New Covenant

The Mainstream Media, truth, and hoaxes

From HotAir, French court rejects Al-Dura hoax,

French broadcaster France2 lost its case and a large portion of its credibility yesterday when its appeals court called their Al-Dura story a hoax and reversed a lower-court ruling on a defamation case. Philippe Karsenty was vindicated in his criticism of France2 when he called their video of a supposed murder of a Palestinian child [Muhammad al Durah] by Israeli soldiers staged for propaganda purposes.

Don't recall the Muhammad al Durah story? From Wikipedia,

Muhammad Jamal al-Durrah (1988–2000 (aged 11–12); Arabic: محمد جمال الدرة‎), was a Palestinian boy who became an icon of the Second Intifada when he was filmed crouched behind his father during a violent clash between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in the Gaza Strip.

The father and son were filmed sheltering during a crossfire between troops at an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) outpost and Palestinian police and gunmen shooting from a number of locations. After a burst of gunfire, the two slumped into prone positions. Al-Durrah was reported to have been killed and his father severely injured by Israeli gunfire. The footage, which was filmed by the French television station France 2, was re-broadcast around the world and produced international outrage against the Israeli army and the government. Images from the footage became an iconic symbol of the Palestinian cause and al-Durrah himself was portrayed as an emblem of martyrdom; the footage was shown repeatedly on Arabic television channels and al-Durrah was publicly commemorated in a number of Arab countries.

Here is the iconic image.


The truth, it would appear, is that the entire incident was staged (video below, or link here).



How gullible is a liberally biased mainstream media? And how does that gullibility result in blatantly false reporting?

Narnia, Aslan's timing, and God's Plan

My family and I went to see Prince Caspian, this morning. It was a delightful experience, despite the fact that the storyline deviates significantly from that of the book (justifiably so, considering the manner in which the story is presented in print). Two divergent (re)views can be found by Joe Carter (pro) and Amy Hall (con). I tend to agree with Joe's take on the nobleness portrayed in the movie, although I do agree with Amy in that I think Aslan should have had more screen time.

Apart from the contentions of differing movie critics, however, I'm still taken by Lewis' excellent portrayal, throughout the Narnia series, of the phenomenon of God's timing and the part we play within God's plan. In our existence, as in fictional Narnia, we must always be about coming to grips with the timing of God. Despite our impatience, however, God is fully aware of what He is doing, and when He is going to do it. And, despite the fact that we are obliged to act, the battle has been, and always will be, His.

Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters (v. 2)

From my review of Meg Meeker's Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters, I wrote:

Because of our culture's decadence, you need to actively protect your daughter from its influence.

This type of behavior, by both you and your daughter, is not protecting her from the decadent influence of culture.

I hope no one fell for the Hannah Montana wholesome role-model nonsense.

Awesome riding

Awesome!

15 year-old role model dressing "skankish"

Whenever you have 5 year-old girls (see first photo) waiting in line to see a movie with a 15 year-old star,

Then the 15 year-old star's parents shouldn't let her go around in public dressed as you see in the second photo.

At least, that's what I think.

GodBlogCon: Carter & Lindblom

For those of us who did not attend GodBlogCon 2007, you can listen to podcasts at Scriptorium Daily.

Joe Carter, the man, the head-honcho, the big kahuna, spoke on Identifying Impact in Culture for Christians in New Media (download mp3 here). Joe gave a great synopsis of what should have been, in my opinion, a longer talk. He spoke for only ten minutes! What's up with that, Joe? If you listen closely, at the end of his talk, you can hear shouts of, "We were robbed!"

Bonnie Lindblom, from Intellectuelle, also spoke (for a good thirty minutes) on Communicating Biblical Womanhood (download mp3 here). Way to go, Bonnie! (although I wish we had a videocast of you decked out in head covering)

R.C. Sproul podcasting daily?

What's that!? What's that!?

Could it be?

Is R.C. Sproul podcasting on a daily basis now?

Check Ligonier Ministries, and their podcast link.

Bugs turns 67

From Iconia, Bugs Bunny just turned 67 years old. My kids love to watch Looney Tunes and always get a kick out of Bugs saying, "Ahhh, I just knew I should have taken that left toin at Albu-koi-kee!"

Dual Revelations: Upcoming documentary from Reasons to Believe

Check the teaser trailer for an upcoming documentary, by Reasons to Believe, titled Dual Revelations. Awesome! (HT: Old Earth Creation Homeschool) Also check the production blog for the documentary for some behind the scene commentaries.

