Various Current Events

Sotomayor, Sonia (Wikipedia)
Sotomayor:A Latina judge’s voice (NY Times)
Sotomayor analyzed (Wash Examiner)
Sotomayor, some questions (WSJ)
Sotomayor thinks 2nd Am. not binding on states (CNS News)
Sotomayor dismissed reverse discrim. case (CNS News)
Sotomayor an unknown on abortion issue (CNS News)
Sotomayor making pro-choicers nervous (NY Times)
Sotomayor racist, says Gingrich (Wash Times)
Sotomayor would be 6th SCOTUS Catholic (Wash Times)
Sotomayor’s rulings careful, narrow (NY Times)
Sotomayor reversed 60% by SCOTUS (Wash Times)
Sotomayer and empathy (WSJ)
Sotomayor gives both sides things they want (Karl Rove)
News in 2009 on “hard to label” Sotomayor (Newsbusters)
News in 2005 on “Conservative” Roberts (Newsbusters)
Prop 8 upheld (LA Times)
Prop 8 ruling explained (LA Times)
Read the Prop 8 ruling (CA Supreme Court)
Bush v Gore foes unite to fight Prop 8 at SCOTUS (NY Times)
Economists think recession will end this year (NY Times)
N. Korea defies world, tests nuke (Breitbart)
N. Korea tests two missiles, starts nuke plant (ABC News)
Slap your father? If so, you’re liberal (NY Times)
Study finds 50% of arrestees using drugs (USA Today)
Taliban killing students, burning schools (Wash Times)
Tenth Amendment movement brewing in 35 states (Politico)
DC teaching manners on Metro (Wash Post)
Dean Martin’s son dies (AZ Republic)
Developers eyeing vacant car dealerships (Boston Globe)
Dale Hauser and parents’ medical rights (CNN)

Wacky Wednesday--Marijuana should be decriminalized

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~The Bible doesn’t mention it, let alone prohibit it.
~It’s far more similar to tobacco/nicotine or alcohol than to heroin or methamphetamines.
~It has medical benefits.
~People spend money on it, why not tax it and get a share?
~Nobody ever died of a marijuana overdose.
~People should be allowed to live their lives as they see fit.
~Where in the Constitution do you see the power to regulate drugs?
~Many religions use drugs to help achieve transcendent states.
~Cops, courts, and jails could be used for more important things.

Links:
How marijuana works (NIDA)
Cannabis (Wikipedia)
Should marijuana be legalized (Balanced Politics)

Wacky Wednesday--Christianity is responsible for much injustice.

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Christians aren’t any better people than non-christians.
~The Church has seriously oppressed people in the name of Christ.
~Christians don’t share their wealth with the needy.
~The Church doesn’t demonstrate the kind of acceptance and cross-racial, cross-cultural community it says it believes in.
~Sunday morning at 11:00 is the most segregated hour in America.
~Violence in the name of Christ has been abominably common.
~Christianity advocates people become fanatics.
~If you’re the “people of God,” that sure sounds like a pretty broad invitation to treat others as inferiors.

Links:
Tim Keller's The Reason For God

Theological Tuesday

~Is it hateful to not evangelize?
~Does God understand our guilt and regrets?
~What’s scary about the Gospel?
~How does loving God change us?

Links:
Atheist Penn gets a Bible (Youtube)

Various Current Events

Kids eschew camp for tech gadgets (Tech News World)
Boomers avoid “grandparents” label (Boston Globe)
MTV misjudges millennial generation (CS Monitor)
Pharmaceutically enhanced academics (CS Monitor)
Obama scored big at ND (WSJ)
Obama at Notre Dame (CS Monitor)
Notre Dame speech transcript (LA Times)
36% is high enough interest (NY Times)
Soak the rich, lose the rich (WSJ)
Tax audits are nothing to joke about (WSJ)
Sarbox and the Constitution (WSJ)
Dan Brown’s America (NY Times)
Not enough on guns (NY Times)
Executions debated as Missouri plans one (NY Times)
Credit cards plan to profit from good customers (NY Times)
Obama’s national security speech transcript (CNN)
Cheney’s national security speech transcript (Politico)
NYT killed story damaging to candidate Obama (Powerline)
The NYT account of the story killing (NY Times)
39 MPG from bankrupt car makers? Seriously? (WSJ)
Obama ate the entire auto buffet (WSJ)
Safer credit cards (NY Times)
Unusual baby names growing in popularity (USA Today)
Kimmel’s honesty about advertising (NYT Blogs)
Why journalists deserve low pay (CS Monitor)
Don’t ask don’t tell should end (WSJ)
(Pocket) change we don’t need (NY Times)
Credit card bill includes gun measure (NY Times)
Terrorist bomb plot in US stopped (NY Times)
Obama considered preventative detention plan (NY Times)
Released detainees return to terror (NY Times)
Bush improved air quality (Fox News)
Obama MPG would kill more than Iraq war (Canada Free Press)
New car rules will transform US auto fleet (My Way News)
Obama’s flip-flops (Karl Rove)

