Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

ALLAN J. LICHTMAN'S DISCREDITABLE BOOK - "WHITE PROTESTANT NATION: THE RISE OF THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT"

David Frum tears Lichtman's new book apart limb by limb, or I suppose I should say "assertion by assertion."  It's apparently a thoroughly indefensible book in almost every way.  I have a friend who attends  American University where Lichtman teaches.  I wonder if she agrees with Jonah Goldberg who said

 I think Allan Lichtman — thanks to personal experience — is one of the most preposterous self-promoting blowhards in academia today.

JOHN BOLTON CASTIGATES BUSH FOR POLICY REVERSALS ON NORTH KOREA

Former Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, laments that President Bush personally declared North Korea no longer a state sponsor of terrorism or an enemy of the United States.

  Nothing can erase the ineffable sadness of an American presidency, like this one, in total intellectual collapse.

1960's RADICALS ENTHUSIASTICALLY SUPPORT OBAMA

Story here.

THE PRIVATE CHARACTER OF JOHN McCAIN

Very impressive indeed.  Read here

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Charles Krauthammer on Barack Obama - "Unabashedly Unprincipled. Obama's repositions are legion-- and make even the Clintons look scrupulous."  (And barely a peep from the press)..

MICHAEL NOVAK'S SUMMER READING/VIEWING RECOMMENDATIONS

Michael Novak recommends the DVD The Ninth Day, a German film set in Dachau and Luxembourg, plus two novels: the Newt Gingrich novel (with William R. Forstchen), Pearl Harbor: A Novel of December 8 and Dragon Fire,  by former Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen.  Novak explains why these are worth reading and viewing here.

RUDYARD KIPLING'S "JUNGLE BOOK"

I am on a one-year introductory subscription to the Wall Street Journal (at a fabulous savings).  I enjoy and profit from the general interest stories fully as much, or more so, than the economic articles.  I missed reading Rudyard Kipling when I was growing up and articles like this one tempt me to pick up a Jungle book on my next trip to the library. 

 "The defining quality of great children's literature is persistence: It stays with the reader with undiminished vitality into adulthood."

That quote from the Kipling article reminds me of C.S. Lewis's astute comment:

"No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally (and often far more) worth reading at the age of fifty--except, of course, books of information.  The only imaginative works we ought to grow out of are those which it would have been better not to have read at all."
                   (From "On Stories" in "Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories)

NEW SITES MAKE IT EASIER TO SPY ON YOUR FRIENDS

That's not my title, that's the title of a Wall Street Journal article published last month which I found among various clippings on my desk.  The technological world we inhabit makes privacy something we kissed goodbye.  I'm not sure that's a good thing.

DO-IT-YOURSELF APPLIANCE REPAIR

This short article explains how the following websites can help someone (like me!) with product repair needs:  FixYa, Wilson Electronics Forum, or Manage My Home. For this last one, click on "Home" and then on 'Products and Manuals" in the drop-down menu.

DAY CARE FOR DOGS

This Wall Street Journal article on day care for dogs also notes that "Americans will spend an estimated $43.4 billion on their pets this year, up slightly from $41.2 billion last year, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association."  Can you believe $43.4 billion?  See also my Sept. 18, 2007 post on the same subject.

DANGEROUS CONSEQUENCES OF U.S. FIRMS' "SHARIA COMPLIANT FINANCE"

Frank J. Gaffney Jr. explains.

SUPREME COURT SAYS IT'S "UNCONSTITUTIONAL" TO EXECUTE ADULTS WHO RAPE LITTLE CHILDREN. - HUH?

-Update 7/3/08 - Andrew McCarthy offers pointed comments.

-Today the Supreme Court nixed the death penalty for those who rape children.  5-4 decision.  This excerpt from Judge Samuel Alito's dissent is well worth reading.  Louisiana residents are outraged at the decision. The crime (man rapes his 8 year old step daughter) is described here.  Andy McCarthy notes Judge Kennedy's contemptible "judicial conclusion" -“Evolving standards of decency must embrace and express respect for the dignity of the person[.]”  Ed Whelan sums it up well:

Kennedy’s 36 pages of insufferable blather amount to little more than a declaration that the majority doesn’t think that capital punishment is ever a fair penalty for the rape of a child—"no matter," as Justice Alito puts it in his dissent, "how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be."

