Techcordance

Franklin Graham

Last Sunday the president of the United States came to visit my 91-year-old father, Billy Graham, and me at my father’s home in North Carolina. If either of us wanted to visit the president at his home or even just to speak with him on the phone, we would have to navigate one or more telephone operators, receptionists or executive assistants–and still might not be successful in reaching him.
This morning, and numerous times throughout the day, I spoke directly to the God of this universe–no switchboard, secretaries, call screeners or voice mail. What an amazing thing! Even more amazing, God was waiting on my call and anxious to hear from me and talk to me, no matter how many times I called. Prayer–talking to God–is a vibrant and vital personal practice; but it is also a very real part of our national history.
In 1775 George Washington and the Continental Congress requested the colonies to pray for wisdom in a war for independence. Nearly 100 years later, President Abraham Lincoln offered a proclamation of a day of “humiliation, fasting and prayer.” Almost a century later, in 1952, President Harry Truman signed a joint resolution of Congress declaring an annual, national day of prayer. President Ronald Reagan, in 1988 amended the law, permanently establishing the first Thursday of May as the National Day of Prayer, a tradition every president, Republican and Democrat alike, has honored by signing a proclamation encouraging all Americans to pray on this day…

April 27

A Three Step Program for Blog Addiction

Getting your news from blogs can be a quick efficient way to broaden your knowledge base. I try to take the next step and check out the blogs, news sites and other sources that I don’t necessarily agree with, politically or philosophically. By taking in different viewpoints I hope to reinforce my own thinking and better articulate where I’m coming from on any particular issue. Of course you have be willing to change your opinion or at least think more critically on those issues that don’t compromise your core worldview beliefs, when that opposing argument makes so much sense you can’t ignore it.
On this blog I’ve chosen to employ a three category approach, faith, technology and politics, to satisfy the appetite of all my fellow news junkies, hopefully appealing to the more casual observer as well. I think the three fit together nicely, complimenting each other for a comprehensive view of current events. When I see a change in political attitudes, be it the well connected or the working class, I’m confident my seriously held faith views will somehow be affected. Likewise, insight into the world of technology is often a barometer for the way society debates important issues and also in what way those technologies will be used to influence the debate. Being somewhat new to the game I’m always searching for new ways to reach people with information I think is important. For me, its also important to keep it fun and civil. So far that’s been my experience.

Immigration

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs on Monday professed the administration’s admiration and affection for GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and added: “I don’t know the degree to which that has complicated his life.”
Here’s a hint: Back home in South Carolina, Graham has been censured by multiple Republican county committees for his work on energy reform, immigration and other presidential priorities, and some detractors are pushing to have every GOP committee in the state issue similar rebukes. That helps explain why he reacted so sharply Friday to news that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the White House wanted to move immigration reform — legislation that hasn’t even been written — onto the Senate calendar before a climate bill that Graham, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) were to unveil Monday. Graham had even tougher talking points late Monday: He emerged from a closed-door meeting with Kerry and Lieberman to say that immigration must be tabled altogether before he will agree to back any energy bill this year.

HaHa
Is laughter the new exercise? Quite possibly. While toning thighs and building muscle mass still require a trip to the gym, other benefits associated with exercise – improved cholesterol and blood pressure, decreased stress hormones, a strengthened immune system and a healthy appetite – can be attained with regular guffaws, studies now suggest.
The latest mirth study, which focuses on the appetite effects of a good laugh, is being presented this week at the 2010 Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, Calif.
A joyful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. Proverbs 17:22

Anti-Religious
Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that rulings by judges in recent years have been more anti-religious than the Founding Fathers intended, a new poll shows. Only 21 percent of adults think the judges’ rulings regarding religion in public life have correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution, according to Rasmussen Reports.
Among evangelical Christians, 87 percent say the rulings have been too anti-religious. Those who practice other religions are evenly divided on the question.
Meanwhile, 51 percent of those who rarely or never attend a religious service believe the courts have correctly interpreted the Constitution.
“Legal scholars, religious leaders and politicians have argued for decades over whether the ’separation of church and state’ is actually enshrined in the Constitution,” the report, released Friday, states. “One side argues that the Constitution merely prohibits the establishment of a government-mandated official religion, but the other reads in the document the complete banishment of religion from anything touched by the government. The courts in recent years have leaned in the direction of the latter position.”

