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Is Lutheranism ‘Broken’?

Broken.250w.tnFor we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. — Ephesians 2:10

Over at the Gospel Coalition site, David Snyder, whose work I am otherwise unfamiliar with, has a review of the Reverend Jonathan Fisk’s new bookBroken. Snyder is a Baptist who lays his doctrinal cards on the table as he details what he considers both the strengths and weaknesses of the book. All told, it is a respectful assessment of Fisk’s work and a model for cross-confessional polemics.

I enjoy Rev. Fisk’s Worldview Everlasting webcasts and have even been asked to review Broken (work loads, alas, have prevented my doing so as of yet). So I am approaching this as someone who has not yet read the book, only snippets.

Fisk, for those unfamiliar with his video oeuvre, is a Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) pastor, and with that in mind, something Snyder wrote rocked me back on my heels: “Broken does a great job of exposing false gospels, but also tends to underestimate the power of the true one.”

Ouch. Read the rest of this entry »

 

‘Aliens’ May Have Originated on Earth, Specifically Bensonhurst

“You’re not the illegal aliens I was talking about, but OK, whatever…”

Attention all you alien hunters, you E.T. philes, you … nutters. Your Martian overlords may in fact have come from your very own zip code:

A newly discovered gravitational process called “weak transfer” indicates that the Earth was once capable of sending slow-moving, microbe-carrying rocks out of the solar system. As a result, astrobiologists are now wondering if our planet has spawned life elsewhere.

Proponents of the panspermia hypothesis have spent most of their time trying to understand how an incoming object may have given rise to life on Earth. The basic idea is that a microbe-laden meteorite landed here billions of years ago, resulting in a kind of extraterrestrial genesis.

Now, as with all paradigm-shifting theories, there are problems:

A fundamental problem with this theory, however, is how such a meteorite could make the journey from a neighboring solar system. According to the lithopanspermia theory, microorganisms may have been ejected into space after a planet suffered a cataclysmic impact with an asteroid, or by virtue of a powerful volcanic eruption. Most scientists don’t contest this possibility — but what the pre-existing models have shown is that it is excruciatingly rare for microbe-laden ejecta to escape the gravity well of a solar system.

I will get excited about this stuff the minute anyone actually discovers life on another planet.

But that’s just me.

BTW, remember that Area 51 event scheduled for September 22, when we (that’s the plebeian “we,” as opposed to the royal “we,” which is to say, really you, or youish) were going to learn the Truth about what the government has been covering up out there? Has anyone seen any news on this? I can only find announcements in anticipation of the shindig. Was everyone scooped up by the Mother Ship?? Bueller…? Bueller…?

 

If One Is Born Every Minute, How Many Are Avoiding Taxes Every April 15?

Another false religion. Don't bite.

Another false religion. Don't bite.

Jim Carrey is a “priest” of a new Hollywood-based “religion” called GATE that preaches self-deification. I thought Hollywood had already gotten that religion. As with Scientology, follow the money.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is pronounced the winner of Iranian elections. And this surprises you because …?

Never exorcise at home.

Six-thousand-year-old tombs have been found near Stonehenge. One headstone reads “Beloved father, husband, wicker salesman.”

German teen hit by meterorite. Now has three superpowers, including ability to invade Poland without secret Russian alliance.

Which Apple-rumors site is most accurate? How about the one that predicted that Macmaniacs will believe virtually anything if it entails more RAM?

North Korea has declared it will “weaponize” its plutonium. Webster’s has declared that North Korea must stop verbizizing nouns.

Reading this blog every day will make you smarter. It’s now a proven scientific fact. You will also live forever, make $720,000 more than you would have otherwise, and gain the love and devotion of countless, nameless millions. Your gift for hyperbole will also expand exponentially.

And finally, Joy Behar is getting her own talk show. Where are all the anti-torture voices now?

 

If You’re a Genius and You Know It, Clap One Hand

real_geniusThe value of your work as a scientist will now be evaluated Technorati-style — based on how many times someone links to it, literally or figuratively.

Mormons are using their missionary positions in strangers’ homes. And get your mind out of the gutter.

Millions of TVs are turning into a static-ridden haze of lifelessness today. Twenty bucks no one notices a thing.

Crazy-like-a-lox is claiming victory in Iran. It was his promise to exterminate all his political rivals that gave him that much needed edge in the last days of the election.

My Name Is Earl is no more. That’s what happens when you try to burn your karma on a manure spit.

Daniel Baldwin was voted off the island when someone finally realized he wasn’t his younger brother Jeff.

Al-Qaeda is moving. Seeking condo or co-op without doorman, preferably below ground, poor lighting.

CofE bishop wants Christians to make Christianity attractive to unbelievers, just as the first generation did when they were set alight by Caligula’s minions.

And finally, 1984 turns 60. Which would make everyone born in 1960 84.

O.K., I’m outta here.

 

Please Make It Stop

2731251I thought Monty Python had a copyright on the dirty vicar.