MARGARET SANGER: RACIST, EUGENICIST, AND FOUNDER OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD

Here is a chance to read an excerpt from Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism on the Left's eugenics roots.  It tells you what everyone needs to know about Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, and it helpfully surveys the contemporary scene as well.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND THE NAZIS. UNIVERSITIES ACQUIRE MORAL STAINS FAR TOO READILY

Don't look to universities for wisdom and moral guidance.  Technical skills, yes.  Wisdom and moral guidance?  No. Here's a short rundown on Harvard's coziness with the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic stance back in the 1930s.  (HT: Jonah Goldberg who also provides an excerpt)

BARACK OBAMA - MORE SLIPPERY AND SMOOTH THAN CLINTON

David Limbaugh's column today takes a look at Obama's slipperiness.  A few excerpts (my emphases):

Obama has also shown himself to be an unscrupulous master of the politics of calculation and expedience. Whether on public finance, NAFTA, Iran, Iraq, Jerusalem, special interests, Cuba, illegal immigration or the decriminalization of marijuana, Obama has demonstrated a propensity for flip-flopping that could embarrass the grandmaster himself, Sen. John Kerry.

But here's what's scary: For all of Kerry's reputed smoothness and Eastern intellect, he often tied himself in knots trying to reconcile his absurdly opposing positions. Obama can flip and flop with unmatched alacrity and facility and with the absence of self-consciousness and accountability of an accomplished sociopath. This guy doesn't even acknowledge he's changing positions; he does it without breaking a sweat and never looks back.

Limbaugh cites a number of other examples and concludes:

Barack Obama is every bit as politically calculating as Bill Clinton but twice as smooth. And if that doesn't jolt you, you're sleeping.

Read the whole thing.  Limbaugh lists seven other examples of Obama's flip-flopping and slipperiness (not counting his change of mind about accepting public campaign financing) that I haven't had space to post. The sincerity of his rhetoric on reform is about as sincere as Bill Clinton's rhetoric on sexual purity, "I never had sex with that woman!"

- William J.Bennet and Seith Leibsohn list 10 Concerns About Barack Obama

- Added note: here's a separate item showing how Obama has padded his resume in his first general election TV ad.

ON TUNNELING CAPABILITIES AND IRAN AND ISRAEL

I learned quite a bit from this article on how tunneling has become much easier than ever before, and how difficult it is to take out tunneling in a time of war.

JAMES DOBSON ACCUSES OBAMA OF "DISTORTING" THE BIBLE

Here is today's Associated Press story on the issue.  Dobson's discussion will take place on today's (June 24, 2008) radio program available here.  I may make comments later, but in the meantime, see my earlier post, "Does Obama Have a Conventional Christian Faith as He Claims?"

WHAT THE WORLD REALLY ADMIRES

Peggy Noonan, in writing about media coverage of Tim Russert, makes a great point:

In a way, the world is a great liar. It shows you it worships and admires money, but at the end of the day it doesn't. It says it adores fame and celebrity, but it doesn't, not really. The world admires, and wants to hold on to, and not lose, goodness. It admires virtue. At the end it gives its greatest tributes to generosity, honesty, courage, mercy, talents well used, talents that, brought into the world, make it better. That's what it really admires. That's what we talk about in eulogies, because that's what's important. We don't say, "The thing about Joe was he was rich." We say, if we can, "The thing about Joe was he took care of people."

Another excerpt follows:

OBAMA IS SCARY BECAUSE HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT

Take law and terrorism for example.  Scott W. Johnson shows how Obama bumbles the questions, and concludes:

either that he doesn't know what he's talking about - or that he feels free to exploit the ignorance of audiences that don't know the truth of the matter.

(Click 'continue reading" for more)

IS AMERICA SUFFERING AN IDENTITY CRISIS?

We are what we teach," so reads an alternative title to Colleen Carroll Campbell's reflections on the state of our nation today. Campbell, associated with the Ethics and Public Policy Center, writes of "our increasingly tenuous grasp of the ideals that define us as Americans."  Consider:

The 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress Civics Test found that most American eighth graders could not explain the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. Only five percent of high school seniors could describe how presidential power is limited by Congress and the Supreme Court. [Pretty shocking!!]

College students did not fare much better: A study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni and the University of Connecticut's Center for Survey Research and Analysis found 99 percent of seniors in top-ranked schools could identify Beavis and Butthead, but most did not know the purpose of the Emancipation Proclamation.  [Unbelievable!]    

