Fathers disappear from households across America

This is a major reason why we are having so many problems in the US.  The reasons underlying are at heart spiritual:

Fathers disappear from households across America - Washington Times: "In every state, the portion of families where children have two parents, rather than one, has dropped significantly over the past decade. Even as the country added 160,000 families with children, the number of two-parent households decreased by 1.2 million. Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father, and nearly 5 million live without a mother. In 1960, just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers."

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On Triggering and the Triggered, Part 4 | Alastair's Adversaria

Really long but fascinating article on the two main types of debate today:

On Triggering and the Triggered, Part 4 | Alastair's Adversaria: "Offence-taking is a tried and tested tactic by which certain movements can dismiss critics without need for engagement, and bend society to their wishes. It is enabled by society’s lack of nerve, and by a persistence and willingness to take advantage of society’s weakness on the part of those employing it. Over the last few decades it has been used extensively by the feminist and gay rights movements. While many of the positions held by these movements may be perfectly justified, they have advanced in many quarters by silencing opponents and inoculating themselves against criticism, characterizing opponents or critics and their positions as hateful or insensitive and petitioning powerful allies to close down their voices."

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The End of the University as We Know It

Education is changing even more rapidly than I expected.  That's a good thing:

The End of the University as We Know It - Nathan Harden - The American Interest Magazine: "n fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist. The technology driving this change is already at work, and nothing can stop it. The future looks like this: Access to college-level education will be free for everyone; the residential college campus will become largely obsolete; tens of thousands of professors will lose their jobs; the bachelor’s degree will become increasingly irrelevant; and ten years from now Harvard will enroll ten million students."

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If Good and Evil Exist, God Exists - Religion/Philosophy - Prager University

Great video:

If Good and Evil Exist, God Exists - Religion/Philosophy - Prager University:

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New book "A Higher Call"

Great story:

New book "A Higher Call" tells of interactions between American WWII pilot Charlie Brown and German flying ace Franz Stigler - NYPOST.com:On Dec. 20, 1943, a young American bomber pilot named Charlie Brown found himself somewhere over Germany, struggling to keep his plane aloft with just one of its four engines still working. They were returning from their first mission as a unit, the successful bombing of a German munitions factory. Of his crew members, one was dead and six wounded, and 2nd Lt. Brown was alone in his cockpit, the three unharmed men tending to the others. Brown’s B-17 had been attacked by 15 German planes and left for dead, and Brown himself had been knocked out in the assault, regaining consciousness in just enough time to pull the plane out of a near-fatal nose dive.

None of that was as shocking as the German pilot now suddenly to his right.

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The Deepest Source of Our Troubles

Read the whole thing:

The Deepest Source of Our Troubles - Ricochet.com:
Why, then, you may ask -- if you even remember the question I posed some paragraphs back -- should libertarians be social conservatives? The answer is simple. Single mothers and their offspring are bound for the most part to become wards of the state. For a man and a woman who are married to rear offspring is a chore. It may be fulfilling, but it is demanding and hard. It requires sacrifice and discipline. For a single person to do so and to do it well requires a species of heroism. For a single person to do so at all requires help -- and that is where we are. For we now take it for granted that we are to pay for the mistakes that the single mother (and her sexual partner) made. We now, in fact, presume that she is entitled to our help -- and we now have a political party in power built on that premise.We are to pay for her groceries through WIC (Women, Infants, Children), for her medical care through Medicaid, for the contraceptives that she does not have the discipline to use properly and for the morning-after pill should she slip up and need an abortion. Her right to be promiscuous trumps our right to the fruits of our own labor.
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Church Doesnt Fit

Good question:

LT_2012 Church Doesnt Fit_blast: "Much of the contemporary church has fashioned itself to be “seeker sensitive.  But what if the seekers are no longer seeking?"

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How Many Companies Announced Closings or Layoffs Since Obama Won A Second Term? | TheBlaze.com

Yes, elections do have consequences:

How Many Companies Announced Closings or Layoffs Since Obama Won A Second Term? | TheBlaze.com: "Do elections have consequences? If you have been paying attention to the financial markets, you might think so. Wall Street has had two horrible days since President Obama won a second term.

