Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON ON AMERICAN NATIONAL IDENTITY UNDER SIEGE BY MULTICULTURAL TRANSNATIONALISTS

John Fonte over at National Review's Corner writes:

Excellent article today by Fouad Ajami on Sam Huntington in the Wall Street Journal. Huntington argues in Who Are We? that issues such as transnationalism, globalism, dual citizenship, “racial preferences, bilingualism, multiculturalism, immigration, assimilation, national history standards, English as the official language, Eurocentrism,” and so on, are “all battles in a single war over the nature of American national identity.” Huntington’s core point is that “de-nationalized elites” are promoting the “transnational” and the “multicultural” in order to “deconstruct” America’s creed and common culture.

...  What is being contested is the nature of America’s liberal democratic regime as it has been traditionally understood. Will this regime be perpetuated and transmitted to future generations or will it be transformed into a new type of transnational-multicultural-regime? Huntington’s thesis is a tour de force that cuts to the heart of this question. Needless to say, Huntington was hysterically attacked by nervous “de-nationalized elites” on the left, who don’t want these issues discussed openly. [my emphases]

Me: All of the above represents good reason to read Ajami's article. 

DENNIS PRAGER: "WHEN A WOMAN ISN'T IN THE MOOD"

Prager has produced a clearly-written, well-thought-out analysis that could strengthen a lot of marriages.  See Part I and also Part II.   Prager's work represents (unintentionally, I am sure) excellent commentary on I Corinthians 7:3-5. 

TIMELESS PIECE - "IN HOC ANNO DOMINI"

This editorial has been published annually in the Wall Street Journal since 1949.  It was written by Vermont Royster. 

When Saul of Tarsus set out on his journey to Damascus the whole of the known world lay in bondage. There was one state, and it was Rome. There was one master for it all, and he was Tiberius Caesar.

Everywhere there was civil order, for the arm of the Roman law was long. Everywhere there was stability, in government and in society, for the centurions saw that it was so.

But everywhere there was something else, too. There was oppression -- for those who were not the friends of Tiberius Caesar. There was the tax gatherer to take the grain from the fields and the flax from the spindle to feed the legions or to fill the hungry treasury from which divine Caesar gave largess to the people. There was the impressor to find

MATTHEW PARRIS: "AS AN ATHEIST, I TRULY BELIEVE AFRICA NEEDS GOD"

What a stunning article!    (HT: Hot Air)    This is a "must-read," a great conversation starter.  After reading this article, it is hard for me to understand how Matthew Paris remains an atheist.  I'll give him credit for this: he is extraordinarily objective in his observations and perceptions. This may be one of the best pieces of Christian apologetics I have read in a long time.   Read it!

CHRISTMAS VIDEO MUSIC

From "Behold the Lamb of God"  (HT: Between Two Worlds)

"Labor of Love" written by Andrew Peterson.    Same song, this time with stunning visuals.

"It Came to Pass"

JOURNALISTS DO A POOR JOB COVERING STORIES WITH A RELIGIOUS COMPONENT

Such is the lament of Paul Marshall, Lela Gilbert, and Roberta Green Ahmanson in their book Blind Spot: When Journalists Don't Get Religion.  Vincent Caroll discusses the issue in his excellent Wall Street Journal article.   Recommended reading.

CHRISTIANITY: A FATHOMLESS FAITH

I like the way Charles Lewis begins his article in the National Post:

The genius of Christianity is never so much in view as it is during Christmas. Others will argue that Easter is the moment, the time when Christ rose from the dead, and by doing so redeemed all of mankind. That is pretty heady stuff. No question.

Christmas, though, is just as profound, but in a much quieter way.

Christmas is about what it means to have the kind of faith that few can fathom or risk. It is about trust beyond all comprehension.

It would have been a lot easier if God had come down in a chariot, followed by celestial armies, laid down the law to sinful Israel and then headed back to Heaven without a hair on His head out of place and not a scratch to be found on Him anywhere.

Instead, God's grand entry took place in a barn full of animals, exposed to cold and danger.