Such ignorance poses serious dangers. As a nation founded on shared ideals rather than ethnic ties, our democracy's survival depends on each new crop of citizens understanding and assimilating our commitment to freedom, equality and the rule of law. A generation of "world citizens" who do not know the story of America's founding or the origins of American ideals cannot effectively serve their nation. Students and immigrants schooled only in America's flaws and divisions cannot convince fellow citizens to correct injustices if they lack the shared values and common moral language that have allowed previous generations to do the same. [my underlining throughout]

Ms. Campbell is the author of The New Faithful: Why Young Adults Are Embracing Christian Orthodoxy (Loyola Press, 2002), which explores the appeal of traditional religion and morality to a growing number of young Americans.  I'm impressed with her bio.  Her website is here.

ANDY McCARTHY ON C-SPAN BOOK TV THIS WEEKEND

I receive e-mail notices from C-Span's Book TV regarding who will be appearing each weekend.  I see that Andrew McCarthy is scheduled to be interviewed this weekend.  His book, Willful Blindness has been highly recommended.  McCarthy is an expert on the war on terror. My guess is that if Supreme Court justices would read his book, they would be more informed of the dangers we face.  Here's the blurb from "Book TV":

Saturday 10 PM, Sunday 6 PM and 9 PM, Monday 12 AM ET

Andrew McCarthy, the lead prosecutor against Sheik Omar Abdel Rahmen and the other men responsible for the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993, recounts the case in Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. Mr. McCarthy presents his thoughts on the trial and the current state of the war on terror. The author discusses his book with Hugh Hewitt, host of the nationally syndicated radio program, "The Hugh Hewitt Show," and executive editor of Townhall.com.

TIME MAG: 50 BEST WEBSITES 2008

Time: 50 Best Websites 2008.

TIM RUSSERT AS DEVOUT ROMAN CATHOLIC LAYMAN

Jon Meacham over at Newsweek produced an excellent, worthwhile read.

QUICK TAKES

- Victor Davis Hanson gives good reasons why we should "do the right thing" and start drilling for oil.

- If I ever make another trip to the Holy Land, I would want to hike this Galilee trail.

WORLD CLOCK

Very handy and useful.  All the other data on the site I can't vouch for.  I'm becoming more and more skeptical of data.  Sorry.  (HT: Jonah Goldberg at the Corner)  Here's another world clock site.

TRRORIST THREATS? REALLY? WHAT THREATS?

Andy McCarthy writes:

The Washington Post today, in its lead story, reports that an international smuggling ring that sold bomb-related parts to terrorist-sponsoring regimes also managed to acquire blueprints for an advanced nuclear weapon.

I argued in April that nuclear terrorism had become a real possibility and that we should be taking this threat seriously. But we are not. Instead, five justices of the Supreme Court have now given Constitutional protections to unlawful enemy combatants. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to hobble foreign intelligence gathering. The ACLU, MoveOn.org and similar groups oppose waging a serious war – not just in Iraq but anywhere. Their goal instead is to teach Americans the lesson they believe should have been learned from Vietnam: that American power is a malevolent force. What Andy McCarthy calls Willful Blindness has reached epidemic proportions.

NY Pro-Life Dem Lawmaker Blasts Embryonic Stem Cell Research Plan

Jack Fowler at the Corner has the story.

New York is set to spend $600 million in taxpayer dollars on stem cell research. A recently released draft plan drooling over the potential of embryonic cells to cure a variety of diseases has drawn this blast from Rev. Ruben Diaz, the state senate's sole pro-life Democrat:

June 13, 2008

Judy Doesschate, J.D.
Director of Board Operations
Wadsworth Center
New York State Department of Health
Empire State Plaza, Box 509
Albany, NY 12208-0509

Dear Ms. Doesschate:

This letter is to express my response to the Empire State Stem Cell Board’s strategic framework that will guide New York State’s $600 Million, 11-year investment in stem cell research.

The report expresses the intention that New York’s investment in stem cell research will hold the promise of revitalizing and strengthening New York’s biomedical research industry, saving lives, and improving health. This is a false hope. The Empire State Stem Cell Board’s draft report discusses a great potential that may come from embryonic stem cells. To date, there have been no known cures - nor the promise of any cure - from embryonic stem cells.

U.S. SUPREME COURT AWARDS THE PRIVILEGE OF "HABEAS CORPUS" TO TERRORISTS

Hugh Hewitt posts must-read excerpts from interviews related to the Supreme Court's decision, which follows up on his own column. Note also Mark Levin's sober words

It has been the objective of the left-wing bar to fight aspects of this war in our courtrooms, where it knew it would have a decent chance at victory. So complete is the Court’s disregard for the Constitution and even its own precedent now that anything is possible. And what was once considered inconceivable is now compelled by the Constitution, or so five justices have ruled. I fear for my country. I really do. And AP, among others, reports this story as a defeat for “the Bush administration.” Really? I see it as a defeat for the nation.

