Manly Man

Bradley Hathaway's so funny and culturally relevant and at the same time biting with that prophetic edge that we haven't seen around here since maybe the days of Keith Green.

[Video Clip] [MP3s]

CHRISTIAN DIOR Couture Goes Goth

Vogue reports on CHRISTIAN DIOR's Spring/Summer 2006 Collection.

The red lights rolled and the glass runway winked as the lights dimmed and tension mounted. Eerie eyes piercing out from under a luscious red satin high-collared cape, bound at the back. High ruffles, degrade details and leather pants bound so tight that the boots fair bled into the legs as the corsets pulled still tighter and tighter as this libertine's insatiable lust was for luxury. Bustles were slashed and corsetry burst through petticoats as a revolution of 'Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité' assaulted your eye and seized you by the throat.

[link]

Porn Again: Exposing the Church's Dirty Little Secret Podcast

Pastor Tim Lucas is at it again with this eye-opening series on Porn & the Bible.

The Porn industry is making billions of dollars manipulating our weakness, drawing in those as young as 11 through more than 280 million websites. Pornography is America’s biggest addiction— it’s an issue that impacts virtually every home.

There are 4 messages in all. Yes, I listened to these too. Simply type "Pastor Tim Lucas" into the iTunes search window to find & download "Porn and the Bible." [link]

Sex & the Bible Podcast

Pastor Tim Lucas over at Liquid Church tackles topics most pulpits won't touch other than to say, "Don't Do THAT!"

His study of Solomon truley is uncensored as he tells us what the Bible really says about love, sex and the whole shebang.

From attraction and dating to marriage and sex, the Scriptures provide a compelling, practical portrait of what makes for a romantic relationship that will go the difference.

There are 9 messages in all. Yes, I listent to ALL NINE of them. Simply type "Pastor Tim Lucas" into the iTunes search window to find & download "Sex and the Bible." [link]

"Young people of the world, hear His voice."

Pope John Paul II action figure speaks! Website boasts...

Collectible action figure is realistic down to the finest detail and comes with an individual certificate of authenticity.

Ahem. More than I may want to know about ol' John Paul.

Talking Jesus and Moses also available.

[link]

Pope Innocent III Action Figure

Armed with his formidable power of excommunication and an intimidating scroll inscribed with Latin text, this 6" (15.2 cm) tall, hard vinyl model of the 176th Pope will soon have all your other action figures lining up for confession. Comes with removable fancy Pope hat! [link]

His Holiness, God's "Mortal Messenger"

Pope action figure clothed in a blood red Vatican assult uniform includes Holy Cross Kali sticks and 'Meek and Mild' Walther PPK handgun.

Also available: Jesus Christ with ninja-messiah throwing nails death killer-cross pumping action over-under shotgun and God Almighty wearing hallowed cloak of invulnerability with Kingdome-Come Kalashnikov AK-47 assult rifle.

[link]

Holy Crap! Family Guy Pope Action Figure

Pope - No one embarrasses the Pope and gets away with it [Looks up at the sky], SMITE THEM!

(waits for a few seconds)

Pope - He's cooking up a something good!

[link]

Pope's Words Green Lettered

The Pope has announced that henceforth, and retroactively, the "divinely inspired" words he utters and pens will be governed by copyright, and only publishable after permission is secured and royalties are paid to the church. [link]

Well, now THAT's a little "high & mighty" isn't it.

Fighters + Lovers = Terrorism

The Fighters and Lovers Web site shows male and female models posing with T-shirts emblazoned with the logos of the FARC and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

The company Fighters and Lovers gives part of the money from its T-shirt sales to radio stations and graphic workshops run by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The rebel army, which is known by its Spanish initials FARC and has about 17,000 members, has been fighting for socialist revolution since 1964 and has been classified as "terrorist" by both the European Union and the United States. Fighters and Lovers warns customers to expect trouble.

