exvigilare

Oh dear, I'm in a great deal of trouble if this is correct. Hat tip to EvangelicalOutpost.

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Clarity Amongst Chaos lists the differences between Democrats and Republicans on Christmas:

Republicans say "Merry Christmas!"
Democrats say "Happy Holidays!"

Republicans first began thinking like Republicans when they stopped believing in Santa Claus.
Democrats became Democrats because they never stopped believing in Santa Claus.

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You should frequent this site regularly: Blogs4God. You can link to many of the sites you already know about and find other sites that are worth your time but you didn't know about.

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Fans of Gregg Easterbrook's Tuesday Morning Quarterback will be relieved to know that he still writes the article, but no longer for ESPN's Page 2. He moved to NFL.com some time ago, and more astute fans know all of this already. I just now figured it out, and will therefore will pretend to be clever. I did try to find it some weeks ago, albeit half-heartedly, but the NFL.com site is not so friendly to new users. Well, maybe I'm just an idiot (probably much more likely).

His Easterblogg is also one of the more intelligently written lefty blogs (article, really) out there, I think. He writes for the New Republic Online, but try not to hold that against him. His football analysis is what appeals to me, and I was a regular reader while he was with ESPN. Even his political views deserve to be heard, even when he's wrong. At least the reader can get an intelligent, honest argument from Easterbrook.

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Ann Coulter has a new column today about Christian persecution by the ACLU, specifically the litigation that results in removal of the 10 commandments. As usual, she's biting and hilarious. Money quote:

How a local judge acknowledging a higher power with a symbol used by all three major religions is the same as Congress establishing a national religion remains a legal mystery – like, how the University of Michigan can use one admissions standard for blacks and another for whites and yet it's not race discrimination.
How about a truce? The intolerant religious fanatics in the red states will continue not complaining about high taxes, secular education and gay-rights parades in the blue states, and the proponents of tolerance in the blue states will stop bothering everyone in the red states.

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From The Message:

The angel said, "Don't be afraid. I'm here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide: A Savior has just been born in David's town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master. This is what you look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."

Merry Christmas, everyone.

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Lileks has been Barbie shopping. Nobody writes like him. He's not permalinking this month (except for exceptionally hilarious photoshopped images of Saddam Hummels) so read him today. Money quote today:

So I got her Barbie on a Real Working Jetski, partly because Barbie’s wearing a neoprene wetsuit that doesn’t look as stupid as the other fashions. At least she hasn’t gone totally crack-whore like the Bratz line. I pray that toy burns out before Gnat gets close to tweenery.

Too good.

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Speaking of snowballs, thanks to Say Anything for the snow. With Yonas' help, we pinched the code and copied to my script. Pretty cool, huh?

By the way, read the site while you are checking out the snow. He's got a great article on Christianity Disappearing.

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The snowball is growing; got another link and good comment, along with Guy. This time the Evangelical Outpost says we are "worth checking out." Nice going, Guy!

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I spent the last several hours working on a response to a Denver Post article, "The un-churches," and the entire thing is gone. Missing. Kaput. Made the little one dinner, played with her, watched Sponge Bob. Finished the post, hit Post and Publish, and the bugger had timed out. No way to back into it, no way to view the last page. Just gone. Buggery bollocks.

Here's the short version, then. Jared nails it pretty well. Anything that gets bottoms in the seats must be pretty good, but I believe that the traditions and sacraments are part of what makes the church. There is a reason for them, and tossing them out of the window to appeal to those who "want to play on the weekend" is not a good idea. Get 'em in the seats, absolutely, but do not deviate from the word of God.

Well, the first post was better. More depth, more italics, more quotes with biting analysis. Brilliant, really, shame you couldn't see it. Hmm, lesson learned.

Update: thanks to Amy for pointing that I had linked to the wrong story.

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Thanks to PunditFilter for the good word. As his site states: "Insta-filtering the Meta-pundits - daily roundup of posts from around the blogosphere and web at large." A good read and a good resource. Good and Loud, me thinks.

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I made it off the mountain alive! The ski weekend was a success, fun was had by all, and my wife was happy to get reacquainted. Since the fair madam is 5 months preggers, she didn't ski. With the littlest one at home with Grandma (for the first time ever - another story) the fair madam had plenty of time to herself, which is just what she needed. As for my adventure, let's just say that calling me a novice skier is an affront to novice skiers. I was quite happy sticking to the simplest green runs I could find, but Hendrik somehow managed to talk me into a few blue runs, and even snuck in a short black run without my knowledge. Happily, I hit no one. No one hit me. Trees are still standing. All of which I consider to be because of God's good grace (pity?). All is good, except now I feel like I'll never walk properly again. Parts of me hurt that I don't think I should have been using.

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