Sen. McCain attacked the Guantanamo ruling as well. 

John McCain on Friday described the decision by the Supreme Court to allow Guantánamo Bay prisoners to challenge their detention in US courts as “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country”.

The Republican presidential candidate said he agreed with the four dissenting justices on the nine-member court that foreign fighters held at the detention camp were not entitled to the rights of US citizens.

He criticised Barack Obama, his Democratic opponent, for supporting the decision and said it highlighted the importance of nominating conservative judges to the Supreme Court.

THE BLOGOSPHERE - PAMPHLETEERING OF THE 21ST CENTURY

So argues Donald J. Kochan.

TIM RUSSERT - DEAD AT 58

- Update 6/16/08 - Jon Meacham over at Newsweek writes on Tim Russert the devout Roman Catholic.

- TV news is full of reminiscences of Tim Russert, by all accounts a most exemplary human being.  He died yesterday, June 13, 2008, of a heart attack.  Michelle Malkin packs a lot of links in her coverage.  Howard Kurtz offers an excellent overview of his work as a broadcast journalist.

Update -I like Byron York's comment - "Even though he was at the absolute top of the Washington ziggurat, he had not a trace of elitism." 

PEGGY NOONAN - OLD AMERICA VS. NEW AMERICA

I'm ambivalent about Peggy Noonan's Wall Street Journal column today.  She makes some wise observations, but her column fails to rise to her usual fluid standard.  It seems like a draft waiting for more attention to structure and polishing. Nevertheless I include here a few of her contrasts between the "Old America" (represented by Sen. McCain) and the "New America" (represented by Obama). See also Dennis Prager's reflections on the same subject posted a few days ago.  Herewith brief excerpts from Noonan's column today::

-In the Old America, love of country was natural. You breathed it in. You either loved it or knew you should.

In the New America, love of country is a decision. It's one you make after weighing the pros and cons. What you breathe in is skepticism and a heightened appreciation of the global view.

- The Old America: Religion is good. The New America: Religion is problematic.

- Mr. McCain is the old world of concepts like "personal honor," of a manliness that was a style of being, of an attachment to the fact of higher principles.

Mr. Obama is the new world, which is marked in part by doubt as to the excellence of the old. It prizes ambivalence as proof of thoughtfulness, as evidence of a textured seriousness.

WHY WE LEFT ISLAM

Jamie Glazov interviews Joel Richardson, co-author with Walid Shoebat of the forthcoming God's War Against Terror and the co-editor of the new book, Why We Left Islam: Former Muslims Speak Out..  Three excerpts from the interview:

"Every individual in this book shares this commonality: When they left Islam, they were either tortured or apprehended and threatened with death by their former co-religionists and oftentimes by their own family members in an effort to bring them back to Islam..."

"As Islam’s influence and population grows in the West and as the world becomes more globalized, the right to freely leave Islam is quickly becoming one of the premiere the human rights issues of the next one hundred years. My challenge to the Left today is this: Do you really believe all that you claim to stand for? Are you brave enough to stand in solidarity with these modern day civil right warriors?"

"Remember this quote from a prominent Muslim leader: “Thanks to your Democratic laws, we will invade you, thanks to our religious laws, we will dominate you.”  [emphases mine]

BLACKBERRY ADDICTION IN WASHINGTON, DC

Does our excessively "wired up world" allow sufficient time for Senators and Representatives to reflect and hone their judgment?  Maybe not.  In fact, on the basis of recent behavior, I am convinced not.  Read about the Congressional BlackBerry addiction here.  (HT: Drudge)

HOW THE DEMOCRATIC MEDIA (ABC-TV) LIES

From David Horowitz's blog:

Martin Fasak writes: My niece, Katelyn, stationed at Baluud , Iraq was assigned, with others of her detachment, to be escort/guard/ watcher for Martha Raddatz of ABC News as she covered John McCain's recent trip to Iraq . Katelyn and her Captain stood directly behind Raddatz as she queried GI's walking past. They kept count of the GI's and you should remember these numbers. She asked 60 GI's who they planned to vote for in November. 54 said John McCain, 4 for Obama and 2 for Hillary. Katelyn called home and told her Mom and Dad to watch ABC news the next night because she was standing directly behind Raddatz and maybe they'd see her on TV. Mom and Dad of course, called and emailed all the kinfolk to watch the newscast and maybe see Katelyn. Well, of course, we all watched and what we saw wasn't a glimpse of Katelyn, but a hell of a view of skewed news. After a dissertation on McCain's trip and speech, ABC showed 5 GI's being asked by Raddatz how they were going to vote in November; 3 for Obama and 2 for Clinton . No mention of the 54 for McCain.

