Various Current Events

Global warming update (Walter Williams)
Whose body is it? (John Stossel)
Navy announces co-ed subs (CNS News)
DADT violates current law (CNS News)
WH ignores criticism of religious czar (CNS News)
Sen Brown branted turncoat for jobs vote (CNS News)
Central Falls fires every teacher (Providence Journal)
Falsely accused still on sex abuse lists (LA Times)
Toyota tried to cut costs on recalls (LA Times)
Obama tops Bush at ducking reporters (Wash Times)
New credit law has new traps (WSJ)
How credit reform affects you (USA Today)
Bill favors married couple in adoption (AZR)
Canadian nuclear scientist vanishes (Fox News)
Cash for appliance clunkers (USA Today)
290 House bills neglected by Senate (The Hill)
Key Dems say public option dead (The Hill)
Fearing Obama, states loosen gun laws (NYT)
Execs can’t win in testifying (LAT)
God gap impedes US Foreign Policy (Wash Post)
Parental notification of drunken college kids (Wash Post)
Do killer whales belong in theme parks (CS Monitor)
Austin and the danger of IRS hatred (Findlaw)
Toyota’s problems still large after hearings (AP)
Hero teacher stops gunman (CBS)
Study: faith relieves depression (Wash Times)
Questions for Mr. Toyoda (NYT)
School overrules mom on lunch lesson (WPBF ABC 25)
Napolitano calls Ft. Hood terrorism (Fox News Blogs)

Wacky Wednesday--Burqas make sense

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.

~Saves money on clothing. No shopping sprees to explain later.
~Acknowledges that the moral and sexual atmosphere is at least as important and dangerous as the physical atmosphere (weather conditions)
~Tell me you’ve never walked down Mill Avenue and thought to yourself, “Gosh. Maybe those Muslims are onto something.”
~On burqa boulevard, how do you tell who are the prostitutes?
~Catering to the natural understanding of men’s visual system for sexuality.
~The way most women dress constitutes sexual assault.
~Don’t you just sometimes wish you could turn off the sexualization of all society?
~Millions of women who wear them believe in the practice.
~Do we have a problem with women being too concerned with their looks in America today? Or with older women being treated as a spoiled piece of produce merely because of their age?

Wacky Wednesday--Judges shouldn't be impartial

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.

~Look at the Supreme Court, these four justices tend to always see things this way and those four justices tend to always see things that way, and they all claim to love the law and the Constitution equally. Are they lying or are they human?
~Only a person completely inexperienced with the law would believe something as naïve as that judges even can be impartial
~Do you want humans or do you want machines?
~The law itself is often too impossibly complex to even know what it definitively says.
~The law is a process you have to go through in order to find out the result. Many times, it can’t be known ahead of time or outside the actual running of the process.
~Justices and law professors and attorneys all will admit amongst themselves that judicial impartiality is the exception rather than the rule, but this doesn’t mean that the law is broken or that the law isn’t fair. It simply means that people have completely unreasonable and naïve expectations about what law ever could be.
~Zero tolerance policies are the illegitimate offspring of too much interest in achieving a completely dehumanized and robotic legal process.
~People only perceive judicial partiality when the results are not what they desire. People almost never accuse verdicts they like of being the result of “judicial activism.”
~The law must be somewhat ambiguous or else we wouldn’t even have judges in the first place. ~Think about the simple admission that we need expert judges in order to have trials and appellate courts and what this means for the premise that the law is clear, simple, and obvious.
~Judicial impartiality is a lot like Plato’s Noble Lie. A useful myth that helps the lower classes to believe the system is more fair and stable than it may in fact be.
~We don’t believe that journalists can be unbiased, nor teachers, nor ministers, nor even Olympic judges. Why is it that we suddenly believe in the existence of some super-human category of person who can transcend his own humanity once he puts on a silky black robe and ascends a wooden pulpit?

