Song of Songs, by Leithart

Christ Church - "Song of Songs," Peter Leithart from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

THE GREAT DEBATE: Greg Bahnsen vs Gordon Stein

Video #1

Video #2 (you get the idea...)

David Robertson on Dawkins' Morality

"Honor Your Father"... in Greek

Make Mine Freedom (1948)

Christian Voodoo in Nigeria

Sad struggle against child abuse at the hands of African Pentecostals. Story at MSNBC.

"An Evening of Eschatology"

John Piper mediates a discussion between Jim Hamilton (premillennial), Sam Storms (amillennial), and Douglas Wilson (postmillennial - yeah!). Pretty interesting, somewhat lively, interaction.

Douglas Wilson did a pretty good job, though I wish he were more assertive (as he typically is). Jim Hamilton did an o.k. job, information-wise, but man was he a little obnoxious with all the interruptions. Sam Storms I thought did an excellent job, and perhaps was the best contributor overall (though I definitely agree more with Wilson's position, personally).

If you have 2 hours to kill, check it out:

"Hypocrisy in Presidential Rhetoric" for $500, Alex

I know, there are bigger problems out there.

Truth is, however: rhetoric matters to me. How well our leaders express themselves, their ideas and arguments, should matter to all of us. This is not about mastery of the English language, or any language for that matter. This is about logical consistency when presenting your 'case' to the people; and about avoiding logical fallacies... especially when you're the President of the United States of America.

So what's the problem?

Speaking outside the White House on August 21, 2009 (my sister's birthday!), President Obama soberly stated concerning national healthcare reform:

"... it also should be an honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions, spread by the very folks who would benefit the most by keeping things exactly as they are." (NPR)

The problem is that President Obama, I'm afraid, is himself guilty of "willful misrepresentations and outright distortions" when addressing supporters concerning his (many) healthcare opponents.

There aren't really millions of dissenting American voices, that's just "all the chatter and the yelling and the shouting and the noise" (AP), according to the President.

The problem, President Obama says, is really that the "special interests fight back with everything they've got. They use their influence. They run their ads. They use their political allies to scare the American people" (Big Sky Weekly). But... all these ruckus-raising town hall meetings and protests you keep hearing and reading about, aren't filled with special interest reps... they're filled with average-Joe 'American people.'

My personal fav, though, is when Obama spits out some genius fluff like, "for all the scare tactics out there, what is truly scary – what is truly risky – is if we do nothing. If we keep the system the way it is right now" (Big Sky Weekly). So there you go. His opponents - by clear implication here - simply want to maintain the status quo. They want NO change in the healthcare industry.

I'm sorry, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Equating opposition to socialized healthcare with opposing change of any kind is a complete fallacy (you logicians out there will recognize this as a "false dichotomy"). In simpler terms: just because someone opposes Obama's specific plan does not mean that they oppose change of all sorts; nor does opposition, in and of itself, warrant the label of "scare tactic." These notions are simply ridiculous, and **should** be beneath someone of President Obama's education and office.

Is it possible that there are other solutions, apart from socializing the industry? You wouldn't think so, listening to the President; but (unconstitutional) government intrusion rarely helps an industry. Many understand this, and push for change, but through more (fully) free-market solutions (click here to watch a brief Ron Paul blurb on the subject).

Donny Ferguson, the Libertarian National Committee spokesman, has even stated, "Instead of using official edicts to smear, slander and intimidate everyday Americans into silence, Democrats should listen to the majority of Americans and drop their plans for a radical government takeover of their health care" (LP.org).

In closing, if the President truly wants an "honest debate, not one dominated by willful misrepresentations and outright distortions," then perhaps he should work on setting a much better example...

"The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar."

It's Michael Taylor. Story at The Huffington Post.

Cartoon from the Chicago Tribune, 1934

Smacks of 2009.

TREES

Trees can kill a man, too.

Basements

They can kill a man.

Rethinking Diversification

Great article on comprehensive diversification, by Catherine Austin Fitts.

"Obamaganda"

Possible Wall of Nehemiah?

The head of the Institute of Archaeology at the Shalem Center, Jerusalem, suggests a wall near a tower recently rescued from collapse is one of the walls built under Nehemiah (Neh. 3-6), as various artifacts (potshards and arrow heads) found under said tower date back to the 5th century, B.C.

Dig up the full story at MSNBC.com