Stones Cry Out

Looks like someone else got the thought that Occupy Wall Street had a problem with one of the 10 Commandments.

I keep thinking it’s Friday … I’m going to be sorely disappointed tomorrow I suspect.

1. The confused left leaning hagiography of Ms Sanger.
2. Why the problem noted is a government concern is left unargued.
3. How to radically misread Hayek. Mob “wisdom” is not what asymmetrical information implies.
4. Truth to power? Wearing a cross in class.
5. Workplace fridge etiquette and a little (extreme?!) payback.
6. Eyeroll.
7. Better regulations to fix the problem perhaps not …
8. Speaking of regulations … (hint: read the book)
9. A mini-review of a book that should be highly recommended.
10. Those evil corporate dudes cashing in while their company crashes. Oh, wait …
11. In case you thought your commute was bad. Feel better now?
12. Weird conveyances .. here and here.

Is the term “Christian Yoga” an oxymoron?
It doesn’t seem to be to many evangelicals, who embrace the practice of yoga, sometimes couched in Christian terms. Pastor Mark Driscoll gives us his views,

There is nothing wrong with stretching, exercising, or regulating one’s stress through breathing. But when the tenets of yoga are included, it’s by definition a worship act to spirit beings other than the God of the Bible. By way of analogy, there is nothing inherently wrong with intimacy, sex, and pleasure. But when the tenets of adultery are included, it’s a sinfully idolatrous worship act. A faithful Christian can no more say they are practicing yoga for Jesus than they can say they are committing adultery for Jesus.

Read it all.

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Steve Jobs: cared about humanity but not about humans
So says Tim Challies, in his review of the recent biography on Jobs.

A brutal man with a terrible temper and a genuine god complex, he was also a man who drove people to new heights of innovation and creativity. As much as people hated to receive a tongue-lashing from Jobs, they knew that in the end he motivated them and pushed them to do better. And this is a crucial component of the strange legacy of Steve Jobs. He will forever be known as a great innovator and a man who lived at the crossroads between the humanities and the sciences. In his own field and in his own way, he sought to make the world a better place. But he did so at the expense of so many people whom he left abandoned and brutalized. It’s like he cared for humanity but not for humans, for mankind but not for individuals.

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The price of peanut butter is skyrocketing
So… try Sunbutter. It’s a great alternative (especially for those unfortunate souls who happen to be allergic to peanuts).

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One way to keep violent crime under control? Arm yourself.
So says one sheriff.

Good morning.

1. Mr Cain and scandal. I had a thought, why is a politicians adroitness in handling scandal a good thing?
2. Mr Paul asks a question about the scandal report.
3. ‘Tis called heresy.
4. Some remarks for the “Occupy” movement.
5. And another.
6. Officer red-shirt.
7. Canine manufacture.
8. Grow your own.
9. Compensation and value to the nation.
10. A libertarian concurs with Justice Thomas (somewhat).
11. Ruth.
12. Green jobs and multipliers.
13. And to cap things off, fwip!

The Wall Street Journal did a survey of 200 Occupy Wall Street protesters at Zuccotti Park to get an idea of what they thought. Does this sound like a grass-roots movement of 99% of the country? Does this look like America? Among the findings:

• 31% would support violence to advance their agenda.
• 65% say that government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement no matter the cost.
• 77% support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans (though I suppose it depends on who they consider "wealthiest").
• "Thus Occupy Wall Street is a group of engaged progressives who are disillusioned with the capitalist system and have a distinct activist orientation. Among the general public, by contrast, 41% of Americans self-identify as conservative, 36% as moderate, and only 21% as liberal."

The pollster, Douglas Shoen, who was a pollster for Bill Clinton, summarizes their politics. "What binds a large majority of the protesters together—regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education—is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas. "

People need to know who these protesters are before deciding to support them and their causes.

Good morning.