However, stock prices are not the only thing taking a hit. It appears that the job market is also suffering. In the last 48 hours, the following major corporations have announced layoffs in America (links take you to news stories about the layoffs – with details from the companies):"

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Social Media Election

Interesting how the times and information keep changing:

Social Media Election | Open Site: "Anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account has probably noticed an increase in the number of political postings over the past few years. This is due, in part, to the explosive rise in social media outlets and users. But voters are not the only people who use social media; among politicians, 9 out of 10 Senators and Representatives have Twitter accounts. However, many are starting to wonder if social media is becoming less a reporter of political races and more of a predictor of the results. In Senate races, the candidate with more Facebook friends than his or her opponent has won 81% of the time. And one email sent to 60 million Facebook users prompted an additional 340,000 people to vote in the 2010 election. This infographic illustrates just how politics and social media are affecting each other."



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California, Here We Stay by Victor Davis Hanson

Ugh:

California, Here We Stay by Victor Davis Hanson, City Journal Autumn 2012: "California’s multidimensional decline—fiscal, commercial, social, and political—sometimes seems endless. "

Here's a key bit:

According to a study published by a public policy group at Stanford University, California’s various retirement systems have amassed $500 billion in unfunded liabilities. To honor the pension and benefit contracts of current and retired public employees, state and local governments have already started to lay off workers and slash services.

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Hurricane Sandy and the Perils of Nanny State Governance

Yep:

Hurricane Sandy and the Perils of Nanny State Governance | Via Meadia: "The problem with nanny state governance isn’t just that it’s intrusive. It isn’t just that it stifles business with over-regulation, and it isn’t just that it empowers busybodies and costs money. It’s that it distracts government from the really big jobs that it ought to be doing."

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Romney Wins Endorsements of Retired Admirals and Generals by a Landslide

There's alot more at the link:

The PJ Tatler » Romney Wins Endorsements of Retired Admirals and Generals by a Landslide: "Is there a message this star-studded list of retired Generals and Admirals is trying to send us about our Commander in Chief?  President Obama may have “killed Bin Laden” but somehow he lost this distinguished group. "


 President Obama’s Endorsements from the Military:


General Wesley Clark, USA , (Ret.)
General Colin Powell, USA (Ret.)
Major General Paul Eaton, USA (Ret.)
Admiral Donald Gutter, USN, former JAG of the Navy, (Ret.)
Admiral John Nathman, USN, (Ret.)

Mitt Romney’s Endorsements from the Military:

Admiral James B. Busey, USN, (Ret.)
General James T. Conway, USMC, (Ret.)
General Terrence R. Dake, USMC, (Ret.)
Admiral James O. Ellis, USN, (Ret.)
Admiral Mark Fitzgerald, USM, (Ret.)
General Ronald R. Fogleman, USAF, (Ret.)
General Tommy Franks, USA , (Ret.)
General Alfred Hansen, USAF, (Ret.)
Admiral Ronald Jackson Hays, USN, (Ret.)
Admiral Thomas Bibb Hayward , USN, (Ret.)
General Chuck Albert Horner, USAF, (Ret.)
Admiral Jerome LaMarr Johnson, USN, (Ret.)
Admiral Timothy J. Keating, USN, (Ret.)

General Paul X. Kelley, USMC, (Ret.)
General William Kernan, USA , (Ret.)
Admiral George E.R. Kinnear II, USN, (Ret.)
General William L. Kirk, USAF, (Ret.)
General James J. Lindsay, USA , (Ret.)
General William R. Looney III, USAF, (Ret.)
Admiral Hank Mauz, USN, (Ret.)
General Robert Magnus, USMC, (Ret.)
Admiral Paul David Miller, USN, (Ret.)
General Henry Hugh Shelton, USA , (Ret.)
General Lance Smith, USAF, (Ret.)
Admiral Leighton Smith, Jr., USN, (Ret.)
General Ronald W. Yates, USAF, (Ret.)
Admiral Ronald J. Zlatoper, USN, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General James Abrahamson, USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Edgar Anderson, Jr., USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Marcus A. Anderson, USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Buck Bedard, USMC, (Ret.)
Vice Admiral A. Bruce Beran, USCG, (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Lyle Bien, USN, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Harold Blot, USMC, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General H. Steven Blum, USA , (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Mike Bowman III, USN, (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Mike Bucchi, USN, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Walter E. Buchanan III, USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Richard A. Burpee, USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General William Campbell, USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General James E. Chambers, USAF, (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Edward W. Clexton, Jr., USN, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General John B. Conaway, USAF, (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Marvin Covault, USA , (Ret.)
Vice Admiral Terry M. Cross, USCG, (Ret.)
Vice Admiral William Adam Dougherty, USN, (Ret.)


