In this editorial, Joseph Farah suggests a radical notion: pass a test in order to qualify to vote. Of course, this idea has already been discussed at tuscanycircle in this thread. In the editorial, Farah provides a link to an online quiz comprised of some of the "more difficult" questions from the U.S. citizenship test. » read more »

Moby shared this:

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. » read more »

Anybody remember the series of storms we had back in March? There were a couple of tornado warnings in the northern Atlanta suburbs. At my house, we had an intense, thrilling hail storm, the likes of which I have never seen.

Well, I didn't realize it at first, but it turns out that the hail did some damage to our roof and other parts of the house. A couple of weeks ago, I called our homeowner's insurance company, which is USAA, to file a claim. Last week, they sent an adjuster out to inspect the damage. Yesterday, we got a check in the mail. » read more »

I usually appreciate Vox' blog entries. He's a reasonably smart dude, and that's refreshing. He's not the strongest theologian, so his worldview occasionally suffers (e.g., creationism), but I think he'd admit to that anyway. By and large, he's most often right. I plan to continue reading his blog more or less regularly. » read more »

Iran presents a special problem for Israel. MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doesn't work with a people anxious to "die for Allah". What greater deterrent is there for such fanatics? » read more »

To inoculate means to protect against, theoretically forevermore. There are many ways to inoculate others against Christianity, all but insuring they will never seek the Lord. Stupid Christians are the worst offenders here, doing countless unbelievers and the church a grave disservice. Here are some of the ways in which believers stupidly work to condemn others. » read more »

Go see WALL-E. It was really good. The computer graphics are absolutely amazing. The story line is redeeming in the end. I won't tell too much so as not to give out the story yet, but seeing the movie could create some good discussion here on this blog.

We went to see it first thing before lunch as my 2 yr. old has been going around the house saying "wallll-eeee" for the past two weeks, with her older siblings egging her on. So we had to go see what all the fuss was about. » read more »

Every believer should know how to address common questions and charges given by seekers and scoffers. Failure to handle these basics can really hurt a believer's witness and even "inoculate" a seeker against the faith. Don't be a liability for Christ; be prepared to provide reasons for your faith. » read more »

This is too funny to pass up. Spain is giving legal, human rights to apes.

Clueless asks: » read more »

Microsoft's Live Search has been banned from TuscanyCircle for spamming! Live Search has instituted a "referrer spam" campaign for the last several months, upsetting countless webmasters. Apparently, it's some sophomoric attempt to drive traffic to their search engine. Too bad. They're out. I don't even care if they ban TuscanyCircle from their pathetic excuse for a search engine. Legitimate traffic from Live Search approaches nil anyway. I don't need 'em. Note: Live has also been removed from my external-search-engine options. » read more »

In light of John 1:1, Matthew 10:33 becomes very sobering. The written Word of God is like a shadow of the living Word, Jesus. Jesus is the Word become flesh (Matthew 10:14). If we deny Jesus before men, He will deny us before His Father. How can Jesus be our advocate at our Judgment if He has denied us because we first denied Him? He can't. This is the nature of rejection. Now, if Jesus is the Word become flesh, what might it mean for us to deny the written Word? » read more »

I think I just put two and two together and learned how the blogosphere may die. The key ingredient of the blogosphere that may lead to its downfall is simply this: it's written. The problem with blogs is that they're written language--as opposed to video clips or audio podcasts. Too many with theoretically high IQs (130s?) are seemingly incapable of even basic reading comprehension. If those brighter than 98% of the population are unable to comprehend even the simplest of articles, what hope does the 98% have? » read more »

Vox:

I think it's debatable that idiocracy is coming. Based on my recent experiences...I'd say it's well upon us.