"God stepped into history," said Gilles Mongeau, a Jesuit priest in Toronto. "But God didn't avoid any of it from birth to death. God became involved in history in a radical way that had never been seen before. It starts with a baby, weakness, poverty and leads to salvation."   [More. . .]         (HT: The Black Kettle)

CHRISTIAN RESISTANCE AND THE MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

Joseph Morrison Skelly pens a fine article focusing especially on Dietrich Bonhoeffer's experience of Christmas in prison at the hands of the German Gestapo:

For two millennia, tyrants have suppressed word of the birth of Christ or religious commemorations of it. Herod feared for his throne. In the modern era, dictators have  realized that the potential for human freedom inherent in this divine event threatens to undermine their authoritarian rule. Liberty, not servitude, is the logical outcome of a process whereby men and women channel their allegiance not simply to a secular leader but ultimately to a heavenly being, and, at the same time, governments accept the principle that temporal power must take account of a higher moral law. In the recent past, and today, despots in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany, China, Cuba, North Korea, and elsewhere have sought to suppress man’s relationship with God. . .

But the light will not be extinguished. Christians in unfree lands — including places where religious extremists restrict their rights, such as Saudi Arabia — have enacted the second part of this historical pattern: they have resisted oppression by celebrating Christmas, often in secret, sometimes in open defiance, frequently without fear. This year will be no different, as they commemorate Christ’s birth and so defend religious freedom . . .

More . . .

HOW AMERICAN TEXTBOOKS PROSELYTIZE ISLAM

Tony Blankley does it again.  He reveals what we need to know.  He begins his column (HT: HotAir) with this paragraph (emphases are my own):

I recently read a book that deserves the widest possible readership. The book is "The Trouble with Textbooks - Distorting History and Religion" by Gary A. Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra. I have never met or talked with either of these gentlemen, but I can't say enough good things about this book. For all who believe that there is a fairly objective rendition of history that we are obliged to teach our children, this book reveals how shockingly far from that objective American education-and particularly school textbooks-have fallen.

It gets much worse.  Not his column, but what Blankley discovers about U.S. textbooks. 

In their conclusion, the authors quote the great historian of Islam, Bernard Lewis' observation concerning the willful bending of history: "We live in a time when great efforts have been made, and continue to be made, to falsify the record of the past and to make history a tool of propaganda; when governments, religious movements, political parties, and sectional groups of every kind are busy rewriting history as they wish it to have been, as they would like their followers to believe that it was."

Blankley goes on to say:

The grievance group that has become particularly adept at influencing textbook publishing is the organized Muslim lobby. The founder of the Council on Islamic Education, the chief Islamic group for vetting textbooks in the United States, refers to his work as a "bloodless revolution … inside American junior high and high school classrooms."

He is, regrettably, right. While these days one may expect "sensitive deference" to Muslim sensitivities, the authors show how American textbooks have gone so far as to outright proselytize Islam.

Read on . . .

DAVID HOROWITZ - "OBAMA'S POET LAUREATE IS ... (LET'S FACE IT), DREADFUL, EMBARASSING, A ZERO"

- Update 12/24/08 - Horowitz is not alone in his assessment.  The politically correct Elizabeth Alexander teaches English, African-American literature, and gender studies at Yale.   The "phi beta cons" blog  reports on the extreme vulgarities found in her poetry.  

- (Original post) I've never had a poet's ear, nor an appropriate appreciation of poetry, so I put up this post primarily for a few friends who enjoy poetry and can evaluate poetry better than I.  Horowitz has stuck his neck out with his blisteringly negative assessment of Obama's poet laureate, Elizabeth Alexander.

Her writing is tone deaf, bad prose -- let alone bad poetry -- and teeth grindingly banal.

Of one poem Horowitz quotes in his article, he says:

This is not poetry. It is gobbledygook, and the high honors accorded to Elizabeth Alexander are simply multiple ways of announcing that the academic philistines have prevailed and poetry in America is dead.

Read Horowitz's article and see what you think.

NORTH CARLINIANS GET LITTLE VALUE FOR THEIR TAX DOLLARS

The John Locke foundation has the facts.

    "North Carolina earns a D for its Taxpayers’ Return on Investment, a measure that compares tax burdens with states’ performance in schools, roads, health, and crime, plus their income and population growth."

Note this comment as well:  You may not find it surprising that states such as Florida, Alaska, Texas, Wyoming, Montana, and Tennessee got As for their return on taxpayer investment, and that New York, California, Ohio, Hawaii, and Connecticut got Fs.

COMPARISON: GOV. SARAH PALIN and PRIME MINISTER MARGARET THATCHER

 John O'Sullivan, who knew Maggie Thatcher, offers a valuable comparison in his article, "Conservative Snobs Are Wrong About Palin."  He concludes:

If conservative intellectuals, Republican operatives and McCain "handlers" can't see it [positive qualities in Palin], then so much the worse for them.

