There is only one Messiah?

According to this news report, a judge disagreed with a parent’s choice of name for their child and went ahead and changed it.

A judge in Tennessee changed a 7-month-old boy’s name to Martin from Messiah, saying the religious name was earned by one person and “that one person is Jesus Christ.”

Child Support Magistrate Lu Ann Ballew ordered the name change last week, according to WBIR-TV (http://on.wbir.com/1cDOeTY). The boy’s parents were in court because they could not agree on the child’s last name, but when the judge heard the boy’s first name, she ordered it changed, too. [Read more…]

The problem with email confidentiality

One consequence of the recent NSA revelations is that it has piqued my interest in the whole issue of encryption and internet confidentiality and security, topics about which I had at best a very hazy idea. For example, I had never even heard of Lavabit, the encrypted email service provider that apparently has attracted over 400,000 users in its ten years in operation. After word got out that Edward Snowden used it, the number of new monthly subscribers surged to three times its normal value. [Read more…]

NSA revelations may cost US companies between $22 and $35 billion

The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation has released a report where they say that the recent NSA revelations are going to cost American companies that provide cloud computing and encryption services quite a lot of money, since many international businesses may be reluctant to give their business to US companies that can be compelled to provide the government with backdoor access to all their information. [Read more…]

Thieves with a conscience

Here’s a heartwarming story.

Some burglars broke into an office in San Bernadino that provides services for victims of sexual assault and took away all the computers. The non-profit office has no sign on the door in order to protect the people who seek its help. But the thieves later apparently discovered the nature of the work that the office did, and on the following morning they broke into the same offices again and returned all the stuff along with a handwritten note of apology.

Here’s the video. [Read more…]

Guilty bankers don’t even have to admit guilt

I have been railing about the fact that despite the massive damage that the major banks did to ordinary people and the economy leading up to and during the recent financial crisis, not a single major bank executive was even threatened with jail time. Instead the banks were merely fined amounts that seem impressive to ordinary people but are a pittance to the banks who can write it off as the cost of doing business. [Read more…]

Assemblies of God doing well

While there has been a general decline in religiosity in the US especially among young people, it has not been uniformly so across the board. The Pentecostal denomination known as the Assemblies of God are reporting quite brisk growth.

The Assemblies of God, a denomination rooted in rural and small town America, appears to have leaped into the 21st century with dramatic results.
….
The denomination reported a 1.8 percent increase in U.S. membership to 3 million adherents. Globally, the gain was 1.5 percent, to 66 million, making it the largest Pentecostal group in the world.

Pentecostals are those who claim to ‘speak in tongues’ and their religious services are something to see as people writhe on the floor and yell out and sway and dance as if in a trance. (The documentary Marjoe is available online and well worth seeing.) [Read more…]

Women’s cricket

As regular readers know, I was a huge cricket fan in my youth, losing touch with the game after I came to the US. But with the advent of the internet, I have rekindled my interest and started following it again. One of the big surprises for me was to discover that women’s cricket is now being played at the international level. Back when I was a boy, girls did not play at all at any level, not being included even when boys formed pick up games. [Read more…]