to illegal Mexican immigrants, but violence in Mexico is connected to vast shipments of weapons from the United States, Mexico’s foreign minister told CNN Thursday.

Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa pointed to efforts by Mexico to stop the flow of weapons, the great majority of which come from the United States.

“Since 2006,” she said in a wide-ranging interview with CNN’s editorial board in New York City, “the Mexican government has seized over 85,000 weapons in Mexico.”

She noted that it’s not just “regular weapons,” but also machine guns, grenades and other high-power arms.

Robert Pastor, a Latin America national security adviser for President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s, pointed out last year there were at least 6,600 U.S. gun shops within 100 miles of the Mexican border and more than 90 percent of weapons in Mexico come from the United States.

I’d venture to say that the chances are slim to none that one could purchase machine guns, grenades, or other [related] high-power arms, in any of those 6,600 gun shops.

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With either choice, your system’s gonna get cleaned out Evidently, people would prefer to have a colonoscopy vs. cleaning out their computer’s registry.

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The FBI chooses Glock Contract award at close to $1 million, for 2,900+ Glock 23 .40SW handguns.

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Lucky Break: significant good fortune or opportunity What do you do, if you’re committed to naturalism, and you’re faced with the fact that your very existence hinged on at least 10 highly improbable events of the past? Well, the rational, neo-Darwinistic logical conclusion must surely be that we were really, really, really, really, really lucky! For those who can actually put 2 + 2 together, the folks at Reasons to Believe have been discussing the design aspects of our universe, for quite some time.

Good morning.

1. Questioning a charge.
2. Cinema exposing life.
3. Queen Ketevan.
4. Some wise words on chastity.
5. Ephraim! (for those who don’t know, St. Ephraim is the Chrismation Saint I chose when I converted to Orthodoxy).
6. Is Atheism a religion?
7. A teachers manifesto.
8. Lower and higher criticism and Islam.
9. Populism, an attempt at a categorization.
10. Trained parrot? Get with the times, that German precognitive octopus is far far better.
11. Freedom and Mr Obama’s agenda.
12. Prepare your encryption engines.
13. A question in comparison.
14. Mormon’s and the Christian question. Why can’t people get that right? It’s like its very complicated. At cultic level, Mormon’s and Nicene Christians are both Christ cults (both are cults in which Jesus of Nazareth is a primary element). The word “Christian” in common usage is commonly shorthand for Nicene Christians, i.e., Christian cultists that affirm that creed. Mormons do not belong to that group. So, are they Christian, technically yes in the cultic sense, but in common usage of the word, no. 
15. A tech gadget for the ages.
16. Not unrelated, and the Iliad is not on the list, so I am a bit put out.

From James Taranto’s "Best of the Web Today" column:

• "Many provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 won’t be implemented until 2014, but much of the low-hanging fruit started Thursday. One such juicy apple is that insurers will no longer be allowed to deny coverage to children on the basis of pre-existing conditions. . . . To review: As of this week, insurers will be unable to refuse to do business with children."–Matthew Yglesias, TheDailyBeast.com, Sept. 24

• "Refusing to Play: Health Insurers That Won’t Offer Child-Only Policies"–headline, San Francisco Chronicle website, Sept. 24

If you punish it, you get less of it.

There’s been a bit of buzz lately (HT: First Things) regarding a post by Al Mohler titled, The Subtle Body – Should Christians Practice Yoga?. Mohler’s conclusion is a decided “no”. From his post,

…a significant number of American Christians either experiment with yoga or become adherents of some yoga discipline. Most seem unaware that yoga cannot be neatly separated into physical and spiritual dimensions. The physical is the spiritual in yoga, and the exercises and disciplines of yoga are meant to connect with the divine.

Mohler essentially warns that the eastern practice of yoga, while encompassing the physical, is inherently spiritual in nature. As such, Christians dabbling in the practice are unwittingly (or not, as the case may be) exposing themselves to spiritual worldviews contrary to that of Christianity.

It’s interesting to see how Mohler’s warnings are falling on some deaf ears.

