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A La Carte (8/6)

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It’s SO Over
It seems that many adolescents are abandoning social media sites. “From uncles wearing skinny jeans to mothers investing in ra-ra skirts and fathers nodding awkwardly along to the latest grime record, the older generation has long known that the surest way to kill a youth trend is to adopt it as its own. The cyberworld, it seems, is no exception.”


The Death of Handwriting
TIME mourns the death of handwriting in general and cursive in particular. “I am a member of Gen Y, the generation that shunned cursive. And now there is a group coming after me, a boom of tech-savvy children who don’t remember life before the Internet and who text-message nearly as much as they talk. They have even less need for good penmanship. We are witnessing the death of handwriting.”


Jesus Is a Friend of Mine
You remember that silly song “Jesus Is a Friend of Mine” that recently surfaced on YouTube. The album it was drawn from is now for sale (for the first time since the 70’s). CT has a review.


Clunker Cash is Anything but Smart
This article is interesting for its perspective on the “Cash for Clunkers” program. The basic point is this: “As Bastiat showed 150 years ago, you don’t create wealth by destruction.” In other words, by destroying older cars (which still have some value) you do not, in the end, create wealth. Meanwhile, this second article suggests that the actual cost per vehicle may be in the tens of thousands of dollars (since many of the cars being purchased with the rebate may well have been purchased anyway).


Sexting Craze on the Rise
Though this article is UK-focused, I’m sure it’s entirely applicable in North America. “A growing number of British teenagers are swapping sexually explicit images of themselves on mobile phones leaving them open to bullying and victimization by their peers, police and a children’s charity said on Tuesday.” This is of particular concern: “Girls were particularly vulnerable, the charity said, with evidence showing they were being bullied into taking and sharing intimate pictures by boyfriends.”


Deal of the Day: Reformation Heroes
Reformation Heritage Books has released a second edition of the book Reformation Heroes which now includes a study guide.


  • New and Notable Christian Books for January 2025

    As you know, I like to do my best to sort through the new Christian books that are released each month to see what stands out as being not only new, but also particularly notable. I received quite a number of books in January and narrowed the list down to the ones below. I have…

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    A La Carte (January 30)

    A La Carte: Small injustices / Is it necessary to be a church member? / How to make friends at college / My letter about a transgender teacher / Prayerless theologians / Deepening fellowship / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Throw Out the Buoys

    Throw Out the Buoys!

    When I was young, my family owned a cottage on a lake. From a young age, I loved to head out in our little motorboat so I could explore that lake and the others that were connected to it. I could easily make a day out of slipping into little inlets to see where they…

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    A La Carte (January 29)

    A La Carte: Your phone habits / A guide for single women / JFK, conspiracy theories, and the Deep State / So what if you’re bored? / God’s a writer / Hard relationships / Kindle deals / and more.

  • Happy Lies

    Happy Lies

    I’m quite certain you have heard of the New Age movement. Though its popularity seems to have crested and begun to wane some time ago, it continues to wield a good bit of influence. But I wonder if you’ve heard of another similarly-named but quite different movement called New Thought.

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    A La Carte (January 28)

    A La Carte: Parenting is hard / The wildness of orthodoxy / Rubbing shoulders throughout eternity / Glorifying ourselves / The middle of somewhere / Is Roman Catholic baptism valid? / Excellent Kindle deals / and more.