Daily Links 12-3-13

In today's links: married men and porn, honoring WWII era  spies, traditions designed to make you buy stuff, and more.

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Matt Walsh has some tough things to say to married guys who look at porn:

I know a guy who cheats on his wife. He cheats on her every day. He cheats on her multiple times a day. He’s a husband and a father and a serial adulterer.

I shouldn’t know this fact about him, but it came up in conversation a few days ago. We were talking about the divorce rate; both of us gave our theories as to why the statistics are so high. I mentioned in my diagnosis a few studies that show pornography to be a root cause in over 50 percent of divorces annually.

He laughed. “People don’t get divorced over porn.” He went on to explain that porn isn’t a “big deal” to most people. It’s not “like it’s cheating or something.” He told me that he looks at it multiple times daily. His wife, he insisted, might be a little peeved if she knew the extent of it, but only because women overreact about “that kind of thing.”

What kind of thing? Their husbands spending all day obsessively plunging through the darkest regions of the internet for graphic sexual images of rape, abuse, perversion, exploitation and other forms of filthy depravity previously unknown to mankind?

Yeah. That kind of thing. No reason why any wife should be too upset about that, apparently.

Listen guys, I know this is an uncomfortable conversation. But it’s time we man up and get real about pornography. First things first: if you’re married and you look at porn, you are cheating. Period. From a Christian perspective, this can’t be debated. Christ laid it out very clearly: if you lust after another woman, you have committed adultery. When we look at porn we are choosing to succumb to that lust; we are indulging it, fertilizing it, giving it respite in our minds. We are diving into it headfirst and soaking in it like a sponge. We are lessening ourselves, betraying our wives and participating in the violent exploitation of women (and girls). Or minds and our bodies belong to the Lord and to our wives; pornography, therefore, intrudes on their domain. If we look at porn, we are adulterers. We are adulterers in all the worst ways.

Hat tip: Acculturated

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This is cool:

Dunluce Castle near our home in N. Ireland, which inspired Cair Pravel in The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. pic.twitter.com/t5b0jV23Z4
— Keith & Kristyn Getty (@gettymusic) November 25, 2013

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Honoring the men and women who were spies during World War II:

The men and women who spied on Germany and Japan for the U.S. during World War II parachuted behind enemy lines, led guerrilla raids, invented special equipment such as scuba gear and established a counterintelligence network that endured into the Cold War. 

Nearly 70 years after its agents played a key role in defeating the Axis powers, the spy organization that later became the Central Intelligence Agency is being proposed to receive the highest civilian honor bestowed by Congress, the Congressional Gold Medal. Legislation introduced last week by Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Rep. Robert E. Latta, R-Ohio, would collectively award the medal to the members of the Office of Strategic Services, known as the OSS. 

Along with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, it's the highest award the U.S. gives a civilian. Congressional Gold Medals also have been awarded in recent years to other groups of World War veterans, including Native American "code talkers" and the Tuskegee Airmen.

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Which kind of Doctor Who fan are you?

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You probably don't realize it (I didn't) but these traditions were developed to get you to buy stuff.

Daily Links 11-26-13

In today's link roundup: tech companies that turned down merger offers, using a procrasination pad, remembering Apollo 11, and much more.

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A fascinating list of 8 tech companies that turned down merger offers. Not all of the stories ended well. Some of the companies, however, thrived.

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From Art of Manliness, a wonderful collection of spy concealments.

During World War II, a British publisher used Monopoly sets to smuggle maps, compasses, and money to prisoners of war.

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From Lifehacker, how to stay focused on your current task with a procrastination pad. Personally, I like working from to-do lists and this seems like a great way to manage my free time.

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An online gallery of the objects from Apollo 11 that are currently housed in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

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Here's a real piece of cinematic history: Audrey Hepburn's screen test for Roman Holiday.


Hat tip: Open Culture

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An assortment of vintage advertisements starring notable authors (hat tip Book Riot). Yes, it's true that there was a time when authors would endorse different products. Nowadays authors aren't as well known so it's unlikely that you would see these kinds of ads.

