Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Revisited

Although I have blogged about Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali before, I keep running into excellent articles and quotes that I want to keep on file.  I find Clifford D. May's column an example of such.

Hirsi Ali’s personal story is by now familiar. She grew up in poverty and on the run – the daughter of a celebrated Somali revolutionary. When she was 22 years old, her father arranged for her to marry a man he thought suitable. She ran away, settling in the Netherlands where she cleaned toilets and worked on a factory assembly line. Before long, she also learned fluent Dutch, attended university and was elected a member of parliament.

But after van Gogh’s murder, the threats against her life and the controversy surrounding her views impelled her to leave Holland for Washington where Christopher DeMuth, the far-sighted president of the American Enterprise Institute, gave her a place to think and write about freedom, religion, and ideology.

In the U.S., Hirsi Ali may be safer from physical attack than she would be in Europe. But nothing can protect her from the attempts at character assassination emanating from the pages of the Economist, Newsweek, the Washington Post, and other elite publications.

Clifford May then describes her evaluation of Islam.

Her detractors — who would never object to criticism of Christianity or Judaism — are apparently outraged that Hirsi Ali dares to question Islamic doctrine and practice. They are offended by her refusal to agree that Islam is intrinsically “a religion of peace” and that

Should "Progressives" Be More Accurately Called "Retrogressives?"

Update 4/9/07 - Phyllis Schlafly says "'Equal Rights' for Women: Wrong Then, Wrong Now"

**
David Frum has it exactly right as he comments on the attempt of "Progressives" to reintroduce the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment). 

We've been hearing since November about the resurgence of the progressive left - the new enthusiasm, the new energy, the new organizations, the new commitment. Amidst all these exciting novelty, there is only one thing lacking: new ideas. The resurgent "progressive" movement is the most backward-looking political force since William Jennings Bryan tried to repeal the industrial revolution. Their big issues - a government healthcare monopoly! do away with secret union ballots! and now ... ERA! - date respectively to the 1940s, the 1930s, and the 1970s.

It's just bizarre to tune into blogosphere debates to watch freshfaced 20-somethings passionately champion, as if just invented, policy proposals that were old when their grandparents were young. If this is progressiveness, what would reaction look like?

Incidentally, on the ERA, be sure to read all of Frum's column cited above, plus see Kathryn Jean Lopez's article from last year, and the contemporary video of Phyllis Schlafly fighting the proposed (resurrected) Arkansas ERA amendment on February 7, 2007.   Isn't it interesting that

Get Well Wishes for Tony Snow and Elizabeth Edwards

The White House has a get-well-soon Tony feature for note sending on the right side of their homepage.  The Edwards campaign has something similar for notes to Mrs. Edwards here.   

(The above courtesy of Kathryn Jean Lopez at NRO)

The Once Proud British Navy Now Supine: Truly Sad

Here's an article ("Hostage Sailors: British Impotence") from Arthur Herman, author of To Rule the Waves, How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World.

Some excerpts:

There was a question whether the Blair government would end up leaving Britain with a navy too small to protect its shores. Now it seems to want a navy that can't even protect its own sailors.

. . .  Since January, the Blair government has broadcast its intentions of gutting the Royal Navy's surface fleet. At the same time, it also announced its plans for withdrawing 2,500 British troops from Iraq. The result? First, the Royal Navy is finished as a credible military force. Second, the British Army's redeployment from Basra has been widely interpreted as abandonment of the Iraq mission, rather than as moving on to Afghanistan after a job well done, as Blair insists.

. . . The mullahs in Tehran clearly see the new pacifist trend in Britain not as a hopeful sign of future accord, but as supine surrender. Just as clearly, they have singled out Britain as the latest weak link in the Coalition fighting in Iraq and in the War on Terror.

. . .  The United States has grown used to doing the fighting and dying the other industrialized democracies refuse to do in order to defend themselves and their interests.

Britain has been an exception. In places like Bosnia and the Persian Gulf, and in operations like Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, its

Women Keep Outnumbering Men in College (As If You Didn't Know)

This article surveys the situation.  Sounds like it's past time to start reading Christina Hoff Sommers' The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men.

Don't Fear Lawsuits from Aggressive Muslims Organizations (Like CAIR) When You Point Out Suspicious Behavior: The John Doe Manifesto

Michelle Malkin sets the stage with this historical background:

Earlier this month, six publicity-seeking imams filed a federal lawsuit against US Airways and the Metropolitan Airports Commission in Minneapolis/St. Paul. The Muslim clerics were removed from their flight last November and questioned for several hours after their suspicious behavior alarmed both passengers and crew members. Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist Katherine Kersten reported last week that the imams, advised by the grievance-mongers at the Council on American-Islamic Relations, also plan to sue "John Does" — innocent bystanders who alerted the authorities about their security concerns. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., has introduced legislation to protect John Does who report suspicious behavior from legal liability. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; talk show host Michael Reagan; Dr. Zuhdi Jasser, who heads the American Islamic Forum for Democracy; and Minnesota lawyer Gerry Nolting have all stepped forward to offer free representation to the imams' targets.

Dear Muslim Terrorist Plotter/Planner/Funder/Enabler/Apologist,

You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you. You are my enemy. And I am yours.

I am John Doe.

I am traveling on your plane. I am riding on your train. I am at your bus stop. I am on your street. I am in your subway car. I am on your lift.

I am your neighbor. I am your customer. I am your classmate. I am your boss.

I am John Doe.

I will never forget the example of the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who refused to sit back on 9/11 and let themselves be murdered in the name of Islam without a fight.

I will never forget the passengers and crew members who tackled al Qaeda shoe-bomber Richard Reid on American Airlines Flight 63 before he had a chance to blow up the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.