BUSH HAS FOOLISHLY ALLOWED THE LEFT TO WRITE THE NARRATIVE OF HIS PRESIDENCY: A TRAGEDY

President George W. Bush is a nice guy.  But as the leader of the United States, and the leader of the  free world, and the leader of the Republican party, he had a responsibility to answer his critics promptly and forcefully with fact, after fact, after fact.  Instead he remained silent, and thereby let his enemies distort reality and control the historical narrative.  President Bill Clinton did not make that mistake.  He did the opposite.  He went after his opponents constantly, even if it meant stretching or denying the truth.  History has been kind to Clinton.

But now, finally, the Bush Administration is fighting back against the New York Times on one issue, something it should have done  day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year for  the past eight years.  That it has not done so is a tragedy.  Please read Andy McCarthy's  post which illustrates and clarifies my point:

DO DOGS LIKE TO PLAY IN SNOW?

At least one dog does, big time!  Video here.  (HT:  Jonah Goldberg who says, "Dog + Snow = Pure Doggie Happiness." 

MUSLIM YOUTHS RIOT IN MALMO, SWEDEN

But the BBC calls them "youths" and refuses to use the adjective "Muslim."  You wouldn't know the identity of the "youths" until the last line when it refers to a mosque closing.  The NY Times doesn't bother to report the riot.  Mark Steyn aptly comments:

HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOVIE "WALL-E"?

I've read about the movie WALL-E before, and heard it was good.  Just  now I read another article, this time by Chuck Colson, who once again explained the excellencies of this film, so I've made up my mind I've got to go see it.   Colson provides a link to a World magazine interview with the filmmaker, Andrew Stanton.

WHO WATCHES MORE TV? THE YOUNG OR THE OLD?

Older folk watch much more TV.   Paul Bond writes:

The older you get, the more you watch, according to a report due out today from Deloitte indicating that "Millennials," the generation of 14- to 25-year-olds, watches just 10.5 hours of TV a week.

That compares to 15.1 hours for those belonging to Generation X (ages 26-42), 19.2 hours for Baby Boomers (43-61) and 21.5 hours for Matures (62-75).

. . . But while Millennials are watching the least amount of TV, they are spending the most time with media in general, making that up with video games, music and the Internet.

Just don't expect them to spend too much time worrying about such things as news and current events, according to the Deloitte study dubbed "The State of the Media Democracy.  [more...]

Me: These findings are about what I would have expected.

PAUL WEYRICH, MORAL MAJORITY CO-FOUNDER, HAS PASSED AWAY

Update: 12/21/08 - Terry Mattingly analyzes the obituary coverage and notes the total absence of coverage of  Weyrich's religious affiliation - an ordained permanent deacon in the Catholic Church.

 (Original post) National Review offered Weyrich appropriate editorial tribute.  I recall that in 1999 Paul Weyrich write a memorable article that shocked me at the time.   I was reminded of it today when Christianity Today provided a link to it on its website.  Weyrich said back in 1999 that the cultural war had been lost.

The culture is becoming an ever-wider sewer. We are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great that it simply overwhelms politics. . .

The ideology of Political Correctness, which openly calls for the destruction of our traditional culture, has so gripped the body politic, has so gripped our institutions, that it is even affecting the church. It has completely taken over the academic community. It is now pervasive in the entertainment industry, and it threatens to control every aspect of our lives.

I find it one of the most jarring articles -- in the sense of "awakening" one to the current state of our nation -- that I can recall reading.  Remember, he wrote it in 1999.  Who would have thought that those who define marriage as the union of  a man and a woman would find themselves more and more on the defensive?   Weyrich probably saw it coming.  Read the whole article.

ETHICS: DEMOCRATS HAVE A PROBLEM

The Wall Street Journal offers a survey of the depth of Democrat malfeasance. The swamp is much deeper than that of just Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.   But it's more than a Democrat or Republican thing.  It's a cultural problem of massive proportions.  Did you see the 2008 "Ethics of American Youth" survey?   Read it if you dare.

PREDICTION REGARDING OBAMA AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

- Update:  Here's a major, wide-ranging video interview with Rick Warren  that many readers will find interesting.

