It’s an open thread! Pleeeeease feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread…

Well, Thursday was fun. I spent eight-and-a-half hours at the VA. I went to the Dental Clinic for an emergency appointment — one of my two front teeth is a cap, and it fell off Wednesday night. The dentist just cemented the fake tooth back in place. Then I went to Urgent Care to get my toe looked at as I stubbed it so bad on Tuesday morning that my nail technician and I thought it was broken. Well, it’s not, but it took about seven hours before it got looked at. So, Thursday was a long day, essentially spent mostly in VA Medical Center waiting rooms. But hey, I’m fine!

So anywho, below is what my cartoon sockpuppet Bookworm Bob & I have been looking at news-wise late this week.

• The MSNBC‘s Arkansas evangelist gets 175 years for child sex; Preacher Tony Alamo had been accused of getting ‘married’ to young girls:

TEXARKANA, Arkansas – A federal judge on Friday sentenced Evangelist Tony Alamo to 175 years in prison for child sex crimes.

Several of the child “wives” who helped convict evangelist Tony Alamo of federal sex charges took the witness stand during his sentencing hearing.

The 75-year-old leader of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was convicted in July on a 10-count indictment accusing him of taking young girls across state lines for sex…

…In court filings, federal prosecutors said three of the women Alamo “married” at ages as young as eight had submitted written statements for Alamo’s sentencing report…

Godly Perverts — Ugh.

• NASA‘s Got Water? Yes and a Whole Lot More!:

The argument that the moon is a dry, desolate place no longer holds water.

Secrets the moon has been holding, for perhaps billions of years, are now being revealed to the delight of scientists and space enthusiasts alike.

NASA today opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon. Preliminary data from the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, indicates that the mission successfully uncovered water during the Oct. 9, 2009 impacts into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus cater near the moon’s south pole.

The impact created by the LCROSS Centaur upper stage rocket created a two-part plume of material from the bottom of the crater. The first part was a high angle plume of vapor and fine dust and the second a lower angle ejecta curtain of heavier material. This material has not seen sunlight in billions of years.

I love planetary astronomy!

[Below the fold: The President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary talks about transgender people & clothing; school sanctioned cash for grades, and our Wiener Story Of The Day involves ex-gay Pastor Ted Haggard.]• An opposition piece by Albert Mohler, President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writing the piece Boys Wearing Skirts to School? What’s Going On? for Crosswalk. From the article:

Clothes are never a frivolity — they always mean something.” Thus spoke James Laver, a famous costume designer and interpreter of fashion. He is right, of course. Clothes always mean something, which is why The New York Times gave major attention to an issue facing many schools: “Can a Boy Wear a Skirt to School?”

The article, right on the front of the “Sunday Styles” section of the paper, announced, “When gender bends the dress code, high schools struggle to respond.” The story reveals a confusion over gender that goes far beyond the dress code…

…For Christians, the issue is a matter of biblical concern. The Bible reveals a concern for respecting and honoring gender as God’s gift. In the Old Testament, the Law taught respect for these distinctions and roles. In the New Testament, we find similar expectations. As the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 11: 7-15:

For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. That is why a wife ought to have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels. Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man nor man of woman; for as woman was made from man, so man is now born of woman. And all things are from God. Judge for yourselves: is it proper for a wife to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.

…God made human beings to show His glory, and an essential part of that glory is the visible difference between males and females that is reflected even in the public presentation of dress. We should be able to tell the difference between a boy and a girl by the way they dress and present themselves in public.

As James Laver reminded, clothes always tell us something. This article from the “Sunday Styles” section of The New York Times tells us something as well — something we need to hear.

We all cherry pick our scriptures to prove our points. Mohler quotes a scripture on appropriate dress in his article. I usually quote scriptures that talk about eunuchs, and allow for gender variance “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” Obviously, I think Dr. Mohler is dead wrong in his take on what his verion of God says in the Bible about gender variant people.

And more importantly, I don’t believe it’s a valid function of government to enforce gender norming via clothing and grooming standards on gender variant people. This, after all, is America, the land of the free.

• San Francisco Chronicle‘s NC school officials nix cash-for-grades fundraiser:

Administrators have nixed a North Carolina middle school’s cash-for-grades fundraiser. The News & Observer of Raleigh reported Wednesday that Wayne County school administrators have halted the plan at Rosewood Middle School in Goldsboro.

The school was offering 20 test points to students in exchange for a $20 donation…

Nice. You could buy a grade…and the principal initially didn’t see a problem with that. Wow.

• Our Wiener Story Of The Day: Pastor’s Weekly Briefing‘s Mr. Haggard And His New Church:

On Thursday evening of this week, there was, for all intents and purposes, a new church plant in our town of Colorado Springs. Ted Haggard gathered a group of people in his home for a prayer meeting that will, in time, constitute a nucleus for that new church.

And so, it is nearly three years to the day from Mr. Haggard’s admission to indiscrete behavior – that resulted in his resignation as senior pastor of New Life Church – that a new congregation begins, located just one mile from the church he once pastored.

The irony of all of this is that, from the very beginning, Mr. Haggard had been counseled to go to another city, complete his restoration program, experience healing in his family and with his addiction, and only then begin again. But, he has made a choice not to do that…

…We, who were members of his restoration team and those who served New Life Church as overseers, wish he would not do this. We feel it to be insensitive to a church that provided generously for him and his family for over a year after his misadventure. But, more than that, he violates his own words that he would not begin a new church. Evidently, he changed his mind a week or so ago, and now calls the new endeavor a church rather than a Bible study…

Yes, Pastor Haggard is a “wiener,” don’cha think? A good “Wiener Story Of The Day,” I think.

So anywho…It’s an open thread! What are you thinking about today, or what books or articles have you been reading the past few days? Wanna share?

And again, please feel free to chat, blogwhore, and link-share in the comment thread because…it’s an open thread! Woo-hoo!