I found an interesting book by William James Sidis. Though Sidis was supposedly a super-genius (so far, I'm not seeing it), the flaws in his logic show through. To be fair, he was more up front about his assumptions than most "scientists" but not as much as he should have been. I'm only a third of the way through yet, but it's proving to be a very interesting read, flaws notwithstanding. » read more »

It seems this page is one of the most frequently visited on TuscanyCircle by web searchers (e.g., Googlers, Yahoo-ers, etc.). People must really be interested in emotional maturity these days. In a way, I suppose that should be an encouraging sign. What would be more interesting, though, is knowing what people are taking away from TuscanyCircle. Are they truly seeking emotional maturity? Or are they merely looking for affirmation, evidence showing how they're more emotionally mature than their peers? » read more »

From Pacific Justice: » read more »

Treason is essentially working for the enemy. The Third World is invading our nation through mass, unchecked, illegal migration. Those who help this invasion of criminals are guilty of treason. I wonder if those who cater to foreign languages in this country are aiding this invasion by making it more feasible for them to live here. » read more »

What percentage of men have an issue with lust? It's often joked that it's 100%. I suspect the real number isn't quite that high--probably closer to 99.999999%. Why is lust such a prevalent sin among men? What can Godly men do about it? » read more »

Vox references some stupid "brights" (pardon the redundancy) as claiming:

...Darwin's dangerous idea provided a powerful foundation for the secular worldview. » read more »

I'd like to propose a new euphemism for public- and private-schoolers: aggregate-schoolers. While it should be immensely insulting to those who partake of such an inferior form of education, it's probably just subtle enough to escape such offense, especially among those generally less likely to perceive subtleties. » read more »

How do you wake another person up from his slumber of stupidity? How do you get another to begin questioning his purpose in life? How do you encourage someone to seek the Lord, to submit his life to Him, and to walk in Godly obedience forevermore? These are important parts of evangelism or witnessing. Many people are in bad situations and are not handling them well. The Lord can help them, but He allows us the freedom to choose. This means it may take some appropriate nudges to get him to seek the Lord's way. » read more »

I don't know what more I could add to this story about putting taser-like bracelets on all airline passengers. Frankly, I hope they do it. I hope it does end the airline industry. While we're at it, I hope I live long enough to see the total collapse of American stupidity. I would say I'd grieve the loss of America herself, but that happened a long time ago.

Doug Apple gives good advice to young women and teen girls. Doug talks about how dressing to attract men's attention really only gets them interested in a woman's body parts, not the woman herself. Surely, this is not the kind of attention she really wants. To be more frank than Doug: Ladies, don't dress like whores unless you want to be treated like whores. » read more »

Moby shared this:

A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner. In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding. » read more »

I usually appreciate Vox' blog entries. He's a reasonably smart dude, and that's refreshing. He's not the strongest theologian, so his worldview occasionally suffers (e.g., creationism), but I think he'd admit to that anyway. By and large, he's most often right. I plan to continue reading his blog more or less regularly. » read more »

Iran presents a special problem for Israel. MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doesn't work with a people anxious to "die for Allah". What greater deterrent is there for such fanatics? » read more »

To inoculate means to protect against, theoretically forevermore. There are many ways to inoculate others against Christianity, all but insuring they will never seek the Lord. Stupid Christians are the worst offenders here, doing countless unbelievers and the church a grave disservice. Here are some of the ways in which believers stupidly work to condemn others. » read more »

Every believer should know how to address common questions and charges given by seekers and scoffers. Failure to handle these basics can really hurt a believer's witness and even "inoculate" a seeker against the faith. Don't be a liability for Christ; be prepared to provide reasons for your faith. » read more »

From his own blurb:

I am a editor trained in engineering, German-to-English technical translation, and journalism. My experience includes copyediting college textbooks, editing scholarly journals, editing doctoral dissertations for publication, preparing historical editions of letters, and preparing critical editions of philosophical works.

