A Florida man has filed legal claims in both Florida and Utah that he
should be allowed to marry his computer. His claim says that “over time, he
began to prefer sex with his porn-laden computer to sex with a woman,” and he
cites precedents from around the world such as a woman who married a dolphin,
and a Chinese man who wed a cardboard cut-out of himself. However, the real
reason for his suit appears to be to throw a spanner in the works of gay marriage
legislation; his suit claims that “Allowing my marriage to go forward will not
adversely impact the fertility rate any more or less than [marrying] a same sex
couple. If there is a risk that is posed to traditional marriage and children,
both man-man couples and man-machine couples pose it equally.”
A proposed US reality TV show, which would have featured two brothers
from North Carolina helping families purchase and fix up a house into a dream
home, has been cancelled after a left wing website labelled the brothers as
“anti-gay anti-Choice extremists.” The evidence for this included a recording
of one brother saying that “a homosexual agenda is attacking the nation”;
saying that abortion on demand, no-fault divorce, pornography and perversion,
and adultery are wrong; and arranging for pro-life groups to give pregnant
women free ultrasounds. Another left wing blog described this as evidence of
the brothers’ “repellant [sic] and well-documented ultra-conservative
activism.”
Another United Nations committee has declared strong opposition to the
Catholic Church’s teaching on morality. In February, the UN committee on Rights
of the Child produced a report on the child sexual abuse scandal within the
Catholic church that not only condemned the church’s practices (without
acknowledging subsequent changes in those practices) but also called for
changes in Catholic teaching on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. Now
the UN Committee on Torture, in a question session regarding the same scandal,
has suggested that preventing abortion is equivalent to “psychological torture”,
and also that the Catholic church is responsible for women seeking out unsafe
abortions and for nine year old rape victims giving birth. The committee’s spokesperson
said, “This committee
has found repeatedly that laws that criminalize the termination of pregnancy in
all circumstances can violate the terms of the convention”, even though there
is no obvious link between preventing abortion and the UN convention’s own
definition of torture. A spokesman for the Population Research Institute said
that the problem is that UN committees get their information from the UN Human
Rights office and from various anti-Catholic NGOs such as the Center for
Reproductive Rights; also, the chairman of the Torture committee is known as a
pro-abortion activist.
John Paul Jackson, well known as a prophetically gifted minister and
teacher of prophetic ministry, has been diagnosed with a large aggressive
cancerous growth in his leg. Jackson says, “I have not ruled out any or all
treatment paths, but at the top of the list is prayer.” He requests believers
to pray for him and his wife for two minutes per day.
On one night last month, the electronic billboards in New York’s Times
Square repeatedly displayed a short video which flashed the words “No Other
Name” and then “Jesus”. Onlookers tried to work out what company was being
promoted, and why there was no brand or logo attached to the ad. In fact, it
was simply a proclamation of the name of Jesus funded by Hillsong Church –
although their latest music album does happen to be called “No Other Name.”
In technology news, a Brazilian neuroscientist working at a university
in North Carolina has developed an exoskeleton that can help paralysed people
walk – and also a neuro-controller that allows patients to control the exoskeleton
with their thoughts. Eight patients have been training since November, and one
of the eight had been able to use mental control to kick a ball. There is
speculation that the technology will be exhibited at the World Cup in Brazil
where one of the patients will take the first kick of the tournament.
And finally, a father and son long
distance running team have finally hung up their running shoes, and wheelchair.
Rick Hoyt has cerebral palsy but in 1977, he asked his father Dick if they
could run a charity race for a paralysed friend, with Dick pushing Rick’s
wheelchair. Rick wanted to show that life went on whatever your disability.
Rick said after the event that “when I’m running, it feels like I’m not
handicapped.” Dick and Rick went on to
complete 97 half marathons, 72 marathons, 22 duathlons, and 255 triathlons
including six Ironmans; for triathlons, Rick has a special boat for the swim
section and an adapted tandem for the bike section. Their final event was the
2014 Boston marathon; they had planned to give up before that (they are now 73
and 51 years old), but decided to run their 32nd Boston marathon in
memory of those injured by the previous year’s bomb.
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