In policies and rhetoric, Huckabee is most like the Bull Moose version of Theodore Roosevelt in his domestic policy ideas.

Roosevelt wanted a government big enough to counter-balance big business. He was a “trust buster” and conservationist. While not hating the rich, he did not trust them. He sounded a lot like the modern Huckabee.

Perhaps Huckabee should stop trying to channel Reagan (who was much more pro-business and radically free market) and start talking up T.R.

I think JMR is on to something there. We live in an era that is much more conducive to T.R.-style conservatism than to neo-Reaganism. The reason, of course, is that Reagan changed the political landscape so much that we no longer have to fight the same battles that he did. While we should keep Reagan's optimism and his principles, we have challenges that are, in many ways, more like what Roosevelt faced.

11. Same-sex relations: The argument from the Old Testament (HT: Fides Quaerens Intellectum)

12. Muslim's are dedicated to their book :

The Koran is not only the most widely read book in the Islamic world but also the most widely recited (“Koran” means “recitation”). There is no higher goal in Muslim life than to become a human repository of the Holy Book; there is no more common sound in the Muslim world than the sound of Koranic recitation.

Reciting the Koran is the backbone of Muslim education. One of the most prized honorifics in Islamic society is “hafiz” or “one who has the entire scripture off by heart”. Do so in Iran and you get an automatic university degree. The great recitors compete in tournaments that can attract audiences in the hundreds of thousands—the world cups of the Islamic world. The winners' CDs become instant bestsellers.

13. Study Reveals Most Religious Nations in the World -- Nigeria, Brazil, India and Morocco top the list.

14. How to make a laser cutter for less than 50 bucks (HT: BoingBoing)

15. The 10 Best Rollercoasters on Earth (HT: Neatorama)

16. Just How Dangerous Is Police Work?

Generally, police are about three times as likely to be killed on the job as the average American. It isn't among the top ten most dangerous professions, falling well behind logging, fishing, driving a cab, trash collecting, farming, and truck driving. Moreover, about half of police killed on the job are killed in traffic accidents, and most of those are not while in pursuit of a criminal or rushing to the scene of a crime. I don't point this out to diminish the tragedy of those cops killed in routine traffic accidents.

17. The secret to winning at rock, paper, scissors

Scientists believe they have worked out the secret to winning at paper, scissors, stone. While most people are aware that stone blunts scissors, scissors cut paper and paper covers stone, there is a psychological element to the game which many players may have missed. According to New Scientist magazine, the way to win is to start with scissors.

(HT: The Daily Dish)

18. World's most visited religious destinations

19. Does the Argument From Evil Presuppose the Existence of God?

20. Religion habit cuts anxiety in women

For many, religious activity changes between childhood and adulthood, and a new study finds this could affect one's mental health.

According to Temple University's Joanna Maselko, Sc.D., women who had stopped being religiously active were more than three times more likely to have suffered generalized anxiety and alcohol abuse/dependence than women who reported always having been active.

"One's lifetime pattern of religious service attendance can be related to psychiatric illness," Said Maselko, an assistant professor of public health and co-author of the study, which appears in the January issue of Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.

21. Where'd all the Marxists go?

Professors in the 26 to 35 year-old age range are less liberal and more moderate (though not more conservative) than older professors, which I attribute to those youngsters' having reached maturity after the collapse of communism. It is thus no surprise that only 1 percent of the young professors describe themselves as "left radicals" or "left activists," compared to 17 percent of those aged 50 or older.

22. Ancient DNA Reveals That Some Neanderthals Were Redheads

Ancient DNA retrieved from the bones of two Neanderthals suggests that at least some of them had red hair and pale skin, scientists report in the journal Science. The international team says that Neanderthals' pigmentation may even have been as varied as that of modern humans, and that at least 1 percent of Neanderthals were likely redheads.

(HT: New Covenant)

23. Divorce Hurts the Planet (Part I): From ABC News :

Environmentalists who are thinking of getting a divorce may want to reconsider, a new study at Michigan State University finds.

Households in which a divorce occurs have a greater negative impact on the environment in terms of efficient use of resources than the households of married couples, according to research that will be published this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

24. Divorce Hurts the Planet (Part II): Theodore Dalrymple comments on the study:

One of the interesting questions that this little piece of research poses is whether the environmentalist lobby will now throw itself behind the cause of family values. Will it, for example, push for the tightening of divorce laws, and for financial penalties—in the form, say, of higher taxes—to be imposed on those who insist upon divorcing, and therefore upon using 46 percent more electricity and 52 percent more water per person than married couples who stay together? Will environmentalists march down the streets with banners reading SAVE THE PLANET: STAY WITH THE HUSBAND YOU HATE?

For myself, I doubt it. Yet these figures, if true, are certainly suggestive. The fact that there will be no demonstrations against environmentally destructive divorcees, who probably emit as much extra carbon dioxide as the average SUV, suggests that the desire to save the planet is not nearly as powerful as the desire to destroy a way of life.

(HT: The Evangelical Ecologist)

25. LOLCat of the Week

moar funny pictures

26. Comic book author Frank Miller on the religion of Daredevil: "I figured Daredevil must be Catholic because only a Catholic could be both an attorney and a vigilante." (HT: Siris)

27. Study: College women more accepting of pornography than their fathers

Researchers at Brigham Young University conducted the study with college students and their parents from six schools across the country. Nearly half of the female students, 49 percent, said viewing pornography is an acceptable way to express one’s sexuality. Only 37 percent of the dads agreed.

28. Entire Old Testament Written On A Pinhead -- In a nanotechnology breakthrough, scientists have printed the entire Old Testament onto a silicone chip smaller than a pinhead (less than 1/1000th of an inch). The text was written using a focused ion beam (FIB) generator that shot tiny particles called Gallium ions onto a gold surface covering a base layer of silicone. In a process that can be likened to digging a hole in the earth using a water jet, the ion beam etched the surface of the gold layer, making the underlying silicone layer visible. The actual "writing" of the full text took just 90 minutes. The computer program that guided the FIB, however, took more than three months.

29. Who Benefits from the Federal Government? According to economist Alex Tabarrok, about 63 cents of every dollar in taxes paid by the rich is transferred down.

30. No Need For Reduced Alcohol Consumption In Later Life, Study Suggests -- Provided they stick to the same guidelines about alcohol consumption as younger adults, regular moderate drinking poses no additional risks to the 'over 65s,' and may even bring health benefits, according to two new studies.

31. The appeal of the underdog -- In a series of studies, researchers Joseph A. Vandello, Nadav P. Goldschmied, and David A. R. Richards (of the University of South Florida) tested the scope of people's support for those who are expected to lose, seeking to understand why people are drawn to the Rocky Balboas and the Davids (versus Goliaths) of the world.

Using both sports and political examples, the researchers asked study participants to react to various scenarios presenting different competitors with an advantage or disadvantage. For instance, in one study using the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, the participants were given the same essay about the history of the area, but with different maps to reference - one showing Palestine as smaller than Israel (and thus, the underdog) and the other showing Israel as smaller. No matter what scenario the participants were presented with, they consistently favored the underdog to win.

32. Miscarriage And Abortion Triple Chances Of Future Low Birthweight Babies -- Women who have miscarried or had an abortion run three times the normal risk of having a subsequent low birthweight baby, suggests new research. The more miscarriages or abortions a woman has, the greater are her chances of giving birth to a child that is underweight or premature in the future, the research shows.

33. Dancing Lessons From James Brown

(I always thought "The Robot" was invented in the '80s. Little did I know the Godfather of Soul was bustin that move back in the '70s.)