I will never forget the alertness of actor James Woods, who notified a stewardess that

What Newt (As British Prime Minister) Would Do If Iran Doesn't Release the Brits Pronto

From an interview with Hugh Hewitt:

HH: Now let’s get to the first major issue of the day, which is Iran. Mr. Speaker, if the United Kingdom feels obliged to use force, if diplomacy fails to get their people back, will you applaud?

NG: I think there are two very simple steps that should be taken. The first is to use a covert operation, or a special forces operation to knock out the only gasoline producing refinery in Iran. There’s only one. And the second is to simply intercede by Naval force, and block any tankers from bringing gasoline to Iran…

HH: Would you do, would you urge them…

NG: And say to the Iranians, you know, you can keep the sailors as long as you want, but in about 30 days, everybody in your country will be walking.

HH: So how long would you give them, to give them that ultimatum, the Iranians?

NG: I would literally do that. I would say to them, I would right now say to them privately, within the next week, your refinery will no longer work. And within the following week, there will be no tankers arriving. Now if you would like to avoid being

Legos Banned: Seems a Bit Too Capitalistic and Individualistic For Some Tastes

John J. Miller has the story:

Perhaps you’ve heard about the schools that have banned tag. Or dodgeball. Or stories about pigs.

If so, you won’t be surprised to hear that the Hilltop Children’s Center in Seattle has banned Legos.

A pair of teachers at the center, which provides afterschool activities for elementary-school kids, recently described their policy in a Rethinking Schools cover story called “Why We Banned Legos.” (See the magazine’s cover here.)

It has something to do with “social justice learning.”       
              (Keep reading  if you have the stomach for absurdity.)

Dennis Prager: Iraqi "Insurgency" Represents a New, Undreamed of, Form of Evil

Click here.

The Limits of Multiculturalism

In a Robert Spencer article discussing a German judge who invoked the Qur'an over against German law, Spencer recalls the spirit of General Sir Charles James Napier, The British commander-in-Chief in India from 1849 to 1851.

It is said that a Hindu delegation protested against the British prohibition of sati, the practice of burning a widow to death on her husband's funeral pyre, by telling Napier that it was part of their cultural custom.  Napier famously responded:

You say that it is your custom to burn widows.  Very well.  We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them.  Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows.  You may follow your custom.  And then we will follow ours.

I think that a classic response!  Robert Spencer writes:

It is long past time for authorities in Europe and the United States to begin to emulate Napier in their dealings with increasingly restive and demanding Islamic communities.  Instead of issuing "religious diversity handbooks" and making special accomodations for Islamic practices, Western officials need to reassert the validity of our own laws and mores . . .

The New American Philosophy: "I'm Angry, Therefore I Am"

Back on January 2, 2007, I posted  "Is 'Anger' Now the 'In-Thing' in American Culture?"   That post spotlighted what I called a "humdinger" of a review by Stanley Kurtz of Peter Wood's new book A Bee in the Mouth: Anger in America today.   

George Will, who finds Wood's arguments convincing, has today published  a column titled The Politics of Anger.   Here are a few quotes from his article:

So in this age that is proud of having achieved "the repeal of reticence," anger exhibitionism is pandemic.

Anger often is, Wood says, "a spectacle to be witnessed by an appreciative audience, not an attempt to win over the uncommitted."

 [Quoting Wood" -" Today's anger is a coping device for everyday life. It also is the defining attribute of an increasingly common personality type -- the person who "unless he is angry, feels he is nothing at all."

Once upon a time, Americans admired models of self-control, people such as George Washington and Jackie Robinson, who mastered their anger rather than relishing being mastered by it. . .  Today, however, proclaimed anger -- the more vituperative the better -- is regarded as a sign of good character and emotional vitality.

Today, many people preen about their anger as a badge of authenticity: I snarl therefore I am. Such people make one's blood boil.   (more) 

Egypt's Mubarak Seeks to Prevent a Power Grab by Islamists

Update: 3/27/07 - The constitutional amendments passed by 75.9%, albeit by a very low voter turnout - only 27%.    See the BBC-News report here and Newsvine's report here.

**
Egypt holds a constitutional referendum today.  Amir Tahiri titles his analysis  "Egypt's Mixed Reform Bag."

Time Mag: "The Case for Teaching the Bible"

Click here.

C.S. Lewis Read Dorothy L. Sayers' "The Man Born to Be King" Every Year During Holy Week

For any who have not yet been introduced to Dorothy L. Sayers' wonderful dramatic sketches of the life of Christ (originally produced for BBC radio in 1943) titled The Man Born to Be King, this might be a good year to indulge yourself.  C.S. Lewis himself said, "I have re-read it in every Holy Week since it first appeared, and never re-read it without being deeply moved."

An Amazon.com reader wrote the following:

After reading this play cycle, you'll never look at the Gospels in the same way again. . .  I've been a Christian for many years, and I can still say that this book changed my life. If you have questions or doubts about Jesus of Nazareth, please give it a try.

C.S. Lewis's comments on The Man Born to be King are part of his panegyric for Sayers which he concluded saying,

"For all she did and was, for delight and instruction, for her militant loyalty as a friend, for courage and honesty, for the richly feminine qualities which showed through a port and manner superficially masculine and even gleefully ogreish--let us thank the Author who invented her."

(For those bibliographically inclined, Lewis's comments on Dorothy L. Sayers can be found in C.S. Lewis On Stories and Other Essays on Literature edited by Walter Hooper.)

** Update 3/10/08:  There's a preview of "The Man Born to Be King" available online from Google Books.

Dr. Mark D. Roberts' "Stations of the Cross: A Devotional Guide for Lent and Easter" (Protestants Needn't Stay Away)

Looking for some good devotional reading for the end of Lent and Holy Week?  You and I can't do better than read Dr. Mark D. Roberts' series that began just a few days ago titled: The Stations of the Cross: A Devotional Guide for Lent and Holy Week.   Roberts is the scholar-pastor of Irvine Presbyterian Church in Irvine, California. 

