Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

THE ONE ARTICLE YOU SHOULD READ CONCERNING "GAY MARRIAGE"

I am referring to Princeton University professor Robert George's article published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal.  (HT: Wintery Knight who regards it as the best single article he has read on same-sex marriage.  I tend to agree.)  The article needs to be read in full.  For those who won't, some excerpts: 

Opponents of racist laws in "Loving" ["Loving v. Virginia" which invalidated laws against interracial marriages] did not question the idea, deeply embodied in our law and its shaping philosophical tradition, of marriage as a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life. This unity is why marriage, in our legal tradition, is consummated only by acts that are generative in kind. Such acts unite husband and wife at the most fundamental level and thus legally consummate marriage whether or not they are generative in effect, and even when conception is not sought.

Of course, marital intercourse often does produce babies, and marriage is the form of relationship that is uniquely apt for childrearing (which is why, unlike baptisms and bar mitzvahs, it is a matter of vital public concern). But as a comprehensive sharing of life—an emotional and biological union—marriage has value in itself and not merely as a means to procreation. This explains why our law has historically permitted annulment of marriage for non-consummation, but not for infertility; and why acts of sodomy, even between legally wed spouses, have never been recognized as consummating marriages.

Only this understanding makes sense of all the norms—annulability for non-consummation, the pledge of permanence, monogamy, sexual exclusivity—that shape marriage as we know it and

TEACHING PERFECT PITCH

Gene Edward Veith offers a fascinating post:

A Japanese music teacher named Kazuko Eguchi has devised a way to teach children younger than 4 years old perfect pitch:

The few who are born with perfect pitch say notes have a concrete identity and presence, almost like colors, and being able to intuitively recognize them gives music an almost three-dimensional quality. . . .

It is widely accepted that you cannot learn perfect pitch as an adult. But your child, it appears, can. . . .

The Eguchi Method is used by more than 800 teachers around Japan to teach perfect pitch to very young children, claiming a success rate of almost 100 percent for those who start before they are 4 years old. At the end of the training, which starts by matching chords with colored flags, a teacher will play random

PROBLEMS WITH THE SCIENCE BEHIND GLOBAL WARMING CATASTROPHE THEORY

Iain Murray reports that Marlo Lewis over at Master Resource has produced a very useful round-up of the latest problems.

RESPONDING TO AN INANE BUMPER STICKER: "JESUS WAS A LIBERAL. HITLER WAS A CONSERVATIVE."

Douglas Groothuis writes:

Not only are more and more people ignoramuses, more and more shamelessly broadcast this fact for all to see.

Hitler was a National Socialist. However, you define conservative politically, it excludes all forms of socialism, an ideology that advocates a state-run (statist) society. Conservatism advocates a minimal state, private property, free markets, low taxation, and the rule of law based on traditional moral principles. None of these principles were part of National Socialism. Fascism is not conservative. Read Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn's great work, Leftism on that.

What about Jesus? Let us take just one item: Contempory liberalism is unabashedly pro-abortion--as is Obama. He wants abortions to be part of his socialized medicine, so that we all pay for them. So, apparently, Jesus is pro-abortion, since he is a liberal. This is a reductio ad absurdum. Jesus said to care for "the least of these." Who is more defenseless or in greater danger than a fetus in the United States?

The same car that sported this inane, asinine fatuity also featured another bumper sticker: "Obama, Biden, 2008."

Hugh Hewitt - 10 Questions to Ask Congressman on Health Care

From Hewitt's column in the Washington Examiner:

Members of the House are back in their districts, and senators will join them in their states after next week.  If they are doing their jobs - a big if - they will be meeting with constituents over the next month, and this is your chance to impact the debate on the radical proposals to restructure American medicine.

These proposals are now making their way towards a final debate and vote in the fall.  Here are 10 questions for any meeting you might have or e-mail you might send. (And 10 answers any honest representative or senator would give you.)

 

1.  Do you guarantee that I get to keep the plan I have and the doctor I have?  ("I know you have heard the president say this repeatedly, but expert after expert has confirmed this is simply not true.  Employers pick health plans, not employees, and if the new law puts forward a cheap 'government option/public plan,' employers will dump employees into it and pocket the savings as smart business people will do when given such a choice.")

 

2.  Will the law require Members of Congress and federal employees to be enrolled in the "government option/public plan," and if not, why not?  ("No, it won't.  Of course not. Because the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) is a gold-plated, great

MUSLIM PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS

Robert Spencer has a chilling update on news that rarely gets mentioned in the Western press. 

