13 May 2016

Educating Myself: Gender Dysphoria and Public Bathrooms

Discussion about gender dysphoria (transgender) and whether public bathroom use should be based on a psychological disorder or biological sex. Read more...

29 Apr 2016

Lactose-intolerant

I ran across this article, today: After 13 Years, I’m Leaving Christianity. It’s an interesting read. As the title implies, the author, Keay Nigel, discusses why she left Christianity. While many thoughts ran through my mind as I read it, I’ve chosen to comment on an analogy she made. Here’s the context:

For instance, my church had taught us that our God is the one true God, and that all other religions are works of Satan. Buddhism, Taoism and Hinduism were described as unintelligent religions; their worship of pagan figures, animals and deities were said to be wrong, nonsensical, useless, and laughable even. The pastor had in fact described miracles in other religions as demonic.

It’s scary that young minds were indoctrinated with such disrespecting, bigoted extreme ideas.

Here’s the analogy:

Just because you’re lactose-intolerant doesn’t mean others shouldn’t be allowed to drink milk.

And my question:

But what if everyone were lactose-intolerant? Wouldn’t it be a good thing if they were told not to drink the milk? What if people were sick because they were lactose-intolerant, but didn’t realize it was the milk causing it? What if I told them that they had to stop drinking milk in order to get better; it’s the only way!

Would I still be a bigot?

29 Apr 2016

Heterosexuality Rears Its Ugly Head In a Same-Sex "Marriage"

A homosexual couple can not be the biological parents of the same child. It's impossible by nature, although this is exactly what one couple is arguing for in a case of surrogacy. Read more...

25 Apr 2016

Remembering Prince

Prince was not my favorite artist. But…

I probably saw Purple Rain a half dozen times; at the drive-in no less. With a bunch of friends. Those were good times.

Purple Rain was (is) a great record! And I still have a copy! Yes. Vinyl. Which by the way, is superior to CDs; and anything digital. I like some of his songs, and I think he’s overlooked as a guitar player.

I think I’ve said it every year since his Super Bowl performance; he put on the best show ever. No one’s come close. Most are gawdy, overdone, embarrassments, even when I like the artist. I’m glad the NFL posted the whole show.

Ain’t It the Truth!

Best Super Bowl Halftime Show Ever

20 Apr 2016

Animal Cruelty or the Price to the Poor?

In the piece, Animal Cruelty or the Price of Dinner?, Nicholas Kristof discusses the care, or lack thereof, of chickens in the slaughter industry. We get concern about: dogs, chickens on the way to slaughter, the health of chickens, the effect of sick chickens on humans, the livelihood of farmers speaking out, chicken living conditions, and efficiency vs. oppressive treatment of farmers and animals from the industry. In the midst of this complaint, there’s this nugget:

In fairness, the chicken companies excel at producing cheap food, with the price of chicken falling by at least half in real terms since 1930¹.

This is important because the one thing that never gets mentioned in this list of gripes is what tinkering with these things will do to the cost of chicken. Obviously, it will raise prices. And when the prices of goods and services go up, who does it hurt? The poor.

And what isn’t mentioned in Kristof’s list of concerns? How fixing the “problem” will affect the poor? Is that because he cares more about the chickens? Maybe not, but leaving the poor out of the equation is a common theme when discussing liberal initiatives.

11 Apr 2016

By The Numbers—The Untold Story of Muslim Opinions & Demographics

Introduction

I was simply going to share the video, but will you watch it? I’m betting you don’t, so I’m going to share some of the key points. Watch if for the full effect. Really!

We keep hearing that 99.9% of all Muslims are peace loving, but is that true? Not according to these numbers. Depending on where you live in the world, only 25% to 75% hold peaceful, non-radical ideas.

“this fear of being called a racist, has caused many people to act against their better judgment” ~Raheel Raza

According to the video, there are approximately 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. Think about the percentages in the video compared to that 1.6 billion.

Summary

There are three Spheres of Radicalization:

1. Center sphere: Violent Jihadists who want to kill apostates, and/or die trying. They believe in paradise and martyrdom. This group is represented by ISIS, which boasts 40,000 - 200,000 Muslims fighting around the world. These numbers do not include violent terrorist organizations such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, IRCG.

2. Inner ring: Islamists are “just as convinced of martyrdom and paradise, and want to foist their religion on the rest of humanity, but they want to work within the system. They don’t want to blow themselves up on a bus. They want to change governments, and use democracy against itself” (emphasis added). They “want the same things as the Jihadist, but using different tactics.” Examples of this are Palestinians electing Hamas into power, and Egyptians electing the Muslim Brotherhood into power. Both are terrorist organizations. Here in the U.S., we have CAIR who works to silence critics of Islam. The U.S. Department of Justice says that CAIR is or was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood; the United Arab Emerites lists CAIR as terrorist organization

3. Outer ring: Fundamentalist are those who don’t aren’t trying to blow people up, or trying to change governments, but hold radical ideas.

• 79-86% of Sharia-supporting Muslims in Afghanistan, Egypt, and Jordan believe apostates should be executed. An average of 27% of all Muslims around the world believe believe apostates should be executed (that’s 237 million Muslims around the world).

• 39% of all Muslims around the world believe honor killings can be justified (that’s 345 million Muslims around the world).

• 42%, 35%, 26% of French, British, American Muslims believe suicide bombings against civilians can be justified.

• 54% of Muslims surveyed want Sharia to be the law of the land in Muslim majority countries.

• 52% support whippings, and cutting off of hands for thieves (281 million).

• 51% are in favor or stoning spouses if they’re unfaithful (289 million)

Conclusion

This doesn’t even come close to the 99.9% narrative that we’re being fed by liberals. How is it that they can be so out of touch with reality? Is it intentional? There are approximately 3 million Muslims in the United States. Based on the numbers in this video, 780,000 Muslims in America believe suicide bombings against civilians can be justified. Is it no wonder then, condemnation from Islamic communities is strangely quiet in the wake of what are clearly terrorist attacks by Radical Islamists?

But, this of course, leads to the next question. Why do so many Muslims hold radical and violent views? Where do these beliefs originate? Dare I say, from Islam itself?

10 Apr 2016

'Honoring' Parents of 'Transgender' Kids

If you withhold medical treatment for your children due to religious beliefs, you are guilty of child endangerment, and a horrible parent.

If you withhold vaccinations for your children due to religious beliefs, or because you don’t trust them, you are a horrible parent.

If you give your kid hormone therapy because they’re Gender Dysphoric (a mental disorder), you’re a model parent; a hero.

Note: the odds of your child committing suicide after using cross-sex hormones and undergoing sex reassignment surgery increases 20 fold in adulthood¹.

8 Apr 2016

Bill Warner, PhD: Jihad vs Crusades

A comparison of Jihad vs Crusades. Which is worse?

28 Mar 2016

On Websites That Auto-refresh

When reading an article on the web, don’t you love it when videos start playing automatically? What is the purpose of auto playing a video when you’ve followed a link to read an article, but you’re presented with a distracting video that has nothing to do with the article.

So, you hit pause and begin reading.

Suddenly, half-way through the article, the page refreshes!

So, you’re stuck waiting for the article to reload. And then, of course, you need to wait for the video to reload, because you know that it will automatically start playing again.

Don’t you love that?

25 Mar 2016

Stop Using Jesus To Justify Welfare

It's amazing how many people are eager to use Jesus' commandment to take care of the poor with public welfare, but when it's time to talk about his command to spread the Gospel, it's separation of church and state! Read more...