As a Protestant, I have not been in the habit of  "doing" the Stations of the Cross, and that is probably to my impoverishment.

As Mark Roberts explains,

In the Middle Ages, this practice [observing the stations of the cross] got wrapped up with the granting of indulgences (remissions of temporal punishments for sins for which we have been forgiven). The whole indulgence scene became quite messy, and was in fact one of the major reasons for the Protestant Reformation. Thus it's not surprising that Protestants  didn't maintain the tradition of walking The Way of the Cross as an act of devotion.

In 1991 Pope John Paul II issued a revised list of "stations" totally faithful to the Biblical record. 

1.   Jesus on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39-46)
2.   Jesus, betrayed by Judas, is arrested (Luke 22:47-48)
3.   Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin (Luke 22:66-71)
4.   Peter denies Jesus (Luke 22:54-62)
5.   Jesus is judged by Pilate (Luke 23:13-25)
6.   Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns (Luke 22:63-65; John 19:2-3)
7.   Jesus takes up the cross (Mark 15:20)
8.   Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus to carry his cross (Luke 23:26)
9.    Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem  (Luke 23:27-31 23:27-31)
10. Jesus is crucified (Luke 23:33, 47)
11.  Jesus promises his Kingdom to the good thief (Luke 23:33-34,     39-43)
12. Jesus on the cross, his mother and his disciple (John 19:25-27)
13. Jesus dies on the cross  (Luke 23:44-46)
14. Jesus is placed in the tomb  (Luke 23:50-54)

Roberts' comments are theologically rich.  In addition to his commentary, each day includes the Scripture passage under consideration, a painting of the scene by his wife, and a prayer.  I plan to avail myself of this wonderful resource.   You can read Roberts' series here.   (HT: Hugh Hewitt)

Is Fred Thompson the Best Republican Candidate for President?

Update 4/2/07- Robert Novak reports on Fred Thompson's continuing surge in popularity amongst conservative and says he's serious about running.

**
Mona Charen thinks so.  Read her reasons here.   After even-handedly critiquing Giuliani, McCain, and Romney, she says of Thompson:

So. What about that likable fellow from Tennessee? Thompson is not 'just an actor' (though they said that about Reagan, and he turned out OK). He began his professional life as an assistant U.S. attorney, worked as Sen. Howard Baker's campaign manager and did a stint as co-chief counsel to the Senate Watergate Committee. It was he who asked the innocuous-sounding but momentous question of Alexander Butterfield: 'Were you aware of the existence of any listening devices in the Oval Office of the president?'

After leaving Washington, he continued to practice law and slipped into acting as easily as a wagon rolls downhill. They were making a film about his legal exploits and couldn't find anyone who could do Fred Thompson as well as he did himself.

His voting record is solidly conservative. He is articulate, self-made (his father was a car salesman), highly intelligent, and exudes calm authority. His star power offers him an opening with independent voters that other candidates can only dream of, while his solid conservative credentials will excite the Republican base.

He hasn't dreamed of becoming president since he was in diapers. But he has noticed that 57 percent of Republicans tell pollsters they are unsatisfied with the current field.

It may be that no one can play a Republican president better than Fred Thompson.

What Does Recent Sunspot Activity Have to Do with Global Warming?

Possibly a lot.  An important Investors Business Daily editorial demands attention.  Some excerpts: 

The same day that Al Gore lectured Congress about man-made global warming, NASA made a startling announcement: The sun is hotter and more active than thought.

NASA detailed new observations of solar explosions from a powerful space telescope that recently beamed back X-ray images of the sun's outermost layer. Scientists expected to see a calm region but instead saw a bubbling mass of swaying and arching spikes, some more than 5,000 miles long . The tangled magnetic fields dump energy back into the corona, causing huge temperature flares.

The sunspot intensity shocked NASA astronomers, who held the press conference in Washington as Gore testified nearby that the planet has a 'fever' caused by carbon-spewing humans. Of course, the media were too busy genuflecting before 

Book Recommendation: "My Year Inside Radical Islam"

A few days ago I finished reading Daveed Gartenstein-Ross's book, My Year Inside Radical Islam.   I found it engrossing, informative, and well worth the relatively short time it takes to read it.  Gartenstein-Ross writes excellently, and his story of working for a radical Islamic "charity" as a young, true believer helps us understand the attraction of Islam, including radical Islam.  Those Christians who have engaged in debates about "legalism" in Christianity will be interested in learning about the (huge) degree of legalism associated with radical Islam. 

At one point Gartenstein-Ross was told he should no longer listen to music - any music.  Before that he wrestled with the following:

"On the inside of a radical Islamic group, there are many rules to remember.  A lot of them involve limbs.  I could eat using only my right hand.  I could never pet a dog or shake hands with a woman.  To avoid Allah's wrath, I had to roll up my pants legs above the ankles before prayer.  On the other hand, shorts on men had to extend below the knee or they were indecent.  I believed in all of this and more. I believed that Jews and other nonbelievers had to be conquered and ruled as the inferiors they are.

Having said that, Gartenstein-Ross never mocks, never ridicules, but soberly tells his story.  He recently wrote a  response to reviews of his book titled "How Not to Discuss Islam."   

While I am on the subject of books related to Islam, I should like to mention that Bilquis Sheikh's I Dared to Call Him Father stands out as a particularly helpful book.  Unlike Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, whose pilgrimage began as a Jewish lad born to free-thinking, New-Age type parents and who then journeyed to Islam, and thereafter to radical Islam and eventually to Christianity, Bilquis Sheikh's pilgrimage began as an upper-class Pakistani Muslim.  Her book tells her dramatic story of becoming a Christian while still living in Pakistan.  Her book is a page-turner as she explores her new outlook on life with all the attendant cultural and family complications.  Not only does a reader learn a lot about Islam, but one also receives a powerful lesson in what it means to "walk in the Spirit."    Truly a "must read."

