Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

John Stott to Retire

Few men have been more influential in the evangelical world than John Stott.   As one website summarizes: 

He has written over 40 books. His best known, Basic Christianity, has been translated into more than 50 languages. Other titles include The Cross of Christ, The Contemporary Christian, Evangelical Truth and New Issues Facing Christians Today, and eight New Testament expositions (Acts, Romans etc.) in the 'Bible Speaks Today' series published by IVP.

Of his retirement we read the following:

On Sunday 22nd April, Hugh Palmer told the All Souls Church Family of John Stott's future plans for retirement and move from central London.   This was at John's request in advance of a Press Release to co-incide with his birthday.

Here is an extract from the Press Announcement The Langham Partnership sent out on 27th April 2007 :

"John Stott would like his many friends around the world to know that, having reached the age of 86 in April, he has taken the decision finally to retire from public ministry after fulfilling one final speaking engagement at the upcoming Keswick Convention in July.

He will be moving from his flat in central London where he has lived for more than 30 years, to a retirement community for Anglican clergy in the south of England, which will be able to provide more fully for his present and future needs.  Dr Stott has made this decision with the strong belief that it is God's provision for him at this stage."

Wintley Phipps: Negro Spirituals Played On the Black Keys of the Piano

This is fascinating.  I never realized before that almost all Negro spirituals can be played exclusively on the black keys of the piano, i.e. using the Pentatonic scale.   See for example, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" and "Every Time I Feel the Spirit."   Nor did I know that the melody of Amazing Grace is a slave melody, probably a West African sorrow chant.  This all from a Wintley Phipps' 8 ninute YouTube clip sent courtesy of a friend.

CIA'S George Tenet: Self-Serving Man with a Bad Memory

Christopher Hitchens:   "George Tenet's Sniveling, Self-Justifying New Book is a Disgrace.    (HT: Michelle Malkin)

William Kristol reports on Tenet's serious memory problems here.

Michael Ledeen has little good to say about Tenet or the CIA.  Concerning a meeting that Tenet reports on in his book which Ledeen attended, Ledeen:

His account is repeatedly wrong. He is wrong about the Iranians, wrong about the Americans, wrong about what was discussed, and wrong about the official status of the meeting.

On a more positive side, and the failure of the MSM to report it, read on (from Cliff May) :

The controversy over Tenet’s book is instructive. As Brit Hume has pointed out, the most consequential point that the former CIA director made is that

Ocean Currents to Blame for Warming: Expert

Click here.     (HT: Drudge)

THE United States' leading hurricane forecaster says global ocean currents, not human-produced carbon dioxide, are responsible for global warming.

William Gray, a Colorado State University researcher, also said the Earth may begin to cool on its own in five to 10 years.  (more)

The New York Times on Barack Obama and His Religious Faith

Click here.

Five Years Later: Victor Davis Hanson Updates his "Mexifornia" Assessment

It's not a pretty picture.  See the article for the dismaying statistics and VDH's analysis.  The immigration problem has turned out even worse than his original pessimistic outlook.

An Economist Pokes Fun At His Profession

It's fun to be around an economist who can make jokes about his profession.  I heard the following from a top economist the other day:

"Economists are people who'll figure out tomorrow why the forecast they made yesterday wasn't realized today."

"An economic forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower: he doesn't win many contests for accuracy, but he keeps the crowd's attention."

Q: Why did God create economic forecasters?
A: To make weather forecasters look good.

Crazed View: Britain's National Union of Journalists Urges a Boycott of Israel

Clifford D. May writes:

The NUJ has declared a boycott against the usual suspect: Israel. Just say no! to Israeli oranges, lemons and melons, they demand.

The NUJ has not declared a boycott against Sudan — despite the fact that the Khartoum regime is committing genocide against black Muslims in Darfur. Nor have they called for a boycott against the Syrian and Russian regimes that regularly murder their critics; the Iranian mullahs who torture reporters; the Palestinian Authority which is complicit in the kidnapping of correspondents; or the many Middle Eastern regimes that trample human rights day in and day out. No, the NUJ targets what is indisputably the freest and most democratic country in the Middle East, the one nation in the world with neighbors so hostile they vow to wipe her off the map.

The simple explanation is anti-Israelism — the 21st century’s most fashionable form of anti-Semitism. The NUJ is not quite candid enough to say that. Instead, the union cites what it calls the “savage, pre-planned attack on Lebanon by Israel.”

