Friday in the wild - Feb. 25, 2005

It's Friday! Here's some of the stuff that really caught my eye around the blogosphere this week.

Michael King dug up a bit of interesting trivia about the narcotic heroin: the word used to be a trademark registered by the same people who brought us "aspirin."

<johnnycarson>I did not know that.</johnnycarson>

Catez at Allthings2all continues a friendly debate over the Quran:

A number of scholars are agreed that Mohammed was influenced by certain teachings on Christianity. It is evident that he had learned some of the Bible accounts from the way he has incorporated them into the Qu'ran. However his understanding was limited and he not only plagiarised the Bible but was also lacking in understanding sequences of events and the roles that certain people played.

[Read The Qu'ran: Plagiarism of the Bible and Omissions]

Over on Manasclerk's Power Struggle, manasclerk has posted a tribute of sorts to one of my favourite musicians, the late Mark Heard:

He was an amazing songwriter and performer. A whole generation of Christians in popular and folk music were inspired by his craft. It's over a decade after he died and Buddy Miller just released a new cover of "Worry Too Much." You know, I hope when I die I leave just a tenth of how he affected folks.

[Read Mark Heard's Final Performance]

Yeah, me too. Mark Heard's influence is probably more keenly felt than seen, especially these days. But if you can find them, you owe it to yourself to acquire an album or two of his. I personally recommend Second Hand and Satellite Sky. And the compilation album Strong Hand of Love, featuring contributions from Bruce Cockburn, Randy Stonehill, Michael Tait, and Rich Mullins, among others, is probably the best tribute album ever recorded. No joke.

Tim Irvin tells a story about his adventures at the local Burger King that is almost as good as the classic Taco Bell adventure:

Our local Burger King used to be an excellent burger haven but it has hit the skids. Last Summer I pulled through the drive-thru and ordered like I usually do. Mustard Whopper, fries and coke. For years I could say, “Mustard Whopper” and it was understood that I wanted a standard Whopper with Mustard instead of Mayo. The girl taking my order wasn’t up on it.

[Read The Downfall of BK]

I can relate. I used to live around the corner from a BK where I am convinced the night staff were always on something.

Last but not least, Dawn Eden has been tearing the hide off Planned Parenthood this week. Yesterday she posted about an article in Teenwire, a teen-oriented sex-ed site, which linked to another site apparently run by pedophiles:

The article tells little girls that besides the possibility of an older man's being too "controlling," "a girl who's hooking up with an older guy needs to think about something else, too—the law....Check out Age of Consent for more about the laws in your state."

The words "Age of Consent" in the Teenwire piece link to a Web site which is very clearly run by pedophiles.

[Read "F--- the Children": Planned Parenthood's Teenwire Sends Kids to Pedophile Site]

By the time I read the article, PP had apparently removed an active link to the Age of Consent site (as one commenter posted, "How conveeenient"). But I did manage to track it down (not even slightly difficult, and yes, the site does contain editorials such as "Possesion [sic] of child porn should be legal" or "Is Adult/Child Sex always abuse?" I decline to multiply further examples. We all know there are plenty of sick freaks in the world, and apparently a number of them work for publicly-funded Planned Parenthood.

A few days ago Dawn also pointed out the sick inconsistency of Planned Parenthood celebrating supportive black politicians:

Brian Clowes, PhD, of Human Life International, has compiled a remarkable collection of nearly 1,200 quotes from the Birth Control Review, published between 1917 and 1940 by the American Birth Control League, forerunner of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. The sheer breadth of the quotes from magazine, edited by Birth Control League/Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger until 1928 and continuing to represent the views of her organization thereafter, show that Planned Parenthood's philosophy is grounded in disgustingly obvious racism and eugenics. (Emphases in original)

[Read Planned Parenthood's Racist Roots]

Update: The iMonk gets one in under the wire, just because his tribute to Gene Scott manages to capture the man's essence perfectly:

I was visiting my friend Darrell back in 1988, and he wanted to show me his satellite TV system. This was back in the day when satellite dishes made your yard look like the Jordell Bank radio dish. We descended to the den in the basement, and Darrell was flipping through the channels, when we came upon a puzzling sight. A long haired old man, sitting in a lounge chair, books all around him, puffing a cigar, and talking about the Great Pyramid.

"Dr. Gene Scott," Darrell said with a smile. Thus was I introduced....and promptly addicted.

What the heck was this? This was the pastor of the University Cathedral, the host of the University Network, the most educated televangelist on the air and the absolute ruler of the universe that was Gene Scott's version of Christianity.

[Read I Just Couldn't Look Away: The Crazed, Cranky, Captivating Christianity of Dr. Gene Scott]

After disappearing into the netherworld, today if I type crusty into Google, I have returned to #4 in the rankings. But for some reason Google's lost my title. Well, whatever.

Interesting searches that brought people to the Crusty Curmudgeon this week:

• julian lennon is reincarnation of jesus? Doubtful.
• Once gain, someone wants camilla parker cleavage. OK, whoever you are, it's been a fun three weeks, but it's time to fess up. This is a put-on, right?

I've made a couple of changes to the blogroll as well:

• My friends Rand and Twinklemoose have moved blogs and can now be found at A Form of Sound Words. I'll keep both links up for a week or so.
• Warren Kelly's View from the Pew has been languishing in my reciprocal links for some time, but I've moved him up to the main blogroll.

Go and give these worthy blogs a read.

Till next time.