Update: Nouriel Roubini over at Forbes magazine offers an exceptionally gloomy outlook: "Brown Manure, Not Green Shoots. He subheads his article, "The jobs situation is even worse than the headlines."
(Original post) - Ed Morrissey provides the details. Click here. The man in the White House doesn't lack chutzpah.
Marc Morano over at "Climate Depot" headlines: "Gore: U.S. Climate Bill Will Help Bring About 'Global Governance.'" (HT: Drudge) Morano writes:
Former Vice President Al Gore declared that the Congressional climate bill will help bring about “global governance.”
“I bring you good news from the U.S., “Gore said on July 7, 2009 in Oxford at the Smith School World Forum on Enterprise and the Environment, sponsored by UK Times.
“Just two weeks ago, the House of Representatives passed the Waxman-Markey climate bill,” Gore said, noting it was “very much a step in the right direction.” President Obama has pushed for the passage of the bill in the Senate and attended a G8 summit this week where he agreed to attempt to keep the Earth's temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees C.
Gore touted the Congressional climate bill, claiming it “will dramatically increase the prospects for success” in combating what he sees as the “crisis” of man-made global warming.
“But it is the awareness itself that will drive the change and one of the ways it will drive the change is through global governance and global agreements.” (Editor's Note: Gore makes the “global governance” comment at the 1min. 10 sec. mark in this UK Times video.)
Gore's call for “global governance” echoes former French President Jacques Chirac's call in 2000. [Keep reading...]
Continue reading ""GLOBAL GOVERNANCE" BEHIND CLIMATE CHANGE ISSUE" »
I consider this link to Michelle Malkin's post extremely important. It includes a 7 minute video of Margaret Sanger, the racist founder of Planned Parenthood. It also details the unethical, ultra-radical views of John Holdren, Obama's science czar. Finally, it mentions the gift Pope Benedict XVI gave to President Obama at their meeting today, the “Dignitas Personae” (”The Dignity
of a Person”), which was published in December by the Congregation for
the Doctrine of the Faith.
National Review Online has published a blog post of suggested summer reading entitled,"Beach Bag Books." The book that most grabbed my attention is one suggested by Nancy French. She writes:
( Nancy French is the author of A Red State of Mind: How a Catfish Queen Reject Became a Liberty Belle.)
Keith Mathison of Ligonier Ministries is the one doing the selecting. Worth consulting. Click here. (HT: Between Two Worlds) I value some new steers, but am surprised to see some omissions as well, such as Klyne Snodgrass on Ephesians (whose work I like), and Gordon Fee on I Corinthians.
A reader suggests checking www.bestcommentaries.com as well. In an earlier post I referred to the Old Testament commentary picks chosen by professors at Denver Seminary.
From Justin Taylor's Between Two Worlds:
Keith Mathison reviews Stephen C. Meyer's new book, Signature in the Cell, which he says "may be the most persuasive case for intelligent design yet published." Some excerpts from the review:
Wintery Knight posts a link to a radio interview featuring Stephen C. Meyer on the popular, nationally-syndicated Michael Medved show. (H/T Discovery Institute)
Wintery Knight's blog also posts a link to the ID the Future Podcast website which lists the following podcasts:
Seems right to me. Click here.
Ed Morrissey is suggesting a "caption contest." He writes: Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev meet for the first time in Moscow, and Obama offers his unclenched hand. The look on Medvedev’s face says … ?
Ralph Peters says,
We got nothing of real importance. But the government of puppet-master Vladimir Putin (nominally just prime minister) got virtually all it wanted. In Moscow, this was Christmas in July. . . We just agreed to the disarmament position of the American Communist Party of the 1950s. [more . . ]
So claims the Family Research Council in a press release today:
Washington D.C. - Today, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins
responded to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines
implementing President Obama's executive order for federal funding of
human embryonic stem cell research (ESCR). President Obama's order and
the NIH
guidelines remove life-protecting limits on federal funding of
embryonic stem cell research.
"Embryonic
stem cell research requires
dissecting and commoditizing the youngest, most vulnerable humans, said
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. "The new guidelines
demanded
by the President promote poor science, reflect bad health care policy,
and do nothing to fund treatments with adult stem cells that are
providing
documented benefits for suffering patients. The guidelines implement a
plan that will force taxpayers to foot the bill for research that
involves
human destruction, not healing.
