Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

MORE REMINISCENCES OF WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR

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(Note: Updates can be found at the end of this post..)

Another post on William F. Buckley may seem tedious to some, but I regard Buckley as one of the giants of the 20th century.  TodayI began to dip into his first book, God & Man at Yale, a book I have
had on my shelf but never got around to reading until now.  I find it fascinating.  So far as I can tell, little has changed since he wrote it back in 1951 as a 25 year-old Yale graduate.  As I wrote before, for years I greatly appreciated his television program, Firing Line.  What follows are more reminiscences (mainly from the National Review website) to add to a previous post.

David Brooks - Remembering the Mentor

George Will - A Life Athwart History

George Will - He Won the Cold War (A Dialog with Buckley)

Peggy Noonan  - May We Not Lose His Kind

Jonah Goldberg - Prince of Polysyllabism

Mark A. Thiessen - The Day I Met WFB (quite interesting - unmuddle)

OLD AGE: EAST AND WEST TAKE OPPOSITE VIEWS

Mark Skousen tells of the great Chinese-American philosopher Lin Yutang, who wrote the following about “Growing Old Gracefully” in his classic libertarian work The Importance of Living.

“In my efforts to compare and contrast Eastern and Western life, I have found no differences that are absolute except in this matter of the attitude toward age….The East and the West take exactly opposite points of view. 

“This is clearest in the matter of asking about a person’s age or telling one’s own.  In China, the first question a person asks the other on an official call, after asking

MORE TRIBUTES TO WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, JR

Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center interviewed Buckley back in 1997 and published an article, "Buckley on Belief."  The occasion was the publication of Buckley's newly published book, Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith (Doubleday, 313 pp.; $24.95), 

Here, for the first time, Buckley writes at length about his faith, about some of the principal obstacles to Christian belief (despite self-deprecating comments concerning his lack of theological training, he displays considerable powers as an apologist), and about the distinctive experience of a Roman Catholic in the twentieth century.

WFB link roundup, from the Corner:

Editorials:

DC Examiner: Demand a Recount

Chicago Tribune: Buckley's World

The Daily Telegraph: William F Buckley

USEFUL INFORMATION ABOUT EGGS - ESPECIALLY GROCERY STORE EGGS

Click here.

HUMOR - "Lawyers should never ask a grandma a question if they aren't prepared for the answer"

A friend passed along the following:

In a trial, a Southern small-town prosecuting attorney called his first witness, a grandmotherly, elderly woman to the stand. He approached her and asked,  "Mrs. Jones, do you know me?"

She responded, "Why, yes, I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly, you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people and talk about them behind

SLIMY PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Update 4/3/08 - More Racist Planned Parenthood Clinics Exposed  Audioof phone calls plus YouTube video of Planned Parenthood clinic addresses contacted

Update 4/1/08 - The Billion Dollar Planned Parenthood Empire  Your tax dollars at work.

Update 3/11/08 - Lawsuit - Planned Parenthood of California bilked state out of millions

Also, seven branches of Planned Parenthood caught on tape accepting bigotry-inspired donations.

Update:  Overview of Planned Parenthood from "Discover the Networks."

Also, How Planned Parenthood Uses Religion to Push Its Agenda by Machaeleen Sedlak

- The Family Research Council comments on Planned Parenthood's  "Taxpayer Funded Porn Guide" as follows:

As if parents did not have enough to contend with in protecting their children from the evils for pornography, they now have to face government-funded projects. Unfortunately, that's the "net" effect of Planned Parenthood's online venture, teenwire.com. The site, which is so offensive that FRC's Internet filter blocked it, was supposedly created as a resource for kids seeking "medically accurate" information. According to the nation's biggest abortion merchant, that information now includes normalizing pornography. Although Planned Parenthood is careful to state that it's

FEMINISTS SHUSH WOMEN WITH POST-ABORTION REGRETS

Michelle Malkin writes persuasively. 

WILLAM F. BUCKLEY, JR. - R.I.P.