Best Non-Fiction Books of the 20th Century

This list first appeared in the May 3, 1999, issue of National Review, and is conveniently available  here.    The first 15 follow. I doubt they are listed in order of importance.

1. The Second World War, Winston S. Churchill

Brookhiser: "The big story of the century, told by its major hero."

2. The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn

Neuhaus: "Marked the absolute final turning point beyond which nobody could deny the evil of the Evil Empire."

3. Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell

Herman: "Orwell's masterpiece-far superior to Animal Farm and 1984. No education in the meaning of the 20th century is complete without it."

4. The Road to Serfdom, F. A. von Hayek

Helprin: "Shatters the myth that the totalitarianisms 'of the Left' and 'of the Right' stem from differing impulses."

5. Collected Essays, George Orwell

King: "Every conservative's favorite liberal and every liberal's favorite conservative. This book has no enemies."

6. The Open Society and Its Enemies, Karl Popper

Herman: "The best work on political philosophy in the 20th century. Exposes totalitarianism's roots in Plato, Hegel, and Marx."

7. The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis

Brookhiser: "How modern philosophies drain meaning and the sacred from our lives."

Democratic Party Arguments On Iraq Don't Hold Up

William Kristol and Frederick W. Kagin explain why.   

Philip Jenkins Interviewed on Global Christianity and Other Subjects

Philip Jenkins, Professor of History and Religious Studies at Pennsylvania State University and a prolific author, was recently interviewed by Jeremy Lott, the Warren T. Brookes Journalism Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and author of In Defense of Hypocrisy: Picking Sides in the War on Virtue.   Jenkins may be best known for his ground-breaking book The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity.  He has now written over 20 books, including The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice.  I have on my shelf his book Hidden Gospels: How the Search for Jesus Lost Its Way, a useful corrective to a lot of wild stuff currently being written about Jesus.

Jenkins' latest book, God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis, will be coming out  in May.  Click here  for the wide-ranging interview.   The points highlighted below represent only some of the many subjects discussed. 

You note that birthrates have leveled off in some countries that most readers wouldn't expect. Between 1986 and 2000, average births per woman in Iran have fallen from 6 to 2, which is slightly lower than the replacement rate of 2.1. Indeed, birthrates almost everywhere are plummeting. Why is that?

Jenkins: That's right, across the Middle East. The Middle East in the last 15 years is going through the great demographic transition and that is one of the great facts in world politics. What it should mean is that in about 15 years these countries should be vastly more stable. The next 15 years could be a very rocky ride, but the long-term trend is to underpopulation. These countries will have to figure out how do deal with all those old people. Sometimes-and I'm not speaking about Steyn particularly here-when people talk about these astronomical birthrates, they're using pretty dated figures.

Jenkins: . . .  Increasingly, the U.S. looks like a very weird society on the global stage. On religious affiliation, it's half way between Europe and Africa and in some ways it looks like that in demography too. It's not a European society, it's not a Third World society, it's something very distinctive. So there I am back to American exceptionalism.

A substantial subset of recent immigrants to Europe is not Muslim but Christian. What effects are these immigrants having on religious life in Europe?

Jenkins: There is a huge network of immigrant churches, in Britain certainly, but also in basically every country there are some very large congregations. When people look at immigrant areas in France, they tend just to see Muslims, but a lot of the folks are actually black Christians-there are networks of Congolese churches-and they

Wanna Know the Pork in the Democratic House Bill Passed Today to End the War?

Update 3/25/07: Investors Business Daily editorializes: 

In passing a bill that will force a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq, Democrats have again shown why they can't be trusted with our nation's security — or with spending money responsibly.

How sad that Congress' new majority didn't have the guts to take a straight-up vote on withdrawing troops without linking it to all sorts of pork-barrel spending.

This shows Democrats don't have the courage of their convictions — unless bribed.

Click here.   

$500 million for emergency wildfires suppression; the Forest Service currently has $831 million for this purpose;

$400 million for rural schools;

$283 million for the Milk Income Loss Contract program;

$120 million to compensate for the effects of Hurricane Katrina on the shrimp and menhaden fishing industries;

$100 million for citrus assistance;

$74 million for peanut storage costs;

$60.4 million for salmon fisheries in the Klamath River region in California and Oregon;

$50 million for asbestos mitigation at the U.S. Capitol Plant;

$48 million in salaries and expenses for the Farm Service Agency;

$35 million for NASA risk mitigation projects in Gulf Coast;

$25 million for spinach growers;

$25 million for livestock;

$20 million for Emergency Conservation Program for farmland damaged by freezing temperatures;

$16 million for security upgrades to House of Representatives office buildings;

$10 million for the International Boundary and Water Commission for the Rio Grande Flood Control System Rehabilitation project;

$6.4 million for House of Representative’s Salaries and Expenses Account for business continuity and disaster recovery expenses;

$5 million for losses suffered by aquaculture businesses including breeding, rearing, or transporting live fish as a result of viral hemorrhagic septicemia;

$4 million for the Office of Women’s Health at the Food and Drug Administration; and
A minimum wage increase, which is the subject of separate legislation.  (more)   

Rep. Mike Pence quips:

"Here are some examples of what the Democrats consider 'urgent' needs that require  'prompt action: '

--         $25 million for payments to spinach producers
--         $120 million to the shrimp industry
--         $74 million for peanut storage
--         $5 million for shellfish, oyster and clam producers

"Spinach, shrimp, peanuts and shellfish?   That's not a war funding bill, that's the salad bar at Denny's."

The Power of Asking Pointed Questions

Here's an interesting article suggesting that Phyllis Schafley's dissemination of pointed questions for Presidential candidates has had the effect of causing John McCain to rethink his position on immigration.   I call attention to this article because of it's focus on the power of questions.  Here, in fact, is where the MSM (main stream media) has failed so miserably to serve the country well. 