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What Psychopaths Teach Us about How to Succeed

Interesting:

What Psychopaths Teach Us about How to Succeed [Excerpt]: Scientific American: "Traits that are common among psychopathic serial killers—a grandiose sense of self-worth, persuasiveness, superficial charm, ruthlessness, lack of remorse and the manipulation of others—are also shared by politicians and world leaders. "

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In everything we say, there is an echo of 1066

Very interesting:

In everything we say, there is an echo of 1066 - Telegraph: "It’s Sunday, and let us hope that you are about to have lunch. As you prepare to enjoy the roast beef, it may, possibly, occur to you that but for an event on this date, October 14, centuries ago, you might be about to eat the same joint but you wouldn’t be calling it beef. That event was the Battle of Hastings (aka Senlac Hill) in 1066, as a result of which William the Bastard, Duke of Normandy, became William the Conqueror, King of England."

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The Quiet Californians

Hold your chin up:

Works and Days » The Quiet Californians:


No state has suffered the last four years as much as has California — given that its progressive governor and legislative majorities serve as force multipliers for the Obama national agenda. We live in a 2X Obama state. And it is desirous for twelve or sixteen, not just four, more years in Washington.

The bluest state is polling at a 20 to 24 point lead for Barack Obama. Who cares that it is struggling with nearly 11% unemployment and facing a $16 billion budget shortfall? What does it matter that its public schools rated variously from 45th to 49th in the nation and that it is home to one-third of the nation’s welfare recipients, forty percent of the nation’s illegal aliens, and the largest prison population in the country? If Ohio supposedly has a million Obama-phones, I shudder to wonder how many are in California.


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The Next Phage | Popular Science

Very interesting:

The Next Phage | Popular Science: "How to heal an infection that defies antibiotics? Another infection. Doctors in Eastern Europe have used lab-grown viruses to safely cure millions of wounds. So why can't we do the same here?"

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Anti-Japan Protests Rage across China

It's funny we aren't hearing much about this:

Anti-Japan Protests Rage across China | Via Meadia: "The dispute over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands continues to heat up, as nationalistic anti-Japanese protests are spreading across China in response to Tokyo’s purchase of the islands. In response, some Japanese firms have chosen to suspend operations at their factories in China."

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Standing with the Oppressed, Until Muslims Are the Oppressors

Turning the tables on liberation theology:

PJ Media » Standing with the Oppressed, Until Muslims Are the Oppressors: "In the late 1960s and early 1970s, black liberation theologian James Cone offered a provocative, even blasphemous, challenge to church leaders in the United States who failed to speak up for blacks enduring oppression at the hands of the white majority in the country."

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Ralph Hiatt's Argentina: My Pastor, My Friend

This is a nice write up by missionary Ralph Hiatt on my father, Noble Ballew.

Ralph Hiatt's Argentina: My Pastor, My Friend: "Meet my pastor!  Reverend Noble Ballew was our pastor when Frances and I were teenagers.  His son, Reverend Ron Ballew, who stands with him in this picture, has recently accepted the pastorate of the Hillmar Assembly of God Church along with his wife, Karol.  
As youth, Frances and I were so privileged to have this great man of God as our pastor.  He was only 24 years old then.  Now at 90 years old he is still a vibrant active Christian, and always has a word of encouragment on his lips."

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Egypt’s Salafi Party Objects to Banning Sex Slavery

Amazing:

The PJ Tatler » Egypt’s Salafi Party Objects to Banning Sex Slavery: "Considering that the abduction, enslavement, rape, and trafficking of Coptic Christian girls, especially minors, in Egypt is at an all time high—according to U.S. lawyers, 550 such cases have been documented in the last five years—Egypt’s Constituent Assembly to the Constitution met yesterday to consider the inclusion of a new article, #33, in the section dealing with Rights and Freedoms, that would expressly criminalize “forced labor, slavery, the trafficking of women and children, human organs, and the sex trade.”"