"The NIH guidelines create an
incentive to create and destroy so-called 'excess' embryos, pasting a
veneer
of 'ethics' on unethical experiments. They remove limits on taxpayer
funding
Check the photo at Smart Girl Politics blog (HT: HotAir).
The Anchoress has published a magnificently comprehensive post which begins as follows:
Six months after he is inaugurated, (and almost a year after Andrew McCarthy first asked) the press finally starts to wonder who Barack Obama is, an about those student-years at Columbia and -I’m gobsmacked!- it turns out he was a radical:
…the mainstream media has finally done a bit of the candidate background reporting it declined to do during the campaign — other than in Wasilla — and whaddya know? The New York Times unearthed a 1983 article called, “Breaking the War Mentality,” that Columbia student Barack Obama wrote for a campus newspaper. The article shows that Obama dreaded American “militarism” and its “military-industrial interests,” while effusing enthusiasm for the dangerously delusional nuclear-freeze movement.
Keep reading for pile on pile of links and a whole lot more...
Me: I'm not surprised that Obama was a campus radical. But I am disgusted by the willful blind eye of the mainstream media, complicit to the core in hiding and covering up the news, rather than exposing and publishing it. May generations to come condemn this generation's shameful apostasy to journalistic ideals.
Courtesy of Bing -
A lot of people have written a lot of things about Sarah Palin since she announced she is stepping down as governor. The post by Jude over at Hugh Hewitt's blog, is the best I've seen.
The Declaration of Independence can be found here. I very much like Rich Lowry's testimony to the realism and wisdom of our founders.
Peggy Noonan recalls a conversation she had with David McCullough, the great historian, when both were visiting Mount Vernon.
Well, so do I. If you do too, it's part of what you're celebrating today.
Me: I agree entrely.
What is going on with Gov. Sanford and his continual "yammering" as Michelle Malkin puts it? He seems to be acting like a star-crazed teenager. Malkin suggests he buy a one-way ticket to Argentina already and be gone. Mark Steyn regards Sanford as a narcissist buffoon. But the man, by his own admission, remains in love. Unfortunately it's not with his wife. And that, coupled with a sincere (I think) confessional streak and a (perhaps sincere?) recognition of violating his own and God's ethical standards, means he remains in a state of verbal, mental and emotional disarray.
It could have been avoided if he had recognized what Sheldon Vanauken calls "The (False) Sanction of Eros." Vanauken writes about it in his book, Under the Mercy, currently out of print. I know of no better commentary on Mark Sanford's "inloveness" than this. Consequently, I have been sending google documents of the relevant pages to friends via e-mail. I urge you, gentle reader, to click here and print out the pages for easier reading. You, or someone you know, will benefit greatly from Vanauken's insight. It's a "must" for all pastors and counselors.
[Note: I'm having trouble making the links work. Sorry.. For the quote, see Under the Mercy, pp. 143-49. If you e-mail me, I will send you a link to the google docs pdf pages for reading.]
Continue reading "GOV. MARK SANFORD -- STAR-CRAZED TEENAGER?" »
Runner's World has published a remarkable interview with Sarah Palin on why she loves to run. The article is accompanied by a series of 7 stunning photos (much larger than the sample at the right) which some politicians, for various reasons, are unhappy to see. Allahpundit comments:
What do we think of the much-publicized photos in Runner’s World today? If there’s a woman in America who’s had five kids that looks better than she does, I’d like to meet her. But if it’s gravitas that she needs to cement herself as a serious challenger to The One, I can’t imagine that a check-me-out photo helps.
Anyone even remotely interested in feminist scholarship and the textbooks used on university campuses, needs to read this article. (HT: HotAir) I can't do justice to the article in a sentence or two. Summary: be very suspicious of statistics, expect hyperbole, and don't expect most feminist authors to care about accuracy (many refuse to correct mistakes even when pointed out). Here's how Ms. Sommers begins her article:
Why does Obama meddle only when the pro-democracy side is winning?
