Friday, March 22, 2013

March 23 Links

Camp Pendleton ceases support for "sectarian" concerts (rather than allow a 2nd Rock Beyond Belief concert).  Now the Rock Beyond Belief blog will take a much-deserved break. 

The oldest Duggar boy is expecting his third child.  Hooray for mass breeding of glassy-eyed Christians!  They are on the road and the telly promoting their trip to Asia.  Apparently it's not much like Arkansas.  And they disagree with China's one-child policy, surprisingly.

Two people involved in the ACORN scam will pay a former employee a total of $150,000 for causing him to lose his job.

Evolution in action!  Birds in Nevada are evolving shorter wings.  Birds with longer wings hav a harder time taking off from the roads to escape traffic and get killed.  Birds with shorter wings can take off and escape faster.

Malala's first day of school in the U.K.  YAY!  Some kids her age think they'd rather die than to go to algebra class.  She's willing to risk her life to be there.

Not new, but I found myself rereading this fascinating interview about the moral differences between liberals and conservatives.  Liberals lean toward compassion as a defining moral characteristic, whereas conservatives have a more multi-faceted approach to morality.  Interesting quotation:

there’s something weird in the human mind that makes people, and especially men, able to bind themselves together really, really tightly in order to compete violently. And you look at the rituals around sports and sporting teams. There’s just all this weird stuff about how groupish and tribal we are. And once you see that, then religion is the next obvious step.
Australian prime minister apologizes for forced adoptions of babies born to single mothers.

Mom & two children found naked and dead in a creek, with nothing but a baby sling and a Bible nearby.  Dad and the pastor of the church they moved halfway across the country to be near say religion couldn't be a contributing factor.  Uhhhh sure.

Megachurch pastor pleads guilty to statutory rape of a vulnerable 16-year-old honor student, who was subsequently expelled from the church's school and whose family was excommunicated from the church after this came out.  100 letters of support were sent to the judge.  Really?  How could they still support this predator?

Fundy singer aptly named "Shocked" discovers that people in San Francisco don't find anti-gay rants humorous.  Perhaps she should change her name to "Clueless."

Mennonites & Catholics will join to mark Martin Sattler's martyrdom.  Rather odd pairing there.

The Evangelical mini-series on the "History" channel hired an actor who just happened to resemble Obama to play SatanThe producers claim that wasn't intentional but Glenn Beck thinks it's good casting.  Nobody thinks to call them on the choice to have a black actor play Satan at all?  Sheesh.  (Please post a link in the comments section if you find someone making that point!)

In case you have missed it, Dusty Smith summarizes parts 3 and 4 for you this week. Way to take one for the Team, Dusty!



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