Links:

Thomas, Sotomayor, and the Noble Lie (Findlaw)

Sotomayor and the myth of JI (Everyday Ethics)

Why do judges wear black? (Fascinating pictures)

Theological Tuesday

~John H. Walton: The Lost World of Genesis One
~Should Christians listen to Dennis Prager?
~What aspects of Christianity couldn’t be made up?
~Are Christian bumper stickers a good idea?
~Was Paul serious about not knowing anything but Christ and Him crucified?
~Did Job really exist?
~Do you believe places have spiritual mojo?
~Does God know your sins?

Links - John H. Walton
Book: The Lost World of Genesis One (Amazon)
John H. Walton (Wheaton College)
Other books by John H. Walton (InterVarsity Press)

Ethics: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell

President Obama has pledged to end this policy which his Democratic predecessor, President Clinton, first put in place in 1993. The short version is that service members may be gay, but they may not openly reveal their sexual orientation to others nor may anyone ask them about their sexual orientation. Sexual acts between service members who are not married are already prohibited. So the question is whether it would be a good, right, or helpful thing to allow gays to serve openly in the military.

Links:
DADT (Wikipedia)
Efficacy of DADT (pdf) (Joint Force Quarterly)
USC 10, paragraph 654 (Cornell Law)
John McCain on DADT (Weekly Standard)
Don’t change DADT (Weekly Standard)
Gays in the Militaries (WSJ, available in full here)
Fornication and the UCMJ (Blog)

What, Exactly, Are Social Skills?

We always hear this vague idea that it’s important for people (especially children) to develop social skills. They are apparently so important that acquiring them is often used as a justification for public (or private) schools over against the general academic superiority of home schooling. But talking about whether they matter last week made me start wondering exactly what they are. This is important for any discussion of various educational objectives, but I think getting clarity on social skills is also necessary for anyone simply parenting children. So, today, I’d like to just get a better picture of what social skills are (as compared with, say, physical skills or intellectual skills).

Various Current Events

Pilot crashes plane into IRS building (Fox News)
The Stimulus, one year later (GOP)
Half of all kids receive food stamps (AFP)
Life-long criminal dies on death row (AZR)
SBC down, Catholics up in attendance (C Post)
British Christian loses discrimination case (C Post)
Billboard alleges racism in abortion (C Post)
Boston program pays women to reform (B Globe)
Climate chief admits no significant warming in 15 years (Fox)
Top US climate official resists warming questions (CNS News)
USPS wants reduced delivery, Congress balks (Wash Post)
Tarmac penalties cause cancellations (USA Today)
Charter school demand causes lotteries, wait lists (Denver Post)
Pro-life billboards appeal to blacks (Denver Post)
Eco-friendly funerals becoming popular (Newark Star-Ledger)
Houston votes to fire teachers if test scores low (Houston Chron)
Mt. Vernon statement released to public (CNS News)
Mt. Vernon statement
Woman threatened protester, cancels abortion (Duluth News Tr)
Georgia school cheating scandal (NYT)
Vegetarian diet harms environment more (NYT)
Obama: no right to privacy on cell phone location (CNet)
UC Irvine’s free speech problems (LAT)
Genetic testing leading more to avoid having kids (USA Today)
Global warming scam unraveling (Wash Post)

Wacky Wednesday--You Should Keep Your Faith To Yourself

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.

~Faith is such a personal thing. What works for you may not work for everyone.
~When you go sharing your faith with others, you’re playing doctor and sharing the prescriptions he gave you with a totally different person.
~It often irritates other people to hear you talk like this.
~Sharing your faith makes you have to live up to the standards you say you advocate.
~It can get you fired.
~It can ruin relationships
~It’s offensive to imply that your faith is better than someone else’s faith, especially when you can’t prove it.
~It’s arrogant to think you’ve got such a privileged view of the truth.

Wacky Wednesday--Social Skills Don’t Matter

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.

~Would you say it’s a sin to not have them? Are socially inept people sinning?
~Can you be successful without them?
~Is it a good thing to be a people-pleaser? I thought we were supposed to please God, not men.
~Social skills are just manipulative tactics to get people to like you regardless of whether you deserve it.
~Character matters a lot more than personality.
~Other people’s opinions don’t matter.
~There are surely times where serving God will entail making others hate you.
~If you aren’t persecuted, you aren’t a disciple of Jesus.
~Given how many people don’t have them, it would be absurd to say that there’s something defective about people who don’t have them.
~Does God go around trying to get others to like Him?
~Did people like Jeremiah? Jonah?
~People without social skills have the luxury of knowing that anyone who actually does love them loves them for who they are, not for their people-pleasing act.

