Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

New Book by Paul Kengor: "God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life"

Jamie Glazov published today a fascinating interview with Paul Kengor, author of the first spiritual biography of the former first lady, God and Hillary Clinton: A Spiritual Life. Kengor says,

She is a classic, textbook-case of a Religious Left politician. Through this book, I was eager to remind a theologically ignorant media and secular nation that not everyone who is a religious believer is a “fundamentalist.”  . . . Hillary’s denomination—the United Methodist Church—has moved so far to the left that

John Bolton, Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. - A Hero to me (and others)

For delightful nuggets gleaned from John Bolton’s new book, Surrender Is Not an Option, read Jay Nordlinger's comments and excerpts here.

"Wristcutters" - Sounds like a disturbing movie to me

Mark Earley of Prison Fellowship reviews it.

Wristcutters obviously is not telling kids and young adults to go out and kill themselves. But what the Village Voice called its “uneasy mix of gallows humor and irrational optimism” is, at best, an irresponsible way to tell a story about suicide to teenagers.

Mark Levin on Waterboarding as Torture

Levin says:

Whether the administration uses it enough or not I have no way of judging.  But if there is no physical or even mid-term psychological damage, as many who've experienced it in training have told me, then what exactly is the objection?  And if it's torture, how so?  How do we define torture if a procedure that causes no physical or psychological damage is said to be torture? 

Me:  What are the answers to Levin's questions?   If you run across them, please post.

"Bella" - Movie Garners Rave Reviews

I knew I had written on the movie "Bella" before but couldn't remember when.  A little searching turned up my post on Robert Novak's review back on November 30, 2006.  The movie had won the "People's Choice Award" at the Toronto Film Festival and Novak sang its praises.  Now today I read another ringing review, this time by Chuck Colson.

. . . This is the great thing about Bella: It works as a movie. Many of us Christians are just now starting to realize how important that is.

For too long we have thought that movies with Christian themes were supposed to be sermons, but that is precisely the kind of thinking that makes a movie fail on every level. People do not go to movies to be preached at. They go because

Melanie Phillips Chronicles the Dismaying Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism That Pervades Much of Britain

This is a major article that should be noted carefully. 

Iraqis Have Developed A Positive, Upbeat Mood

Update 11/12/07 - Kimberly Kagan explains "How They Did It: Executing the Winning Strategy in Iraq."

**
Hugh Hewitt talked with Michael Yon who reports  a remarkable new, upbeat mood now enveloping the country. 

HH: Tell us what the Iraqis are telling you about this lull or peace or improvement. What do they think is going on here, and how long will it last?

MY: I don’t believe this is a lull. I believe this is the real thing. I believe that we’ve seen lulls before, and I’ve always been very circumspect on taking a chance and saying hey, this is the real thing. But I’ve seen a change in the mood of the people, and it’s remarkable. . .  I can tell you, I can see it every day I’m out now, or week by week, month by month now, I really believe that, I’ll be the first to say it and take a chance, I really believe five years from now, I’m going to be back here with my camera and my longest lens shooting bird photos. I just feel that it’s coming. You can sense the change in the people. The Iraqi people actually really tend to like Americans. . .  (more)

Does Education Improve Human Decency? No Indeed. (So Notes Dennis Prager)

Dennis Prager does it again.  He spells out truths, far from hidden, that nevertheless tend to elude people.  In this article he tackles the false notion that education leads to improved moral behavior.  Not so.  In fact, Prager says the record shows  that

The higher educated in Western society have been more likely to have awful moral values and more likely to support massive cruelty than the less well educated,

Read on for the evidence that conclusively supports his case.

Bush 2.0 Repudiates Bush 1.0

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. spells out the unraveling of Bush's policies: appeasing North Korea, a Palestinian State no matter what, closing Gitmo, and farewell to sovereignty.   Seriously sad...  historically sad.

Manufacturing the News: ABC News Hires Actors to Engage in Homosexual PDA, Provoke Reaction

Michelle Malkin has the story.

Baby Twin Survives an Attempted Abortion

Click through to read the story and see the beautiful pictures of the happy twins!

Mark Chapneys, Raised Mormon, Finds Forgiveness and Life in Christ Through Reading the Bible

This testimony  on YouTube of  how Mark Chapneys found forgiveness and release from his sins in Christ which he could not find in Mormonism is well worth watching.  (About 11minutes).  Mark tells his story honestly and straightforwardly and in a low key.  Highly recommended.  (HT:Andrew Jackson)

Pakistan: Jeffrey Imm's Analysis of the Crisis

Jeffrey Imm over at the Counterterrorism Blog has provided an excellent overview of the Pakistan crisis that serves as both a primer and an analytical tool.  It is loaded with lots of valuable links.  His last sentence reads:

The current situation in Pakistan illustrates the train wreck of pursuing tactical operations in fighting "extremists" without a strategy to clearly define the enemy and to define a U.S. policy on Jihad and Islamism.

