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I guess tradition was just too much for us in this year of the cooties:Too simple, too boring, too…white. The Post-Catholic Vatican desired something a bit more postmodern. So progressive revisionist scholars chose to place this year’s nativity scene on Planet Zog rather than in Bethlehem.Standing in for the Wise Men this year, a Sumerian astronaut and Thor, god of thunderI understand that two years ago the Vatican nativity scene was a sand sculpture, made entirely of 720 tons of the stuff."It's an ephemeral art in the sense that it is not intended to last forever."That’s quite a statement given...

This is a new-to-me blog I found on Instapundit: The Remodern Review, by Richard Bledsoe, painter, writer and art curator who normally blogs about art but “the various outrages of 2020 have been pulling me outside the normal scope of that topic:” My perspectives on the dysfunctions of the contemporary art world have informed my insights of the great assaults occurring against Western culture. The weaponizing of our institutions against us has been a long term Marxist project. Extrapolations of the absurdities and abuses I first encountered in 1980s art school education are now informing our politics on a vast...

File  under “child abuse”  Course disputes idea that heterosexual sex is 'natural' Eugene Lang College is offering a "Queer Ecologies" course this fall devoted to countering “heterosexist” explanations of animals and nature. According to the instructor, common scientific practices like using the terms "male" and "female" when describing reproduction among plants and animals contributes to the perception that "queerness" is "unnatural." And do you know what else is unnatural? – post normal science (PNS). Once there was modern science, which was hard work; now we have postmodern science, where the quest for real, absolute truth is outdated, and "science" is...

In a recent talk for the C.S. Lewis Institute, Os Guinness laments, "It isn’t ideas which have caused the main damage to the church,” Guinness says. “Modernity itself has done more damage to the church than all the persecutors put together..." The Chinese church survived the most brutal, vicious, systematic persecution any church has probably ever faced under Mao Ze Dung. And yet now, when they’re not persecuted so visiously….as they’re moving to big cities like Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, the challenge of the church negotiating these big modern cities is actually causing many to fall away. The challenge of negotiating...

If it’s Tuesday we must be transforming. So welcome to #TransformationTuesday - in which we explore all the ways large and small that Obama and his mignons are still trying and/or succeeding in fundamentally transforming America. Today I bring you a small story (via Instapundit) that highlights, bigly, how science has been transformed from, well, science, to fraud: The Inside Story Of How An Ivy League Food Scientist Turned Shoddy Data Into Viral Studies. “Brian Wansink won fame, funding, and influence for his science-backed advice on healthy eating. Now, emails show how the Cornell professor and his colleagues have hacked...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTxmKc80wUw

Philip Glass Symphony No.2

[BIG SNIP]The Quakers’[new penitentiary system using isolation]experiment revealed that the consultation of one’s inner self without outside reference or constraints, with nothing to measure one’s self against, could produce distorted human beings who became certifiably mad. Self-proclaimed gods can turn out to be a Caligula or a Jim Jones.Just as bad as the fact consulting the inner light can result in the exhibition of mad or corrupt behavior is the fact that the newly minted gods believe themselves to be entitled to demand obeisance from us mere mortals.We mere everyday humans must bow down and worship the deities among us....

So, how do we break into the lives of people who are immersed in this postmodern reality? How do we reach them for the gospel? Do we find ways to show them how the gospel is existentially satisfying? Do we offer therapeutic entertainment to draw them in? Nope. Instead, we do the unthinkable in our modern age. We preach.

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War In the preceding “Know Thy Enemy” series - Prologue, I Education, II Media and III Celebrity Culture  - I’ve identified three sources which have exposed America to a very dangerous disease. The systemic cause is a virus that manifests itself as a...

The couples losing their virginity? Finn and Rachel and…Kurt and Blaine! Yep, the couple — who was featured on the cover of EW’s Gay Teens on TV issue – finally decide to take the next step in their relationship. It’s all handled very delicately and is incredibly moving. I can’t think of another network series that’s taken a teenage gay relationship so far or been so progressive.