Breitbart TV video retrospective
Breitbart TV - Best Buckley interviews with Charlie Rose

I heard in late afternoon that William F. Buckley, Jr. passed away earlier today.   To me this is a sad, ground-shaking event, news that has caused me to put off doing things I need to do, in order to read tributes from others and by so doing, honor the memory of a truly great man.  My own memories of Wm. Buckley center most vividly on his television program, Firing Line, and the obvious delight he took in having Malcolm Muggeridge as his guest.  My recollection is that Muggeridge was the most frequent guest he had on his program.

I had the privilege of hearing Wm. Buckley deliver a speech one evening near my home not too many years ago.  His audience probably numbered more liberals than conservatives, but Buckley's

SNOW COVER OVER NORTH AMERICA GREATEST SINCE 1966

Lorne Gunter titles his article at the National Post: "Forget global warming: Welcome to the new Ice Age"

Snow cover over North America and much of Siberia, Mongolia and China is greater than at any time since 1966.

The U.S. National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) reported that many American cities and towns suffered record cold temperatures in January and early February. According to the NCDC, the average temperature in January "was -0.3 F cooler than the 1901-2000 (20th century) average." 

The whole article is well worth reading.  It provides weather data the global warming enthusiasts won't welcome.

Also: Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling   (HT: Drudge)

 

REPORT SHOWS RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION ON RISE IN CHINA

Update 2/28/08 - Item 1 -  China Attorney Who Helped Forced Abortion Opponent Detained and Beaten  Item 2 - 21 Major House Church Leaders Sennt to Labor Camp in Shandong at the SAME TIME

 - Click here for a summary of the China Aid report.  The Family Research Council comments:

Both China Aid and the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China agree that the religious crackdown is becoming more pronounced in the months leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. The cases of persecution against house churches are up more than 25 percent from 2006, and the number of individuals harassed or imprisoned grew from 665 to 788, including unprecedented antagonism against foreigners.

FOR INSIGHT INTO OBAMA, LOOK CLOSELY AT THE WOMEN IN HIS LIFE

The Asian Times columnist, Spengler [a pseudonym], contends that  looking closely at Obama's women (his mother and his wife), will tell you a lot about him: namely, a hatred for America.  Spengler offers an approach and information you won't find elsewhere.  Also, note this:

Listening to Obama speak, Sinclair Lewis' cynical tent-revivalist Elmer Gantry comes to mind, or, even better, Tyrone Power's portrayal of a carnival mentalist in the 1947 film noire "Nightmare Alley. " The latter is available for instant viewing at Netflix, and highly recommended as an antidote to having felt uplifted by an Obama speech.

. . . In times of stress they [Americans] have a baleful susceptibility to hucksters and conmen. Be afraid - be very afraid. America is at a low point in its fortunes, and feeling sorry for itself.  . .

HT: Lisa Schiffren over at the Corner

(Note: This post has been added to my earlier post, The Messianic Fervor Surrounding Barack Obama.)

WAS RECOGNIZING KOSOVO AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE A MISTAKE? MELANIE PHILLIPS THINKS SO

Melanie Phillips writes:

The decision by Britain, America and certain other European countries to recognise Kosovo as an independent state is mind-blowingly stupid and suicidal and of a piece with their obvious determination to capitulate in the war for civilisation. It is a rotten decision for the following reasons:  (more . . . )

A MARRIED CHRISTIAN WOMAN'S VIEW OF PORNOGRAPHY

I thought this Christian woman's response  to a young married man's struggle with pornography worth posting:

If men had any idea how it made their wives feel when they looked at porn, they would NEVER, EVER even THINK about touching it again ever in their LIVES. If they had any idea how degraded, devalued, and worthless it made us feel. How it makes us feel like we will never be good enough (because how could we ever live up to such high expectations? we can’t!). And not only that, but how we will deal with those feelings EVERY SINGLE DAY for the REST OF OUR LIVES.

And all from the actions of the husbands we love, who are supposed to take care of us, and value us. Who are supposed to treat us and love us as Christ loves the church.

