Bookmarks for August 13th through August 16th

These are my links for August 13th through August 16th:

• Court halts Calif. gay marriages pending appeal – Yahoo! News – Looks as though the discussion on whether or not to have gay marriage in California, and eventually all the U.S.– or whether states can ban gay marriage– has yet to be decided. For now, no gay marriage in California.
• Obama uses daughter to promote tourism with swim in Gulf of Mexico | Mail Online – I don’t know… Is it wrong for the President of the United States to have pictures taken of him with his kids for public use? I guess the problem here is that it was a controlled photo-shoot instead of an impromptu one. What do you think?
• Teachers union threatens ‘massive boycott’ of Los Angeles Times for reporting on teacher performance | Washington Examiner – Unions are a big problem with public education. If you could remove them from the mix you’d be doing everyone a favor: “In the past decade, LAUSD officials spent $3.5 million trying to fire just seven of the district’s 33,000 teachers for poor classroom performance — and only four were fired, during legal struggles that wore on, on average, for five years each. Two of the three others were paid large settlements, and one was reinstated. The average cost of each battle is $500,000.”
• The Perils of Hipster Christianity and Why Young Evangelicals Reject Churches That Try To Be Cool – WSJ.com – “But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to? In his book, “The Courage to Be Protestant,” David Wells writes:”The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.” — This part hits the nail on the head. Is God not big enough to get young people in the churches if He so pleases?
• Vox Popoli: WND column – It does seem pretty ludicrous that we count debt as economic growth, since we’re simply spending tomorrow’s money, hurting tomorrow’s change for growth.
• Sen. Schumer: ‘Sour’ electorate reluctant to give Democrats credit for efforts – TheHill.com – “Asked why the Democrats are still expected to lose seats in November after passing major bills like healthcare reform, credit card reform, a fair-pay act and Wall Street reform, Schumer said voters are frustrated and don’t feel the effects of the legislation. “It’s the world we’re in. It’s a much more negative, critical world, and people are sour now,” he said. “The thing they’re most sour about is the future, not the present. In other words, if people were sure that things would be better five years from now, they’d be less sour.” — Or maybe it’s because they don’t want the big government solutions that you are pushing? Na– that would violate the view of the people that you have in your head. They can’t be against you, can they?
• CNSNews.com – ‘Three Sides’ to the Sestak Story: Clinton Denies White House Claim That He Intervened in U.S. Senate Race – So, if former President Clinton says that he didn’t try to get U.S. Rep Joe Sestak out of the race in PA, who did?