Blogworthies LXX

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ Power Line, Big Lizards, Cor ad cor loquitur, JustOneMinute, One Hand Clapping, Evolution News & Views, The Dawn Patrol, The Curt Jester, WuzzaDem.com, The Sheepcat, Dyspeptic Mutterings, and protein wisdom.

The Klueless Kalb Report @ Power Line:

Dan Rather and Mary Mapes are apparently out to rehabilitate themselves through the assertion of several themes related to Rathergate. In his interview with Marvin Kalb, Rather reiterates several of the themes: the Bush National Guard story was accurate, there is something sinister about the exposure of the documents as fradulent, and the documents were not proved to be fraudulent in the Thornburgh-Boccardi report or elsewhere. In Mapes's telling, "meshing" is the term of art that covers these themes....

An Army of One... Million @ Big Lizards (ellipsis in original):

The headline is deep. Dark. Scary:

Army Faces Worst Recruiting Slump in Years

Cue the bass, the sad snare-drum tattoo, thunder in the distance.

The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth.

Many in Congress believe the Army needs to get bigger — perhaps by 50,000 soldiers over its current 1 million — in order to meet its many overseas commitments, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army already is on a path to add 30,000 soldiers, but even that will be hard to achieve if recruiters cannot persuade more to join the service.

The mind of the mathematician suddenly registers something it likes: numbers! We have a million men; we want one million and thirty thousand; maybe as high as one million and fifty thousand. A quick calculation: so our force is just too small — we desperately need to increase it... by 3% to 5%....

The Perspicuity ("Clearness") of Scripture @ Cor ad cor loquitur:

Martin Luther stated the classic Protestant understanding of the perspicuity of Scripture in his own favorite (and arguably most important) writing, The Bondage of the Will (from translation by Henry Cole, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1976, 25-27,29; emphasis in original): ....

They Call This A Correction? @ JustOneMinute:

The NY Times "corrects" their story about how firms with Bush connections are being awarded Katrina contracts: ....

Casualties @ One Hand Clapping:

There are some people who maintain that the only metric of success that matter in the war in Iraq is the number and rate of American casualties. More casualties equals quagmire. Less casualties – sorry, that hasn’t happened. The rate and number of American casualties has only been going up, so they maintain.

These are decidedly unserious people, of couse, because they never do any actual analysis using real world facts. They dismiss out of hand information released by the Defense Dept. as “blather from DOD PR flacks,”as one reader commented here. Their template is very easy to understand, though. They oppose the war. Not only that they oppose American success in the war. Because they think the Iraq war should not have been fought, they think that we should lose. Therefore they find comfort and justification in every setback and insist that the war has been nothing but setbacks. They are literally defeatists because the defeat of Amercan goals and objectives in Iraq is their goal. The war, they claim, is “unwinnable” anyway....

Miller on Witness Stand: ID Isn't Falsifiable, So It Isn't Science; Plus, We've Already Falsified It @ Evolution News & Views:

The first day of testimony in the ACLU’s lawsuit against the Dover, Pennsylvania school district ended today with the defense beginning their cross-examination of leading Darwinist Kenneth Miller.

How long has it been since a leading evolutionist subjected himself to cross-examination on the witness stand? In the infamous Scopes Monkey Trial in the 1920s, the Darwinist, Clarence Darrow, used a procedural trick to cross examine his opponent while himself avoiding cross-examination. The vast majority of Darwinists routinely duck full and fair exchanges. Kenneth Miller should be applauded for bucking this duck-the-debate tactic....

Frigid Daughters of the Sexual Revolution @ The Dawn Patrol (quoted ellipses in original):

The Telegraph of London reports that women are trying to get pregnant via in vitro fertilization because they don't want to do it the old-fashioned way:

Michael Dooley, a gynaecologist, obstetrician and fertility expert, said that in the past five years he has seen a 20 per cent increase in the number of patients seeking "inappropriate or premature" IVF treatment.

"Many of these couples are simply not having sex or not having enough sex," he said. "Conception has become medicalised. It's too clinical. There has been a trend away from having sex and loving relationships towards medicalised conception." ...

Emma Cannon, who runs the fertility programme at Westover House, said: ... Some people are horrified by the idea that they have to have sex two to three times a week."

Cannon explains that her patients are commuter couples who don't have time for sex, but it's hard to believe that there aren't problems in the marriages as well. After all, if a spouse really want to have sex, he or she will forgo the extra trip to the gym....

PWTN @ The Curt Jester:

You're a progressive Catholic and you want to deepen your faith what do you do? Of course you can read Commonweal, America, and the New York Times to keep up — but sometimes you just want to kick back and be informed by watching TV. Sure there is much fare on TV that aligns with your world view, but don't you want more? Have you ever stumbled upon on that 24 hour so-called Catholic network only to be shocked by women still shackled in religious garb, lack of inclusive language, and televised Masses partially in Latin, and a nun who dared to criticize our hero Cardinal Mahony? In his case we are totally against dissent. You know what station we mean and didn't you just wish that we had our own station?

Well don't wish any longer. We at Progressive Word Television Network (PWTN) are coming soon to a cable and satellite operation near you. We will offer the highest quality in progressive programming with a 24 hour dialogue hotline for show suggestions and improvements. Sound too good to be true? Well just check out our new line up....

Another Katrina Myth: Aaron Broussard's "Emotional" Appearance on MTP @ WuzzaDem.com (brackets in original):

In yesterday's Chicago Sun-Times [9/12/05], Richard Roeper called Jefferson Parish, LA president Aaron Broussard's tearful outburst, shown September 4th on Meet the Press, "One of the defining media moments of all the hurricane [Katrina] coverage":

The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in a St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

Like a lot of people, I didn't think Broussard's story passed the "smell test". We were right: He was lying....

I Am Now Catholic @ The Sheepcat:

.... On the morning of Sunday, September 11, I was received into the Catholic Church. What a happy day!...

McBrien. Again. @ Dyspeptic Mutterings (italics in original):

If you get a chance, sit down and enjoy one of the old Bob Hope films from when the comedian was in his prime — they've actually aged pretty well, especially the zingers and quips. One of my favorites is his rejoinder to a Bing Crosby shot across the bow:

"Hey — be careful with that joke. It's an antique."

I'm reminded of that line when considering the fraying schtick of MSM's favorite speed-dial Catholic commentator, Fr. Richard McBrien. In a recent essay, he gets all brotherly on a prominent Catholic senator. No, not Remarkably Buoyant Ted. Nope — try the Vatican sock puppet, Rick Santorum. Santorum is not exactly flawless, but I get the sense that Santorum at least tries to let the Faith inform all aspects of his public life. The padre's mail-it-in hatchet job deserves an inquest....

Anatomy of an anti-war puff piece @ protein wisdom:

From the AP’s Jennifer Kerr, “Anti-War Protesters March in Washington: Thousands of Anti-War Demonstrators March in Washington, London; Rallies Planned in L.A., Rome”: ....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 10/01/05 08:21:57 AM
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