QUICK TAKES - with an educational slant

** *YouTube University: YouTube has struck deals with major universities, creating dedicated channels from which schools can distribute their media content. Check out the channels for UC Berkeley and University of Southern California.  (HT: Joe Carter at evangelical outpost)

** While checking out the above, I came across the Open Culture website, with a number of fascinating posts:

       -"Best Online Tool for Word Nerds" - "Lifehacker is running a good piece today that highlights a series of web-based language tools for anyone looking to figure out a word’s definition, translation, pronunciation, synonym, or antonym. Word nerds, this could be your lucky day…"

      - Graduation speeches on video anyone?  Click here. J.K. Rowling's speech at Harvard last week is here.

      - "Wanting to learn a foreign language?  "MSN-Sympatico has been running a piece that covers the ins-and-outs of learning a foreign language online. The piece highlights free resources that you can access on the web, including our collection of Free Foreign Language Lesson Podcasts, but also many other worthwhile materials. Free language dictionaries, flash cards, interactive games, language learning communities, international news and radio shows, formal university courses — they’re all listed here."

DENNIS PRAGER - AMERICA OF HIS YOUTH VS. AMERICA TODAY (SADLY DETERIORATED)

Dennis Prager has written another insightful article.  He titles it "The Real Reason America is a Worse Country."  Excerpts follow (my emphases):

With the important exception of racial discrimination -- which was already dying a natural death when I was young -- it is difficult to come up with an important area in which America is significantly better than when I was a boy. But I can think of many in which its quality of life has deteriorated.

When I was a boy, America was a freer society than it is today. If Americans had been told the extent and number of laws that would govern their speech and behavior within one generation, they would have been certain that they were being told about some dictatorship, not the Land of the Free. Today, people at work, to cite but one example, are far less free to speak naturally. Every word, gesture and look, even one's illustrated calendar, is now monitored lest a fellow employee feel offended and bring charges of sexual harassment or creating a "hostile work environment" or being racially, religiously or ethnically insensitive, or insensitive to another's sexual orientation.

Meanwhile, all employers in California are now prohibited by law from firing a man who has decided to cross-dress at work. And needless to say, no fellow worker can say to that man,

KATHLEEN PARKER'S NEW BOOK - "SAVE THE MALES"

Kathryn Jean Lopez introduces the book by saying Save the Males: Why Men Matter. Why Women Should Care is funny, clever, and important.  ". . Don't be misled into thinking the book is all about abortion — it covers higher ed, military, celebrity, children, marriage, pornography, and so much more.  Save the Males is worth a read. You'll enjoy that you did. And if saves a male or two, too, all the better."

DOWNS SYNDROME BABIES AT FURTHER RISK

Hugh Hewitt sounds the alarm:

The development of a blood test that accurately identifies children with Downs Syndrome during the first trimester is in advanced and "successful" trials.

He writes:

This sort of screening means increased if not near-complete destruction of children with Downs in the womb, and beyond that, the development heralds an age of testing and selection that will have no limits.  If you can test for Downs syndrome and abort on that basis, what is the difference between that and a test for gender, height or vision or even the color of eyes and a decision to abort based on the results? Many will say that it is "quality of life" for either the child or the parent, but the vast majority of parents of children with Downs attest to their childrens' happiness and their fulfillment.  Even if the testimony was not so uniform, there would be no separating the children with Downs from those who are different in some other way that is unappealing to expectant parents.

A SYSTEMATIC REFUSAL TO TAKE OUR ENEMIES SERIOUSLY

Michael Ledeen has penned an article that we may come back and read a few years hence and say, "He was right.  When our enemies announced their plans, we refused to believe they were serious."

Shockingly, it seems we have learned nothing from the last century.

VOX DAY - "THE IRRATIONAL ATHEIST"

Joseph Farah interviewed Vox Day, author of The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Holy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris and Hitchens. The book is available as a free ebook here.  Vox Day's blog can be accessed here. From the inside cover:

The Irrational Atheist is not a theological work nor is it a conventional religious defense of faith. It contains no arguments for the existence of God and the supernatural, nor is it concerned with evolution, creationism, the age of Earth, or intelligent design. This book contains no arguments from Scripture. In attacking the arguments, assertions, and conclusions of the New Atheists, Vox Day's only weapons are the secular tools of reason, logic and historically documented, independently verifiable fact. The Irrational Atheist is not a book about God, but about those who seek to replace Him....