I think that western Christians assume they can successfully separate the physical from the spiritual; yet, is such an assumption merely a backwash from our western mindset? J.P. Moreland, noted Christian philosopher, has recently been advocating the view that western Christians lack a proper supernatural mindset for experiencing the fullness of God’s blessing – a fullness which must include that of the supernatural. We, in the west, tend to see things with a scientific mindset, despite what the apostle Paul told us, in Ephesians. From Moreland,

We have inadvertently accepted a naturalistic, scientistic worldview in which we tend to believe that God only speaks through Scripture, miracles largely happened in biblical times, and yet demons manifest themselves overseas.

Also, western Christians may, at times, attempt to reconcile certain philosophical and spiritual aspects of the world with those of Christianity.

Consider this description of a yoga class, attended by at least one Christian,

We were in the middle of a particularly hard pose (I would tell you the name of it but I still can’t understand the names) and many of us struggled to hold it and maintain our balance. The instructor guided us through it and while giving us mental encouragement, “Often in life we find ourselves faced with struggles and pain. During these times we are stretched and face pain. It is then we learn to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Not many are willing to go the less traveled path. But those who do, find true strength and peace.”

True strength and peace. Is it the result of the mere yoga body position, from the mental encouragement accompanying it, or a combination of both? And at what point, if any, does the spiritual aspect of yoga come into play? Well the author goes on to state that she felt God speaking to her about persevering to His peace. So is this a case of a kind-of-Christian-type idea, from a secular-derived exercise class based on an eastern-worldview, opening the door for God to speak to a Christian about finding true strength and peace? Does something sound not quite right here?

Is God capable of using an exercise class, with origins based on eastern spirituality, to bring direction, strength, and peace to a Christ follower? Certainly. But it seems to me that, given our cultural context, it would be more likely to find such direction, strength, and peace directly from His Word.

A critic of Mohler’s post (and, as it turns out, the husband of the person referenced above) gave several reasons for his disagreement. I’d like to address his criticisms. From his post,

First, Christianity is fundamentally an eastern religion. These were the first words out of my wife’s mouth when I told her about Mohler’s blog. The context has that truth ringing deeper in my mind than ever before. As much as modern Christians imagine Christianity as a “western” religion, its roots are undoubtedly eastern.

I’m at a loss for this one… weren’t the prophets of Baal practicing an eastern religion? I really don’t know how the fact that yoga is an eastern religion – which is an explicit confirmation of its spiritual aspects – renders that practice as somehow, if only partially, compatible with Christianity.

Second, all truth is God’s truth. In many Christian circles there is a certain refusal to accept any part of another discipline if it doesn’t affirm every single aspect of Christianity. You can see this with science. In other words, some churches reject scientific teachings because those teachings don’t culminate with affirming orthodox Christian teaching.

A more balanced and reasonable approach is to realize that every discipline is imperfect and we should strive to take what is good and noble and reject that which is not. In the case of yoga, flexibility, building body strength, and exercise combined with relaxation and stress removal techniques is good and something we all need on a periodic basis and a part of the “sabbath” principle in Scripture. Granted some yoga tries to direct one’s energy toward other spiritual teachings and that’s what we should guard against. There is no need to throw out the proverbial baby with the bathwater.

This criticism, in my opinion, carries much more weight. I wholeheartedly agree that all truth is God’s truth and that Christians should be discerning of all aspects of knowledge and truth. However, yes there’s the “however”, Mohler is not arguing that the physical components alone, of the practice of yoga, are at issue. Even as the author admits that, “…some yoga tries to direct one’s energy toward other spiritual teachings…” he simply cautions that this is something we should guard against! Mohler is warning that such an approach is dangerous, at best, and disastrous, at worst. This is an instance, in my opinion, where our western mindset clouds our judgment on decidedly non-western ideas.

Third, Mohler’s blog reveals an even deeper and more troubling aspect, namely a black-white or good-bad way of viewing the world. Just because an activity or even a religion does not affirm Jesus Christ as the way, the truth and the life does not necessarily mean that it is all bad. Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism all have aspects that we should all learn from and redeem.

Life is more grey than many of us care to acknowledge. Living in the grey requires more discernment and humility and is often times more difficult than the black-white world. But it is a more honest reflection of reality.

