News Clips: August 2006 Archives

Gov. Schwarzenegger has passed a bill that requires any colleges, private and Christian schools, daycare centers and other facilities throughout California, if they receive any form whatsoever of state funds (and you know how this goes, they all do), even a student with a grant, to actively support homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism. Not merely to not oppose it, but to actively support it.

I fully expect this to be struck down in the courts. Still, if we don't raise a stink about it, it may not be.

A woman bought a Barbie phone for her daughter and soon heard her daughter using foul language she picked up from the phone. It's not certain whether this is a genuine Mattel toy or a counterfeit. But given what some broadcasters are trying to do, it wouldn't surprise me if someone thought they'd push the envelope and have a child's toy swear.

According to the Daily Mail, former Vatican astronomer Fr. George Coyne was in fact sacked because of his opposition to intelligent design.

However one must be careful in reading British articles about the topic, as it appears that a more generic, abstract definition of "intelligent design" is meant here, rather than the "intelligent design" of the recent U.S. controversy.

What Fr. Coyne's nemesis, Cardinal Schonborn of Vienna, is arguing, according to the article, is that there is a divine purpose and design to nature. Coyne argues that God is not constantly intervening, and that we need to move away from the notion of a designer God. He argues that God should be seen more as a parent or someone who speaks encouraging and sustaining words — i.e. not someone who designs, but as someone who coaches.

The argument, then, is between viewing God as a designer, versus a kind of partner who lets the world do its thing with some moral support from him.

Intelligent design in the U.S., as I understand how it was recently argued, has been closely associated with Creationism. (The first intelligent design book was Of Pandas and People; in drafts, according to Wikipedia, "the word 'creationism' was subsequently changed, almost without exception, to 'intelligent design'".) The pope may be advancing a more nuanced version of it. On the other hand, he is saying precious little about it and probably will continue to say precious little. It seems to me he is highlighting one or two crucial points which, while tantalizing, don't nail down a particular belief. And that may be as he wishes. It is clear he cannot accept the atheistic evolution the scientists demand, but with the sullied reputation of intelligent design, he has to be careful.

It should be interesting to see how this plays out.

A Irish soccer player (a Pole by nationality) was slapped with a criminal record for making the sign of the cross before a play, under the rubric of "gesticulating to the crowd" and provoking it. It's not clear what was so provocative about the sign of the cross. But some people complained, and he got a "caution" which appears on his criminal record.

Personally I would argue that this does not qualify as "gesticulating to the crowd" as it is directed toward God, not toward the crowd. It would be as if he scratched himself and they did the same thing. There may well be good reasons to prohibit communicating with the crowd by gestures, but it is arguable that this is not that.

Now, this being Ireland, perhaps the charged religious situation there makes a difference. As it is a Pole, who would be very unlikely to be making a political statement and much more likely to be doing something devotional, I think I'd be willing to overlook this one.

An Internet poll of 30,000 people found that those who watch less television have better memories. Also, those who read fiction have better recall, and heavy drinkers found it more difficult to recall names.

A UK paper is reporting that the Pope is moving away from evolution. The article claims that he is "aligning his church more closely with the theory of 'intelligent design'" but I would take that with a grain of salt. But what they may be referring to is an interesting incident when Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Austria (who is, rumor has it, close to Benedict) wrote an article for the New York Times supporting intelligent design. The director of the Vatican Observatory, Fr. George Coyne, reacted fiercely to this, and was subsequently replaced without explanation, and furthermore without the laudatory comments that would be expected of a man in a position like that as long as he was. (Some sources claim that Coyne, who has cancer, asked to be replaced.)

This is worth keeping an eye on. The Pope, in his inaugural sermon, did say "We are not the accidental product, without meaning, of evolution." Of course, traditionally, the church has not opposed evolution per se, merely the dialectical materialism version of it, which is precisely what Benedict's comment addresses.

Yet another one. There has got to be a term for people finding meaningful interpretations of random images.