(Original post) A lot of ink has been spilled over the vociferous opposition voiced by homosexual same-sex marriage activists over Obama's selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren to offer the invocation at Obama's inauguration.  In my judgement, Ed Whelan has called it exactly right :

Defenders of marriage shouldn’t be conned by President-elect Obama’s selection of evangelical pastor Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at the inauguration. Although Obama claims to be against same-sex marriage, his opposition to California’s Proposition 8—which overturned the California supreme court’s invention of a state constitutional right to same-sex marriage—shows that he is content to acquiesce in judicial imposition of same-sex marriage. Further, it’s a safe bet that Obama’s appointees to the Supreme Court will support the invention of a federal constitutional right to same-sex marriage. (As illustrations, consider the records of two of the leading contenders for appointment, Harold Koh and Deval Patrick.)

 

So Obama isn’t against same-sex marriage. Rather, he’s against incurring the political costs of being candid about his support for same-sex marriage.  On marriage as on many other issues, Obama, as an ardent supporter of liberal judicial activism, will look for his judicial appointees to impose illegitimately the policy preferences of the Left that he doesn’t have the courage (or foolhardiness) to pursue through the proper channels of representative government.  [my emphases]

IS "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM" AN INSULT TO TRADITIONAL CONSERVATIVES?

Jonah Goldberg thinks so as he weighs in on the online exchange between Michael Gerson and John O'Sullivan.  Goldberg writes (and this makes sense to me):

"Compassionate" may indeed be a strong adjective, but it's an intellectually weak word. As I've said countless times before, compassionate conservatism makes perhaps the fundamental mistake of contemporary liberalism: It scores a person's moral worth by his commitment to giant government initiatives and often ineffectual or counter-productive bureaucracies. (See David Frum's review of Heroic Conservatism for more on this).

In almost everything Gerson has written about compassionate conservatism, you could replace the word "compassionate" with "Great Society" and it would make more sense. . . 

Read on . . .

WHAT'S WITH POLITICAL PUNDIT TONY BLANKLEY, SOME KIND OF CHRISTIAN OR SOMETHING?

Well, I must admit, Blankley's current column took me by surprise.  Here is a political columnist [and TV talking head) of considerable stature, Tony Blankley, writing a column and quoting the hymns "The Old Rugged Cross" and "The Sweet by and By" with affection, rather than disdain or mockery.  He even refers to "our fallen nature" (do politicians know what that means?).  I've always liked Tony's columns, sensing in them a uniquely perceptive sensibility.  And now I have a clue to the groundedness of Blankley's view of life and reality.  Thank you, Tony, for flying your colors, at least to some extent.  You'll get your share of bricks flying at you (shoes, too?) by Washington sophisticates, but hold steady.  By the way, I appreciated your book, The West's Last Chance: Will We Win the Clash of Civilizations?  I see you have another one coming out in January, 2009 - American Grit: What It Will Take to Survive and Win in the 21st Century.   (Note: A previous post referring to Blankley can be found here.)  

SCORES OF NEW SPECIES FOUND IN GREATER MEKONG

This report is pretty fascinating.  (HT: Drudge)

A spider as big as a dinner plate has been found living in one of the world's last scientifically  unexplored regions.

The Greater Mekong, which is made up of 600,000 square kilometres of wetlands and rainforest along the Mekong River in Cambodia, Laos, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and China, is also home to striped rabbits, bright pink millipedes laced with cyanide and a rat that was believed to have become extinct 11 million years ago.

A host of new species has been found in the area, which is so full of life that previously unknown animals and plants have been turning up at a rate of two a week for a decade.  (Read more . . .)

DESTROYING THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE WEST

A friend sent me a link to the Bill Muehlenberg essay, "Destroying the Foundations of the West," which I am glad to be aware of .  (He cites sources on my shelf I have wanted to read more thoroughly, rather than only dip into!).  I poked around Muehlenberg's website, "CultureWatch," and found much of interest there.  He has written an astonishing number of essays, plus a great number of book reviews.  He is a Christian writer attuned to the cultural challenges facing the modern world.  American-born, his wife is Australian and they make their home in Melbourne, Australia.  A short bio can be found here.

THE POST-CHRISTMAS, POST-CHRISTIAN WEST

Andrew Strattaford reports on "Winter Festival News":

Via the Daily Mail:

A school choir was forced to withdraw from a Christmas event because organisers branded its carols 'too religious'. Around 60 children aged between seven and 11 had spent six weeks practising favourites including Once In Royal David's City and Silent Night for the Corringham Winter Festival. But they were let down at the last minute when their headteacher was informed their programme did not 'dovetail' with the festival's theme.

Strattaford's response:  "Idiotic."   I concur.