1. Considering loopholes, and a rejoinder to comments.
2. Mr Cain and the boys room.
3. Class and OWS.
4. On that topic …
5. Rare is the Democrat that will admit to that I figger.
6. Libraries and patrons.
7. Available for kindle SVS Press titles.
8. Cinema to watch out for (or if you’re in the NY area … to watch).
9. Socket maps.
10. Math (science?) publishing. One might consider voting and government in a similar framework (that is to pose the two enumerated questions on journals transposed to electoral processes).
11. Three posts on 7 billion humans … here, here and here.
12. Troops staffing levels and drawdown(s).
13. Heh.
14. Our welfare state.

The OWS crowd insists that their uprising is purely a grass roots one. While some of it was certainly spontaneous, it’s origins were clearly planned by anti-capitalists.

The man behind the movement is a radical Canadian leftist agitator by the name of Kalle Lasn.  Lasn is founder of Ad Busters.  A self-described group of anarchists and neo-Luddites, Adbusters are not merely environmentalists, animal-rights activists, anti-technology activists, or neo-Prohibitionists. They are all these things and more.  In his book entitled Culture Jam, Lasn writes, “we will wreck this world.” And that is ultimately the goal of the organization he founded and runs.

A little research has uncovered the fact that the domain name www.OccupyWallStreet.org was registered by Lasn’s organization in June 2011, several months BEFORE the first protests began in New York City.  What is a Canadian citizen doing registering a domain for a grassroots movement months before the protests began?  Its questions like this that are not being asked by our mainstream media.

The Left criticize the Tea Party’s "grass roots" bona fides because guys with lots of money happen to agree with them. But I doubt you’ll find the Koch brothers’ names on a central domain name used by any local Tea Party group months before the initial rallies.

A Summer camp to help socialize your… dog?
Camp Bow Wow is not limited to California but they are, apparently, serious. From the ad,

“Mom & Dad, take me to camp…
…so I can socialize,”

Remind me again – we’re in a recession so severe that some are comparing it as the closest we’ve come to the Great Depression? And yet, we have people sending their dogs to camp?

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And so goes public education, on the slippery slope
Governor Brown signed into law SB 48, this past summer. An excerpt of the bill,

51204.5. Instruction in social sciences shall include the early history of California and a study of the role and contributions of both men and women, Native Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, European Americans, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender Americans, persons with disabilities, and members of other ethnic and cultural groups, to the economic, political, and social development of California and the United States of America, with particular emphasis on portraying the role of these groups in contemporary society.

[emphasis added]

Wait, it gets better.

51500. A teacher shall not give instruction and a school district shall not sponsor any activity that promotes a discriminatory bias on the basis of race or ethnicity, gender, religion, disability, nationality, sexual orientation, or because of a characteristic listed in Section 220.

[emphasis added]

And if you think that you have the right to teach what you want in the privacy of your own home, consider this little paragraph.

SEC. 6. It is the intent of the Legislature that alternative and charter schools take notice of the provisions of this act in light of Section 235 of the Education Code, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, nationality, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or other specified characteristics in any aspect of the operation of alternative and charter schools.

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“(Q)uestions regarding vaccination laws are public policy matters for the government to decide.”
From ParentalRights.org,

…this past weekend …California governor Jerry Brown signed into law AB499 allowing children as young as 12 to make their own decisions regarding the Gardasil vaccine.

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Well, at least Governor Brown’s recent signing of 3 gun-control bills will help. Right?
Maybe we need a gun-control bill for the LAPD. It seems that they had some trouble controlling the whereabouts of some of their firearms. Not to worry, though, they only lost some submachine guns. It’s also reported that criticism of those who were negligent has been light, presumably because they are fellow officers. David Codrea also points out that the LAPD Chief is a darling of the Brady Campaign, is against open and concealed carry, and doesn’t want honest citizens to have normal capacity magazines. All this, I suppose, because the normal citizen isn’t responsible enough.

Good morning.

1. Looking for that good war.
2. For the high court watchers.
3. Still chasing aggregate demand.
4. Elastic and inelastic collisions.
5. Economics, politics and Argentina.
6. Profiling.
7. Indian populism.
8. Dance and gravity.
9. Cold fusion and not-science, and … cold fusion is just about here. There’s just one leetle technical problem left, which is finding that plentiful cheap source of cold muons.
10. The purpose of the police … not protection.
11. Our toxic future … not so deadly?
12. A 1%/48%/99% note.
13. For those canonizing Mr Jobs.
14. Welcome to the information age.

