Random links of interest, concern or curiosity from the past week or so, that deserve at least a SHORT mention:

 
British Smokers Being Denied Treatment by State-Run Healthcare Service ~ Seriously? So are they going to treat – make that non-treat – the health consequences of all risky behaviors the same? Alcoholism? Drug addiction? Homosexual sex? Obesity? Sky diving?

 
On the Loneliness of the Sexual Revolution as noted in a wonderful new book ~ “Our culture has gotten very sick, very quickly.” So sad- because it’s so true. The demise of traditional courtship rituals has left us socially impoverished.
 
And ubiquitous pornography is making things much worse ~ Think on these things before you go to that porn site: An Appeal to Count the Personal Cost of Porn ~

Those who would victimize others or “consume” them like a product must first dehumanize them. And that is where reductionism comes in. The consumer of pornography must reduce the woman, whom he is actually consuming and using, to a body, to an image or picture. But she is not merely a body or a picture. She is a woman, a daughter, a sister; she is loved by God and something tragically awful has occurred in her life to cause her to take a turn down a very long and dark back alley.

 
Porn is everywhere, but Jesus has to go ~
U.S. Navy booting Bibles from base lodges ~ I was getting ready to go on a rant about this but then saw another headline two days later ~ Navy reverses course, puts Bibles back in hotels during policy review… only after an outcry from faith-based organizations. Need to keep the pressure on.
 

End Third-Party Conception Arrangements; Regulations can’t solve the tangle of moral wrongs that beset surrogate motherhood ~ Just because we can “play God,” doesn’t mean we should ~

…humanity would be better served by stopping these third-party reproduction practices now. We should do it for all of humanity but especially for the sake of the women — and for the children who bear the brunt of adult desires that trump their rights to bodily integrity, knowledge of their origins, and connection to their biological kin.

 
Hillary Clinton — a woman of no convictions ~ Ya think? Being a typical ruling-class socialist however, she’s counting on voter ignorance to get elected anyway. Because after all – “what difference does it make?”

 
If you live in Malaysia, you can’t “like” Israel ~
Malaysian Teen Investigated for ‘Liking’ Israel on Facebook ~

The crackdown on the student comes as inaccurate reporting over Operation Protective Edge in Gaza has led to a dramatic increase in anti-Semitism worldwide, with anti-Semitic incidents in July rising 383% compared to the same month last year according to a recent study […]
 
Malaysia, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel, has a record of prohibiting free speech; just recently the country banned the usage of the word “Allah,” which is simply the equivalent of “G-d” in the Malay language, for all non-Muslims.

 
Sexual Left Shocked by Organized Pro-Lifers in Europe ~ An encouraging development; a growing conservative movement in Europe is actually pushing back on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage ~

The European sexual left is obviously worried. They are busy issuing research papers and sounding the general quarters, all hands on deck, to defeat the rabble they thought existed only in the puritanical New World.

 
American Pastor facing death threats from ISIS prisoners in Iranian prison ~ As Pastor Saeed approaches two years of wrongful imprisonment in Iran (September 26th) – for failure to renounce Islam – he has essentially become a a prisoner inside the prison ~

Pastor Saeed is now facing grave new death threats – not from the Iranians who are holding him captive, but from the radical ISIS terrorists who are conducting a campaign of genocide against Christians in Iraq […]
 
Now more than ever, with Pastor Saeed’s life hanging in the balance, the president and State Department must intervene immediately to secure Pastor Saeed’s release and to ensure that he is protected during this transfer to freedom.

PLEASE PRAY!