I had read the reviews about Christian Bale’s bizzarre, growling Batman voice in The Dark Knight, and I first saw this video last summer.

Well, we just got around to watching the movie over the weekend (Happy Valentine’s Day, honey), and I have to admit, I had no idea how spot-on this spoof was. I couldn’t take any Batman scene seriously. SERIOUSLY, ARGGHH!

I already have two kids, but there’s no plan to stop. How irresponsible of me:

This week, the Optimum Population Trust (OPT), of which Mr Porrit is a patron, launched its “Stop at Two” online pledge to encourage couples to limit their family’s size.

Mr. Porritt said earlier this month: “I think we will work our way towards a position that says having more than two children is irresponsible.”

For those of us who can’t control ourselves and can’t think of anyone but ourselves, rest easy. Porritt is not advocating a compulsory limit of two children per couple, but he did say couples should “connect up their concerns with the natural environment with their decisions as prospective parents.”

I mean, come on:

“Every additional human being is increasing the burden on this planet which is becoming increasingly intolerable,” says Mr Porritt, who runs the government’s Sustainable Development Commission.

If they are that concerned about the environment, it’s a wonder they don’t abandon civilized life as we know it.

I’m a strong advocate of families, even HUGE families of three or even four kids … or more! Besides, two children doesn’t even replace the current population (which I guess is the point of this nonsense.) The global fertility replacement rate is 2.33 children per woman, which includes two children to replace the parents with a third of a child to make up for the different sex ratio at birth and early mortality.

People choose to have — and to not have — children for many different reasons, and we should all respect those personal decisions. But it’s hard for me to conceive of any case where birth is ever a worse fate for a person than nonexistence. Does the irony ever hit these global warming weirdos that they themselves are here because someone chose to give them life?

Apparently not. From the comments:

I don’t think that deciding not to have kids for the sake of the world at large is crazy at all. It’s one of the reasons we have decided not to have any children. That and the fact that we wouldn’t want any child of ours to have to endure the increasingly bleak future that is coming. These people who have 5 children – what if they each had five children etc? The world can’t sustain the people it’s already got. Having lots of children shows a lack of thought and care, in my opinion. Hannah Wilson, Cardiff

Exponential multiplication of the human race! Oh horror of horrors! And who wouldn’t rather be dead than to endure a bleak future? Thank goodness for the comedy relief of other commentors:

I have three children. I feel it is my duty to attempt to repopulate the World with intelligent individuals in an attempt to offset Mr Porritt’s stupidity. Idiocy-offsetting, kind of like carbon offsetting, just a little more immediate. Kirstine Berry, Bracknell

As the fourth of five children, I would like to take this opportunity to thank my parents for giving me a chance at life. If the guilt is just too much for them to bear, please know there is atonement for your sins.

The recent hubbub over a Christian girls school forfeiting a basketball game and firing their coach following a 100-0 blowout begged the question: Was their conduct “unChristian?” Should Christians apologize for winning, for putting forth their best effort?

Watch the story below and see what I believe is a perfect example of how Christians can approach competition.

Winning isn’t wrong. But winning isn’t everything:

In the case of the Covenant School’s girls basketball game, I personally feel that Christians should at the least be expected to follow the generally accepted rules of good sportsmanship, which include not running up the score. As the story unfolded, there was some debate over whether that is what actually happened.

Beyond good sportsmanship, I believe Christians would do well to remember Philippians 2:3-4:

Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

We can live by that verse and still pour our guts out on the field of competition. As in the now immortal words of Covenant School Headmaster Kyle Queal: “A victory without honor is a great loss.”

Last night, WHIO ran an hour-long special from 7 to 8 p.m. explaining every. single. minute. detail about the Feb. 17 switch to digital television. So I missed Wheel of Fortune last night for nothing?!

The Federal Communications Commission has ordered 123 broadcast television stations, including Dayton’s major network channels, to cease their planned early switch to digital signals on Feb. 17.

