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Scratchpad

Scratchpad

Last updated on: June 10, 2006 at 1:33 pm by Fred Clark

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Scratchpad 2006-06-10T13:33:54-04:00 Fred Clark

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

They're baa-ack!

"Balloon Animal Jesus can't save you. He only died for balloon animal sins."

I've missed Fafblog.

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Blogger ethics, a case study

The paper now has a partnership with eHarmony. That makes some sense. If you accept the somewhat puzzling notion that an online newspaper needs to or ought to offer an online dating service, then it makes sense to subcontract out that service to someone with more expertise.

And eHarmony has such expertise, sort of. The brain-child of the former dean of an evangelical seminary, eHarmony has carved out its niche as an online matchmaker by helping people who Really, Really, Really Want to Get Married find other people who Really, Really, Really Want to Get Married. That perhaps means that it's more of an online courting service than an online dating service, but it also results in lots of heartwarming stories like this one.

Isn't that sweet? That story, a fuzzy promotional plug, ran in the paper last Monday as the lead story in the Life section — with no mention disclosing the paper's relationship with eHarmony.

That lack of disclosure seemed dodgy, so the online version of the article was placed on hold until some editor's note disclosing the partnership could be added. But instead of such a note, here is the statement that was added: "eHarmony dating services are offered through The News Journal's Web site, delawareonline.com." I suppose that qualifies as disclosure, but it also sounds a lot like an even more explicit plug.

Time for another blogger ethics panel. …

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Blogging from Antarctica.

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Teresa Nielsen Hayden links to this: Pictures within pictures …

… which is as good an excuse as any once again to link to this: The Hasselhoffian Recursion.

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Via Julia, "The Internet Theologian Explains The Da Vinci Code."

Very funny, but also insightful. Holyoffice touches on one particular point that has always puzzled me about the trendy enthusiasm for Gnostic writings:

Q: In fact, didn't the Gnostics believe the opposite of what Brown imputes to them — that Christ was never even partially human? Didn't the Gnostics, in fact, regard all created matter as evil, which extended to complete disapproval of sexual reproduction?

A: The point is, the Pope hates women.

The answer there may be an uncharitable way of stating the problem, but I basically agree with the point. I've just never understood why some seem to think that the best way to get the Pope to stop hating women would be to convince him of the secret knowledge that matter is evil.

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"When I look around I still see a Republic of Fear"

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Five Things That Are Repulsive When Sticky

5. Turnstiles.

4. Silverware.

3. Diner menus.

2. Cineplex floors.

1. Newspaper Web sites.

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr. asks, "Was the 2004 election stolen?"

That appears to be a yes-or-no question, but it isn't treated like one. Some, like RFK Jr. and Avedon Carol (see here for one of many compelling examples), strongly suspect that the answer is "yes." But others refuse even to answer "no." They simply reject the question itself as illegitimate.

This is particularly disturbing if you consider that another way of phrasing the above question is to ask: "Are we actually a free people living in a democracy?" The answer "You're not free to ask that question" raises several more questions.

* * * * *

Usually, I only like George Will when he's writing about his son or about baseball (I often disagree with the specifics of his baseball columns, but I appreciate the nerdy enthusiasm of the True Fan). But I appreciated his willingness to stray somewhat from the right-wing talking points in a column last month titled Who Isn't a 'Values Voter'?":

An aggressively annoying new phrase in America's political lexicon is "values voters." It is used proudly by social conservatives, and carelessly by the media to denote such conservatives.

This phrase diminishes our understanding of politics. It also is arrogant on the part of social conservatives and insulting to everyone else because it implies that only social conservatives vote to advance their values and everyone else votes to … well, it is unclear what they supposedly think they are doing with their ballots. …

The phrase "values voters," which has become ubiquitous, subtracts from social comity by suggesting that one group has cornered the market on moral seriousness. …

… by ratifying the social conservatives' monopoly of the label "values voters," the media are furthering the fiction that these voters are somehow more morally awake than others.

Today's liberal agenda includes preservation, even expansion, of the welfare state in its current configuration in order to strengthen an egalitarian ethic of common provision. …

He goes on to present a skewed and misleading caricature of what he imagines liberal values to be (which is another way of subtracting from social comity), but at least he acknowledges that liberals and libertarians "vote their values" just as much as social conservatives do.

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