205 Advent 3: Why MadPXM?
“The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.“ ~ Psalm 126
Why MadPXM?
Do you really think that the news exists to keep you informed of the truth? Do you think the news, which you get for "free," is made by nice, smiling people who just get up every morning because it makes them happy to keep you informed? Do you think the people up in powerful, high places are any less susceptible to power tactics, peer pressure and lies than you are? Have you watched too many movies too? The reason we are willing to believe and chase after whatever lunatic things they show us next is because none of it is going to change or affect anything. It's all stories about powers we don't control, powers we can do nothing about. It's a sedation pill: "Rage/fear at the crazy far away, and call me in the morning." Most of your friends and neighbors don't know how the world works. They still trust easily, God bless them. But you are a forerunner. A protector. A herald. You know that ignorance is not love. You know that to wake up on this earth again today is to repent and sing praise to Jesus' Name. You know that you read these stories, not because you're trying to escape your front yard, but because that's where all the real stories of value and meaning are, and you're the kind of person who keeps watch to ensure it stays that way. Till angel cry and trumpet sound, The Mad Christian
A note from Team Mad Mondays: We’ll be taking a little break over this Christmas season. There will be no regular editions for the next two weeks but expect a shiny new Mad Mondays in your inbox, January 8th. Thanks to all our loyal readers and subscribers - we thank God for all he is doing through our efforts!
The Blitz
Births, Deaths and Marriage
A Texas woman, whose unborn baby has been diagnosed with trisomy 18, has opted to leave the state to have an abortion. Kate Cox was initially given permission to terminate her baby on “medically necessary” grounds, but Attorney General Ken Paxton appealed the decision. Texas’ Supreme Court agreed with AG Paxton that Cox’s abortion would not qualify as necessary to preserve the life of the mother. The case is a heartbreaking one and a test of pro-life laws. No doubt more will come. Abortion advocates chided Texas for going down the “wrong path” and even those generally on the side of life had a hard time with this one. Anne Coulter, who has spoken out against the horrors of partial birth abortion in the past said, “The pro-life movement has gone from compassion for the child to cruelty to the mother (and child).” So, suit up and get praying! We would like the work of defending life to be done with a Supreme Court decision, but persuading our society that life is best is still a task unfinished. (WNG, MSNBC, Twitter)
The US Supreme Court has agreed to take a case concerning abortion drug, mifepristone. The Court will rule whether restrictions on access to the drug may stand after safety issues were raised by a consortium of (largely pro-life) health professionals. The FDA claims that chemical abortion (or as they like to call it “medication abortion”) is safer than “penicillin or viagra” but as pro-life groups have noted, complications from drug-induced abortions are not rare. The case will also tread tricky territory when it comes to state’s sovereignty – will a SCOTUS ruling mean the drug will be available in states that protect life or banned in states that protect abortion? The case will be decided by July, which means life will be on the ballot in next year’s US presidential election. (CNN, Charlotte Lozier)
A new California requires that large stores must “maintain gender neutral childcare and toy sections”. The bill’s author says this law will “let kids be kids” but University of Missouri professor David Cleary writes that the belief that girls and boys are categories created by the toys they are given “echoes nostrums offered by gender studies professors and activists, but these don’t often contact reality.” (Reality’s Last Stand)
The Institute for Family Studies and Gallup joined together for a study concluding that conservative parents more likely to parent with the kind of boundaries that teenagers need for positive mental health. “Importantly, household income, parental education, and race and ethnicity are largely unrelated to the quality of parenting and mental health outcomes for teens, the report found.” (Carolina Journal)
Climate and the Natural World
The international summit on climate change, COP28, has concluded with mixed reports about its success. Delegates from almost 200 countries (including oil producing nations) disagreed on whether to “phase out” or “phase down” when it comes to fossil fuel use. The end result was that they all promised to “transition away from” coal, oil and gas. (Sky, Financial Post)