The stations, which had been previously granted permission, now must stop the transition until further notice, the FCC announced…

Recent legislation has set June 12 as the new date of transition…

“Millions of Americans, including those in our most vulnerable communities, would have been left in the dark if the conversion had gone on as planned, and this solution is an important step forward as we work to get the nation ready for digital TV,” Obama said.

Apparently two years of ads, a free coupon for digital converter boxes, endless reminders on local TV and even a NASCAR sponsorship weren’t enough to prepare us all for “the transition.”

It was enough to give me a migraine.

And while I have been looking forward to this Tuesday for months — not because I can’t wait for digital television, but because I would no longer have to watch a stupid crawl take up the bottom of the screen for 10 minutes every hour — now we get to hear it all for another four months.

The comments at the DDN site have it right when they ask why we should expect people who are not ready by now will ever be ready. I wouldn’t be surprised if the June 12 “deadline” gets moved again.

“Rob” says it best:

I look forward to the day in 2087 when the last analog TV finally breaks and we’ll at long last be free to switch to digital.

To be fair, the DDN story misrepresents the FCC’s position. As reported, the Commission had indeed previously granted a waiver to the Dayton stations to make the transition as previously scheduled on Feb. 17. They rescinded that waiver on Feb. 11 saying they had identified 123 stations “whose early termination was determined by the Commission to pose a significant risk of public harm.”

However, the FCC would re-grant the waivers if the stations in the entire Designated Market Area (DMA) could prove by Feb. 13 they would meet a list of eight requirements. It’s all very interesting reading and can be found at the stunningly current and hi-tech FCC Web site.

Among those eight requirements:

Ensure that at least one station that is currently providing analog service to an area within the DMA that will no longer receive analog service after February 17, 2009 will continue broadcasting an analog signal providing, at a minimum, DTV transition and emergency information, as well as local news and public affairs programming (“enhanced nightlight” service) for at least 60 days following February 17, 2009. The local news, public affairs, or other programming may include commercial advertising.

Got that? One of our local stations would have to continue on analog while all the others went to digital. That sounds fair.

Oh well, at least now I’ll be able to grill out on the deck at my DTV switch party.

The “Savior of our Nation” was born Feb. 12, 1809.

Coincidentally, President Lincoln shares the same birth date as Charles Darwin. Certainly two very influential people of very different influences. (Read my earlier post about Darwin).

To commemmorate the anniversary of his birth, the U.S. Mint is rolling out four new pennies this year. The obverse (“heads”) will be the same as previous pennies. The reverse sides (“tails”) will change every three months:

A collector's item to be sure, but still just as worthless as ever.

Lincoln was a great writer, and he delivered some of the most stirring and memorable speeches in American history. Many of those can be found on his page at POTUS.com.

Here’s another great site on all things Lincoln, inlcuding a collection of famous quotes.

And here’s an interesting story I read today in U.S. News & World Report about Abraham Lincoln’s religious uncertainty.

What are your thoughts about Lincoln? Do you have favorite quotes? Have a link to share? Speak up in the comments.

UPDATE: I found it strange that Google recognized Darwin’s birthday today, but I did not see any commemorative “Google” for Lincoln.

Reason.tv interviewed some Obama supporters in D.C. on Jan. 19, the night before he was inaugurated.

Using Obama’s rallying cry that “We are the change we’ve been waiting for,” the videographers asked supporters, “What are you going to do differently now that Obama’s president?”

Interesting answers. Think anyone says they would not be active in service if McCain had been elected?

Notice the people in the background throwing shoes at a giant blow-up doll of President Bush.

Inspiring.

Feel good story of the day:

Wilson, a young, white, Southern man, attacked Lewis, a freedom rider for Martin Luther King, in the “white” waiting room of a South Carolina bus station.

The men had not seen each other again until Tuesday when, with “Good Morning America’s” help, Wilson approached Lewis again — this time offering an apology and a chance to relieve a burden he’d carried for more than four decades.

“I’m so sorry about what happened back then,” Wilson said breathlessly.