You may be thinking: But didn’t last summer’s conflict begin when Hezbollah fired rockets from Lebanon at villages inside Israel? Didn’t Hezbollah commandos cross the border into Israel and kill three Israeli soldiers and kidnap two more (who are to this day still in captivity, deprived of the most basic rights to which POWs are entitled)? Weren’t those acts of war to which Israel had a right to respond? 

Also, you might wonder why the NUJ is so blithely unconcerned about Hezbollah’s use of Lebanese civilians and, in some cases, entire villages, as human shields. Though there was little press coverage during last summer’s war, after the conflict U.K. Foreign Office Minister Kim Howell investigated and reported to a parliamentary committee that Hezbollah had extensively hidden caches of arms in schools and mosques, and rockets in homes and apartment blocks.    (more)

CAIR - Fearful of exposure, protected by MSM

I have long followed the sinister, subversive activities of CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations).  This article tells why CAIR dropped a lawsuit against Andrew Whitehead and his Anti-CAIR website.  Whitehead's lawyers were asking too many information requests about CAIR and a trial would have blown CAIR's cover. 

Rubinstein learned a great deal about CAIR while preparing for the trial. According to Rubinstein CAIR “is not a domestic grassroots organization in the usual sense of the term.” It is, instead, a “top down” group. CAIR, Rubinstein said “was formed by Hamas supporters, apparently as part of an integrated anti-Israel and anti-Jewish strategy.” In addition, Rubinstein observed that, “CAIR is dedicated to spreading Islam in the U.S. and that it is an evangelical organization whose activities are funded by foreign Arabs.” . . .

Why did CAIR drop its lawsuit against Andrew Whitehead? Apparently it feared exposure that would reveal its leaders connections to terrorist groups like Hamas. If that is the case, namely, CAIR’s fear of exposure, why has the media been silent on this matter? Rubinstein explained, “CAIR is protected by the mainstream media,” which he said, “has studiously ignored a decade of evidence, and has, instead, adopted a ‘see no evil, speak no evil’ stance.”

Although CAIR is legal under the constitution, it is important to remember that the Communist party and the neo-Nazi parties in America were legal too. The activities of these organizations, including CAIR, however, is not necessarily sanctioned by the constitution, especially since CAIR represents a “profoundly anti-Semitic and anti-Christian ideology, and relies for its existence and activities on foreign Arab money.” As Rubinstein has put it, “In another time (before the onset of a PC culture), activities such as those CAIR is involved in, would have been labeled as subversive.”

Useful Review of Liberal Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong's New Book

Jason Lee Steorts reviews Spong's Jesus for the Non-Religious, and says

[Spong]has tried to lob his book like a hand grenade into the institutions of Christendom. The idea is to explode two millennia of traditional belief on which these institutions rest, thereby making room for a new Christianity based on a conception of Jesus that is palatable to “a twenty-first century person.” What actually crawls out of the rubble is a Jesus for John Shelby Spong.

Steorts concludes:

It is hard to see how the new story can survive when the God at its center is nothing but an overwrought sentimentality plummeting down an abyss. If that is all we have left, Spong can keep his Christianity.   (more)

Steort  should have put "Christianity" in quotation marks since Spong's religion is a subjective quicksand of his own making.

Speaking of liberal Christianity, the Boston Globe reports that the top official of the Episcopal Church USA stands foursquare behind the Episcopal Church's endorsement of homosexual activity.   According to the Globe, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori regards

Writing Against Islam in Norway Brings Beating

Robert Spencer reports:

On Thursday, April 12, a gang of Somali thugs on a downtown Oslo street attacked Kadra, a Somali woman who now lives in Norway, and beat her senseless, breaking several of her ribs. They were enraged at her for her recent statement that the Qur’an’s views of women needed reevaluation. They also might have been angry because of her role in revealing the widespread support among imams in Norway for female genital mutilation; Kadra exposed their support for this horrific procedure using a hidden camera in a 2000 documentary for Norwegian television.

As they beat her, Kadra’s attackers shouted Allahu akbar – Allah is great – and recited verses from the Qur’an. “I was terrified,” she said. “While I lay on the pavement they kicked me and screamed that I had trampled on the Koran.”  (more)

Once again the "tolerance" and "restraint" shown by followers of the "religion of peace" is on display for all the world to see.  Sure.

Whose War Is it Anyway?