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Everything is Fake Now

Very interesting:

Sultan Knish: Everything is Fake Now: "Obama is fake, his popularity is fake, but it's also real, because fake is now the ultimate reality. The purveyors of fakeness have demonstrated their ability to transform the unreal into the real through  manufactured consensus. By insisting that something unpopular was popular often enough, they made it popular. And by insisting that something popular is really unpopular, they did the opposite.
"

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Harvard cracks DNA storage

Wow:

Harvard cracks DNA storage, crams 700 terabytes of data into a single gram | ExtremeTech: "A bioengineer and geneticist at Harvard’s Wyss Institute have successfully stored 5.5 petabits of data — around 700 terabytes — in a single gram of DNA, smashing the previous DNA data density record by a thousand times."

SEEN ON FACEBOOK, an amusing commentary on the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha.

Instapundit » Blog Archive » SEEN ON FACEBOOK, an amusing commentary on the Chick-Fil-A brouhaha. Also: And: …:



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The Energy Revolution 4: Hot Planet?

Read the whole thing:

The Energy Revolution 4: Hot Planet? | Via Meadia: "People must survive and they will survive by any means necessary. But they would much rather thrive than merely survive, and if they can arrange matters better, they will. A poor society near the edge of survival will dump the industrial waste in the river without a second thought. It will burn coal and choke in the resulting smog if it has nothing else to burn."

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You didn't build that.

You didn't build that.: "Hey Mr. Edison, don’t get such a big head. It’s almost as big as that light bulb. Which you didn’t build. Somebody else made that happen."

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The Light That Failed

They've lost all moral relevancy:

The Light That Failed | Via Meadia: "New numbers reveal that the collapse of the Episcopal Church dramatically accelerated in the last ten years. The denomination is literally falling apart, with attendance down 25% between 2000 and 2010."

This is telling:

"It used to matter what the Episcopal Church thought of this or that social issue. Other mainline Protestant churches and many social and political leaders followed its theological and political debates. Now, basically, no one outside the dwindling flock in the pews really cares what The Episcopal Church says about anything at all. General Convention can pass a million resolutions, and nothing anywhere will change. No one is even really angry anymore at anything the Episcopal hierarchy does; at most, there is a sigh and a quiet rolling of the eyes. Soon, there will not even be that."

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From Instapundit: The Unintended

Instapundit » "BOOK PLUG: Reader Ron Ballew writes: “A long time reader here with a book I am plugging for my niece who is a High School English teacher. It’s title is The Unintended on kindle here. No zombies but there are vampires!” As long as they’re not sparkly."

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In Focus - The American West, 150 Years Ago - The Atlantic

Amazing photos:

In Focus - The American West, 150 Years Ago - The Atlantic: In the 1860s and 70s, photographer Timothy O'Sullivan created some of the best-known images in American History. After covering the U.S. Civil War, (many of his photos appear in this earlier series), O'Sullivan joined a number of expeditions organized by the federal government to help document the new frontiers in the American West. The teams were comprised of soldiers, scientists, artists, and photographers, and tasked with discovering the best ways to take advantage of the region's untapped natural resources. O'Sullivan brought an amazing eye and work ethic, composing photographs that evoked the vastness of the West.

In China, Fear at the Top

Very interesting:

In China, Fear at the Top - NYTimes.com: Every day, there are some 500 protests, demonstrations or riots against corrupt or dictatorial local party authorities, often put down by force. The harsh treatment that prompted the blind human-rights advocate Chen Guangcheng to seek American protection is only one of the most notorious cases. The volatile society unleashed against the state by Mao almost 50 years ago bubbles like a caldron. Stories about the wealth amassed by relatives of party leaders like Mr. Bo, who have used their family connections to take control of vast sectors of the economy, will persuade even loyal citizens that the rot reaches to the very top.

The Coming Decline of the Academic Left

Excellent:

The Coming Decline of the Academic Left
It is no secret that what passes for an education at most of the nation's colleges and universities is suspiciously akin to indoctrination. An asterisk: With the exception of a few areas--specifically, climate and the environment, certain fields within biology and medicine, history of science and the interaction between science and public policy--the rot that infects the rest of academia has been averted in science and engineering schools. A student who seeks a higher education in the unsullied areas of science and engineering can obtain truly the finest technical education that can be found on our planet at innumerable universities throughout the United States.