"The town meetings that presidential candidates visit this year give grassroots Americans the opportunity to ask follow-up questions so the candidates can't evade and obfuscate their views on vital issues," Schlafly said. "We want to know what presidential candidates plan to do about the problems we care about."

Schlafly has published a detailed list of questions she is encouraging Eagle Forum leaders to ask presidential candidates as they tour primary states seeking votes. 

Schlafly's list includes 22 hard-hitting immigration questions designed to deny presidential candidates the luxury of hiding under answers crafted by political wordsmiths.

Among the questions are the following:

• Do you consider it a presidential duty to prevent illegal entry into our country?
• Will you use whatever means necessary to close our borders to illegal aliens and illegal drugs, including electronic fences and National Guard troops?
• Since most illegal drugs come across our southern border, will you require

Cousin Marriage in the Arab World: It's Significance for Assimilation into European Culture

Stanley Kurtz opens up a window of insight in his two articles, Part I and Part II.   What does the tendency to marry first cousins mean for Muslim assimilation in the West?   Studies have indicated that it means a lot.  Kurtz writes:

A preference for marriage with cousins characterizes large sections of the Muslim world. In two previous pieces, “Marriage and the Terror War” and “Marriage and the Terror War, Part II,” I’ve argued that the Muslim preference for cousin marriage (along with several associated social practices) helps explain why it has become difficult to reconcile Islamic social life with modernity, why Muslim immigrants in Europe have been slow to assimilate, and ultimately, why we are engaged in a war with Islamic terrorists.

Cousin marriage, I have argued, helps to create and organize a deep-lying bias in the Muslim world toward in-group solidarity—a social strategy that has the effect of walling off Muslim society from outside influences, heightening internal cohesion, and insuring cultural continuity. By no means do all Muslims marry their cousins. Yet, throughout much of the Muslim world, the cultural ideal and practice of cousin marriage helps to set and reinforce in-group solidarity as a leading social theme.

Kurtz draws on the work of British social anthropologist Roger Ballard who directs the Centre for Applied South Asian Studies at England’s University of Manchester.  In particular, he leans heavily on Ballard's 1990

Victor Davis Hanson (a Classicist) Evaluates the Historical Accuracy of the Movie "300"

Click here.

Update 3/28/07 - Hanson weighs in again.

Why the liberal furor over 300? Aside from criticism leveled against the plot, cinematography, dialogue, etc. there seems to be an almost elemental anger that such a 'simplistic' take on good and evil—West good, East bad—reduced to comic book simplicity has hoodwinked the Neanderthal class in the way they were led by the nose to Iraq by the Bush/Cheney nexus.

But what they fail to grasp is why 300 took off, and, say for example, Oliver Stone's Alexander bombed, a take that had all the hot-button Hollywood issue from easy homosexuality to the inner crisis over 'what it all means.' But critics forget that there were 4 key differences between those two films:  (more)

 

Harvard Club Promotes Abstinence -- But What A Sexual Mess Harvard Is

Story here.   (HT: Drudge)

Main Stream Media's Failure to Research Islam

Why do Main Stream Media writers fail to do background research when interviewing Islamic leaders?  Good question.   Alyssa A. Lappen has written a very important article filled with links to help educate writers on things Islamic.

When she worked as a financial writer, Lappen researched companies for weeks before interviewing a CEO.  But writers interviewing Muslim leaders do not do such research.  Please do read her article.  A few paragraphs follow:

In financial reporting, it goes without saying that one cannot write a major investigative piece on a corporation, industry or economic issue without first reading a great deal. For public companies, this requires extensive review of all Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings--recent annual reports (10-Ks, or F-20s for foreign firms), quarterlies (10-Qs), and changes to business strategy (8-K) or ownership (13-D). A good sleuth also consults the filings of major competitors and customers, in addition to interviewing as many of them as possible.

 
Only after laying this groundwork will the thorough reporter contact executives at the subject corporation. . .   But when it comes to interviewing Muslim community or religious leaders, mainstream reporters are little inclined to submit them to tough or probing questions. Frequently, the U.S. media present leaders of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Muslim American Society (MAS), Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), or Muslim Brotherhood (MB) as “civil rights” activists, “soft-spoken,” regular guys to be taken at face value, “moderate,” “really respected,” and so on.

. . . On political religious matters, though, reporters don't even check readily available records to verify the claimed moderation of these men and groups. Otherwise, they undoubtedly would quickly find that these organizations are actually all

Thomas Sowell's Musings

No blind observer to the passing scene, Thomas Sowell offers his take on cultural craziness.  A sampling:

- Will those who are dismantling this society from within or those who seek to destroy us from without be the first to achieve their goal? It is too close to call.

- "Women's Liberation" and the "sexual revolution" have not liberated women. They have liberated the sort of man who is a "love and leave 'em" kind of guy, who lets the woman deal with the consequences, including pregnancy. 

- Amid all the media hysteria over the price of gasoline and the profits of "Big Oil," one simple fact has been repeatedly overlooked: The oil companies' earnings are just under 10 percent of the price of a gallon of gas, while taxes take 17 percent. Yet who ever accuses the government of "greed"? 

- After President Bush fired a handful of U.S. attorneys, it has become a big scandal in the media. But when President Clinton fired all the U.S. attorneys in the country — including those who were investigating him for corruption in Arkansas — it was no big deal. Yet many in the media still claim that there is no bias.

Read the whole article for much, much more.

Michael Barone Dissects the "Blame America First Crowd"

Michael Barone, arguably one of the sharpest commentators writing today, does a good job dissecting the "Blame-America-First Crowd." 

They always blame America first." That was Jeane Kirkpatrick, describing the "San Francisco Democrats" in 1984. But it could be said about a lot of Americans, especially highly educated Americans, today.