From Cliff May -

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said:

But like it or not, George W. Bush is still the commander in chief — and this is his war."

Actually, like it or not, it's America's war.

Reid is like a sailor who thinks if his ship sinks, only the captain will drown.

Or maybe it's worse than that. Maybe he thinks that if America's defeat can bring partisan benefit, the trade-off is a good one. If so, that's shameful. See this related piece by Reuel Marc Gerecht.

(Hat tip: Andrew Apostolou.)

Quick Takes

Alex Alexiev - PBS in Islamist Wonderland  "A new documentary offers a startlingly whitewashed portrait of the Islamic community"

Steven Plaut - Israel at 59:  Facing Unpleasant Facts in the Middle East

David Forsmark's major review  of Michael B. Oren's Power and Fantasy: America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present.  The book recognizes the role of evangelical Christians in America's attitude to Israel. 
 
Larry O'Donnell 's ignorance of guns  (he doesn't know the difference between automatic vs. semi-automatic, yet pontificates...)  See also the earlier post on Carolyn McCarthy who didn't know the meaning of her own gun-control legislation.

Robert P. George  - "David Blankenhorn’s new book, The Future of Marriage, explodes the widely promoted myth that redefining marriage to include same-sex partnerships would be a harmless innovation."

Chuck Colson on the attempt to normalize homosexuality through the schools.  Homosexual activists sidestep science and health to shift attitudes of youths.

Andrew G. Bostom - An Apology for Koran's Anti-Semitism?

 

Peggy Noonan on Virginia Tech and Evil

Peggy Noonan discusses our therapeutic culture, the media, and general reactions to the slaughter at Virginia Tech and concludes: 

The most common-sensical thing I heard said came Thursday morning, in a hospital interview with a student who'd been shot and was recovering. Garrett Evans said of the man who'd shot him, "An evil spirit was going through that boy, I could feel it." It was one of the few things I heard the past few days that sounded completely true. Whatever else Cho was, he was also a walking infestation of evil. Too bad nobody stopped him. . .

She is right. When all the sociological, psychological, and deprivation-laden explanations and analyses are finished, we are left unalterably confronted with bottom-line evil.  Jonah Goldberg concludes similarly:

The only meaning I can find supported by the horrific, heartrending evidence is that once again the mystery of evil has been corroborated, the permanence of tragedy confirmed.

No worldview that minimizes evil can withstand empirical scrutiny.

The Lowdown on Animal Rights Activist Gary Yourofsky

Jacob Laksin has written an article telling you all you need to know about this Yourofsky whose website is at  adaptt.org   Laksin writes:

No common campaigner for the virtues of tofu of wheat germ, Yourofsky, it turned out, was an animal-rights ultra who openly endorsed violence against humans and forthrightly supported eco-terrorist organizations. 

Read more.

Do Legislators Understand The Bills They Propose?

That's a good questions, isn't it?  Do they even have the integrity to find out?  Example: Dean Barrett refers to a TV interview Tucker Carlson conducted with Democratic Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy who doesn't understand her own gun-control legislation.   Barrett writes:

McCarthy proposed a piece of gun-control legislation that would ban barrel shrouds. Tucker asked her three times why she was so worried about barrel shrouds. She dodged the question, obviously not knowing the difference between a barrel shroud and a howitzer. (Neither do I, but in my defense I’m not proposing a bill eliminating barrel shrouds, and generally speaking Jews don’t know from guns.) Tucker eventually asked her point blank if she knew what these barrel shrouds are that she so desperately wants to make illegal (for the children!), and she had to confess that she didn’t.

A couple of takeaway points here: Such is the intellectual incuriosity of many Congress-critters, Tucker had 100% confidence that McCarthy wouldn’t understand her own piece of legislation before she went on the air. He was probably licking his chops looking forward to ambushing McCarthy all afternoon. The other thing is that McCarthy is all too typical. Many of our leaders imperiously hold forth on subjects on which they are essentially clueless. Worse still, they also draft laws and craft policy on subjects on which they are essentially clueless.

Christian Publishing House Attacked in Turkey... 3 Dead!

