Continuing to forge ahead...

Wizbang! (watch out for a little PG language) has exposed a potentially embarassing scandal involving the forging of documents in order to defend C^BS' forged documents. Pay particular attention to the updates, especially the latest one (number 8). Will these people stop at nothing?

More ridiculousness

Anti-religion activists continue their rampage to remove any and all references to Christianity from the public view.

Group Wants Cross Removed From Moorhead Center

Moorhead, Minn. (AP) A group that works for the separation of religion and government wants a Celtic cross removed from the grounds of the Heritage Hjemkomst Center.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, of Madison, Wis., requested removal of the cross in a letter sent to the center and Moorhead City Hall on Sept. 18.

...

Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-founder of the Freedom from Religion Foundation, said the cross needs to go, too. She said the group would consider a lawsuit if the city and the Hjemkomst Center do not remove the cross.

"There's no question that there is religious purpose and message in the cross," she said.

Dean Sather, executive director of the nonprofit agency that cares for the center's artifacts, said the cross does not promote religion.

"It's a replica of an historic artifact," he said. "In our interpretative work, we do not do evangelical work or proselytizing."

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (what the heck is "freedom from religion," anyway?) is a secularist/hyper-separationist group that claims to promote the separation of church and state, but - as with most groups like this - their overall beliefs echo a promotion of separation of religion and society. On their "About" page, they state the following before ever mentioning anything about promoting the separation of church and state (other than their slogan):

"The history of Western civilization shows us that most social and moral progress has been brought about by persons free from religion."

And therein lies their prejudice. If you are religious (and Christian, in particular), they believe that not only do you have little chance of promoting social and moral progress ("progress" according to their definition, which includes euthenasia, sterilization and abortion), but they have the unstated belief (on that page, anyway) that religion and the religious are the antithesis of progress of any kind. I can't say that the history of religion has been free of problems, but then they can't say that about the history of "freethought," either.

The cross at this heritage center is a replica of an historical artifact. Secularists/hyper-separationists don't go around demanding the removal of countless statues of ancient European and African dieties from museums, so why this one cross? Either they are inconsistant or they are prejudiced. Actually, it's probably both. Their website shows a profound lack of opposition to anything but Christians and Christianity.

Now don't get me wrong. I actually am a supporter of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state as Jefferson originally intended it. Not as a weapon to secularize society or create hostility between religion and the government as is currently being done, but as a means for the church and state to co-exist without one running the other.

Alright, this is just ridiculous

Hubbard Woods School in Illinois has recently de-invited first lady Laura Bush to a children's book reading. Why? Because anti-gun nuts argued that because of a shooting rampage at the school 16 years ago, it would be wrong for a representative of the Bush administration to come to the school for any reason. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm positive that the current Bush administration had nothing to do with something that happened over a decade and a half ago. I'm also positive that Laura Bush has nothing to do with any Second Amendment policies of the current administration. And I'm definitely positive that having the first lady attend a book reading will not have anything to do with the gun control debate. Some people can't see that, I guess. All they see is the world as colored by their hatred of guns.

This statement from one of the anti-gun nuts was particularly amusing in its hypocrisy:

"When I think of those people having to see children at Hubbard Woods School be political props as part of a campaign swing from a president who has been so closely associated with the NRA (National Rifle Association) and has done so little to promote sensible gun laws, it was just hurtful to me," Bishop said.

"Just as we would not want to politicize the World Trade Center site or Columbine (High School), this place ought never be politicized," Bishop said.

But that's exactly what this guy has done! He used the children at the school to be political props and politicized the school. I guess it's okay to do that as long as it is against the Bush administration.

HTML 101

Sola-man directed me to a website about HTML, so this page should start looking cleaner. (Notice the link in the first word of this very post!)

You know, I'm pretty sure I used to use HTML, but I don't recall why, when or where. All of the websites I've had in the past 5 years were set up using the WYSIWYG method. Oh, well...

A goofy-looking picture

If you can look at this picture without laughing, you need psychological help. Try to come up with your own caption. rofl

W's hometown newspaper endores Kerry

Whoop-dee-doo.

At least it's not like losing your home state in a presidential election.

Captain's Quarters Blog

Not to draw traffic away from my blog (yeah, right!), but I had to put in a good word on this blog. I haven't visited a lot of other blogs at this point, but this is one of the best of the ones I have seen so far.

Those funny periods

In a few of my posts you may have noticed paragraphs separated by a line with a lone period. For some reason, the blog doesn't always retain the spaces I put between paragraphs and I don't know why. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I'm not using the HTML editor to create the entries.

Update: I'm slowly but surely resolving this issue.

Tree: 1, Car: 0

A friend IM'd this link to me You speed demons better watch it. That could be you.

Just to be fair and balanced...

The GOP isn't immune to resorting to dirty tricks, either. They recently admitted that they sent out mailings in West Virginia and Arkansas warning that liberals would ban the Bible if Kerry got elected. *sigh* It won't affect my vote, but I really hope someone got canned for that.

