The Top 20 Countdown continues with Number 19: Is Manliness Endangered? The number one box office movie is still the 1997 film Titanic. It was the number one movie for fifteen consecutive weekends and grossed 600 million in the US and over 1.8 billion worldwide. Titanic became a national obsession to the point where people were wearing T-Shirts that said… The boat sank.Get over it. Many moviegoers got drawn into the class warfare relationship of Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet). But there was so much more to this story than the boat sinking. The pride and arrogance of engineers who thought they had designed the unsinkable vessel. Witnessing the worst side of human nature as people perished because some were so concerned about self preservation that they willingly sacrificed others to achieve that goal. All of this came to mind as I read an article in The Weekly Standard entitled Being a Man. Christina Hoff
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It is hard to believe that I have now posted over 350 blogs. Out of curiosity I went back and calculated the most read articles. Starting today we will mark the Top 20 Countdown. The twentieth most read post regarded a classic Christmas song and story. The article was called “The Christmas Truce”.   Last year I posted a story about the decision by a Wisconsin elementary school to rewrite the lyrics of “Silent Night” to make it acceptable for the “winter program”. The unfortunate choice for a new title was “Cold in the Night”. And the new lyrics went something like this. Cold in the night,no one in sight, winter winds whirl and bite, how I wish I were happy and warm, safe with my family out of the storm. That is wrong on so many levels. Why not just have the kids sing “Grandma got run over by a reindeer” and go on home. Some things just shouldn’t
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My copy of World Magazine arrived in the mail this week and I noticed that Dr.Marvin Olasky had written an interesting feature. Here is the description from the article: Since July 1, 2000, I’ve been telling WORLD readers every few months about my treadmill reading—books that exercise my mind while exercising my body. Normally I note only books worth reading, and have cited about 400 during those seven years. Here are 100 all-time treadmill favorites. I scanned the impressive list of titles and authors. I actually overlooked on the first pass an author that is very close to me.  Me. Dr.Olasky included When Bad Christians Happen to Good People in his all-time treadmill faves. I was surprised and honored. I am sure that thinkers on his list like Alexander Solzhenitsyn, William F. Buckley, William Dembski, Alister McGrath, and many others would be just as surprised to be lumped in with me. I wrestled with the whole shameless self-promotion thing for several days.
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One annual announcement is guaranteed to send me into “grumpy old man” syndrome. The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch has just released the winners of the 10th Annual Wacky Warning Label Contest. The contest is conducted to reveal how lawsuits and concern about lawsuits, have created a need for commonsense warnings on products. This seemed like an appropriate follow-up to yesterday’s maddening story about the case of the multi-million dollar pants. Before we unveil the winner allow us to warm up with these tributes to the obvious: Honorable mention goes to Ronald Hyman of Augusta, Georgia for a warning he found on the cover of his local Yellow Pages book which cautions users: “Please do not use this directory while operating a moving vehicle.” Excellent piece of advice. And because of this warning I have stopped doing my sudoku puzzle while driving on the freeway. Thanks!!!! Third place was a tie between these warning labels: Farrah Kakavand of Oak Park, California won
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Sorry I have been away from the blogosphere for a couple of days. I know that my tens of fans have missed the daily ramblings. Sometimes I have to go into seclusion and, like talk show host Glen Beck, duct tape my head to keep it from exploding. The most recent event that caused my distress centered around a lawsuit. You have likely heard the story about the judge in Washington D.C. who lost his pants. Actually, according to Administrative Law Judge Roy Pearson, it was the nefarious folks at the local dry cleaners that lost his beloved pants. And these must have been some really terrific trousers because Judge Roy sued the mom-and-pop dry cleaners for $54 million in damages for the missing slacks. I have had some pretty good pants in my life but I have never had a pair of slacks that I could trade for a brand new Boeing 737 jet. The good Judge Pearson caused my head to
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According to a scholar in seasonal disorders at a British university you should feel happier than you have all year this Saturday. Cliff Arnall has analysed such factors as outdoor activities, nature, social interaction, childhood memories, temperature and holidays — data gathered over a period of 15 years in interviews with 3,000 people around the world. His conclusion: June 23 is the happiest day of the year.  “People across borders experience happiness when they meet with friends and family and establish close social relationships,” the University of Cardiff academic reported. “We need some close emotional ties.” He used what he considers a “simple equation” to reach his conclusion — O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He. O stands for outdoor activities, N for nature, S for social interaction, Cpm for childhood summers and positive memories, T for temperature and He for holidays and looking forward to time off. Because I have written a lot about civility I am trying
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I realized the amazing connections we have with our canine friends after a tongue in cheek piece called the Canine School of Evangelism became one the most read ramblings in the brief history of this blog. A follow up dog story about the Touch of the Master was also well received by readers. It reaffirmed what I have been saying for years. I need to combine my dog stories with other Christian best seller titles in order to get enough book sales to retire. So I have begun work today on “The Power of Praying for Purpose Driven Dogs who are Left Behind.” Finally I will get some shelf space at the local Christian chain store! (Note to spiritual hall monitors: I am joking. I don’t write Christian books to generate income to retire. However, I wouldn’t mind getting enough to pay Baylor University tuition). The following story generated a lot of response. Here is the original piece. I had decided to take a break
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