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It is the rule in war, if our forces are ten to the enemy's one, to surround him; if five to one, to attack him; if twice as numerous, to divide our army into two.
Sun Tzu (544 BC-496 BC)
If you don't know about Susan Boyle by now -- the never-married, 47-year-old woman who surprised everyone on Britain's Got Talent -- take a look and listen. It will take seven minutes of your busy day, but there's more here than meets the eye.
I dreamed a dream in time gone by When hope was high And life worth living I dreamed that love would never die I dreamed that God would be forgiving Then I was young and unafraid And dreams were made and used and wasted There was no ransom to be paid No song unsung, no wine untasted
But the tigers come at night With their voices soft as thunder As they tear your hope apart And they turn your dream to shame
Watch and read both, and something just might touch your heart.
It's not just about Susan Boyle (though I'm one of millions cheering for her now).
It's about you, too. It' s about the human condition. It's about dreaming dreams. It's about reaching inside for the divine spark tucked away in every human soul. It's about dreams forever lost, and dreams that will still, against all odds, come true.
A while ago I posted several pieces related to this advertisement. I used the ad to highlight the social confusion about sexuality in youth. Efforts to be politically correct seem to be making the confusion worse. Readers who answered my survey guessed the model “looked” about 18.
Now, the model herself gets a chance to weigh in on the topic. Kristen wrote:
"I'm the
model in this ad, I'm 22 now but the picture was taken when I was 21. I
just happen to look young but to say that I look 14 or even 16 is
ridiculous. Thanks."
Thank you very much for posting your comment! I am surprised and honored to be visited by the actual model for this advertisement. Congratulations on your excellent ad.
I am a scientist who is curious about many aspects of our culture. One issue that interests me is why certain things are politically correct, while others are not. Sexuality in youth is particularly confusing.
(1) Some people want to outlaw all sexual feeling for anyone under 18. They are supposed to be completely absent until the 18th birthday. Then they are supposed to appear like a light switch.
Of course this is silly thinking, it doesn’t fit with common sense, and it doesn’t fit with the research on reproductive biology. Humans develop these feelings gradually. Furthermore, these feelings are very difficult to manage for almost everyone.
(2) But there’s another “politically correct” idea that seems to contradict view (1). It says that sexual contact at any age between gays and lesbians is desirable. For example, in the “The Vagina Monologues,” a famous play that is performed all over North America, an adult woman seduces a 13 year-old girl. When the 13 year-old grows up, she decides that was a good experience for her.
(3) Of course, no play could describe an adult man seducing a 13-year old girl, who later decides that was a good experience for her. The play would be banned immediately. If the man was black and the girl was white, the uproar would be worse.
(4) To make matters even more confusing, the laws about “the age of consent” are crazy. They vary from state to state, and they are full of silly, contradictory, and unenforceable laws about who can do what, when and where, and with whom. Clearly, lawmakers and judges can’t make up their minds about what is right or wrong.
(5) In the middle of all this, many young females are depicted in confusing advertisements, movies, and TV programs, where it’s not clear what the message is. The women are 18 or over, but they sometimes look very young.
For example, in the movie “The Lover,” the female actress in the movie is 18, but she looks much younger. The movie is about a 15-year-old French girl, living in Vietnam in the 1920's, who took a wealthy adult Chinese man as a lover. This wasn’t porn, the movie played in regular theaters, and the “art movie” crowd sat through the whole thing without comment.
(6) So I asked our readers if they thought the American Apparel ad was OK. Honestly, Kirsten, to me you looked about 14. I knew you were 18 or over, but my question was how old you looked. Gina Cobb readers guessed that you looked 18.
I chose this particular ad for my study because it was so striking. I certainly didn’t mean to criticize you, or American Apparel. Ads like this are very common, and the ad is socially appropriate. Clothiers have to sell product, and that’s a good thing. It’s good when companies make money, it increases the prosperity of the country.
Models deserve to be paid well for what they do, it’s a very tough business. Furthermore, when models succeed, we all benefit. Our cities are full of beautiful images because of models and advertising. It puts energy on the streets.