-- 5/28/07 UPDATE:  For an update, click here,

**

Michelle Malkin has perhaps the more correct headline:  Jihadist Attack at Christian Publishing House.  This makes me sick to my stomach and nauseous.  The Christian workers had their throats slit.  When is this violence against Christians going to stop?  I don't think it ever will unless there is some sort of dramatic theological revolution within Islam.  Religion of peace?  That is a sick, cynical, verbal joke foisted on the ignorant.   The so-called "moderate" Muslims, but for a few exceptions, are cowering and silent.  They know what kind of "peace" they will experience if they speak out against the violence.  It will be the peace of the grave.   I am in the process of reading Brigitte Gabriel's book Because They Hate.  It is gripping, sad reading of Muslim terror and killing against Christians in Lebanon. 

Caring For People Who Are Grieving: Wise Suggestions from Mark D. Roberts

In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech killings, and in dealing with grief in general, one could hardly do better than read what Pastor Mark D. Roberts has written here plus noting his suggested resources here.  Also look at his earlier post in which he cites particularly valuable contributions made to Newsweek's On Faith website.

WARNING: IF YOU ARE A CONSUMER STAY AWAY FROM "IDT AMERICA"

I have never complained publicly about a company in my life.  But my experience with IDT America (long distance service) has been Kafkaesque.  I don't know how the company stays in business with the way it treats its customers.   Advice: stay away if you value your time and money.

Al Sharpton's Career of Malicious Racial Demagoguery

Michelle Malkin once again has the goods.  It's amazing to me how Al Sharpton gets away with running away from his past.

Update:  Other posts on Sharpton the liar and racial hustler.
           John Perazzo - The Nine Lives of Al Sharpton
           Jeff Jacoby - Al Sharpton: The Democrat's David Duke 
           Tawana Brawley Grand Jury Report - Pagones v. Maddux,  Mason and  Sharpton

Should Handguns (i.e. Those With Valid Concealed Handgun Permits) Be Allowed on College Campuses?

Update:  Glenn Reynolds has a terrific article in the NY Daily News:  "People Don't Stop Killers.  People With Guns Do.""

**
Michelle Malkin thinks so.    So do I.

As news was breaking about the carnage at Virginia Tech, a reader e-mailed me a news story from last January. State legislators in Virginia had attempted to pass a bill that would have eased handgun restrictions on college campuses. Opposed by outspoken, anti-gun activists and Virginia Tech administrators, that bill failed.

Is it too early to ask: "What if?" What if that bill had passed? What if just one student in one of those classrooms had been in lawful possession of a concealed weapon for the purpose of self-defense?

If it wasn't too early for Keystone Katie Couric to be jumping all over campus security yesterday for what they woulda/coulda/shoulda done in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, and if it isn't too early for the New York Times editorial board to be publishing its knee-jerk call for more gun control, it darned well isn't too early for me to raise questions about how the unrepentant anti-gun lobbying of college officials may have put students at risk.

The back story: Virginia Tech had punished a student for bringing a handgun to class last spring—despite the fact that the student had a valid concealed handgun permit. . . (more)

Does Anybody Remember Judith Durham and the Seekers?

I am astonished at the offerings one finds at YouTube.  Some make me very grateful, indeed.  A couple of days ago I stumbled on performances by the Seekers, a singing group from the 60s.  One of my favorite songs is Morningtown Ride.  I could listen to this song (it's actually for children) over and over again.  Judith Durham has a uniquely strong, haunting voice that adds depth and lustre to any song she sings.  And what about the guys?  Get a load of the suits and ties.  A different era, and all the more intriguing and welcome for being so. (Here is Morningtown Ride performed 25 years later.)

The Seekers sing some of the great love songs of all time.  Take for example, A World of Our Own or The Carnival is Over or I'll Never find Another You.  Note also a 1993 (25 year reunion) rendition of I'll Never Find Another You.  They've got the same zip and sound as before. Update: I just found Judith singing A World of Our Own in 2013 - over 45 years later!!!  She's fantastic.

Then there's Turn! Turn! Turn (To Everything There Is a Season), When the Stars Begin to Fall, and Just a Closer Walk With Thee The Lord's Prayer  And don't forget You're My Spirit and Plaisir D'amour.  I am moved by the splendid patriotic song, I Am Australian.

I really love this group.  Here is a bit of background for those interested in learning more about the Seekers.  More about Judith is available at her website - www.judithdurham.com  (Edited 2/14/10  - I've added a few items and fixed many links that had gone dead.)

Major Rise in Anti-Semitic Attacks in Britain

Article is here.  Excerpts:

Global anti-Semitism is spiraling upward, driven by xenophobia and cultural clashes in Europe and by increasingly virulent anti-Zionism in the Arab world, according to a comprehensive study of anti-Semitic incidents released by a Tel Aviv University research institute on Sunday. . .

