False Sense of Maturity

Not being a prepubescent girl, I’ve never concerned myself with Hannah Montana star MileyCyrus, except to wonder why the daughter of novelty song artist Billy Ray Cyrus is deserving of nepotism. But when I heard that Miley wears a promise ring, the symbol of attempted Christian abstinence that in reality leads to higher rates of pregnancy and oral action, I started to be bothered by her. A quick Wikipedia search confirmed my fear that Miley isn’t just an annoying teen idol, but actually an annoying Christian teen idol:

In an interview with USA Today, Cyrus was quoted as saying her faith is “the main thing” and is the reason why she works in Hollywood. When interviewed by Parade, she added that she attends church regularly with her family. In an interview to Christianity Today, Billy Ray said, “Being Christian, we believe in heaven,” and “We also had a great church, and when you give up your church, your pastor, and the community you are involved in, you’re making a big sacrifice. Let’s face it, Hollywood is a completely different environment than Franklin, Tennessee.”

In England, the Birmingham City Council has banned their staff from looking at atheist web sites, as well as “sites that promote witchcraft, the paranormal, sexual deviancy and criminal activity.” They are hoping to filter out these allegedly undesirable sites:

The authority’s Bluecoat WebFilter computer system allows staff to look at websites relating to Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and other religions but blocks sites to do with “witchcraft or Satanism” and “occult practices, atheistic views, voodoo rituals or any other form of mysticism”.

It’s about time, this is literally the least we can do! It’s so easy but says so much to acknowledge something. The House of Representatives passed a resolution apologizing to African-Americans for slavery and the “Jim Crow” laws.

U.S. Army takes some advice from nature!
It is so funny to me, how most Americans believe that our earth is 6 thousand years old yet they don’t even question science or even question themselves if they benefit in some manner. Granted, the age of this fish isn’t the only factor here but it’s the fact that this fish, as a species, has lasted in this similar form for as long as it has…

African fish that have trolled for prey in murky freshwater pools for nearly 100 million years sport the best of the best in body armor. Now a team of engineers has dissected the aquatic armor, figuring out how it works in an effort to suit up future soldiers.

Here’s the article.

In an effort to attract converts to Christianity in India, a new version of the Bible has been created that adopts traditional Indian and Hindu beliefs. Now, I’m hardly a believer in the sacredness of the Bible, but even I see this new version as being a bit offensive:

Barefoot and wearing a sari, with a bindi on her forehead and a naked baby on her shoulder, the woman in the picture is unmistakably Indian. So is the man behind her, clad in a loincloth and turban.

They could be any poor family in an Indian village, or at one of the country’s teeming railway stations. This, however, is no ordinary family.

The image is one of the Virgin Mary with Joseph and the baby Jesus in the first “Indianised” version of the Bible, published by the Roman Catholic Church last month.

This just in from CNN, read the story here.

Members of the church said a man entered the building at about 10:15 a.m. and began shooting during a children’s production of the musical “Annie.” About 200 people in the church were watching the production, which was being put on by 25 children, the AP reported.

**Here’s a newly added link. Apparently the church had a very liberal attitude and this guy hated liberals and “gays” and left a four page note.

More women than men are attending church services:

Churches nationwide are fretting and sweating to reel men into their sanctuaries on Sundays.

Women outnumber men in attendance in every major Christian denomination, and they are 20% to 25% more likely to attend worship at least weekly.

Theories abound on why this happens, but one author thinks men need a more “epic” environment:

From AronRa: a Geoscience major at the University of Texas, a student of Paleontology.

Exposing the lies of creationists trying to deny whether we’ve ever observed the evolution of new species.

Here’s the script.
http://darwinwasright.homestead.com/1…

Here is the Rest of the Series.

Thomas Jefferson is widely known to have been a deist, but every now and then you will hear some religious-conservative mouthpiece claim he and all the Founding Fathers were committed Christians. This is easy to disprove, as Jefferson is documented to have literally cut and pasted his own version of the Bible, where he eliminated all miracles and other such nonsense:

Making good on a promise to a friend to summarize his views on Christianity, Thomas Jefferson set to work with scissors, snipping out every miracle and inconsistency he could find in the New Testament Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Then, relying on a cut-and-paste technique, he reassembled the excerpts into what he believed was a more coherent narrative and pasted them onto blank paper — alongside translations in French, Greek and Latin.

Dr. John Newmeyer is an epidemiologist and author of “Mother of All Gateway Drugs: Parables for Our Time.” He sits down with the MPP to discuss his views on marijuana and the drug war in general.

I’m beginning to think it might be more beneficial to be stupid and know a good attorney vs. being smart? Such a waste when I could play Xbox all day and watch re-runs of Hogan’s Heroes. So this lady sued and WON and was awarded more than £800,000 ‘after‘ she suffered permanent brain damage while on a detox diet. ??? I’m all about getting plenty of fluids, but drinking water only and not eating; well duh, of course you will lose weight; but anyone should know 1) it’s not healthy, especially over a day or so. And 2) you shouldn’t take health advice from others unless they are a doctor with experience in your condition.

Detox diets are based on the theory that toxins from “unhealthy” food and drink build up in the body and can lead to health problems. Purging those toxins - through restricted diets, lots of water or using particular supplements - is meant to leave people feeling better and, often, thinner. But critics disagree with the principle. Dr Andrew Wadge, of the Food Standards Agency, has branded detox regimes “nonsense” and said the body has its own system of getting rid of toxins - the liver.

Finally some logic. I’m all for education and ‘protecting’ kids but I’m not a fan of big government and feel that the ‘market’ will always determine the will of the majority.

A federal appeals court struck down as unconstitutional a Clinton-era law that would have forced websites with adult material to verify visitors’ ages, dealing another blow to the government in a 10-year court battle over net censorship.

The court went on to explain the uselessness of the Act…

Both courts also found that the standards for material that had to be hidden from open browsing were so loosely defined that any content not suitable for a four-year-old would have been hidden behind a age-verification firewall.

Then they explained what most of us know; that good parenting is the best line of defense and that is exactly why parental ‘filters’ are/were designed…

“Unlike COPA, filters permit adults to determine if and when they want to use them and do not subject speakers to criminal or civil penalties,” the court wrote.

I’m so tired of our current “Justice System” and hope that it changes drastically and adds some logic and reason to their repertoire of tools.