(7) But is it possible to make human sexuality “political correct?” If so, how? Right now most people, especially youth, are pretty confused, and I think we should all be ready to talk about the topic. If we don’t discuss it amongst ourselves, we will be confused forever.
(8) In the meantime, I wish you well, and I’m glad you found time to comment on Gina Cobb. The only reason I used your work is because I found it particularly striking, and very well done. I’m sorry if I upset you in any way.
The ancient name for Iraq was Assyria, and Christians have been there a very long time.
http://www.assyrianchristians.com/ Many Assyrian Christians still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. They trace their roots to ancient Nineveh, described in the Bible, when the prophet Jonah was there. Nineveh’s ruins are close to modern-day Mosul. Many Jews lived in Assyria. Christianity emerged at the time of the apostles. The original Assyrian Christian community were among the first to send missionaries to other nations.
picture: the Royal Library at Ninevah
I once met an Assyrian Christian family from Lebanon who spoke Aramaic amongst themselves. Their ancestors came to Lebanon when Babylon collapsed following the death of Alexander the Great (ca. 275 BC).
Under Saddam, Christians faced persecution, threats, and genocide. They were so persecuted, many Christians yearned ceaselessly for the US invasion. They knew many would die in the coming war, but their lives were so horrible they wished for salvation at any cost. Even if they died in the war, some of their people would survive, and that was enough to hope for.
Assyrian-American Rev. Ken Joseph, Jr. tells their story here.
He was a peace activist who came to see war as the only solution to Saddam’s nightmare. After Operation Iraqi Freedom began, things got worse for a while because of the chaos and violence against “infidels.”
But this year is different
World Net Daily notes, “[To] celebrate Christmas 2008, the government formally recognized the Christian faith by sponsoring a Baghdad city-center party featuring a huge poster of Jesus suspended by a balloon and an artist creating oil paintings representing Jesus.”
The main celebration was held at a park in eastern Baghdad, with a Christmas tree and music.
Iraqi Official Khalaf expressed thanks for peace. "Now that we have crossed that hurdle and destroyed the incubators of terrorism... and the security situation is good, we have to go back and strengthen community ties."
Father Saad Sirop Hanna, a Chaldean Christian priest, recalled the 28 days he was held by kidnappers in 2006, because of his Christianity. "We are just attesting that things are changing in Baghdad, slowly, but we hope that this change actually is real. We will wait for the future to tell us the truth about this."
Rev. Ken Joseph said, "It's ironic that this was part of our whole struggle. We have fantastic support from the Iraqi side. They love the Christians... This is what victory looks like. Iraq has settled into what Condoleezza Rice called a 'multi-confessional' society, one that has begun to promote a religious tolerance that is unlike anything seen in that region in decades, if not centuries or ever."
Hot Air commented, "Can anyone imagine this celebration taking place with government support in any other Arab nation — even those normally described as 'moderate'?
Not only does this celebration include the standard secular imagery of Santa Claus, they actually put a picture of Jesus Christ on a hot-air balloon. That's a big deal in a Muslim nation, where they object strenuously (and often violently) to iconography. Suggesting that Iraqis are 'all Christians' on any day would get a Muslim fired or worse anyplace else in the region."
So is it possible for blacks to be racist? Well, yes of course it is. People of any race, color or creed can be racists. Racism is a trait of humanity. It's not linked to skin color.
"A woman claiming she was discriminated against because she is white
is suing the fast-food chain Jack In The Box in a lawsuit filed by the
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in federal court.
Francis
Griffith was called “white trash,” “stupid white b----,” among the many
insults hurled at her by co-workers, according to the lawsuit filed on
Tuesday."
To me, it looks like a major ideological conflict is brewing.
List A. Palin wants female equality everywhere, and that's about it. No bells and whistles, no side issues or frills.