. . .In all, 590 incidents of violence or vandalism were recorded in 2006, a 15 percent increase from 2004 and a seven-fold increase from 1989.

The 2006 figures also represents a 31% increase from 2005, when anti-Semitic incidents declined after several years of increases.

"In two countries - France and Norway - chief rabbis are calling on Jews not to step outside with Jewish symbols on their person," said Prof. Dina Porat, who edited the report along with Stauber.  [much more]

Imus vs. the Billboard Hot Rap Tracks Chart

Michelle Malkin goes to the trouble of putting up the lyrics (language warning) of hot rap tracks for all to see and says,

One dumb radio/television shock jock's insult is a drop in the ocean of barbaric filth and anti-female hatred on the radio.

Imus gets a two-week suspension. What kind of relief do we get from this deadening, coarsening, dehumanizing barrage from young, black rappers and their music industry enablers who have helped turn America into Tourette's Nation?   

Click here if you must.

Could India Become the Country of the Future?

Click here for an informative interview with Manjeet Kripalani who for 10 years was India bureau chief for Business Week magzine and is now the Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations in New Yori City. 

Amont other things, I learned that

There's a cellular phone company called Bharti, which, like most of India's cellular operators, sells its phone calls for between 1 cent and 2 cents a minute.  Those are the lowest rates of anywhere in the world.  It was possible because of innovations made by these companies for their local markets.  And these were innovations that multinational companies were not interested in making because they are not interested in low-cost models for low-cost markets. . . . Companies like Bharti have created this astonishingly low-cost cellular phone call, and what it has done is it has given a big boost to the Indian cellular phone market.  It's now the fastest growing in the world and it's changed the life of ordinary Indians.  .  .  .

Does Anyone Write (and Perceive the World) with Greater Clarity and Insight than John Bolton?

Here, he explains how,

Against all odds, Iran emerged with a win-win from the crisis: winning by its provocation in seizing the hostages in the first place and winning again by its unilateral decision to release them.

Bolton's vision and eloquence should promote him to the front rank of commentators and pundits.  It's a shame he no longer represents the United States in the United Nations  (thanks to Democratic party folly).

In the Hard to Believe Department: Sex Education in the UK

William Keenan writes:

British authorities promote sex education programmes that would make a sailor blush - and achieve record rates of disease and pregnancy.

We have just learned from a United Nations’ report that Britain is the worst place in the developed world in which to be a child.

. . . Not very long ago the Daily Telegraph ran a whole-page story headlined, Outrage over explicit sex lessons. Education correspondent John Clare described parents’ anger at 12-year-old children being given explicit sex lessons. In these lessons they were taught sodomy, oral sex with reference to “blow jobs” and mutual masturbation.

After carefully investigating the matter John Clare said he had come to three stark conclusions: “First the use of these crude and explicit materials is apparently widespread. Second, the school has not told parents precisely what their 12 year olds are being taught. And third, parents everywhere have virtually no hope of discovering the content of their children’s sex education lessons.”   (more)

Our Experience of Time Changes As We Grow Older

As I grow older, I find myself continually fascinated by my changing experience of "time."  At my age it whirls past faster than ever.  I've compared notes with others and they say the same.

Roger Kimball captures this experience via a little poem he discovered in one of John Julius Norwich's Christmas Crackers.  The poem was inscribed on the pendulum of a clock in a church in Kent.

When as a child I laughed and wept
Time crept.
When as a youth I dreamed and talked
Time walked.
When I became a full-grown man
Time ran.
And later as I older grew
Time flew.
Soon shall I find when traveling on
Time gone.
Will Christ have saved my soul by then?
Amen.

John Derbyshire Laments the Passing of The England That Was

John Derbyshire, a former Englishman, and now an American citizen has this to say: 

I've told this story before, so I hope I'll be forgiven for telling it again. My Mum, Esther Alice Knowles (1912-98), eleventh child of a pick'n'shovel coal miner, in one of the last conversations I had with her, said: "I know I'm dying, but I don't mind. At least I knew England when she was England."