But when surveying the remaining disciplines in academia, as well as the administrative structures that direct the nation's academic enterprise, one can say that today's students are subject there to an unsubtle, mind-numbing, conformist indoctrination. Numerous polls conducted in humanities and social sciences departments--at elite, state and minor universities--reveal a stunning skew between liberals and conservatives at least as distorted as 90%-10%. The inherent bias spills over into classroom presentations, selection of curricula, and grading. Moreover, it has been thus for at least two generations.

'Tyranny of Clichés' Excerpt: The Truth About the Crusades

Very interesting:

Exclusive - 'Tyranny of Clichés' Excerpt: The Truth About the Crusades: The Crusades

The great irony is that the zealot-reformers who want to return to a “pure” Islam have been irredeemably corrupted by Western ideas. Osama bin Laden had the idea that he was fighting the “new crusaders.” When George W. Bush once, inadvertently, used the word “crusade,” jihadists and liberal intellectuals alike erupted with rage. It was either a damning slip of the tongue whereby Bush accidentally admitted his real crusader agenda, or it was a sign of his stunning ignorance about the Crusades. Doesn’t he know what a sensitive issue the Crusades are? Doesn’t he know that the Crusades belong alongside the slaughter of the Indians, slavery, and disco in the long line of Western sins?

Muslim Persecution of Christians

Read the whole thing:

Muslim Persecution of Christians: March, 2012 :: Raymond Ibrahim: The war on Christianity and its adherents rages on in the Muslim world. In March alone, Saudi Arabia's highest Islamic law authority decreed that churches in the region must be destroyed; jihadis in Nigeria said they "are going to put into action new efforts to strike fear into the Christians of the power of Islam by kidnapping their women"; American teachers in the Middle East were murdered for talking about Christianity; churches were banned or bombed, and nuns terrorized by knife-wielding Muslim mobs. Christians continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for allegedly "blaspheming" Islam's prophet Muhammad; former Muslims continue to be attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and killed for converting to Christianity.

The man who defeated Adolf Hitler

Excellent story on Dietrich Bonhoeffer:

The man who defeated Adolf Hitler | Fox News: Bonhoeffer believed the Easter story. He actually believed the extraordinary story of God's coming to Earth and dying and then rising from the dead to defeat death forever. He believed that because this was true, he need never fear death. All he needed to worry about was doing the right thing and trusting God with the results. And that he did.

Because Bonhoeffer believed these things he had the courage to do what almost no one else around him could do. He stood up for the Jews of Europe and today he is celebrated and cherished, while Hitler, who condemned him to death and who only believed in himself, is reviled as a monster.

Engineers, scientists, astronauts ask NASA administration to look at empirical evidence rather than climate models | Watts Up With That?

Good:

Hansen and Schmidt of NASA GISS under fire for climate stance: Engineers, scientists, astronauts ask NASA administration to look at empirical evidence rather than climate models | Watts Up With That?: Some very prominent NASA voices speak out in a scathing letter to current NASA administrator Charles Bolden, Jr.. When Chris Kraft, the man who presided over NASA’s finest hour, and the engineering miracle of saving Apollo 13 speaks, people listen.

Historian Revises US Civil War Casualty Statistics

Fascinating:

Historian Revises US Civil War Casualty Statistics | Via Meadia: The Civil War was even bloodier than we thought.

For over a century historians assumed 618,222 was a reasonably accurate estimate of the Civil War dead.

Binghamton University Professor David Hacker’s new study challenges those numbers. Instead of relying upon scattered military records that could be incomplete or difficult to track down like the 1890s count (compiled by William Fox and Thomas Livermore), Hacker used census data before and after the war, taking into account immigration, natural decay, to come up with the new number: 750,000, a full 20% more than the previous estimate.

It has been done

Interesting:

MADDENED FOWL: It has been done: St. Louis University Public Law Review
Concludes there are at least 400,000 "fewer violent crimes due to civilian self-defense use of guns" and at least "800,000 violent crimes are deterred each year because of gun ownership and use by civilians."

Newborn Seized in Hospital by Police, Social Worker

Wow:

HSLDA | Newborn Seized in Hospital by Police, Social Worker: I am not content to sit on the sidelines while the government gradually usurps the very essence of parental rights. I hope you share my determination. We need to stand with people like Scott and Jodi Ferris (obviously no relation to someone named Farris). Here’s their story:

Government