Wacky Wednesday--We Shouldn’t Have Nuclear Weapons

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Having them undermines our credibility to discourage nuclear non-proliferation.
~Having and maintaining our arsenal will probably lead to further nuclear testing
~Nuclear deterrence is a lark, especially given some of the people we’re concerned might acquire the bomb.
~Nuclear deterrence is immoral because it is essentially kidnapping and holding hostage the entire population of civilians and noncombatants who have done nothing to directly threaten us other than exist and live in the wrong place.
~We’re never going to use them anyhow, mostly because we’re too good.
~Nuclear weapons used on even a medium scale are completely in violation of the rules of just war such as being non-proportional, not aiming at the achievement of peace, and making no distinction between combatants and non-combatants.
~Just having them makes the risk of using them higher, both by us and by them.
~Maintaining a nuclear arsenal is costly: expensive, security, accidents, waste disposal, etc.
~Aren’t Christians representing the Prince of Peace?

Links:
Deterrence theory (Wikipedia)
Mutually Assured Destruction (Wikipedia)

Wacky Wednesday--Christianity Is Too Restrictive

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Your truth claims are just power plays designed to make you look better to others than you really should and to coerce them to live by your rules.
~If the Bible tells me everything I’m supposed to do, then I’m just some robot following instructions rather than a human being who has been given the capacity to think and make my own decisions.
~Freedom means having the capacity to guide your own future.
~The idea that there is some objective “truth” which everyone must either accept or else go to hell is extremely oppressive
~If you believe you have just one truth, you’ll seek to control other people. Just look at Christian conservatives in this country (or even liberals, for that matter) and Muslims in the Middle East if you don’t believe me.
~There’s no room in Christianity for individuals to flourish.
~Christianity is the religion of, “No,” especially, “No to individual freedom.”
~You say that God created each of us to be unique and to love us uniquely, but then you say that the same rules apply to everyone without exceptions.
~The idea that we are each built for some specific purpose means that our destinies are forced upon us.
~Not only am I expected to obey the rules, but it’s considered especially virtuous to obey the rules which make the least sense to me? That sounds like tyranny, not a relationship.
~Christianity is supposed to look like a marriage, but no one would endure such an oppressive marriage.
~Human freedom means having the ability to direct my own course and make my own life choices. ~Christianity seems to hate this, and yet God claims to have given us freedom. Explain that!

Theological Tuesday

~Are Catholics Christians?
~Does God understand our guilt and regrets?
~What’s scary about the Gospel?
~How does loving God change us?
~Is it hateful to not evangelize?

Miscellaneous Monday

These are topics that I really have been wanting to discuss, but the opportunity has eluded me so far. It’s possible any one of these topics will take the entire hour, but we’ll just have to see. So, as a form of topical clean-up, here are some questions on my mind recently.

1. How should someone respond to pre-marital infidelity just before the wedding?
2. Do gun ownership rights extend to the workplace parking lot?
3. Did Madlyn Primoff do wrong making her girls get out of the car?
4. Should mug shots be made public?

Links:
Guns in workplace parking lots? (EJ Montini)
Madlyn Primoff drops her kids off (NY Daily News)
Madlyn Primoff no charges (NY Daily News)
Hooked on mug shots (Reason)

Ethics Class, Session 5: Criteria 12-17

Tonight we are going to try to get through the next set of criteria in the ethics syllabus. (You can get more information at http://andrewtallmanshowethics.blogspot.com.) This means we will be talking about:
.
12. Levels of Cognitive Maturity
13. Paradigms and Worldviews
14. Programming and Relativism
15. Experience and Empiricism
16. Reason and Rationalism
17. Faith and Realism
.
In order to facilitate discussion amongst those of you either taking the class or wanting to discuss these ideas in more depth, I will be posting each of the criteria separately without much (if any) actual explanation simply so you can have your discussions on those particular ideas.