President Biden’s promise to built a network of electric vehicle charge stations across America has begun…in London, Ohio. Having securing $7.5bn in 2021’s infrastructure bill for the plan, climate alarmists will probably be a little underwhelmed at the progress two years on. (Free Beacon)
If your EV has the range to make it to Michigan, you can now charge it by driving along the “nation’s first wireless-charging public roadway for electric vehicles beneath a street just west of downtown Detroit.” (AP)
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is looking to impose speed limiting mandates on commercial trucks in an effort to reduce fatalities but farmers say the move would hurt their business. (Ambrook Research)
Education
Harvard University is standing by its president Claudine Gay after her Congressional testimony regarding anti-Semitism on campus. Gay is also facing allegations her [small] portfolio of published papers contains many incidents of plagiarism. (PJ Media)
Just gross: The new chairman of the Fairfax County School Board has been sworn in “on a stack of the five LGBTQ-themed books most frequently banned by other school systems." No Bible, just porn. (content warning: Louder with Crowder)
Politics
House Republicans have agreed to launch an official impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s financial connections with his son Hunter’s business. Republicans are hoping the move will give them more power to investigate, while the President has called the decision a “baseless political stunt.” (The Hill)
A New York judge presiding over former President Trump’s election interference case has agreed to pause for a bit, until the Supreme Court answers the question of whether Donald Trump has presidential immunity. (AP)
A Senate staffer who lost his job after filming himself having sex with a man in a Committee Hearing room says that he is being “attacked for who I love to pursue a political agenda.” (New York Post)
Religion and the Church
Lots of money has been raised for legal defence of a former veteran who cut down a satanic statue in Iowa’s Capitol building. (Not the Bee)
Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu, a 75-year-old Sardinian prelate is facing five and a half years in prison, after being convicted of several counts of embezzlement. The case revolves around the Vatican’s purchase of a luxury property in London and is being called “Vatican’s ‘trial of the century’”. (CNN)
The exodus of congregations from the United Methodist Church has ramped up. Since 2019, orthodox congregations who object to the denomination’s move to embrace the LGBTQ array have been quitting, mostly to join the Global Methodist Church. (Yahoo)
A “very rare” coin depicting Jesus holding the Bible has been discovered in Norway. (Christian Post)
Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral has a new golden rooster. (Daily Mail)
Crime, law, courts
The Supreme Court will decide what it means to “obstruct an official proceeding” in the case of a January 6 defendant. The verdict could affect pending cases against Donald Trump who faces similar charges in relation to the Capitol riot in 2021. (NBC)
Rudy Giuliani has been ordered to pay two Georgia election workers $148m for “repeatedly and falsely” accusing them of fraud. Giuliani told reporters he would appeal the decision. (NBC)
Digital Age
“The UK Judicial Office issued guidance Tuesday permitting judges to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to write legal rulings and perform several other tasks.” (Gizmodo)
Reserachers have developed a supercomputer they say will keep pace with the operation of a human brain. The “neuromorphic supercomputer will be capable of 228 trillion synaptic operations per second.” (Interesting Engineering)
The screen inferiority effect: research suggests that “text that is read on a digital screen will be less well understood than the same text if it is read on paper.” Also, “if you have to read something very quickly, you’d probably be better off reading it in print.” (Psyche)
From the Mad☧Tank
Fresh posts are now unlocked! If you believe clear voices are needed in the white noise and like what we do, then support Mad☧Mondays! You can sign up through Substack or support us with any amount here.
This week:
Great stuff from our archive:
Do you have a poem? Book review? Parenting advice? Theological treatise? Then send it to us! If you would like to submit your writing to be published in our Tank, please reply to this email. We would love to hear from you.
