A Good Idea That Doesn't Go Far Enough

According to JTA.org, Legislation introduced in January by  New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver would ban state funding to colleges that help fund organizations that boycott in any country that has an institution of higher learning chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of NY.

Silver said it was in response to the American Studies Association’s boycott of Israel and its academic institutions. Some New York based universities have branches in Israel.

“Colleges should not use funds to support boycotts, resolutions or any similar actions that are discriminatory and limit academic opportunities,” he said.

JTA.org says,  “The bill, which currently has 48 sponsors out of 150 members, would cut funding to institutions that pay dues to groups such as the ASA or which subsidize travel to its conferences.”

Excuse me? When is it acceptable for institutions of higher learning to fund any organization with donated funds, regardless of whether or not the recipient is in the practice of boycotting anything? Whose money is being sent to fund these boycotts? Any organization that receives state or federal funding should not be allowed to give that money to anyone else. We should stop giving tax dollars to organizations that have so much money that they can give it away to other groups.

Nether should an organization give funds donated to it to another organization without expressed permission from the individuals making the donations in the first place. How about legislation that would make that practice a crime?

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/01/27/news-opinion/united-states/n-y-state-bill-ends-funding-to-schools-linked-to-boycott-groups#ixzz2rjNBaQll

Read more: http://www.jta.org/2014/01/27/news-opinion/united-states/n-y-state-bill-ends-funding-to-schools-linked-to-boycott-groups#ixzz2rjNaUOYr

Will this Turnabout be Fair Play?

Harvey Weinstein is a big time Hollywood producer. He has produced some of the most violent films over the past couple of decades, including Pulp Fiction, U want me to kill him?, Django Unchained, Sin City, and Kill Bill.

To be fair to Mr. Weinstein, he has produced family friendly movies like The Nutty Professor, Miss Potter, and Finding Neverland.

During his career as a producer he has made a boat load of money off violence on film.  By boat load I mean hundreds of millions.

Now he says he’s going to produce a film intended to make the National Rifle Association look like Satan personified. In an interview with Piers Morgan on CNN, Weinstein admitted that those who call him a hypocrite have a point.

Regarding the issue of guns he told Morgan, “As much as I want to ignore it, as much as I want to go on with my regular life, I can't shake it this time.”

Personally, I welcome his declaration to make the movie. It may mean he’s turned the corner on movie violence. That would be a good thing. If not, then as he says, he will deserve to be called a hypocrite.

As a gun owner, I will wait and see how much truth there is in his anti-NRA movie. I confess I will be very surprised if there’s much in it at all, beyond the usual knee-jerk reaction to gun violence that would have us restrict the rights of honest men and women in a way that will never, ever, stop violent criminals from committing violent crimes like the ones they’ve grown up watching in his movies.

The Real Evolution is in Science

Over the past 100 years, science has been used against the faith community to ridicule beliefs considered antiquated and anachronistic for these modern times we live in.

Evolutionists scoff at the notion of creation. Anthropologists make light of believing we are made in God’s image. Astronomers point to the stars as proof of the non-existence of God. And on a more personal level, scientists have pushed the idea that since we are nothing more than an elevated blob of tissue we have therefore no more rights on this planet than do birds, or whales, or the animals of the Serengeti.

Less of a right in fact, since whales, and many birds and African animals are protected and take priority over the rights of mankind in public policy.

But science is beginning to become inconvenient for some who have used it over the past 50 years to deny life to the weakest among us. As more and more people are given the opportunity to see an ultra-sound of an unborn child, as more and more children are rescued from troubled pregnancies at earlier and earlier stages of pregnancy, and as more and more is learned of the humanity of the unborn child, science is tipping the scales in the fight for children.

Its been over 40 years since the Supreme Court, using what was already dubious scientific findings, made abortion on demand the law of the land.

On January 22^nd tens of thousands will make a pilgrimage to Washington DC to remind our elected officials that science has come a long way since Roe v. Wade. Its time they did as well.