LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY hummingwolf)

As was noted here a few days ago, Newsweek recently published a story on Liberty University's debate team. A commenter over in the World Magazine Blog pointed out that the claim that Liberty has the number one debate team, while technically true, is misleading. This post at ScienceBlogs goes into some detail. Among other things,

Liberty attended 9 tournaments in the fall. Michigan State, a genuine national power (national champions in 2004, currently #8 in the varsity rankings), attended 7. But they were only at the same tournament three times. Liberty avoided the Kentucky and Harvard tournaments, where they would have faced all of the top teams in the nation, and instead attended smaller tournaments at Kings College, Army and Richmond. So they accumulate lots of points that don't mean a whole lot and boost their rankings.

What happens when Liberty faces the top teams? Not so good. At the Georgia State University tournament, for example, their two teams went 3-5 and 4-4 (Michigan State won the tournament). In the 2005 NDT championships, Liberty didn't even make the top 32 teams to make the elimination rounds. They also didn't break the top 32 in 2004. Or 2003. Or 2002. In fact, they've only made the elimination rounds of the NDT once since 1997, with a 5-3 record, where they were promptly eliminated by USC. So this isn't exactly a debate powerhouse we're talking about, despite the Newsweek story's exaggerated claims.

The comments on that last post include an exchange with Michael Hall, Assistant Director of Liberty Debate.


[Edit: jade_woulf actually linked to the ScienceBlogs post in comments to the earlier entry on this community, but I did not notice till after making this post.]

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY wyldraven)

Andrea Yates moved to mental hospital

How is this relevant? If you don't know about "quiver-full", you should.
http://www.thenewhomemaker.com/quiverfullconvicted

( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY gairid)

I read this article posted by tharain and I thought it should be posted here. It'a long and detailed article about Kansas Senator Brownback; worth the read, and I think it's a good sign that Rolling Stone, a very mainstream magazine,put this article out.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/9178374/gods_senator/?rnd=1138854806662&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.1348

Brownback's leanings seem very dominist to me, but how does that square with him being a Catholic? The movement nearly always seems to me to be associated with Pentacostal and other evangelical protestant religions.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY kalibex)

'A man of God and the GOP, he is speaking out for moderation -- in religion, politics, science and government. The lanky figure once dubbed "St. Jack," not always warmly, for the perch he seemed to occupy on Washington's moral high ground, expects people will sour on the assertive brand of Christianity so closely branded Republican.

'"I'm counting on nausea," he says.'