In their assessment of what is going on in the world, they seem to start off with a default assumption that we are in the wrong. The "we" can take different forms: the United States government, the vast mass of middle-class Americans, white people, affluent people, churchgoing people or the advanced English-speaking countries. Such people are seen as privileged and selfish, greedy and

British TV 4 "Great Global Warming Swindle" TV Program (Video) Available on the Internet

** Update:   (HT:  Drudge)

- Researches Question Validity of a "Global Temperature"
- Al Gore Challenged to Intenational TV Debate on Global Warming
- Scientists Blame Hollywood for Increased Fears Over Global Warming

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I have posted many items before on global warming and environmentalism, including the "Great Global Warming Swindle"  produced by British Channel 4 Television.  Now, however, I want to provide a link to the actual TV Program that you can view on the internet.   A friend passed along the following commentary by Thomas Sowell on the British Channel 4 production.  Sowell concludes, “Global warming” is just the latest in a long line of hysterical crusades to which we seem to be increasingly susceptible."   More excerpts:

The documentary goes into some of the many factors that have caused the earth to warm and cool for centuries, including changes in activities on the sun, 93 million miles away and wholly beyond the jurisdiction of the Kyoto treaty.

According to these climate scientists, human activities have very little effect on the climate, compared to many other factors, from volcanoes to clouds.

These climate scientists likewise debunk the mathematical models that have been used to hype global-warming hysteria, even though

The 63rd Carnival of Homeschooling

Henry Cate, a homeschooling dad who blogs at Why Homeschool? has informed me of the current Carnival of Homeschooling site that looks very useful indeed.  Homeschooling is a world about which I don't know a whole lot, but I m privileged to know a good number of young people who have been homeschooled, all of whom impress me greatly.

Gathering of the Eagles Supports the Troops

** Update 3/19/07 - Michelle Malkin provides a full video report on The Gathering of Eagles.  She says:

Many highlights there, but take special note of the face-off at the 6:00 minute mark. As you can see, we spent most of the day covering the march on the Eagles' side of the fence. Why? Because almost all of the news camera crews we spotted--the ones that bothered to show up, that is--gathered around Cindy Sheehan and the anti-war freak show--and then left. We didn't see any of them covering the long lines of Eagles waiting to get through security to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Didn't see them covering the speeches and performances by the vets and pro-military activists. Reporters mingled comfortably on the moonbat side, except to shoot drive-by photos casting pro-troops counterprotesters in a negative light. Bloggers continue to rip old media whitewashing of the historic event.  (Click through for links and more commentary).

** 
Here's a Washington Rally you probably didn't hear about, or if you did, you received a slanted version.   (The MSM coverage is unconscionable!) Michelle Malkin reports:

It was a breath-taking, historic, and emotional day in Washington, D.C. You won't know it if you tune in to the usual MSM channels. But new media--bloggers, conservative documentarians, Internet activists, FReepers (giant thread here), citizen journalists, photojournalists, and talk radio hosts--turned out in full force to participate and cover the Gathering of Eagles counter-protest. Thousands upon thousands turned out despite freezing temperatures and hairy travel conditions. We met bikers who drove up all night from Huntsville, Alabama; a retired NYC firefighter who arrived here at 2am; college students who traveled from Massachusetts; a Vietnam veteran's wife who bought plane tickets at the last minute from San Francisco; and countless participants who arrived as part of Move America Forward's cross-country caravan.

A pure, grass-roots effort, the Gathering of Eagles' volunteers matched the massive Soros-funded anti-war machine sign for sign, chant for chant, and marcher for marcher. The contrast was most stark right before the entrance to the Memorial Bridge, where Eagles gathered with a field of American flags--while anti-Bush, 9/11 conspiracy nuts wrapped themselves in a figurative blanket of yellow "Out of Iraq" placards. Several of the vets shouted, "Yellow! How appropriate!" in between spirited chants of "U.S.A! U.S.A!" While the classless Cindy Sheehan ranted profanely, the Eagles raised their voices in polite, but roaring disapproval and raised their American flags in answer to the ANSWER socialists' Che banners and peace pennants.

Why did the Eagles come? One common refrain: Vietnam veterans, some fighting back tears, told us they came to show the kind of support for the troops that they did not receive when the surrender lobby marched on the Pentagon 40 years ago today.

Mission accomplished. 

Click through for updates and links not shown above.

Quotes of the Day

The other day I entered a store that had a number of "sayings" posted on the wall.  Many of them I thought quite memorable.  Here is a sampling:

The road to success is always under construction.

Tact is the ability to see others as they wish to be seen.

A smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.

Ideas won't work unless you do. 

Children need models more than critics.

If the going gets easy you may be going downhill. 

Failure is the path of least persistence

Some folks won't look up until they are flat on their backs.

A smooth sea never made a skillful sailor.

The smallest good deed is better than the grandest intention.

Distinguishing Between a Wedding and a Marriage

Eugene Peterson remains one of our most thoughtful and nourishing Christian writers.  Back in 1983 he published Run With the Horses: The Quest for Life at Its Best, a book of meditations on the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah.  I thought the following worth blogging:

When I talk with people who come to me in preparation for marriage I often say, "Weddings are easy; marriages are difficult."  The couple want to plan a wedding; I want to plan a marriage. They want to know where the bridesmaids will stand; I want to develop a plan for forgiveness.  They want to discuss the music of the wedding; I want to talk about the emotions of the marriage.  I can do a wedding in twenty minutes with my eyes shut; a marriage takes year after year after year of alert, wide-eyed attention.

Weddings are important.  they are beautiful; they are impressive; they are emotional; sometimes they are expensive.  We weep at wedding and we laugh at weddings.  We take care to be at the right place at the right time and say the right words. Where people stand is important.  The way people dress is significant.  Every detail--this flower, that candle--is memorable.  All the same, weddings are easy.