I discounted that at the time. Old people always grumble about the state of the world. Now I understand it, though. I even feel a bit the same way myself. I caught the tail-end of that old England—that bumptious, arrogant, self-confident old England, the England of complicated games, snobbery, irony, repression, and stoicism, the England of suet puddings, drafty houses, coal smoke and bad teeth, the England of throat-catching poetry and gardens and tweeds, the England that civilized the whole world and gave an example of adult behavior—the English Gentleman—that was admired from Peking (I can testify) to Peru. 

It's all gone now, "dead as mutton," as English people used to say. Now there is nothing there but a flock of whimpering Eloi, giggling over their gadgets, whining for their handouts, crying for their Mummies, playing at soldiering for reasons they can no longer understand, from lingering habit. Lower the corpse down slowly, shovel in the earth. England is dead.

Did U.S. Marines Held Hostage In Iran 444 Days Resist Their Captors? You Bet They Did!

A Marine held hostage from November 4th, 1979 to January 20th, 1981 tells how he and his fellow Marines conducted themselves during their ordeal.   Quite a contrast with the 15 Brits currently in the news.  Full account here.

When we were first taken, the Iranians took us into a room individually and asked us to sign a statement denouncing the US policy in Iran, Israel, the Shah, etc. The Marines signed with names such as Michael Mouse, Chesty Puller, Dan Daly (google the last two...Marine Corps legends), Harry Butz, etc.

During the ordeal they would try to tape us for propaganda purposes. Personally, I would keep looking down to the ground or hide behind others so that my face wouldn't show (in fact, after a couple of months of not seeing me in any of the videos my records I was classified as MIA). Another Marine and I shared the same cell and when they came in with cameras we'd strip down. I heard a rumor that one of the other Marines smeared ketchup on his face and started howling.  (Lots more here)

These guys are American heroes. (HT: Michelle Malkin)

Can Pope Benedict XVI Successfully Alter Europe's Secular, Post-Christian Mindset?

Though not Roman Catholic myself, I maintain great respect for Pope Benedict XVI.  His grasp of the modern world and the European situation impresses almost all observers.  I suspect he is the right Pope at the right time.  I learned from today's New York Times that the Pope will turn 80 on April 16th.  From the article:

Benedict is one of the most intellectual men ever to serve as pope — and surely one of the most intellectual of current world leaders — and he has pinpointed the problem of the age, as well as its solution, at the level of philosophy. His argument, elaborated in the years leading up to

Johnny Hart, Cartoonist, Creator of "B.C." and Co-creator of "Wizard of Id" Has Died

Update 4/10/07 - Tribute to Johnny Hart from  Rick Newcombe, President and Founder of Creators Syndicate:

Johnny Hart was a towering genius among cartoonists. He had a profound influence on my life. Johnny stands out as one of the kindest, most generous, patient and all-round decent people I have ever known.  (More from Newcombe, and from other cartoonists)

**
Michelle Malkin provides an excellent survey of Johnny Hart's life via quotes and links.  A man gifted with wit and brilliance, his work incorporated his deeply held Christian faith.  "B.C." appeared in more than 1,300 newspapers worldwide.  I would read his work every day with anticipation and admiration.  We may be grateful to the Author who invented Johnny Hart.

Newsweek Features a Dialogue Between Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren and Atheist Sam Harris

Journalist Douglas LeBlanc makes some astute comments about Newsweek religion editor, Jon Meacham, in a blog post on the lively dialogue between the evangelical pastor Rick Warren and the atheist Sam Harris.  In his last paragraph, LeBlanc writes:

Newsweek could have shown more imagination in choosing a sparring partner for Harris. Terry [Mattingly - another Christian journalist] thought of Armand Nicholi. I suggest John Polkinghorne. I would not mind hearing from Christopher Hitchens on behalf of atheists, especially since he has another book to promote, and there’s something weirdly satisfying about hearing a British accent when your beliefs are being trashed.

I would add to the two suggestions above a more international cast, either of the prominent Indian Christian thinkers and apologists, Vishal Mangalwadi or Ravi Zacharias. 

Fred Thompson's Impresive Grasp of The Iranian Threat Thrusts His Presidential Candidacy Forward

Fred Thompson offers the clearest statement I have yet seen on the Iranian threat, especially in light of its successful pirate operation against Great Britain and the impotent response of Europe.  Read his statement here.  If Thompson keeps on making such good sense on other issues as well, he may well emerge as the Republican frontrunner.   Intimations of this were noted before.

Thompson can be seen here on YouTube  addressing a church congregation in Nashville, Tennessee on Sept. 15, 2001, just five days after 9/11.

