(HT: 22 Words)
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Michael Gerson nails it on the abortion mandate
I gave my analysis last week of President Obama’s proposed revision of Obamacare’s abortion mandate. I said then that the revision is not a compromise, despite the favorable media coverage that would suggest otherwise. It’s just more of the same, and it still implicates Christian business owner’s in the killing of unborn children. The clearest analysis of the new rules that I have read, however, comes from Michael Gerson in today’s Washington Post. Here’s the bottom line:
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Confession: I DVR’d the Superbowl to watch Downton Abbey
I have a confession to make. I DVR’d the Superbowl so that I could watch Downton Abbey. I’m not much in to following television drama’s, but I have drunk the Kool-aid when it comes to the Crawley family. I’m happy to read this morning that I’m not the only one. Ted Kluck is a former professional football player and a current sportswriter. He’s also a super-fan when it comes to professional football. Yet in an article earlier today he reveals that even he tuned in to PBS during the big game. But that’s not the most interesting thing about his article. He also reveals that he has all but burned-out…
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Christians should let the Republican party split apart
Peter Leithart has a must-read over at the First Things blog. In short, he argues that President Obama is convinced that liberals have won the culture war. As a result, the President is trying to force a split in the Republican Party in order to smoke out the “bad” Republicans—those who hold to traditional marriage and who are prolife. Leithart writes: My advice to Bad Republicans is: Let it come. If the price of regaining power is to abandon any semblance of Christian sexual morality, the price is too high. If the Republican party can’t bring itself to endorse a traditional understanding of marriage, let it split. If the Republican…
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A Christian baker refuses to make cake for same-sex wedding and now faces charges
The Oregon Department of Justice is investigating a complaint against a Christian baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding. Here’s what happened in a nutshell. A woman and her daughter came into Aaron Klein’s store requesting a wedding cake. When they told Klein that the cake was for a wedding with two brides, he informed them that he does not serve same-sex weddings.
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I’m not defending Taylor Swift, but…
After watching the news piece above, I confess that I came away scratching my head. Is this really where we’ve come to as a culture? You can hardly call anything “wrong” or “immoral” in the public space without being jeered as a prude or perhaps even as a bigot. Yet it’s apparently completely within bounds to snipe at a 23-year old woman who likes to drink Diet Coke. This just seems silly to me. I don’t know much about Taylor Swift. I saw enough in the video above to be concerned about the image she is projecting to young girls. But drinking Diet Coke? How can they be serious? American…
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Wise words about avoiding student loan debt
What would happen if students gave up the quest for elite college degrees and the high price tags that come with them? They might end up like Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute and a former tenured professor at Syracuse University. Brooks earned his college degree through correspondence courses that only cost him about $10,000. He spent about $5,000 on his Master’s before finishing a Ph.D. with a fellowship. He finished the whole process with no debt at the end. His career has shown that it really is possible to rub two sticks together to make fire, and that is exactly what he has done.
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The abortion mandate still stands
The Obama administration announced “updates” this morning to Obamacare’s abortion mandate. The original mandate was a shell-game, and this latest “change” is only more of the same. The original rule required religious employers to pay money to an insurance company that would then provide abortion-inducing drugs for employees that wanted them. That is still true today despite the overhyped announcement. There’s no substantive difference. The changes are cosmetic at best. The underlying religious objection has not been addressed, and employers would still be morally implicated in paying for abortion-inducing drugs for their employees.
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The abortion mandate is losing in court
Hobby Lobby is not the only for-profit company to have filed suit against Obamacare’s abortion mandate. Hobby Lobby is just the one that you’ve heard about because they failed to get relief and have become subject to crippling fines. Michael Foust reports that there have been 44 separate lawsuits filed against the mandate. Fourteen rulings involve for-profit companies, and 10 out of 14 have been able to get relief from the courts. In short, for-profit companies are winning the majority of these cases, which means that eventually this is going to come before the Supreme Court. The Alliance Defending Freedom has represented for-profit companies seeking relief. Michael Foust reports on…
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What can I say? I like “Paperman.”
I enjoyed this animated short from Disney.