On Saturday, a frenzied mob of three thousand Muslims stormed the tiny Pakistani Christian village of Gojru.  Enflamed by (unconfirmed) charges that a Christian had burned pages of the Qur’an, the mob burned down fifty homes, burned eight Christians alive, and wounded twenty others. Thousands of Christians fled the area.

Last Thursday, enraged by the same report of blasphemy, another Muslim mob torched seventy-five Christian homes, along with two churches, in Koriyan, a village near Gojra.

Muslims are not persecuting Christians only in Pakistan.  On July 18, Muslims in Alexandria, Egypt kidnapped a sixteen-year-old Christian girl, Amira Markos, while she was on her way to work. Shortly thereafter her mother received a phone call: “At 10 o’clock of the same morning someone called me and asked if I was Amira’s mother. He introduced himself as Sheikh

REBELLION AGAINST OBAMACARE BREWING . . . .

MUST READ post from Michelle Malkin with embedded video reports from Austin and Philadelphia.

Incidentally, have you discovered the important video website, Naked Emperor News?

64% of ISRAELIS WANT TO SEE A THIRD TEMPLE BUILT

Story from Ynetnews here.  I confess this statistic took me by surprise.  Many secularists - 47% - want to see the Temple rebuilt as well.  Quite dumbfounding to me.  Many Christians interpret the Bible as predicting a rebuilt Temple.  I'm not sure... but I find this latest poll remarkable.

USEFUL ITEMS FROM "BETWEEN TWO WORLDS" BLOG

There are loads of useful recent posts on Between Two Worlds.  I'll highlight a few below.  This is a blog you will want to check regularly.  Readers of my blog will recognize many previous links to "Between Two Worlds."

    - Link to a free audio download of Dante Alighieri's "The Divine Comedy" at Christianaudio.com

    - Theologian Wayne Grudem's Sunday School Class - mp3 & outlines.  This represents an amazing opportunity to listen to a distinguished professor teaching lay people week by week.  Years of teaching by topic available.

    - The 99 Most Essential Bach Masterpieces.  99 downloadable tracks for $2.99 (total).  Another amazing offer

OBAMA'S HEALTH CARE PROPOSALS ANSWERED

 - Check out Keith Hennesy's response to Obama's e-mail on health reform. 

- Scott W. Atlas - "10 Reasons Why America's health care system is in better condition than you might suppose."  (HT: Jonah Goldberg at the Corner)  UPDATE: Same material but with footnotes.

1. Americans have better survival rates than Europeans for common cancers. Breast cancer mortality is 52 percent higher in Germany than in the United States and 88 percent higher in the United Kingdom. Prostate cancer mortality is 604 percent higher in the United Kingdom and 457 percent higher in Norway. The mortality rate for colorectal cancer among British men and women is about 40 percent higher.

2. Americans have lower cancer mortality rates than Canadians. Breast cancer mortality in Canada is 9 percent higher than in the United States, prostate cancer is 184 percent higher, and colon cancer among men is about 10 percent higher.

DOES IT MAKE SENSE TO DESTROY PERFECTLY GOOD CARS?

I think it's acting stupidly (to use the words of our current President in another context).  Dumb.  Dumb.  Dumb.   Idiotic.   Maddening.  Click here.

Update 8/4/09 - John Stossel makes the obvious point:

Another unintended consequence of the Cash for Clunkers program is that poor people who can’t afford new cars – or expensive used cars -- will be crushed along with all those clunkers. If you can only afford $500 - $1,000 for a car, you’ll find many of these vehicles are now unavailable.  They have been sent to the junk yard thanks to this program.

The Blogger News Network points out that junk yards that demolish the clunkers aren’t allowed to pull engines and other parts before they’re crushed, making parts for older cars harder and more expensive to get.

ELLIOT ABRAMS EVALUATES OBAMA'S RELATIONSHIP WITH ISRAEL

Abrams offers perceptive, authoritative analysis.  He titles his article ,  "Why Israel Is Nervous."   (HT: HotAir)

But the Obama administration has managed to win the mistrust of most Israelis, not just conservative politicians. Despite his great popularity in many parts of the world, in Israel Obama is now seen as no ally. A June poll found that just 6% of Israelis called him “pro-Israel,” when 88% had seen President George W. Bush that way. So the troubles between the U.S. and Israel are not fundamentally found in the personal relations among policy makers.

Read the whole thing.