“On Facebook, the apparent epicenter of the craze, nearly five million notes on people’s profiles have been created in the last week, and many of them are lists of “25 Random Things.” The note-creation figure is double the previous week and larger than any other single week in Facebook history, and Facebook executives say that the “Random Things” craze is driving it.” (The NY Times reports on the “25 Random Things” craze.
Thursday is the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birthday. Read “200 years later, Lincoln’s faith remains an enigma.” Also, William Safire reviews the worthy Lincoln books. I’m reading Ronald White’s excellent new book A. Lincoln: A Biography right now. Yep, I plopped down $35 to own it, thanks to a Christmas gift card. Yeesh! Hey BN, don’t you know there’s a recession going on?
According to the Parenting magazine article, “Mad at Dad,” it’s official: Moms are mad at dads. 30 to 50 percent of moms surveyed are mad at dads for violations such as not knowing what needs to be done at home, not knowing the best way to care for kids, not being able to multi-task, not sharing household chores equally, not having parenthood affect him as much as it has her, and getting more time to himself than she does. (HT: WorldMag)
“Evolution of the Household,” in Woman’s Day.
“The national conversation on the economy is frozen, and has been for a while. Republicans say tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts. Democrats say spend, new programs, more money. You can't spend enough for the Democratic base, or cut taxes enough for the Republican. But in a time when all the grown-ups of America know spending is going to bankrupt us and tax cuts without spending cuts is more of the medicine that's killing us, the same old arguments, which sound less like arguments than compulsive tics, only add to the public sense that no one is in charge.” (Peggy Noonan)
Consumer Reports Picks the Best Cup o' Brew: Eight O’Clock Columbian is rated the best—and half the cost of many other ground coffee brands. I’m still in an exclusive relationship with Organic Double French beans from my local “Daily Grind.” A half-pound purchase every 2 weeks, and I grind at home. And now you only need “24 More Random Things You Didn’t Know About Me.”
Lots of commentators are glowing over President Obama’s willingness to admit he “screwed up” on the nomination process for Tom Daschle as HHS Secretary. If only he could make that mea culpa on his first act on abortion policy. Gallup reports that 58% of Americans think he screwed up when he ordered the funding of abortion and abortion advocacy in overseas family planning agencies on his 3rd day in office, but most media outlets didn’t report the poll findings.
UT professor J. Budziszewski writes about Christians who think it’s wrong to point out what’s wrong with the Obama administration.
On the plus side, President Obama has decided not to implement his campaign promise to strip federal funding from faith-based social organizations whose hiring policies differ from the surrounding culture. As a candidate, Obama declared that "if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them -- or against the people you hire -- on the basis of their religion." President Obama, to the dismay of his liberal supporters, has now reversed himself. For now. (LA Times)
A baby unexpectedly born alive during an abortion was bagged and tossed. The state’s attorney general’s office is determining whether to file criminal charges. One wonders why, considering that the incident took place at an abortion clinic where the mother had gone for the purpose of terminating her 23-week pregnancy. Wasn’t the intention fulfilled, no matter how unprofessional the clinic seemed to perform the work? Or is there something within our culture that recoils from the fundamental “not-rightness” of all this?
24 Things About to Disappear in America
“Only in America could the prospect of dying be promoted as a motivational tool to rack up frequent-flier miles. Bookstores and Web sites abound in self-help guides listing the 10 (or 100, or 1,000) things and places you must do and visit before you die (there’s even a 100 Birds to See Before You Die catalogue), as if life were a race through the supermarket aisle to grab as many experiences off the shelves as possible before collapsing at the checkout line. Breadth of experience rather than depth is what’s being peddled.” (“Final-Exit Strategies,” James Wolcott in Vanity Fair)
Insisting that "races are real" is a self fulfilling and overt racist act. So stop it now, please:
If you focus on categorizing people into races at the expense of recognizing variation within these alleged racial groups, you will a) get 'good' at categorizing races, b) get bad at recognizing individual differences within the "other" races (other = not you), and c) become more racist.
If, on the other hand, you focus on ... learn, train, etc. ... recognizing individuals at the expense of learning to place people into these sacred racial categories, you become better at seeing individuals for being the individuals that they are, and you will become less racist.
“10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know”
Take a few minutes with this video: “Makoto Fujimura: Art and Creativity.” Christian artist Makoto Fujimura is the creative director and founder of the International Arts Movement.
“The Web has become the biggest store in history and everything is 100% off.” (WSJ: “The Economics of Giving It Away”)
7 Dumb Things We Do And 8 Tricks To Keep Errors at Bay
“Office Space,” filmed in Austin in 1998, was panned by critics but is now a cult classic.
What were the top 40 songs 25 years ago this week? What was the #1 song on ...
- the day you were born?
- the day you graduated from high school?
- the day you were married?
- the day your child was born?
Find out here.
“About nine out of 10 US consumers ages 12 to 24 use the Internet. That is not surprising. But more than one-half of those ages 65 to 69 are online as well, and Internet-using 70-to-74-year-olds make up 45% of people that age, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project.” (story)
ABBA exists to connect Christians in Austin for the purpose of impacting the city. View YouTube videos of ABBA here.
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