Dreher on Tammy Faye

Rod Dreher posted on the Larry King interview of Tammy Faye Messner. From his post,

Saw the Larry King interview with cancer-stricken Tammy Faye Bakker Messner tonight. It was tough to watch. She is suffering terribly, is down to 65 pounds, and speaks in a gaspy whisper. I've always thought her to be one of the more ridiculous figures in American religious life, but you'd have to be Christopher Hitchens not to pity the poor woman under these circumstances. Yet before signing off, her husband Roe Messner told viewers that if they wanted to know Tammy's take on Falwell and others, they should buy her 1996 book "Telling It My Way."

...

...unless I've missed something in the ensuing years, Tammy Faye has never owned up to her role in the great PTL swindle. In fact, with Roe Messner's final words on CNN tonight being to recommend that self-pitying, self-justifying garbage memoir, it seems not unreasonable to conclude that Tammy will go to her grave believing she was nothing but a victim in that PTL scandal. Even Jim Bakker has confessed his sin in that scandal, writing a 1996 book called "I Was Wrong," and publicly repenting of having advocated the wicked prosperity gospel.

To watch the YouTube clip of the Larry King interview, click here.

Explosion lesson: how far and how fast do fragments from an explosion travel?

YouTube link (you'll probably have to log in to YouTube)

Media Matters: the news you don't hear

Scanning CNN's World News section one finds article titles such as,

Rift seen in Iraq insurgency

199 killed in June, Iraq says

14 killed at home of Iraqi police official

Only one article hints at anything positive. Yet, in U.S. commander points to progress we read,

A new approach by American-led forces in Iraq is producing "breathtaking" improvements in security in some areas, says Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. forces in the country, but al Qaeda in Iraq remains well-entrenched in some Baghdad neighborhoods. (emphasis added)

Where is the mention of the 72 terrorists captured and the 6 terrorists killed by Coalition Forces in the past week or so? Well, I guess you'll have to check Bill Roggio's report, at the Weekly Standard, for that information.

Fred Thompson is just about there: a worthy addition to the pack

The saucers are up there. The graveyard is out there. But I'll be locked up safely in there.

Plan 9 from Outer Space is widely regarded as the worst movie ever made. Leave it to Wretchard, at the Belmont Club, to incorporate quotes from that movie in a post about... Global Warming (of the doomsday variety). After describing some recommendations, by Popular Science, regarding things mankind can do to the environment, with the specific intent to alter the environment (albeit, for the better), he states,

Today it is still possible to imagine that plans to "save the environment" or "reduce the carbon footprint" can occur in some space other than the one that men as part of nature share. Human acts have always affected nature by affecting mankind itself. "No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main." Therefore every effort at changing human activity changes the environment. Carbon trading, bans on recreational travel, limits on industrial output, population control policies, the mandatory use of certain kinds of lightbulbs, etc. all change the environment.

Integrated complexity is the notion that there are certain systems which are so complex that changes to various subsets, within the whole, have unintended and unexpected outcomes in other subsets. Think of weather patterns, or the ever changing world of junk-DNA (aka non-coding DNA), for example. The idea that we know enough about the global climate model, to alter it for the better, is both ignorant and dangerous. Indeed, it is this type of integrated complexity which sometimes ends up biting us in the posterior section.

[note: the title of this post is a quote, from the movie Plan 9 from Outer Space, by the character Paula Trent.]

Summer in Iraq: the elements our troops face, & the tactics of a long, long war

In The Desert Heat, by Daveed Gartenstein-Ross writes about the oppressive summer heat in Iraq (a la the 130 to 140 degree variety),

This kind of heat allows virtually no time for the body to recover, as it takes a constant physical toll. It's necessarily to drink water constantly throughout the day (one quart per hour is recommended) because dehydration can sneak up on you. Add to that the soldiers' typical work schedules. Many of the men I've spoken with typically work 12 to 14 hours a day.

and,

The toll that our soldiers face on the battlefield raises an obvious question: is this war breaking our military? A future post will broach that topic. For now, my purpose is not to get into policy issues. Rather, I write this blog entry to highlight the extraordinary sacrifices our soldiers are making. Seeing it first-hand makes it all the more impressive. (emphasis added)

In the small community of Lompoc, California, the city fathers are lamenting over the fact that their recent implementation of WiFi, throughout the city, has not taken off as planned. Unfortunately for them, the new technology is, essentially, already outdated as cable and telephone companies now offer better equipment and service.

Technology forcing a change.

Our engagement in Iraq is unlike anything we've ever faced. Comparisons to Vietnam are nonsensical. Anyone old enough to remember Vietnam should realize that. If you're not old enough to remember Vietnam, then do some basic research. Comparisons to World War II, in terms of length of engagement, are similarly nonsensical.