That this criticism comes from a Christian is, to put it bluntly, scary. As Mohler stated, “The embrace of yoga is a symptom of our postmodern spiritual confusion, and, to our shame, this confusion reaches into the church.”

Fourth, Christians have a long history of re-purposing “pagan” practices. The Christmas tree is a notable example. It would have been hard to divide the tree from its pagan roots, but Christians did. Many of our hymns were adapted from “worldly” bar tunes, even Amazing Grace. So, history has shown us that certain things can be used for new purposes without detrimental spiritual confusion resulting.

Ah yes, the genetic argument. How many of us have fond memories of their childhood, at the time of Advent, especially of the family Christmas tree? Now, how many of us truly believe that said Christmas tree tradition was present at the first celebrations of the fact of Christ’s birth? Furthermore, how many of us were taught, as a child, the pagan roots of the use of evergreen trees at the Winter solstice? (Note: there are no “pagan” roots of the “Christmas” tree, since the pagans did not worship Christ and, as such, had no “Christmas” trees) The point is that the connection between the pagan use of evergreens at Winter solstice, with the use of Christmas trees by Christians is not readily apparent to modern, western Christians. Yet, it seems reasonable to conclude that the spiritual aspect of yoga is readily apparent to modern, western Christians. For a blatant display of this difference, go to the Wikipedia page on “Yoga” and compare it with what is found on the page for “Christmas tree”. Another aspect to consider is that while the Christmas tree was a direct re-purposing of the pagan tradition into one with Christian meaning, we do not see a similar re-purposing with regards to the physical aspect of yoga. Rather, based on what the author clearly references, we see acknowledgment and acceptance of non-Christian spirituality. This is not a good thing.

Fifth, Mohler’s blog carries the implication that we can be accidentally duped into engaging in a false religion. While undoubtedly there are many people who do not have spiritual clarity about what they believe or what they are doing, the idea that we can be worshipping another god against our knowledge seems quite dubious. I doubt anyone is accidentally worshipping Satan because they have a Christmas tree.

This criticism fails because it admits that the practice of yoga is spiritually dubious (besides presenting a red herring in the Satan / Christmas tree argument).

Sixth, as yoga has moved mainstream, there are now plenty of centers and instructors that are devoid of the religious/spiritual aspects of yoga. Mohler acknowledges this but says that you can’t really divorce the spiritual from the physical in yoga. I believe that is true for the Christ follower as well. If you do yoga to the glory of God then it’s a spiritual act. As yoga is secularized or even repurposed as a Christian act, we are again reminded that our spiritual loyalties are a matter of the orientation of our hearts and not the historical origins of our preferred exercise routines.

The notion that yoga has moved mainstream, within Christian circles, may be new to some, but I think its the result a slow creep – a slippery slope, if you will – within our culture. I recall a conversation I had with a non-Christian friend, while I was in high school. We were fellow athletes on the track & field team, and he informed me he was attending yoga classes. Upon seeing my quizzical look, he promptly reassured me it was okay because, as he stated, “it’s only an exercise class”.

That was in 1974.

Self Defense for a Bear Attack If it was me, I’d leave the summer squash for the crockpot, and utilize something that has the word “magnum” associated with it.

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Geek News of the Week Images of Aurora on Saturn’s South Pole.

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The S.L.E.D. Test as an argument against abortion Whenever I discuss the topic of abortion with a person who is pro-abortion, it’s amazing to see the lack of clarity and reason in their position. Truth be told, when unpacked to its core features, their position is without rational basis. Scott Klusendorf, formerly from Stand to Reason, discusses the S.L.E.D. Test, what it is, and how to rationally apply it to demonstrate that the unborn are valuable as human beings.

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Funny

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Obama think $1.00 will cover the purchase of 4 apples And, yes, the media didn’t handle it like they did when Dubya was around.

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The 1% Solution? Bono’s One Foundation only manages to direct a little over 1% of what it receives to the needy? Ouch! Maybe the Obama administration should consider a takeover?

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Power to the People! The last best hope…

Photonic computers, that use light rather than electrical signals to do the work, may actually be on the horizon.  This will be huge.  While it’s still a few years down the road, the number of years is in the single digits at this point.