(Image from Investor Business Daily's Michael Ramirez)
Updates 7/3/09 - Christian Science Monitor: "A coup in Honduras? Nonsense." Keep up to date by regularly checking news and commentary at www.freehonduras.com
- (Original Post) - There's no lack of sane coverage of the Honduran situation which makes one wonder what gives with Obama and his State Department. What are they inhaling? Click here for an important Wall Street Journal article, note the comprehensive and excellent editorial in Investor's Business Daily, and turn to Fausta's Blog for details. (HT: Wintery Knight Blog for the link to Fausta and the cartoon above). Charles Krauthammer expostulated against Obama last night on Fox News:
Well, the president has a knack for getting all of these big decisions wrong. Two weeks ago, he refuses to meddle in a country where peaceful demonstrators are getting shot by a theocratic dictatorship. He doesn't want to choose sides.
And now he's eager to meddle on behalf of the president in Honduras who is a Chavez wannabe, who is strong-arming his way to a referendum—that has been declared illegal by his Supreme Court—as a way to...establish a constituent assembly which will establish a new constitution, which will be a Chavez-like dictatorship.
I find this sick, an example of taking the feminist idea of "social construction of gender" to its most stupid conclusion. The story below represents a form of child abuse. Kathryn Jean Lopez links to the Swedish newspaper story and provides the following excerpt:
A couple of Swedish parents have stirred up debate in the country by refusing to reveal whether their two-and-a-half-year-old child is a boy or a girl.
Pop’s parents [see footnote], both 24, made a decision when their baby was born to keep Pop’s sex a secret. Aside from a select few – those who have changed the child’s diaper – nobody knows Pop’s gender; if anyone enquires, Pop’s parents simply say they don’t disclose this information.
In an interview with newspaper Svenska Dagbladet in March, the parents were quoted saying their decision was rooted in the feminist philosophy that gender is a social construction.
“We want Pop to grow up more freely and avoid being forced into a specific gender mould from the outset,” Pop’s mother said. “It's cruel to bring a child into the world with a blue or pink stamp on their forehead.”
The child's parents said so long as they keep Pop’s gender a secret, he or she will be able to avoid preconceived notions of how people should be treated if male or female.
Pop's wardrobe includes everything from dresses to trousers and Pop's hairstyle changes on a regular basis. And Pop usually decides how Pop is going to dress on a given morning.
Although Pop knows that there are physical differences between a boy and a girl, Pop's parents never use personal pronouns when referring to the child – they just say Pop. [more . . .]
Drudge put up the following images and commentary:
BEWARE THE OBAMA 'EVIL EYE'
Tue Jun 30 2009 07:43:56 ET
As the summer begins, White House watchers have spotted a new look by President Obama: The Evil Eye!
Staffers have joked about the menacing glance, which comes when the
president meets with world leaders who are not aligned with his
progressive view.
News report here. Study summary here. A reader supplies the following (non-exhaustive) links:
Disgusting. This article details Norway's moral relativism.
Here is an ad the Family Research Council is currently running. For more details, see my earlier post. Regardless of one's position on homosexuality, what do you think of Obama's judgment in appointing a person with this kind of background to lead the "Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools"? To me, it demonstrates once again Obama's "in your face" radicalism, and contempt for those with whom he disagrees. This President is intent on remaking America by any and all means possible in his power.
Chuck Colson reports on a recent PBS special on the effect of music in utero, "The Music Instinct: Science & Song."
Part of this “exploration” included how music affects babies. If we are, as some scientists believe, “wired for music,” then babies are ideal test subjects since their reactions are, by definition, instinctual.
Part of this research involved the effect of music on fetuses. While we knew that mothers often sing to their unborn children, we weren’t sure that the unborn child could hear them.
We are now. A segment of The Music Instinct featured Sheila C. Woodward of the University of Souther California, who has studied fetal responses to music. A camera and a microphone
The Family Research Council's press release is here.
Continue reading "FRC Launches Stop Kevin Jennings Campaign" »
There's been a lot of talk about this new movie. Charles Colson offers a valuable introduction.
This is what audiences will see in the film The Stoning of Soraya M., made by the filmmaking team behind The Passion of the Christ. It opens in limited release on June 26. I haven’t given away any plot twists or surprises—the title of the film tells you all you need to know.
