Band Name

I think Sideways Headers would be a good name for a band.

Band Name

I think Ephemeral Scepter would be a good name for a band.

Band Names

Suggestions from work:

• Crush Behavior
• Placebo Interference
• Sonorous Respirations

See also other band names.

Band Name

I think Russian Gazpacho would be a good name for a band.

Band Name

I think Germans with Colds would be a good name for a band.

Band Name

I think Conditional Parking Lane would be a good name for a band.

Band Name

I think Serious Ice-cream Infusion would be a good name for a band.

Trump Still Faking Faith, Failing

Awkward:

The Republican presidential candidate spoke at Liberty University Monday . . . .

“Two Corinthians, right? Two Corinthians 3:17, that’s the whole ball game,” Trump said, as laughter rippled through the audience, perhaps because most Christians refer to the book as “Second Corinthians.”

‘I can’t deny I was married. I can’t deny I have children . . . But I’ve moved forward now and I’ve gone back to being a child. I don’t want to be an adult right now.’

Uh…

Whether this is a true story or not, the above line may be the perfect encapsulation of our culture today.  Pathological narcissism, check.  Increasingly parodic refusal to be a grown-up, check.

Five Facts You Didn’t Know about the Inspiring Ida B. Wells

Happy 153rd birthday of teacher, journalist, civil-rights activist, Republican, and gun advocate Ida B. Wells!

Google has a “Doodle” today (see below) in honor of this remarkable and courageous woman.  You may know she was born a slave before the Civil War and helped found the NAACP in 1909, but here are five interesting things you may not have heard:

1.  Ida Wells was the original Rosa Parks.

She refused to move to the back of the train, “71 years before the activist Rosa Parks showed similar resistance on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus.”

Islamists Beheading Civilians in—America?

You know that Islamic State terrorists beheaded American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff several weeks ago, but did you know that Muslims were beheading Americans in America?

From local ABC affiliate WABC in New York, February 11th, 2013:

GRUESOME DOUBLE MURDER, MEN DECAPITATED

. . .

The victims are reportedly from Jersey City, but their remains were found buried in a town southwest of Philadelphia.

Video: Personal Story about Obamacare; plus Other Responses to State of the Union

A few thoughts on the president’s State of the Union address (text and video at Politico) earlier this week:

• Within the first few minutes of the speech, he wanted to take credit for cutting the deficit (as well as for other things that have happened very much despite, rather than because of, his best efforts—oil production, anyone?):  “Our deficits — cut by more than half.”  Then, just a few minutes later, he decried “last year’s severe cuts to priorities like education.”  (He also decried “the damage done by last year’s cuts to basic research”.)  As I observed three years ago, he can’t have it both ways.

Arts & Letters Saturday: mewithoutYou

As many have discussed, culture is deeper and more important than politics.  Certainly government policy can, to some extent, change a culture, but to a much greater extent, (democratic) governments are whatever kind of government the underlying culture produces.  As Rush Limbaugh remarked before the election, America could survive four more years of President Obama’s policies; the worst wouldn’t be the policies—the worst would be that we would have become the kind of country that would re-elect such a president.

From now on, I’ll try to post something about arts and culture—about a movie, a book, any art form—every Saturday.  It may be self-consciously Christian or conservative art, or it may not.  It will be something that I liked at least one aspect of; it may or may not be something you would like as well.  Let me know what you think.

Recommended

A few interesting readings I’ve run across recently:

1.

Via Rush Limbaugh, John Kass responds to President Obama’s recent comments with a tribute to his hard-working father, and the rest of his family, who ran a small business.

(President Obama said last Friday, “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.”  That’s not taken out of context; on the contrary, in context, it sounds even worse.  Don’t take my word for it; read as much of the context as you’d like.)

2.

Project Veritas, run by James O’Keefe, appears to have caught union bosses on video agreeing to help get government money (that’s your money) to pay people to dig holes and fill them back in:

National Offend a Feminist Week

I’m not sure whether it qualifies, but here’s my contribution to The Other McCain’s National Offend a Feminist Week:

Note that I would never have heard of Offend a Feminist Week (much less participated in it) if not for female blogger No One of Any Import, who explains,

Political Kryptonite

Heard on Sean Hannity’s radio show this past Monday, when Hannity was talking about President Obama’s unpopularity dragging many of his fellow Democrats down to defeat in 2010—and in 2012? (quote is approximate):

. . . who then becomes the political equivalent of kryptonite, if you will, for all of them.

I think Political Kryptonite would be a good name for a band.

Grunt and Squeal and Squawk with the Animals

My friend Evan pointed out some surprising facts last week.  At least they were surprising to me.  Did you know that PETA has killed thousands of animals?  That is, at least according to this source (and it does cite its sources).*

Here are some more facts:

—According to PETA—this is a quote—“Silk Production Causes Painful Death for Insects”.  Ergo, “Don’t buy silk....”

—Another PETA Web site admonishes us, “don’t buy wool.”  (Evan says, “ask any shepherd what happens to a sheep that doesn’t get sheared for the summer”.)