Friday, November 30, 2007
Mike Huckabee Talks Directly To God
Here is video of GOP presidential hopeful, Mike Huckabee, having an onstage cell phone conversation with God at a 2004 fundraising event:
I seriously think he ripped this bit off from my high school youth minister.
BCS Conference Championship Preview
As we descend upon the conclusion of the NCAA Football season, here's a quick round-up of the major BCS Conference championship games, with apologies to the Pac-10 and the Big East, because while both are lame and do not have conference championships, at least every team plays each other team in a conference game. No apologies to the "Big 10," which has 11 teams and does not have a schedule designed to prove which team is best.
So, without further ado, and with many thanks to the Worldwide Leader for its previews, here's a quick rundown of Saturday's three major championship games:
ACC Championship: Boston College vs. Virginia Tech
Saturday, 1:00pm Eastern, Jacksonville, Florida
These two teams played earlier in the season, with No.2 (at the time) Boston College winning a miracle game 14-10 by scoring two touchdowns in the last 2 minutes. Since then, BC has lost two games and Va. Tech has remained solid (it's only other loss coming in the second game of the season against a then-unstoppable LSU).
It looks like Tech is the stronger team coming into this game, and if this Atlanta BC fan is right, the Eagles' lack of a fan base in Jacksonville may end up hurting their chances in the Championship. I guess that's what happens when the closest team in your conference is 500 miles away.
Anyhow, the winner of this game will play in the Orange Bowl unless something strange happens and they end up in the title game. This is unlikely.
SEC Championship: LSU vs. Tennessee
Saturday, 4:00pm Eastern, Atlanta, Georgia
In actuality, this column was inspired by my desire to post this article, explaining how Tennessee is an embarrassment to the SEC Championship.
Further, in another mostly negative article, an LSU source explains the team's declining state going into the game.
Both of these suggest that UGA is better than both teams, which I like, but unfortunately we won’t get the chance to prove it. Regardless, hopefully the entire game will be embodied in a similar manner to this: 
Tennessee and LSU have not played this year, so there's no follow-up on that front. The winner of this game goes to the Sugar Bowl. If Tennessee wins, I might slit my wrists.
Big 12 Championship: Oklahoma v. Missouri
Saturday, 8:00pm, San Antonio, Texas
This is possibly the most hyped game of the weekend, seeing as Missouri is ranked #1 for the first time since 1960. Unfortunately, their one loss was to Oklahoma. If Missouri wins, they stamp their ticket to New Orleans for the National Championship game. If they lose, there's going to be a wrench thrown into the BCS machine to figure out what to do with all the two-loss teams as West Virginia and Ohio State battle it out for the title.
In the meantime, here's an article about Missouri not choking this year like they usually do. Don’t speak too soon. . .
And finally, a quick piece on Oklahoma from the AP. Surprisingly there isn't much presence in the blogosphere regarding Sooner football. Maybe there's a market out there for it.
Enjoy your weekend watching!
Update: Teacher in Sudan Jailed for Naming a Teddy Bear Muhammed
Kyle sends me this:
"And you thought jailing her was overly harsh... Protesters in the Sudan are now calling for the teacher who named her classroom's teddy bear Muhammad (in honor of one of her students) to be executed."
I sincerely hope that Ms. Gibbons remains safe while she serves her absurd prison sentence and awaits her return to the UK. This situation only highlights the fact that this vile brand of Islamic extremism has to be defeated one way or another.
Miss South Carolina Part II?
My sister just emailed this to me (Thanks Liso):
"Kellie Pickler (she was on American Idol) on Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.. I sincerely hope, for our country's public education system, that she is faking this":
"Let's Get 'Em": Evangelical warmongers
First of all, I have to give a nod to the gentleman from whom I gathered this story, as the meta-tag to his blog is "The musings of an eccentric and sometimes heretical Episcopalian priest." It's always refreshing to me to hear a clergy member a.) have a sense of humor, and b.) not be afraid to speak his or her mind.
On that note, the aforementioned Father Jake posted an article regarding the lack of hesitation in spreading Christianity through violence.
Calling out others who see proselytizing as the main goal of our political situation in the Middle East, he says:
"Franklin Graham, the evangelist (and son of Billy Graham), boasted that the American invasion of Iraq opens up exciting new opportunities for missions to non-Christian Arabs. This is not what the Hebrew or Christian prophets meant by righteousness and discipleship. In fact, the grotesque notion that preemptive war and the destruction of innocent life pave the way for the preaching of the Christian message strikes me as a mockery and a betrayal. . . One would hope that we are seeing the American evangelicals' trend of depicting Jesus as the new Rambo finally coming to an end."