Arguments pro and con can be found here.

OBAMA THE MESSIAH

** Update 6/9/08 - Check out this blog, Is Barack Obama the Messiah?

- I wrote about Obama as Messiah (or actually non-Messiah) earlier.  But now the enthusiasm has crescendoed ever higher.  Jonah Goldberg has noted that

There are websites dedicated to the question “Is Barack Obama the Messiah?” Google that question and you’ll get more than 35,000 hits. (Enter just the words “Messiah” and “Obama” and you’ll get nearly 10 times that.)

Celebrities, as is their wont, rave deliriously. Goldberg again:

Obama’s apostles are hard to dismiss. Oprah simply calls him “The One,” because “we need politicians who know how to be the truth.” (Jesus says in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth ...”) Oprah goes on to say Obama will help us “evolve to a higher plane,” which would put Obama in the role of our Intelligent Designer.

Goldberg says further,

According to the New York Times, Obama’s volunteers are taught to eschew discussions of the issues and instead “testify” about how they “came to Obama.”

I don't know about you, but I find that incredibly scary.  What it testifies to is the hunger of the human heart for a Deliverer.  Directed towards Obama, it also testifies to a horrible lack of discernment.

Goldberg continues:

For many, he’s no retro-redeemer, but a 21st-century savior, a Matrix-messiah and Neo for our modern-day Nineveh. Self-help guru Deepak Chopra dubs Obama “a quantum leap in American consciousness,” while prominent “leadership coach” Eve Konstantine assures us that, “He’s our product out of the all-knowing quantum field of intelligence.”

Michelle Obama, his wife, is an evangelist.

Michelle Obama is arguably Obamanity’s greatest evangelist, even though she has a streak of Old Testament smiting and wrath to her. She insists her husband has redeemed the entire nation (hence her newfound pride in America). She proclaims her husband is the sort of leader who will fix our broken souls. But don’t hope for grace on the cheap. “The change Barack is talking about is hard,” she insists, “so don’t get too excited, because Barack is going to demand that you, too, be different.”

Could Obama really have said the following? 

In January, he told Dartmouth students that they will know to vote for him because “... a light will shine through that window, a beam of light will come down upon you, you will experience an epiphany, and you will suddenly realize that you must go to the polls and vote for Barack.”

His view of sin should give us pause. It give me the willies!

When asked in an interview what sin is, Obama defined it as “Being out of alignment with my values.” Apparently, the editor failed to capitalize the “M” in “My.”  

How about this statement for scariness?

“I am absolutely certain,” Obama proclaimed in his victory speech, “that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs for the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal. This was the moment — this was the time — when we came together to remake this great nation ...”

I am probably the last person anyone would want to interview concerning contemporary contenders for the designation "Anti-Christ," In the past I have pooh-poohed such conjectures and those who make them, but how can these statements of Obama not help but give one pause? 

Have we ever had a major political leader arise in America making such claims or exciting such adulation?  Not that I am aware of.  Is there cause for fear?  Yes.

QUESTION: WHO ARE THE MORE HONEST, CONSERVATIVES OR LIBERALS?

- Update 6/14/08 - Peter Schweizer published a major article today in the London Daily Mail.

- Any ideas?  Did you guess conservatives are more honest?  Well you are right!  Peter Schweizer (author of “Makers and Takers: Why Conservatives Work Harder, Feel Happier, Have Closer Families, Take Fewer Drugs, Give More Generously, Value Honesty More, Are Less Materialistic and Envious, Whine Less ... And Even Hug Their Children More Than Liberals”) surveys numerous polls and sets out that startling fact.  The Family Research Council looked at his article, and wrote:

In it [Schweizer's article], he chronicles a series of recent polls and surveys that point to America's state of moral confusion and the ideological discrepancies that appear to be fueling it. In the National Cultural Values Survey, the Culture and Media Institute compared the answers of what they termed "Orthodox" respondents (those who consider faith in God the most important ingredient for a good and moral life) to "Progressive" respondents (those who reject religion and follow their own moral compass).