But marriages are complex and difficult.  In marriage we work out in every detail of life the promises and commitments spoken at the wedding.  In marriage we develop the long and rich life of faithful love that the wedding announces.  The event of the wedding without the life of marriage doesn't amount to much.  It hardly matters if the man and woman dress up in their wedding clothes and re-enact the ceremony every anniversary and say "I'm married, I'm married, I'm married" if there is no daily love shared, if there is no continuing tenderness, no attentive listening, no inventive giving, no creative blessing.

Still More on Dinesh D'Souza's "The Enemy At Home" from Victor Davis Hanson and Others

Victor Davis Hanson rips Dinesh D'Souza saying:

Dinesh D’Souza now weighs in against his numerous conservative critics in a series entitled “The Closing of the Conservative Mind.” The result is again suicidal, for his latest apology only confirms the nonsensical arguments found in "The Enemy at Home."

VDH offers a lengthy, powerful refutation of D'Souza's accusations and arguments.   

In addition to VDH's response, a panel assembled at the National Review Online magazine, also offers a response.  Symposium members include Dean Barnett, Peter Berkowitz, Scott Johnson, Roger Kimball, Stanley Kurtz, and Robert Spencer.

I have previously blogged on D'Souza's book here and here.

** Update 3/17/07:  Dean Barrett makes a useful point when he celebrates the genuine dialog and room for debate that exists within the conservative movement and contrasts that with liberals.

Let’s say a rogue a liberal wrote a book that wrongly blamed America’s conservatives for some great calamity. It’s not too hard to imagine. Just picture the chat boards on the Huffington Post or the Daily Kos after the next massive terrorist attack and you’ll get a feel for what I’m talking about.

Is it at all conceivable that America’s respectable liberals, ranging from bloggers to professors to columnists, would universally step forward to condemn that author? Discuss amongst yourselves in the comments section.

Say what you will about conservatism at the current moment, but this entire episode tells us something about the health of our community. Something good.

Mona Charen Reviews Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Autobiography, "Infidel"

Click here for Mona Charen's review.   Charen concludes:  "Ayaan Hirsi Ali has come to appreciate and to personify the greatest virtues of our civilization."  One can read more about Ali's autobiography at Amazon.com here.

Human Rights Abuse in Vietnam

Richard S. Williamson, former US Ambassador in the United Nations during the Reagan Adminisration who later served as a member of the US Human Rights Commission in Geneva, provides an update on human rights in Vietnam.  It's not a pretty picture.

Saddam or the al Qaeda Terrorists: What Would Gandhi Do?

Fred Thompson answers the question:

At what point is it okay to fight dictators like Saddam or the al Qaeda terrorists who want to take his place?

It turns out that the answer, according to Gandhi, is NEVER. During World War II, Gandhi penned an open letter to the British people, urging them to surrender to the Nazis. Later, when the extent of the holocaust was known, he criticized Jews who had tried to escape or fight for their lives as they did in Warsaw and Treblinka. “The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher’s knife,” he said. “They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs.” “Collective suicide,” he told his biographer, “would have been heroism.”

The so-called peace movement certainly has the right to make Gandhi’s way their way, but their efforts to make collective suicide American foreign policy just won’t cut it in this country. When American’s think of heroism, we think of the young American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, risking their lives to prevent another Adolph Hitler or Saddam Hussein.

Gandhi probably wouldn't approve, but I can live with that.

Me:  So can I. 

Is the National Association of Evangelicals Turning Left?

Mark Tooley asks:

Is the NAE becoming a carbon copy of the left-wing and largely irrelevant National Council of Churches (NCC)?  As the evangelical Left continues to exploit the leadership void at the once staunchly conservative NAE, the similarities between the NCC’s notorious decline from mainline to sideline is sadly similar.

Ironically, even as evangelicals are now America’s largest demographic group, their supposed representatives at the NAE think they must turn Left to become more popular.

"The United States historically has been a leader in supporting international human rights efforts, but our moral vision has blurred since 9/11,” the NAE complained, in a statement called “An Evangelical Declaration Against Torture: Protecting Human Rights in an Age of Terror.”

At issue here is not the "rightness of torture" but a disposition to fault the U.S. in ways essentially unfair to the facts or general principles already in place.

. . . the drafters of the torture statement were hardly “conservative” or supportive of the War against Terror.  The 17 member committee, called “Evangelicals for Human Rights,” is comprised nearly exclusively of pseudo-pacifist

Green Eyeshade Blog: Valuable Watchdog on the Way Gov't Taxes and Spends

I just added Green Eyeshade Blog to my list of "notable blogs." This blog is a product of John Campbell, Congressman from the 48th District in California and a Certified Public Accountant.  Campbell says his blog is "for anyone who thinks that federal taxes and spending are too high, the federal government is too big and the deficit needs to go away."  Campbell is the chairman of the budget and spending task force for the Republican Study Committee. The Republican Study Committee is a caucus of about 100 of the most fiscal responsible members of the House of Representatives.  "We are tired," he says, "of watching both parties spend away our money and our future."

Check out his list of egregious add-ons and special handouts to the upcoming FY07 War Supplemental.  Check out also this beginning discussion of a "Taxpayer's Bill of Rights":

• Taxpayers have a right to have a federal government that does not grow beyond their ability to pay for it.
• Taxpayers have a right to receive back each dollar they entrust to the government for their retirement.
• Taxpayers have a right to expect the government to balance the budget without having their taxes raised.
• Taxpayers have a right to a simple, fair tax code that they can understand.

In thirty-four of the last thirty-eight years, the federal government has spent more money than it has taken in. This has happened with every combination of Republicans or Democrats controlling Congress and the White House. This kind of irresponsible behavior can no longer be sustained by raising taxes or simply passing our debts on to future generations.

