Albert Mohler and Pat Robertson on the Nye-Ham debate

I did not watch the debate between Bill Nye and Ken Ham. I have been reading the various reviews and most of them seem to think that Nye had the better of it. It is of course hard to conceive of anyone losing an argument to someone who believes that the Bible is literally true and that the Earth is 6,000 years old but, as I said earlier, in these kinds of debates who emerges as victor or vanquished has little to do with whether they are right or not but more on the quality of the rhetorical tricks employed. [Read more…]

Seriously flawed artists: The case of Woody Allen

Nobody’s perfect. The fact that actors and writers and other artists may be personally flawed does not usually cause a problem with appreciating their work because we have learned to (mostly) separate the work of the artist from the person of the artist, so that praise for the artistic work does not mean we like or approve of the artist or the lives they lead. [Read more…]

Nickel and diming football cheerleaders

Two cheerleaders for the Oakland Raiders football team, identified as just Lacy T. and Sarah G. have initiated a class-action lawsuit against the team alleging ‘wage theft’, denying them compensation that they feel they are entitled to. They are not paid for practices or overtime or for other appearances like at charity events, which results in them getting paid at roughly $5 per hour, which is below the California minimum wage. Plus they only get paid at the end of the season so they have to pay their own expenses up front. As Lacy T. says, she was surprised by this since football teams make so much money. [Read more…]

When government bungling becomes ‘sensitive security information’

Last month I wrote about an important ruling handed down on January 14, 2014 by US District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco where he slapped down the government for placing a Malaysian architect Rahinah Ibrahim on the no-fly list in 2005 and not telling her why. The trial lasted five days from December 6-10, 2013 during which at least on ten occasions the judge reluctantly closed the court to the public and the press at the request of the government because the case supposedly involved ‘sensitive security information’ or SSI. [Read more…]