List B. In contrast, feminism has a lot of add-ons. (1) Abortion on demand. (2) Easy access to promiscuity. (3) Easy divorce. (4) Secularized marriage. (5) Homosexual marriage. (6) Emphasis on women working outside the home. (7) De-emphasis on child-rearing. (8) Small families. (9) Female equality in western countries. (10) Extraordinary penalties to be applied to men for any type of sexual harassment, abuse, etc. against women. This excludes any penalties for such behavior related to women toward men, men toward men, and women toward women. The 'A' list is shorter than the 'B' list. Generally it's very hard to get people to do what you want. The more behaviors you ask them to change, the harder it is to get them to do what you want. If we were to ask people to endorse either List 'A' or 'B', most would choose 'A' because it's less work.
I guess it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that a Christian pastor thinks adultery matters, but what does surprise me is that the pastor's comments were published by ABC News.
Jake Tapper's "Political Punch" at ABC News features an excerpt from an interview with Rick Warren today, the pastor at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California and author of the best-selling The Purpose-Driven Life.
Warren, who is generally apolitical, but definitely more on the left side of the political spectrum than the right based on the causes he tends to pursue, is certainly on the same page as I am about interrelationship between marital fidelity and political credibility:
TAPPER: As a political observer and a Christian leader you must have had a personal response to the revelations about John Edwards’ personal life when he admitted he cheated on his wife. What do you think in a time like that? When you hear John Edwards tell Bob Woodruff that he’s right with his wife and he’s right with Jesus and he’s moved on, does that resonate with you or do you think, “That’s not enough, John?”
WARREN: You know, Jake there’s a difference is between forgiveness and trust. And I don’t think people understood this even as far back as, say, the Clinton scandals and things like that. The Bible teaches us that forgiveness must be instant and that we are to forgive people instantly when they sin because of three reasons: first, we’ve been forgiven by God; second, resentment makes you miserable; and third you’re going to need more forgiveness in the future.
“Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who’ve trespassed against us.” So forgiveness has to be immediate but trust has to be rebuilt. Forgiveness is by grace. Trust is by works. And so if a woman’s husband is beating her and he comes back to the door and says, “Will, you forgive me?” She has to forgive him. “Yes, I forgive you.” “Will you let me back into the house?” “No, that’s another matter.”
You have to earn that trust. All leadership is built on trust. It’s built on credibility. If you don’t have credibility, if you don’t have authenticity, if you don’t have trust, you’re not a leader even if you have the title. And the moment you lose the trust of the American public you’re no longer the leader. You may still have the title but you’re not it. It takes years to build trust and you can lose it instantly -- and it takes even longer to rebuild.
John Edwards and others like him have lost the trust of America because they lied, and fundamentally beneath every affair it’s dishonesty, its deceit, its deception. They’re lying to God. They’re lying to themselves. They’re lying to their wives and they’re lying to the public. How do you trust someone who’s constantly lying? You can’t. That’s why it is a myth to say their personal life doesn’t matter. It does matter -- all of leadership is built on credibility.
Warren also emphasizes that trust can be rebuilt over time, and I agree with that. What is wrong in public life these days, however, is Insta-Forgiveness and willful disregard of adultery on the assumption that a politician's dishonesty in his personal life has no relevance to his credibility in public. That is just foolish.
Two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to kneel down and 'pray to Allah' during a religious education lesson.
Parents were outraged that the two boys from year seven (11 to 12-year-olds) were punished for not wanting to take part in the practical demonstration of how Allah is worshipped.
They said forcing their children to take part in the exercise at Alsager High School, near Stoke-on-Trent - which included wearing Muslim headgear - was a breach of their human rights.
Alsager School, near Stoke, has received furious complaints from parents after two Year 7 boys were punished for refusing to kneel to Allah during a religious studies class
One parent, Sharon Luinen, said: "This isn't right, it's taking things too far.
"I understand that they have to learn about other religions. I can live with that but it is taking it a step too far to be punished because they wouldn't join in Muslim prayer.
It's amazing, the amount of trouble that is being perpetrated in the name of "diversity."
What's even more amazing is the bravery and clear-headedness of these two schoolboys, who understood that there are some things important enough to require defying authority.
Would your kids do the same if they were asked to pray to someone else's god?