Theological Tuesday

~Interview with William M. Struthers—“Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain.”
~What percentage of your decisions should God get?
~Was Paul serious about not knowing anything but Christ and Him crucified?
~Did Job really exist?
~Do you believe places have spiritual mojo?
~Does God know your sins?

Links:
Wired for Intimacy by William M. Struthers
Bill Struthers’s blog

Various Current Events

Obama open to raising taxes (NY Daily News)
Cubs deal criticism irks Mesa major (AZR)
Autism study released (AZR)
Skeptics fault UN climate panel (NYT)
Iran’s two-edged bomb (NYT)
Gays in the militaries is a non-issue (WSJ)
Audi’s Gorewellian Super Bowl Ad (LAT)
Study: vegetative patients have brain activity (Life News)
Why homicide rates declined in early 2009 (HNN)
NOW complains of violence in Tebow ad (Wash Examiner)
Focus got what it wanted from Tebow ad (USA Today)
Audi’s “green police” ad offends who, exactly? (CBS)
Blizzard hinkeys climate change announcement (WSJ)
Will boomers bust Social Security? (CNBC)
Poverty remark stirs CO Dems’ anger (Denver Post)
Military to discipline 6 officers in Ft. Hood case (Fox News)
AL Planned Parenthood clinic on probation after sting (Fox)
Iran shuts down Gmail, provides own alternative (Fox)
Over 1,500 CA inmates released early (LAT)
Toyota may redesign push-button ignition (LAT)
Free speech clashes with fight against terror (NYT)
DC shuts down for record 4th straight day (Wash Post)
CITI lets distressed homeowners stay for 6 months (USA Today)
Conservatives mock Gore on snowstorms (Politico)
Climate change debate hot during deep freeze (NYT)
Study finds lack of civic learning in college (Wash Times)
AZ quits Western climate endeavor (AZR)
Sen Inhofe’s family builds igloo for Al Gore (CNS News)
Best-selling author, screenwriter denounces Avatar (CNS)
Planned Parenthood: sex ed for 10-year-olds (CNS)
Administration not responding to Ft. Hood questions (CNS)
Police debate using family DNA to ID suspects (CNS)
Freakonomics abortion research criticized (WSJ)
US would reap billions from $1 cigarette tax hike (Reuters)
Atlanta’s yellow line angers some Asians (Fox News)
Evangelist sues mall for removing him (Fox News)
Michelle Obama links obesity to national security (CNS News)
Iran email/Google access down on eve of protests (AFP)
The CO2 lie (IBD)
Who’s behind TX church fires? (CS Monitor)
Focus: Tebow story over 760,000 hits (Chr Post)
Ditching social networks to reclaim time, privacy (USA Today)
Why are liberals so condescending? (Wash Post)
All teachers fired at underperforming school (Providence Journal)
Illegals down 1 million (Wash Times)
Yes, Internet use does lead to depression (Daily Mail)

Wacky Wednesday--We Shouldn’t Presume People Innocent

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.

~It teaches bad theology, and people learn to think they aren’t sinful unless they do something wrong.
~Presuming people innocent means that a lot of guilty people will roam the streets freely only because the State can’t make their case within all the Byzantine rules of legal procedure.
~Why do we have the phrase, “He got off on a technicality?” Here’s a hint. It’s not because our legal system always gets the bad guy.
~Presumption of innocence means that whenever people are truly innocent, they still carry the stigma and stain of having been tried. If people had to prove their innocence, then when they win a trial everyone would know they are much better than merely “not guilty.”
~So this lets evildoers get away with their crimes and indirectly taints anyone who is accused of one but is innocent.
~If you’re truly innocent, what do you have to be afraid of at a trial?
~The existing evidence that they have been accused, are standing trial, have hired (presumably) a lawyer, and a grand jury has indicted them means that a rational person would have to be a fool to presume them innocent.
~Freedom is a privilege, not a right.
~Everyone’s guilty of something anyhow, most of which we never get punished for. Even if you’re not guilty of this particular thing, you probably deserve a serious punishment for something else.
~If sinners deserve hell, why not at least recognize that citizens all deserve jail. If we don’t incarcerate them all, still the ones who do get thrown in jail don’t really have anything to complain about.