(editor's note: lifted from his site is this glorious picture in context with his analogy)
Though I will not agree that our involvement in Iraq (and now Iran, Pakistan, can't forget Afghanistan, and soon Russia and Venezuela — see Greg's posts earlier today) is unjustified, I certainly do think it is from a religious perspective, and I think Father Jake here nails that on the head.
Suburban Paris riots and the (lack of) religious element
Reuters posted an intriguing story yesterday about riots in the Parisian suburbs, and corrected an often quickly judged assumption that the unrest is caused solely by Muslims.
The article is long, but pretty self-explanatory, as its author runs down how absurd it is even to call these "Muslim neighborhoods," as the poor suburban areas represent a multitude of less-than-affluent French citizens, and more particularly, the rioters specifically are not identifying themselves — i.e., not just shying away from identifying themselves as Muslims, but not identifying themselves at all.
The writer's personal disclosure (which I always appreciate):
"I’m the Reuters religion editor and I live in Paris. In 2005, when Nicolas Sarkozy was putting out the story that Muslims fundamentalists were behind the rioting, I went out to the suburbs and found the people out there weren’t buying it. This time around, there is not even any suggestion from anybody here that religion has anything to do with it. If I thought it did, I’d write about it."
Effectively, then, the point goes to show that regardless of the rioters' religious or cultural affiliation, there are plenty of other issues present in the Parisian suburbs. However, many people would love to lay the blame on "those unruly Muslims," just like many factions would like to blame all crime in the urban United States on young African-American men. This article is just a nice reminder that there are plenty of other factors in play here; most notably, economic class usually trumps all else.
Speaking of Totalitarianism...
Vlad Putin will consolidate his power in this Sunday's elections; he plans to use fraud and intimidation to ensure an overwhelming victory. The UK's Guardian reports:
"Local administration officials have called in thousands of staff on their day off in an attempt to engineer a massive and inflated victory for President Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party. Voters are being pressured to vote for United Russia or risk losing their jobs, their accommodation or bonuses, the Guardian has been told in numerous interviews with byudzhetniki (public sector workers), students and ordinary citizens."
By the way, has anybody heard from Chechnya lately?
The Return of World War III
Slate's Ron Rosenbaum has a great (but long) article on the return of World War III to the national consciousness. The concept is again showing up in movies, video games, books, and music; its like 1985, all over again. Worse, there is a general sense among many people that we might be approaching the real thing.
On the Venezuelan Constitutional Referendum
Hugo Chavez is in the process of putting the final pieces of his "socialist paradise" together in Venezuela. On Sunday, the people have been asked to vote for constitutional amendments that will do away with presidential term limits, end the right to be tried by an independent tribunal, allow the president to declare emergency rule indefinitely, and allow for the censorship of news organizations.
The New York Times has a piece describing the growing opposition to Chavez's power grab. Unfortunately, I am afraid it is too little, too late; Chavez's political machine is far too big to lose at this point. I hope that the people can eventually wrest control away from their new totalitarian dictator. Otherwise, there is a high probability that the vast wealth of oil found within Venezuela's borders will be squandered.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
How To Find Information on the Web
A guide for searching other resources besides your friendly neighborhood search engine.
Sports Story Spawns Racial Debate
Two days ago, we mentioned the tragic story of Sean Taylor's death.
Since then, Jason Whitlock, who left ESPN two months ago, has stirred up quite a controversy with this article, blaming what he calls "the Black KKK" for keeping black Americans "uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep."
Not surprisingly, the Fox Sports message board is ablaze with commenters falling all over themselves to alternatively berating and lionizing Jason Whitlock. Someone even transcribed this interesting comment from the often-less-than-intelligible Steven A. Smith.
Is Ethanol a Viable Alternative Fuel?
In June of 2006, the answer would have been a resounding yes; ethanol was selling for as much as $5 a gallon at that time. Now, we're not so sure. Ethanol is highly subsidized, offerring oil refineries alone over 50 cents per gallon when mixed with gasoline. But serious environmental concerns have arisen, including fears of air pollution caused by producing ethanol, along with speculation that ethanol production is contributing to the rising cost of food.
Fuel Cells, anyone?
Scotland Pays £125,000 for "Welcome to Scotland"
That's roughly $258,000, or $15,176 per letter; the ad execs at The Leitch Group must be laughing all the way to the bank.
Update: Oral Roberts' presidential resignation
A continuation to my story from yesterday covering the recent resignation of Oral Roberts University president Richard Roberts:
In an unsurprising move, Roberts claims that God asked him to resign from the position, to which, appropriately, he conceded. 
From the article:
“Roberts has previously said that God told him to deny the allegations. The week the lawsuit was filed, Richard Roberts said that God told him: ‘We live in a litigious society. Anyone can get mad and file a lawsuit against another person whether they have a legitimate case or not. This lawsuit ... is about intimidation, blackmail and extortion.’