We are in a different type of war, facing a different type of enemy, using different types of tactics, with different types of weapons.

Technology is dynamic. Technology waits for no one. Technology does not care about the way it's always been done.

We need to change our tactics.

Update:  The Belmont Club discusses this issue in Re-configuring to fight Terrorism. From Wretchard,

I think history will judge the decision to go after the enemy in Afghanistan and Iraq as fundamentally correct because it compelled a direct contact between the opposing forces. And as is so often forgotten, one of the principal outputs of combat, aside from losses on both sides, is information. Information about how the enemy acts; his strengths and weaknesses. Information about how our own forces perform; its strengths and weaknesses. Information we would never have gotten without going after them bare-headed. The enemy has long been at war with us, watching and waiting; learning and scheming. Only lately have we declared ourselves against them -- and even so, with qualification. In Afghanistan and Iraq and in theaters all over the world we have at last begun to learn how to fight them. There's a long way to go, but the principal decision -- to take to the highway -- has been made.

From the Middle East to Mexico to the U.S.: illegal immigration & terrorists

From an undercover investigation by the San Antonio Express News, Breaching America: War refugees or threats?,

U.S.-bound illicit travel from Islamic countries, which started long before 9-11 and includes some reputed terrorists, has gained momentum and worried counterterrorism officials as smugglers exploit 2 million Iraq war refugees. The irony is that the war America started to make itself safer has forced more people regarded as security threats toward its borders.

Also,

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehension numbers, agents along both borders have caught more than 5,700 special-interest immigrants since 2001. But as many as 20,000 to 60,000 others are presumed to have slipped through, based on rule-of-thumb estimates typically used by homeland security agencies. "You'd like to think at least you're catching one out of 10," McCraw said. "But that's not good in baseball and it's certainly not good in counterterrorism." (emphasis added)

A free society will always be more vulnerable to attack than a totalitarian state, but shouldn't we be asking for some accountability with regards to a batting average of .100?

How about it: Republicans? Democrats?

The Hidden Contest of Jordin Sparks vs. Jason Dunham: cultural capitulation to the god of the Idol

Final Score*:

Jordin Sparks - 2,310,000
Jason Dunham - 41,200

Winner: Sparks

Jordin Sparks bio -

is an American singer. On May 23, 2007, she was declared the winner of the sixth season of the reality television show American Idol. At 17, this makes her the youngest winner in American Idol history. She is also the only winner who is from the Southwest, rather than the traditional American South.

Jason Dunham bio -

On April 14, 2004, 3 days after Easter Sunday, Corporal Dunham was manning a checkpoint in Karabilah, Iraq, when an insurgent leapt from his car and began choking Corporal Dunham. A scuffle ensued as two Marines approached to help. Reportedly, the last words from Corporal Dunham were, “No, No. Watch his hand.” Suddenly, the insurgent dropped a grenade. Corporal Dunham took off his Kevlar helmet, dropped to the ground, and covered the explosive as best he could.

The blast seriously wounded all 3 Marines. Eight days later, Corporal Jason L. Dunham died at Bethesda Naval Hospital from wounds he received in the incident. He was 22.

Corporal Dunham made the ultimate sacrifice, and in doing so saved the lives of his fellow Marines. Due to his actions on that fateful day, Corporal Dunham has been awarded the Medal of Honor.

Just some thoughts to ponder as we enter Memorial Day weekend.

* # of hits on a Google search

HT: Laura Ingraham

Television, Movies & the loss of intelligence

When I was a kid there was no satellite TV, much less cable TV. We had antenna TV and, living in southern California, felt privileged because we could pick up a whopping 7 VHF channels (friends and relatives in less populous areas in the country could, at most, pick up only 3 channels - ABC, CBS, and NBC).

Enter the 21st century:

About 90 percent of U.S. children under age 2 and as many as 40 percent of infants under three months are regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos, researchers said on Monday.

Add to that the proliferation of movie cinemas and you have a culture that literally worships a 2 dimensional world.

Rather than be concerned about thought-police, maybe we should be concerned about the loss of thought altogether?

(HT: SmartChristian)

A Creative Commons use of one of my photos

One of my photos of the Cumbres & Toltec Narrow Gauge railroad has been used in an article on Globalization Lock-in at Policy Innovations, an online magazine promoting fairer globalization.

Homeschool Comicstrip

Jason Holm left a comment that links to Inflatable Studios, where he posts comic strips related to Home Schooling. Check it out.