"When you buy Fighters+Lovers products you might experience legal problems because of U.S. or EU 'antiterrorist' legislation," it says on its Web site. But anyway, when was the last time you listened to someone who told you what you couldn't wear?"

[link]

iDating

PodDater allows anyone with a video-capable MP3 player (iPod video) to download future love matches to their mobile devices. Subscribers get the added bonus of viewing real-life personalities, which is presumed to be a bit more engaging than the average online photo and profile text.

I have the iSight. I have the iPod. I have an account at PodDater. I even look good on an itty bitty screen. I just don't have the desire to contact or be contacted by people looking for friendship/relationship/marriage. [link]

Your Best Kitchen Mate

The photo speaks for itself.

This student-designed knifeblock is handcarved of solid lime wood.

I'd hate to be the model for this type of work...though I have a few suggestions for models. [link]

8,872.50 Hershey's Kisses + You = Death

The next time you receive a huge box of chocolate, think twice about the sender's intentions.

How much of your favorite caffeinated drink or other caffeinated goodies (like chocolate) would it take to kill you? [link]

Chaste Couture for Men

The brother website to Wait Wear, True Gentlemen offers clothing for virtuous men.

“The true gentleman is the man whose conduct proceeds from goodwill and an acute sense of propriety, and whose self control is equal to all emergencies; who does not make the poor man conscious of his poverty, the obscure man of his obscurity, or any man of his inferiority or deformity; who is himself humbled if necessity compels him to humble another; who does not flatter wealth, cringe before power, or boast of his own possessions or achievements; who speaks with frankness but always with sincerity and sympathy; whose deed follows his word; who thinks of the rights and feelings of others, rather than his own; and who appears well in any company, a man with whom honor is sacred and virtue safe.” Dr. John Walter Wayland.

[link]

Chaste Couture

Wait Wear promotes chastity by puting messages like "No Vow No Sex" and "Virgin Avenue" on t-shirts, pants, hot shorts and thongs. Hot shorts & thongs? What kind of gatekeepign is that? [link]

Politics: The Vampyres, Witches & Pagans Party

"I'm a Satanist who doesn't hate Jesus," said Johnathan 'The Impaler'Sharkey who's running for governor in Minnesota. "I just hate God the Father."

However, he claims to respect all religions and if elected, will post "everything from the Ten Commandments to the Wicca Reed" in government buildings.

Sharkey announced his candidacy Friday the 13th because that's his lucky number.

[link]

Clothing Your Heavenly Father Would Approve Of

Modest clothing for ...missionary women? Modest By Design offers modest clothing for any occassion or mission field. The online catalog includes cotton/lycra spandex shirt which feature a "flattering fit" cause who wants frumpy missionaries. [link]

Binge Eating Worse than Adultry

Most Italians feel more guilty about over-eating than they do about cheating on their partners. A survey, by psychology magazine Riza Psicosomatica, found that excessive eating and spending topped the list of what people considered the most guilt-inducing vices.

Sexual infidelity came bottom of the list of the magazine's 'seven deadly sins', behind neglecting friends and family, failing at work and not looking after one's physique.

The survey of some 1,000 Italians aged 25-55 found that religion played little part in determining what made people feel guilty, despite Italy's Roman Catholic traditions.

Only 7 percent of those questioned said religious rules induced guilt. The most powerful drivers of guilty feelings were the judgment of loved ones or the disapproval of society as a whole. [link]

Purity Tester

You want to know your girlfriend's or boyfriend's REAL history? Parents: want to know what your kids are REALLY up to? Trick them into taking an online purity test...a test where the results are e-mailed to YOU. [link]

Purity Weekend

The Youth Ministry at my church is sponsoring a Purity Weekend for teens this Friday & Saturday. I designed the artwork for the conference. [link]

From now till Valentines Day I want to feature matters of Purity or lack there of.