CHINESE PIANO FEVER

I've often wondered about the future of the United States given its low high school graduation rate, the educational establishment's preference for social engineering to academic rigor, and, in general, the average young person's  greater interest in video games than in things academic.  Then comes along Spengler, a writer for Asian Times, with an interesting piece that contrasts China with the United States, and in the process extols the virtues of musicianship. [my emphases follow]

Thirty-six million Chinese children study piano today, compared to only 6 million in the United States. The numbers understate the difference, for musical study in China is more demanding.  It must be a conspiracy. Chinese parents are selling plasma-screen TVs to America, and saving their wages to buy their kids pianos - making American kids stupider and Chinese kids smarter. Watch out, Americans - a generation from now, your kid is going to fetch coffee for a Chinese boss. That is a bit of an exaggeration, of course - some of the bosses will be Indian.Americans

Hmmmm.... SUSPICIOUS FIRE AT PALIN'S CHURCH

Update 12/15/08 - accelerant poured around Palin's church

Update 12/14/08 - A few more details available.  Here's a TV news video report. 

(Original post) - I just read the headline above at the Hot Air website.  The Anchorage Daily News has the story.  The pastor estimates a million dollars damage.

DAVID BROOKS ON THE MOOD IN WASHINGTON ANTICIPATING OBAMA'S "CORONATION"

Brooks writes:

". . . the U.S. capital is enjoying a season of rebirth. Sixty-seven percent to 75 percent of Americans have positive feelings toward Barack Obama and his transition. Perhaps up to four million people will attend the inauguration, possibly filling the entire space between the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.

Washingtonians do not speak of this as a political transition. They speak of the inaugural as a cultural, psychological and historic event. It seems to have become, in their minds, like an ancient tribal rite — the purging of sin, the elevation of the pure, the moral regeneration of the nation’s soul. It would not surprise your ambassador if the Americans were to throw a sacrificial goat into a volcano as part of the primal offerings.  [my emphasis]

DON'T BE FOOLED; OBAMA IS NO CENTRIST

So argues Charles Krauthammer.  Sure, foreign policy and treasury look centrist, but don't be fooled.  Krauthammer:

Transformation is his mission. Crisis provides the opportunity. The election provides him the power. . .  Obama was quite serious when he said he was going to change the world. And now he has a national crisis, a personal mandate, a pliant Congress, a desperate public — and, at his disposal, the greatest pot of money in galactic history. (I include here the extrasolar planets.)

It begins with a near $1 trillion stimulus package. This is where Obama will show himself ideologically. It is his one great opportunity to plant the seeds for everything he cares about: a new green economy, universal health care, a labor resurgence, government as benevolent private-sector “partner.” It is the community organizer’s ultimate dream.

. . .With the country clamoring for action and with all psychological barriers to government intervention obliterated (by the conservative party, no less), the stage is set for a young, ambitious, supremely confident president — who sees himself as a world-historical figure before even having been sworn in — to begin a restructuring of the American economy and the forging of a new relationship between government and people.

Don’t be fooled by Bob Gates staying on. Obama didn’t get elected to manage Afghanistan. He intends to transform America. And he has the money, the mandate, and the moxie to go for it.   [more. . .] 

BIOETHICAL QUESTIONS ADDRESSED BY THE VATICAN'S "DIGNITAS PERSONAE"

Twenty-three pages in length, the document comes bundled with a Vatican-issued summary and accompanying Q&A.

National Review's Yuval Levin writes:

One of the great ironies of the stem cell debates of the last few years has been that some of the most serious attention to scientific detail and reality has come from Catholic circles, while some of the most wide-eyed messianic faith-healing talk has come from liberal political (and sometimes even scientific) circles. There is another example of the former today, with a new Vatican document about reproductive technologies and bioethics. I’m not a Catholic and am in no position to speak to the theological components of the document, and I don’t agree with all of its conclusions (on IVF, for instance) but its treatment of the latest scientific developments and of the related ethical questions is exceptionally good, and its attitude—very pro-science and very clear about ethical boundaries and the reasons for them, with arguments that reach well beyond Catholic theology—is very impressive.

The view of many of us who have argued against the destruction of embryos for research is that we ought not understand ourselves to be faced with a choice between science and ethics, but with the challenge of championing both, which is a challenge both to scientific ingenuity and to ethical reflection and argument (a case I take up, among other issues, in my recent book on science and democracy). The Bush administration’s approach to the stem cell debate has been one example of how to think in these terms. This document, wherever you stand on its Catholic-specific elements, is another very worthy one.  [Emphases mine]

LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES OF THE HOOK-UP CULTURE

Colleen Carroll Campbell writes in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Once confined to dorm-room gossip sessions, salacious details about the hook-up culture on today's college campuses have become fodder for serious sociological analysis.

