Did I Miss Something Here?

What is going on with Blogger? Anyone else notice weird changes when you go to other blogs?
Help me out?

On to other business: POTUS speech tonight (Barry Obama's speech for those not in Clancy speak).

My analogy: He is trying to get by on smoke and mirrors and hope and change and "if we all just share a Coke and a Smile, it will all be ok". Of course if it does not go ok, then it will all be George W. Bush's fault!!!
Loved Bobby Jindal's Republican reply. This guy, not Sarah Palin, is the NEW face of the Republican Party, watch him go!

Christians: What are you Hiding?

I was struck recently by some of the passages of scripture I was reading, that we as Christians probably "hide" a lot of our behavior, habits and activities from others, but we can't hide them from God.
This of course brings us into the "what's moral for you is not moral for me" argument, but I am challenged to think, "will it cause my brother" or perhaps a non-believer who looks up to me (for whatever reason) to miss seeing the Cross due to my behavior?
The easy ones are drinking, smoking, overeating, but what "hidden" things might there be?
Now I am not calling out any of these things as "sin". I am looking for discussion on how does our behavior, habits or activities, might be construed as "immoral" to our brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as those who KNOW we call ourselves Christians, yet they might be confused by our outward appearance.
This is a discussion post today, so, DISCUSS!

FACEBOOK EXPOSES ITS LIBERAL BIAS

As a user of Facebook I may have to rethink my use. The owners of Facebook have pulled a PAID ad for the following website: http://www.nostimulus.com

NoStimulus.com, which is promoting a petition to stop President Obama’s economic stimulus bill, is sponsored by the nonprofit conservative group Americans for Prosperity. Phil Kerpen, national policy director for Americans for Prosperity, said the paid ad had been running for days on Facebook with no problem. “They had already screened it and approved it,” says Kerpen. The petition featured in NoStimulus.com allows for those who oppose the stimulus bill to voice their objections, which are then sent to their respective lawmakers. “Congress should not enact an expensive spending bill under the pretense of stimulus or recovery,” reads the petition. “We cannot spend our way to prosperity, and such an expansion of the federal government will put a crushing burden on taxpayers in the long-term.” Once the NoStimulus.com Web site started getting a large volume of visitors, Kerpen told CNSNews.com, “they put a disapproval notice on it and they pulled the ad." Kerpen said Facebook told Americans for Prosperity that the ad violated two of its advertising rules – Rules 8 and 9. Rule 8 says that ads may not “contain, facilitate or promote “adult” content or content that is “offensive, profane, vulgar, obscene or inappropriate” or “defamatory, libelous, slanderous and/or unlawful.” Rule 9 prohibits a variety of content, including: --“Inflammatory religious content”; -- “Politically religious agendas and/or any known associations with hate, criminal and/or terrorist activities”; -- “Political content that exploits political agendas or uses ‘hot button’ political issues for commercial use regardless of whether the advertiser has a political agenda”; --“Hate speech, whether directed at an individual or a group, and whether based upon the race, sex, creed, national origin, religious affiliation, marital status, sexual orientation or language of such individual or group”; -- and “Content that advocates against any organization, person, or group of people, with the exception of candidates running for public office.” But Facebook, which confirmed that it took “NoStimulus.com” down, told CNSNews.com that it did so because of user complaints--and did not mention any violations of Rules 8 or 9. “At Facebook, we strive to create a trusted environment for our users and advertisers,” Facebook spokeswoman Erin Zietler said in an e-mail. “We encourage users to report any advertisements they find offensive or misleading, and we offer the ability for them to provide immediate feedback on our ads. We have a team dedicated to investigating ads and user complaints. “In this case, users informed us about misleading offers in many ads with promotions related to the U.S. economic stimulus package,” the spokeswoman said. “We are in the process of removing ads with these types of misleading offers as they are brought to our attention.” Kerpen, meanwhile, said that Facebook’s decision to bring down the ad bordered on censorship and was “completely inappropriate, because we are not commercial; we are a non-profit organization,” he said.

It's Charles Darwin's Birthday. Evolution: Do you Believe?

It's Darwin's birthday, and Gallup has a new poll out on belief in Evolution. So, I will let the poll speak for itself. Basically, if you are a regular church attendee, you are a moron. If you don't have a college education, you are "uninformed"! You're gonna love these results.

PRINCETON, NJ -- On the eve of the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, a new Gallup Poll shows that only 39% of Americans say they "believe in the theory of evolution," while a quarter say they do not believe in the theory, and another 36% don't have an opinion either way. These attitudes are strongly related to education and, to an even greater degree, religiosity.

There is a strong relationship between education and belief in Darwin's theory, as might be expected, ranging from 21% of those with high-school educations or less to 74% of those with postgraduate degrees.