On Wednesday, Roberts said God told him he would "do something supernatural for the university," if he stepped down from the job he held at the 5,700-student school since 1993.”
I hate to be a cynic when it comes to people claiming divine revelation, because I simply can’t prove (nor do I want to) what God may or may not be saying to them. But this challenges the view of an infallible God – why does it seem like He can’t make up His mind a lot of the time? Why would God have waffled on this, originally telling Roberts to deny the allegations of defrauding a spiritually-charged organization dedicated to the Lord's name?
However, at the same time, it appears the university has received a fortuitous gift in concert with the resignation: $70 million from an Oklahoma businessman. This clearly fits into Roberts' revelation that God would do something for the university if he resigned. Or, a faithful philanthropist wanted to help the university out of the $50 million in debt Roberts helped accrue, and made sure he was gone before making the donation. Either way.
POSTSCRIPT: In line with my previous coverage of the recent Senate investigation into several megachurch preachers, here’s an ironic (or telling) addendum from the second article (links to my former stories where appropriate):
“Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, recently announced a Senate investigation into whether six celebrity preachers violated their organizations’ tax-exempt status by living lavishly on the contributions of small donors.
Three of the six are members of the Oral Roberts board: Creflo Dollar, Benny Hinn and Fort Worth-area evangelist Kenneth Copeland.”
Your source for all things Golden Compass
One of the supposedly most controversial films in some time, apparently, is "The Golden Compass," which is set for release next Friday, December 7. As many Christians are fearing that it promotes Atheism, the film has generated quite a buzz; enough, in fact, that I'm going to keep up with the press leading up to the film's release next week, and I'll go see it and review it Pasty Quail style, just to enter our thoughts into the discourse.
Anyhow, today marks my first round in the Advent period leading up to this supposedly God-threatening film, so in contrast to article above, here's another from The Boston Globe that stands in defense of it.
Hopefully, we'll have a spiritual battle of epic proportions to cover next week, so stay tuned. . .
What is Ted Turner Up To?
The AP is running a story about Ted Turner's increasingly large portfolio of Western ranching land. Neighbors are starting to wonder just what he has planned for all that land, over 2 million continuous acres. Some theories:
"Turner is trying to corner the land over the Ogallala Aquifer, the world's largest underground water system, to gain power in the water-starved West."
"He is scheming, perhaps with the United Nations, to create a vast wildlife refuge and turn it over to the federal government"
The man is solely responsible for subjecting us to the 24-hour news cycle (the guy is clearly evil). Whatever he is up to, it is well-worth keeping an eye on. Give us your best guess as to Ted's evil intentions in the comments.
Jedi-worshipers congregate outside Harrison Ford's ranch
Yeah, this is pretty self-explanatory. A group of people who claim to practice Jedi-ism have assumed Harrison Ford (the man, not Han Solo the character) as their leader, going so far as to pray outside his Wyoming ranch.
A couple of issues here:
1.) Why is Han the object of their worship? Granted, Ford is MUCH hotter than Mark Hamill, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't a Jedi.
2.) According to one poll, Jedi-ism is the 4th largest belief system in Britain. Wow.
3.) I wonder if people actually recognize the distinction between Ford and his character — i.e. one is a mostly regular dude 30 years removed from this single role in a movie, and the other is, that's right, a film character in a fictional universe.
Of course I'm just being facetious, because we all should believe that people would be cognizant of this. Yet, where is this connection people make when they go so far as to pray to celebrities personally? Do they expect anything from it?
Regardless, Ford's reaction is my favorite part, and what I hope to say when inevitably I am mistakenly worshiped later in life: "It's flattering," he says, "but I can't accept their prayers."
CNN/Youtube Debate
Stephen Green from VodkaPundit has a quality roundup from the Republican debate last night. Also, Christopher Beam at Slate live-blogged the event.
I watched most of the debate, and found that the Youtube questioners were generally pretty good; despite the fact that at least one was apparently planted by Hillary.
I thought McCain had a good night; he was strong on the war, and is the only candidate who can really address the torture issue. Romney looked like he would run away with it until he stumbled (badly) on the "is the bible the word of God" question; also, Guiliani accused him of hiring illegal immigrants to work at the Massachusetts governor's mansion. Ron Paul's position on the war (he wants us out) has become untenable given the current picture in Iraq; he looked pretty silly trying to defend his stance last night. Mike Huckabee looked as slick as a Southern Baptist preacher. Guiliani seemed to simply hold serve, despite the revelation during the debate that he cost the state of New York tens of thousands of dollars in security expenses while pursuing an extramarital affair.
