New Wolverine Trailer

May 2 can't come early enough! Here is another trailer for Wolverine.

Keeping Cool During A Debate

I've been able to recently listen to a few good debates with William Lane Craig defending the existence of God and the resurrection of Jesus Christ against atheists who disagree. I enjoy him, but I don't think I agree with his views of free-will and how human free-will fits in with destiny and salvation. Also he seems to agree that the creation accounts can coincide with prevailing ideas of some scientists - namely that the earth is several billion years-old. I have different theories. In no area that I disagree with him is it a salvation issue that could lead someone to hell...that is why I like listening to him. I also like how he remain unflappable and undisturbed no matter how stupid the other people speak. Here is an example:

Humorous Parodies

I came across a very clever parody. I laughed a long time. I'm sure it's a joke because it's Watchmen animated series intro with the look and feel of TMNT, Cops, and the Extreme Ghostbusters shows of the eighties....cheesy theme music included...and I have never seen it. If it had aired in the United States I would know about it! Take a look it is very funny!

Watchman: TV ad "Countdown Midnight"

Vanilla Ice Apologizes

I realize that this comes as to no surprise but I'm surprised that Vanilla Ice actually comes out publicly and admit that as a "white rapper" he was nothing but a pawn for getting white people to buy rap music. They wanted to mainstream rap music. I'm still amazed that he admitted.

Status of Charla Nash

You probably remember last month when Charla Nash of Connecticut was mauled by her friend's pet chimpanzee. Her injuries are grave. She lost her hands, nose, lips and eyelids and may be blind and suffering brain damage! She is sedated in the hospital and we need to pray for her.She is a real person.

Human/Chimpanzee Hybrids

I came across a video in which the question of if it is possible for humans and chimps to mate and produce offspring. The video suggests that humans and chimps are over 99% the same genetically, then the question should be explored. This argument really bothers me because more current research has shown that humans and chimpanzees are not as similar as the popular media tries to make us believe. Read my previous post: http://mmcelhaney.blogspot.com/2009/02/another-look-at-genetic-evidence-for.html

Here is the video:

A Stupid Criticism of Michelle Obama

I can't believe Michelle Obama is being criticized foe wearing clothes that are sleeveless especially in her official portrait! I mean she is still young and she's not showing any cleavage or anything risque. No where as revealing as the dresses sported on the red carpets of award ceremonies for the entertainment industry. I read an article about this turn of events at AOL. Apparently there are two opinions. One is that she should not wear such dresses because it is not formal enough for her position as First Lady of the United States. The other side sees nothing wrong with it. At first I was tempted to think that it was just because Michelle is black and racists were just looking for a reason to criticize her. Turns out that it's more complicated than that. Turns out that it goes with being First Lady of the United States period. The article references another article about the history of style of First Ladies of the United States. It turns out that all of them were either criticized for what they wore or started new trends, and sometimes both. It's really interesting. Read that article. Not all of Michelle Obama's critics are racist, many of them are just stupid.

Spider-Man Met President Obama

You probably already knew this but on January 14, 2009 Marvel Comics released a special issue in which Spider-man met President-Elect Obama and was present for his inauguration in Amazing Spider-man #583. I did not pick it up then. Fortunately, Wondercon 2009 was held last weekend and there were many opportunities to buy it and I did. What I wasn't prepared for was the fact that there have been 5 printings! You see sometimes a comic book (or any book for that matter) has a higher demand for more copies than the publisher published. The publisher will print more copies to keep up with the demand. What 5 printings mean is that this issue sold out 4 times! The only unfortunate thing is that later printings are not as valuable financially as earlier printing. This issue is a great example. At the convention, the first printing was being sold for $150.00 while the fifth printings were sold for $4.00! Adding to the collectability each printing has a different cover with Spider-man and Obama on them. The first printing has an alternate cover that does not have Spider-man on it. I bought a fourth printing of the issue and I am very pleased with it.

So what's in the book? Well, it contains 2 stories: a feature telling about Spider-man life's life in continuity and a back-up where Obama's involved. Both are interesting. In the first story it's about Spi-der-man relating to a good friend of his on her birthday. She doesn't know Peter Parker is Spider-man and the story is told from her point of view. Throughout the story she complains that Peter is flaky and undependable while simultaneously he is being a hero as Spider-man. At the end of the story Peter is the only one who shows up to her birthday celebration and he is there when she needs him. It's a great human story. As for the the shorter Obama story, Spider-man's arch-villain the Chameleon tries to impersonatee Obama so he will be sworn in instead as President. With Spider-man's help, Obama proves he's the real one and Chameleon goes to jail and Obama makes it to the Inauguration. It was a cute story.

Craig vs. Dicarlo Debate - Does God Matter?

