Westboro Baptist Church Loses Lawsuit

Oh, thank God. Westboro's practices in general would make an interesting rhetorical case study (perhaps a future blog entry on my part), but for now, suffice it to say that even if their logic is reasonable according to Scripture, their methods are not. It's as if they've stuck with the Old Testament model of spirituality and completely ignored the whole need for love thing.

I also have an interesting history with Calvinism (long story), so I was amused to see that Westboro claims five point Calvinism as its theology. It would be interesting to see if Westboro's actions are, in fact, reflective of Calvinism taken to its logical extreme.

Moby rocks, and not just for his music.

Someone recently sent Moby a YouTube link to one of his own videos. It's unclear why. Maybe the person just wanted to let Moby know that it was up and possibly violating copyright or something. But Moby's response was to post the YouTube link himself. A musician? Who is actually harnessing the power of the internets? Awesome!

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Also, see Moby on Net Neutrality

As part of a deal to fix the recent Michigan budget crisis, the Senate passed a bill cutting future teachers' benefits. Meanwhile, as the Lansing State Journal points out, they left their own benefits intact.

Actually, the article leaves me feeling vaguely optimistic. I mean, it sucks for all my teacher friends--and I know quite a few people in education. Three of them in particular may get burned by this--one's doing long-term subbing in Pennsylvania, one's in North Carolina, and one's on a missions trip in Albania--if they ever want to come back to Michigan, which is where their families are, they'll be a little bit screwed. Naturally, it irritates me that the legislature would hurt the public schools before it hurts itself. On the other hand, I'm outraged because I'm now aware of the issue--but I wouldn't be aware of the problem if it weren't pointed out to the newspaper by Senators. Maybe there's hope for change.