The Stoning of Soraya M. is based on a true story; in fact, you may have read the bestselling book when it came out in 1994. Journalist Freidoune Sahebjam was traveling through Iran when he
Ed Morrissey is absolutely right. He distastefully notes:
Jim Geraghty first wrote that all of Barack Obama’s promises come with expiration dates, and broken promises from politicians are nothing new, of course. However, one usually expects politicians — especially those running on hope and change — to either remain true to their professed core values and the issues that fueled the most passion on the campaign trail, or at least explain their change in the daylight. Obama did neither, nor did he apologize to the man he besmirched endlessly on the campaign trail while adopting the policy that Obama most demonized as a candidate.
Continue reading "ED MORRISSEY - "THE RANK DISHONESTY OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION"" »
Hugh Hewitt titles his post: "Voting for Economic Suicide" He writes:
Me: I feel like I am at the bedside of a sick patient who is being treated by a mad doctor who doesn't know what he is doing, or who possibly intends to kill the patient via a slow, agonizing death. It infuriates.
Update - Kim Strassel in the Wall Street Journal explains the haste to pass the climate change bill: the number of skeptics is swelling everywhere.
Lisa Schriffen laments the likely political demise of S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford. She writes:
Me: I agree with her regarding Sanford's policies, though I am greatly disturbed by Sanford's flight from his State responsibilities, not to mention his unfaithfulness to his wife. On the other hand I think Obama may well prove to be the "negative" judgment of God on this nation. Your thoughts? (I edited this a bit)
Update 6/27/09 - AP print interview with Jenny Sanford
- (Original post) It's only about 46 seconds long, but worth viewing. Click here. The comments from viewers are interesting. One says:
Good for her. Wow. The republicans sure have some strong women: Palin, Lynn Cheney, Jerie Thompson, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Bachman, Jenny Sanford -- Proud. Loud. STRONG
Update: I think readers will be interested in Cal Thomas' column, "Should we forgive him?" Excerpt:
I once asked evangelist Billy Graham if he experienced temptations of the flesh when he was young. He said, "of course." How did he deal with them? With passion he responded, "I asked God to strike me dead before He ever allowed me to dishonor Him in that way." [more . .]
Update #2 - I think readers will also want to read Charles Colson's reflections on the Mark Sanford affair. Colson is disappointed, pained and angered. He warns and admonishes:
Nearly every grave moral failure begins with a small sin. Because there comes a time, after we toy with sin, when one pull of the flesh causes us to cross the line, to disengage from reason, and to follow our appetites wherever they may lead. . . [more . . ]
Rabbi Shmuley offers insightful reflections on the tragedy that is Michael Jackson. (HT: Drudge) Excerpt:
In many ways his tragedy was to mistake attention
for love. I will never forget what he said when we sat down to record
40 hours of conversations where he would finally reveal himself for a
book I authored. He turned to me and said these haunting words: "I am
going to say something I have never said before and this is the truth.
I have no reason to lie to you and God knows I am telling the truth. I
think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it
because I wanted to be loved. That's all. That's the real truth. I
wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt
loved. I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft,
maybe people will love me more. I just wanted to be loved because I
think it is very important to be loved and to tell people that you love
them and to look in their eyes and say it." One cannot read these words
without feeling a tremendous sadness for a soul that was so surrounded
with hero-worship but remained so utterly alone. . . [more...]
Update: For a negative review of Michael Jackson's life and a refusal to join the mourning, see Jonah Goldberg's reflectons.
Then it's crucial to read this analysis. It will explain the horrors of the bill that Congress will soon be voting on.
Call your two senators and representative and ask them to vote against the "Hate Crimes" bill. You can reach all three at 202-224-3121.
Update 6/25/09 - From Family Research Council:
This morning FRC submitted testimony to the Senate Judiciary
Committee regarding one of the Left's most coveted policy objectives--a
federal hate
crimes law. The House passed the Hate Crimes measure on April 29, but
today's hearing in the Senate was the first on the Matthew Shepard Hate
Crimes
Prevention Act (S. 909). I won't go into how the bill's title is
historically and factually incorrect (you can see that for yourself in
FRC's
documentary, Censoring the Church and Silencing Christians). This measure would create special protections for people based on their sexual
behavior, gender identity, or perceived sexual orientation or gender.
