A graduate student was stabbed and decapitated in a restaurant on the campus of Virginia Tech this week. It’s been a decade since Columbine, a couple years since the mass murders at VaTech, and just a year since the killing at Northern Illinois University. What have we done to fix the problem? Nothing. Hand-wringing and memorials to the victims don’t help protect our young students.
The whole idea of gun-free zones must be eliminated from our collective thought or we’ll just continue to see more such tragedies. We must be allowed to take responsibility for our own protection. Campus cops obviously aren’t up to the job.
Not too surprisingly, we have another debate regarding the presentation of Darwinism in public education. This time it’s in Texas, where the stakes are large because the state is one of the largest purchasers of textbooks and other curricular media.
What seems to be missing from both sides of the argument is rather obvious. If Darwinian evolution is true, it should not be afraid of challenge. All scientific theory should be open to challenge. If Darwin stands up to repeated, continuous scrutiny, who stands to lose? Only the folks defending intelligent design/creationism.
The truth is that Darwinism has a number of glaring holes. Do a Google search and you’ll find hundreds of sites with heated debates over the issue. It’s far from settled and, contrary to what the media and Darwinist scientists would have you believe, there are many well-credentialed scientists who fall in the ID camp. Further, concensus and majority opinion do not have any place in science. No real scientist will say something along the lines of, “Most <fill in scientific specialty here> agree that…” But that’s exactly what we too often hear. I’ve seen numerous debates about issues such as the Cambrian explosion or how humans and apes evolved from a common ancestor in a (geologically) short time, but haven’t seen any that convince me that random mutation is responsible.
Darwinism has, in fact, become a religion that simply must not be questioned. That’s sad, because if it’s true, then questioning it is exactly what will lead to resolving its (currently) inexplicable quandaries.
Not a week into his presidency and Obama’s already showing his hypocrisy. We really shouldn’t be surprised after the election campaign we endured for nearly two years. His edict (a direct quote):
Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.
Transparency, as in:
– What, exactly, was your relationship with William Ayers? Oh, he was just a guy in your neighborhood? No chance you two worked on a board together for years during which you helped funnel money to his radical left “educational” projects?
– Why did you spend decades as a member of Rev. Wright’s anti-American, anti-white, socialist church? What? You never heard him say that stuff when you were in attendance?
– How’d you approach Biden to get him on board? No offer of Sec. of State if he turned down the VP?
– Why the drama over your birth certificate?
– What’s in your medical records that you don’t want us to see?
Yep. You’re all about “transparency and rule of law.”
The midwest is experiencing record cold temperatures. Good thing the earth is warming or we’d be in real trouble, eh?
Orrison said most temperatures were below zero in the Upper Midwest through the Great Lakes and into the Northeast.
The worst is yet to come, he said.
Glad I’m in Phoenix right now. We were at a (normal) 74 today.
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Today my family had an experience that should wake up other parents, as it did me.
As she does every day, my wife picked our kids up from their schools. Just after picking up my son, a 13-year-old who naturally thinks he’s invincible, they drove past an apartment complex where a rather nasty fight had erupted. My son started yelling at my wife to stop the car. He wanted to get out and stop the fight and, at one point, yelled at his mom that this was why she needed to carry a gun (she doesn’t…yet). He was rather irate when she did the right thing (in this situation), pulling the car into a safe place before calling 911 but not intervening directly. Now those of you who have been exercising your 2nd Amendment right for any length of time know the foolishness of my son’s reaction, but in his naive, “I’m Clint Eastwood” (insert whoever’s current in movies…Vin Diesel maybe?) mentality, my son didn’t. When I arrived home my wife apprised me of the situation so, after supper, I sat the kids down and had “the talk.” No, not that talk. The one I should have had with them earlier. We discussed the huge responsibility it is to carry with you the power of life and death, and how easy it can be to make the wrong decision. When he saw the fight, already in progress, did he know who started it? Who was in the right? If the combatants were armed? And so on. Anyone who has been through a basic CCW course knows the scenarios. My son, of course, didn’t. After going through a number of them with the kids, he became rather thoughtful and wanted to chew it over for a bit. I obviously have more work to do with the kids. We need to cover how they should react in a dangerous situation (e.g., don’t yell, “Dad, shoot him!”). My kids have been to the range with me often, so they have the skills, but do they have the knowledge and judgment? Nope. And that’s my responsibility. So parents, don’t put it off or think your kids will just pick it up from you automatically. You must take the time to talk with your kids about what it means to be a responsible armed citizen.
