joejohnston ● us

Speaking of shrill, an atheist student group has set up a table on the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio.  Their project name is “Smut for Smut.”  If you turn in your Bible (which they consider smut), they will give you some real smut (a pornographic magazine).
Here’s the rationale in a quote [...]

Tags: african american literature, anti-Christian, atheist, atheist agenda, Atlanta, Bible Belt, Bibles, campus, Christian, Christian Bible, com, day, feminist literature, gay lesbian transgender, group, India, Iran, Iraq, Jackson, Joe Johnston Sr., literature, Mr.. Jackson, Mr.. Thomas Jackson, New Delhi, organization, President MSNBC, primary target, religious literature, religious texts, San Antonio, Saudi Arabia, Smut, Smut for Smut, speech, studies literature, Tel Aviv, Texas, Thomas Jackson, transgender studies, University, university of texas at san antonio, Vatican City
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

Some people see a miracle in everything.  In truth, this is not a bad approach in terms of appreciating..  Claiming the miraculous for every single thing sometimes strains credibility.  But if there is something that is difficult to explain, it might be a miracle.  Sometimes proving something is not a miracle can be more ludicrous [...]

Tags: amazing survival, coke, Colonel Michel Orcel, Darlene, Darlene Etienne, different things, doctor, Don, etienne, Evan, Evans, fact, food, God, Haiti, human physiology, Minneapolis, miracle, mother, old girl, quot, Read, rubble, single thing, someone, something, strains, survival, thirst, water, white robe
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

The Tebow Family Tackles (sorry I couldn’t help it) the Super Bowl
In spite of all the snarling, whining, and threatening, CBS aired the ad sponsored by Focus on the Family featuring Pam (mother) and Tim (son) Tebow.  Pam Tebow talked about her “miracle baby,” how hard it was, and how she still worried about “little [...]

Tags: Bowl, CBS, didn, Don, family, Focus, Focus on the Family, football players, Joe Johnston Sr., little timmy, loving family, miracle baby, Ms. O, Neill, Niagara Falls, o neill, Pam, Pam Tebow, pies in the face, political advocacy, pre game show, quot, road, Slapstick, Super, Terry, three stooges, Tim, Timmy, tone, violence, violence against women
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

On Monday, we scampered down the road of women’s groups trying to act as censors.  In that post, it was noted that the arguments for censoring were not only flawed, but bordered on mere excuses that would not hold up unless you were committed to their point of view.  Another quote to bring home the [...]

Tags: abortion in the Philippines, adjectives, CBS, censors, egalitarian, Focus, Focus on the Family, football, Gallup, gender role, guy, Martin Fr, Martin Franks, Monday, normalization, number, point, political stance, Poll, pro abortion, quote, s media, same sex relationships, Super Bowl, Than, Tim Tebow, year
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

How quaint.  I wrote about Banned Book Week in October when Marian, the Librarian proclaimed an entire week to rail against the evils of censorship.  During that same week, non-Christians worldwide celebrated International Blasphemy Day supposedly as a protest to censorship, but really bordering on “hate-speech” against the Christian God.  Even the founder of the [...]

Tags: advertisement, America, beer, blasphemy, Bowl, car, censor, censorship, christian god, company, Denny, dictum, Dodge, Don, Focus on the Family, food, hate speech, M OFFENDED, marian the librarian, medis pressure, Ms. O, National Organization for Women, Neill, offense, opinion, organization, Pam Tebow, Paul Kurtz, pressure group, prior restraint, pro-choice, pro-life, sponsoring organization, spot, Super, Super Bowl advertisement, Terry, Terry O'Neill, U.S., way, what is censorship, Women's Media Center
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

Many people get themselves in an uproar when someone uses the abbreviation Xmas.  To them, it symbolizes the effort to remove the Christ from Christmas – if not to obliterate Christian overtones to the holiday.  And clearly, there are those who use Xmas with that intention.
It seems legitimate for committed Christians to get exacerbated about [...]

Tags: abbreviation, bell, bell ringer, bell ringers, Chi, Christ, Christian, christian symbols, Christmas, christmas carols, christmas decorating, christmas season, dignity and grace, girl, God, group, holiday, Massachusetts, personal mode, retarded children, school, someone, uproar, Xmas, year
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

The holiday season is upon us.  It does start earlier and earlier each year – at least in the stores.  In the good old days, you didn’t see Christmas decorations until Thanksgiving.  You didn’t see Halloween stuff in the stores until October.  Well, it’s a lot different now.
The store displays relating to holidays are now [...]

Tags: America, calendar, Christian, Christmas, christmas decorations, commotion, day, doctrin, Eve, Halloween, halloween festivities, Hindu, holiday, holiday objections, holiday season, labor day, lawsuits, no doubt, offense, regalia, religious significance, secular, St.Patrick, Veterans, war on Christmas, year
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

On March 31, 2005 Terry Schiavo died.  If you don’t remember the name Schiavo, maybe you’ll remember that there was a nationwide controversy surrounding her husband’s efforts to pull the plug.
This case – probably mostly forgotten – was a high point for “the culture of death” and a low point for prolife and disability advocates.
But [...]

Tags: brain, brain function, brain scan, case, cat, coma, coma patients, conscious state, culture, death, disability advocates, doorknobs, Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Laureys, Dr.Steven Laureys, Joe Johnston Sr., life, motor response, Mr.. Houben, plug, point, Rom, science group, state, story, Terry, Terry Schiavo, vegetative state
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

On Monday, November 23, 2009, I thought about November 22, 1963.  The entire Sunday, the date never entered my mind.  This is the first time in 45 years that I haven’t thought about the Kennedy  assassination on November 22.  I have noted with each passing year, however,  the media coverage shrinking.
I am a little mad [...]