HT: Kathryn Jean Lopez

Why Was The Brit Female Hostage (Fay Turney) There In The First Place?

Kathleen Parker asks a good question: Why does a once-great power such as Britain send mothers of toddlers to fight its battles? 

Why indeed?  Is the West in the throes of some great insanity that it must argue against all common sense and logic because some (can we legitimately call it "crazed"?) movement thinks it a good idea to erase all differences between men and women?

It is, of course, madness.  And it doesn't help the image of the West to have, as Kathleen Parker put it, "a dangerous, lying, Holocaust-denying, Jew-hating cutthroat thug" point that out to us.

Parker rues the propaganda value to Ahmadinejad of the Faye Turney episode.

In the eyes of Iran and other Muslim nations, we're wimps. While the West puts mothers in boats with rough men, Islamic men "rescue'' women and drape them in floral hijabs.

We can debate whether they're right until all our boys wear aprons, but it won't change the

Captured Royal Marines' Behavior Found Embarrassing and Disgraceful to Other Brits

John Derbyshire has more to say (earlier here), but perhaps pride of place for the most scathing commentary to date must go to Richard Littlejohn. 

The rules of engagement these days have been rinsed in so much fabric softener that I'm astonished our troops are even allowed to carry weapons any more. . .

The feminisation of our entire society has utterly destroyed whatever credibility and moral fibre we ever had. The emotional incontinence which flooded the country at the time Lady Di popped her Jimmy Choos is now our stock in trade.  [more here and be sure look at reader comments].

The Daily Mail weighs in, as does a "Rue Brittania" editorial from the New York Post.  Tony Harden of the Telegraph finds the Royal Marines' conduct "cringeworthy."

No question about it.   A sad day for Brits and the West.

In case anyone is interested, here is the American Soldier's Code of Conduct, a very stirring, impressive document indeed. 

Just How Horrible Will Nancy Pelosi's Visit to the Middle East Turn Out To Be? Potentially Catastrophic

Amir Tahiri's informed analysis will leave you feeling ill.  At least it did me.  I now see Pelosi's visit as not only dumb and stupid and egocentric, but as potentially catastrophic.   This is a MUST READ article.   (Tahiri is an Iranian-born journalist based in Europe.)

It Takes a Pakistani Christian to Set England Straight on the History of Slavery And Its Abolition

Mark Tooley continues his excellent reporting and commentary, this time on England's orgy of repentance for slavery while failing to give credit to the Christians and the movement that rose up to abolish slavery.   His current article should be read in its entirety.  Some excerpts:

One of Britain's most outspoken prelates is Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali, an ethnic Pakistani, who most recently broke with political correctness by refusing to join in the chorus of apologies for Britain's role in slavery

The Anglican bishop was responding to British elite culture's rhapsody of shame over the 200th anniversary of the slave trade's abolition. British statesman and abolitionist William Wilberforce waged a decades-long crusade in parliament and British society to abolish British slave trading and ultimately slavery itself. Wilberforce's triumph, fueled by his devout evangelical faith, is one of the most heroic sagas in British history.  Britain not only freed its slaves throughout the empire. Its Royal Navy aggressively battled against the slave traders on the high seas.

Naturally, British cultural elites would prefer not to celebrate such a victory for British concepts of freedom.  That the anti-slavery campaign was waged by vigorous Christians makes the Wilberforce epic all the more distasteful to them.  Many urged that the abolitionist anniversary should

Giuliani On Abortion: Moral Turpitude. Substitute Slavery For Abortion And See What you Get

Kathryn Jean Lopez printed the following e-mail which starkly reveals the intellectual and moral failure of Giuliani's position on abortion. 

Giuliani presidential campaign    1860:

CNN (Confederate News Network)    interview:

GIULIANI: I'm in the same position I was 12 years ago when I ran for mayor, which is personally opposed to slavery, hate it, would advise that you hire someone rather than have a slave.

But it's your choice. It's an individual right. You get to make that choice. I don't think society should be putting you in jail for it.

BASH:    You will appoint strict constructionist judges.

GIULIANI: Not necessarily that reason. I generally, that's my philosophy. It's the only way I can really see that we protect the separation of powers, personal liberties and

Don Feder on America's Debt to The Jews and Obligation to Stand With Israel

Feder writes on the ties Americans have with Israel and why it is natural for her to receive American support.  He concludes his article with these words:

We might say that no man can call himself a patriot who would seek to sever America’s ties to the source of Western religion and morality.