Planned Parenthood's abortion t-shirts

They have t-shirts that proclaim "I had an abortion." Considering that PP claims that abortion makes up only about 5% of their total business, one has to wonder - as "Hamster" on TheologyWeb.com did today - why they don't have t-shirts that proclaim "I got a herpes exam" (or something similar).

*cough* *hack* *wheeze*

I've had a cough for about a week now. It started after the cold I had last week. This happened the last time I had a cold, too. It just won't go away on its own, so I'm hoping the doctor will prescribe some antibiotics again like last time. I've never had this problem before this year. I guess I'm starting to show my age. Well, alright. I'm continuing to show my age.

Bush and the draft

Here's another ridiculous Bush-bashing lie going around:

(the following was originally sent via email):

Mandatory draft for boys and girls (ages 18-26) starting June 15, 2005, is something that everyone should know about. This literally effects everyone since we all have or know children that will have to go if this bill passes. There is pending legislation in the house and senate (companion bills: S89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin as early as spring, 2005, just after the 2004 presidential election.

This plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a shelter and includes women in the draft. Also, crossing into Canada has already been made very difficult.

As with the previous entry, this is not true, either. Here are a few links debunking it and clarifying that not only is this bill NOT backed by President Bush, but it is the creation of a Democratic Congressman:

Factcheck.org

MichelleMalkin.com

TruthOrFiction.com

Even Kerry is now paying lip-service to this falsehood.

Furthermore, MTV's supposedly non-partisan "Rock the Vote" campaign is putting out decidedly partisan information about this issue. They even have an ad about it. Of course, this shouldn't be surprising since MTV is owned by the same company that owns... *trumpet fanfare* "see BS."

One almost has to wonder if this draft bill was an anti-Bush set up from the beginning. More often than not, the author of the bills and the massive lack of support for them are conveniently left out and President Bush is falsely portrayed - directly or not - as supporting the reintroduction of the draft despite the fact that he does not.

Beware of email rumors. Lesson to be learned from the Twilight Zone.

BTW, I'm really, really, REALLY hoping this issue comes up in the upcoming debates so we can see the President mop the floor with those who are perpetuating the lie.

God vs. Dubya... NOT!!!

This is a Bush-/Republican-bashing lie that has been making the rounds lately:

I thought it was an interesting coincidence that a state with questionable presidential election results would be pummeled by hurricanes just before the next election. Then I thought it was an interesting coincidence that the storms spared Miami, who voted for Gore in 2000. Just out of curiosity, I overlaid two maps: one of the tracks of the hurricanes of 2004, and one of the elections results of 2000.This is no longer an interesting coincidence. It is an unmistakable message from God. I hope everyone is listening.

[see image in above link]

Note: After leaving Florida, Charley hit Georgia and Frances hit Georgia and South Carolina. Both voted for Bush in 2000. The path of Ivan is projected as of Sept. 14. Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana all voted for Bush. If you have ANY doubt who this message is coming from, watch and see if Ivan veers west to hit those states as well.

This is NOT TRUE, however. The image is not accurate when it comes to the paths of the hurricanes. Meteorologists track hurricane paths according to their eyes or centers of rotation. All official hurricane track maps show the hurricanes taking much different paths. Frances' eye in particular passed over the Gulf of Mexico on the west coast of Florida before hitting the Florida panhandle and entering the eastern U.S. The map in the above link shows Frances never leaving the peninsula, however. The fake map also makes it seem as if the destruction was limited to the thin track lines. The hurricanes' damage extended far beyond the eyes, however. The Democratic counties were far from immune from heavy damage.

The urban legends debunking website Snopes.com has a page on this. They call it "a clever bit of political humor," but unfortunately it seems that's not what it is now being used for by some. People are taking this map and perpetuating it as truth. Whether this is deliberate or not is unknown. Probably some of it is and some of it isn't. Either way, the truth about it needs to be known.

Whence "Jinx McHue" and "Shock and Blog?"

I hope the "Shock and Blog" title is a sufficiently obvious reference to "shock and awe."

As for my handle, it is the result of a number of things. "Jinx" is a nickname I earned among my friends when I was going to college about 10 years ago. The name itself actually originated with a Dungeons and Dragons character I played (back when I played the game) who was strangely as accident prone as I am. "McHue" was inspired by one of my friends who uses the handle "Rags McKay." Both "McHue" and "McKay" come from the first syllable (the sound, not the spelling) of our last names preceded by "Mc."

See? Already you're learning far more about me that you ever wanted to know. *very big grin*

What to expect here

Expect the unexpected. Spiritual reflections, random thoughts, political rants, stories about "the fam," bored ramblings and more. I have no real focus right now. That may or may not change. We'll see.

The blog bandwagon

Well, here I am. Thanks to a number of factors - primarily the "see BS" (CBS - get it?) memogate scandal, but also my brother and eldest sister's influence (they both have blogs now, too) - I've overcome my irrational dislike of blogs (it's a long story - later) and jumped on the blog bandwagon. WHEE!!! This should be an interesting ride.