Various Current Events

New case against the death penalty (CS Monitor)
New commander in Afghanistan (NY Times)
Iran releases journalist (NY Times)
Journalist released (NY Times)
German town goes car-free (NY Times)
US soldier murders five of his own (NY Times)
Is my marriage gay? (NY Times)
Pakistan’s existential problem (WSJ)
Miss CA update (LA Times)
Two roads to the Supreme Court (LA Times)
What is anti-Semitism (LA Times)
Race Talk (“African-American”) (Walter Williams)
Tincture of lawlessness (George Will)
Pope leaves interfaith after anti-Israel tirade (Jewish Times)
30-year-low in hurricane activity (FSU)
40% of births to unwed mothers (CBS News)
Obama’s photo epiphany (WSJ)
Chrysler and the rule of law (WSJ)
Nuclear realism (WSJ)
New general for Afghanistan (WSJ)
IRS ruling protects pastors (Christian Post)
Pragmatic means unprincipled at USSC (WSJ)
What Congress knew (WSJ)
Copyright critics rationalize theft (WSJ)
Iran frees journalist (Christian Post)
Obama ASU commencement address text (Huffington Post)
A firefighter’s litmus test (Wash Post)

Wacky Wednesday--Christians Shouldn’t Evangelize Jews

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Jews are a special case having their own plan for salvation and already existing in a covenant relationship with God.
~Even if they do need Jesus, but we still shouldn’t evangelize them because they have the Book to read for themselves.
~Jews don’t try to convert us, why should we try to convert them?
~Saying Jews are so wrong that they must repent and come to Christianity really amounts to outright anti-Semitism.
~A lot of the methods used to reach Jews seem primarily to offend and irritate Jews rather than really bringing them into Christianity.
~Currently, Jews and Christians in America get along and work together on a lot of things. Why would you jeopardize such vital social issues cooperation just to push your particular theological agenda?
~If God wants Jews saved, they will be saved by His actions. Why try to meddle in such things?

Bible References: Matt 15:21-28, Matt 28:16-20, Luke 10:16, John 12:44-50, John 14:6-15, Acts 1:6-8, Acts 4:8-12, Romans 1:16, Romans 3:19-31, Romans 11

Links:
Why evangelize the Jews (Christianity Today)
Christian evangelism and Judaism dialogue (Christianity Today)
Why Catholics evangelize Jews (SecondExodus)
The Gospel and the Jewish people (World Evangelical Alliance)

Wacky Wednesday--A Good God Wouldn’t Allow So Much Suffering

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~God is supposedly all-good (omnibenevolent, loving), and God is supposedly all-powerful (omnipotent). But there exists evil, pain, and suffering in this world to a tremendous degree. Therefore, if God truly cares about this, He must not be capable of stopping it, and is not really so powerful. On the other hand, if God is powerful enough to stop it, then He obviously doesn’t care enough to do so, and is not really so loving. Either way, God is far too defective to deserve our worship, if He even exists.
~If my children are about to be harmed, the only thing that would keep me from preventing that suffering would be being restrained by several extremely strong men.
~Disease, natural disasters, man-made evil, and the patent injustice of virtuous people suffering while vicious people prosper.

Bible References: Phil 3:7-21

Theological Tuesday

~Should we pray before we eat?
~Bible Story: Rachel and Leah (Genesis 29)

Links on praying before meals:
Bible References: Deut 8:7-14, Matt 6:5-8, Matt 14:13-21, Matt 15:1-20, Matthew 15:32-39, Matt 26:26-30, Mark 7:14-23, Rom 14, 1 Cor 8:1-13, 1 Thess 5:16-18, 1 Tim 4:1-5
Should Christians pray before meals? (Contemporary Calvinist)
Pre-meal prayer suggestions (Psalm121.ca)
Prayer before meals with non-Christians (PuritanBoard)
Should we pray before meals? (Boughtforaprice)

Links on Rachel and Leah:
Hear Andrew's Mother's Day Sermon 5.10.09
Download the sermon here by right-clicking, save as.
The girl nobody wanted (Timothy Keller)

Ethics Class, Session 5: Criteria 9-12

Tonight we are going to try to get through the next set of criteria in the ethics syllabus. (You can get more information at http://andrewtallmanshowethics.blogspot.com.) This means we will be talking about:

9. Open vs Closed Minded
10. Skepticism and Proof
11. Principles and Exceptions
12. Levels of Cognitive Maturity

In order to facilitate discussion amongst those of you either taking the class or wanting to discuss these ideas in more depth, I will be posting each of the criteria separately without much (if any) actual explanation simply so you can have your discussions on those particular ideas.

Should Government Help The Poor?

This is a paradigmatic case of disagreement between people who call themselves liberals and people who call themselves conservatives. But who is more correct? What are the issues? Is there a decent answer to the simple question? Well, we’ll see, right?