When researchers posed a series of questions to these groups, the inconsistencies were startling. On adultery, a behavior almost universally condemned, 35% of Progressives said, "There are some situations where [it's] understandable," compared to 3% of Orthodox. To the statement "Sex between unmarried adults is always wrong," 68% of Orthodox responded yes, while only 3% of Progressives agreed. Almost half (45%) of Progressives said it was okay to

UNBELIEVABLE "FREE SPEECH" TRAVESTY IN CANADA

Update 6/10/08 - Rich Lowry offers his comments.

- I am delighted that Mark Hemingway has written a comprehensive account of the Canadian "Human Rights" Tribunal's runaway idiocy.  It's target this time is Mark Steyn and Maclean's magazine.  I don't have time to write particulars, but please click through to see where "political correctness" leads.  Andrew Coyne, who is live blogging the trial, offers a Q&A with National Review. He offers extremely valuable comments.  (Note: I blogged on another Canadian free speech case earlier.)

THOMAS SOWELL: THE U.S. DRIFTING DOWN THE RIVER TO NIAGARA FALLS

Thomas Sowell is seriously depressed, or at  least feeling mighty glum about the outlook for the United States, given the intelligentsia's vacation from reality.  (For what it's worth, I agree with his assessment and my feelings mirror his.)

The terrorists have given us as clear a picture of what they are all about as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis did during the 1930s — and our “leaders” and intelligentsia have ignored the warning signs as resolutely as the “leaders” and intelligentsia of the 1930s downplayed the dangers of Hitler.

We are much like people drifting down the Niagara River, oblivious to the waterfalls up ahead. Once we go over those falls, we cannot come back up again.

Sowell sees the horrors of being confronted with both Iran and terrorists equipped with nuclear devices and then,

All the things we are preoccupied with today, from the price of gasoline to health care to global warming, will suddenly no longer matter.

He considers both presidential candidates painfully inadequate, but between the two, there can be only one choice: McCain. 

At a time like this, we do not have the luxury of waiting for our ideal candidate . . . Senator John McCain has been criticized in this column many times. But, when all is said and done, Senator McCain has not spent decades aiding and abetting people who hate America.

On the contrary, he has paid a huge price for resisting our enemies, even when they held him prisoner and tortured him. The choice between him and Barack Obama should be a no-brainer.   [more . . .]

PLANNED PARENTHOOD'S OBSCENE PROFITS AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE

Congress investigates everyone, but never Planned Parenthood.  PP has its hand in the public till.  Recent facts and allegations continue to substantiate my previous term -- "slimey" -- to describe Planned Parenthood.  Michelle Malkin has posted an important article (my underlining):

. . . Here’s an idea for all the hand-wringing GOP strategists in Washington wondering what it will take to win back disgusted economic and social conservatives: How about a Republican presidential candidate who will talk about the tax-subsidized abortion industry the way McCain talks about the oil industry?

In April, the annual report for Planned Parenthood Federation of America revealed that the abortion giant had a total income of $1.02 billion — with reported profits of nearly $115 million. Taxpayers kick in more than $336 million worth of government grants and contracts at both the state and federal levels. That’s a third of Planned Parenthood’s budget.

And what market-distorting results do we get for those government incentives? In 2006 alone: 289,750 abortions.

DAVID HOROWITZ - WHY THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS UNFIT TO OCCUPY THE WHITEHOUSE

Update 6/10/08 - Horowitz and Ben Johnson say they are offering "$500 to any critic of the war who has written for a reputable publication and wants to challenge our thesis." Contact [email protected] to sign up.

- If anyone can refute the major points David Horowitz makes in the article below I would be glad to read those arguments.  If no one can refute Horowitz's points, then the Democratic party has gotten away with snookering the nation, and most assuredly has no right to the White House, or the control of Congress.  Herewith selections from Horowitz's article with my emphases:

. . . In the last five years the Democratic Party has crossed the line from criticism of war policy to fundamental sabotage of the war itself, a position no American party has taken until now.

Starting in July 2003, just three months into the war in Iraq, the Democratic National Committee ran a national TV ad whose message was: “Read his lips: President Bush Deceives the American People. This was the beginning of a five-year, unrelenting campaign to persuade Americans and their allies that “Bush lied, people died,” that the war was “unnecessary” and “Iraq was no threat.” In other words, for five years, the leaders of the Democratic Party have been telling Americans, America’s allies and America’s enemies that their country was an aggressor nation, which had violated international law, and was in effect the “bad guy” in the war with the Saddam Hussein regime.

The first principle of psychological warfare campaigns is to destroy the moral character of the opposing commander-in-chief and discredit his nation’s cause. Yet this is a perfect summary of the campaign that has been waged for the length of this war by the entire Democratic Party leadership, Joe Lieberman being an honorable exception who was driven out of his party as a result.