No fewer than four books on the topic have been published this year alone. Among them are sociologist Kathleen Bogle's unflinching investigation of campus sexual norms in "Hooking Up: Sex, Dating and Relationships on Campus" and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Laura Sessions Stepp's alarming analysis of promiscuity's emotional costs in "Unhooked: How Young Women Pursue Sex, Delay Love and Lose at Both."

In another -- "Sex and the Soul"  -- Boston University religion professor Donna Freitas probes the disturbing disconnect between students' religious convictions and sexual choices. And in "Hooked: New Science on How Casual Sex is Affecting Our Children," obstetrician/gynecologists Joe McIlhaney and Freda McKissic Bush survey the scientific evidence for psychological scars linked to supposedly strings-free sex.

These authors often differ in their analyses of the hook-up culture's root causes and costs. Yet the proliferation of similar studies in recent years suggests an emerging consensus among experts that today's anything-goes campus sexual mores carry lasting consequences we only have begun to understand. And those consequences extend well beyond unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.  [More]

CHUCK COLSON RESPONDS TO THE DALAI LAMA'S STATEMENT: "SEX INVARIABLY SPELLS TROUBLE"

Colson does a great job distinguishing between Buddhist notions of celibacy and Christian perspectives.  Click here.

WILL CHINA, MEXICO, OR NIGERIA BECOME "HOT SPOTS" CONFRONTING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION?

 Ralph Peters issues an alert.

NUMBERS OF CHRISTIANS IN CHINA MAY BE LESS THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT

This is a sobering evaluation.

I've always thought it was dumb also.  But then I've never been part of the latte set.  Story here.  (HT: Drudge)

A lot of people obviously like, and apparently require, specialized coffee and MacDonald's is going after them.  See "McCafe espresso drink menu" at http://unsnobbycoffee.com/  (Is that a great web address or what?)

VIDEO: BUSH TALKS CANDIDLY TO "NIGHTLINE" ABOUT HIS CHRISTIAN FAITH

President George W. Bush is a good, decent, honorable, humble man.  One can disagree with him on this or that policy, but his fundamental decency remains.   Click here for the interesting and revealing two-part video interview.

The Anchoress says she was very touched by the President's genuineness and humility.

Daniel Pulliam thinks the religious aspects of President Bush's interview are making greater waves overseas than in the United States:

European news outlets have for quite awhile reported a distorted view of Bush’s faith, and this interview is truly earth-shattering news for them.

I CHOKED UP WHEN I READ THIS . . .

[SAN DIEGO – A grieving father and husband who lost his wife, two young daughters and mother-in-law when a Marine fighter jet crashed into their home on Monday thanked everyone who has supported him and said he does not blame the pilot of the disabled plane.

“Nobody expected such a horrible thing to happen, especially right here, you know, our house,” Don Yoon said at a Tuesday news conference in front of his decimated home in University City. “I believe my wife and two babies and mother-in-law are in heaven with God, and I know God is taking care of them.”   [More . . .]

It's the video that really moved me.   Michelle Malkin has supplied us with an address to which one can send a card:

Dong Yun Yoon
c/o Rev. Kevin Lee
Korean United Methodist Church
3520 Mount Acadia Blvd
San Diego, CA 92111

CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW - AN INTERVIEW WITH RAVI ZACHARIAS

Julia Dunn of the Washington Times conducted a recent interview.  Zacharias is always worth reading, and this interview is no exception.  Dunn introduces the interview with these words:

Indian-born Ravi Zacharias, who grew up steeped in Hinduism, is one of the first Christian apologists to come out of the Third World. Headquartered in Atlanta, his expertise on comparative religions has earned him audiences from Capitol Hill to Harvard.

An excerpt:

Q: How do you present the uniqueness of Christianity?

A: I am totally convinced the Christian faith is the most coherent worldview around. Everyone: pantheist, atheist, skeptic, polytheist has to answer these questions: Where did I come from? What is life's meaning? How do I define right from wrong and what happens to me when I die? Those are the fulcrum points of our existence. I deal with cultural issues whether they be in the Middle East, Far East, the Orient or the West. You broach questions in the context of their culture and then present Christian answers.   [More. . .]   (Note: I have made additions to this post since it was originally posted).

