Month: August 2007

  • Banning Fat Chicks

    An overweight woman was banned from a bar recently because she was overweight.

    Jenny Dionne was at the bar but then left for a smoke break.  She wasn’t allowed back in.  She said that one of the staff of the bar said she wasn’t allowed back in because she was overweight.

    Dionne wrote a letter to the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission.  She felt she was wrongly discriminated against.  The response of the commission was they couldn’t do anything unless her weight was due to a disability.  She was shocked that it wasn’t considered discrimination.  Here is the link:  Link

    Is it discrimination to not allow overweight people in a bar?

     

  • Divorce

    Pastors Randy and Paula White announced before their congregation that they were getting a divorce.

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    They are the pastors of a 22,000 member church that they founded.  Randy said he would still be the pastor of the church.  He said he “would focus on being a ‘great pastor’ and a ‘great dad.’”  Here is the link:  Link

    I Timothy 3:4 gives one of the qualifications for a pastor.  It says that a pastor must be “one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity.”  This is a passage that is used with others by some to say that a person cannot be a pastor and be divorced.

    Can a man be a good pastor and be divorced?

     

     

  • How a Presidential Candidate Can Use Myspace to Potentially Win an Election

    When I watch presidential candidates on youtube, Myspace and Facebook, I can’t help but to think that most of them are using social networks sites in order to appear relevant.  Yet I have not seen one of them use my plan for winning a presidential election by using Myspace.

    Let me explain.  If you watch the candidates, they are all opening themselves up for friends on myspace.  They are doing the same on Facebook and then they are running videos on youtube.  Some of them are paying money for their political videos to be featured on youtube so that they get a ton of hits.

    I think the youtube strategy is actually pretty strong.  It gets out their name and people watch those videos.  It shapes an image of the candidates being up to date and projects the image that they are “cool” on the Internet.

    But when I watch the candidates on Myspace, I see a flaw in their strategy.  All the candidates are doing is accepting friends blindly and trying to rack up their totals.  So they can have bragging rights of having 100,000-200,000 friends.  What does that do for the candidate?  Chances are it does very little.  It might add some volunteers and it may even get them a few donations.

    But the real power to use Myspace in the election would be to isolate the strategy to two states.  Those two states are Iowa and New Hampshire.

    Why do I pick Iowa and New Hampshire?

    Let me show you.  Iowa and New Hampshire have a huge impact on picking the presidential candidate for each party.  I am going to show you that a candidate must be in the top three in New Hampshire or/and Iowa in order to be president.  There will be those that will tell you that all the other states have moved up their primaries this year.  So that means Iowa and New Hampshire are less important.  I don’t think that is true.  I actually think that moving up the primaries in the other states will actually cause Iowa and New Hampshire to be even more powerful in picking the president.

    Here are the results of the Republican Iowa caucus over the past several years:

    Republicans

    Look at 2004.  President Bush was unopposed.  Look at 2000.  President Bush won the Iowa Caucus.  He went on to be the party nominee.  Look at 1996.  Bob Dole won and he went on to be the presidential candidate.  Look at 1992.  George H.W. Bush was unopposed and he became the party nominee.  Look at 1988.  In that year, George H.W. Bush was in third place and went on to be the nominee.  So even in 1988, my theory holds.  Look at 1984.  Ronald Reagan is unopposed.  Look at 1980.  Ronald Reagan comes in second.  He is only 2% behind George H.W. Bush but he is still in the top 2.  Look at 1976.  Gerald Ford wins and he goes on to be the nominee.

    Now lets look at the Results of the New Hampshire Primaries in the last several years.

    Republicans

    Look at 2004.  President Bush is unopposed.  He wins the party nomination.  Look at 2000.  President Bush comes in second place.  He is the parties nomination.  (New Hampshire has a history of going against the frontrunner.  Look at 1996.  Bob Dole comes in second place.  (Once again, you can see how New Hampshire goes against the frontrunner).  But Bob Dole is still in second place and wins the nomination.  Look at 1992.  George W. H. Bush wins and goes on to be the party nominee.  Look at 1988.  George W. H. Bush wins and goes on to be the party nominee.  Look at 1984.  Ronald Reagan is unopposed.  Ronald Reagan wins the nomination. 

    I don’t have to go any farther.  You get the point.  A candidate for the Republican party wants to be in the top 3 in Iowa and New Hampshire.  In fact, a Republican candidate is looking best if he wins Iowa and is in the top two for New Hampshire.

     

    Now we will look at the Democrats for the Iowa Caucas:

    Democrats

    It has been a little more unpredictable on the Democrats side  You can see Bill Clinton was down in Iowa in 1992 with a very low vote but he was still just barely in the top 3.  That year, no one even tried to win on the Democrat’s side in Iowa because Tom Harkin was from Iowa and it was pointless to try to beat him.  So he won easily.   You can see that Michael Dukakis is in the number 3 position in 1988.  But they were still in the top three.  So Iowa is a little less accurate in picking a Democrat for president but the top 3 is important.

