Brilliant (but unflattering) picture of evangelical feminism

Here, courtesy of The Brave Lass via The Brothers Bayly.    Why such a brilliant picture of evangelical feminism?  Let me count the ways:

1.  The CBE author is a member of an Episcopalian church, not generally considered "Evangelical" to begin with.  Evangelical feminism is liberalism masquerading as orthodoxy.

2.  The author makes the charge that 500 years of Protestant Bible translation has wrongly "masculized" the Scripture, and is "revising" the Word to conform to her views.  Obviously those great men of God who translated the Scriptures--and directly or indirectly taught her every bit of Greek and Hebrew she knows--did not know Greek and Hebrew.  Look for the new translation to make the "NGV" (TNIV) look positively patriarchal in comparison.

3.  Look at those demands; no Christian humility for the author, let alone an actual argument from Scripture.  Nope, it'll be demands; "We're fierce, we're feminists, and we're in your face!"   That's the way to present your ideas humbly, winning them without a word.

4.  Notice the new name for God; "Godde."   Just as Christians seek to distance themselves from the word Allah in some lands, so do these ladies seek to distance themselves from the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.  (and doing a great job, mind you....not that I encourage it)

5.  Notice the conference was in Seneca Falls--home of a famous early feminist convention attended by sundry homewreckers.

My favorite part is the demand; a demand, of course, must be made by one who believes he has the right to require an action of something.  In theological matters such as these, a demand is properly made...by a superior of an inferior.

That is, in a nutshell, where evangelical feminism leads.  It does not content itself with equality, but aims to overturn the created order--and ahem, not just with regards to men, but also with regards to God.  They are not renaming Him, they are replacing Him--and (#2) His Word. 

If so and so were alive today....

Having been to more funerals than I would have liked to attend in the past year, it is from time to time tempting to consider "well, what would so and so have said about such and such if they were in this room today?"  It could be Patton on handling our current wars, or Friedman about the current economic situation, my great aunt about education, or my mom about dietetics.

And when I consider those thoughts, I remind myself that if they were to come back, they wouldn't be talking about economics, war, education, or food.  They'd be talking about the Savior, our need to know Him, the joys of being with Him, and the terrors of being separated from Him.  How much of our lives seems so significant to us until we realize that it's just a temporary situation....

Triumph of the book.....

Not THE Book, but books in general.  As I consider how many Christians seem to view a Bible translation isn't useful anymore after twenty or thirty years, I consider the Yiddish language.

Why so?  Well, Yiddish is effectively a Hebrew-accented Middle High German.  Not modern high German dating from the 1500s and Luther (and greatly changed since then), but Middle High German--dating really from the 11th Century.  Until about a century ago (when Hebrew became the "lingua Judaica"),virtually all Ashkenazi Jews from Russia to England (and even the United States and Canada) could speak with, and write to, each other in a Yiddish that could have been understood by the original Ashkanzi Jews in the 12th Century along the Rhine.

Anyone who has ever tried to read, say, Chaucer in the original knows that, linguistically speaking, this is an extraordinary accomplishment.  What led to this? 

Very simple; they were literate, and this literacy imposed a benchmark for the understanding of their language.  We ought to consider what our "need" for a new translation every few decades really means, then; I would suggest it indicates that we are becoming a post-literate society.  Given that Christians are, like the Ashkenazi, a "People of the Book," this is not good news for us.

Another university impervious to logic...

....is the University of Central Florida, which under contract from the federal government is developing a video game in which teens are subjected to the advances of attractive, pushy peers--all in the name of reducing teen sexual contact.  As if it would be likely that subjecting kids to, effectively, the singles bar scene would make them LESS likely to act on their hormones.

Hint; if you don't want the egg to boil, you turn the gas off, not on.

Another reason to avoid the government's schools

Apparently, the NEA is endorsing celebrations of Mao's Communist takeover of China.  50 million people killed by Mao and his minions in the Cultural Revolution and other atrocities were not available for comment.

I would have hoped that an 'educator's association' like the NEA would know enough to let students know that Mao, Lenin, and Stalin made Hitler look like a choirboy in comparison.  Apparently not, and if you want your children to know real history, I'm afraid they are unlikely to learn it from anyone who is a member of the NEA.

Where not to learn Logic

Loyala University of Chicago.  Why?

They rejected a speech by Karl Rove on the grounds that it would jeopardize their tax exempt status, replacing him with an Obama appointee--demonstrating that they not only did not understand laws regarding tax exempt status (Presidents and their appointees have been making commencement speeches for generations), but also demonstrated a strong political bias.