Tags: 1963, barack obama, bus ride, Camelot, Dallas, date, dung, empty slogans, everything, fast lane, geography class, google, Kennedy, kennedy assassination, Kennedy's assassination, mind, Monday, nobel peace prize, November, November 22, penance, President Kennedy, Sunday, teacher, time
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

It’s pretty unlikely that you’ve spent a lot of time thinking or talking about either Communism or Eastern Europe.  We don’t even use the term “Red China” much anymore.  Most twenty-somethings probably don’t even know that much about Communism apart from their college years.  They also don’t know how worldview colors so many other things [...]

Tags: absolute truth, America, Berlin, Berlin Wall, blah, China, Communism, East Berlin, east german guards, Eastern Europe, escape East Berlin, Germany, inane comments, invasion of manchuria, John Kennedy, mass execution, Mikhail Sergeyevich, morality ethics, Mr. Gorbachev, Obama, polite discourse, President Kennedy, President Reagan, presidential speeches, red china, right, Ronald, Ronald Reagan, sovereign government, term, time, Today, truth, use, USSR, wall, West Berlin, West Berliners, Worldview, wrong
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

Freud was all about one thing meaning or symbolizing something else.  So much so that it was alleged that his incessant cigar smoking was about something quite different.  He defended himself by saying “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
It has been documented that Freud smoked around 20 cigars per day.  That would mean he [...]

Tags: alien race, allegory, baby sleep, battlestar galactica, cigar, cigar smoking, day, didn, Earth, earth final conflict, Freud, Hannity, invasion of the body, invasion of the body snatchers, Joe Johnston Sr., O'Reilly, Obama, Obamamania, plot, show, star trek novel, stogie, TV review, universal health care, use, V, V.  V, Visitors, War
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

(This one has to be in the first person, folks.)
My first reaction was “huh” followed quickly by “oh brother” and “for what?” …. But I think we have all gotten used to the “moral intelligentsia” superimposing greatness on their chosen ones.
President Obama was inaugurated on January 20.  The nominations for the Nobel Peace must be [...]

Tags: Al Gore, America, award, Camp David, colonize, committee, committee selections, cult leader, didn, February, intelligentsia, Jimmy Carter, Joe Johnston Sr., Mikhail Gorbachev, muslim world, Nobel, nobel committee, nobel peace prize, nobel prize, Obama, oh brother, Peace, person, point, President Obama, Prize, something, the Far East, western Europe
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

In part 1, we argued that Banned Book Week was fundamentally misleading.

We defined “banned” and questioned whether banning was actually a real problem in the United States.

We questioned the lumping of “banned” with “challenged” books as a challenge was not fundamentally in itself a problem.

We stipulated that “banning” in America, if it occurred, could be [...]

Tags: academic libraries, ALA, ala website, America, Arthur, Arthur Treacher, Book, challenge, college, controversial issues, Librarian, libraries community, Marian, offensive language, part, place, political dialogue, problem, public libraries, school, school libraries, special libraries, student groups, teacher, Thor, United States, year
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

Last week was Banned Book Week.  This celebration, sponsored by a consortium of organizations including American Library Association,  wants people to realize that others challenge the availability of books.  The specter of “banning” and “censorship” causes a certain emotional reaction – bringing up pictures of wild-eyed mobs with torches or the “Fire Department” of Fahrenheit [...]

Tags: ALA, american library association, Banned, Book, book challenges, censorship, challenge, emotional reaction, fahrenheit 451, governmental law, group, honest answer, hyperspeak, Librarian, Library, Marian, marian the librarian, mobs, nothing, offense, problem, specter, United States
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

It wasn’t surprising to see the religious not too thrilled with yesterday’s International Blasphemy Day.  Yet it was notable that the founder of the Center For Inquiry, Paul Kurtz lambasted the organization regarding activities of Blasphemy Day.  An excerpt follows (emphasis added):

The celebrating of “Blasphemy Day” by the Center for Inquiry by sponsoring a contest encouraging new [...]

Tags: basic ethical principles, blasphemy, Blasphemy Day, Center, CFI, cfi website, Christian, civic virtues, civilized discourse, day, Dr. Kurtz, freedom, freedom of expression, fundamental atheists, hate speech, Inquiry, lampooning Christianity, opposing viewpoints, organization, Paul Kurtz, press, quot, right, secular humanist, statement, suicide bombers
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »

Today, September 30, is the first  International Blasphemy Day.  It’s a day to regale in blasphemy.  Think about it:  atheists, agnostics, self-proclaimed intellectual elite, godless liberals, college students and unbelievers everywhere can spend the day blaspheming the God they don’t really believe is there.  Seems paradoxical. 
The reason (excuse?) for the day is fighting for free speech [...]

Tags: administrator, agnostic, Art Display, atheist, black mask, blasphemy, blasphemy laws, dashiell hammett, day, fictional detective, freethinker, golden horseshoe, Hell, International Blasphemy Day, Jesus, logic, Mark, moral act, mystery writer, Pascal, person, quot, Rational, skeptic, speech day, Squad, the Holy Spirit, tijuana mexico, understanding, universe, writer dashiell hammett, Zeus
Filed under: Rants About the News | No Comments »