HT: Michelle Malkin

Gary Wills' Embarrassingly Ignorant L.A. Times Op-Ed on Abortion

Ramesh Ponnuru discusses the Gary Will's op-ed at the Corner.  I personally don't see how a high school sophomore could write a more uninformed, illogical piece than what Gary Wills wrote, judging from Ponnuru's quotes.  Ponnuru says:

He [Gary Wills] has a long, confused op-ed on abortion in the L. A. Times. His focus on evangelicals is a little odd—if all you had to go on was this op-ed, you might think they were the only people who oppose abortion.

If we are to decide the matter of abortion by natural law, that means we must turn to reason and science, the realm of Enlightened religion. But that is just what evangelicals want to avoid. Who are the relevant experts here? They are philosophers, neurobiologists, embryologists. Evangelicals want to exclude them because most give answers they do not want to hear.

What is Wills talking about? Evangelical (and other) pro-lifers are perfectly willing to turn to embryologists, regardless of those

What Percentage of Muslims Approve of Terror?

Robert Spencer reviews the results of various polls.  I can't imagine any reader finding them anything but disturbing and alarming. 

In January 2007, columnist Michael Freund summed up some disquieting recent survey results: 25% of Muslims in Britain approved of the July 7, 2005 jihad terror bombings in London; 30% said they would rather live under Sharia than in a Western pluralistic society. 44% of Muslims in Nigeria thought suicide attacks were “often” or “sometimes” justified, with only 28% rejecting them in all cases. Roughly 14% of Muslims in France, Britain and Spain approved of suicide attacks against civilian targets, and only 45% of Muslims in Egypt considered terror never justified.

And in an Al-Jazeera survey on September 11, 2006, 49.9% of the respondents avowed that they

How Global Warming Activisim Hurts the Poor

Mark D.  Tooley does his usual excellent job of analyzing the negative effects of what at first seems a noble endeavor, but in the end proves otherwise.  The Religious Left more often than not can be relied upon to make false judgments of this sort.  Click here

Huckabee's "Compassion" Problem

Don Feder outlines once again the hesitations and qualms that dyed-in-the-wool conservatives have towards Mike Huckabee.  As Feder puts it, "Huckabee has bought into the left's definition of compassion, a mushy mix of sentimentality and victimology."  Those of us who harbor warm  feelings towards Huckabee must look steely-eyed at these criticisms and come to terms with them one way or another.  I have blogged on Huckabee before here and here.

Update:
Today the Washington Post published a positive article on Huckabee titled, How Huckabee Could Rock the 2008 Vote.

"Forum 18" - Freedom of Religion Watchdog Group

Today I came across the news organization,Forum 18, based in Oslo, Norway. A news article in the Nov. 2007 Christianity Today magazine reported an  accusation of treason (demonstrably false) by Kazakhstan authorities against two Christian pastors.  The article credited "Forum 18" for the information and identified Forum 18, as a "news service that tracks religious-rights violations."  Since I hadn't heard of Forum 18 before, I looked it up on the internet.  On their website I found the following mission statement:

Forum 18 believes that religious freedom is a fundamental human right, which is essential for the dignity of humanity and for true freedom. Forum 18 is committed to religious freedom for all on the basis of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which reads:

"Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance."

This may be summarised as:

The right to believe, to worship and witness
                    The right to change one's belief or religion
                    The right to join together and express one's belief.

Forum 18 is an instrument to promote the implementation of

Greg Koukl - "Christianity is No Leap of Faith"

Excellent article.   It was first published on Townhall.com on Oct. 10, 2007.  (HT: VirtueOnline )

The Daily Telegaph Lists the Top 100 Conservatives & Liberals in the U.S.

Click here.

Quick Takes

- Ann Coulter mixes it up with the ultra-liberal Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which represents, she contends (and demonstrates), the left-wing of the Democratic party.

- I was surprised to learn that Switzerland functions as a tourist destination for assisted suicide.

- The Saudis continue their ideological offensive in the West.

- Michael Yon - Iraqi Islamic Party says "Al Qaeda is defeated"

Operatives who could once disappear back into the crowd after committing an increasingly atrocious attack no longer find safe haven among the Iraqis who live in the southern part of Baghdad.  They are being hunted down and killed.  Or, if they are lucky, captured by Americans.