Various Current Events

Savage among 16 barred from UK (The Independent)
Savage considers suing UK for defamation (BBC)
UK minister who barred Savage may get fired (CNS News)
Dems want to close gun show loophole (CNS News)
Saudi beauty pageant judges morals not physique (CNS News)
House considers parental leave bill (Wash Post)
Joe and Barack eat burgers (Wash Post)
Student wins lawsuit on creationism (Fox News)
Maine allows gay marriage (Christian Post)
Illegal gun ownership ruled victimless (Boston Globe)
Toleration as golden rule (Christianity Today)
Christian response to pandemic (Christianity Today)
Boy photographed in utero turns ten (Fox News)
Bristol Palin’s new gig (NY Times)
Burger King in hot water over racy ad (Christian Post)
How technology changes us (Christianity Today)
Obama not openly celebrating NDOP (Wash Times)
No charges for Madlyn Primoff (NY Daily News)

Wacky Wednesday--Unconditional Love Is A Bad Idea

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~Capitalism is directly opposed to this idea. We understand that even relatively decent people perform better in an environment with consequences and expectations and rewards for performance than in one where these things do not count for anything.
~If a spouse knows you’ll stay no matter what, how likely is it that this person will do the maximum amount necessary to be a great spouse?
~Why is it that people are more polite, decent, and generous when they are dating than when they are married?
~Do you love the terrorists? Is it really a sin to want them to be killed?
~When you give people unconditional love, they abuse it.
~You can’t love everyone unconditionally because you must give money to your family, you must deny some needs in order that others get met.
~Knowing that my wife loves me conditionally means that I have that much more incentive to do the necessary things to please and provide for her.
~Imagine how absurd it is for someone who owns a shop to say he loves everyone unconditionally. ~He gives them his goods and services in exchange for their payment. That’s conditional love. If he gave everything away asking only fair compensation voluntarily, he’d be without inventory in mere days.
~Likewise, in relationships, it’s a give and a take, because some people are takers only. Some people, in fact, are givers only, and they wind up getting abused by takers. It’s those who understand cooperation that make it work.
~People who refuse to set limits and punish transgressions only enable other people to continue being bad. Unconditional love is just the raw material for enabling codependence.
~Those who speak of unconditional love almost always want us to overlook moral violations. They speak of love and acceptance, and we all know that it is wrong to accept sin or to act as though sin is acceptable to God.
~You acknowledge how dangerous unconditional love is by how carefully you select a spouse upon whom to bestow it. Why not just acknowledge that it’s too dangerous in the first place. Besides isn’t it hypocritical to unconditionally love only someone who must meet all the right conditions first? ~Would you love, unconditionally, someone who made a habit of punching babies? If so, would your behavior increase or decrease the incidence of baby-punching?
~Don’t you believe in jails?

Wacky Wednesday--There Can’t Be Just One True Religion

Note: Before reading the following arguments, please understand that they are not what I believe. On Wednesdays, I deliberately argue for wrong ideas, challenging my listeners to call and defend the obvious right answer, which is usually far harder than one would expect. This is a summary of what Wacky Andrew will be arguing, not a representation of what real Andrew believes.

~How can you claim to know the one true nature of the universe?
~Pride comes from the belief that you specially have the truth.
~Exclusivity is disrespectful
~Religious belief is too culturally and historically conditioned to be objective truth.
~If you hadn’t been born in America, you wouldn’t have been a Christian.
~Exclusivity is dangerous, creating a slippery slope towards oppression and violence.
~Reasonable, intelligent, decent people believe in a tremendously wide variety of religions.
~People throughout history have been widely recognized as having an extra large dose of the divine spark, even though they were clearly not Christians. Would you deny that these people were really tuned into God?
~There are certainly some elements of truth in all religions.
~Exclusivity is just a power play. Nobody ever says, “I’m sure there’s only one way to God, but I have no idea what it is.” Claiming your religion is the only one is just self-serving propaganda.
~It’s not particularly loving to condemn people to hell for simply not having even the chance to respond to the Gospel.

~Is suffering voluntary?
~Does God understand our guilt and regrets?
~What is the purpose of the weekly church service?
~What’s scary about the Gospel?
~Should we pray before we eat?
~Do Jews need Jesus?

Ethics Class, Session 4: Criteria 6-8

Tonight we are going to try to get through the next set of criteria in the ethics syllabus. (You can get more information at http://andrewtallmanshowethics.blogspot.com.) This means we will be talking about:

6. Levels of Thinking
7. Areas of Thinking
8. Intelligence Trap and Use of Reason
9. Open vs. Closed Minded

In order to facilitate discussion amongst those of you either taking the class or wanting to discuss these ideas in more depth, I will be posting each of the criteria separately without much (if any) actual explanation simply so you can have your discussions on those particular ideas.

Most Memorable Movie Scenes

Movies are a major piece of our cultural apparatus in the United States. And even though most movies might not achieve the highest potential that the art form has to offer, sometimes they genuinely move us by creating vivid, persuasive, and meaningful scenes. So, tonight, I thought it would be interesting to hear from you about your most memorable or meaningful movie scenes. Have you ever had your life changed by a movie or by a perspective you acquired from a movie? Or are there scenes that haunt you or that you come back to as reference points when you’re making decisions? Those are the ones I want to hear about tonight.

Links:
Greatest film scenes and moments (Filmsite.org)