Yielding
to pressure from the homosexual community, which is among
the loudest in the Democratic Party's base, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.)
had vowed to attach "hate crimes" to must-pass legislation by August.
As we
document in Censoring the Church, hate crimes laws are a
threat to free speech, religious freedom, and equal protection under
the law. Congress should not allow certain privileged groups to have
special protection under the law, and FRC said as much in our testimony
when we stated, "A federal hate crime law is unnecessary, it's
ineffective, and it promotes inequality."
To read how, click over to www.frc.org and read
our testimony. You can also see where this legislation would lead in stunning real-life stories featured in our documentary, Censoring the
Church, available online. When you're through watching clips, contact your senators and urge them to vote "no" on S. 909.
Additional ResourcesRead Tony Perkins'
written testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee
According to the Family Research Council, the Dearborn Arab International Festival is expected to draw 300,000 people. FRC reports:
One News Now has details about the Arab Festival and the denial to the Christian group. Literature distribution would be limited to a designated table-and-booth section of the festival site.
I consider this a MUST-READ article. Chuck Colson writes:
Last year, a young Chinese
woman—let’s call her Dan Li—ran afoul of the Chinese government. She had become
“illegally pregnant.” By the time the authorities found out, Dan Li was seven
months along. Family planning officials tied her to a bed, induced labor, and,
when the baby was born, killed the baby.
What happened to Dan Li is an abomination—one, however, that tragically takes place regularly in China. But now, thanks to the U.S. Congress, you and I will be paying for it.
Last March, without fanfare, Congress passed a bill providing $50 million for the United Nations Population Fund. This organization promotes abortion around the globe—including in China. What makes the bill especially heinous is that it voided Kemp-Kasten, a bill which, for two decades, prevented our tax dollars from funding forced abortions and sterilization.
This blows the lid off the
argument that abortion is all about giving a woman choice. If Congress really
stands for choice, as they claim, why did they vote for coercion? If feminists
are really for choice, why aren’t they fighting this law? Why isn’t our
pro-choice President demanding that this brutalization of women be stopped? Keep reading. . .
Continue reading "USA PROMOTES COERCED INTERNATIONAL ABORTION" »
Joe Carter offers an evaluation. (HT: Justin Taylor) I hope to run this by some of my friends whose opinions I value. At the very least, readers will find Carter's article extraordinarily stimulating, especially since it includes many illustrations, including some that contrast Kincade's earlier work with his later. Take the following for example:
Which is the earlier? Which is better? Why? For one man's answers, read Carter's essay and the discussion that follows. Also, you might want to heed a reader's suggestion and read Gregory Wolfe's earlier article,"The Painter of Lite." I have not pondered these matters sufficiently to offer my own opinion.
Prof. Ben Witherington recently visited a number of archaeological sites in Turkey. He offers several posts complete with magnificent photos and commentary on the agora at Izmir (Biblical Smyrna), the archaeological museum at Izmir, the funerary monuments and statues in Hierapolis, and the Papias Stele.
The memorials (above) are to those who died as gladiators. Witherington says Hierapolis and Laodicea undoubtedly had its share of such games.
Regarding the agora at Smyrna, Witherington writes:
In the agora there would be the exchange of ideas, not just the exchange of goods. Consider the story of Paul dialoguing with the Stoics and Cynics in the agora in Athens. Here the politicians and
Continue reading "ARCHAEOLOGY OF CHRISTIAN SITES IN TURKEY" »
After linking to one of my posts, Wintery Knight (whose blog should be read on a daily basis) went on to offer advice to prospective conservative and Christian students. One would do well to click through to the links embedded in his post. He wrote:
Other points of view are only annoying if you have lousy reasons for your own point of view. If you put the time in learning your arguments and evidence, and the best that could be argued against you from the other side, then there should be no problem. . .
We need to start making it common knowledge that atheism
does not ground morality and that is a worldview that is responsible
for hundreds of millions of deaths in the last 100 years alone. That
point must be made over and over – that when someone claims to be an
atheist it should be immediately put to them that meaningful morality is not rationally grounded by their worldview. Don’t let them make any moral judgments without challenging them on the foundations of morality. . . .
