musing minds

Newdow: One of his reasons for continuing with his suit against prayer at the inauguration is that listening to a prayer will “force him to accept unwanted religious beliefs.” How exactly does hearing a prayer force anyone to accept anything? I have been to a bar mitzvah, spent the entire time in a synagogue, listening to prayers. I wasn’t converted to Judaism, nor forced to accept anything.

Boxer & Botox: They voted against Condi. Botox said he was making a statement, he had to “vote his gut”. It’s amazing how Boxer so conveniently forgot that the resolution contained at least seven reasons to go to Iraq.

BOXER: Well, you should you read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period. That was the reason and the causation for that particular vote.

Joint Resolution here.

Biden: He insulted Condi by suggesting that she would hold a grudge against him in the future if he didn’t vote for her now.

Kellipundit reports that 6th grade math scores are steadily declining in Newton, Mass. It seems that the school district is teaching anti-racist multicultural math.

In 2001 Mr. Young, Mrs. Wyatt and an assortment of other well-paid school administrators, defined the new number-one priority for teaching mathematics, as documented in the curriculum benchmarks, “Respect for Human Differences – students will live out the system wide core of ‘Respect for Human Differences’ by demonstrating anti-racist/anti-bias behaviors.” It continues, “Students will: Consistently analyze their experiences and the curriculum for bias and discrimination; Take effective anti-bias action when bias or discrimination is identified; Work with people of different backgrounds and tell how the experience affected them; Demonstrate how their membership in different groups has advantages and disadvantages that affect how they see the world and the way they are perceived by others…” It goes on and on.(/snip)

Gee, and I thought math was 1 + 1 = 2 and 2 x 4 = 8…

Ann Althouse watched so we don’t have to. Ann Althouse Live-blogged the Golden Globes last night. I’m glad I didn’t watch.

“Life and Death of Peter Sellers” wins. Actually, it did have the best clip. Three boring producer guys make their way to the stage while we hear the record “What’s New Pussycat?” Speech: booooorrrrrinnnnngggggggg.

The Anchoress‘ brother, “S”, passed away this morning. She and her family have my condolences and prayers.

Dodger’s sleeping but Bitsy looks interested…

(not photoshopped – my Mother bought me the book [review {BlogFlog} to follow])

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost is posting on the Dutch Euthanasia decision by the Royal Dutch Medical Association that doctors ought to be able to help those “suffering through living” to have doctor assisted suicide.

There will always be utterly selfish people who think that suicide is the way out of any trouble they’re in. They don’t think through to all the trouble that they leave behind.

This seems to give those who would commit suicide some kind of validation of their selfish determination to end their life. “Oh, you lost your job and can’t pay your bills? I diagnose suffering through living. Here’s a presciption for something that will end your suffering by ending your life.” Depending on your particular views of an afterlife this might end your suffering, or it might be only the beginning…

Drew at Darn Floor wrote on this a while ago and I linked to his post in this post of mine.

One of the commenters (Mark O) on Joe’s post reminds us of Romans 5:3-5

³Not only so, but we^[a] also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope.
⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

As seen on Special Report with Brit Hume yesterday (paraphrased, but accurate):

Teddy Kennedy – the new senator from Illinois – Osama bin Ladin
I mean Osama Obama,
Oh, Obama.

I have heard from a couple of people that they couldn’t read my blog in Firefox (everything was squeezed down the left side) so I changed the template. I have also downloaded and used Firefox to check that it is now readable.

You can download Firefox for free here.

Direct Link to The Captain’s campaign. As of 7:30 am CST 1/13/05 the total is $34,223.16!

From the News & Observer in NC (last three paragraphs of story):

Taxpayers may be able to deduct donations to victims of the South Asian tsunami if contributions are made to tax-exempt U.S. charities. But these organizations must have “full control and discretion over the use of such funds,” according to the IRS.

Donations to individual victims or foreign charities that do not qualify as tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code cannot be claimed.

Taxpayers making donations through Jan. 31, 2005, to aid tsunami victims will be able to claim deductions on their 2004 tax returns under legislation the House and Senate cleared Thursday for President Bush’s signature. Otherwise taxpayers would have to wait until 2006 to claim a tax deduction for tsunami contributions made this month.

So donations made to help The Captain with World Relief Day can be deducted on your 2004 taxes. Keep those donations coming…

Other stories on this site related to Tsunami aid:

US aid $350 million and counting – Updated
Another way to help with Tsunami Aid
Watch out for Tsunami Aid Fraud

The Anchoress has Dan Ra^ther’s ra^ther lame response to the “Report” (via TKS [formerly known as The Kerry Spot]). I agree that it’s lame, about as lame as his “apology”.

Lest anyone have any doubt, I have read the report, I take it seriously, and I shall keep its lessons well in mind.

Dan Rather

Of course the Report didn’t find any evidence of political bias, and that’s what he’s really interested in.