This is too funny to pass up. Spain is giving legal, human rights to apes.

Clueless asks: » read more »

Microsoft's Live Search has been banned from TuscanyCircle for spamming! Live Search has instituted a "referrer spam" campaign for the last several months, upsetting countless webmasters. Apparently, it's some sophomoric attempt to drive traffic to their search engine. Too bad. They're out. I don't even care if they ban TuscanyCircle from their pathetic excuse for a search engine. Legitimate traffic from Live Search approaches nil anyway. I don't need 'em. Note: Live has also been removed from my external-search-engine options. » read more »

In light of John 1:1, Matthew 10:33 becomes very sobering. The written Word of God is like a shadow of the living Word, Jesus. Jesus is the Word become flesh (Matthew 10:14). If we deny Jesus before men, He will deny us before His Father. How can Jesus be our advocate at our Judgment if He has denied us because we first denied Him? He can't. This is the nature of rejection. Now, if Jesus is the Word become flesh, what might it mean for us to deny the written Word? » read more »

I think I just put two and two together and learned how the blogosphere may die. The key ingredient of the blogosphere that may lead to its downfall is simply this: it's written. The problem with blogs is that they're written language--as opposed to video clips or audio podcasts. Too many with theoretically high IQs (130s?) are seemingly incapable of even basic reading comprehension. If those brighter than 98% of the population are unable to comprehend even the simplest of articles, what hope does the 98% have? » read more »

Vox:

I think it's debatable that idiocracy is coming. Based on my recent experiences...I'd say it's well upon us.

I agree. We differ from the movie in one key aspect, though: <SPOILER> » read more »

The Seventeenth Amendment made Senators to be elected by the people rather than by the state legislatures, effectively dismantling the separation of powers as the Founding Fathers desired. The Founding Fathers rightly believed man was cursed with sin and all but sure to be corrupt in wielding power over others. So fundamental was this belief that the entire structure of the federal government was designed to split power so completely that corruption would find inhospitable conditions for growth. The House of Representatives was to be elected by the people. » read more »

On Vox' condescension toward morons: » read more »

The vast majority of people fail to see reality accurately. Most fail because their worldviews are wrong, so their conclusions are based upon incorrect perceptions and interpretations. However, even those with a decent worldview (i.e., Biblically based) often fail to see reality accurately. In these cases, it's not due to the worldview, per se, but usually due to an all too common personality flaw--one that has not yet been corrected by their worldview. » read more »

The world hates the Lord's disciples (John 15:19). Little did I know so very many within the church would be among those doing the hating! Why? The righteousness of the obedient is convicting of the sins of the disobedient (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). Few like to face their own sins or be reminded of them by others, even implicitly. » read more »

One of the more divisive topics in the church today is creationism, specifically young-earth creationism. The vast majority of the modern church--in America anyway--has swallowed the old-earth, evolutionary hogwash, hook, line and sinker. They tend to get visibly upset, emotional, when they meet a fellow believer who actually believes in what the Word plainly says. Such an emotional reaction tends to imply a weak faith (in their old-earth belief). After that, reasoned discourse is usually very difficult if not impossible. » read more »

AT&T's wireless data networks (3G, GSM) are down, apparently across several markets. The impression I got was it's nationwide though not [yet] total. They've been having intermittent yet isolated problems for a while, but now it's "spread" to the bulk of their network. As of this morning, all my phones (NE Atlanta) have lost all data connection. There is no ETA, nor do I have further details.

The symptom on my WM6 PPC device is, "Unable to connect for an unknown reason." Informative, eh? On my other WM6 Smartphones, the error is even more useless. » read more »

The dates for Praise In Motion's 2008-2009 season are now published on PIM's website. The spring dates are tentative, as noted, but the November ones should be good. Of course, venue information will be published as it's known (to the webmaster), so keep watching that page. » read more »

Why are so many people stupid? Frankly, it's easy to be stupid. » read more »