TIRED OF THE SAME OL' IRONING?

As the ironer of all my own clothes (my wife doesn't do it well enough to suit me, probably intentionally) I think it might be time to go X-treme:

[N]ow there's a way to add excitement, a dash of danger, the adrenaline rush of risk: Take along an ironing board, a sturdy steam iron and a load of wrinkled shirts.

It's not for the faint of heart, to be sure. But extreme ironing - the marriage of activities like cliff jumping and kayaking treacherous rapids with what participants call "the satisfaction of a well-pressed shirt" - has been catching on.

You can't beat "a spot of ironing whilst rock climbing."

MORE MUMMIES!

Oh no! Not more mummies, you say. Well so does my wife when mummy documentaries come on tv (Discovery Channel, et al). Although my preference is for the Egyptian sort, sometimes you have to make do. These latest were found in Peru:

A well-preserved graveyard possibly 1,000 years old has been discovered at an archaeological complex of Inca and pre-Inca temples on the outskirts of the Peruvian capital, experts said Wednesday.

Archaeologists this week unearthed the remains of 30 people, including 19 still intact as mummies, dating from between 1000 and 1500, making them some of the oldest mummies ever found in Peru.

They said that the discovery was “exceptional” because the site had not been plundered by grave robbers and that some of the dead were religious sacrifices.

No, they might not be Egyptian, but some of them were offered as sacrifices, which makes up for it!

DEBUNKING 'DA VINCI'

The New Hampshire Union Leader has a great editorial taking 'Da Vinci Code' author Dan Brown to task:

Regarding the believability of the novel, Brown has tried to have it both ways. On his Web site he states, “The Da Vinci Code is a novel and therefore a work of fiction.” Fine. But he goes on to state, as he did in an interview on New Hampshire Public Radio, that while his characters are fictional, everything presented as fact in the novel is true and has been painstakingly researched.

Readers knowledgeable about The Bible and Christian history will have little problem debunking some of what is portrayed as “fact” in “The Da Vinci Code.”

But Brown soldiers on, and continues to hawk his questionable wares. Now he's essentially praising his own restraint in not letting out even more "controversial 'facts'":

The author of the best-selling “The DaVinci Code” said last night that he ran across “intriguing and persuading” information that Jesus Christ survived the crucifixion, but it was too controversial to put in his novel.

“To me, that was three or four steps too far."

At least Brown admits to his rather colossal ego:

He initially resisted having the book made into a movie, but succumbed when producer Harvey Weinstein told him many people don’t read books, but deserve to know the DaVinci Code story, Brown said.

“He absolutely appealed to my ego,” Brown said. “How many chances do you get to fly to Paris to see your book turned into a movie by Ron Howard?”

Brown said he’s heard that President Bush likes his books. “Deception Point” involves a politically foundering President who decides to launch a Mars mission.

“I’m not going to say I influenced him,” Brown said, “but it was a good idea.”

Isn't it wonderful that Brown can not only clear up 2000 years of religious history, but also direct American space policy? Wow, what a guy!

HOMOSEXUALS 'WED' IN MASSACHUSETTS

Unlike earlier rogue 'marriages' performed by officials openly breaking the law, Massachusetts has now become the first state to issue legal licenses to homosexual couples:

Massachusetts was thrust into the center of a nationwide debate on gay marriage when the state's Supreme Judicial Court issued its narrow 4-3 ruling in November that gays and lesbians had a right under the state constitution to wed.

In the days leading up to Monday's deadline for same-sex weddings to begin, opponents looked to the federal courts for help in overturning the Supreme Judicial Court's ruling. On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene.

It's somewhat inevitable, I suppose. With the constant bombardment to normalize homosexual behavior we now find that it leads to a legal redefinition of marriage. And it will not stop with the People's Republic of Massachussets:

Out-of-state gay couples are likely to challenge Massachusetts' 1913 marriage statute, which bars out-of-state couples from marrying in Massachusetts if the union would be illegal in their home state. Gov. Mitt Romney (search), a gay-marriage opponent, has said the law will be enforced and clerks who give licenses to nonresidents may face legal implications.