We have a president named "Obama." If you believe your media -- (hah!) -- he is a kind of Å°bermensch, a more-than-human giant intellect. Or, as one addled dork said two years ago, Obama must be A Light Bringer. That's why the Norwegian Nobel Prize committee got the hots for him so bad that they had to give him the big prize before he did anything. Like Algore's Peace Prize, it was awarded for postmodern (Po-Mo) -- that is, completely fictional -- good intentions. No actual achievements were wanted or needed. Since Marxist college professors are not going to do...

A case study on how incompetent politicians, blinded by postmodern socialist ideology and prone to reckless government spending, combined with voter apathy, can drive a nation into the ditch. By taking Spain into a war with Libya, Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was calculating that he could defy fate by diverting media headlines away from the fact that he has also led Spain to the brink of economic catastrophe. But like the haughty Babylonian King Belshazzar, drunk on the wine of narcissism, a dazed Zapatero has been forced to read the writing on the wall: He has been...

Where have all the children gone? It's a problem that Mark Steyn first addressed in his book America Alone. Other than a piece Jonathan Last recently wrote for Weekly Standard, few if any reporters, pundits, politicians, or scholars seemed to take any interest. This is rather astonishing in so far as everything from our national security, economy, and future well-being depends on our ability to procreate. As Mark Steyn quipped, "...a people that won't multiply can't go forth or go anywhere. Those who do will shape the age we live in." If one is to glimpse at the TFR (Total...

Faith is not the “opiate of the masses”. Karl Marx was dead wrong in his understanding of the true nature of faith and its purpose in the life of the believer. Although it is true that the world can seem like a “heartless world”, it is in this climate of disarray and suffering that our faith in God is vindicated. Faith by definition is, “hope of things not seen” and hope of “what is to come”. Faith would not be necessary in completely predictable circumstances, and even then, a measure of faith is required to act upon the notion that...

A recent AP news report has concluded, after compiling the results of numerous studies over the years, that there is a strong and disturbing link between severe child abuse and non-traditional family environments. In the article' words: "[Scholars and caseworkers] note an ever increasing share of America's children grow up in homes without both biological parents, and say the risk of child abuse is markedly higher in the nontraditional family structures."  Examples of "nontraditional family structures" include: o  Children living in homes with unrelated adults (these children are "50 times more likely to die inflicted injuries as children living with biological parents"); and...

Briefing Paper #69 10/08 Author: Bill Crouse Postmodern Politics I. Introduction A. As Christians we must view everything through the lense of the Biblical Worldview, making all thoughts captive to Christ; and always seeking the mind of Christ (IICor 10:5; Phil.2:5). This includes political philosophy and economic theory, though many Christians still mistakenly think these areas are neutral territory. The truth is, some theories harmonize better than others. B. We are all aware that discussions in the realm of politics and economic theory these days can be filled with vitriol and rancor like no other subject. We need to ask...

Softer Approach to Apologetics in a Not-So-Postmodern Culture Sometimes, giving pat answers to some of the most common apologetic questions students ask isn't satisfying. Thu, Sep. 20, 2007 Posted: 11:59:51 AM EST Sometimes, giving pat answers to some of the most common apologetic questions students ask isn't satisfying. "What is truth?" and "How can we know Christianity is the true religion?" are two questions that Dale Fincher, author of the newly released Living with Questions, frequently comes across in his ministry career. Fincher is offering students a softer approach to apologetics, a reading that doesn't sound academic and that's more...

Authorities in Ulysses continue to investigate the death of a seven month old girl who was left in a car during a hot day Thursday. Kynadee Boese passed away Thursday after being left in a car parked at Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital in Ulysses. The infant's funeral was yesterday in Ulysses. Ulysses Police Chief Alan Olson says results of Friday's autopsy are not complete. The Ulysses Police Department, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and Grant County Attorney's Office are investigating.yesterdays report: The Ulysses Police Department, Kansas Bureau of Investigation, and Grant County Attorney's office are investigating the death of an infant...

A recent study shows that Shakespeare is no longer a required course for English majors at the overwhelming majority of American elite universities. This is not a surprise: most people are well aware that students are no longer taught the basics in the humanities departments. Unfortunately, the situation is just as bad in physics departments. At the overwhelming majority of physics departments at American universities, even the most elite, key elements of basic physics are no longer taught. For example, I am aware of no American university that requires, for an undergraduate degree in physics, a course in general relativity,...