David Carradine deserved better than this. I think. I hope.

I can see why the guy who played William Wallace Rob Roy would want to play Hannibal — but why this one?

The Reverend Wright — the president’s former pastor — says he meant Zionists when he said Jews. I believe that’s the distinction all left-wing anti-Semites make, but I could be mistaken.

Windows 7 is going IE-free in the EU. That’ll teach those anti-monopolist bastards. Try registering your OS online now! Ah ha ha ha ha ha ha! AHHHHH HA HA HA HA HA HA!

A rock star stopped Twittering when he realized there are people who like to say nasty things to celebrities. One down, 762 to go.

And finally — when it’s your time to go, it is your time to go.

 

And Now for Something Amazingly Similar

jones-tom-photo-tom-jones-6227825Tom Jones is outed as more English than he is Welsh. Riots expected.

Speaking of English, it now possesses 1 million words in its vocabulary, more than any other language group. The world community has expressed outrage, declaring it Scrabble neo-imperialism.

Speaking of imperialism, Khaddafi is visiting Italy with a photo of the anti-Italian guerilla fighter Omar al-Mukhtar pinned to his chest. That would be the Omar al-Mukhtar who lost. To Italy.

Fake friends are available for rent. But they’ll all be Japanese. Fine by me. My real friends charge me anyway.

Why does Iron Man II look like Mad Max III?

For that matter, will Jack Black play Harcourt Fenton Mudd? And will Clint Howard play himself?

iPhone owners hate AT&T. AT&T hates them back. But not more than Verizon hates its customers. Cell phones are just conduits of hate. I hate them.

Mayor Ray Nagin has been released from his Chinese quarantine. “‘On behalf of my family and the citizens of New Orleans, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to the medical officials in Shanghai, Shanghai Officials, the US Embassy and others for prioritizing the health and safety of myself, my wife, Mrs. Nagin and the city’s law enforcement officer. Thank you. Thank you,’ [Nagin's] statement reads.” Wow. Is the health care in Louisiana that bad?

Jon Voight calls the president a false prophet. Obamas delete Transformers from Netflix queue in protest.

Over at NRO, Mark Hemingway reviews the memoir of a child of revolutionaries sent to prison for trying to rob a Brinks truck in 1981. Chesa Boudin was subsequently raised by Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. I stumbled on this link just as I finished watching The Weather Underground, a 2002 documentary about the radical leftist group that broke off from the Students for a Democratic Society to blow things up. (Todd Gitlin, a “New Left activist,” appears in the film to provide context and critique from the left.) Ayers, of course, was a member of the group, along with his wife. They emerged from hiding when they finally realized no one cared who they were anymore.

Your computer is trying to kill you. But you knew that already.

Australian comedy troupe famous for mocking the apparently unmockable have finally been censured/censored for making fun of dying children. Can a fascist dictatorship be far behind? (But then again, it’s fascists who love making fun of the unfit and infirm … this is a conundrum …)

Chrysler is now Fiat. Except it’s still Chrysler. But Fiat remains Fiat. And Leon’s getting la-a-a-a-a-r-r-r-ger.

For the high-tech Luddites among us.

Charles Krauthammer declares FOX News to be an alternate reality. You mean there’s such a thing as reality to begin with? On TV?

Atomic Nutboy defines pot calling kettle black.

We officially have more czars than all the Russias had in all their history. Enough. Already. With the czars.

Woman throws out mattress with $1 million stuffed in it. Landfills turn up nothing. And you thought you were having a bad day.

 
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Posted by on June 10, 2009 in I Read It on the InterWeb, Missing Links

 

It’s Been That Kind of Week. Again.

Three Dog Night tribute band

Three Dog Night tribute band

Another reason not to own a pet: they all secretly want to kill you.

Oprah says she is not a purveyor of snake oil – which is too bad for purveyors of snake oil, as they could really cash in if she were.

Pastor asks congregants to bring their weapons to church just in case his sermon goes past the 45-minute mark. (Also, what’s more objectionable, that a pastor would want a group of people sitting on hard wooden planks and facing him as he threatens them with hellfire to be armed, or that the Telegraph would refer to him as a priest, revealing an Anglican bias?)

Woman who sued Capt. Crunch because he failed to provide mythical crunchberries in his box of crunchberry cereal has lost her case. The concept of the frivolous lawsuit is, alas, not mythical. (Although, we now know why the good captain has never made admiral. Crunchberry indeed …)

As I reported in the dark recesses of history past, R. Crumb has illustrated the Book of Genesis. Turns out he also consults the Gospel of Thomas and the Book of Ecclesiastes when he is searching for spiritual succor, which any sucker will tell you is the last place to look for such a thing.

Our fearless leader expresses sympathy/empathy for Islam, then demands that centuries-old North African and Near Eastern Christian churches/institutions that were destroyed during imperial Muslim invasions be restored. Just kidding…

 
 
 
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