White House quiet, happy with spin.

Audio
In an interview with NY Times reporter Micheline Maynard this weekend, the reporter explains why the recent and numerous GM ads  are misleading.

Study

Network neutrality rules adopted by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission could lead to the loss of more than 340,000 jobs in the broadband industry over the next 10 years, with few offsetting Web content jobs, according to a new study funded by a group opposed to the proposed rules.
If the FCC adopts the net neutrality rules it is now considering, close to 1.5 million jobs across the U.S. economy could be put in jeopardy by 2020, and revenue growth in the broadband industry would slow by about one-sixth during that time frame, said the study, by Coleman Bazelon, a telecom economist with The Brattle Group.
Bazelon predicted that spending in the broadband industry would decrease by US$5 billion in 2011 if the FCC passes formal net neutrality rules, with the number growing in subsequent years.
“The FCC should be careful in developing any net neutrality rules, to not undermine its own goals of promoting broadband and employment,” Bazelon said during a press conference Friday.
Broadband deployment in the U.S. is a “success story,” the study said. About 95 percent of U.S. residents have fixed broadband available, and 98 percent have 3G mobile broadband available, the study said.

Earth Day


Churches around the world are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day on Thursday. And while some are taking the call to go green to a whole new level, others are more hesitant. “I think our churches should be the first to push the envelope in terms of reducing our carbon footprint,” Molly Harper Haines, 27, told the United Methodist News Service. “If every church ‘got off the grid’ by installing solar panels or using wind energy (for example), had community gardens to grow food and flowers for decorations … the world would be a different place.”…
Earth Day was created in 1970 by Sen. Gaylord Nelson. Forty years later, environmental groups believe the world is in “greater peril than ever” and that climate change is “the greatest challenge of our time.”
Those words don’t sit well with Reformed Pastor Kevin DeYoung of East Lansing, Mich.
Though not opposed to Christians celebrating Earth Day and thinking through ways to steward the earth, DeYoung believes the Earth Day movement rests on “several debatable premises” like the world being in greater peril than ever. Moreover, the annual observance is also steeped in politics, advocacy and assumed solutions, he argues.

Hidden Tax?

(CNSNews.com) – Economist and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas) said he “always believed” the Democrats would impose a value added tax (VAT) on top of all existing, current taxes when they took control of the House, Senate and White House. Armey described the VAT as the most “insidious tax of all.”
In an exclusive interview with Armey on Capitol Hill, CNSNews.com asked, “Paul Volcker, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, and several members of Congress, including Speaker Pelosi, have floated the idea of the VAT tax being implemented on top of current taxes. Would you support something like that? Why or why not?”
Armey said, “Absolutely not. Look, in 1994, I studied – actually, starting in the fall of ’93 – I studied all tax options out there, and I, of course, settled on the flat tax as the best option for a lot of reasons. The Value Added Tax was always the most insidious tax of all, and I always saw that – I’d seen that back in ’77.”

MacAfee

McAfee’s popular antivirus software failed spectacularly on Wednesday, causing tens of thousands of Windows XP computers to crash or repeatedly reboot.A buggy update that the company released early in the day turned the software’s formidable defenses against malicious software inward, prompting it to attack a vital component of Microsoft Windows. The update was available for business customers for about four hours before distribution was halted, McAfee said.The damage was widespread: the University of Michigan’s medical school reported that 8,000 of its 25,000 computers crashed. Police in Lexington, Ky., resorted to hand-writing reports and turned off their patrol car terminals as a precaution. Some jails canceled visitation, and Rhode Island hospitals turned away non-trauma patients at emergency rooms and postponed some elective surgeries.Intel was also hit by McAfee’s bungled update, a source inside the company confirmed to CNET. The source said that all Intel’s computers inside the United States ran McAfee and many were affected but didn’t know how many or whether it impacted the company’s factories.