Blogaround

A tiger swimming. Image source.

1. 8 Exonerated Prisoners on Their First Week Out (posted September 10) "Then I got up to leave, and every step that I took, nobody stopped me."

2. The Dad Who Wrote a Check Using “Common Core” Math Doesn’t Know What He’s Talking About (posted September 21) "That’s what great math students learn how to do, too. They see a problem and they just know how to manipulate the information at their disposal. They knew how to step away from the algorithms. They didn’t need a “recipe” because they understood how to mess around with the numbers to get the answer they wanted."

3. #MasculinitySoFragile Hashtag Highlights Toxic Masculinity’s Weak Points (posted September 23) "#MasculinitySoFragile Guys have to say "no homo" when showing affection to another guy, which is like saying "no Oedipus" when u hug ur mom."

4. Evangelical Conference on Transgender “Confusion” Has Zero Transgender Speakers (posted September 23) "This isn’t a conference; this is the active plotting of maltreatment that could have deadly consequences."

5. The Real Theological Challenge of Evolution (posted September 16) "What do we make of the notion that God created a world so well-equipped for extinction that 99.9% of all species that have ever existed are now extinct? Or that God created a world with parameters in which biological strategies such as predation and parasitism are so rewarding that they are virtually inevitable?"

6. [trigger warning- child sexual abuse] Jamie Wight, Maranatha, & Sexual Predation Unrecognized (posted September 23) "Fathers are taught to expect to be approached by godly young men hoping to wed their daughters. In this context, Stan and the Greenfields likely saw Matthew and Jamin as earnest and well qualified young men who had simply jumped the gun by a few years."

7. Stat check: No, women couldn’t just “go somewhere else” if Planned Parenthood closed (posted September 24) "State data shows that without Planned Parenthood in the network, the public program provided care to about 9 percent fewer women than it did in 2011. In the West Texas region, women served by that program declined by 40 percent between 2011 and 2013 — the same year that Planned Parenthood closed two clinics in that area of the state."

8. Chinese President 习近平 Xi Jinping visited the US and it is all over the news here (I'm in China).

Here are some articles from the English side of the internet:
Obama and Xi Jinping of China Agree to Steps on Cybertheft
FACT SHEET: President Xi Jinping’s State Visit to the United States
Mark Zuckerberg Met With Xi Jinping and Spoke Only in Chinese  Good for him! I want to see a video though.
XI Jinping of China visits Washington D.C. (21 images)

And from the Chinese side of the internet:
习近平访美中方成果清单发布  [Results of Xi Jinping's visit to the US] This one includes an 8-minute video of Xi's arrival at the White House, with a ceremony and everything.
彭丽媛和米歇尔为赴美大熊猫幼崽命名 [Peng Liyuan and Michelle name the American panda cub] 10 photos here. Also this one has a video of the name reveal and Peng Liyuan saying some stuff (in Chinese) about pandas and cooperation between China and the US.
习近平访问西雅图林肯高中 获赠1号球衣 [Xi Jinping visits Lincoln High School in Seattle and receives a #1 football jersey] 12 photos here.

9. Ben Carson’s claim that ‘taqiyya’ encourages Muslims ‘to lie to achieve your goals’ (posted September 22) This is hilarious to me because Christians lie ALL THE TIME if they think it's in service to Jesus. They lie about abortion, birth control, and sex. They use scare tactics and portray LGBT people as monsters who want to destroy society. They find deceptive ways to force people to listen to a "gospel presentation." How about removing the plank in your own eye before giving your uninformed opinion of Muslims?

10. Ahab and Jezebel in Psalm 45 (posted September 26) Is Psalm 45 the wedding song for Ahab and Jezebel?