Let’s be more like Europe! “The UK’s tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send employee paychecks to the government, after which the government would deduct what it deems as the appropriate tax and pay the employees by bank transfer.”  Even a little socialism can be a dangerous thing.  Exhibit A.

Obama supporters are “exhausted of defending” him.  If this turns into an exhaustion of voting for Democrats, House and Senate seats polling close now may yet be a big win for Republicans.  Obama only has himself to blame; supporters are not exhausted of defending “the mess” he inherited, they’re tired of defending his “accomplishments”.  If you’ve lost Jon Stewart, you’ve lost a lot of folks who think he’s a news anchor.  (Which is, unfortunately, quite a lot of people.)

No, ACORN isn’t really dead, it’s just changed its name.  And it’s still breaking the law, so says federal investigators who are urging that the funding moratorium be made permanent.

Obama says the stimulus kept the recession from falling into a depression.  But economists are now saying that, technically, we came out of the recession in June, 2009.  That’s before the stimulus really kicked in.  We spent $800 billion on measures to save the economy from something it had recovered from on its own.  Under that guise, we got record- and precedent-setting debt.

Which is why the Tea Party influence in the Republican party is so needed now, even if the GOP goes kicking and screaming.  (Click for a larger image.)

Good morning.

1. Two from the movie musical Wizard of Oz, “Courage”: here and (not) here.
2. Missing the point, what he said might be true, but what is the point and what is the effect of saying it? How is it useful?
3. Considering space, and while the space of mathematical concepts is larger not smaller than what we perceive, I think there is still a strong anthropological perceptual bias to mathematical concepts and intuitions. Consider for a while what maths might be developed by a intelligent race whose environment and perception made the notion of the integer as foreign or abstracted as infinite dimensional Hilbert spaces.
4. Mr Obama on foreign affairs, here and (the cartoon is good) here.
5. How it will be seen vs being responsible.
6. Green party, low bar or high bar?
7. Stepping in others shoes.
8. Examining the “crazy” meme regarding Ms O’Donnell.
9. Economics of Obamacare.
10. A first ad.
11. Hmm. Or better perhaps, duh! 

Good morning.

1. Summers out, as you all likely know already. I’ve a naive question, he’s been part of the Obama admin, when and how was his reputation rehabilitated after the Harvard kerfuffle in the eyes of the left?
2. I don’t get why Brooks didn’t just undersell the clone price in the first place?
3. Stimulus, apparently like climate. AGW and the effects of stimulus are deeply hidden in larger noise and short term counterexamples meet the “weather is not climate” rejection. 
4. What soldiers in the field want these days.
5. That girl in the cage … which makes me mindful of the books of Mr Vachss. 
6. Poverty and the elephant in the room.
7. Those CEO salaries.
8. Environment and virtue.
9. A common problem with new green designs, to catch on it needs to be close as good as its replacement, if not better.
10. For those who dismiss the Austrian school, they do it seems collect Nobel prizes.
11. An anniversary of sorts, and a consequence to look out for going forward alas hidden behind subscribers walls, the upshot is apparently that much of the costs of the new expansions in care will be covered by non-wealthy seniors.
12. Mr McChrystal.
13. Working at home, the upside. The downside? No bike ride to work, I guess.
14. Heh.

Oil-eating bacteria had a feast on the BP Deep-Sea oil spill At Reasons to Believe, on the August 25th podcast, they discussed how ocean bacteria ate up a whole lot of the oil from the BP spill. It is very interesting that this phenomenon was unexpected, considering how much we know about the earth. What? We don’t know everything? Oh… maybe we need to be wary of dire predictions due to Global Warming Climate Change.

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Oops Maybe the bacteria ate mostly gas and not oil. Hmmm… what was that you said about hot summers?

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More guns… Yes, less crime.

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Oops 2 Kind of reminds me of the misteaks I made at skool.

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Bush stumbled over his speeches But did we really think we could listen to great speeches for 4 years? Like Matthews says – get rid of the teleprompter!

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Maybe a bit premature Yet people are frustrated.

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Imagine a white Republican making similar statements Just remember that it came from the party of tolerance.