Still, local officials in Provincetown, Worcester and Somerville, have said they will not enforce Romney's order and will give licenses to any couples who ask, as long as they sign the customary affidavit attesting that they know of no impediment to their marriage.

Sure enough, Chris McCary, 43, and his partner of six years, John Sullivan, 37, of Anniston, Ala., were first in line outside town hall in Provincetown Monday morning.

"This is the most important day of my life," said McCary, who planned to return to Alabama with Sullivan, even though their union won't be recognized there. "This window could be closed in the future but it's still worth it."

I'm sure the folks in Anniston are thrilled. But now we will have homosexual 'married' couples, documents in hand, going to court in state after state in order to have their Massachusetts licenses recognized. A few states will bite. Others won't, the Supreme Court will get involved and suddenly you will awaken one day to find that homosexual 'marriages' are the law across the land. No state will actually have voted for it, but it will be legal nonetheless.

Only through great effort and determination could those who seek to defend traditional marriage prevail at this point. I believe it could happen. I just don't believe it will.

Marriage as an institution has been under attack for two generations. No fault divorce and the rise and normalization of the unwed mother has removed society's regard for that unique relationship between a man and a woman. We should not be shocked at what happens next.

THIS JESUS DOESN'T WEEP

Catholic Church officials have refused to do a full investigation into a 'weeping' Jesus portrait in Texas:

A Roman Catholic bishop said a cardboard portrait of Jesus does not show enough evidence of weeping for a formal church investigation.

Bishop Edmond Carmody had asked the Rev. Gerry Sheehan to view the portrait after 34-year-old Gloria Fino said tears were coming out of the eyes in the portrait. Sheehan told him that while the cheeks were streaked, Jesus no longer appeared to be crying.

"It's a very strange phenomenon ... there were signs that something had come from the eyes and the back of the paper print was dry, but there were no tears coming down. We see no reason to move it or to investigate now because it has stopped," Carmody said in today's Corpus Christi Caller-Times.

Now, back to that shroud in Turin...

BUDDHA SNOT, MMM, MMM

Buddhist priests in Japan are attempting to stop the sale of candy called 'Buddha Snot':

Japanese priests have scored only a partial victory in their attempts to stop a sweet being sold as 'Snot from the nose of the Great Buddha'.

They have managed to stop the name being registered as a trademark, says the Daily Telegraph.

But they have not managed to stop vendors selling the sweet to tourists who flock to the temple in the ancient capital of Nara, in western Japan....

[T]he packaging still carries a picture of Buddha picking his nose.

Yum, yum.

MORE ON UK SECRET ABORTIONS

A 15 year old English girl was given a 'secret abortion' offer during a 10-minute counseling session:

Describing her initial visit to the abortion clinic with her boyfriend, Michelle said: "We went to the clinic and we went to the counsellor for 10 minutes.

"They just basically sat us down and said, if you want to keep it, it's best to tell our parents or someone that we trust, and if not, then they can arrange an abortion without our parents ever having to find out."

The teenager said she was initially too afraid to tell her parents, but changed her mind when she found out that her pregnancy was more advanced than she had originally been told.

"I read up on the internet about how it would be done and it was a very scary operation, considering it was 20 weeks when I'd been told it was only 14," she added.

Of course, the girl's mother was none too pleased:

Michelle's mother, Tracey Down, said she was shocked at how easily the abortion could have been carried out in secret. "I was more shocked that Michelle could go to the doctor's three times, have a test and go to the family planning clinic, and then sat down with a counsellor for 10 minutes," she said.

"That counsellor did not know Michelle's background or Michelle's history, and did not ask her whether she was allergic to anything. Then (Michelle could) go up to the clinic and have it done within the day and come back out again.

"Given she was so far gone, it was a major operation and I did not know anything about it... anything could have happened to her having the operation."

The same society that promotes secret abortions also will expel your child if she shows up with a Tylenol or a Midol. But abortion, of course, must not only be protected but actively promoted. These are sick people.