Those with high-school educations or less are much more likely to have no opinion than are those who have more formal education. Still, among those with high-school educations or less who have an opinion on Darwin's theory, more say they do not believe in evolution than say they believe in it. For all other groups, and in particular those who have at least a college degree, belief is significantly higher than nonbelief.

Darwin's theory has been at the forefront of religious debate since he published On the Origin of Species 150 years ago. Even to this day, highly religious individuals claim that the theory of evolution contradicts the story of creation as outlined in the book of Genesis in the Bible.

Thus, it comes as no surprise to find that there is a strong relationship between church attendance and belief in evolution in the current data. Those who attend church most often are the least likely to say they believe in evolution.

Previous Gallup research shows that the rate of church attendance is fairly constant across educational groups, suggesting that this relationship is not owing to an underlying educational difference but instead reflects a direct influence of religious beliefs on belief in evolution.

Younger Americans, who are less likely to be religious than those who are older, are also more likely to believe in evolution. Still, just about half of those aged 18 to 34 say they believe in evolution.

Awareness of Darwin's Association With Evolution

Before respondents in the current poll were asked about their belief in evolution, they were tested to see whether they could correctly associate evolution with Darwin. The results show that 55% of Americans can correctly name evolution (or another term closely associated with evolution, such as natural selection) when asked with which theory they associate Darwin.

Again, as would be expected, correct identification of Darwin with his scientific theory is highly related to education.

Correct identification zooms from only 31% among those with no more than a high school education all the way to 86% among those with postgraduate educations.

Americans who seldom or never attend church are slightly, but not overwhelmingly, more likely to correctly identify Darwin with this theory than are those who attend more often.

Correctly identifying the theory of evolution with Darwin is related to belief in the theory, but 29% of those who correctly link the two still say they do not believe in evolution. Of those who don't know or are unsure which theory Darwin is associated with, almost two-thirds also don't have an opinion on evolution, while those who do have an opinion are split down the middle as to whether they believe it.

Implications

As Darwin is being lauded as one of the most important scientists in history on the 200th anniversary of his birth (on Feb. 12, 1809), it is perhaps dismaying to scientists who study and respect his work to see that well less than half of Americans today say they believe in the theory of evolution, and that just 55% can associate the man with his theory.

Naturally, some of this is because of educational differences. Americans who have lower levels of formal education are significantly less likely than others to be able to identity Darwin with his theory, and to have an opinion on it either way. Still, the evidence is clear that even to this day, Americans' religious beliefs are a significant predictor of their attitudes toward Darwin's theory. Those who attend church most often are the least likely to believe in evolution, and most likely to say they do not believe in it.

Survey Methods

Results are based on telephone interviews with 1,018 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted Feb. 6-7, 2009, as part of Gallup Poll Daily tracking. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on land-line telephones (for respondents with a land-line telephone) and cellular phones (for respondents who are cell-phone only).

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is as DUMB as a ROCK!

Ok, listen closely to the video's audio.

What did she say? Every month that we don't have an economic stimulus package, what happens?

PELOSI: Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs.

500 million Americans lose their job every single month we don't have an economic stimulus package.

Now if I'm remembering correctly, the entire U.S. workforce is about 140 million people. So we're talking about in one month from now, just in one month, 30 days there will be negative 360 million workers in America.

I'm not a mathametician. I know Ben Bernanke has studied those things but that's more than 25% unemployment.

So, by the end of this month, everyone in America, including your children's children's children, will have lost their jobs.

This is what the media is not telling you. They are not telling you about the 500 million jobs that are being lost just this month.

What -- where is the New York Times exposing that by the end of the year, all six billion people on the planet will be unemployed if we don't have a stimulus package?

PELOSI: Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs.

I didn't realize that. Wow. A billion people are going to lose their jobs by the end of next month.

If you just do the math, you are talking about by Valentine's Day, 250 million people, almost the entire population of this country is going to lose their job in this country.

Let me ask you this. By Valentine's Day let's say we don't pass this stimulus package, there will be people on other planets that will lose their jobs because the United States congress, those darn Republicans, stood in the way.

Every second that passes by, 11,574 people lose their job, 11,000 people per second.

Wow, I feel a whole lot better knowing Nancy Pelosi is ON THE JOB!

Micheal Phelps...Olympic Hero or Dopehead?

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have probably heard that Micheal Phelps, winner of 8 gold medals in the 2008 Olympics, was caught on camera smoking from a big ol' bong recently.
Those who are uninitiated in the "art" of pot smoking will not recognize or even be aware of what he is doing, but for some of us, it brings back OLD memories.
He is VERY familiar with what he is doing, which of course says, this is not the first time.
He has apologized (as it seems EVERYONE can do nowadays) and hopes to "move on".
Once again, another great example for the kiddies huh?
I don't want to hear lame excuses for him too. I read 200 of them on various sports websites and they are all pathetic. Either you approve of him smoking pot or you don't.
Sad statement, but welcome to the New America!