"1. Men like Blond Bombshells In 15th- and 16th- century Italy, and possibly two millennia ago--women were dying their hair blond... There is evolutionary logic behind each of these features. Men prefer young women in part because they tend to be healthier than older women. One accurate indicator of health is physical attractiveness; another is hair. Healthy women have lustrous, shiny hair, whereas the hair of sickly people loses its luster. Because hair grows slowly, shoulder-length hair reveals several years of a woman's health status.
Men also have a universal preference for women with a low waist-to-hip ratio... A new study of Polish women shows that women with large breasts and tight waists have the greatest fecundity, indicated by their levels of two reproductive hormones (estradiol and progesterone).
Blond hair... changes dramatically with age. Typically, young girls with light blond hair become women with brown hair... Yet preference for blue eyes seems both universal and undeniable-in males as well as females. One explanation is that the human pupil dilates when an individual is exposed to something that she likes... the size of the pupil is easiest to determine in blue eyes. ... It is easiest to determine whether they are interested in us or not.
2. Humans Are Naturally Polygamous Humans are naturally polygamous... polygyny [polygamy] is widely practiced in human societies ... We know that humans have been polygynous throughout most of history because men are taller than women.
Among [many] species, the degree of polygyny highly correlates with the degree to which males of a species are larger than females... Typically, human males are 10 percent taller and 20 percent heavier than females. This suggests that, throughout history, humans have been mildly polygynous.
3. Most Women [Actually] Benefit from Polygyny, While Most Men Benefit from Monogamy When there is resource inequality among men--the case in every human society--most women benefit from polygyny: women can share a wealthy man. Under monogamy, they are stuck with marrying a poorer man.
The only exceptions are extremely desirable women. Under monogamy, they can monopolize the wealthiest men; under polygyny, they must share the men with other, less desirable women. However, the situation is exactly opposite for men. Monogamy guarantees that every man can find a wife. True, less desirable men can marry only less desirable women, but that's much better than not marrying anyone at all.
4. Most Suicide Bombers Are Muslim [and here's why] According to the Oxford University sociologist Diego Gambetta, editor of Making Sense of Suicide Missions, a comprehensive history of this troubling yet topical phenomenon, while suicide missions are not always religiously motivated, when religion is involved, it is always Muslim. Why is this? Why is Islam the only religion that motivates its followers to commit suicide missions?
The surprising answer from the evolutionary psychological perspective is that Muslim suicide bombing may have nothing to do with Islam or the Koran (except for two lines in it). It may have nothing to do with the religion, politics, the culture, the race, the ethnicity, the language, or the region. As with everything else from this perspective, it may have a lot to do with sex, or, in this case, the absence of sex.
What distinguishes Islam from other major religions is that it tolerates polygyny. By allowing some men to monopolize all women and altogether excluding many men from reproductive opportunities, polygyny creates shortages of available women. If 50 percent of men have two wives each, then the other 50 percent don't get any wives at all.
So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.
However, polygyny itself is not a sufficient cause of suicide bombing. Societies in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean are much more polygynous than the Muslim nations in the Middle East and North Africa. And they do have very high levels of violence. Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from a long history of continuous civil wars-but not suicide bombings.
The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam. The prospect of exclusive access to virgins may not be so appealing to anyone who has even one mate on earth, which strict monogamy virtually guarantees. However, the prospect is quite appealing to anyone who faces the bleak reality on earth of being a complete reproductive loser.
It is the combination of polygyny and the promise of a large harem of virgins in heaven that motivates many young Muslim men to commit suicide bombings. Consistent with this explanation, all studies of suicide bombers indicate that they are significantly younger than not only the Muslim population in general but other (nonsuicidal) members of their own extreme political organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah. And nearly all suicide bombers are single.
5. Having Sons Reduces the Likelihood of Divorce [a small amount] Sociologists and demographers have discovered that couples who have at least one son face significantly less risk of divorce than couples who have only daughters. Why is this?
Since a man's mate value is largely determined by his wealth, status, and power... the father has to make sure that his son will inherit his wealth, status, and power, regardless of how much or how little of these resources he has. In contrast, there is relatively little that a father (or mother) can do to keep a daughter youthful or make her more physically attractive.