THOMAS SOWELL - THE MEANING OF THE MUMBAI MASSACRE FOR AMERICANS

I had toyed with giving this post the title, "Americans (and the new Obama administration) fail to take hatred against us seriously."  No doubt that would have served equally well as the heading I eventually chose.  Thomas Sowell has written a serious column which I think should be required reading.  One small excerpt:

There are no concessions we can make that will buy off hate-filled terrorists. What they want — what they must have for their own self-respect, in a world where they suffer the humiliation of being visibly centuries behind the West in so many ways — is our being brought down in humiliation, including self-humiliation.

Even killing us will not be enough, just as killing Jews was not enough for the Nazis, who first had to subject them to soul-scarring humiliations and dehumanization in their death camps.

This kind of hatred may not be familiar to most Americans but what happened on 9/11 should give us a clue — and a warning. [Read the whole thing.]

Sowell includes a telling quote from Theodore Dalrymple, whom he refers to as "a very shrewd observer of the deterioration of Western societies":  “This mental flabbiness is decadence, and at the same time a manifestation of the arrogant assumption that nothing can destroy us.”

See also Daniel Pipes' article, "Still Asleep After Mumbai."  It's a chilling account of the

REDNECK YACHT

I think that is cool!  See Ben Witherington's post for more redneck photos, including the following "Redneck Wedding Cake":

Lest anyone misunderstand, I have a strong affinity with rednecks!

ROSS DOUTHAT - "ABORTION POLITICS DIDN'T DOOM THE G.O.P."

See Ross Douthart's article for one of the finest and most level-headed statements on abortion and the G.O.P. you will read anywhere.  (HT: Yuval Levin at The Corner]

NATIONAL SUICIDE VIA VERBICIDE

- Update: Mark Steyn reports that Amazon has amended its post: The "Twelve Days Of Holiday" promotion has now been amended to "The Twelve Days Of [click here for offensive C-word]".

- Roger Kimball recounts some recent examples.  This is a phenomena that occurs, and reoccurs, throughout our culture every day.  Hint:  It's not healthy.  (HT: the Corner)

One small excerpt from his much larger article:

My second example is a seasonal one. In a recent column, Mark Steyn pointed out that the mighty Amazon.com is advertising a special music sale called “The Twelve Days Of Holiday“. (Hat tip for this to Instapundit.) This is what happens when you bend over backwards to mollify multicultural sensitivities. The linguistic absurdity (”On the first day of holiday, my true love gave to me . . .”) is not fortuitous: it is the presenting symptom of that moral illness that underlies the whole enterprise. In a later column, Mark reports that a reader who complained to Amazon about the excision of the word “Christmas” received this canned response from Amazon:

Please accept our sincere apologies if you were offended by the use of the word “Christmas” on our website. Our intention in referring to Christmas is to give specific ordering guidance for a specific holiday, not to exclude other faiths.

Other examples he cites may be more apropos the title I gave this post.  [Read more]

NEWSWEEK SAYS GAY MARRIAGE PERFECTLY COMPATIBLE WITH THE BIBLE - (Huh?)

- Update 12/10/08  - The Family Research Council offers a point-by-point logical and theological rebuttal to Lisa Miller's Newsweek cover story.  The FRC's response may be the most definitive, detailed, and helpful of all responses.

- Update #1   12/8/08: Mollie Hemingway offers a blistering attack on Lisa Miller's Newsweek piece.   (HT: Between Two Worlds)

- Update #2   12/8/08: Al Mohler offers a detailed response well worth reading.

- Update #3   12/8/08: Robert Gagnon, author of  The Bible and Homosexual Practice, has an internet video that one can view titled: "What Does the Bible Teach About Homosexuality?" He answers Neil Elliot, quoted in the Newsweek piece, here.  Gagnon is a Biblical expert.  Many of his scholarly articles can be accessed here.  He also argues six points from a secular point of view against the cultural endorsement of homosexual behavior.

- (Original Post) - Mark Hemingway over at National Review Online's Corner quotes the lede from Newsweek's cover story this week on "The Religious Case for Gay Marriage."  Afterwards he offers some choice words in rebuttal.  First the Newsweek quote:

Let's try for a minute to take the religious conservatives at their word and define marriage as the Bible does. Shall we look to Abraham, the great patriarch, who slept with his servant when he discovered his beloved wife Sarah was infertile? Or to Jacob, who fathered children with four different women (two sisters and their servants)? Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon and the kings of Judah and Israel—all these fathers and heroes were polygamists. The New Testament model of marriage is hardly better. Jesus himself was single and preached an

WHY CLERGY SHOULD STAY IN SHAPE -- THEY MIGHT CATCH A THIEF!