“It’s OK. I forgive you,” Lewis responded before a long-awaited hug.

Click the image to watch

An emotional reunion

If you haven’t seen a Dayton Flyers basketball game yet this season, you’re missing out.

When the team is hot, it’s a dunk fest. And while the success of the Flyers is truly a team effort (10 players have 10 minutes or more of playing time), sophomore Chris Wright certainly stands out.

ESPN thinks so, too:

These days Wright is a YouTube sensation, a high flier with some 20 entries detailing his “monstrous” slam dunks and “nasty” alley-oops as the leading scorer for the University of Dayton.

…

His mother won’t like this sort of attention-grabbing statistic, but the fact is hard to deny: With Wright in the lineup, the Flyers are 35-4 over the last two seasons. They have slid right behind rival Xavier in the Atlantic 10 standings and are in serious contention for their first NCAA bid since 2004.

That is indeed some powerful energy.

Here’s a highlight reel of his dunks from his days at Trotwood High School:

At 21-2, the University of Dayton Flyers are still not ranked nationally, but that could change with a win this Sunday against Charlotte. The big test, though, comes Feb. 11 when they play Xavier at home. ESPN does a good job of explaining the difficulty for Dayton to get noticed:

It is the price of doing business in the Atlantic 10, a conference that annually has to shout and scream to claim its place among the nation’s elite. Xavier, with two runs to the Elite Eight in the last four years, has finally passed the smell test, afforded credibility from the start of the season.

Everyone else still is screaming in the wind.

After surviving La Salle, 63-61, on Wednesday night, Wright and his Dayton teammates are 21-2, one of just four teams in the country with 21 or more wins. The Flyers beat Marquette, boast a more-than-respectable RPI of 31 and have won seven games in a row.

And yet, until the Flyers play Xavier on Feb. 11 (ESPN Classic, 7 ET), the jury will remain out on the team’s legitimacy. This week Dayton received 69 votes in the ESPN coaches’ poll, tops among “others receiving votes,” but still on the outside looking in when it comes to the top 25.

Fair? Perhaps not. But it is the reality for a talented team sitting outside the “Big Six” conferences.

As someone who used to work at a newspaper, I can attest, this comic is so true.

Some California college students have been making big headlines in the last few months for their hidden camera exposés of illegal and deceitful activity at Planned Parenthood clinics. The videos show the tragic abortion-first ideology of this taxpayer-subsidized organization.

The latest video, released today as part of the Mona Lisa Project, shows a nurse at an Arizona clinic tell a girl posing as a pregnant 15-year-old seeking an abortion that she should lie about the age of the baby’s father.

The girl tells the nurse her “boyfriend” is 27. That’s statutory rape in Arizona, and by law, it must be reported. But rather than alert the authorities, the nurse tells the girl not to bring up the father’s age at a judicial hearing so she can bypass the parental consent requirement:

Visit the Live Action Films Web site for more examples of shameful activity by Planned Parenthood, and read the press release about today’s video:

In the past two months, the Mona Lisa Project has exposed similar cases at two Planned Parenthood clinics in Indiana. In response, both clinics either fired or suspended employees, and state prosecutors launched investigations into Planned Parenthood of Indiana.

“These videos demonstrate that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, is entrenched in an organization-wide policy of circumventing state law and concealing the sexual abuse of young girls,” said Live Action’s president, Lila Rose.

This is not the first time Planned Parenthood of Arizona has failed to report sexual abuse. In 2002, an Arizona judge found the abortion provider negligent for failing to report the sexual abuse of a 13-year-old girl by her 23-year-old foster brother, who brought her to a Phoenix-area clinic for an abortion in 1998. After Planned Parenthood kept silent about the abuse, the sexual relationship continued and led to a second abortion six months later.

…

“Our footage gives the Arizona public and law enforcement a rare window into Planned Parenthood’s careless abortion-first ideology,” Rose stated. “With abortion as their first and only solution for the abused victim, Planned Parenthood assists sexual predators by violating the very Arizona state laws that protect children.”