Ironically, they may be setting up the stage for someone to challenge their tax exempt status.  Oops.  They used to have a good basketball team, though.

Here's the Obama version of "transparency" in a nutshell

In the new financial services deform bill, it appears that regulatory bodies like the SEC may be exempted from Freedom of Information Act requests, according to an article from Fox News.

Since a major part of the financial meltdown of the past few years has to do with the SEC being asleep at the switch (or watching internet porn) instead of watching for the signs of toxic and fraudulent investments, it would seem that more, not less, transparency is needed there.  Evidently, however, Democrats in Congress, not to mention Mr. Obama, are having a little trouble figuring out that blocking access to information is anything but the "transparency" they promised back in 2008.

Hope and Change--congratulate our new Politburo, and let's celebrate Mr. Obama's birthday with a nice contribution to GOP candidates.

Want government in your healthcare?

Before you say "yes," take a look at this article about how the British are rejoining the ranks of civilized nations which do not have nationally run health care, as well as this article about how the centralized system in the U.K. is increasingly leading to denial of medical care.

If there were justice in this world, Congress and the President--at least those who voted for health insurance deform legislation--would be required to get their care via England's NHS.  H/T Muckraker.  The economic lesson here, of course, is that when people don't see the costs of their actions, they do not take action to avoid those costs.  Hopefully we learn this lesson here before it's too late.

14 good years today.....

....and marriage just keeps getting better and better.

Quick dinner thought....

Way back in 1989, I sampled a dutch style pancake in Arnhem (site of the events of "A Bridge Too Far", and also home of a wonderful historical village of old Dutch buildings) that differed quite a bit from ordinary pancakes.  Instead of sweet and fruity toppings, it had savory things like bacon, onions, and such in it.  Last night, I finally worked to duplicate it--simply pan-fry the desired fillings, remove from the pan, pour a bit of batter in, then add the desired amount of fillings.

Yum.  Burp.  Bacon and pancakes in the same bite!

An interesting thought.....

Visiting the homes where my great aunt and mother lived last weekend, the thought occurred to me that I'd give just about anything to have them back.  And then the thought occurred to me that, given that they're now safely in the arms of their Savior, they would have been really ticked if He'd granted my request.

Update: I wonder what the thoughts were of those who were brought back to life by Elijah, Elisha, and Christ.  Did an angel give the soon to be undeceased a briefing letting them know they'd have to deal with the difficulties of this world to bring honor to their Lord, or.....?

Populism, or a great point?

White collar pencil pusher (hee hee) Tom Purcell takes his class to task for glorifying desk jobs at the expense of blue collar trades.  At one level, we could see this as simply a populist rant of "darn all those rich lawyers!", but at another level, it makes a lot of sense.    How much more prosperous wouldour country be if we did less paperwork and more real work?  To borrow a phrase from my line of work, entering data into Oracle is not a value added operation.

We could start to implement Purcell's idea by ending federal funding for student loans altogether.

Another flaw in the health insurance deform law

Apparently, the building of doctor-owned hospitals is banned, and the expansion of them is heavily regulated.  So in the name of reducing overhead and reducing healthcare costs, the government has decided to require increased overhead and to create yet another barrier to entry.  Government also prohibits them from receiving Medicare and Medicaid patients--how nice if you're on that program, and a doctor owned facility is the only one within an hour of your home that does what you need done.

The article is a fascinating illustration of the theory of rent-seeking, and unfortunately, it appears that the American Hospital Association has been successful in getting their rent.

Thought on the NAACP/ Tea Party brouhaha

I'll take the NAACP seriously when it alleges racism if and when they politely but firmly tell Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and the New Black Panthers that they are no longer welcome there.  I'm not holding my breath, of course, as sad to say, it seems that some of the most bigoted people around call themselves "civil rights activists."  Go figure.

Major defects with the financial services deform bill

1.  Most of the regulations are "to be determined" by regulators.  On the bright side, this may set up a way to repeal most of it through the courts, which have previously voided laws according to Article 1 of the Constitution.  Regulatory uncertainty is an economic killer.

2.  Massive set-asides for unions and other groups in a modification of proxy voting rules. 

3.  Massive paperwork requirements for ordinary transactions--it will be a killer for small business.

4.  No modification of rules for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose demand for mortgage securities was a large part of the real estate cataclysm.

5.  No examination of the CRA--in fact, set asides act as an expansion of the CRA.

In short, when given a choice between ways of improving and worsening the situation, Frank and Dodd chose making the situation worse with laserlike precision.