Compass Direct News (via Christianity Today) reports:
Christians in India heaved sighs of relief after the
surprise rout of a Hindu nationalist party in May national and state assembly
elections in Orissa, the scene of anti-Christian violence that killed hundreds
and displaced tens of thousands last year.
A local centrist party, the Biju Janata Dal, took charge of the Orissa state government, soundly defeating the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by 109 to 7 assembly seats. A coalition led by the centrist Indian National Congress won a second term in the federal government; it defeated a BJP-led coalition in 2004.
"The election result is a statement against the persecution of non-Hindus," said Vijay Simha, a senior Indian journalist. "Since the vote went against right-wing parties, the result is a strong rejection of extremist religious programs."
Continue reading "GOOD NEWS FROM INDIA: HINDU EXTREMISTS DEFEATED IN ORISSA ELECTIONS" »
Marvin Olasky explains:
Me: I bought a copy on sale last Christmas and like it a lot. It's a hefty "tome," and thus not handy for carrying around. But what I especially appreciate is that it is fully accessible via the internet. I appreciate the notes and the hyperlinks that make Bible study fast as well as enjoyable and profitable. And, in general, I prefer the greater literalness of the ESV to the NIV. Highly recommended!
Update: See my earlier post: "Online Bible Reading Plans (with Sound!")
I have pondered for some time Obama's view of the United States vis-a-vis the world for an explanation for his continued apologies abroad. I well understand that his view represents the politically correct view of the left that predominates in most university settings. Victor Davis Hanson agrees and expands:
Obama—the Manichean?
Of all the puzzling reasons one can adduce both
for Barack Obama recent serial apologies abroad, and now his strange
silence about human rights abuses from Venezuela to Iran, I think one
of the most likely is his Manichean notion of world affairs—one also
reflected in most of the curricula of our major universities.
The binary oppressor/victim narrative goes something like this: the United States for the last half-century—through its embrace of neocolonialism and imperialism, and then again through its birthing of globalized capitalism—is at fault for most of the mess outside the West.
We as the bad guys impose, dictate, exploit, ignore, and manipulate the more noble Other to such a degree that he is forced to lash out in understandable, though often dangerous ways.
This is a sort of all-inclusive worldview that in postmodern fashion pits those with “power” against those without it. And in such a simplistic bipolar world, only a few gifted Western elite intellectuals, of superior intelligence, empathy, and insight, can reach across the divide,
Continue reading "OBAMA'S VIEW OF THE U.S. VIS-A-VIS THE REST OF THE WORLD" »
Bachmann, a conservative Republican congresswoman from Minnesota, thinks the government needs to know only the number of people in her household and nothing more. I'm impressed. Gutsy gal. Story here. (HT: Drudge)
Some days ago before this latest news broke, Wintery Knight put up some good video about Bachmann. She is one of his heroes. She is fast becoming one of mine also. She has also been praised by Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review Online.
Here's a Wintery Knight paragraph:
Obama's inadequate knowledge of history is anything but reassuring. In fact, it is extremely unsettling. Obama seems to have imbibed a sophomoric, truncated, inaccurate, politically-correct, anti-American, distorted view of history which can only hamper his governance, even if it fails to dampen his arrogance. Bruce Thornton addresses the problem, and it's a good beginning. I appreciate his link to Victor Davis Hanson's article as well. Thornton writes:
Barack Obama, as Victor Hanson recently documented,
may be our most historically challenged president ever. Some might
think that the inaccuracies Hanson identifies are no big deal, but
there are several reasons to be troubled by such ignorance.
Continue reading "BRUCE S. THORNTON - "THE HISTORICALLY-CHALLENGED PRESIDENT"" »
I learned a lot from this interview. I realize that news out of Iran is spotty and uneven, and it is difficult to know whose opinion to trust. Nevertheless, Jamie Glazov consistently proves a trustworthy source to ferret out individuals with special insight, and this interview doesn't disappoint. One thing I learned: Mousavi is not a good man. According to Farahanipour,
Mousavi has had a long history of hard line positions and murderous suppression of opposition and presiding over massacres of political prisoners in the 1980s. Even today he has constantly declared his devotion to the Supreme Leader and his religious ideology of hierarchical Islamic government. His moderation myth has developed out of his opposition to Ahmadinejad’s open and bold statements. Mousavi believes in quietly doing the same things, i.e. the nuclear development, support of Hezbollah and Hamas and etc.
