Archive for

July, 2010

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The Crisis that Wasn’t: Where’s All the Oil?

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Naturally, the New York Times isn’t about to surrender their Chicken Little membership card without a struggle. Give them credit where it’s due, though: for once they were honest enough to report that the problem is now less than anticipated:

Reporters flying over the area Sunday spotted only a few patches of sheen and an occasional streak of thicker oil, and radar images taken since then suggest that these few remaining patches are quickly breaking down in the warm surface waters of the Gulf.

Evaporation, storms, and natural dispersion effects (and human cleanup efforts) are doing what they’ve done in the past: reducing the concentration of the oil, sometimes to microscopic size, where it’s consumed as food by microbes. So, once again, the sky hasn’t fallen.

Yet CBS, the New York Times, and other major media outlets are doing what they can to keep us terrified. (They never let a crisis go to waste, either.) They’re using the well-practiced environmentalist tactic: warning of possible impending doom by relying on uncertainty:

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Will Washington’s Failures Lead To Second American Revolution?

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Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily.

Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He’s diminishing America from within — so far, successfully.

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Scout’s honor

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Many organizations that celebrate “duty to God and country”—words from the Scout oath—have either fallen on hard times or have abandoned such values. The Girl Scouts, for example, no longer requires members to believe in God, and it allows openly gay leaders.

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iPad Talk

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James White, a Reformed apologist, made a video describing how he uses technology, including Apple iPad, for his debates and preaching. One of the apps he uses is Olive Tree’s BibleReader!

He explains how he’s used BibleReader in preaching, for sermon notes, and for study of Greek biblical text. His review of BibleReader begins at about 5:40. He also offers detailed descriptions of a wide range of other electronic devices and other useful apps for reading and Bible Study.

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Half the Nation of Israel Wants to See Holy Temple Rebuilt

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The poll was taken in advance of this Tuesday’s national day of mourning, known as Tisha B’Av, on which the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively.

Forty nine percent said they want the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, while 23% said they do not. The remainder said they were unsure.

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The Cost of Illegal Immigration

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Costs Table from the October 1996 Huddle Study
Program (amounts in billion $s) Legal Illegal Total
Public Education K-12 $14.38 $5.85 $20.23
Public Higher Education $5.55 $0.71 $6.26
ESL and Bilingual Education $2.82 $1.22 $4.04
Food Stamps $2.81 $0.85 $3.66
AFDC $2.71 $0.50 $3.21
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) $2.76 n/a $2.76
Housing $2.37 $0.61 $2.98
Social Security $21.92 $3.61 $25.53
Earned Income Tax Credit $3.69 $0.68 $4.37
Medicaid $11.43 $3.12 $14.55
Medicare A and B $5.49 $0.58 $6.07
Criminal Justice and Corrections $2.32 $0.76 $3.08
Local Government $15.32 $5.00 $20.32
Other Programs $18.41 $9.25 $27.66
Total Costs $111.98 $32.74 $144.70
Less Taxes Paid $82.38 $12.59 $94.97
Net Costs of Direct Services $29.60 $20.16 $49.76
Displacement Costs $10.96 $4.28 $15.24
All Net Costs $40.56 $24.44 $65.00
Percent of Net Costs 62.4% 37.6% 100%

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Time for a Little Perspective on Oil Spills

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But oil spill disasters of equal or greater magnitude have occurred over the past century with little or no long-term consequences.

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What Obama Doesn’t Understand About Zionism

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Obama couldn’t have been more wrong.

The roots of Jewish aspirations for a state — what we call Zionism — run much deeper in the cycle of history. The quest for Jewish statehood did not germinate in European persecution — not in the Holocaust, not in the Spanish Inquisition, not in the systematic slaughter of Jews during the Crusades.

To trace Zionist roots, one must rewind the historical tape to a non-European setting some four thousand years ago. The genesis of Zionism starts with the Book of Genesis.

There, in Chapter 12, is the first flicker of Zionism:

Now the Lord said unto Abram: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto the LAND that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great NATION, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and BE THOU A BLESSING.”

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