And it is multiplied by about 1,000,000 times when we are pregnant, or have just had a child, and already feel like fat cows, or feel guilty because for a time we literally can’t satisfy our husbands in that way, and then find that they have been looking in other places for that type of satisfaction. How fair is that? It’s not like it’s anything that we have any control over, and it is actually one of the most beautiful times in a relationship to get to share something so special, magical and wonderful as having a child together. It should be something that is cherished, even for the sacrifices. Not stained by the injustice called pornography.

"ISLAM'S UNIVERSAL BLASPHEMY FATWA" - by Andrew G. Bostom

As usual, Dr. Bostrom is thorough and invaluable.  Apart from his own analysis, as insightful as it is, his links alone are worth filing away for future reference.

IS THERE A RAPE CRISIS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES? NO.

Heather MacDonald in her L.A. Times article "What campus rape crisis?" sheds light on yet another myth perpetuated by feminist lies. Her article is subtitled: "Promiscuity and hype have created a phony epidemic at colleges." 

David Horowitz, in calling attention to this article, says:

For twenty-five years academic feminists have been pushing a big lie and using it to extract millions from student pockets. The big lie, which is ably exposed by Heather MacDonald in the LA Times is that one out of every four campus females is raped by a campus male. In fact, as MacDonald shows, there are almost no such campus rapes. But the feminists have used this phony claim to extract millions of dollars from student pockets and establish campus "rape centers" as an institutional beach-head for spreading hate propaganda against men in general and male students in particular.

Update: The full-length version of Heather MacDonald's article can be found here.  The sub-title of this article reads: "The reality: bogus statistics, feminist victimology, and university-approved sex toys."

Der Spiegel interviews Henry Kissinger

Useful, probing interview.   

U.S. SOLDIER VIDEO TRIBUTE

This soldier video, "If I Die Before You Wake," is a fitting tribute to the men serving overseas and to their families that await their return.  Highly recommended.

NY GOV. SPITZER SPITS IN THE EYE OF LIFE

From Family Research Council:

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D) is pushing a bill in his state's legislature that seeks to declare abortion a fundamental right for all women. The bill would make abortions virtually immune to state regulation, end conscience protections, and most likely force the numerous Christian-run hospitals in the state to close rather than be forced to violate their faith by carrying out abortions or referring women to abortuaries. The bill also would expand the field of people who can perform abortions while eliminating the possibility of passing restrictions that have wide public support, such as parental notification, informed consent laws, and waiting periods. Governor Spitzer rose to power in

MILLIONS OF SINCERE CHRISTIANS SEEK ALTERNATIVES TO CHURCH

So says Mike McManus in a recent article:

George Barna's latest poll indicates that "a major shift in people's spirituality is underway in America."

"For decades, American Christians, who comprise more than four out of five adults, assumed that they had one legitimate way to practice their faith: through involvement in a conventional church," Barna writes.

"But new research shows that this mind set is no longer prevalent in the U.S. The latest Barna study shows that a majority of adults now believe that

BRUCE THORNTON: "DECLINE AND FALL: EUROPE'S SLOW-MOTION SUICIDE"

Update 3/10/08 - Peter Robinson offers a video interview with Dr. Thornton.  The Corner previews saying:

The degeneration of Europe is a familiar subject to anyone who has been reading Mark Steyn, but Bruce comes at the matter from a different angle than does Mark, concentrating less the collapse of the European population than on the collapse of European belief. “If traditional Christianity is discarded,” Bruce asks in today’s opening segment, “then what will unify Europeans?” Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.

- NRO today published an interview with Bruce Thornton, author of Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow-Motion Suicide .  Some excerpts:

Lopez: Is there a European view of free speech? How poisonous is it?

Thornton: Generally the European view of free speech is much more restricted than what we enjoy in the United States. Like politically correct American professors, many Europeans — certainly not all — are all for the freedom of speech that attacks the U.S. or Chritianity or Israel, but then they put out of bounds criticism of Islam or Muslims. Hypocritical double standards are always poisonous, for they undercut the authority of the principle in question.