In yet another bizarre ruling, the California Supreme Court has ruled that a 1980 Good Samaritan law does not protect bystanders from lawsuits if they attempt to render non-medical aid in an emergency. The case in question involves a young lady who pulled her friend from a crashed car which she thought was about to catch fire and explode. The rescue effort aggravated a spinal injury, causing partial paralysis. One of the more clear-thinking judges responded:
“One who dives into swirling waters to retrieve a drowning swimmer can be sued for incidental injury he or she causes while bringing the victim to shore, but is immune for harm he or she produces while thereafter trying to revive the victim,” Baxter wrote for the dissenters. “Here, the result is that defendant Torti has no immunity for her bravery in pulling her injured friend from a crashed vehicle, even if she reasonably believed it might be about to explode.”
But the majority opinion is that you should just watch someone drown, die in a car fire, etc., rather than risk injuring them while saving their life. You really have to admire the logic in that. Just one more reason I’ll never move to the Left Coast.
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I have to admit it’s a bit hard to feel much sympathy for the United Auto Workers union. They’ve bullied the Big Three for decades, forcing wages, benefits, and pensions up, up, up. Now it’s payback time.
When the UAW exposed the Big Three to insurmountable competitive disadvantages, it cut its own throat.
Yep. Now the UAW is going to have to accept a package that’s comparable to that received by the non-union workers at foreign auto makers’ plants here in the U.S. Domestic makes have already achieved parity in price, and are often cheaper than imports. To remain profitable, they’re going to have to cut costs, which necessarily means less pay for workers.
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Think you’ll be safe calling 911 when you’re attacked in your home? Brittany Zimmerman did, but police didn’t show up for nearly an hour. By that time she was dead.
Although the dispatcher claimed later to have heard nothing, the 911 tape captured screams, gasps and what sounds like a struggle, according to the court documents.
Your safety is your responsibility. This poor girl did what she had been taught to do and paid for it with her life. It is truly saddening to see the number of good people who die every day because they believe someone else—like the police—will protect them.
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It comes as no real surprise that Obama has selected Duncan as SoE. He is, after all, in charge of Chicago’s public school system. It’s a rather disappointing choice, however. Why would you pick someone who presides over a system whose schools rank in the bottom 20-40% of the nation. The guy is supposed to be a reformer, but what has he accomplished in Chicago? The same thing Obama has accomplished in his short career as a state and U.S. Senator…nada. Why not pick someone from a district that’s actually performing well, like Arlington, VA or Madison, WI? Or, if you’re looking for someone with experience in real change, how about a district like Duval County (FL) which has seen significant—incredible, really—improvements over the last few years? Let’s take a look at what successful school districts are doing and put their superintendents in national positions rather than nominating someone who’s just as much an empty suit as the person who picked him.
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A South Korean immigrant whose family was killed in the recent Marine Corps F-18 crash in San Diego has set an example of true Christian grace to which we should all aspire. Despite losing his wife, two daughters, and mother-in-law in this tragedy, his response was truly inspiring:
“I pray for him not to suffer for this action,” Yoon said at a news conference, according to The Los Angeles Times. “I know he’s one of our treasures for our country.”
Thank you Dong Yun Yoon—at a time when our nation is narrowly focused on the economy—for this reminder of what’s truly important. I can only pray that God will help me extend to my fellow man the grace and forgiveness with which He showers me daily, and which you so clearly exhibit.
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