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Thursday, December 16, 2010

400-408 – Eliza Griswold, is an award-winning investigative journalist, poet and author, and a fellow at the New America Foundation.  Her latest book is entitled The Tenth Parallel: Dispatches From The Fault Line Between Christianity and Islam (elizagriswold.com/books), about the knife-edge where Islam and Christianity have met and continue to meet in the band between the equator and the line of latitude seven hundred miles to the north, the tenth parallel.  Through a series of unforgettable characters and their lives of deep faith, she tells the fifteen-hundred year story of how these two great faiths have come to intersect—and interact. She concludes that the most important forces shaping the future of the world's religions are those contests unfolding inside of Christianity and Islam, not between them.

• TALKING POINTS –

80% of the world's Muslims live outside the Arab world.

60% of all Christians and 50% of all Muslims live in The Torrid Zone of the Tenth Parallel.

The tsetse fly stopped southward expansion into equatorial Africa.

Missionaries brought the two "B's", the Bible and the bicycle.

After fleeing Mecca for Medina in 615, Muhammed sent a dozen followers to Christian king of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

To the Muslim, "Christian" = "Western" = "American."

To the Muslim, "non-coercive proselytizing" = "Western imperialism" = "cultural genocide" = "the obliteration of Islam".

Christians and Muslims around the world "get" that it's a global war between the two religions – except for Americans.

The primary problem is not Muslim-minority countries, but Muslim-majority countries, because of religious intolerance.

A "moderate" Muslim emphasizes the earlier "Mecca" half of the Koran, "purists" emphasize the latter "Medina" half.

Sunnis are the majority of Muslims, and tie authority to elders.  Shias tie authority to Muhammed's blood line.

Most African Muslims are Sufi, and considered heretics by hard-line Sunnis.

Eliza went to Sudan to see President Bashir with Franklin Graham in '03.  Her father was a liberal Episcopalian bishop.

• Mark Galli, Christianity Today (August 2010) The Line Where Religions Collide: Journalist and poet Eliza Griswold says we can learn a lot about Christianity by surveying the region where they have clashed for 200 years.  

• Linda Robinson, New York Times Book Review (8/19/2010) Christians and Muslims.

• Julie Cline, Los Angeles Times Book Review (9/30/2010) 'The Tenth Parallel' by Eliza Griswold.

413-423 – Eliza Griswold

428-437 – Eliza Griswold

• Thanks to Lori Barragar, family owner of Shelton's Premium Poultry (sheltons.com), for her generous donation of Christmas turkeys this year.  Be the 1st and the 6th callers and get your free turkey!

443-452 – Eliza Griswold,

458-508 – Hugh Ross, founder and president of Reasons to Believe (reasons.org), is both an astrophysicist (with a PhD in Astronomy from the University of Toronto, and research at Cal Tech) and a pastor at Sierra Madre Congregational Church.  The author of over a dozen books, including his latest, now in paperback, Why The Universe Is The Way It Is.  Today, Hugh talks to us about the Christmas Star.

• Hugh Ross, RTB (11/22/2010) THE CHRISTMAS STAR.

• Jeff Zweerink, RTB (11/17/2010) REVIEW OF THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM.

512-523 – Hugh Ross,

523 – Don Rohde @ Galpin Ford (818) 262-2092.  For the past 38 years, Don has been a sales manager at Galpin, the #1 volume Ford dealer in the world for the past 20 consecutive years.  Galpin has been family-owned and operated for the past 59 years, and 90% of their business is repeat or referral.  Galpin offers Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Honda, Mazda, Saturn, Volvo, Jaguar, and Aston Martin.  "In the heart of the San Fernando Valley at Roscoe and the 405, it's Galpin Ford" (galpin.com).

528-539 – Hugh Ross,

539 – Robert Micone & Bill O'Connor "The Money Guys" from Applied Financial Planning at 866-SEEK-COUNSEL, (866-733-5268, SeekCounsel.com).

544-554 – Hugh Ross,

558-608 – • ABC News GMA (12/15/2010) Mom to Sue McDonald's in Happy Meal Battle:  Mother Monet Parham Says Advertising Is Overpowering Parenting in Growing Nutrition War.

• Future of Capitalism (12/15/2010) Monet Parham.

Ms. Parham is the same person as "Monet Parham-Lee". Monet Parham-Lee is an employee of the California Department of Public Health. Interestingly, her name has been scrubbed from the website of Champions for Change, the Network for a Healthy California. She has given numerous presentations and attended conferences on the importance of eating vegetables and whatnot.

She presents herself as an ordinary mother. She is not. She is an advocate, and an employee of a California agency tasked with advocating the eating of vegetables. To the extent that Monet Parham-Lee has EVER taken her daughter to a McDonald's, she should have known better.

•• John Hayward, Human Events (12/16/2010) Agents of Influence: The government of California perpetrates a fraud.

612-623 – Calls

628-639 – Calls

644-654:30 – Calls

Are You On The Liberal Or Conservative Side of the Fence? (all over the web, origin undeterminable)

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college.  Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.

She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed.  Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.

The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father.  He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken back, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew.  She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?"

She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by.  All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA.  She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast.  She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."

Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0.  That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."

The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair!  I've worked really hard for my grades!  I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work!  Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree.  She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the conservative side of the fence."

If anyone has a better explanation of the difference between conservative and liberal or progressive or neocon I'm all ears.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you've ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, the following is a great indicator!

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
If a liberal is down and out, he wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
If a liberal doesn't like a talk show host, he demands that such shows be made illegal.

If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
If a liberal is a non-believer, he wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
If a liberal decides he needs health care, he demands that the rest of us pay for it.

If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
If a liberal reads this, he will delete it because he's "offended."

Well, I forwarded it to you!

• Fox News (12/16/2010) $11 Million Christmas Tree Unveiled...in Abu Dhabi.

• WSJ (12/16/2010) The 111th Congress's Final Insult: Bluto Blutarsky must have been an Appropriator.

(1:39) School Board Shooting. (Straight report from CBS news of the shooting which occurred on Tuesday 12/14/2010)

(:21) 9-1-1 call. (Part of the 9-1-1 call from Tuesday night made by an unnamed woman)

(3:45) Jones 1. (Mike Jones, the officer who intervened on Tuesday night, talks to the press @ 12/16/2010)

(1:39) Jones 2. (Mike Jones talks to Shep Smith on FOX @ 12/16/2010. Part 1/2- Help from my pastor)

(1:03) Jones 3. (Part 2/2- Salvage Santa)

 • CBS News (12/62010) Fla. School Board Shooting (VIDEO): "I'm Not A Hero," Says Guard Who Stopped Clay Duke.