Our history, our heritage, our faith and our national interest all mandate American support for the Jewish state --  the land where (in a real sense) America began. A patriot who doesn’t understand this is no patriot at all.

Mark Steyn on the Fiasco of UN "Peacekeeping" Missions

Steyn offers a brief comment worth noting:

The worst Hallibushitlerburton war crime pales into insignifance compared with what Dutch "peacekeepers" allowed to happen in Srebrenica or a passive UN force (under Canadian command) sat back and watched in Rwanda.

Whatever you want to call these latterday expeditionary activities, it isn't soldiering. The Iranians understood that. They understood it three years ago; the British didn't and they've learned nothing since.

The Goal Of The Jihad: Why the Jihadists Want The Caliphate

Robert Spencer expertly explains.  He concludes his article with these words:

The desire to restore the caliphate ultimately highlights the expansionist, imperialist, totalitarian, globalist aims of the jihad movement, even as today it presents itself as a defensive action against Western evils. This is, I believe, a crucial point for our understanding the enemy properly, so that we can formulate the proper defensive responses. If we don’t understand what we’re up against correctly, we will not defend ourselves properly against it. And that is, unfortunately, in many ways the fix we’re in today.

Chinese Love Western Classical Music

Mona Charen helpfully points to a major article in the New York Times discussing the Chinese obsession with Western classical music.  Fascinating! 

Teachers Drop the Holocaust to Avoid Offending Muslims

The U.K. Daily Mail has the story.

Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government backed study has revealed.

It found some teachers are reluctant to cover the atrocity for fear of upsetting students whose beliefs include Holocaust denial.

I am glad I started an "absurdity" category on this blog last week.  Most timely.

Anxiety in England Over Churches Becoming Mosques

The story is  here. 

"As for the new mosque, there will be no obvious changes to the church's exterior, but the cross at the top will come down." 

Ah yes, the cross.  That is the Great Divide.  And Islam is not timid about its removal.  But it is the cross that saves and speaks of the self-giving, incarnate, love of God.  That Islam totally denies.  And so the Great Divide.

John Derbyshire Scorns the Kowtowing of Modern Brits

Update: Derbyshire maintains his position, saying he expects Marines to stand up to torture.  Here's his additional comment.

**

Derbyshire writes of the British captives held by the Iranians:

How on earth can Britons behave like that? A previous generation would not have done so. I knew the women of my mother’s generation pretty well (Mum was born in 1912), and I am certain that any one of them, given that headscarf and told to put it on, would have said: “You can hang me with it if you like, but I’ll be damned if I’ll wear the filthy thing.” The men likewise. What on earth has happened to the British? Where is John Moyse?

After some paragraphs he returns to ask:

What on earth has happened to the British?

What has happened is multiculturalism. The British no longer feel that contempt for other nations that sustained them for so many centuries. Or, if they feel it, they guiltily suppress that feeling, as being flagitiously “racist.” Boswell described Johnson as “a stern TRUE-BORN ENGLISHMAN, and fully prejudiced against all other nations.” (Boswell’s capitals.) That would have the Thought Police knocking on Johnson’s door nowadays.

He goes on to quote George Orwell and make other comments.  It's all quite stimulating and worth reading, even if you (and I for sure) have some reservations.    What he says, though, is somewhat reminiscent of C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man, where Lewis speaks of "men without chests."  There's something to contemplate here.

Old News Just Discovered: San Francisco Has the Smallest Share of [Human] Small Fry of Any Major U.S. City

According to a 2005 Associated Press report, "Just 14.5 percent of the city's population is 18 or under."  But on second thought, is that really surprising?  More here.

A Variation on Pascal's Wager

I think there are many compelling reasons for believing in God, and committing one's self to Him in glad surrender resulting in "life" and joy.  Nevertheless I don't think the kind of straightforward, self-interest-type of analysis exemplified in this short tale by Roger Clegg can be gainsaid either.  It's definitely worth a quick read.

David Freddoso: "If Embryonic Research Is So Promising, Why Do Its Backers Need to Lie?

Good question.  Freddoso answers the question here.

Update: British Researchers Grow Heart Tissue From Stem Cells   (HT: Kathryn Jean Lopez)

Radical Hindus Intensify Persecution of Christians in India

Click here for the story.