BDS and Newsweek’s Choice of Ads

It’s bust on Newsweek day here at VS…
I was reading an article this evening and noticed the banner ad in the sidebar:

Here’s the closeup:

Question: Would Newsweek accept a similar ad about Obama?
Bonus Question: At what point does BDS subside?
[Note: Ads on Newsweek are dynamic, therefore no link because there's no garuntee you'll get the same [...]

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Better Sex Through Yoga?

From Live Science:
According to a recent review article in the Dec. 3 issue of The Journal of Sexual Medicine, sexually unsatisfied women who practiced the Eastern techniques of mindfulness and yoga reported improvements in levels of arousal and desire, as well as better orgasms. In addition, yoga has been found to effectively treat premature ejaculation [...]

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A Year in 40 Seconds

Pretty cool video:
You Tube Clip
http://newsbusters.org/&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
The sequel — A Decade in a Minute and a Half — is currently in production.

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Patterico on the LA Times in 2008

I posted a link in the sidebar, but this deserves excerpting. This is just classic MSM:
McCain finally responded to the economic crisis by giving a speech that hit hard on the Democrats’ responsibility. The L.A. Times cut out the portion of the speech relating to the economy — and then quoted Obama saying McCain [...]

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Newsweek Revises Recent History of US-Iranian Relations

Dennis Ross, writing for Newsweek, sums up the last eight years this way:
Bush’s policy has failed: Iran wasn’t a nuclear power when he became president, but by the time he leaves office, it will have become one…Iran has pursued nuclear weapons because the Bush administration hasn’t applied enough pressure—or offered Iran enough rewards for giving [...]

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Another Article on the Old Church

This one from the OC Register:
The plans for Seabreeze Church’s first permanent home in two decades seemed to be running smoothly.
In October, the church celebrated the grand opening of its new financially conservative and environmentally friendly campus and the fact that the congregation had grown from 700 to 850 in the last year.
That’s simply not true. The [...]

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You Know Who Sort of Looks Like Caroline Kennedy…?

Here’s princess Caroline:

Here’s Emmy-Award-winning Sarah Palin impersonator Tina Fey:

A little styling of the hair, a little make-up…I bet she could, you know, do a decent impersonation.
So why do I think we’ll never see it?
Victor David Hanson knows why.

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Failure and Loss (My Old Church in the NY Times) *UPDATED*

A couple years ago I wrote a series of sermons for my church titled “A Christian Reads the Newspaper.” The point of the series isn’t important, only something I recall about it. I wrote at the time that it’s hard to make the news. The higher you go up the news food chain the less [...]

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The Case for Bush

Almost goes without saying that this article (or its equivalent) will never appear in a US paper:
To his critics, who are legion on both sides of the Atlantic, the war in Iraq has been a monumental disaster, at a cost of more than 4,000 American lives and at least [...]

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Some of My Favorites of 2008

Scott on January 5, 2009

Since this is the time of year when people do “Best Of” lists, I thought I would make my own.  The posts are a mixture of faith, science, pop culture, politics and fun.  I based my list on things that made me think or laugh or angry or made me stop and reassess my life in some significant way.

Os Guinness Calls Frank Schaeffer Out (Faith/Philosophy - John)

Weirdness of the Day (Faith - John)

An Easter Story - The Ragman (Story Telling - Scott)

The King and the Humble Maiden (Story Telling - Scott)

What Does It Take for “In Depth” to Actually Mean IN DEPTH? (Faith/Watch blogs - Scott)

Missing the Point - Lessons from Ken Silva (Faith/Watch Blogs - Scott)

So Just How Would You Answer This Question? (Faith - Scott)

The End Is Near!  (Again) (guest post by Harold Watkins)

Vote COBRA in ‘08 (Funny - John)

Top 15 Alternative Uses for Fingernail Polish (Funny/Practical - Cindy)

Pelosi:  Ardent, Practicing Catholic (Faith/Politics - John)