The continued presence of (and investment by) the father is therefore important for the son, but not as crucial for the daughter. The presence of sons thus deters divorce and departure of the father from the family more than the presence of daughters, and this effect tends to be stronger among wealthy families."
_______________________
DemocracyRules Notes:
These findings need to be seen in appropriate context. The authors' main argument is that human nature is not congruent with the "socialist narrative".
The phenomena discussed represent human tendencies, and humans routinely depart from these tendencies. Angelina Jolie is a celebrated beauty but she is a brown eyed brunette.
The new research fits better with the Bible than radical feminism. For example the rules of marriage, fidelity, and adultery tell us to use our big brains to control and channel our natural human anti-social tendencies. Unchanneled, humans can wreck society. If you read a Commandment and compare it to human behavioral research, it helps clarify why that Commandment exists.
The research shows why the Bible and moral guidance are important. It also shows that the struggle to be a good person must be renewed in each generation, because unchanneled human nature would wreck society.
LONDON (Reuters) - Soul singer Amy Winehouse has developed the lung condition emphysema and has been warned by doctors that she will die if she continues smoking drugs, her father said in an interview on Sunday.
Mitch Winehouse said the incurable illness, which leaves sufferers struggling for breath, was diagnosed when his daughter had series of health checks in hospital.
"The doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won't just ruin her voice, it will kill her," he was quoted as saying in the Sunday Mirror. "The doctors have said that if she had continued the way she was going she could have ended up an invalid -- she wouldn't have been able to breathe."
He added: "She's got emphysema. It's in its early stages, but had it gone on for another month they painted a very vivid picture of her sitting there like an old person with a mask on her face struggling to breathe.
"With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes, her lungs are all gunked up. There are nodules around the chest and dark marks. She's got 70 percent lung capacity."
He added that a spell in hospital last week and renewed treatment for her well-publicized drug addiction had offered a ray of hope for his 24-year-old daughter.
"If she doesn't go back to drugs, then she can lead this magnificent life," he said. "We are praying that that's what Amy really wants. She seems resolute."
He called on drug dealers to help her recovery by refusing to supply her with crack cocaine.
Good luck with that. Counting on drug dealers not to sell drugs is a bit of a stretch.
With any luck, this wake-up call will help Winehouse turn a corner -- and help others avoid the same fate.
That's right, Michelle Obama wrote the passage in the posting below. Of course I reversed "white" and "Black". Here are the results of my survey about the "white" version of this passage. The "Black" version that Michelle wrote follows here:
"Earlier in my college career, there was no doubt in my mind that as a member of the Black community I was somehow obligated to this community and would use all of my present and future resources to benefit this community first and foremost. My experiences at Princeton have made me more aware of my "Blackness" than ever before. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community," page 2
These experiences have made it apparent to me that the path I have chosen to follow by attending Princeton will likely lead to my further integration and/or assimilation into a White cultural and social structure that will only allow me to remain on the periphery of society. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community," page 2
Elements of Black culture which make it unique from White culture such as its music, its language, the struggles and a "consciousness" shared by its people may be attributed to the injustices and oppression suffered by this race of people which are not comparable to the experiences of any other race of people through this country's history. However, with the increasing integration of Blacks into the mainstream society, many "integrated Blacks" have lost touch with the Black culture in their attempts to become adjusted and comfortable in their new culture-the White culture. Some of these Blacks are no longer able to enjoy the qualities which make Black culture so unique or are unable to share their culture openly with other Blacks because they have become so far removed from these experiences and, in some instances, ashamed of them because of their integration. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson [Obama], "Princeton Educated Blacks and the Black Community," page 54
Hiding Evidence of Global Cooling The content of these e-mails raises extremely serious questions that could end the academic careers of many prominent professors
Obama’s Trumped-Up Job Count Flunks Science Test The incentives are all wrong. They encourage districts to take the money and report healthy job creation in the hope of qualifying for more funds. Why didn’t anyone think of this in advance?
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