KING, IRAQ & THE VATICAN

U.S. Rep. Peter King reacted strongly against the Vatican's criticism of U.S. prisoner abuse photos, some of which showed sexual abuse:

“If there’s anyone in the world who has no right to speak on sexual abuse, it’s the Vatican,” said Rep. King, an anti-abortion Republican. “This is the height of hypocrisy.”

In an interview published Wednesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo described the abuses as “a tragic episode in the relationship with Islam” and said the scandal would fuel hatred for the West and for Christianity....

King said the Catholic Church should be the last group to claim moral high ground on issues of sexual abuse, given the past several years of revelations about priests abusing children for years while church officials failed to stop such behavior.

“Whatever the United States has done to prisoners in Iraq is nothing compared to what priests and nuns did to Catholic kids for decades while the Catholic hierarchy covered it up,” King said.

“Think of the thousands of kids in the U.S. and Ireland who were abused by priests and nuns — you wonder where the Vatican’s moral compass is.”

Well said, Rep. King. It's impressive to see him as a Catholic speak out.

SECRET ABORTIONS

How would you like to find out that your 14-year old daughter had just had an abortion? You weren't consulted; you weren't even notified. It happened to Maureen Smith in the UK, and as you might imagine, she's none too happy:

Michelle Smith, from Mansfield, Notts, fell pregnant last month and after consultation with a community health worker at school she decided to get rid of the child.

Within days her mother, Maureen Smith, found out what was happening and the teenager changed her mind but it was too late.

She had taken the first of two pills as part of the chemical abortion process and the damage was irreparable.

Her mother is now furious that despite not having been consulted over the abortion she is now left to pick up the pieces.

As the mother well notes, nothing else in her daughter's life would be treated with such secrecy:

"If my daughter had been truanting from school or causing trouble in the classroom I would have been informed.

"Yet she can go ahead and have an abortion which will affect her for the rest of her life and I have no say and no rights as a parent."

Welcome to our Brave New World Ms. Smith.

McDONALD ON KIRK

Kevin Holtsberry has an interesting interview with Wesley McDonald on his new book, Russell Kirk and the Age of Ideology.

ALEXANDRIA U.

Archaeologists have uncovered the site of Egypt's Alexandria University:

A Polish-Egyptian team has unearthed the site of the fabled University of Alexandria, home of Archimedes, Euclid and a host of other scholars from the era when Alexandria dominated the Mediterranean.

The team has found 13 individual lecture halls that could have accommodated as many as 5000 students, according to Zahi Hawass, an archeologist and president of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.

The lecture halls are on the eastern edge of a public square in the Late Antique section of modern Alexandria and are adjacent to a previously discovered theatre that is now believed to be part of the university complex.

All 13 of the auditoriums had similar dimensions and internal arrangements, Dr Hawass said. They feature rows of stepped benches running along the walls on three sides of the rooms, often forming a joined U-shape.

The most conspicuous feature of the auditoriums is an elevated seat placed in the middle of the U-shape, most probably designed for the lecturer.

That's an amazing find. Maybe they'll come across a stash of documents not destroyed by the library fire.

[Link via LRC]

JESUS, THE FASHION STATEMENT

Not since the WWJD craze has Jesus been such a fashion statement:

A slew of designers and boutiques have been jumping on the Jesus bandwagon, offering everything from T-shirts to belts paying homage to the Lord. And celebrities from Madonna (search) to Pamela Anderson (search) have been spotted sporting the Jesus chic wear.

“It’s a fun, little Hollywood trend that was sparked by the success of the movie,” said E! Networks lifestyle director Elycia Rubin. “Obviously, fashion influences movies and movies influence fashion.”

A Los Angeles company called Teenage Millionaire makes shirts that say “Jesus Is My Homeboy” and “Mary Is My Homegirl.” Madonna was seen wearing a Mary shirt; Pamela Anderson and Lara Flynn Boyle (search) have been running around in the Jesus Ts, and Ashton Kutcher (search) was photographed with a “Jesus Is My Homeboy” baseball cap on.