In a word the answer is "True!" Dr. Craig argued that God does matter and Christopher Dicarlo argued that God does not matter. This debate was different. Instead of trying to prove that God exists they were arguing about God's relevance. This is a very different question. I liked how Dr. Craig argued about the absence of moral absolutes and plain emptiness and purposeless of life without a relationship with our creator. He was brilliant. This one is important enough that I will post it below the link where I initially found the debate

Apologetics 315: Craig vs. Dicarlo Debate MP3 Audio - Does God Matter?

Here is the audio:

Craig-Dicarlo-Deba...

Programmable Matter

I want this!!!!!

We Need God

I just read an article I found through AOL. It is called Does Any Woman Have to Lose Weight to Get Lucky? It details the story of a young woman who lost over half her body weight to make herself more attractive to men.

Charlotte developed an unhealthy obsession with food after she graduated from school. Being shy, she would stay home and have dinner for one while her friends went on dates. "I was 21 and desperate to be loved and to enjoy the affection my friends were getting from men," she said.

So she dropped the weight - 180 pounds and the article goes on:

After losing 180 pounds, Charlotte did the deed with a guy she met on vacation and has done it with two more since. She says, "Since I've become slim, I am more attractive to men. Sadly, that's the world we live in."

While we can't argue with the fact that we live in a looks-obsessed society, we know plenty of women of all sizes who have never let a few extra pounds stop them from getting active in the bedroom.

According to Charlotte, when she was heavy she "feared men seeing her naked and eventually stopped going out altogether." Sure, weight gain can take a toll on your self-esteem and energy levels, but that's only if you let it.

Take notice of what she said. She said she was "desperate to be loved" and she wanted attention from men because she thought that men would fulfill her desire to be loved. She overate because she was trying to fill a hole in her soul. My question now that she has slept with 3 different men, is her need to be loved been fulfilled. She's had three relationships with three men and after they got what they wanted from her, she was alone again. Is that love? Not according to the Bible. God wants more for us. Charlotte is not alone. We all have whole in our souls. Some of us try to fill it with food, material possessions, success, sex, drugs, television, all kinds of various vices, and everything that we use to make ourselves that we are happy apart from God. None of this will satisfy a human being but the love of God. It's a free gift. All we have to do is put our trust in Jesus, admit and repent of our sins - the things in our lives that are ungodly, and serve the Lord.

Bart Ehrman Rears His Head

If you haven't heard the debate between James White and Bart Ehrman concerning the topic Does the Bible Misquote Jesus? you are missing out! Here is another link to get to it. Ehrman has just released another book. It's entitled: Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them). James White has weighed in on his blog. His comments bear reading:

So says Bart Ehrman when you challenge his highly challengeable theological conclusions and claims. Ehrman's new anti-Christian book, Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible (and Why We Don't Know About Them), is lying on my desk, having just arrived. I flipped the book open to the back and my eyes fell upon this statement:

There is not literally a place of eternal torment where God, or the demons doing his will, will torture poor souls for 30 trillion years (as just the beginning) for sins they committed for thirty years. What kind of never-dying eternal divine Nazi would a God like that be? (p. 276).

Now, aside from the inherent problems (poor souls = innocent souls, the issue of divine justice, the continued hatred of those under punishment for God, etc.) in this common atheistic blast, the real issue is, does this book finally signal the end of Ehrman's "I'm not a theologian, I'm just a high-brow scholar so I cannot be held accountable for all the theological pronouncements I make" excuse making? Will those in the "academy" finally see his real intentions, and start to recognize his bias? Personally, I sort of doubt it. Anyone who is embarrassed by the open profession of the lordship of Christ over the mind will not wish to risk their next invitation to some major conference by pointing out Ehrman's bold anti-Christian zealotry. But churchmen who recognize when a wolf is stocking the sheep will do well to cull some of the whopper statements in this book as excellent examples of the fact that Ehrman is no unbiased textual critical scholar. He has moved far beyond the realm of his narrow expertise in his last three most popular books, all of which are designed to do one thing: destroy Christian faith.

I might note that the quote above would be just as applicable to the Islamic view of the fire as well. Just don't ask Bart about that. As he begins his rounds on NPR, do you think someone will ask him, "So, you are saying Allah in the Qur'an is a never-dying eternal divine Nazi?" Yeah, probably not.

It really infuriated me during the debate when Ehrman denied the theological implications of his conclusions while at the same time affirming that it was why he is no longer a Christian. Ehrman can't have it both ways. He also can't make assertions against the validity of the Bible without also applying those same conclusions to the Koran. It's dishonest. I doubt that Ehrman ever was born again Christian who truly ever knew Jesus. He doesn't talk about his faith as one where he had a relationship with the risen Christ. If he did he would come to different conclusions. I hope He finds Jesus and knows him so he won't be lost and that he'll stop leading others astray.