A SEMINARY PROFESSOR'S COUNSELING SESSION (Humor)

Warren Wiersbe in his book Be Myself tells of serving as an instructor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School.  While there he found himself in an interesting counseling situation.

“You never know what surprises a counseling session may bring. The wife of one of my students came to see me one day to express her grief at not being able to have a child. She was a nurse, and every time she assisted at a birth, it broke her heart that she wasn’t a mother. I gave her the phone number of a fertility doctor who had been recommended to a couple I knew and forgot about the matter. . . 

“A few months later, during coffee and conversation with a couple of the homiletics professors, my counselee came rushing into my office exclaiming, ‘I’m pregnant! I’m pregnant! And I owe it all to you!” It took some explaining to my associates, believe me, but I was glad she was going to be a mother.”    p. 262

SO MUCH FOR GLOBAL WARMING... NEW DATA SHOWS THE ICE IS BACK

Phil Brennan reports:

Are the world's ice caps melting because of climate change, or are the reports just a lot of scare mongering by the advocates of the global warming theory?

Scare mongering appears to be the case, according to reports from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that reveal that almost all the allegedly “lost” ice has come back. A NOAA report shows that ice levels which had shrunk from 5 million square miles in January 2007 to just 1.5 million square miles in October, are almost back to their original levels.

Moreover, a Feb. 18 report in the London Daily Express showed that there is nearly a third more ice in Antarctica than usual, challenging the global warming crusaders and buttressing arguments of skeptics who deny that the world is undergoing global warming.  . . . (more)

RECENTLY UPDATED POSTS

The Messianic Fervor Surrounding Barak Obama

NIU Massacre  - "Gun-Free Zones" Allow Killers to Slaughter the Innocent

Edward Said Undergoes Ibn Warraq's Scrutiny

Michelle Obama: An Interesting Person!

BILL CLINTON LOSES TEMPER, LASHES OUT AT PRO-LIFERS

YouTube video here.  Bill Clinton goes nuts after being greeted by over a hundred pro-life students from Franciscan University of Steubenville protesting his abortion policies as president.  (HT: Drudge)

TIM KELLER (PART I): BLIND MEN TRYING TO DESCRIBE AN ELEPHANT

Tim Keller, Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York, does a good job deconstructing the "elephant" analogy that people commonly use to argue the relativism of all religions.   Tim Keller explains:

Pluralists contend that no one religion can know the fullness of spiritual truth, therefore all religions are valid.  But while it si good to acknowledge our limitations, this statement is itself a strong assertion about the nature of spiritual truth.  A common analogy is cited--the blind men trying to describe an elephant.  One feels the tail and reports that an elephant is thin and flexible.  Anoher feel a leg and claims the animal is

TIM KELLER (Pt. 2) ON PREACHING TO A CONGREGATION STEEPED IN PLURALISM

In a 2002 article in Leadership Magazine, Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, New York, said skeptics and unbelievers make up nearly 30 percent of his congregation.  Instead of saying "Christianity is a superior religion," and thereby preemptively cutting off dialog, Keller wisely stresses Christianity's distinctiveness.  Example:

... Christianity does not so much offer solutions to the problem of suffering, but rather provides the promise of a God who is completely present with us in suffering.  Only Christians believe in a God who says, 'Here I am alongside you. I have experienced the same suffering you have.  I know what it is like."  No other religion even begins to offer that assurance.

ERNESTO "CHE" GUEVARA - REVOLTIONARY HERO OR MASS KILLER?

