Here's your sign, Mr. President

The Cleveland Clinic, a worthy competitor to a little clinic we like up here and a supposed model for President Obama's Health Insurance Deform Act, is cutting $330 million from its budget and most likely 3000 or more jobs to cope with the Health Insurance Deform Act.  By the way, word on the street around here is that our little clinic is going to be making major cuts for the same reason, but isn't going public with the rationale yet.

Act in haste, repent at leisure, Mr. President.  And here's your sign.

Thoughts on the "manosphere"

I have been peripherally watching an area called "the manosphere" on the interwebs lately.  In a nutshell, it portrays normal male/female relationships in light of a theory called "game"--and yes, it's based on the same kind of theories that someone playing an ordinary game would use.

More or less, the goal is--as I guess it's been forever--to be the "quarterback," the guy who is "loud, charismatic" and for whom women "exist for the alpha's gratification."  In this movement, there are deep undercurrents of using women sexually--often in rather disgusting ways, be careful about the links--along with bitter complaints about how today's society is more or less encouraging divorce, unwed parenting, and the like. In the same movement are emphatic (or nasty depending on your perspective) denunciations of feminism, as well as quite a bit of mockery of those, male and female, whose physical attributes and personalities do not match what the "manosphere" would endorse.

I guess there is a kernel of truth to this; attractive, confident people--even narcissistic jerks--often do well with the opposite sex, and those who are not conventionally attractive do not do as well on average.  Even many feminists would agree that family law has gone too far in discouraging marriage and encouraging unwed parenting, I'd guess.

That noted, I've got to warn against the manosphere because the Scripture tells us that we are to flee from fornication, that a man of God is to wash his wife in the Word and sacrifice himself for her (Ephesians 5), and that he is to treat her with respect as the weaker vessel (1 Peter 3:7), or else his prayers will not be heard.

Put gently, those who hold strongly to the principles of the "manosphere" will tend to find themselves in about the same position, spiritually, as does Mr. Beale as he uses a ludicrous straw man argument to deny the Trinity; either in the position of not knowing God at all, or in the position of one who will suffer loss in the final judgement.  If you're tempted by this movement, consider yourself warned.

Here's your sign, Governor

....and yours too, Senatress Rosen.  What for?  Well, Mr. Dilettante explains; the electronic pull-tabs (lose your money to the TV monitor!) that were supposed to pay for the new Crystal Cathedral Viqueens stadium have just about "broken even" in terms of profit, which of course means that after the costs of problem gambling are accounted for--divorce, counseling, incarceration, etc..--the program is running a serious loss. 

But it's not like we should have known, because after all, the Taxpayers' League of Minnesota has only been warning about this for a decade or so.  Whatever you think of legalized gambling, the adrenaline rush it creates in its participants does impose societal costs, after all.

Also interesting is a look at ViQueens owner Zygi Wilf's finances.  He, along with other junior partners, owns a portfolio including 25 million square feet of business development along with the ViQueens.  Overall, a ballpark estimate of the value would be around six billion bucks, plus or minus.

However, Wilf's actual net worth is estimated at only $310 million (Sports Illustrated, 2011), indicating that those voting for the stadium bill ignored the fact that, being heavily leveraged, Wilf's finances are likely quite volatile--not a good thing when Wilf and his partners are on the hook (theoretically) for hundreds of millions of dollars more than he's got.

So if you supported the new Crystal Cathedral; here's your sign.

How do you say "here's your sign" in Korean?

Architects are looking to build a tower as high as the Willis Sears Tower with a very interesting feature; it will have a set of cameras and an imaging system that allow it to appear virtually "invisible".  What could possibly go wrong?  It's not like anyone ever accidentally crashed into a building because they couldn't see it, as anyone who's ever visited the 78th and 79th floors of the Empire State Building (hit by a B25 in 1945) knows full well.

Here's your sign.

Here's your sign, Grand-dad

A Kentucky grandfather has built a dream playhouse for his grand-daughter.  It's got beautiful woodwork, furniture, flooring, log cabin style, a porch, windows, a steel door, red steel roof, vaulted ceilings and  a chandelier, and....

.....it's 50 feet off the ground on top of an old silo.  OK, let me think about this; toddler in a playhouse 50 feet off the ground with windows and doors that open.  What could possibly go wrong?

Here's your sign, Grand-dad, as Mr. Foxworthy would say.  Just because you can do something doesn't mean it's a good idea. 

Born that way? Maybe not

According to World Magazine, this year's NEA convention featured the ironically named "Unheard Voices" (how are they unheard if they're on center stage?), which has as its purpose more or less normalizing most any form of homosexual, bisexual, or transsexual behavior.  Particularly interesting was a comment by one such person, Mr. Jamison Green, who noted that his "first lover suggested to me that I might enjoy having a sex change."

Let's go through the obvious first; sensible people would respond  to a suggestion to sexually mutilate themselves by ending the relationship and would probably get a restraining order and perhaps even an emergency carry permit.

That aside, Mr. Green's boyfriend has actually said something very important about his "homosexuality"; he thought it would be really cool if Mr. Green looked superficially like a Miss Green..  So is Mr. Green's boyfriend really homosexual, or is he actually heterosexual, but cannot connect with women--and thus his best option is to make a homosexual male (with whom he can connect) superficially "female"?  It's a question I hope researchers, not to mention specialists in genital mutilation ("gender reassignment surgeons"), start to ask.

And, for that matter, if the NEA can let such an obvious implication of Mr. Green's testimony go unnoticed, are their members really qualified to educate your children?  Or are they more interested in indoctrination?  I'm afraid the answer is pretty obvious here.

Random thoughts......

Fox had two "serves you right" moments this morning.  First, a UK rapist discovered his victim was HIV positive--possibly administering the Biblical death sentence for forcible rape--and next, the AFL-CIO lost a longshoremen's union as an affiliate because they're not taking a strong stance regarding the Health Insurance Deform Act, aka "Obamacare."

In Chicago, the chief of police has noted publicly that his department will be shooting any armed person seen holding a gun.  Sounds like a great way to enrich lawyers who specialize in wrongful death, to get police officers and innocents killed, and to end up spending a term in jail.  However, not so hot when it comes to, say, "law enforcement" or "public safety."  One would think that a chief of police might be educated on these matters--how carry permit holders do not pose a threat to their neighbors--but apparently learning "facts" is outside the scope of his terms of employment.

Finally, spent Labor Day with a group of at least 50 fellow homeschoolers, and it was a huge blessing to be around dozens of teens without ever seeing anyone inappropriately dressed.  We also noted that there were more infants in attendance than you'll see in many maternity wards these days.