Links:
Presumption of innocence (Wikipedia)
History of presumption of innocence (Talkleft)
Guilty Men (UCLA)

Wacky Wednesday--We Shouldn’t Celebrate Valentine’s Day

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.

~It’s origins go back to a Roman sex festival to the demigod Lupercus.
~It’s just another example of the commercialization of everything.
~It makes people who are single or recently singled feel great pain.
~If we’re going to have a “Love Day,” it should be agape, not eros, we commemorate.
~Do we really need more emphasis on sexual desire in America?
~The very notion that you can schedule passion into your planner on a particular date is contrary to the essence of genuine passion.
~When did “I bought you something” and “I love you” become synonymous?
~You can’t win on Valentine’s day. If you buy something, it’s expected. If you don’t, it’s a tragedy. ~It’s become a lose-lose day of misapplied entitlement thinking.
~Like mother’s day and father’s day, this holiday is primarily a benefit to women, and hence a burden on men. Where’s the reciprocity?
~Where, exactly, in the Bible does it tell us to celebrate Valentine’s Day?
~It just means more Victoria’s Secret ads.
~The very notion that you can schedule passion into your planner on a particular date is contrary to the essence of genuine passion.
~Romance is just a distraction to the real projects near to God’s heart.
~Celibacy is upheld as an ideal in several parts of the Bible, and until we have national celibacy day, I’m not going for Valentine’s Day either.

Theological Tuesday

~Michael Guillen “Can a Smart Person Believe in God?”
~Spencer has a question.
~Was Paul serious about not knowing anything but Christ and Him crucified?
~Did Job really exist?
~What percentage of your decisions should God get?
~Do you believe places have spiritual mojo?
~Does God know your sins?

Ethics: Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself

I suppose most all of us know the two great Commandments: Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and to Love your neighbor as yourself. In fact, I suppose we’ve heard these so often that, in some sense, we’ve almost become numb to them. So, tonight I thought it would be interesting to take some time and ask the question: What would it really look like to love your neighbor as much as you love yourself?

Ads You Actually Remember

It’s customary in the wake of the Super Bowl to talk about which ads were the best and the worst. But the real test of memorability is not whether you can recall an ad within 24 hours of seeing it in a venue where you are predisposed to purposely pay extra attention to the advertising. The real test of memorability is whether you recall an ad at a much later time, perhaps more than one year (or five years) later. Moreover, it’s not enough to merely remember the ad, but for an ad to succeed, you must be able to remember enough connected information to take action on the product or service if you wanted to at that later date. So, trying to put aside the very influential power of ads you’ve seen recently and/or frequently, which ads are memorable enough to you that you know them even years later?

Links:
Super Bowl 2010 Ads (Video)

Various Current Events

A crime theory demolished (Heather MacDonald) (WSJ)
Haiti arrests 10 Baptists over child rescue (Christian Post)
Case stokes Haiti’s fear for children (NYT)
Strong on zeal, thin on knowledge (Christianity Today)
LaHood scares Toyota owners (CBS)
LaHood backtracks on statement (CBS)
WH: No conflict in LaHood’s gaffe (CBS)
Study says abstinence programs may work (Wash Post)
Case for abstinence education (Heritage Fdn)
IPCC embarrassed again (Telegraph)
AZ may ease gun laws (AZ Republic)
Phoenix to tax food 2% (AZ Republic)
New DPS director critical on speed cameras (AZ Republic)
CA bill would protect clergy who won’t marry gays (SF Chronicle)
MA adds brushing to preschool regimen (NYT)
Scott Brown sworn into Senate (CBS)
Lancet retracts paper linking vaccine to autism (Wash Post)
An online reality show about abortion (Wash Post)
How accurate is Punxsutawney Phil? (CS Monitor)
Gallup poll, America is conservative (Gallup)
Warner: Jesus brought me here (Christian Post)
Atheists upset about Mother Theresa stamp (Christian Post)
TN school board OKs Bible standards (Christian Post)
PETA wants robot instead of Groundhog (CS Monitor)
Deficits are serious (NYT)
Verdict against vigilantism (NYT)
Playing to learn (NYT)

Wacky Wednesday--Certainty is bad

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.

