Saturday Selections – Sept 21, 2024

Actions speak louder than words During the COVID lockdowns political leaders were caught, with some regularity, violating their own rules, so this just-released clip might not even seem all that newsworthy. It is particularly scandalous – in this undercover video, Dr. Jay Varma, senior advisor to the New York City mayor, and, in his words, the architect of the city's COVID rules, admits to holding a sex party that violated those rules. What makes this notable is what Steven Crowder highlights: "This is a story about those in charge not fearing what it is that they demanded you fear..." The lesson here is that when something is outside our expertise and we have to trust someone else's evaluation, their actions – not their words – tell us what they really believe. What we have here is a COVID expert telling us that this virus was dangerous enough to shut down our church services but not his sex parties. And that's a bit of hindsight worth filing away. How women survive breastfeeding There is so much more going on in our bodies than anyone has ever imagined. Scientists just discovered a hormone produced when a mother is lactating that prevents her from going into a calcium dive – otherwise the baby getting calcium from mom would come at a cost to the calcium in mom's own skeletal system leading to osteoporosis. This is a longer article, and a bit technical, but the gist is amazing. Helping others trust God in the face of infertility and miscarriage (20 min) Jeremy Pray, the author of Infertility and Miscarriage: Helping Others Trust God in Every Season, discusses how to counsel couples facing infertility. How should they understand what God is doing? This podcast is intended for biblical counselors but would be a good listen for friends and family of anyone facing this struggle. Listen to this as a 20-minute podcast or, for those who prefer to read, there is also a transcript. When therapy harms instead of helps The Bible speaks to the value of wise counsel. But it shouldn't surprise us that some secular counseling makes things worse. How green energy endangers us in an emergency How far is your EV car going to get you when a storm knocks out the grid? But a truck with a full gas tank can get you out of the danger zone. And a tank of gas can get ambulances where they need to go. And power the semis bringing in emergency supplies. And etc. and etc. Gavin Newsom signed a deepfake ban so The Babylon Bee responded AI advances now allow the quick, cheap, and easy creation of "deepfake" videos that can depict people saying things they never did or would say. A fake but realistic depiction of Joe Biden could be made to say, "The nomination was stolen from me," or an indecipherable-from the-real "Donald Trump" could be shown talking about how the Russians backed him. These sorts of deepfakes could cause enormous problems. Some sort of regulation would seem a must then. However, when regulations come from unprincipled politicians we have to remember what Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said about using trouble to push an agenda: "never let a serious crisis go to waste." When California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning deep fake election ads, it would have been naieve to think it won't be weaponized against his enemies. After all, we're seeing more and more "lawfare" – lax enforcement of the rules for friends of the government, and the strictest application of the law against their enemies, So The Bablyon Bee stepped up to be the first target, creating the ad below. There is supposed to be an exception for satire, but Newsom agitated for this bill in response to a clearly sataric ad against Kamala Harris, so we will see. Got to love the very last line. ...