The one saving grace for Democrats would be if their charges were true – if they were deceived into supporting the war, and if they had turned against it only because they realized their mistake. But this charge is demonstrably false.

In fact, the claim that Bush lied in order to dupe Democrats into supporting the war is itself the biggest lie of the war. Every Democratic Senator who voted for the war had on his or her desk before the vote a 100-page report, called “The National Intelligence

BARACK OBAMA A "CHANGE" CANDIDATE? - Hardly.

Kathryn Jean Lopez has it right:

Tell me he’s a pioneer when he meets with Ward Connerly and embraces his Civil Rights Initiative movement, a successful effort to undo the damage big-government patronizing has done to civil rights. Tell me he’s a pioneer when he talks about the importance of the damage the welfare state has done in urban America, to the family. Tell me he’s a pioneer when he talks about protecting marriage. Tell me he’s a pioneer when he talks about the effects of abortion on blacks in America.

DOES BARACK OBAMA HAVE A "CONVENTIONAL CHRISTIAN FAITH" AS HE CLAIMS?

In 2004 Barack Obama sat down with Chicago Sun-Times religion reporter (now columnist) Cathleen Falsani for a one hour interview on Obama's spirituality.  She subsequently wrote up the interview for the Sun Times.  Now she has published the complete transcript of that interview on her blog. Anyone interested in knowing the extent and depth (or shallowness) of Barack Obama's religious convictions would do well to read the unedited interview.  (HT: Mark Hemingway at The Corner)  Update: Drawing on that transcript, Cal Thomas wrote a column: Barack Obama is Not a Christian.

A theologian Barack Obama is not.  A well-instructed, informed Christian?  I can't imagine anyone thinking so. He has chosen to affiliate with what he calls the "Christian tradition" but if you read the interview, you will see how slim and shallow and wanting in substance is his grasp of the Faith.  It explains how he could make the outlandish statement he made back in March that the Sermon on the Mount justified his support for legal recognition of same-sex unions.  I wonder what Bible passage he employs to justify his role as the King [my designation] of abortion supporters?

Today Stanley Kurtz examined Obama's faith for what it says about his leftist politics. Kurtz highlights a 1995 background piece from the Chicago Reader, "What Makes Obama Run?"  Wow. Read Kurtz's piece and you get a glimpse, more than that -- a revelation-- of the real Obama and his energizing vision. Kurtz writes near the end of his piece:

So it would appear that Obama’s own writings solve the mystery of why he stayed at Trinity for 20 years. Obama’s long-held and decidedly audacious hope has been to spread Wright’s radical spirit by linking it to a viable, left-leaning political program, with Obama himself at the center. The revolutionizing power of a politically awakened black church is not some side issue, or merely a personal matter, but has been the signature theme of Obama’s grand political strategy.

Lucky for Obama, this political background is unfamiliar to most Americans. There are others who share Obama’s approach, however. Take a look at this piece by Manhattan Institute scholar Steven Malanga on “The Rise of the Religious Left,” and you will see exactly where Obama is coming from. . .

AMISH-TYPE HEALTH CARE COST SHARING KEEPS INDIVIDUAL COSTS WAY DOWN

Christians helping Christians, and by-passing health insurance costs, is a practice whose time has come.  For many years I myself  have belonged to "Samaritan Ministries," a Christian health care cost-sharing group.  (For more information, click the upper right area of my blog where it says "Save on Health Care...")

John LaPlante, editor of the valuable StateHouseCall.org pens the following article titled "Beyond Politics, Beyond Policy, Beyond Profits: A different model of meeting health care needs":

Getting public policy right is one way of improving human life. Another may be to avoid, as best as one can, policy altogether.

You know about the tradition of community barn-raisings that are common among some Amish orders. A barn burns down? Neighbors come from around to rebuilt: No insurance claims, no insurance hassles, and

"THE EVERHOUSE" - Low Cost Affordable Coastal Housing!

Published by Steve Darden.

Not just Katrina recovery — but any coastal, high-risk, high insurance zone. John Sawyer’s Everhouse is exciting — manufactured housing designed for the coastal risk profile and a delivery pipeline that make sense. The hundreds of millions of your money [aka “Government Assistance”] has failed to produce affordable housing that can be insured at affordable rates. But a New England entrepreneur seems to have innovated a solution - at $68/square foot — about one-half the going rate in New Orleans.