For those who know little of the revolutionary Che Guevara, (his posters were found in Obama volunteer offices in Houston Texas), Humberto Fontova brings us up to speed.  Fontova is the author of Exposing the Real Che Guevara and the Useful Idiots Who Idolize Him.   A definitive, moderate-length portrait of Che Guevara can be found at "Discover the Networks." From Fontova's article:

During recent interviews of Obama campaign workers on Houston's Fox TV station, the offices of two Texas Obama campaign volunteers (including a precinct captain and head of the "Houston Obama Leadership Team") were found prominently decorated with Che Guevara images, against the backdrop

THE MESSIANIC FERVOR SURROUNDING BARACK OBAMA

- Update 2/26/08 - The Asian Times columnist, Spengler [a pseudonym], contends that  looking closely at Obama's women (his mother and his wife), will tell you a lot about him:  namely, a hatred for America. Spengler offers an approach and information you won't find elsewhere.  Also, note this:

Listening to Obama speak, Sinclair Lewis' cynical tent-revivalist Elmer Gantry comes to mind, or, even better, Tyrone Power's portrayal of a carnival mentalist in the 1947 film noire "Nightmare Alley. " The latter is available for instant viewing at Netflix, and highly recommended as an antidote to having felt uplifted by an Obama speech.

. . . In times of stress they(Americans) have a baleful susceptibility to hucksters and conmen. Be afraid - be very afraid. America is at a low point in its fortunes, and feeling sorry for itself. When Barack utters the word "hope", they instead hear, "handout". A cynic might translate the national motto, E pluribus unum, as "something for nothing". Now that the stock market and the housing market have failed to give Americans something for nothing, they want something for nothing from the government. The trouble is that he who gets something for nothing will earn every penny of it, twice over.

(HT: Lisa Schiffren over at the Corner)

- Update 2/20/08 -  Robert J. Samuelson, writes (in the Washington Post), about "The Obama Delusion."   

Repudiating racism is not a magic cure-all for the nation's ills. The task requires independent ideas, and Obama has few. If you examine his agenda, it is completely ordinary, highly partisan, not candid and mostly unresponsive to many pressing national problems. . . .   He seems to have hypnotized much of the media and the public with his eloquence and the symbolism of his life story. The result is a mass delusion that Obama is forthrightly engaging the nation's major problems when, so far, he isn't. (more) 

- Update 2/19/08 - David Brooks takes a look at the fervor and asks a lot of questions including the following:

Obama says he is practicing a new kind of politics, but why has his PAC sloshed $698,000 to the campaigns of the superdelegates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics? Is giving Robert Byrd’s campaign $10,000 the kind of change we can believe in?

If he values independent thinking, why is his the most predictable liberal vote in the Senate? A People for the American Way computer program would cast the same votes for cheaper.  (more)

- Yes, his speeches can be oratorical works of art, and even mesmerizing, but might they also be a tad unrealistic?  Big time.  Even scary?  I think so.  Charles Krauthammer notes the fervor and tries to bring a little reality to bear.  See also my previous post on Michelle Obama who can be scary also.

LARRY KUDLOW REMAINS OPTIMISTIC ON THE U.S. ECONOMY

He thinks the U.S. will dodge a recession. Click here .  Note this interesting paragraph:

. . .  And these companies pay a colossal fortune in taxes. Exxon Mobil is a perfect example. Over the last three years, Exxon Mobil has paid an average of $27 billion annually in taxes. $27 billion! As my friend, economist Mark Perry, points out, while corporate profits receive a lot of media attention, the corporate taxes paid on these corporate profits are largely overlooked. Dr. Perry also points out that Exxon Mobil pays as much in taxes annually as the entire bottom 50 percent of individual taxpayers — a full 65,000,000 people.

JOHN ESPOSITO, APOLOGIST FOR MUSLIM EXTREMISM, SPEAKS AT STANFORD

I am replicating below a Frontpagemag article by Cinnamon Stillwell because it represents well the rhetoric and falsehoods perpetuated by  "distinguished" apologists for Islam.

Georgetown professor John Esposito, director of the Saudi-financed Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding has a reputation as an apologist for radical Islam. And it's one he lived up to with a Stanford University speech last week titled, "Dying for God? Suicide Terrorism and Militant Islam."