    Now lets look at New Hampshire for the Demcrats.

    Democrats

    Do you see who won in 2004?  It is John Kerry.  Al Gore wins 2000.  Bill Clinton is unopposed in 1996.  Bill Clinton jumps up to the number two spot in 1992 and even though he loses to Paul Tsongas, he looks like the winner. 

    Now go ahead and check the rest of the results.

    So a presidential candidate must be in the top three of either Iowa or New Hampshire.  He/she should probably be in the top three for both.  He or she should probably win one or the other but it doesn’t have to happen that way.  But the candidate has to be in the top three.

    So despite the fact that we go through this whole election, the major candidates are narrowed down to a few after Iowa and New Hampshire.

    So a candidate will need to be in the top three but will probably want to be in the top two and win one or the other.  The reason is the media focuses in on the top people at that point.  So they are getting free attention.  In addition to that, the candidates start running out of money.  They need the money they will get from this free publicity.

     

    Now this is where Myspace comes in.  These candidates are adding a few hundred thousand friends.  What will this do for them?  It will give them a cool look but it will not do much.

    But if a candidate set up a Myspace account in every area code in Iowa and New Hampshire, they would gain an advantage over the other candidates.  What they would need to do is set up the accounts and try to friend everyone in each zip code.  This sounds like a lot of work but over the course of a couple of months, a handful of volunteers can do it.  60% of those people will be under 18.  So the candidate will ignore them.  They can’t vote.  A real smart candidate will offer myspace a million or two to send out a mass friend request to everyone.  But even if myspace refuses to do that, they can have volunteers do it.  The “search” section of myspace only shows people that are 18 and older anyway.

    So the candidate gains all of these friends.  Now the candidate has a few months.  The candidate must find out how to mobilize these voters in Iowa and New Hampshire.  The New Hampshire vote is a popular vote.  So whoever gets the most votes wins.  So the candidate will want to test a few of the zip codes.  He/she will have hundreds of them.  He/she will want to try to get all of his friends to come out to a trial vote.  He/she will want to find out what is most effective at mobilizing voters on myspace.  He/she will try food, dinners and everything else.  Only a fraction of the people will show up for all this work.  But you can imagine the impact this can have on the primary if just a few votes are gained in each zip code.

     

  • Mother Teresa and Doubt

    Some letters that Mother Teresa had written during her life are being released.

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    In those letters, it is said that Mother Teresa expressed doubts about her faith.  In one of those letters, Mother Teresa is said to have actually doubted “the existence of heaven and even of God.”  Here is the link:  Link

    If a person who has accepted Jesus as Savior of his/her life and then doubts the existence of heaven and even of God suddenly dies during that moment of doubt, does that person go to heaven?

                                                                                 

  • Race

    If you had to be a different race than what you are, what race would you want to be?

     

  • Pet Peeve

    What is your biggest pet peeve?

     

  • 80 Lashes

    Saeed Ghanbari received 80 lashes in Iran.

    flog

    His face was covered and two police officers held his legs while another held his arms.  An official hit him 80 times with a cane.  Here is the link:  Link

    What was his crime?  It is being reported that he was convicted of abusing alcohol and having sex outside of marriage.

                                                                            

  • Public Nudity

    You can now walk through Brattleboro, Vermont nude.  The city was clothing optional until it had a temporary ban recently.  The town board voted 3-2 to remove the ban and allow public nudity again.

    One of the board members said, “it wasn’t up to the town to restrict anyone’s right to dress or undress.”  Here is the link:  Link

    Do you think it is up to a town to restrict someone’s right to dress or undress?

     

  • The Sketching of a Gun

    A 13-year-old boy was suspended for drawing a picture that looked like a gun.  The school said it “posed a threat to classmates.”  The parents think the school overreacted.

    Photo

    The parents say the drawing did not have “blood, bullets, injuries, or target any human.”  The school originally gave the boy a five-day suspension and then later reduced it to three days.

    The district spokesman said that the sketch was “considered a threat.”  Threatening words or pictures are considered punishable.  Here is the link:  Link

    The father said that when he went to discuss it with the school, they school talked about the Columbine High School massacre.

    Does a drawing of a gun indicate a strong chance of violence in a young boy’s future?

     

  • Pink In Prison

    Prison inmates in South Carolina are being forced to dress in pink if they perform sex acts in prison.  State Corrections Department John Ozmint has defended the policy saying the wearing of pink is a deterrent of men performing the public sex acts in prison.

    John Ozmit said, “We don’t believe the United States Constitution protects an inmate’s right to publicly gratify himself.”  One inmate is suing claiming that the practice “is placing inmates’ lives and physical well-being in danger.”  The thinking is that the pink will cause them to stand out among the other inmates.  Here is the link:  Link

    Do you think making inmates wear pink is an appropriate punishment for committing sex acts in prison?