Video: Batman interrogates the Joker

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!

Video: Winning isn’t everything

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.”

Video: Are you the Change you’ve been waiting for?

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.

Video: “The power of grace”

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

Video: ESPN takes note of UD’s Chris Wright

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.

Video: Planned Parenthood exposed

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.”

Pro-life Superbowl ad rejected by NBC

I saw this ad back when it first aired during the inauguration. I thought it was a powerful — and respectful — pro-life ad, prompting people to think of the potential every unborn child possesses. It’s too bad the millions of people watching the Superbowl tomorrow won’t get to see it. It is, fortunately, available on YouTube, 1.1 million views and counting:

It’s also sad the reason NBC gave to CatholicVote for rejecting the ad:

“I was told the ad was approved and then there were a number of attorneys working on it. Then I was told (NBC) didn’t want to run political or advocacy ads.”

An ad from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also was turned down. Mr. Burch questioned whether the same standards were applied to the PETA ad.

A statement posted on PETA.org attributed to NBC said the ad “depicts a level of sexuality exceeding our standards.” But a second note to PETA attributed to Victoria Morgan, NBC vice president for advertising standards, suggested eight “edits that need to be made” so the ad could run. PETA refused to comply.

“There’s no doubt that PETA is an advocacy group,” Mr. Burch said. “They were willing to air an ad by PETA if they would simply tone down the sexual suggestiveness. Our ad is far less provocative, and hardly controversial by comparison.”

Let’s hope NBC isn’t really operating under a double standard here and refusing to air commercials advocating the protection of life yet offering to air commercials using sex to get us all to give up meat.