I post this with a particular clergy friend, a marathon runner, in mind!  From the Associated Press:

Rev. Bill Hegedusich, a 48-year-old marathon runner, went bounding from the church Sunday after a man took two bags of money totalling about $125 from an unlocked safe.  [Read more. . .]

THE CHABAD MOVEMENT AND THE MUMBAI MASSACRE

Lucette Lugnado has written a fascinating article in the Wall Street Journal on the Hasidic Chabad movement with which we have become acquainted because of the murders at the Chabad House in Mumbai.  Since I knew very little about the Chabad movement, I am glad to have read Lugnado's article.

I am absolutely certain that Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his pregnant wife Rivka, massacred by  the terrorists, had also set up a safe-haven. Theirs was a retreat for Jews living in and around Mumbai or even those who were merely passing through.

I would venture that's one of the secrets behind the Chabad movement's extraordinary growth -- that they build little sanctuaries for lost Jews, alienated Jews, secular Jews, Jews who have no interest in traditional religion.

Chabad has redefined religion in part by getting away from the notion of large, formal temples to establishing places of worship that are small, intimate and, above all, deeply comforting; they have made religion personal.

NOTED CHRISTIAN AUTHOR, PHILIP YANCEY, WAS IN INDIA DURING THE MUMBAI MASSACRE

Yancey just published a fascinating article about his experience in India.  Highly recommended.

GEORGE F. WILLS EXPLAINS WHY THE "FAIRNESS DOCTRINE" SHOULD NEVER BE REVIVED

 George F. Will's article serves as a touchstone essay on the subject.  As to media abundance (and variety) today, Will notes:

 . . . today there are about 14,000 radio stations, twice as many as in 1969; 18.9 million subscribers to satellite radio, up 17 percent in 12 months; and that 86 percent of households with either cable or satellite television receive an average of 102 of the 500 available channels. . . Whereas in 1980 there were fewer than 100 talk radio programs, today there are more than 1,500 news or talk radio stations. . . 

Because liberals have been even less successful in competing with conservatives on talk radio than Detroit has been in competing with its rivals, liberals are seeking intellectual protectionism in the form of regulations that suppress ideological rivals.  [Read more. . .]

THE ENDURING CRISIS OF THE BLACK FAMILY

Kay Hymowitz offers an update on the sad persistent facts and statistics.  Can the example of Obama's  family help?

DEFENDING RELIGIOUS LIBERTY AGAINST MOB INTIMIDATION BY PRO-GAY MARRIAGE ACTIVISTS

- - UPDATE 12/8/08 - I have no respect for organizations and groups that go after individuals.  A restaurant manager who supported Prop. 8 has had to resign because of hatred against her. More here.  Update 12/15/08 - Still more details.

- Mark Krikorian reports:

 Well, this doesn't happen everyday. A bunch of well-known religious leaders came to the Mormon church's defense by taking out this full-page ad in The New York Times denouncing the persecution of the church over Proposition 8.

Evangelicals will recognize the names Colson, Seiple, Olasky, Sider, Cizek plus others.  You can add your name to the list at nomobveto.org   I congratulate those who have initiated this public proclamation against mob intimidation.  That such shameful measures should have been employed by pro-gay marriage activists can only be viewed as unconscionable and disgusting. 

New Mental Health Studies Dispel Myth That Abortion is a 'Non-Event'

Moira Gaul at The Family Research Council reports that two new studies published in peer-reviewed journals continue to link abortion and negative mental health effects:

The first paper [PDF], published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, analyzed data from the  National Comorbidity Survey, the most comprehensive national dataset on the prevalence of  psychological disorders, was analyzed to explore associations between abortion history and mental health. Abortion was found to be associated with an increased risk of a number of mental health problems including: panic attacks, panic disorder, agoraphobia, post traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder, and major depression. The four study authors presented their research on topic at a panel discussion at the Family Research Council in October 2008.

The second paper [PDF], written by New Zealand researcher David Fergusson, analyzed data from a 30-year longitudinal study. The methodology, analysis employing two types of models of for concurrent and long-term health effects, strong control for confounding variables, and comparison groups were all strengths of the study. The results indicated abortion to be associated with an increased risk of mental disorders, including major depression, anxiety disorder, illicit drug dependence, and suicide ideation.

The results of both studies add to the strong body evidence detailing the causal association between abortion and mental health disorders. These findings continue to raise important