~Certain is the opposite of being open-minded, and we all know it’s good to keep an open mind.
~Uncertainty is the precondition of faith. So if you have certainty, you can’t have faith.
~Certainty alienates skeptics because it inclines you to not take their doubts or questions seriously.
~Certainty means being committed to something, and when you’re committed to it, you are psychologically motivated to not delve into things that may undermine your commitment.
~Certainty overstates things you can’t prove.
~It’s unscientific to be certain because it’s not open to revision.
~Fanaticism is just a less generous way to describe certainty.
~How can you reconcile humility with the arrogance of certainty? Shouldn’t a humble person, aware of his own failings and limitations, be more prone to admitting that he might be wrong about some things, even big things?
~If everyone adopts a position of certainty about things they disagree over, how can you ever reconcile?
~If different people are certain of incompatible things, well, at least some (if not all) of them have to be wrong, right?

Wacky Wednesday: Football Should Be Banned

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.

~We say we hate the injuries, but that’s like saying that NASCAR fans hate crashes. We love the hits, even if we hate the hurts.
~Increased padding leads people to play and hit even harder because they think it’s safer to do so. ~This is a classic case of moral hazard.
~The sort of damage you find in players’ brains is very similar to the sort of damage you see in the brains of boxers.
~It's violent, just like the Coliseum.
~Look at how the money corrupts the sport. It cultivates misguided hope for millions of minority teens who see the big bucks instead of the academic slow way to success.
~Bad people get a huge stage to influence children.
~Association with alcohol.
~It causes marital dischord because so many women don’t and won’t like it.
~It’s racist. How many blacks play and how many blacks coach or own teams?
~Football is not a properly conceived game. You can dominate the clock and even the yards but still not win.
~Any game with such a wide array of fouls isn’t well-crafted.
~It’s so much wasted time. 14.5 minutes of actual plays in the course of 3-4 hours.
~It distorts your view of reality by having distinct time frames.
~They play on Sundays, which is the Sabbath.
~One final thought: Go Daddy.

Links:

Football too dangerous? (Time)

A lifetime penalty (Time)

Football’s pious pioneer (Christianity Today)

Football head injuries (article index) (NYT)

Rugby versus football (USA Rugby)

Theological Tuesday

~Ron Moore, host of “The Journey”

~Should we use “He” or “They” when talking about God?

~Was Paul serious about not knowing anything but Christ and Him crucified?

~Did Job really exist?

~Do you believe places have spiritual mojo?

~What does the second great Commandment mean?

Links - God: “He” or “They”

Elohim (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Jehovah (Yahweh) (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Adonai (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Hebrew names for God (Hebrew 4 Christians)
Is Elohim singular or plural (Unveiling-Christianity)

Ethics: Comparing People to Hitler

Every once in a while, someone decides that the best way to make a point is to compare someone to Hitler (or to Nazis). This happens with disturbing regularity in politics, but I happened to read an article the other day which did it with Jay Leno and the NBC late-night jockeying drama. This raises the ethical question for me of whether it’s ever a good idea to compare people to Hitler (or Nazis).

Links:
NBC will regret appeasing Leno (WSJ)
This is everybody’s fault but mine (Mises Institute)
Godwin’s law (Wikipedia)
Reductio ad Hitlerum (Wikipedia)

Most Memorable ATS Topic

We’ve been on the air for five years (plus three weeks), and we thought it would be interesting to hear from those of you who have been listening regularly (or even you newbies) about what moments or topics have stood out the most to you in listening to the show. One thing that I find fascinating in talking with people is to hear what sticks in people’s minds, and it is almost never the things I would predict. So, I fully expect to be shocked by what I hear today. And if you just want to email me, please do so.