This is definitely a blog to bookmark.   (HT: Hugh Hewitt)

Mark Tooley Explains the Religious Left's Vision

Speaking of Jim Wallis' book God's Politics, Mark Tooley summarizes  the position of the Religious Left, a position with which I disagree:

In this vision of the New Heaven and the New Earth, the Savior is a liberal Democrat who supports environmentalist causes, is a strict pacifist, wants higher taxes and more federal regulation, denounces all doubts about the welfare state as the product of greed, and has supreme confidence in the United Nations and other international forae to mediate every conflict.  (more)

What North Korea Is Like

See Michelle Malkin's post.  (Actually, it's John Noon substituting for Michelle Malkin).

N.T. Wright Evaluates C.S Lewis

For a masterful theological evaluation of C.S. Lewis's works by a top-rated New Testament theologian, see N.T. Wright's Touchstone Magazine article available here.  If only I had more leisure, I would love to make specific comments on this article but time forbids.  (I know of no theological analysis of Lewis's work equal  to Wright's).  I apologize for the light blogging these days.  I hope that time constraints will allow more extensive blogging soon.  Best to all...

The Limited Power of the Blogosphere to Affect Politics

Dean Barrett has some sobering observations to make.   Maybe he is a little too pessimistic.  Maybe, also, his comments are more relative to the USA than to the rest of the world.  I don't know. 

Quick Takes on "Global Warming"

Update 3/13/07 -  The New York Times today published a major article on the "Global Warming" debate.  It offers a balanced assessment, and in so doing it printed a representative number of strong critiques.  It's worth a read. 

**

Some articles from Drudge worth checking:

Environmentalism is a Religion says Czek President.

From Babylon of Gilgamesh to post-Eden of Noah, every age has viewed climate change cataclysmically, as retribution for human greed and sinfulness..

Scientists threatened with death for 'climate denial'...

'New world order' to fight global warming...

Jamie Glazov of Frontpagemag conducts an interesting (and alarming in its own way) interview with Christopher Horner, the author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism).

What is the true agenda behind the global warming hysteria?  Who profits?   This interview tells us.  It's important.  A must read.   

My previous posts on global warming can be found here.   

Free Speech for Bloggers Denied in Egypt

Michelle Malkin has the sad update on the imprisoned blogger in Egypt.  An appeals court has upheld a four year prison sentence.

Malkin has the full report: 

Bad news:

An Egyptian appeals court endorsed a verdict sentencing a blogger to 4 years in prison on charges of insulting Islam and the president.

Judicial sources said Monday an appeals court in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria approved the verdict issued last month against 22-year-old Abdul Karim Nabil Amer. He was convicted on charges of "ridiculing Islam and insulting" President Hosni Mubarak.

Arrested last November, Amer is the first blogger to be sentenced to prison in Egypt.

The Free Kareem website has just issued this press release:

The Free Kareem Coalition is saddened by the Egyptian appeals court’s decision to uphold the four-year sentence handed

Robert Kagan Says The "Surge" Looks Promising

Kagan reports here.   (HT: Hugh Hewitt)

. . .    Iraqi bloggers Mohammed and Omar Fadhil, widely respected for their straight talk, say that "early signs are encouraging." The first impact of the "surge," they write, was psychological. Both friends and foes in Iraq had been convinced, in no small part by the American media, that the United States was preparing to pull out. When the opposite occurred, this alone shifted the dynamic.

As the Fadhils report, "Commanders and lieutenants of various militant groups abandoned their positions in Baghdad and in some cases fled the country."  . . . (more)

Homeschooling in Germany: Gov't Takes Child from Parents

What's to fear from homeschoolers?  The German government thinks a child that is homeschooled and exhibits obedience to parents needs to be under psychiatric evaluation.  Read the outrageous story plus video report here.    An excerpt:

CBNNews.com - ERLANGEN, Germany - In the Bavarian town of Erlangen, a girl is missing.  She was taken from her parents in a SWAT-style police raid last month that some are calling an abduction.

She was taken because German officials consider her family to be dangerous. Their name is Busekros.

This story began when 15-year-old Melissa Busekros began to have a bad experience in public school and fell behind in some classes. So her parents, Hubert and Gudrun, decided to homeschool her.

But in Germany, homeschooling is treated like a crime. Some German homeschoolers have been accused

Capitalism - The "Way Up" for the Poor

Michael Novak applauds President Bush's speech yesterday saying:

In an extremely important speech the other day, President Bush threw down the gauntlet to M. Chavez. You want to talk about "social justice"? We'll show you the way to social justice. You want to talk about the poor? We'll show you the only really successful way to liberate the poor from poverty ever discovered during the long history of the human race.

The President called it "capitalism for the campesino" — capitalism that begins at the bottom up. What Guy Sorman, the French writer, called "barefoot capitalism" just a few years back. How? By such methods as Hernando de Soto talks about, first, in changing laws to make possible — and far more frequent — the formation of new small businesses by the poor (almost all of whom are entrepreneurs, as de Soto found); and, second, in recognizing, protecting, and monetizing property rights in homes, so that the capital represented in them can be unleashed through mortgages.

Against the swampy tide of yet another socialism rising from the deep in South America, the President offered

Free Books Available for Downloading: Vern S. Poythress

How delightful to come across a website that allows one to download books for free.  Vern S. Poythress, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary, has made a number of his books available on line, specifically: The Gender-Neutral Bible Controversy; God Centered Biblical Interpretation; The Returning King: A Guide to the Book of Revelation; Redeeming Science: A God-Centered Approach; and Symphonic Theology.  The Amazon.com listing of Poythress's books can be found here.  

I do not write as a "fan" of Poythress necessarily (I haven't read that much of his work), but as one who recognizes the importance of serious theology and who appreciates having access to Poythress' perspective.