Economy, Markets and Jobs
Tesla has recalled almost all cars it has sold in America - around 2 million - following a two-year investigation by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The investigation looked into a series of car accidents where Tesla’s Autopilot feature was engaged. Safety features are supposed to monitor drivers to ensure they are alert and able to respond to emergencies, but the NHTSA found that humans easily tricked the system with some drivers driving drunk or even sitting in the back seat. Some called for the Autopilot system, which can accelerate, brake and steer autonomously, to be given a less misleading name, but one victim of a wayward Tesla called for the tech to be pulled from the market altogether. (AP)
US mortgage rates have dropped under 7% for the first time since August. (CNN)
Sports betting is driving a rise in gambling among students. (Time)
Health, Medicine and Food
The rise of Americans who are now obese and diagnoses of diabetes brought on during pandemic lockdowns has continued to climb. (Gallup)
Across the pond, a new paper has collated the devastating affects of lockdowns on Britain, especially its lower classes. The Centre for Social Justice found alarming rises in cases of domestic violence, the number of folks who became homeless, amount of school absences and applications for government benefits. The study also noted that the current backlog of outstanding court cases is leading to a feeling that nothing is being done about crime. (UnHerd)
Scientists have discovered a cause for severe morning sickness. Researchers found that a hormone produced by the fetus – a protein known as GDF15 – affects mothers differently depending on how much exposure they have had previously. (University of Cambridge)
Australia has banned products made from engineered stone. The material used extensively to make kitchen counter tops can cause “the incurable and deadly lung disease, silicosis” among workers who make or use the product. (Epoch Times)
Science
Before screens upended the world, audio recording was quite a ground breaker! An interesting video about the oldest known voice recordings. (Open Culture)
Halley’s comet is on its way back to earth. It will be ten times brighter than its last visit when it arrives.. in 2061. (Modern Met)
It's Monday!
Hearts and Minds
Your perception of time is apparently radically altered according to the language you speak. (IFL)
Making chit-chat with strangers makes you happier. (Men’s Journal)
Questions to ask to discern whether something is worth doing. (Primer)
Stories from Far Away
🇩🇪🇳🇱 Four members of Hamas have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands under suspicion of plotting attacks against Jewish institutions in Europe. (Deutsche Welle)
🇮🇱Israeli soldiers have accidentally killed hostages who were waving white flags and speaking Hebrew. The IDF said they believed it was a Hamas trap but will be disciplined for not following protocol. (Haaretz)
🇭🇺Hungary has blocked €50bn in European aid for Ukraine after the EU agreed to open membership discussion to Moldova and Ukraine. EU leaders agreed to grant candidate status to Georgia. Hungary has long opposed giving EU membership to Ukraine. (BBC)
🇦🇷Argentina’s new Economy Minister, Luis Caputo, will devalue the peso by 50% in order to solve the nation’s economic woes. The International Monetary Fund, one of Argentina’s creditors, welcomed the “bold” move. Caputo acknowledged that Argentinians would be worse off for a while but given that the country has “no money” to pay for public works, the measures are necessary. (CNN)
🇷🇺 Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexi Navalny has disappeared, according to his family. Coincidentally, President Vladimir Putin has announced that he is running for re-election next March. After nearly a quarter-century in power, it is likely he will win this one too. (Time, PBS)
🇺🇦One person is dead and at least 26 wounded after a disgruntled man threw grenades into the room where a local village council was meeting. Local press said the man had quarrelled with Council members over the salaries of town officials. (UPI)
🇦🇺After a hard day rescuing a bunch of people, citizens of a flood-ravaged Australia town took their boats to the pub. (Twitter)
Quick Hits for the Eyebuds
🏖️Facts about quicksand
⛸️ The physics of ice skating
🛷 Dog sledding!
🎄 I’m not crying, you’re crying!
🙏🏻Baby found alive in a fallen tree after being lost in Tennessee tornado
🥁 Ringo Starr made it look easy
🤠 The man who turned the Nudie suit into a Western wear staple
🌈 A rare double double rainbow
🔔 The BBC’s sound effects library
A Good Word: Links from the Show Notes
In its new spot on Friday evening, this week’s Stop the White Noise (YouTube, Rumble) featured Jonathan and Meridith speaking about Christian hope, writer’s block and matriarchal animals.. Some recommendations in the madness:
Jeremiah 30 and 31: written for the OT but also for all Christians living in time of trouble and persecution
Matthew 11:28-30 as a call to rest this Advent
Psalm 116
Sweetness You May Have Missed
This Week Preached:
Podcast Release:
Let us pray. Lord Jesus Christ, we implore You to hear our prayers and to lighten the darkness of our hearts by Your gracious visitation; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.Amen.