Esposito claimed that Islamic terrorism grows primarily out of a sense of political and economic grievance and, of course, "occupation" on the part of "neo-colonial powers." This spin allowed him to deflect responsibility for Islamic terrorism to the West while

SEN. TOM TANCREDO'S "OPEN LETTER" TO MEXICO'S PRESIDENT FELIPE CALDERON

Definitely worth a read.  Click here.   Key paragraph:

“In your speech yesterday to the California State legislature, you lectured the American people on how to improve our immigration policies. Why did you not propose that we model our policies on Mexico’s own policies toward illegal entry across your own southern border? Mexico expends enormous resources to prevent Guatemalans, Hondurans and Salvadorans from entering the country illegally, but you castigate the United States for wanting secure borders. Mr. President, in my neighborhood that is called hypocrisy.”

NIU MASSACRE - "GUN-FREE ZONES" ALLOW KILLERS TO SLAUGHTER THE INNOCENT

- UPDATE 2/19/08 -  Dennis Prager has 5 brilliant points to make about the murders that took place on the NIU campus.  Click here for insightful observations. 

- Re: the Northern Illinois University massacre (also here and here), we can no longer tolerate "gun free zones," i.e. areas reserved for killers to shoot their victims at random and at leisure.  My sentiments are with this writer:

At one time I was very against arming teachers or allowing qualified students to carry on campus. I’m not any more. These maniacs go to those schools KNOWING that their’s will be the only gun there - until police arrive. And that can take minutes.

If you know anything about guns, or ever fire on a range, take any semi-automatic pistol with, say, two extra loaded magazines, and see how long it will take you to fire every

TRENDY PATERNALISM IS KEEPING AFRICA IN CHAINS

Click here for Michael Knox Beran's insightful City Journal article.

UPDATED PREVIOUS POSTS

Should an Embryo be Considered a Human Being?

Obama's Liberal Voting Record  

QUICK TAKES ON HEALTH SUBJECTS

From Dr. Mercola:

Why vaccines aren't safe

Guide to a Good Night's Sleep

EDWARD SAID UNDERGOES IBN WARRAQ'S SCRUTINY

- Update 2/18/08 - Alyssa A. Lapen offers a major positive review of Warraq's book .  I found the review very valuable.

-Robert Spencer thinks Islamic scholar Ibn Warraq's new book, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism, delivers a body blow to the Saidist establishment.  (If unfamiliar with Edward Said, be sure to read Spencer's whole article).

In an epigraph, he [Warraq] quotes Arthur Koestler, a man who knew a thing or two about the decline of civilizations: “The predicament of Western civilization is that it has ceased to be aware of the values which it is in peril of losing.” Ibn Warraq identifies three characteristics of Western intellectual inquiry – and of the work of the Orientalists whom Said disparages – that cannot be found consistently in non-Western (including Islamic) intellectual endeavors, and which are in danger of

MICHELLE OBAMA - AN INTERESTING PERSON!

Click here for a major New York Times article.  (HT: Drudge)

** Update 2/16/08 - Hugh Hewitt plays snippets  from a talk Michelle Obama gave at UCLA two weeks ago.  He finds her views extravagant and even scary.  Click here for my other posts on Obama.

** Update 2/19/08 - Michelle Malkin says: Here’s the video via Hot Air of The Soul-Fixer’s wife admitting that she hasn’t had a real moment of pride in her country for the duration of her adult life

** Update 2/20/08 - Michelle Malkin's column contrasts her own American experience as a woman of color with Michelle Obama's self-absorption.

** Update 2/23/08 - Michelle Obama's senior year thesis at Princeton was on racial divide.

** Update 3/10/08 Don Surber via Mark Steyn:

In 2005, Mrs. O’s salary was $316,962 at the University of Chicago Hospital. She’s a lawyer, not a doctor.

Hubby’s pay as a U.S. senator topped $160 K that year.

If you are struggling to make ends meet on a half-million a year — a 1040 that puts you in the top 2% of Americans — then the problem is you, not the country.

Still this woman, who was never proud of America when her husband was elected to the state legislature or even the United States Senate, whines and whines and whines.

America is, she said, “just downright mean.”

Daniel Pipes on the Islamification of England

Click here for this useful summary.