He said what?
Richard Dawkins said “Jesus would have been an atheist had he known what we know today.” Wow. I know that Christian apologists have been clamoring for a debate between William Lane Craig and Dawkins, but if he makes such an ignorantly absurd statement like this, then…?

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Only 1 in 4 want to ban handguns
An all-time low (26%) and this spells bad news for liberal democrats. From Gallup,

A record-low 26% of Americans favor a legal ban on the possession of handguns in the United States other than by police and other authorized people. When Gallup first asked Americans this question in 1959, 60% favored banning handguns. But since 1975, the majority of Americans have opposed such a measure, with opposition around 70% in recent years.

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Evangelical Capitalism statement of the day:
“I’ve never seen an empty seat make a decision for Christ.” – Andy Stanley

While this notion is sincere, it usually degrades to nothing more than a “numbers game” approach, and the logical conclusion of this methodology is to do just about anything to entice people through the door (and onto a… seat) where they can then be swayed to “make a decision.” And I wonder just what priority is given, if any,, to that of making a disciple of Christ (what the Bible actually states).

“Christians Need To Stop Making Converts” – Read it again, for the first time.

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Geek News # 1
Checking out footprints of the Apollo moonwalkers.

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Geek News # 2
Searching for Snoopy… Apollo 10’s Snoopy (aka the Lunar Module)

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A Homeschooling convert?
So in the middle of realizing that school is really just a babysitting service, I became militant. I realized that public school is like Social Security. There is no money to do what we are pretending we are aiming to do. We should just grow up and admit that we cannot have effective public schools for everyone. Just like we cannot have Social Security for everyone.

Starting with Occupy Wall Street:

• If the Tea Party had been shown to have done just a few of these things, if would have run on the nightly news for days. (Just recall how unsubstantiated accusations of racism were reported), and they would have been (rightly) castigated. When OWS does it, the press is mute.
• Richmond charged the Tea Partiers $10,000 to have a rally. OWS, nothing. The Tea Party is going to ask for their money back on the grounds that the government is playing favorites.
• It looks like even those who oppose the fat cats on Wall St. can act just like them. For a group upset at how the wealth has been spread around, they don’t do such a good job at spreading it themselves.
• When Lech Walesa, Poland’s former President, said he support OWS, the AP was all over it. But when he got more details about what was really going on and what the demands were (such as they were), he decided not to support it, saying "American is sliding towards socialism."  All of a sudden, the AP website didn’t seem to think that Walesa existed. Oh, that liberal media.
• Vagrants started to take advantage of the free food at the OWS protests, and all of a sudden the 99% started acting like the 1%. One protestor was quoted as saying, “It’s turning into us against them. They come in here and they’re looking at it as a way of getting a free meal and a place to crash, which is totally fine, but they don’t bring anything to the table at all.” It got so bad, the folks manning the kitchen staged their own protest against providing food for free to those who weren’t there to support the cause, aka freeloaders.
• Take a look at these headlines. If they described Tea Partiers, you just know they’d be the top story on the nightly news. OWS gets a pass. A lot of passes, actually.

Folks who support assisted-suicide claim they just want to stop suffering. Today’s slippery slope defines "suffering" as "loneliness" and financial troubles.

James Taranto starts out by describing what sounds like the housing bubble. But he’s not. What other bubble is out there, inflating as we speak, and is ready to burst?

With a Democrat in the White House, the "no blood for oil" chant has gone on hiatus. Imagine if Dubya had gone into Libya.

And finally, speaking of OWS, here’s a graphic to help the media tell Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party apart. (Click for a bigger image.)

Good morning.

1. Abortion wars continue.
2. Yah, virtue ethics presupposes a notion of virtue. So what? Consequentialism presupposes a notion of good consequences.  Oops.
3. Jock marries nerd.
4. Heh.
5. Halloween?
6. Questioning the Keynesian.
7. Personal gain and insider trading.
8. Search, seizure and the information age.
9. Celebrate inequality.
10. I got an itch, so road trip!
11. That’s ‘cause they’re racists (that is using race as criteria for reasons not warranted).
12. Some stupid human tricks.
13. Iraq and Libya.