This does not look like the Virgin Mary. She looks more like a lounge singer. Where is the mantle? Since when does Mary wear a pendant? What's with the sultry shoulder and low neck-line? Why is every random pseudo-female image automatically of the Virgin Mary?

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting article commenting on the phenomenon of Democrats unable to attract the young because Democrats are having far fewer children.* In other words Democrats are contracepting themselves out of existence. There is a fertility gap of 41% between Democrats and Republicans, and the gap is widening.

There is an interesting response to this from the left. "Maybe the scales are tipping to the neoconservative, homogenous right in our culture simply because they tend not to give much of a damn for the ramifications of wanton breeding and environmental destruction and pious sanctimony, whereas those on the left actually seem to give a whit for the health of the planet and the dire effects of overpopulation." Yeah but at least we'll survive and flourish.

*Link will only last through 8/29 or so.

A high school in Arlington Texas — my old stamping grounds when I lived in Fort Worth — has decided to ban low necklines and other shows of cleavage. I say bravo. I am sure it will cause some grave inconvenience and cost but it is a price worth paying to avoid, for one, distracting boys from their studies, but more importantly curbing the "lust factor" so that boys will learn to relate to women in more healthy ways than purely physical ones.

From your cheesy images department: The "Virgin Mary" in chocolate. I say it might bear a vague resemblance to a figure of a woman but that's about it.

Does God really create these things to encourage believers? I really tend to doubt it. It's nice that people are encouraged by them but it is the nature of the human mind to try to make sense out of chaos and see figures in randomness.

I find most of these things frankly embarassing.

The Wall Street Journal reports that even with financial incentives, Europeans are not having more children,* which means that as time goes on European countries will have to rely more on immigration from more populous countries to fill their job positions.

I wonder if anyone could have predicted 40 years ago during the height of the population "explosion" hysteria that countries would be trying to bribe their citizens to have more children to stave off a population implosion.

* This article will be available until around 8/24 and then will expire.

A provocative Canadian journalist has written an editorial saying that a woman's place is in the home.

Now, to be sure, what he actually seems to be arguing is that a mother's place is in the home, which I'd much rather say than "a woman's place is in the home". He correctly points out the immense value of motherhood, and also that many women use work as an escape from the duties of motherhood. I liked his point that motherhood is not a hobby or a part-time occupation. Well said.

The article is a good one and I admire the journalist for being brave enough to state it.

The Family Research Council reports the following:

A recent poll of Americans shows that 77 percent can identify at least two of Walt Disney's Seven Dwarfs, but only 24 percent can name two current members of the U.S. Supreme Court. The Three Stooges topped the three branches of the federal government in public awareness by 74 percent to 42 percent. Homer Simpson—bratty Bart's dad—was identified by 60 percent, nearly three times as many as could name a work written by the Greek poet Homer. This poll comes on the heels of a May survey by the National Geographic Society that found that 88 percent of young adults could not locate Afghanistan on a map of the world. The poll of popular culture was commissioned by Syracuse University. Prof. Robert Thompson does not claim the results show that Americans are "dumb," but that the mass media are much more successful at getting their messages out than either government or our educational system. Our government schools are doing a terrible job preparing young people to be citizens of a great republic. With classrooms set to reopen soon, we might want to hear less whistling while we work.

Pope Benedict said that Catholicism should not be seen as a "collection of prohibitions". The interview also "suggested ... that canon (Church) law, which currently restricts high-level decision-making roles to ordained males, might someday be changed to give women more power in the Church short of the priesthood." He also said he does not feel lonely but doesn't feel strong enough to take all the trips John Paul did.

Attendees of a bible study at a bakery got more buns than they bargained for when a drunken 17 year-old man walked in, urinated in a storage closet, then walked out of the bakery nude. He then sat down on the curb, apparently unaware of where he was.

Black Jack, Missouri will not let unmarried parents live together. Gotta give them credit for having cajones.

When a stream of water mysteriously appeared beneath a statue of John Paul II in his hometown in Poland, believers declared it a miracle and lined up to collect the precious liquid. However, it turned out that the local council had merely installed a water pipe there to make it look "prettier".