You like to see people with true reverence. The evangelicals started this with the catchy takes on popular ad campaigns that substitute a religious message. You've seen the "got jesus?" t-shirts, I'm sure. And while some of these are clever, well-intentioned ways of making a religious point, some more than border on the flippant. Ashton Kutcher and Pamela Anderson wearing "Jesus Is My Homeboy" goes far beyond that. Jesus doesn't need to be "a fun little Hollywood trend."

UGH!

I hate to post this about someone connected with my alma mater, but a University of Kentucky and Georgetown College (a Baptist school, by the way) was denied service for wearing a pleated mini-skirt and corset into restaurants:

About 2 p.m., Jeremy Kerr, 32, attempted to eat at Tolly-Ho wearing a pleated miniskirt and a white lace-up corset.

An employee told him he would have to change or he would not be served.

"I told him girls come in dressed in these clothes all the time and don't get kicked out," Kerr said.

Owner Roy Milling, who did not witness the incident, said his employees told him Kerr's corset revealed too much. Milling said his restaurant does not discriminate against transvestites or cross-dressers.

"You've just got to cover yourself up," he said. "He was barely covered. We would have asked a female to do the same."

As a past occasional eater at Tolly-Ho I'm glad to hear there are some standards there. I need to stop and get a burger next time in Lexington. And here's something the good Mr. Kerr's students are thrilled about, I'm sure:

Kerr, who is working on his sociology Ph.D. at UK, said he has worn similar clothing in his classes. He said he typically dresses in that manner about two to three times each week.

I think that's a class I'd be dropping pretty fast.

[The Herald-Leader page with this article has a "Sponsored Links" box apparently triggered by article key words. This box had links to: "Plus Size Corsets"; "Corset Superstore"; and "Pleated Skirts". I doubt that's what Mr. Kerr had in mind when he went out that day.]

WOULD NOAH'S ARK BE PROOF ENOUGH?

Doug Mendenhall asks the question, what effect would the discovery of Noah's ark have?

Maybe the world will see a mass conversion as billions of people realize that the Bible is the only accurate account of God's dealings with humanity.

Maybe the discovery will turn out to be the greatest religious event of the century. A watershed, so to speak.

Maybe atheism will become an anachronism.

Maybe the world will unite.

Maybe the wars will end.

And maybe pigs would fly. Mendenhall knows that, too:

Instead, I expect that after the triumphant return of the Ararat team, we'll all ride a bubble of enthusiasm for a week or two, then settle right back into the lives we led before we'd seen the proof. If we had doubts before, we'll have doubts still. If we rejected God before, we'll reject him still.

Just as the rich man ('Dives') asked righteous Lazaurs to return from Abraham's bosom to warn the rich man's brothers of hellfire so some today seek extraordinary and special proof. But as the rich man was told, if they don't believe the word God has already left it doesn't matter what else they see. And so it is today.

BAPTISTS ON GODLESS SCHOOLS

Southern Baptists have before them a resolution making a call to flee 'anti-Christian' public schools:

The resolution, co-authored by T.C. Pinckney, publisher of a Baptist newsletter in Alexandria, Va., urges parents to homeschool their children or send them to Christian schools.

"God gives the responsibility for education of children to the parents, not to the government," Pinckney said in an interview Thursday. "Parents should be taking responsibility, primarily through homeschooling."

Well, sometimes I even agree with a Baptist!

WILL METHODISTS SPLIT?

Weary of constant debates over homosexuality, conservative Methodists are considering a split from liberals over the issue:

"We're tired of this being constantly, constantly, constantly before us," said Dunnam, a conference delegate and leading evangelical. If more liberal churches in the western United States decided they wanted to leave, "the rest of the church would probably agree to that," Dunnam added....

The endless conflict between conservatives and liberals "is more than we can bear," former Houston First Metho-dist Church pastor Bill Hinson told a group of about 150 evangelicals who gathered in Pittsburgh yesterday. "I believe the time has come when we must begin to explore an amicable and just separation that will free us both from our cycle of pain and conflict."