This just seems a little too end-times-ish for my taste.

The Vatican called on Monday for the establishment of a “global public authority” and a “central world bank” to rule over financial institutions that have become outdated and often ineffective in dealing fairly with crises. The document from the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department should please the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrators and similar movements around the world who have protested against the economic downturn.

“Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of a Global Public Authority,” was at times very specific, calling, for example, for taxation measures on financial transactions. “The economic and financial crisis which the world is going through calls everyone, individuals and peoples, to examine in depth the principles and the cultural and moral values at the basis of social coexistence,” it said.

But never mind the Biblical implications, let’s just consider this from an "absolute power corrupts absolutely" perspective. Does the Vatican really think that a global authority on money is going to be better than those in any of our individual countries. Given that any institution is staffed by fallible, corruptible humans, what this would do is allow the mistakes and failings of a few to impact the entire planet. This is a better idea?

It called for the establishment of “a supranational authority” with worldwide scope and “universal jurisdiction” to guide economic policies and decisions.

Asked at a news conference if the document could become a manifesto for the movement of the “indignant ones”, who have criticised global economic policies, Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Vatican’s Justice and Peace department, said: “The people on Wall Street need to sit down and go through a process of discernment and see whether their role managing the finances of the world is actually serving the interests of humanity and the common good. “We are calling for all these bodies and organisations to sit down and do a little bit of re-thinking.”

I believe it’s the Vatican that needs to do some rethinking. This goes against every single understanding of human nature that the church teaches. Our US founding fathers understood this, which is why they set up distributed government.

Should we be expecting a proposal for one-world government next? 

“The Incredible Shrinking Man” – Daniel Amos, circa 1984
Perhaps a bit prescient. From a LifeSiteNews.com article,

“We have a man problem in American society, and we need to address it,” Bennett said.

Bennett cited figures showing a decline in male participation in the workforce, education, and life commitments.

“Men are not marrying, not making the commitments in the way at they used to,” Bennett added.

“Women have said, women I’ve met, daughters of friends of mine in their 20s and 30s, have said, ‘Where are the men? Where are the men? Where are the men we want to marry, where are the men we want to raise our children with?’”

So, where are the real men?

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Well, here’s one:
28 year-old Christian Camp Director, married father, and foster-father Dustin Ellermann. Also, winner of Top Shot: Season 3. Watch video of the final challenge (skip to 38:45).

From the news link,

With his $100,000 in winnings, he plans to help pay off the new camp chapel, expand camp his way to reach more kids, and find a bigger place so he and his wife can take in more foster kids.

“Some of the guys say this is the biggest accomplishment in their life, but I kind of have a bigger perspective on that and I try to look at how God sees stuff and this is just a manmade accomplishment thing and God helped me through it, but honestly it’s my kids and passing on good things to them and the kids that we minister to here at the camp, that’s what really matters in life because that’s what goes on after I’m dead and gone,” Ellermann said.

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If this helped girls, could it also help boys?

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Nuclear annihilation has been a potentiality for over 50 years now
Why hasn’t it occurred?

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Thinking of homeschooling? What about the issue of “sheltering” your child from the “real world” of public school?
I like one of the points in this article,

Here’s a question for you: When has “the real world” of the school institution ever again entered your life? Does your workplace only hire people from a specific zip code? Do you only hang out with people who were born in the same year as you? When children aren’t compelled to sit in an institution all day, they grow up in the real world.

Good morning.

1. Smash.
2. Improbable headline and for that matter there are several improbable comments in the quoted news article as well, “no damage to entertainment system” … huh?
3. Wanna be published? A call for contributions.
4. A WWI land/sea invasion noted.
5. Customs are surely strange all over.
6. Speaking of strange customs …
7. Washington whipsaw.
8. Learn a new language, real quick.
9. An abortion discussion.
10. Mr Walesa and the OWS movement.
11. That pavement looks perfect.
12. So, “special place in Hell” or “All’s well that end’s well”, which?
13. Aggregate demand and that multiplier (divisor) thing.