FORMER SINGAPORE PRIME MINISTER LEE KUAN YEW OFFERS HIS TAKE ON THE WORLD

Arnaud de Borgrave recently published a fascinating wide-ranging interview with former Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew.   Lee is  known as the senior statesman of Asia, the Kissinger of the Orient, and the man who turned Singapore from a marlarial island into a city of skyscrapers and an economic powerhouse.

On Afghanistan:

The United States, said this key player in every major Asian event for almost half a century, "should realize Afghanistan cannot succeed as a democracy. You attempted too much. Let the warlords sort it out in such a way you don't try to build a new state. The British tried and failed. Just make clear if they commit aggression again and offer safe haven to Taliban, they will be punished."

On China

. . . Given the rules of the game now that China is in WTO, they can only grow stronger year by year, and within three or four decades, China's GDP will equal

BRITAIN MUZLES THEIR OLYMPIC ATHLETES FROM CRITICIZING THE CHINESE REGIME

Oh brother!  Talk about a kow tow to tyranny and an abject overthrowing of  free speech!

British Olympic chiefs are to force athletes to sign a contract promising not to speak out about China's appalling human rights record – or face being banned from travelling to Beijing.

The move – which raises the spectre of the order given to the England football team to give a Nazi salute in Berlin in 1938 – immediately provoked a storm of protest. . . 

Should a competitor agree to the clause but then speak their mind about China, they will be put on the next plane home.

Read the story and weep for spineless England.  Many in England are calling for a boycott of the Olympics under these  requirements.  (HT: Drudge)

KEITH AND KRISTYN GETTY - MODERN HYMN WRITERS

Many people reading this blog no doubt already know all about Keith and Kristyn Getty and their highly popular modern hymns, "In Christ Alone," "The Power of the Cross," plus many others.  I read an article about them today and went to their website  where they offer lyrics to their hymns and some bars from each. This is exactly the kind of Christian music I especially appreciate!  Read here about their philosophy of hymn writing.  Keith and Kristyn have a full year of scheduled events ahead throughout the UK, the US, and also India (in November).  Kristyn sings "in Christ Alone" on YouTube.  Elsewhere on YouTube there is a teaching video of "In Christ Alone" with lyrics.  The Jesus Film can be seen in the background.

Update 3/10/08 - The February 2008 Christianity Today published an interview with Keith and Kristyn titled "Singable Doctrine."  I greatly appreciate some of the quotes and want to preserve them here. Keith said he wanted to do two things:

One was to write songs that helped teach the faith, and the second was to write songs that every generation could sing.

He went on to say:

I don't think of music as only teaching, but I do think that what we sing profoundly affects how we think.  It profoundly affects how we feel.  It affects, therefore, our emotional and our didactic relationship with God. But what we sing is for people of all ages. . .

"The radical thing about a church service is that people of every age and every wealth bracket and every background come together and sing together.  So we write these quasi-folk melodies that everyone can sing, and we hope there's an enduring quality to them."

The husband and wife team work with a lot of pastors and theologians who advise and help them.  Keith says,

Modern worship songs tend to have a very thin range of subjects.  They also tend to explore subjects in a less deep way than traditional hymnody does.

So true!

"Our goal is to write great songs, but through them to nourish and enrich and inspire and invigorate people with truth applied intellectually and emotionally.  It is a tough goal, which is why in every 100 melodies I write, maybe half of one becomes a song! . .

There are 20 centuries of Christian music history and a glorious history of sound traditions from before that.  There's so much we can learn.  Even if we detest the musical styles or we feel they're an irrelevancy to our paticular gifting, there's a rich legacy to be learned from.

I am in total agreement with their stated goals and philosophy!

Dobson Endorses Mike Huckabee

For the record, here is Dobson's statement issued February 7, 2008.

I am endorsing Gov. Mike Huckabee for President of the United States today. My decision comes in the wake of my statement on Super Tuesday that I could not vote for Sen. John McCain, even if he goes on to win the Republican nomination. His record on the institution of the family and other conservative issues makes his candidacy a matter of conscience and concern for me.

That left two pro-family candidates whom I could support, but I was reluctant to choose between them. However, the decision by Gov. Mitt Romney to put his campaign "on hold" changes the political landscape. The remaining candidate for whom I could vote is Gov. Huckabee. His unwavering positions on

PUBERTY AT THE AGE OF 8

Click here for an interesting article followed by Dr. Mercola's comments, followed by reader responses (over 65 so far).

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR TEEN?

I saw these questions in Relay magazine and thought them worth passing along.  The article reads: "You think you know your children. but do you?  This test can help.  Plan to sit with your teen and compare your answers!"

1. Who is your teen's best friend?
2. Your teen's favourite rock group?
3. What are his/her favourite classes at school?
4. Of what accomplishment is your teen the proudest?
5. Is your teen saving money right now?  For what?
6. What is your teen's favourite TVprogram?  Website?
7. What is your teen's biggest complaint about your family?

SHOULD MORE "GOSPELS" BE IN THE NEW TESTAMENT?

In the December 2007 issue of Christianity Today, Darrell Bock wrote an article pointing out the need for churches to equip their people in answering common objections to Christianity that have become popular in recent days. It is not unusual, for example, for people to say, "Well, what about all those other gospels that never made it into the Bible?" Or, "Don't you know that history is written by the winners and

DR. DOBSON ON McCAIN

Read by Laura Ingraham today (via Hugh Hewitt, with my emphases):

"I'm deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a Constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriage, who voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, who opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty, and who has little regard for freedom of speech, who organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters, and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language.

ENGLAND CONTINUES ITS CAPITULATION TO MUSLIMS

In England, the Telegraph reports husbands with multile wives have been given the right to claim extra welfare benefits.  Amazing!

Even though bigamy is a crime in Britain, the decision by ministers means that polygamous marriages can now be recognised formally by the state, so long as the weddings took place in countries where the arrangement is legal.

The outcome will chiefly benefit Muslim men with more than one wife, as is permitted under Islamic law. . .

David Pryce-Jones reports: 

News of the Islamization of Britain comes thick and fast. In the last few days, the children’s story of the three little pigs who built a house against the Big Bad Wolf has been forbidden for fear of offending Muslims. . .  According to a government program, British schools

Quick Takes

- Iranian sisters face stoning for adultery  (HT: Drudge)

- Chinese internet users fighting government controls

- Introducing Cindy McCain (John McCain's wife)

- James Q. Wilson on Pro-Israel Christians and Anti-Evangelical Jews

--Man with a cold (funny short video)

100 CHRISTIAN BOOKS THAT CHANGED THE CENTURY

William J. Petersen and Randy Petersen wrote 100 Christian Books that Changed the Century back in 2000. The Petersens present their book as a conversation piece, knowing that their selections will occasion disagreement. In their preface they caution that their selections do not necessarily represent the best books, but those that have significantly shaped people, thinkers, and movements. They offer two pages of commentary on each title.

1899 - In His Steps - by Charles Sheldon

1900 - The Evangelization of the World in This Generation - by John R. Mott

1901 - Quiet Talks on Power - by S.D. Gordon

1901 - Up From Slavery - by Booker T. Washington

1903 - The Crises of the Christ - by G. Campbell Morgan

G.K. CHESTERTON'S BRILLIANT COMPARISON OF St. FRANCIS OF ASSISI AND ST. THOMAS AQUINAS

I wrote a friend today and mentioned G.K. Chesterton's brilliant comparison of St. Francis and St. Thomas Aquinas. It's a passage I love and have pointed out to friends before.  Here it is (from GKC’s Saint Thomas Aquinas ‘The Dumb Ox’):

“St. Francis was a lean and lively little man; thin as a thread and vibrant as a bowstring; and in his motions like an arrow from the bow. All his life was a series of plunges and scampers; darting after the beggar, dashing naked into the woods, tossing himself into the strange ship, hurling himself into