But the pro-homosexual movement doesn't want a split:

Gay-rights activists denounced talk of schism and vowed to stay.

"We are not planning to leave the church. We don't want to leave the church and we don't want to see the church split," said Rev. Monica Corsaro, spokeswoman for the Reconciling Ministries Network, a coalition of pro-gay Methodist churches.

Church leaders had hoped to avoid an ugly standoff in Pittsburgh.

But tensions erupted after a Methodist Church court in Washington state refused to enforce the ban on clergy who are "self-avowed practicing homosexuals."

Yes, the split is coming. And homosexuality is the new faultline to rip through the "mainstream" denominations.

HOLLYWOOD MISSES, AGAIN

Trying to cash in on The Passion crowd, Hollywood is trying desperately to figure out how to appeal to all the newly discovered Christians in the marketplace. With the new movie 'Saved!', Hollywood proves The New York Times > Movies > it doesn't understand:

In "Saved!," Mandy Moore and Macaulay Culkin (in a wheelchair) are siblings attending the school, a Midwestern institution where "Jesus loves you" is a mantra — and an order. A giant cutout of Jesus looms over the campus. Pastor Skip, played by Martin Donovan, is the spiritual leader of the school, handsome, hip and given to complimenting his students on being "phat."

Jena Malone plays a teenager who becomes pregnant while trying to cure her boyfriend of his homosexuality and save him from damnation. Her mother, a divorcée played by Mary-Louise Parker, is trying to be right with God but has an affair with Pastor Skip.

How is this different than if they were trying to make fun of Christians? Well, not a whit, of course. Here was a telling indicator for them:

So far the studio has screened "Saved!" for a gay audience, which loved it, MGM marketing executives say, and for religious leaders, who had mixed opinions.

And yet they're trying to appeal to religious audiences? Hollywood hasn't a clue how to do that because down deep the only thing they can think to do with Christian beliefs is to ridicule them.

I have a sneaking suspicion this won't be the movie to resurrect (pardon the pun) Macauley Culkin's career.

THE ANCIENTS: SMARTER THAN YOU THINK

A sea chart from 1539 shows sea eddies that exactly match satellite imagery, this at some surprise to modern scientists:

The ornate Carta Marina, published in 1539, appears crude by today's standards, depicting sea monsters off the coast of Scotland, sinking galleons, sea snakes, and wolves urinating against trees.

But when oceanographers examined a large group of swirls and whorls drawn off the south-east of Iceland, complete with ships, a giant fish and red sea serpent, they found it corresponded with the Iceland-Faroes Front - where the Gulf Stream meets cold Arctic waters, causing huge swirling eddy currents that could sweep a ship off course.

All too often the ancients are dismissed as ignorant torch carriers in the face of enlightened science. But as my old grad school professor used to point out, mankind forgets at least as much as it learns.

[Link via LRC]

'NEW' MAYAN CITY DISCOVERED

The Romans weren't the only game two millenia ago; the Maya were also busy:

More than 2,000 years ago, while Rome was laying waste to Carthage and the Hopewell people were building mounds in Ohio, a grand civilization flourished at a now little-known site in Guatemala called Cival....

After several seasons of digging, the researchers believe Cival was one of the largest Maya cities of the time.

It has pyramids and a large complex surrounding a central plaza. In front of a long building on the complex’s eastern edge, the archaeologists discovered a stela, or inscribed stone slab, dating to 300 B.C., perhaps the earliest such carving ever found in the Maya lowlands.

Don't you just love this archaeological stuff?

THE CHRONICLE ON KIRK

The Chronicle of Higher Education (*cough* *cough*) has a review of Wesley McDonald's new book on my old boss, Russell Kirk:

"One of the main purposes of my book is to rescue Russell Kirk from the ghetto of movement conservatism," says Mr. McDonald. "My argument is that he's an intellectual worthy of consideration apart from current politics. Conservative thought is really suffering because it lacks substance and direction. Kirk has much greater significance than what these people are giving to him."

I don't have Wes's book yet, but it's good to see the Chronicle give a real thinker like Russell Kirk the time of day.