European regulators express new privacy concerns. Story here.
I suspect that this is but the first of many posts that will need to be written about the "Orwellian Nature of the Obama Administration." VDH writes:
We use Orwell, Orwellian, and Orwellianism loosely
a lot these days, but what is going on in the Obama administration is
beginning to get a little creepy and resembles a lot of things Orwell
wrote about in 1984.
Continue reading "VICTOR DAVIS HANSON - THE ORWELLIAN NATURE OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION" »
In a series of posts (here and here) Jonah Goldberg has excerpted pages from his book Liberal Fascism that deal with "Hitler & Christianity." If you read further down this post, you will see tie-ins Goldberg makes with neo-pagan and New Age thought. Goldberg writes:
From pages 364-365 of my book:
Like the engineers of that proverbial railway bridge, the Nazis
worked relentlessly to replace the nuts and bolts of traditional
Christianity with a new political religion. The shrewdest way to accomplish
this was to co-opt Christianity via the Gleichschaltung
while at the same time shrinking traditional religion’s role in civil society.
To this end, Hitler was downright Bismarckian. The German
historian Götz Aly explains how Hitler purchased popularity with
lavish social welfare programs and middle-class perks, often paid for
with stolen Jewish wealth and high taxes on the rich. Hitler banned
religious charity, crippling the churches’ role as a counterweight to
the state. Clergy were put on government salary, hence subjected to
state authority. “The parsons will be made to dig their own graves,”
Hitler cackled. “They will betray their God to us. They will betray
anything for the sake of their miserable little jobs and incomes.”5
Following the Jacobin example, the Nazis replaced the traditional
Christian calendar. The new year began on January 30 with
From the Family Research Council:
The Obama administration continues to attack the family from the
inside. According to our sources, the Department of Health and Human
Services is
poised to name David Hansell to a key post in the Administration for
Children and Families (ACF). This is particularly disturbing since
Hansell
served in leadership positions at Gay Men's Health Crisis, a nonprofit
that actively lobbies for the radical homosexual agenda. His promotion
to
Assistant Secretary of ACF is a slap in the face of mainstream America,
who relied on this office to promote heterosexual adoption, traditional
families, abstinence education, child care, and healthy marriages.
To
give you a picture of the extreme makeover underway at ACF,
Hansell's predecessor was Dr. Wade Horn, a well-respected family
advocate who used to head the Fatherhood Initiative. Under Hansell's
direction, ACF
would radically morph from a federal program meant to empower
traditional families into a government vehicle aimed at sabotaging
marriage with your
tax dollars.
See also "Barack Obama and Homosexuality/Gender Issues: A Brief Survey"
I found David French's post devastatingly accurate, drawing as he does on an astute observation by Ravi Zacharias. French wrote (my bolding):
Late yesterday afternoon, I happened to catch a short-but-insightful lecture by one of my favorite Christian apologists, Ravi Zacharias.
In the midst of an interesting discussion about the allure of Eastern
mysticism in Western culture, he made a fascinating statement (I'm
paraphrasing): In the battle of ideas, stigma always beats dogma.
In other words, through stigmatization, one can defeat a set of ideas
or principles without ever "winning" an argument on the merits.
I was instantly reminded of not just my own experiences in secular higher education, but also the experiences I see and hear every day while defending the rights of students and professors. Why convince when you can browbeat? Why dialogue when you can read entire philosophies out of polite society? That's not to say there aren't intense debates on
Continue reading "TACTICS OF THE LEFT: PREFERRING STIGMA TO RATIONAL ARGUMENT " »
Kathryn Jean Lopez interviews Amir Taheri, author of The Persian Night: Iran Under the Khomenist Revolution. Taheri is an Iranian-born journalist. Lopez offers a substantial, informative interview with this very astute observer of Iran and Middle East turmoil. Excerpt:
