Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

POLL SHOCK: AMERICA NOT LIKE HOLLYWOOD

From UPI, a headline that surprised the media:            

Poll: Young Americans revere monogamy

WASHINGTON,  March 30 (UPI) -- Young Americans have a reverence for national institutions, traditions and family values, a U.S. survey indicates. 

A survey of so-called "millennials" -- those between 21 and 29 -- revealed the group overwhelmingly said they support monogamy, marriage, the U.S. Constitution and the military, The Washington Times reported Sunday.

"We were completely surprised. There has been a faulty portrayal of millennials by the media -- television, films, news, blogs, everything. These people are not the self-entitled, coddled slackers they're made out to be. Misnomers and myths about them are all

ISLAMOBULLIES FORCE SHUTDOWN OF GEERT WILDERS' FILM - "FITNA"

Update 3/31/08 - LiveLeak has restored the film "Fitna."  Michelle Malkin comments .

Update 3/29/08 - The film is available here at Google video and here .  Michelle Malkin offers a news update and more video locations.  Wikipedia has a good overview of the film and the controversy.    A European website offering on-going coverage is Gates of Vienna, see e.g. here and additional posts.

**
Mark Steyn posts the update:

Geert Wilders' film is a hit - over 1.5 million views in English, over 2.5 million in Dutch last time I checked - but it's nevertheless been yanked by LiveLeak, with the following statement:

Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, Liveleak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers. This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else.

Indeed. The Internet will keep Fitna alive in odd corners hither and yon, but only to those who actively seek it out. In the wider world, it goes without saying that such a film is unacceptable, and that this time round the pre-emptive rage (as Diana West

GEERT WILDER'S FILM ON ISLAM IS FINALLY OUT

Update 3/28/08  - Geert Wilders' film yanked  due to Islamobullies.

**
-The film was greatly feared by European governments and elsewhere because of its anti-Islamist thrust. Douglas Murray has important things to say  (HT: the Corner):

Well Geert Wilders' film 'Fitna' is finally out, as of last night, and so far there is no need to retire to the bunker.  At the time of writing there's been a bit of rioting in Karachi but Holland itself is still standing if - thanks to its government - slightly cowed

The film itself. . .  click here for the full 15min version - is well worth seeing.  It isn't for the faint-hearted: footage includes some of the most barbaric acts committed by the jihadists. But there's no burning of the Koran or ripping up of the Koran, or any of the other allegedly 'shocking' things which the Dutch government and others revealingly predicted would be in the film.  The film simply shows what the Koran says and then shows footage of certain Muslims carrying out those words to the letter.  To this extent, anything which people find shocking in the film should be put at the doors of Mohammed and certain of his followers, not Wilders.

KEEPING TRACK OF THE INSIDIOUS "COUNCIL FOR AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS" (CAIR)

Andy McCarthy writes:

You should run, not walk, to my buddy Steve Emerson's outstanding site, the Investigative Project on Terrorism (which Steve heads).. .   the IPT is in the midst of a 10-part series which will be the closest scrutiny ever done on the Council for American-Islamic Relations.  As the IPT sums it up:

[A] careful review of the history, activities, statements, and causes of and by CAIR, it seems that its primary goals are to silence and de-legitimize its critics and redefine what it means to be a moderate Muslim. And when it comes to U.S. efforts to crack down on terrorists and their financiers, CAIR takes an almost visceral stand in opposition. This has the effect of undermining the legitimate security-related concerns and campaigns of the United States and its allies. These conclusions and the summary immediately below are based upon the evidence and examples that follow in this report; beginning with CAIR's very founding.

The first four installments are available here.

[Me]:  I have a lot of regard for Andy McCarthy and I am grateful for his post.

"MOTHER OF ALL CULTURAL BATTLES" IF OBAMA IS THE NOMINEE

Stanley Kurtz explains why:

Thanks to the verbal stylings of Hugh Hewitt, Mark Steyn, and Barack Obama, I got to bed way too late last night. Here’s what I was listening to, and here’s the transcript. (Focus on the first third.) After listening to these autobiographical excerpts from Barack Obama’s Dreams From My Father, read out loud by Obama himself, I’m left with the conviction that, in the 2008 election we are facing the mother of all cultural battles. E.J. Dionne thinks the political culture wars are over. Well, I’ve been rebutting "end of the culture wars" declarations for eight years. They always prove out wrong.

[Continue with 2nd page]

ARAB-AMERICAN ACTIVIST SAYS OBAMA HIDING ANTI-ISRAEL STANCE

Click here.

HILLARY'S LIST OF LIES

In case you missed it, or haven't been paying atention, Dick Morris and McGann list them for us.

Peggy Noonan - Many of Hillary''s supporters now understand the problem with her candidacy -- and with her.

THOMAS SOWELL ON BARACK OBAMA

Sowell's column is well worth reading.  Some snippets:

Barack Obama’s own account of his life shows that he consciously sought out people on the far-left fringe. In college, “I chose my friends carefully,” he said in his first book, "Dreams From My Father". . .

In Shelby Steele’s brilliantly insightful book about Barack Obama — A Bound Man — it is painfully clear that Obama was one of those people seeking a racial identity that he had never really experienced in growing up in a white world. He was trying

WHY I AM SKITTISH ABOUT HUMAN ORGAN DONATING

I wrote on this subject before, a post I titled "Why You May Not Want to Check the 'Organ Donor' Box On Your Driver's License."

Now  David Fredosso writes more:

This story, written up in BioEdge, raises an important question. Is there some reason why medical professionals should consider themselves qualified to decide when a living human being's life is no longer valuable? Or should they limit themselves to what they actually studied in school — the practice of medicine?

[O]ver the last few months, the reputation of the American system for gathering organs has been tarnished. In the most dramatic story, an Oklahoma man recovered four hours after doctors had pronounced him "brain-dead" and were preparing to harvest his organs. Zach Dunlap, 21, sustained severe head injuries after a car accident last November. Since

MISSING FROM OBAMA'S SPEECH - THE UNIVERSAL RIGHT TO LIFE

Obama is adamantly against the right to life.  That is really sad, as life is fundamental to everything else. The National Catholic Register points out that:

Obama not only opposes the right to life — he says ending it is his highest priority. “The first thing I’d do as president is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” he told Planned Parenthood last July. That would immediately turn the United States into the most pro-abortion country in the world. . .

He is a presidential candidate who cannot meaningfully quote the Declaration of Independence.

But he couldn’t quote those words [Declaration of Independence guaranteeing all people the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happines.] He is beholden to special interests that make a great deal of money by denying that people have the right to life. Obama couldn’t say those things ultimately because his official position is that some people are not created equal and do not have equal rights.

And we don’t just mean abortion — though Obama has helped keep abortion legal in all nine months of pregnancy.

Note this next paragraph.  What an abomination!

In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, Obama went a step further when he voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have protected babies who were “accidentally” born alive during attempts to abort them.

He is wrong on Terri Schiavo also!

In a recent debate, Obama said the vote he most regrets was his vote to save Terri Schiavo’s life. . .  (more. . .)

HT: The Corner

COPTIC PRIEST ZAKARIA BOTROS: ISLAM'S "PUBLIC ENEMY #1"

Raymond Ibrahim writes a fascinating article that needs to be read in its entirely.

Though he is little known in the West, Coptic priest Zakaria Botros — named Islam’s “Public Enemy #1” by the Arabic newspaper, al-Insan al-Jadid — has been making waves in the Islamic world. Along with fellow missionaries — mostly Muslim converts — he appears frequently on the Arabic channel al-Hayat (i.e., “Life TV”). There, he addresses controversial topics of theological significance — free from the censorship imposed by Islamic authorities or self-imposed through fear of the zealous mobs who fulminated against the infamous cartoons of Mohammed. Botros’s excurses on little-known but embarrassing aspects of Islamic law and tradition have become a thorn in the side of Islamic leaders throughout the Middle East. 

OBAMA'S CHURCH STRONGLY ANTI-ISRAEL

Hugh Hewitt writes:       

You have got to read the first selection on the "Pastor's Page" from Senator Obama's church bulletin, dated June 10, 2007, titled "Open Letter to Oprah."  It was not authored by Pastor Jeremiah Wright, but by Ali Baghdadi.  It includes this remarkable assertion:

I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank

MICHELLE AND BARACK OBAMA'S TAX RETURNS 2000 - 20006

A poor couple?  Hardly -

Byron York reports:

Several are pointing out the couple's charitable contributions prior to Barack Obama's big book-related payday — in 2002, the Obamas contributed $1,050 from an adjusted gross income of $259,394, and in 2001 they gave $1,470 from an adjusted gross income of $272,759. They contributed far more in Obama's big earning year, 2005, when they gave $77,315 on an adjusted gross income of $1,655,106.

Something else that strikes me about the returns is their relation to Michelle Obama's tales of her and her husband's struggle. When I saw Mrs. Obama at an appearance in Zanesville, Ohio last month, she was telling a group of low-income women — the median household income in the county in which Zanesville is located was $37,192 in 2004, well below the state and national medians — about how hard it can be to keep things together. Her talk often touched on money.  "I know we're spending 

Quick Takes

** Stanley Kurtz writes on Dr.James Cone, a leading advocate of Black Liberation theology, and the mentor of Obama's pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

** Victor Davis Hanson takes a look at Rev. Jeremiah Wright's successor, Rev. Moss who "likens the media storm over Jeremiah Wright's racist and anti-American remarks to a lynching and crucifixion."

Rev. Moss’s interviews and sermons concerning Wright suggest that he is in complete agreement with his former pastor’s views, and will continue to promulgate them, albeit perhaps with less profanity and slander.

** Turkish ruling party cracks down on a free press 

** Andrew G. Bostom on our inability to stand tall for human rights

** Stephen Brown writes on Dutch MP Geert Wilders (filmaker) - "The Islamists' Nemesis"   Update 3/28/08 - Here's the link to the Geert Wilders movie

MARVELOUS HYMN OF TRIUMPH: "JESUS CHRIST IS RISEN TODAY"

The Litchfield Cathedral Choir and congregation lead us in singing this marvelous hymn.  Inspiring!

** Update 3/24/08 - A Canadian female pastor wants to take Christ out of Christianity.  How sad and how foolish, as if you could retain hope without its basis in the love of God and the salvation God has made known through Christ.  I think Ken Samples said it well when he wrote about the resurrection of Christ as follows (his emphases):

"Many believers today fail to grasp the tremendous significance that the resurrection of Jesus holds both doctrinally and apologetically for the historic Christian faith.  Easter is what ultimately separates the Christian faith from all other religious traditions and claims.

Both the doctrinal nature and evidentiary truth of Christianity rest squarely upon Jesus Christ's bodily resurrection from the grave.  For Jesus' being raised to new life three days after His death pumps the heart of the Christian gospel (doctrine), and is Christianity's central supporting fact (apologetics).  The truth of Christianity uniquely

CHRISTIANITY TODAY'S 2008 BOOK AWARDS

I am always amazed at the quantity and quality of books published each year.  This annotated list will prove stimulating.  Here are a couple of samples with CT comments:

Under the topic Missions/Global Affairs:
Disciples of All Nations: Pillars of World Christianity by Lamin O. Sanneh (Oxford)

Our judges said:

"Global sweep and academic depth. A masterful piece demonstrating the development of global Christianity. Sanneh shows missions as the complex story of missionaries and the national movements that missionaries set in motion, in all its warts and glory."

Under the topic "Theoogy/Ethics":
Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music by Jeremy S. Begbie (Baker Academic)

Our judges said:

"A profoundly creative, wonderfully engaging reflection on the encounter of theology and music. Impressive for its thoughtfulness, theological depth, and balance. Offers a robust theology of creativity and worship. Begbie's book is as good a way as any to discover afresh how faith comes through hearing."

And here are links to Christianity Today's previous Book Awards: 2007, 2006,  2005, and 2004. 

COMMEMORATING "GOOD FRIDAY"

See William Donaghy's sonnet series on the Stations of the Cross.  See also Mark D. Roberts' short reflections on the seven last words of Christ plus his meditations on the Stations of the Cross.  (HT: Hugh Hewitt) 

- [Me] Today at noon I walked the "Stations of the Cross" along with others in one of our city's parks.  This commemoration of Christ's condemnation and crucifixion was led and sponsored by clergy from a local Episcopal Church, a Lutheran Church, a Methodist Church, and a Roman Catholic Church. 

I greatly appreciated the opportunity to focus and meditate on Christ's sufferings, and to be led in appropriate prayerful responses.  Afterwards I drove a few blocks away to a Presbyterian church and

THERE'S A GOOD "GOOD FRIDAY" BOOK: TIM KELLER'S "THE REASON FOR GOD: BELIEF IN AN AGE OF SKEPTICISM"

Update 3/22/08 - Here is a Tim Keller here speaking on "Belief in an Age of Skepticism" at the Veritas Forum at UC - Berkeley, March 4, 2008.  This speech is simply magnificent.  My thanks to the Grey Coats website for posting the video. 

Click here for additional Tim Keller YouTube lectures and dialogs. Here's a February 18, 2008 Newsweek article on Tim Keller.  My previous posts on Keller can be found here, here and especially here.  Note Keller's book, referenced below, which looks like a must-read classic.  Click through to read the Amazon reviews.

**
-Mike Gerson applauds Rev. Tim Keller's new book, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism .  Gerson (former head speech writer for President Bush), says of Keller:

His 5,000-strong Manhattan congregation is a model of outreach to 20- and 30-something artists and professionals. Keller's church symbolizes an emerging urban evangelicalism -- at a recent service, he recalls, a Republican speechwriter sat near a songwriter for Madonna. Many of Keller's parishioners are deeply skeptical of the religious right, untroubled by evolution and begin their complex spiritual journeys with serious doubts.

Keller explains that members of this rising generation are not so much relativists as they are philosophically rootless. "They have a deep morality, but they have no idea why." And they generally share some objections to religious belief: that traditional faith is exclusive and intolerant and that the existence of suffering is inconsistent with the existence of a loving God.

A centerpiece argument of Keller's response might be called the myth of secular neutrality. "Skeptics argue that they have the intellectual high ground," he says, "but they are really making

NOT EVERYONE IS INTO POLITICS

John Derbyshire writes:

Knee-deep as we have all been, for over a year now, in political chat, we forget how very little most Americans care about politics. A week or so ago a very intelligent, professional acquaintance said to me: "Hey, this Obama guy is something new, isn't he? It would be so cool to have a black President!" It was obvious, from the remark and subsequent conversation, that Sen. Obama had just then, for the first time, impinged on my friend's consciousness, in mid-March of 2008.

I am sure it won't be at all difficult to turn up people in mid-October saying: "Hey, this Obama guy is something new …"

Robert Conquest argues in one of his books that this widespread indifference to politics is one of the great strengths of Anglo-Saxon civilization.

Along the same lines, Byron York cites an e-mail he received:

I am a professor of political science at a state university. When I tried to incorporate the controversy/speech into a segment on elections, I was stunned to find out that only 16 students out of nearly 100 were familiar with the issue and had watched/read the speech OR seen news coverage of it.

LIBERALISM AND CHILDHOOD

David L. Tubbs has written Freedom's Orphans: Contemporary Liberalism and the Fate of American Children.  (HT: Stanley Kurtz)  Amazon's book description reads:

Has contemporary liberalism's devotion to individual liberty come at the expense of our society's obligations to children? Divorce is now easy to obtain, and access to everything from violent movies to sexually explicit material is zealously protected as freedom of speech. But what of the effects on the young, with their special needs and vulnerabilities? Freedom's Orphans seeks a way out of this predicament. Poised to ignite fierce debate within and beyond academia, it documents the increasing indifference of liberal theorists and jurists to what were long deemed core elements of children's welfare.

Evaluating large changes in liberal political theory and jurisprudence, particularly American liberalism after the Second World War, David Tubbs argues that the expansion of rights for adults has come at a high and generally unnoticed cost. In championing

IS ATHEISM GETTING A FREE PASS IN THE MEDIA?

From CBNNews.com:

Does broadcast and print media give atheism the same degree of scrutiny as Christianity and other religious faiths?

The Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute says no. [Executive Summary here -"Apostles of Atheism."] 

The Institute examined the apparent "rise in atheism," subject covered in broadcast news programs, three leading weekly news magazines, and four programs on taxpayer-funded National Public Radio, all shown during 2007.

Gospel of Godlessness

Although only eight percent of Americans call themselves atheists, the report found that not only is the news media hostile toward religion, particularly Christianity, but the media may be spreading a "Gospel of Godlessness" on the American public.

"Whether deliberately or not, the news media did not subject atheism or atheists to the same skepticism to which they subject Christians and Christianity," the report said. "Journalists who look at America's majority religion through a skeptical prism should equally apply their critical faculties to atheism."

In their report, CMI details their discovery of imbalances in the media's coverage of the religion. Among the findings:

- Eighty percent of feature stories about atheism or atheists had a positive tone, 20 percent were neutral. No feature stories were negative.

- Atheists were used to challenge religious viewpoints more than journalists used religious viewpoints to challenge atheism. Fifty-four percent of atheist-themed stories included a religious counterpoint, but 71 percent of the Christian-themed stories included atheist counterpoints or were written from an atheistic perspective.

Double Standard

"By airing unchallenged interviews and reporting predominantly positive-toned features, the news organizations in this study effectively promoted atheism and held it in higher regard than other religions," the report said. "While the media are not

3,000 LATVIANS PARTICIPATE IN PRO-NAZI RALLY

Micah Halpern reports:

On Sunday, in Riga, three thousand Latvians came out to join a parade. It was a parade to honor those Latvians who belonged to and fought in and defended the honor of a notorious SS Unit known as the Latvian Legion. . .

Latvia, along with the rest of the USSR, was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Then, as now, Riga was the capital of Latvia. According to a census taken in 1935 there were 43,672 Jews living in Riga. After the war there were 150 Jews, survivors from Riga.

Most of Riga's Jews were murdered in a place called Rumbla, a "killing fields" located only seven miles outside the city. There, on two separate days, first on November 30th and then on December 8th, 1941 the Nazis - with the help of the local Latvians, mowed down 25,000 Jews.

The Jewish Ghetto in Riga, like most Jewish ghettos created during World War II, was situated in the most densely populated area of the Jewish community. In Riga that area was called Maskava. In Riga, like in every other city under their control, in order for the Nazi massacre of the Jews to succeed the Germans needed local assistance. The assistance that the Latvian community of Riga gave to Nazi Command came in the form of the Latvian Legion, proud members of the German SS.

We now know, the proof is in the numbers, that local Latvians today, are still proud of their members of the Latvian Legion. . .  [more]

ON THE RELATIONSHIP OF OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY TO HIS FRIENDSHIP WITH REV. WRIGHT

Stanley Kurtz breaks new ground with his stunning analysis of what we now know about Obama's mind in reference to his pastor, to the way it would work in relation to America's enemies.    Read the following:

The answer to the persisting question, "Who is Barack Obama?" grows increasingly clear. Barack Obama is the appealing and only slightly more moderate face of American left-radicalism. Edward McClelland’s article, "The crazy uncles in Obama’s attic" is only the latest to confirm the pattern. More dots, more connections...

Obama’s relationship to Wright is paradigmatic. Obama’s own views are not precisely Wright’s, but Obama understands and is attracted to Wright’s radicalism and wants to win at least a gruff sort of understanding and even acceptance of it from Americans at large. What’s scary is that this is all-too-similar to the way Obama thinks about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar Asad. Obama may not agree with them either, but he feels as though he understands their grievances well enough to bridge the gap between these leaders and the American people. That is why Obama is willing to speak to Ahmadinejad and Asad without preconditions.

Can we fairly make analogies between internal American splits and differences between nations? No we cannot. But that is precisely Obama’s error–and it is

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV ADMITS HE IS A CHRISTIAN; VISITS THE TOMB OF ST. FRANCIS IN ITALY

Update 3/26/08 - Gorbachev dispels "closet Christian" rumors; says he is an atheist

**
Peter Robinson reports, citing today's London Telegraph news article:

Whenever Ronald Reagan would mention his suspicion that Mikhail Gorbachev was a secret believer, everyone on the White House staff would scoff, thinking the president naive. When I had the opportunity to speak to Gorbachev a couple of years ago, however, I found myself concluding that Reagan had been onto something after all. Why, I asked, had Gorbachev refrained from putting down the revolution of 1989, just as Khrushchev had put down the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 and Brezhnev had put down the Prague Spring of 1968? "Because of something I shared with Ronald Reagan," Gorbachev replied. "Christian morality."

Now the last leader of the Soviet Union has spent half an hour on his knees at the tomb of St. Francis.  From the London Telegraph:

Mikhail Gorbachev...has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi.

Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb.His arrival in Assisi was

HOLY WEEK READING - "THE MAN BORN TO BE KING" BY DOROTHY L. SAYERS

A year ago I put up a post mentioning that C.S. Lewis made it a practice during Holy Week to re-read the cycle of plays Dorothy L. Sayers wrote on the life of Christ which were broadcast over the BBC in 1943.  A few days ago I read the section in which she dramatizes Jesus' miracle of turning water into wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee.  What an amazing job she did!  Her dramatist's eye sets the scene, depicts with humor and insight personality differences, and her dialog explores--profoundly in the case of Mary--the thoughts of people.  Just terrific. 

Do check my earlier post for the information you will find there.  The phrase "you owe it to yourself" is vastly overworked and almost always quite bogus, but it's not in this case.  I can't recommend this cycle of plays highly enough.

REACTIONS TO OBAMA'S SPEECH

Michele Malkin has lots to say and she, in turn, considers Allahpundit's "the best takedown of Obamamessiah of the day."  John Derbyshire is developing a growing dislike for Obama. "The speech is slippery, evasive, dishonest, and sometimes insulting."  I always find Stanley Kurtz uncommonly thoughtful and his published reactions today continue that tradition.  Charles Murray is dazzled by the speech's brilliance.  (Update: he expands here.) Victor Davis Hanson calls it "an elegant farce."  Rush Limbaugh offered his analysis here

Thomas Sowell wrote before Obama's speech,

The fact that Obama talks differently than Jeremiah Wright does not mean that his track record is different. Barack Obama’s voting record in the Senate is perfectly consistent with the far-left ideology and the grievance culture, just as his wife’s statement that she was never proud of her country before is consistent with that ideology.. .   

Shelby Steele published his perspective before the speech.

Update 3/19/08 - Thomas Sowell gives his opinion after hearing the speech.  The National Review Editors opine here.  (Well worth reading).  Michael Gerson calls it "A Speech That Fell Short" (a very probing, insighful review).  Michael Graham opines in the Boston Herald.  See VDH on next page.  Important.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF PSYCHIATRISTS WARN ABORTIONS CAN LEAD TO MENTAL ILLNESS

Click here.  (HT: Drudge)  It's scandalous that it has taken this long for an accredited body to recognize what is an indisputable fact: abortion causes huge psychological and mental grief in women's lives--if not immediately, than later.  Planned Parenthood's campaign to push abortion at every turn will hopefully suffer at least a glancing blow by virtue of this British announcement.

OBAMA DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE CRISIS IN TEACHING HISTORY IN THE UNITED STATES

As usual, Victor Davis Hanson says it best (my underlining):

Today a news item reported on Sen. Obama’s recent take on the current status of education:

“He said schools should do a better job of teaching all students African-American history "because that's part of American history," as well as women's struggle for equality, the history of unions, the role of Hispanics in U.S. and other matters that he suggested aren't given enough attention.”

"I want us to have a broad-based history" taught in schools, he said, even including more on "the Holocaust as well as other issues of oppression" around the world.”

But anyone familiar with the historical illiteracy of today’s college student understands that more of the “oppression” history that Sen. Obama is advocating is precisely the problem, not the solution. Our high school students already know who Harriet Tubman is, but not U.S. Grant or Shiloh. They have been introduced to Crispus Attucks, but not Alexander Hamilton. They know World War II largely as the Japanese internment and Hiroshima (cf. Reverend Wright on that), but have not a clue about the Bulge or Okinawa or the Munich travesty.

RANKING THE FREE ONLINE FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES

Click here.

DUTCH TO LEGALIZE GAY SEX IN PUBLIC PARK

From Lisa Schiffren at The Corner:

The famously tolerant Dutch, whose nation has the highest emmigration [sic] of any European country as the native born flee the effects of multi-culturalism, Islamization, and the after effects of legalizing everything, have come up with a new line to cross. Public sex in Amsterdam's city parks will now be legal. But only for gays. And henceforth dogs will no longer be allowed off their leashes. Read about it here. But I am wondering why the government won't let the poor dogs run free while the gays are "having uncomplicated relations." What are they afraid of?

MORE ON OBAMA'S PASTOR, REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT

Update 3/17/08 - Spengler on Rev. Wright and black liberation theology.  His  article appears in the Asian Times Online.  (HT: The Corner)

Update 3/16/08 - VDH analyzes the Obama/Democratic spin.

Update 3/15/08: Last night Barack Obama appeared on television to respond to his crisis, and crisis it is.  Michelle Malkin comments   and links to  other evaluations.

**
Victor Davis Hanson explains the utter seriousness of Obama's close association with his pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  (Note my previous posts on Rev. Jeremiah Wright here and here.)

Betrayed?

The problems with Rev. Wright and Sen. Obama are fivefold. They won’t go away, but they will raise dilemmas for him that have no analogy, no parallel with other religious leaders of dubious past declamations who have supported the other candidates:

1) The Obamas were not merely endorsed by, or attended the church of, Rev. Wright, but subsidized his hatred with generous donations [in 2006 Obama gave $22,500 to the church], were married by him, and had their children baptized by this venomous preacher; there is nothing quite comparable in the case of Sens. Clinton and McCain.

2) Rev. Wright’s invective is not insensitive or hyperbolic alone, but in the end disgusting. And when listened to rather than read, the level of emotion and fury only compound the racism and hatred, whether in its attack on the Clintons, or profanity-laced slander of the United States and its history, or in gratuitous references to other races. Its reactionary Afrocentrism, conspiracy-theory, and illiberal racial separatism take us back to the 1970s, and compare with the worst of the fossilized Farrakhan—and have no remote parallel in the present campaign.

WE CAN'T TRUST MSM REPORTING ON THE ALLEGED NON-LINK BETWEEN AL QAEDA AND SADDAM HUSSEIN

I find it disconcerting that truthfulness in reporting no longer can be assumed.  In fact, we must now treat news organs the way Russians had to treat "Pravda," i.e. as instruments of propaganda. Consider Andy McCarthy's revelation over at "The Corner:"

As several of us have noted countless times, there are influential elements of the Intelligence Community who are unmovably vested in the absence of a meaningful relationship between Saddam Hussein's regime and radical Islam.  By some calculated leaks to friends in the mainstream media, they've once again managed to put an Orwellian spin on an important study, claiming the new Pentagon report on Iraq's terror shows, as the New York Times and ABC put it, "no link" between Saddam and al Qaeda.  They are trying to write the narrative before anyone can read what the report actually says.

What it says is breathtaking.  Today's required reading should be Steve Hayes's post over at the Weekly Standard's blog and Eli Lake's article in the New York Sun. There is simply no doubt that there were serious ties between Saddam's Iraq and al Qaeda elements — most especially, Egyptian Islamic Jihad (run by al Qaeda's No. 2, Ayman Zawahiri, who merged formally EIJ into al Qaeda in 1998).

DOES JOHN McCAIN HAVE A THOUGHT-OUT PHILOSOPHY AND WORLDVIEW?

Peggy Noonan doesn't think so, or at least she hasn't yet seen any evidence of it.  I have to agree.  Excerpts:

One always wonders with Mr. McCain: What exactly does he feel passionately about, what great question? Or rather, what does he stand for, really? For he often shows passion, but he rarely speaks of meaning. The issues that summon his full engagement are issues on which he's been challenged by his party and others. McCain, to McCain, is defined by his maverickness. That's who he is. . .

He has positions, but a series of separate, discrete and seemingly unconnected stands do not coherence make. Mr. McCain, in public, does not dig down to the meaning of things, to why he stands where he stands, to what understanding of life drives his political decisions. But voters hunger for coherence, for a philosophical thread that holds all the positions together. . .

What overall view of the world, of strategy, of American meaning, is being expressed in Iraq? Who are we in the world? What do we mean to do in the 21st century? And in what way does this connect to a philosophical view of life, of the meaning of being here on earth as Americans? In the most successful political careers there is a purpose, a guiding philosophy. Not an ideology—ideology is something imposed from above, something abstract dreamed up by an intellectual. Philosophy isn't imposed from above, it bubbles up from the ground, from life. And its expression is missing with Mr. McCain.

DUBAI - ARCHITECTURE AND GROWTH

Amazing.  Click here.

SHOULD POLITICAL WIVES BE EXPECTED TO STAND NEXT TO THEIR HUSBANDS AT NEWS CONFERENCES WHEN THEIR MAN CONFESSES SHAMEFUL SEXUAL BEHAVIOR?

I like Mark Hemingway's post.  A reader responds to my article on NRO today about why in tarnation political wives feel compelled to stand next to their husband at a press conference while he announces his depravity to the world:

. . . What I would like to see, however, is a politician show up without his wife and say: (1) she wanted to stand here with me; (2) I am grateful for her support; but (3) I told her "no" - I'm the one who failed and I'm the one who should bear the public scorn.

But that would require that one of these knuckleheads was, emotionally, a grown man.

That strikes me as exactly right. Suffice to say, I don't expect the next disgraced politician to protect his wife in such a manner...

Me: Nor do I, but it would be the right thing to do.  Be sure to read Hemingway's article to which the reader above is responding.

"GOD DAMN AMERICA" SAYS OBAMA'S PASTOR, THE REV. JEREMIAH WRIGHT

Note updates at the end of the post

**

From ABC News.com via Kathryn Lopez:

Sen. Barack Obama's pastor says blacks should not sing "God Bless America" but "God damn America."

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Obama's pastor for the last 20 years at the Trinity United Church of Christ on Chicago's south side, has a long history of what even Obama's campaign aides concede is "inflammatory rhetoric," including the assertion that the United States brought on the 9/11 attacks with its own "terrorism."

In a campaign appearance earlier this month, Sen. Obama said, "I don't think my church is actually particularly controversial." He said Rev. Wright "is like an old uncle who says things I don't always agree with," telling a Jewish group that everyone has someone like that in their family.

Rev. Wright married Obama and his wife Michelle, baptized their two daughters and is credited by Obama for the title of his book, "The Audacity of Hope."

An ABC News review of dozens of Rev. Wright's sermons, offered for sale by the church, found repeated denunciations of the U.S. based on what he described as his reading of the Gospels and the treatment of black Americans.

"The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people," he said in a 2003 sermon. "God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

In addition to damning America, he told his congregation on the Sunday after Sept. 11, 2001 that the United States had brought on al Qaeda's attacks because of its own terrorism.

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Rev. Wright said in a sermon on Sept. 16, 2001.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost," he told his congregation.
Sen. Obama told the New York Times he was not at the church on the day of Rev. Wright's 9/11 sermon. "The violence of 9/11 was inexcusable and without justification," Obama said in a recent interview. "It sounds like he was trying to be provocative," Obama told the paper.

Rev. Wright, who announced his retirement last month, has built a large and loyal following at his church with his mesmerizing sermons, mixing traditional spiritual content and his views on contemporary issues.

"I wouldn't call it radical. I call it being black in America," said one congregation member outside the church last Sunday.

Me: What does it say about a person (Obama) who has willingly sat under a man preaching such views for such a long time?  And who has furthermore called him a friend and mentor and guide?  To me it says a lot.  Spooky.  Note: I previously blogged about Obama's pastor here.  - For Victor Davis Hanson's comments, keep reading.
 

STEVEN W. MOSHER - "THE DEMOGRAPHIC WINTER AND THE BARREN LEFT"

Steven W. Mosher offers an important response to radical feminist Kathryn Joyce's article in The Nation.  Mosher is president of the Population Research Institute and author of Population Control: Real Costs, Illusory Benefits (Transaction, 2008).  In this post over at First Things magazine Mosher offers a valuable world survey of the state of population demographics that the far left refuses to take seriously.

WHY ARE SO MANY WOMEN DEPRESSED?

Dennis Prager offers an answer.

ELIOT SPITZER EMBARASSES HIS FAMILY, NEW YORK, AND THE NATION

Gov. Spitzer of New York has used hookers for six years: sources

"Whoever walks in integrity walks securely,
     but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out." 
                    - Proverbs 10:9

"When pride comes, then comes disgrace,
     but with the humble is wisdom."
                   - Proverbs 11:2

"Drink water from your own cistern,
   flowing water from your own well."
                 - Proverbs 5:15

The man refused to protect innocent babies. (Here and here). He was a dedicated foe of conservative causes.  He behaved in a thuggish, brutal manner. The Wall Street Journal called him a man without restraints.

Roger Kimball summarizes:

Really, he was a power-hungry, regulation-crazed functionary whose chief sin was to harness the power of the state to destroy his enemies and aggrandize himself. Had he been a little more hypocritical he might have been less dangerous.

Update: Planned Parenthood lauded Spitzer for rejecting abstinence-based sex education in New York and urged PP supporters to send him a "thank you" letter. (Sept. 2007).

Update: 3/12/08 - Drudge links to a New York Times article that identifies "Kristen" as AshleyAlexander Dupre.  Drudge also links to Dupre's "MySpace"page and photos.   

ALGERIAN JOURNALIST MOHAMMED SIFAOUI INFILTRATED AN AL QUAEDA CELL

Sifaoui considers Islamism to be fascism, recognizes the existence of moderate Islam, and predicts Iran will attack Israel as soon as it can.  The fascinating, and chilling, interview can be found here.  Sifaoui is the author of Mes freres assassins: Comment j'ai infiltre une cellule d'Al-Qaida.

PHILOSOPHER AND CHRISTIAN APOLOGIST DR. WILLIAM CRAIG REPORTS ON RECENT DEBATES

In February, 2008, Craig debated Dr. John Shook at The University of British Columbia (Vancouver) before a raucous crowd of over 1,200 people.  Craig's summary of the debate is well worth reading.  (Note: Vancouver has a church attendance of 3%!)

Craig's debate and interaction at the University of Sasketchewan (Saskatoon) is likewise well worth reading.  Craig and his debate partner Dr. George Williamson, appeared together for an hour and a half on the John Gormley Show, a popular local radio program. Click here to listen to this call-in show.

Craig also spoke in February at the Veritas Forum at Georgia Tech.  His report is here.  I have blogged on William Lane Craig before - namely his talk last December in San Diego on the question, "Tolerance and Certainty in Religion: Are They Mutually Exclusive? "

RECENTLY UPDATED POSTS

Bruce Thornton - Decline and Fall: Europe's Slow-Motion Suicide - Today on this post I added a link to a video interview with Thornton.  Thornton asked, "If traditional Christianity is discarded, then what will unify Europeans?”

Keith and Kristyn Getty - Modern Hymnwriters - Today I added material from a February, 2008 Christianity Today interview titled "Singable Doctrine."

C.S. Lewis Read Dorothly L. Sayers' "The Man Born to Be King" Every Year During Holy Week - Today I added a link to a  preview of "The Man Born to Be King" available online from Google Books.

Yesterday I added material to Evangelical Churches Feeling Renewed By Adopting Ancient Worship Practices

Updates also added to Slimy Planned Parenthood

THE BALTIMORE POST DOES A PROFILE OF BLOGGER MICHELLE MALKIN

And believe it or not it is fair, and in fact positive.  Read it here and learn about Malkin's home and family, as well as her work.  (Readers of this blog will recall my frequent links to her website.)

L. BRENT BOZELL WARNS THE REPUBLICAN ESTABLISHMENT: DON'T ASSUME CONSERVATIVES WILL FALL INTO LINE AND BACK McCAIN

Bozell has written a genuinely useful column, offering an historical review of  Republican establishment miscalculations.  They are about to do it again unless they change course dramatically.

For 20 years, the moderate establishment of the Republican Party has told conservatives to sit down, shut up and do as we're told. History shows that sometimes we bite the bullet. But not always. I absolutely guarantee that this year we cannot be taken for granted. This is a movement fed up with betrayals, and they've come one after the other.

Bozell points out that  through his surrogates, McCain is attacking Republican leaders in talk radio and elsewhere.  Bozell says, This is beyond folly. It is political suicide.  (more. . .)

EVANGELICAL CHURCHES FEELING RENEWED BY ADOPTING ANCIENT WORSHIP PRACTICES

This is a fascinating article that appeared today in the Washington Post.  My own journey towards the Anglican Church enables me to identify with the hunger which this article describes.  I had to leave the Episcopal Church in the United States some years ago, but I deeply appreciated much of my worship experience there.  Sometime I will have to write more about that.

Update 3/9/08 - I got around today to reading my misplaced Christianity Today magazine for February, 2008 and came across the cover story on the same subject, "The Future Lies in the Past."  It is comprehensive and illuminating.  Also appearing, in the same issue, the sidebar, "Monastic Evangelicals: The attraction of ancient spiritual diciplines," which mentions a number of recent books.

CZECH PRESIDENT VACLAV KLAUS WITH DISSENTING VIEWS ON GLOBAL WARMING, RUSSIA, KOSOVO, AND AMERICA

Brian M. Carney of the Wall Street Journal reports on his interview with Klaus.  An excerpt:

Mr. Klaus is also interested in the politics of global warming. He has written a book, tentatively titled "Blue, Not Green Planet," published in Czech last year and due out in English translation in the U.S. this May. The main question of the book is in its subtitle: "What is in danger: climate or freedom?"

He likens global-warming alarmism to communism, which he experienced first-hand in Cold War Czechoslovakia, then a Soviet satellite. While the communists argued that we must all sacrifice some freedom in pursuit of "equality," the "warmists," as Mr. Klaus calls them, want us to sacrifice liberty -- especially economic liberty -- to prevent a change in climate. In both cases, in Mr. Klaus's view, the costs of achieving the goal, and the impossibility of truly doing so, argue strongly against paying a price of freedom.

WE ARE UNWILLING TO CONFRONT POLYGAMY AMONG IMMIGRANTS

Lisa Schiffren writes:

My piece here tells the story of Moussa Magassa, an illegal immigrant from Mali of various occupations, who came to the attention of the New York media, city government and readers nationally last year when he lost several children in a tragic fire exactly one year ago. It turned out that he had been living quite nicely, with both of his wives and all of their children in the house that burned.  Mr. Magassa's family has grown quite a bit in the intervening year — and not just the usual ways.

It also turns out that there is a large community of West Africans here in New York who have brought with them their Islamic practice and tribal culture of polygamous marriage to the U.S.  They bring in additional wives on false visas, they hide the practice, and the mediating institutions of the state, which should be inculcating our cultural practices and laws— welfare bureaucracies, schools, fire departments — turn a blind eye because

EUROPE LOVES OBAMA

Guy Sorman at City Journal reports:

Europe’s media and left-wing intelligentsia see Barack Obama as the most appealing candidate for the U.S. presidency. He exemplifies what the French leftist magazine Le Nouvel Observateur calls “the America we like.” Most Europeans deny that they’re anti-American; they argue instead that there are two Americas—the good and the bad. Michael Moore is a good American, honored with the Cannes film festival’s highest prize in 2006 for his anti-Bush fantasy documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. Other good Americans include Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Noam Chomsky, Barbra Streisand, and Philip Roth. Charlton Heston and Billy Graham are bad—as bad as McDonald’s—and so, of course, are President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Let us understand why, from the European perspective, Obama is good.  . .  (More . . .)

VIOLENCE ESCALATES FOR CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ

Christians in Iraq need our prayers.  The U.S. government, while it has a military presence, needs to insure their safety.  From OneNewsNow:

John Eibner, who heads a worldwide Christian human rights group, says although the U.S.-led military surge is reducing violence overall in Iraq, the situation for Christians is still tense and dangerous.

A Catholic archbishop was recently kidnapped in eastern Mosul, and his two bodyguards -- who were both Christian -- were shot and killed. This is the latest in a long line of violent acts targeting Christians throughout Iraq. Since the fall of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, more than 400,000 Christians have been forced to flee the country.

Dr. John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International, encourages believers in the U.S. to call on the government to ensure that Christians in Iraq are protected. "We have a special responsibility because we are in a position to make a difference," says Eibner. "It's now or never, and we have to pull out all stops if we're going to fulfill our obligations as members of the body of Christ, to help the other parts of the body that are suffering."

Christians are not simply caught in the middle of the crossfire, notes Eibner, but are actually targeted for death, and are also discriminated against on a regular basis. He says some Christians even receive letters that demand they convert to Islam or face death.

Eibner believes as long as U.S.-led forces are still in the country, it is the responsibility of the United States to ensure that Christians and other religious minorities are safe.

IS A REVOLT DEVELOPING AGAINST THE CLERICS IN IRAQ?

Andrew Strattaford posts this fascinating excerpt from an article in the New York Times (my emphases):

After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach. In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives...Atheer, a 19-year-old from a poor, heavily Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, said: “The religion men are liars. Young people don’t believe them. Guys my age are not interested in religion anymore.”...Professors reported difficulty in recruiting graduate students for religion classes. Attendance at weekly prayers appears to be down, even in areas where the violence has largely subsided, according to worshipers and imams in Baghdad and Falluja. In two visits to the weekly prayer session in Baghdad of the followers of the militant Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr this fall, vastly smaller crowds attended than had in 2004 or 2005.Such patterns, if lasting, could lead to a weakening of the political power of religious leaders in Iraq. In a nod to those changing tastes, political parties are dropping overt references to religion. . .