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A review of the new documentary profiling Calvin and Hobbes creator Bill Watterson, Dear Mr. Watterson, at Christianity Today.

Daily Links 11-7-13

How the Internet affects your brain, an update in the war on boys, calling vs. career, and more in this morning's roundup of links.

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How the internet is rewiring your brain. This is both fascinating and scary at the same time. (Hat tip: Stephen Mansfield)

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The latest story in the continuing war on boys via Christina Hoff Somners:

Being a boy can be a serious liability in today’s classroom. As a group, boys are noisy, rowdy and hard to manage. Many are messy, disorganized and won’t sit still. Young male rambunctiousness, according to a recent study, leads teachers to underestimate their intellectual and academic abilities. “Girl behavior is the gold standard in schools says psychologist Michael Thompson. “Boys are treated like defective girls.”

These “defective girls” are not faring well academically. Compared with girls, boys earn lower grades, win fewer honors and are less likely to go to college. One education expert has quipped that if current trends continue, the last male will graduate from college in 2068. In today’s knowledge-based economy, success in the classroom has never been more crucial to a young person’s life prospects. Women are adapting; men are not.

Hat tip: Nancy Pearcey

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John Ortberg on calling versus career:

American society does not talk much about calling anymore. It is more likely to think in terms of career. Yet, for many people a career becomes the altar on which they sacrifice their lives. Benjamin Honeycutt, a historian who specializes in the history of work at the University of Iowa, notes that work has become our new religion, where we worship and give our time. As people’s commitment to family, community and faith are shrinking, they begin to look to their careers to provide them with meaning, connectedness, identity and self-esteem.

A calling, which is something I do for God, is replaced by a career, which threatens to become my god. A career is something I choose for myself; a calling is something I receive. A career is something I do for myself; a calling is something I do for God. A career promises status, money or power; a calling generally promises difficulty and even some suffering – and the opportunity to be used by God. A career is about upward mobility; a calling generally leads to downward mobility.

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A cool collection of Scrabble themed gifts.

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A fascinating list of 10 celebrities who also were spies.

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It's not our job to "police" other Christians:

In my experience as a Christian and Preacher, you would think that any disagreements, arguments, or debates I'd have would be with the non-Christian, the atheist, or those from other religions, but not true. It seems anytime I've had a disagreement with someone over Christianity it is always a fundamental or legalistic Christian who feels it's their mission and life's work to be God's police to the world. 

These types of people make it their personal mission in life to prove others wrong, be right, argue, debate, belittle, name-call, and look down on those who do not line up with them whether doctrinally, theologically, denominationally, or other church or faith issues.  It's a mind-set of either you are for me or against me.  You either agree with me or you are a liberal, heretic, sodomite, watered-down, ignorant, stupid, (add you own description here), I've been called a lot.  The sad thing is I don't like to argue(really!), but some folks can't seem to understand that, their whole faith system is made up of proving others wrong, being right, and making a point to "police" Christians.

Daily Links 9-16-13

Spies, bookish art, marriage as a covenant, and more in today's links.

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The beauty queen who was Winston Churchill's favorite spy and might have been the inspiration for Vesper Lynd in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.

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Some really cool bookish art:

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Tim Keller on The Marriage Covenant:

In sharp contrast with our culture, the Bible teaches that the essence of marriage is a sacrificial commitment to the good of the other. That means that love is more fundamentally action than emotion. But in talking this way, there is a danger of falling into the opposite error that characterized many ancient and traditional societies. It is possible to see marriage as merely a social transaction, a way of doing your duty to family, tribe and society. Traditional societies made the family the ultimate value in life, and so marriage was a mere transaction that helped your family’s interest. By contrast, contemporary Western societies make the individual’s happiness the ultimate value, and so marriage becomes primarily an experience of romantic fulfillment. But the Bible sees GOD as the supreme good – not the individual or the family – and that gives us a view of marriage that intimately unites feelings AND duty, passion AND promise. That is because at the heart of the Biblical idea of marriage is the covenant.