Craig vs. Ehrman Debate The Resurrection

I tell you the Apologetics 315 blog is a gold mine! I just found a debate between Bart Ehrman and William Lane Craig. They debated about whether the Resurrection of Christ is a fact of History or Not. To be honest, it is my opinion that Craig, who argued that the Resurrection is a fact of history, won this hands-down. Let me put it in the venacular of my generation: Ehrman got owned. The Resurrection is a subject of Dr. Craig's expertise and he did a wonderful job presenting it. It's so important that I would like to post audio below as well as a transcript of the debate. Here is the link to the Apologetics 315 post:

Apologetics 315: PDF Download: Craig vs. Ehrman Resurrection Debate Transcript

My favorite part of the debate was when Ehrman tried to argue that there are other possible explanations for Jesus' empty tomb. His point was that God supernaturally raised Jesus was improbable. Dr Craig countered by appealing to the work of a scholar from Oxford University who uses Probability Calculus to show the odds that Jesus was raised from dead against other possible explanations. I loved it. Here is the audio and the transcript.

CraigEhrmanDebate2...

More Police Brutality

More police brutality has been video taped and it has been making the rounds on the internet and television since last weekend. It found out that a 15 year-old girl was assaulted while she was in custody. She kicked her shoe at the deputies, and one of them slammed her against a wall and tossed them down on the ground. She was struck. Yes, she was being rude and disrespectful but I think the county deputies over-reacted. What do you think?

Looking Over Life

Did you see the video a guy did of himself over a period of time where he just sped up the time? They did a spoof on it on the Simpsons. Here is the video and the Simpson spoof.


Time Lapse Beard Growth - Watch the top videos of the week here

Evolution of Homer Simpson

God Truly Saves

I have found a video report on a miracle from last week. A woman's ex-boyfriend tried to shoot her in the head as she drove away but her hair weave kept the bullet from penetrating her skull. Amazing! I have never heard of such a thing before. God saved that young woman from certain death, proving that if He doesn't say its time to die, it doesn't matter what happens you won't die. She says she is thanking God everyday for her life. She's right.

Really? He had no Idea He was Being a Racist Jerk!

I saw a story today from Black Snob that just infuriates me. Yet again we have people making racist remarks against Obama and then claim that black people are making more out of it than we should. There was a link to the following article: Los Alamitos Mayor Dean Grose Emailed His Friends A White House Watermelon Picture. The article explains that the mayor of Los Alamitos, California, Dean Grose, sent around a personal email containing the following picture:

with the caption “No Easter egg hunt this year,” and yes, those are watermelons photoshopped into a picture of the white house. He sent this to a bunch of people as a joke. Out of the 12,000 people who live in that town, I doubt that there are a lot of black people but there is at least one black person on his e-mail list, Keyanus Price. She did what you are supposed to do just talk to the person who offended you. She wrote:

"Hey, that’s not nice at all. Not all black people like watermelon… you should know better than that.”

Grose replied: “The way things are today, you gotta laugh every now and then. I wanna see the coloring contests.”

In other words, no apology so Price went public. Now Grose says:

“It was just poor judgment on my part, and I am deeply sorry. It wasn’t meant to hurt her,” he said.

and

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP. "I'm sorry. It wasn't sent to offend her personally - or anyone - from the standpoint of the African-American race."

His defense: I didn't know it was racist. I'm sorry. Well at least he is stepping down as mayor. However, he never admitted that it was a racist joke!

I have also seen a quote from another person concerning this incident:

Obviously the email was a reference to certain agricultural policies of the Obama administration and their impact on California melon growers…some people are so touchy. If it makes you feel any better, I’m sure Mayor Grouse will apologize for you being so thin-skinned.

"Thin-skinned"? Serious? This with the monkey cartoon last week shows us that Eric Holder was right last week. Offending others using racist jokes and sterotypes has got to be faced head-on. Americans don't do that. That is why Holder said that we are nation of cowards. We gotta stop proving him right.

Science of "Watchmen"

Here is a video from YouTube that shows the Physics Consultant on the film talk about Dr. Manhattan's powers and the theoretical science beneath the fiction. Very, Very interesting!

Parodying Christian Bale

You may have heard about this already but a few weeks ago, an audio recording surfaced of Christian Bale going ballistic on the set of Terminator 4. Apparently someone made a mistake and he went on a tirade of cursing and belittling and insulting people and threatening to leave the set and never coming back. There are several versions of it on YouTube and there have been a couple of very funny parodies of this.

If you want to hear the original tirade, just type in "Christian Bale" into the search box in YouTube and you can see it, but I won't post it because it's just too much profanity and I could not find an edited version.


Here is the Family Guy parody



Here is the Marvel Comics parody