Each election various pundits and politicians seem to be surprised at the way independent voters swing. I think they have a bit of a problem comprehending the word “independent.” I am a bit wary of using “we” when discussing independents, but as an independent voter myself I am generally not that shocked by the swings….
Two personal experiences shape my thoughts each day on Martin Luther King day. The first was the memory of those in our small north Georgia community who were gratified that he had died. Few of the young folk had any idea why they should think that way, though we had regularly had “scares” that there…
Kevin DeYoung makes this claim at the evangel blog. Amongst many good things, he says: For starters, being hurt is easier than being right. To prove you’re offended you just have to rustle up moral indignation and tell the world about it. To prove you’re right you actually have to make arguments and use logic…
Jonathan Smith, Vice President of Florida Citizens for Science (of which I am a board member) presents a column on science education in Florida today in the The Ledger (Lakeland, FL): A key quote: Parents are the ones who must endeavor to help shape their children’s future by guiding them down the paths of interests…
Yesterday I posted an aside regarding the attempted murder of the Danish cartoonist who drew the cartoon that provoked violent responses in the Muslim world. Today I saw this news story regarding reactions to a Malaysian court ruling that non-Muslims could use the word Allah. Behold how much violence a small matter kindles! I am…
I agree with this note which calls this column, titled Prejudiced Danes Provoke Fanaticism, execrable. Freedom of thought requires the freedom to offend, and being offended does not justify violence.
Uses social media. Receives request for help. Personally shovels driveway. Kudos! More on CNN (HT: Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire).
David Opderbeck has an excellent post on the question of whether intelligent design (ID) is religious and how this relates to our view of natural theology. (HT: Through a Glass Darkly) In the post, he gets into an issue that I have raised before, which is the question of whether we really want to advocate…
One of the things I think has not been discussed enough in the current job situation, though I think President Obama has done extremely well on this one point compared to his predecessors, is the simple fact that jobs for minimally educated people are disappearing, and thus many of the new jobs that are being…
While I know that some forms of determining merit pay for teachers can be unfair, in general I think tying pay to performance is an excellent, indeed necessary idea. Now the Florida Education Association is trying to block $700 million in grants from the federal government because it’s tied to incentive pay. Bad idea, I’d…