I agree. We differ from the movie in one key aspect, though: <SPOILER> » read more »

The Seventeenth Amendment made Senators to be elected by the people rather than by the state legislatures, effectively dismantling the separation of powers as the Founding Fathers desired. The Founding Fathers rightly believed man was cursed with sin and all but sure to be corrupt in wielding power over others. So fundamental was this belief that the entire structure of the federal government was designed to split power so completely that corruption would find inhospitable conditions for growth. The House of Representatives was to be elected by the people. » read more »

On Vox' condescension toward morons: » read more »

It appears that in Canada, parenting may soon be illegal. As detailed in this article, a Canadian court has "overturned" a punishment administered by a father on his twelve year old daughter. The father grounded the daughter because of her disobedience. She took him to court and won -- the court "ordered the grounding... lifted". » read more »

The vast majority of people fail to see reality accurately. Most fail because their worldviews are wrong, so their conclusions are based upon incorrect perceptions and interpretations. However, even those with a decent worldview (i.e., Biblically based) often fail to see reality accurately. In these cases, it's not due to the worldview, per se, but usually due to an all too common personality flaw--one that has not yet been corrected by their worldview. » read more »

The world hates the Lord's disciples (John 15:19). Little did I know so very many within the church would be among those doing the hating! Why? The righteousness of the obedient is convicting of the sins of the disobedient (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Few like to face their own sins or be reminded of them by others, even implicitly. » read more »

One of the more divisive topics in the church today is creationism, specifically young-earth creationism. The vast majority of the modern church--in America anyway--has swallowed the old-earth, evolutionary hogwash, hook, line and sinker. They tend to get visibly upset, emotional, when they meet a fellow believer who actually believes in what the Word plainly says. Such an emotional reaction tends to imply a weak faith (in their old-earth belief). After that, reasoned discourse is usually very difficult if not impossible. » read more »

An evangelist was arrested near the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. For the life of me, I can't figure out what his crime was. You can read the story here. If anyone figures out what this guy did that was illegal, please post and let us know.

I wanted to comment on one particular quote from the article: » read more »

The dates for Praise In Motion's 2008-2009 season are now published on PIM's website. The spring dates are tentative, as noted, but the November ones should be good. Of course, venue information will be published as it's known (to the webmaster), so keep watching that page. » read more »

Agnostics claim the existence of God (or ultimate truth, the proper worldview, what-have-you) is either unknown or unknowable. In other words, agnostics say God may or may not exist; they leave room for the possibility but tend to live as if He doesn't. Quite the fence-sitting there. At least atheists have made their choice, stupid and wrong though it may be. » read more »

Atheists and their ilk love to define themselves by their lack of faith. The stupidity of such a narrow self-identity notwithstanding, I find it ironic that this claim isn't even true. Atheists do not have a lack of faith. No, they have a faith in lack [of God]. Theirs is every bit a leap of blind faith as any other whacked-out cult, especially when there is abundant evidence contradicting their faith.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

BARACK OBAMA: The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a
CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN: My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he
recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the
chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON: When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little
chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified
to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country » read more »

Christians are quick to pray for healing, but they generally fear death as much as the unsaved. Why? Death of this frail, sinful, physical body is the ultimate healing we can receive as believers. Who wouldn't want that? No, instead, too many Christians see death as a failure, an unwanted answer to prayer, or even against God's will. Fools! » read more »

This represents the best illustration I have seen for why we must not cast our vote for "the lesser evil." (There is a bit of rough language in the post -- sorry.)

Georgia Power is by far the worst electric company with which I've ever been forced to do business. We never have a week go by without an outage. This week, we've had two hours-long outages. The voltage bounces all over the place. We've had to pay hundreds of dollars on numerous UPSes in order to protect several appliances and computer equipment, else they may be destroyed by GA Power's incompetence. We also believe their bad power--when it's up at all--is responsible for the poor lifetimes we've had on incandescent bulbs of late. » read more »

My sister is in the Air Force. She is currently in Iraq searching people who visit the prisoners with a metal detector. I haven't seen her in about two and a half years.

Her husband is in the Air Force, too. I forget what he does, but he made sure my sister got a safe job. They both help keep America safe. Sometimes, my sister sends me things. It's really cool to see it. » read more »

Various forms of this story are again circulating the Internet. The story is an inspiring one, to be sure. Here's a recent version:

What would you do? You make the choice. Don't look for a punch line, there isn't one. Read it anyway. My question is: Would you have made the same choice? » read more »