Selling Divorce

ezDivorce.com posted this ad in the Toronto Metro newspaper with the headline "The Holidays Are Over - You Can Stop Pretending Now". When did divorce become something to PROMOTE?! How do you set sales goals for a company that sells divorce?

Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. Mark 10:9

[link]

Power of the Penny

Unhappy when his Canadian bank began outsourcing some of its credit card processing to the United States, Don Rogers lodged his protest via the bank's online payment system, jamming its computers by making dozens of tiny payments a day. His card has since been canceled by Vancouver-based Citizens Bank, but Roger will continue paying his remaining balance of C$1,000 ($860) one little bit at a time. His initial attempt at paying in pennies produced a statement over 32 feet long.

By Kamakshi Tandon for Reuters [link]

Don't Date This Guy

What do you do when the relationship is over? You register your former lover's name as a domain and publishing an analysis of the relationship, of course! [link]

A Toast To The Homeless!

TORONTO (Reuters) - Giving homeless alcoholics a regular supply of booze may improve their health and their behavior, the Canadian Medical Association Journal said in a study published on Tuesday.

Seventeen homeless adults, all with long and chronic histories of alcohol abuse, were allowed up to 15 glasses of wine or sherry a day -- a glass an hour from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. -- in the Ottawa-based program, which started in 2002 and is continuing.

After an average of 16 months, the number of times participants got in trouble with the law had fallen 51 percent from the three years before they joined the program, and hospital emergency room visits were down 36 percent.

"Once we give a 'small amount' of alcohol and stabilize the addiction, we are able to provide health services that lead to a reduction in the unnecessary health services they were getting before," said Dr. Jeff Turnbull, one of the authors of the report.

"The alcohol gets them in, builds the trust and then we have the opportunity to treat other medical diseases... It's about improving the quality of life."

Three of the 17 participants died during the program, succumbing to alcohol-related illnesses that might have killed them anyway, the study said.

The report showed that participants in the program drank less than they did before signing up, and their sleep, hygiene, nutrition and health levels all improved.

The per capita cost of around C$771 ($660) a month was partially offset by monthly savings of C$96 a month in emergency services, C$150 in hospital care and C$201 in police services per person.

Turnbull said some of the people enrolled in the program had stopped drinking altogether, although that was not an option for many of the participants.

"We agree 100 percent that abstinence is the most appropriate route," he said. "But in this subset of people where abstinence has failed, there is still a need to provide care."

By Stefanie Kranjec [link]

Hey, Advertising works!

A study linking alcoholic-beverage advertising to increased drinking levels by teenagers and young adults is coming under fire from representatives of the marketing and alcoholic-beverage industries.

According to the study, people ages 15 to 26 who saw more alcoholic beverage ads on average drank more than their peers in markets where there was little alcohol advertising

“Youth who lived in markets with more alcohol advertising drank more, increased their drinking levels more over time, and continued to increase drinking levels into their late 20s,” the report said. “Youth who lived in markets with less alcohol advertising drank less and showed a pattern of increasing their drinking modestly until their early 20s, when their drinking levels started to decline.”

“Alcohol is the No. 1 drug problem among youth and given how serious the product is, it needs to be treated different than dish soap or dog biscuits,” said David Jernigan, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. “The industry has for years argued that ads had no influence on kids. This study shows the advertising is reaching and influencing kids and the industry needs to adopt tighter self-regulation.”

The study appears in the January issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. [link]

Stupid Church People Podcast

Two cynical ex-pastors detoxing from church involvement. They consider themselves a "ministry" although I don't know how swearing, vulgarity and namecalling help bring people to Christ. When they say "stupid church people" they are obviously referring to themselves. [link]

Submitted by Paul.

43 Things

One of the new breed of so-called social networking sites, 43 things allows people to create a list of things that they would like to do with their lives such as fall in love, or go back to school, or learn to tango. Other users comment on the lists and groups form around common goals. [link]

Submitted by Paul.