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Tips for changing your reading habits. I think I would be a much more effective reader if I applied all three of these tips.

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Four in Ten College Grads Don't Need a Degree for Their Work

A majority of American workers have jobs that do not require a college degree, according to a new Gallup. This finding wouldn’t be particularly surprising if it were only blue-collar workers saying this, but the poll also found that four in ten college grads agreed that they don’t need a college degree for the work they do.

It’s not exactly a shock at this point that college grads haven’t been able to make the most of their degrees, but when nearly half of the country’s college students are wasting money on degrees that they believe have done nothing to prepare them for their jobs, there’s obviously a problem. These findings can’t be chalked up entirely to undergraduates’ poor choices; college degrees have increasingly become prerequisites for jobs that could easily be performed by high school grads. In many cases, employers are just looking to a college degree as a quick signifier of an applicant’s determination and work ethic, not as a sign of skills learned.

Hat tip Instapundit

Friday Tweet Roundup 8-23-13

Happy Friday everyone!  I continue to be amazed at what I find on Twitter. Here is a roundup of this week's links. Please follow me on Twitter if you are so inclined.

About three years prior to writing 1984, George Orwell wrote a letter detailing the theories that would shape the novel.

This is a great question: "What will be the cost to the church if young men continue to give themselves to pornography?"

Settling the important questions: when grilling is it better to marinade or rub? Go for the rub. Related: my favorite way to prepare steaks only involves using salt and pepper.

I didn't really understand the appeal of Duck Dynasty until I saw a couple of episodes. Here's an explanation as to why it's so popular (and that's a good thing). It's become one of our favorite shows.

Marian McPartland, hostess of NPR's Piano Jazz passed away this week at 95. An appreciation of her remarkable career.

A young man gets stranded at the airport with no money and nothing to eat. What one restaurant did really shows what great customer service is all about.

Legendary Disney songwriters Richard Sherman and Alan Menken recently appeared in concert together at the D23 Expo and it was as magical as you would expect it to be.

The late Elmore Leonard had some great rules for writers.

Baseball's National Hall of Fame should be about those who played the game with honor. This is an interesting case for one such player who is not currently enshrined in the Hall (but should be).

A 911 operator comes to a bride's rescue. Then they become friends.

15 companies that started out selling something else than what they became famous for.

TIME finally reports on a story that a lot of parents already know about: Public schools are hostile to boys.

It's always tough when you're facing the prospect of leaving your church. Here are 10 questions you should ask yourself if you're considering such a step. It's a serious decision and is worth careful thought and prayer.

What Disney taught one person about leadership.

According to Dr. Albert Mohler, the antidote to anemic worship is expository preaching.

An American POW's prized gold ring returns home after he gave it away for food during World War II.

Los Angeles Dodgers' pitching ace Clayton Kershaw would rather talk about what he's doing off the field. Key quote: "Kershaw said he wants to be known as a Christian who happens to play baseball, not as a baseball player who happens to be a Christian."

There are some that say e-books will be the death of the publishing industry. But one publisher is starting to reward customers with free e-book copies of physical books that they buy. This makes sense to me. Amazon had already done this with CDs purchased through their site so it makes sense that publishers will want to do the same.

From Art of Manliness, five traits of true leadership.

Five habits of highly effective communicators.

How to go from being a good leader to a great manager.

This is amazing: historical black and white photographs are colorized. The results are incredible.

A brief history of everyone's favorite summertime memory: the ice cream truck.

The plucky investigative reporter who got herself committed to an insane asylum. On purpose.

Did you know before she became a famous television chef Julia Child was a spy? The stories of five unlikely spies.

Let's call this your bookstore bucket list. 16 bookstores to see before you die. Judging by the pictures, I'd say they were right.

An interesting interview with the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Convention, Russell Moore. His observations on the role of Christians in culture today are right on the mark.

That's it. Have a great weekend.