Regarding the Implosion of a Church (Faith - Scott)

Green Idealists Behind Global Warming (Science/Politics - John)

Church Music in a New Vein (Faith/Funny - Scott)

Crossing Paths Daily:  Obama and Ayers Shared an Office (Politics - John)

For Safety and Soundness, Vote YES on 8 (Politics/Culture - John)

Category: News | Comments (4)

Creep Steals Election (Update)

John on January 5, 2009

UPDATE - 1/5/09 @ 1:10pm:  Market Watch reports the Minnesota Canvassing Board has certified Al Franken the winner.  Strange, weird, wacky stuff.

—–

From the WSJ:

Strange things keep happening in Minnesota, where the disputed recount in the Senate race between Norm Coleman and Al Franken may be nearing a dubious outcome. Thanks to the machinations of Democratic Secretary of State Mark Ritchie and a meek state Canvassing Board, Mr. Franken may emerge as an illegitimate victor.

Mr. Franken started the recount 215 votes behind Senator Coleman, but he now claims a 225-vote lead and suddenly the man who was insisting on “counting every vote” wants to shut the process down. He’s getting help from Mr. Ritchie and his four fellow Canvassing Board members, who have delivered inconsistent rulings and are ignoring glaring problems with the tallies.

Under Minnesota law, election officials are required to make a duplicate ballot if the original is damaged during Election Night counting. Officials are supposed to mark these as “duplicate” and segregate the original ballots. But it appears some officials may have failed to mark ballots as duplicates, which are now being counted in addition to the originals. This helps explain why more than 25 precincts now have more ballots than voters who signed in to vote. By some estimates this double counting has yielded Mr. Franken an additional 80 to 100 votes.

[...]

In other cases, the board has been flagrantly inconsistent. Last month, Mr. Franken’s campaign charged that one Hennepin County (Minneapolis) precinct had “lost” 133 votes, since the hand recount showed fewer ballots than machine votes recorded on Election Night. Though there is no proof to this missing vote charge — officials may have accidentally run the ballots through the machine twice on Election Night — the Canvassing Board chose to go with the Election Night total, rather than the actual number of ballots in the recount. That decision gave Mr. Franken a gain of 46 votes.

Meanwhile, a Ramsey County precinct ended up with 177 more ballots than there were recorded votes on Election Night. In that case, the board decided to go with the extra ballots, rather than the Election Night total, even though the county is now showing more ballots than voters in the precinct. This gave Mr. Franken a net gain of 37 votes, which means he’s benefited both ways from the board’s inconsistency.

Heads I win, tails you lose.

SCOTT’S UPDATE:  Market Watch is reporting that the Minnesota Canvassing Board has certified Al Franken the winner.  Strange, weird, wacky stuff.

[HT: Ace]

Category: Politics | Comments (13)

Celebrity Conversion of Sorts

John on January 3, 2009

The son of one of Hamas’ top leaders left Islam and became a Christian:

Yousef, son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the most influential leaders of the militant group, said the organization betrays the Palestinian cause and tortures its own members…

Yousef said he was indoctrinated at an early age to use violence to challenge Israeli control in the region. As a teenager he moved up within the organization and became the leader of the radical Islamic Youth Movement that fought Israeli tanks and troops in the streets, celebrated suicide bombings and recruited young men to the cause.

Yousef, 30, said he realized the true nature of Hamas and radical Islam during a stint in an Israeli prison. He renounced his Muslim faith, left his family behind in Ramallah and converted to Christianity.

“Islam is not the word of God,” said Yousef. “If you want to be offended it’s your problem. But you know something? Go study. Think for a second that I might be right. So wake up, look at your path, see where you’re going. Are you really going to heaven with 72 virgins after you kill yourself and kill another 20 people?”

Yousef has sought asylum in the United States and now attends an evangelical Christian church in San Diego, Calif.

FOX is doing a special featuring Yousef. It airs tonight.

Category: Celebrity Conversions | Comments (3)