Yesterday, President Obama surprised pretty much everyone and said that any decision about the use of military force would wait until he received Congressional authorization. This is without a doubt a smart political move, a smart diplomatic move, and certainly Constitutional. While not asking for a declaration of war - if the Republicans call his bluff on this and do that . . . - it at least acknowledges that Congress has an equal role in American foreign policy. So - good.
Yesterday's Washington Post op-ed page carried a piece that argued - and I swear I'm not kidding - that statutory rape between students and teachers should be decriminalized. I first heard about it on Twitter on Friday night, thanks to @AngryBlackLady. I refuse to link to the article, because I'm now convinced it was only written as "link bait" - something to generate traffic - and I have no wish to give it any. It should be easy enough to find. Of course a few on the right are screeching about how the "liberal" WaPo now supports pedophilia, blah-blah-blah, but the only substantive criticisms I've read have been . . . wait for it . . . from left-wing and liberal sites. Not a single liberal or "liberal" of whom I'm aware has said anything other than it is horrible, morally and in every other way. Considering she ends the piece by arguing that since clergy can't seem to keep their knickers buttoned around kids and never face any punishment, teachers should face the same beneficent treatment. Similar in logic to Feodor's "Guys have balls that produce testosterone so women should assume they're rape-bait and just accept that fact," I'm surprised he isn't supporting the argument at WaPo. The death of print thanks to horrible stuff like that . . .
And now for the beautiful. I'm not a fan of "praise music" in "contemporary worship" would be an understatement. I find it theologically vapid, aesthetically mediocre, and is rooted in a business model - the Contemporary Christian Music industry based in Nashville, a branch of the Country Music establishment - that seeks to separate people from their money rather than give due honor and praise to God. With that in mind, I offered the following this morning on FB as my kind of praise music:
Since the Latin title means "Give Glory To God", which is the sum total of 90% of the lyrics of most praise music, I would suggest that people who carry on about "praise music" learn things.
Yesterday's Washington Post op-ed page carried a piece that argued - and I swear I'm not kidding - that statutory rape between students and teachers should be decriminalized. I first heard about it on Twitter on Friday night, thanks to @AngryBlackLady. I refuse to link to the article, because I'm now convinced it was only written as "link bait" - something to generate traffic - and I have no wish to give it any. It should be easy enough to find. Of course a few on the right are screeching about how the "liberal" WaPo now supports pedophilia, blah-blah-blah, but the only substantive criticisms I've read have been . . . wait for it . . . from left-wing and liberal sites. Not a single liberal or "liberal" of whom I'm aware has said anything other than it is horrible, morally and in every other way. Considering she ends the piece by arguing that since clergy can't seem to keep their knickers buttoned around kids and never face any punishment, teachers should face the same beneficent treatment. Similar in logic to Feodor's "Guys have balls that produce testosterone so women should assume they're rape-bait and just accept that fact," I'm surprised he isn't supporting the argument at WaPo. The death of print thanks to horrible stuff like that . . .
And now for the beautiful. I'm not a fan of "praise music" in "contemporary worship" would be an understatement. I find it theologically vapid, aesthetically mediocre, and is rooted in a business model - the Contemporary Christian Music industry based in Nashville, a branch of the Country Music establishment - that seeks to separate people from their money rather than give due honor and praise to God. With that in mind, I offered the following this morning on FB as my kind of praise music:
