Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

CLIMATEGATE SENTENCE OF THE DAY

Clive Cook writing in The Atlantic:  (HT: HotAir)

The stink of intellectual corruption is overpowering."

Read on...

FOUAD AJAMI -- ISLAMIC WORLD SEES OBAMA'S PENITENTIAL STANCE AS BAD FORM AND A GREAT MORAL LAPSE

Fouad Ajami says "A Foreign Policy of Penance Has Won America No Friends."    Ajami cites statistics (see the article) and then makes this astounding observation:

Steeped in an overarching idea of American guilt, Mr. Obama and his lieutenants offered nothing less than a doctrine, and a policy, of American penance. No one told Mr. Obama that the Islamic world, where American power is engaged and so dangerously exposed, it is considered bad form, nay a great moral lapse, to speak ill of one's own tribe when in the midst, and in the lands, of others.

The crowd may have applauded the cavalier way the new steward of American power referred to his predecessor, but in the privacy of their own language they doubtless wondered about his character and his fidelity. "My brother and I against my cousin, my cousin and I against the stranger," goes one of the Arab world's most honored maxims. The stranger who came into their midst and spoke badly of his own was destined to become an object of suspicion.

Me: The whole article is worth reading.

THE WORLD TOMORROW WILL BE DIFFERENT FROM THE WORLD TODAY

The world is ever-changing.  Roger Kimball calls it a "quick changing kaleidoscope" and goes on to say:

It seems to be a human quirk — maybe it is part of the human instinct for survival — to suppose that the world tomorrow will, in most essentials, resemble the world today. No doubt in many cases, the supposition is justified. But a friend sent me this little animated dramatization about the fate of the British (and incidentally, the French and Spanish) Empire over the last couple centuries. It is, as he said, “utterly fascinating (and depressing).” What it depicts is, first, a journey or moral and material progress through the first couple decades of the twentieth century. It then shows the astonishing swift process of political disintegration that marks what we might call the retribalization of the world.

Me:  By all means watch the little animated dramatization.  After that helpful prodding of our historical memory, we could well meditate on how much the world could change in the next few years.  Which should drive us to prayer.

CLIMATEGATE: HAS THE IDOL OF "SCIENCE" BEEN SMASHED?

- Update 11/29/09 -  UK Times Online article: "Climate Change Date Dumped"  (HT: Drudge)

SCIENTISTS at the University of East Anglia (UEA) have admitted throwing away much of the raw temperature data on which their predictions of global warming are based.

It means that other academics are not able to check basic calculations said to show a long-term rise in temperature over the past 150 years.

Me:  Oh great.  Get a load of the comments on this article.

- (Original Post) - The idols of our time are falling with breathtaking rapidity.   The oldline media has been revealed to be biased and unreliable.   It suppresses information it doesn't want us to know, and pushes themes and stories it wishes to promote. 

The idol of Congress has been smashed.  Ordinary trust has been destroyed.  How can senators and representatives retain the people's confidence when they vote on bills they haven't read, and saddle generations to come with debt that staggers the mind?

And what about groups supposedly devoted to helping the poor like ACORN, which when the stone is lifted  show themselves immoral, vote-rigging, and power hungry arms of the democratic party.

And what about President Barack Obama?  Rather than continuing to bask in his Messiahship ("change you can believe in"), more and more segments of the nation have come to question his judgment and regret giving him stewardship over this great land.

And now, our trust in "science" has been smashed, as we see scientists fudging data, withholding information, lying, converting journals into propaganda organs, and misleading the public.  "Climategate" articles keep pouring from the press.  An earlier one is Three Things You Absolutely Must Know About Climategate." John Hindraker over at Power Line has written a lot about the East Anglia emails, here, here, here and here.  Viscount Monckton (the man who challenged Al Gore to a debate) expresses his anger.

See also James Lewis's "Climate-Gate: It's the Totalitarianism, Stupid."  He pulls no punches.  An excerpt:

Global warming was a fraud, and it has now been exposed.

That little fraud would have cost the taxpayers of the world trillions of dollars, not to mention wrecking their economies with carbon taxes and penalties.

But that’s not even the worst of it. The most important take home lesson is that global frauding was the clear and conscious work of a political machine aiming to steal your money,  your liberties, and your country. It was a massive, worldwide attempt at a coup d’etat, and the

UNDERPARENTED CHILDREN

Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air offers a review of Amy Alkon's new book, "I See Rude People: One Woman's Battle to Beat some Manners into Impolite Society."  Looks like a terrific book.  She gives a hint of what's in it via an opinion piece published in the the Los Angeles Times a few days ago.  It struck a chord with me because on two separate occasions this past week, I have encountered mothers whose goal either was (and proved successful) or currently is, to raise a child who will not be a nuisance in public or visiting friends.  Read Alkon's article here. 

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving Day!  What a wonderful day!  I hope you and yours can take time to contemplate all the blessings that are ours individually and collectively as a nation.   Of supreme value, we can thank God that He has made Himself known to the world in Christ, and that we can have Life in Him no matter what our current physical and material blessings (or challenges) may be.

My prayer is that God may bless all the readers of "Muddling Toward Maturity" with special joy and gratitude this day!

-- Norman Rockwell's famous painting:

Soldiers' thanksgiving (from Atlas Shrugs)

--  Rush Limbaugh tells the story of Thanksgiving, including"the rest of the story" usually omitted in school textbooks.

PRIVATE SECTOR EXPERIENCE IN U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CABINETS COMPARED

I found Nick Schultz's graph and commentary mind-blowing.   It goes a long way towards explaining the ignorance and goofiness the Obama administration exhibits. (HT:  Jonah Goldberg at The Corner)  Here's the graph:

Here's the commentary:

A friend sends along the following chart from a J.P. Morgan research report. It examines the prior private sector experience of the cabinet officials since 1900 that one might expect a president to turn to in seeking advice about helping the economy. It includes secretaries of State, Commerce, Treasury, Agriculture, Interior, Labor, Transportation, Energy, and Housing & Urban Development, and excludes Postmaster General, Navy, War, Health, Education & Welfare, Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security—432 cabinet members in all.

When one considers that public sector employment has ranged since the 1950s at between 15 percent and 19 percent of the population, the makeup of the current cabinet—over 90 percent of its prior experience was in the public sector—is remarkable.

"THE BLIND SIDE" -- A MOVIE WORTH SEEING

I'm not much of a movie-goer, so it's not often that I offer comments.  (Click here for previous blog posts on movies.)  Tonight, though, I came across Prof. Ben Witherington's enthusiastic review of the new movie, The Blind Side.  Since I value his judgment,  I just may go see this film.   Witherington is a world class New Testament professor at Asbury Seminary in Kentucky, and a film aficionado whose blog I check on a regular basis.

Obama's constructive brilliance:   (HT: The Constructive Curmudgeon)

THE HOMOSEXUAL MOVEMENT RESTS ON A FOUNDATION OF LIES

From the Family Research Council:

"Together, we must continue to proclaim the truth--because there remain many men and women who need that truth to set them free." That was the message delivered on Friday by FRC's Peter Sprigg in an address to the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH). NARTH is a scientific organization which defends the right to seek psychological care for unwanted homosexual attractions, and the right of therapists to provide care directed at changing a person's sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual if the client desires it. Unfortunately, these freedoms are under attack by homosexual activists who seek to persuade people that change is impossible, that efforts to change are harmful, and that homosexuality is harmless.

NARTH has produced an outstanding new resource, the first volume of its Journal of Human Sexuality, which thoroughly debunks all three of these claims by proving that changing is possible, change efforts are not harmful, and that homosexually active people suffer higher rates of many pathologies. Peter linked these findings to the public policy debates on homosexuality, pointing out that since homosexual conduct is not inborn, involuntary, immutable, or innocuous, it should not be treated like race or sex. Research alone may not settle these debates--but we should be highly skeptical of the homosexual movement, because it rests on a foundation of lies.

LITTLE KNOWN FACTS ABOUT ISLAMIST BUTCHERY

Ibn Warraq in Forbes magazine:  [my bolding]    HT: NRO Corner

There are said to have been at least 14,396 acts of Islamic terrorism (if we include the latest blast in Peshawar, Pakistan) since the World Trade Center atrocity; more people are killed by Islamists each year than were killed in all 350 years of the Spanish Inquisition; more civilians were killed by Muslim extremists on 9/11 than in the 36 years of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland. Then let us not forget the recent acts in Bali, Madrid, London, Mumbai, Thailand, India, Somalia, Nigeria, the Philippines and almost on a daily basis in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. And yet, it is Muslims who are offended when we raise these facts.  [more . .]

THE TRAVESTY OF "SOCIAL JUSTICE" (MIS)EDUCATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE

- Update 11/25/09 - What this post spotlights has become a hot issue at the University of Minnesota.  Read about it here.

- (Original post) - In perusing some reader comments on quite a different subject, a person recommended Sol Stern's Spring 2006 City Journal article, "The Ed Schools' Latest -and Worse- Humbug." It's a long article, aptly subtitled: "Teaching for “social justice” is a cruel hoax on disadvantaged kids."   I gladly confess that I read every word of the essay.   Through this and other materials, I am slowly becoming aware of what is taking place in educational departments in universities throughout the United States.  It's actually quite shocking. 

The article I am referencing begins with a discussion of Bill Ayer's influence on educational practice (note: this was written before Barack Obama became linked in the public mind with Ayers), and ends with words surveying the dismal wreckage wrought by "social justice" emphases in poor neighborhoods in the United States.  I can't do justice to the article in this short space.  If anyone wishes to regard me as some unreasonable hidebound conservative, okay, but you had better read the article first.

Below are a few excerpts towards the end of the article:

It cannot be repeated often enough: ideas have consequences, and bad ideas have bad consequences. The Freirian theories that carry over to social justice teaching are incapable of “liberating” the children of America’s so-called oppressed. As E. D. Hirsch has exhaustively shown, the scientific evidence about which classroom methods produce the best results for poor children point conclusively to the very methods that the critical pedagogy and social justice theorists denounce as oppressive and racist. By contrast, not one shred of hard evidence

SARAH PALIN VISITS BILLY GRAHAM IN NORTH CAROLINA

The Charlotte Observer reports:  (HT: HotAir)

Sarah Palin, the hottest name in the Republican Party, took a detour from her book-signing tour Sunday to dine with Billy Graham at his mountaintop home in Montreat.

"He's followed her career and likes her strong stand on faith," said son Franklin Graham, who was present for the 2 1/2-hour get-together. "Daddy feels God was using her to wake America up."

The former Alaska governor and 2008 GOP vice presidential candidate told Billy Graham about how she came to faith in God as a girl in Bible camp.

She quizzed him on the presidents he's known and wanted his take on what the Bible says about Israel, Iran and Iraq, Franklin Graham reported.

EU CREATES HISTORIC & UNDEMOCRATIC NEW POST: "PRESIDENT OF EUROPE"

That's the headline Joel Rosenberg gives his latest post.  The European Union chose Belgium Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy over Britain’s Tony Blair to be  “President of Europe.  Rosenberg:

If you’re thinking, “van who?”, don’t worry — you’re not alone. In one of the most undemocratic developments in recent history, the new leader of a half-billion Europeans is a name only 12% of them have even heard of. He was chosen unanimously by a council of other EU leaders, not by popular vote, and will take office January 1, 2010.

Rosenberg again:

EU leaders didn’t bumble into this appointment. They are determined to create an unrivaled superpower. They are determined to create the world’s most powerful political position in the presidency. But they want an EU-fanatic, not a British lone ranger. I’d never heard of van Rompuy until Thursday, but I have no doubt the EU leaders who chose him unanimously knew exactly what they were doing. I expect this guy to be a problem for the U.S., for freedom, and for Israel. Time will tell for certain.  [more . .]

The London Telegraph asserts "Herman Van Rompuy's quirky exterior conceals a ruthless political operator who will stop at nothing to get his way as president of the European Union.

Mr Van Rompuy is a supporter of the creation of an EU federal state, with its own anthem, flag and with powers to collect taxes on car fuel or financial transactions from Europe’s citizens.”

QUOTE OF THE DAY

On the road today I came unexpectedly upon a major book sale being held in a small town about an hour and a half away.  I happened to see a sign on the road advertising the sale, and since I had a few extra minutes, I wandered in.  I picked up Willliam F. Buckley Jr.'s Nearer, My God: An Autobiography of Faith which I expect to enjoy perusing.  I also picked up Philip Yancey's Reaching for the Invisible God.  I read a few pages a moment ago and came across this quote from C.S. Lewis:  "The Christian has a great advantage over other men not by being less fallen than they, nor less doomed to live in fallen world, but by knowing that he is a fallen man in a fallen world."  Of this Yancey says, "That recognition forms my starting point in understanding a journey to know God."   I appreciate that starting point.  It liberates us from a lot of false notions and expectations.  I shall look forward to reading this book.

AMERICAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS RELEASE AN HISTORIC DOCUMENT: "THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION"

Charles Colson states:

Today at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., I and a dozen evangelical, Catholic, and Orthodox leaders face the microphones to announce the release of an historic document—one of the most important documents produced by the American church, at least in my lifetime.

It is called the Manhattan Declaration, and signed by over 140 leaders representing every branch of American Christianity.

The Manhattan Declaration is a wake-up call—a call to conscience—for the church. It is also crystal-clear message to civil authorities that we will not, under any circumstances, stand idly by as our religious freedom comes under assault.

The Declaration begins by reminding readers that for 2,000 years, Christians have borne witness to the truths of their faith. This witness has taken various forms—proclamation, seeking justice, resisting tyranny, and reaching out to the poor, oppressed, and suffering.

Having reminded readers about why and how Christians have spoken out in the past, the Declaration then turns to what especially troubles us today—the threats to the sanctity of human life, the institution of

LINDSEY GRAHAM DESTROYS ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER

Lindsey Graham goes a long way to redeem himself from many of his follies in this shredding of Holder's unconscionable position:

Andy McCarthy adds:

Attorney General Holder's exchange with Senator Lindsey Graham yesterday has, quite appropriately, gotten lots of attention.  I want to drill down for a moment, though, on one element of it.  The lawyer's stock in trade is precedent. Whether you're a prosecutor or any other lawyer faced with a policy question, the first

SUPREME COURT REFUSES TO HEAR CASE OF SILENCED CHRISTIAN VALEDICTORIAN

Wintery Knight has the full story. Valedictorian Brittany McComb's microphone was cut off when she began talking about Jesus in the  midst of her 2006 graduation speech.  Below is a video of that event.  What has happened to America?  Wintery Knight is right:  "If this young lady were gay or a Muslim or anything else, she would have been allowed to speak about that, and Christians would have remained silent and respectful. Only Christians are suppressed . . .

WHERE IS RIFQA BARRY? WHY IS SHE NOT ALLOWED CONTACT WITH FRIENDS?

Rifqa Barry, the teenage Muslim girl who embraced Christianity is being held in virtual house arrest.  Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs posts the following:

In the most egregious violation of Rifqa's Bary's civil rights, Rifqa is being denied essential contact with the outside world.

Her laptop has been confiscated. And now friends of hers are being denied the right to see her. And the couple of people who were allowed to see her in the past were fingerprinted.

She has been in Ohio for two weeks, and still there is no "pre-approved list" of visitors for Rifqa. On more than one occasion Rifqa has asked and been denied her request to see friends. At a previous almost covert hearing that was held, Mohamad and Aysha Bary moved to restrict her visitation, and it seems they succeeded.

Can any outside pressure be applied? How do we know she is all right? How do we know she is not being psychologically pressured?

She has not been granted pastoral care. She is being denied the freedom to practice her religion. Where are Rifqa's protectors? Who speaks for Rifqa? 

Inmates in prison get visits from their clergy. She is not being afforded the right of prisoners. She has not committed any crime. Why can't friends see her? One of the people who spoke to

OBAMA'S ABYSMAL FOREIGN POLICY RECORD

Seth Leibsohn, a fellow of the Claremont Institute, embeds the following words in a longer post:

But our foreign policy has been one of retreat and capitulation as well. We capitulated to China on the Dalai Lama, we are capitulating to the Chinese client state of the Sudan, President Obama on Monday shook hands with the prime minister of repressive Myanmar (another China vassal state), of course he bowed to Japan, he took missile defenses out of Eastern Europe at the request of Russia, he has refused to say anything of strength about Iran, and has shown appeasement to Latin American dictators. Looking at this record: Why would a skeptical country like China think we are strong, deserving of respect?

This is not only sad, it is dangerous. A weak and disrespected America is bad for America, sends the wrong message to enemies (including terrorists), hurts dissident movements abroad, and — as a political matter, again — reminds us nothing so much as it does of the years of Jimmy Carter, which it took even more years to overcome.  [more . . .]

Me:   Missing from the litany of foreign policy debacles mentioned above, Leibsohn fails to mention the Obama administration's ineptitude regarding the Palestinians and Israel.  And what about Honduras?  What a man!  Amazingly, his manifest incompetence doesn't seem to have lessened his self-esteem in the least, as Charles Krauthammer points out. On a similar note, Michael Barone's observation is worth recalling:

In saluting the fall of the Berlin Wall, on videotape, he made no mention of Ronald Reagan or Margaret Thatcher, Lech Walesa or John Paul II, Mikhail Gorbachev or Vaclav Havel, but cited as a world-changing event his own election in the United States 19 years later.

THE ECONOMIC TRAIN WRECK COMETH

Ian Murray calls attention to Martin Hutchinson's latest column at the Prudent Bear website.  Murray introduces Hutchinson saying:

Martin was business editor of UPI while John O'Sullivan was in charge, and was one of the few financial journalists to see the crash coming well in advance.

Me: I'm not going to produce any excerpts.  If you are concerned about the price of gold and what it portends,  you should be sufficiently motivated to read Hutchinson's column, "Waiting for the Train Wreck."    It sobered me, and it will you also.   Of course Hutchinson could be wrong.  Then again, he could be right.  Hutchinson assigns the probability of a train wreck as close to 100%.

WHY DO WE HEAR SO LITTLE ABOUT THE TREATMENT OF DISSIDENTS IN CUBA?

Jay Nordlinger writes:

On the House floor last night, Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.) gave a speech. His subject was the persecution of Cuban democrats, and the general ignoring of this persecution by the American press. This has been a longstanding grievance of Cubans and Cuban Americans, and their supporters: Horrible things take place on that island, 90 miles from our shore; and yet we tend to look away (and wear our Che Guevara T-shirts). If a Palestinian kid skins his knee in Ramallah, we hear about it. But what about torture in

OBAMA'S NEXT RADICAL UNELECTED POWER PLAYER - CHAI FELDBLUM

The Family Research Council reports:

President Obama has done his fair share of damage to the family, but it's the leaders that America didn't elect who are doing more. In the past nine months, the White House has systematically put radicals in power who are changing the face of our nation. The administration's latest plant is Chai Feldblum, who the President nominated to take the reins of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). For those of you who don't know, the EEOC acts as a referee on disputes about workplace discrimination. As a lesbian, Feldblum has been blunt about her agenda when these incidents involve homosexuals. She's talked extensively about revolutionizing social norms, which, by her definition, means that religious liberties take a backseat to "gay rights."

Not surprisingly, Feldblum has a long record of homosexual advocacy, including her work as the primary author of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA). When asked about the rights of Christians hiring employees of their choosing, she replied, "Gays win; Christians lose." Her Senate hearing is set for this Thursday, and we encourage you to contact your Senators and voice your concerns. Before you do, we strongly recommend that you read our latest Change Watch with three pages of Feldblum's outrageous statements on social issues.

EXCERPTS FROM PALIN'S BOOK, "GOING ROGUE"

National Review Online has done a good job bringing together a number of short quotes from Palin's book, "Going Rogue."  Example:  

What used to be called the “mainstream” national media are, in many respects, worthless as a source of factual information any more. The sin of omission glares in their reporting. . . . Perhaps national press outlets just don’t have the resources any more to devote to balanced coverage. Perhaps they’ve all just given up on themselves, so we’ve given up on them, too, except to treat their shoddy reporting like a car crash — sometimes you just have to look. The time has come to acknowledge that it is a counterfeit objectivity the liberal media try to sell consumers. We are moving into a new, more intelligent realm to gather information differently in order to hold our government accountable. (p. 348)

AN IRANIAN/AMERICAN OFFERS A THOUGHTFUL PERSPECTIVE ON ISLAM AND NATIONALISM

I found this man's persective useful:

I am 34 years old, born in the U.S., raised as a (nominal) Muslim in Iran, and returned back to the U.S. in 1990 (thank Goodness). I converted to Catholicism in 2002, and became a reservist in the Navy (through the Direct Commission Officer program) in 2004. Growing up in Iran, religious instructions in schools started in 1st grade. Sixth grade is when our religious instructions began in earnest by the Basij goons (the true believers) and their fellow-travelers. My family and I left Iran after I finished 9th grade, but by that time I had had a steady ideological diet on Supremacy of Islam, the place for dhimmis, the primacy of Jihad and

QUICK TAKES . . .

- - Evangelicals are on the rise in France.   A surprise to many.

From a postwar population of about 50,000, French evangelicals are now estimated to number 450,000 to 500,000. According to the Evangelical Federation of France, the number of churches has risen from 800 in 1970 to more than 2200 today. . .  [more . .]

- - Churck Colson: "Atheists who become believers: the confounding attraction of the Christian worldview."

A strong empirical case can be made to show that Christianity is the only rational explanation of life. . .   the four basic questions that most people ask about life: Where did I come from? What's my purpose? Why is there sin and suffering? Is redemption possible? Then, on the other side of the matrix, we list the various philosophies and prominent world religions. By examining how each view answers the four questions, we can determine which worldviews conform to the way things really are. This is the correspondence theory of truth—a thoroughly rational test. Students quickly see that only Christianity teaches that humans are created in the image of God, thus protecting their dignity.  [more .  .]

- Daily Mail: Britain is the abortion capital of Europe.

It has overtaken France - which has a larger population - to become the abortion capital of the continent. The rising rate has been pushed up by abortions among teenage girls, which increased by nearly a third over the past decade.  [more . .]

Former Gay Youth Leader Re-Emerges to Tell His Dramatic Conversion Story

This story is worth noting.  Excerpt:

The truth is "obvious," he explained. "Heterosexuality is normal human sexuality, while homosexuality is a deviation. These are obvious things. What is so ground-breaking is how successful activists have been at clouding out reality."

"I think as the angry media continues to perpetuate the myth that homosexuality can't be cured, ... I want to continue to send the message of truth in opposition to that lie," he said, "supported by the fact that I have just continued to be happier, more confident, and much, much more healthy. . .

Read the whole thing.

TODAY'S ENCOUNTERS . . .

I met a person today at Sam's Club that I hadn't seen for over 10 years.  Much of his time has been spent working elsewhere with occasional visits back here, but our paths had never crossed all this time until today.   He asked me what book I go back to most often to reread.  I had never been asked that question before, and I had to think a few seconds.  The  book that popped most immediately to mind was C.S. Lewis' book Miracles, and in particular his last chapter, "Miracles of the New Creation."   The book he most rereads is Hillaire Belloc's The Crisis of Civilization.

Anyone else care to mention the book they most reread?

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE . . . (HUMOROUS PHOTOS)

From an e-mail:

THIS IS WHAT SORRY LOOKS LIKE:

THIS IS WHAT TIRED LOOKS LIKE:

MORE ON KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED

Nonie Darwish lived 30 years in Egypt and recently wrote "Cruel and Usual Punishment; the Terrifying Global Implications of Islamic Law." She now lives in America.  She has written an insightful article, "Khalid's Trial is America's Trial," which further amplifies points made by Andy McCarthy in my previous post.  Excerpts:

The purpose of the trial is to embarrass the Bush administration and America itself and to give Arabs a golden opportunity to indulge in propaganda to convince the West with falsehoods regarding the root causes of Islamic terrorism; mainly that it is the consequence of US foreign policy, old grievances and America’s supports Israel.

Mr. Mohammed will have a chance to make a case against the US for the waterboarding used on him during his interrogation. That will be a confirmation to Attorney General Eric Holder’s reopening of the waterboarding investigation.

The war between Islamism and the rest of the world is largely a cultural and ideological war. Jihad, violent and non-violent, is a cornerstone of Islam that seeks to penetrate the West by any means. Jihadists are commanded to strike terror in the hearts of non-believers, as the Quran says. Deep fear resulting from such terror, renders some Americans vulnerable to appeasement rather than fight it. Islamists understand that dynamics very well and have used

ACCUSED 9/11 MASTERMIND KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMMED HEADED FOR CIVILIAN TRIAL IN NEW YORK

- Update:   After posting the piece below, I came across a link to the same article from HotAir.  I like their title:  " KSM's trial will be an al Qaeda soapbox to rail against America."

- Andy McCarthy explains why this is a terrible idea.  Me: It seems an example of Obama's shameful (dare we call it anti-Americanism?), a stance he continues to push at the expense of the country's security and even its future existence. McCarthy's piece follows.  Please read beyond the first paragraph:

This summer, I theorized that Attorney General Eric Holder — and his boss — had a hidden agenda in ordering a re-investigation of the CIA for six-year-old alleged interrogation excesses that had already been scrutinized by non-partisan DOJ prosecutors who had found no basis for prosecution. The continuing investigations of Bush-era counterterrorism policies (i.e., the policies that kept us safe from more domestic terror attacks), coupled with the Holder Justice Department's obsession to disclose classified national-defense information from that period, enable Holder to give the hard Left the "reckoning" that he and Obama promised during the 2008 campaign. It would be too politically explosive for Obama/Holder to do the dirty work of charging Bush administration officials; but as new revelations from investigations and declassifications are churned out, Leftist lawyers use them to urge European and international tribunals to bring "torture" and "war crimes" indictments. Thus, administration cooperation gives Obama's base the reckoning it demands but Obama gets to deny responsibility for any actual prosecutions.

Today's announcement that KSM and other top al-Qaeda terrorists will be transferred to Manhattan federal court for civilian trials neatly fits this hidden agenda. Nothing results in more disclosures of government intelligence than civilian trials. They are a banquet of information, not just at the discovery stage but in the trial process itself, where witnesses — intelligence sources — must expose themselves and their secrets.

Let's take stock of where we are at this point. KSM and his confederates wanted to plead guilty and have their martyrs' execution last December, when they were being handled by military commission. As I said at the time, we could and should have accommodated them. The Obama administration could still accommodate them. After all, the president has not pulled the plug on all military commissions: Holder is going to announce at least one commission trial (for Nashiri, the Cole bomber) today.

Moreover, KSM has no defense. He was under American indictment for terrorism for years before there ever was a 9/11, and he can't help himself but brag about the atrocities he and his fellow barbarians have carried out.

So: We are now going to have a trial that never had to happen for defendants who have no defense. And when defendants have no defense for their own actions, there is only one thing for their lawyers to do: put the government on trial in hopes of getting the jury (and the media) spun up over government errors, abuses and incompetence. That is what is going to happen in the trial of KSM et al. It will be a soapbox for al-Qaeda's case against America. Since that will be their "defense," the defendants will demand every bit of information they can get about interrogations, renditions, secret prisons, undercover operations targeting Muslims and mosques, etc., and — depending on what judge catches the case — they are likely to be given a lot of it. The administration will be able to claim that the judge, not the administration, is responsible for the exposure of our defense secrets. And the circus will be played out for all to see — in the middle of the war. It will provide endless fodder for the transnational Left to press its case that actions taken in America's defense are violations of international law that must be addressed by foreign courts. And the intelligence bounty will make our enemies more efficient at killing us.

DOGS WELCOMING SOLDIERS HOME

The following video illustrates dog psychology and affection better than anything else I have seen.  Click here for more videos.  (HT: Jonah Goldberg at the Corner).

VACLAV KLAUS, PRESIDENT OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Peter Robinson interviews Vaclav Klaus:

Communism and environmentalism—we are talking about two ideologies that are structurally very similar. They are against individual freedom.  They are in favor of centralist master-minding of our fates.  They are both very similar in telling us what to do, how to live, how to behave, what to eat, how to travel, what we can do and what we cannot do.  There is a huge similarity in this respect.

Full video interview here.

WONDERFUL TRIBUTE TO VETERANS

Thanks to Veronique de Rugy at the Corner for this post:

FOOLISH DIVERSITY LED TO DEATH

Michelle Malkin posts an excellent and comprehensive article.

Mike Huckabee interviews Ex-Planned-Parenthood employee Abby Johnson about why she is now "Pro-Life"

- UPDATE 11/14/09 - Click here to view O'Reilly's interview with Abby Johnson conducted Nov. 11, 2009.  It's well worth viewing, as well as the earlier Huckabee interview posted below.  Click here for the O'Reilly interview transcript.

- (Original Post) - I first came across this video via HotAir which linked to Ms. Underestimated who wrote:

Heartbreaking…just heartbreaking. That’s all I can say. If we continue to consider human life AT ANY stage is worthless, we will continue to devalue our own humanity.

Former Planned Parenthood Director, Abby Johnson, appeared on the Huckabee show this weekend to talk about her transformation from a pro-choice advocate to a pro-life advocate. It all started when she first was called in to assist on an abortion, and she saw on the ultrasound the actual crumbling of an innocent life. She has turned that experience into her new quest to expose what abortion REALLY is; the extermination of a living being.

You can find the full transcript here from Newsbusters.

TODAY MARKS THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

UPDATE  - Ed Morrissey over at HotAir has terrific coverage, including a YouTube video of President Reagan giving one of the most impassioned speeches ever delivered by an American President.  There are other videos also.   Go to this website immediately!  That President Obama (or even Vice-President Biden) are not participating in the commemoration is, in Morrissey's words, "disgraceful"!

-Original post) -  I posted previously concerning Prsident Obama's failure to appear in Berlin to mark the occasion.  Now I would like to simply record Bill Bennett's remarks on the significance of the Berlin wall's collapse:

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But even that phrase doesn’t do the story justice: The wall did not fall—it was pushed. I’m currently writing a history of the past 20 years, and have a good deal about the Berlin Wall in that book—here is some of what will be published:

In 1961, the East German government erected a physical Iron Curtain, an ugly combination of cement and electrified fencing with armed guards, an internal barricade that separated the two nations and their brethren on each side. But at midnight, 9 November 1989, the government of East Germany finally gave permission to its citizens to peaceably pass through the gates of the Berlin Wall. East Germans “surged through, cheering and shouting, and were be met by jubilant West Berliners on the other side. Ecstatic crowds immediately began to

U.S. DEBT CLOCK - INCLUDING DEBT PER PERSON AND PER TAXYER

You'll be amazed.  Click here.  The government is in the hands of ....  ?  (the irresponsible?  crazies?  or?)

AMERICAN SOLDIERS ON AMERICAN BASES ARE NOT ALLOWED TO BE ARMED!

I suppose my headline is common knowledge to a lot of people, but it was news to me.  Stephanie Gutmann, (author of  The Kinder, Gentler Military:  How Political Correctness Affects Our Ability to Win Wars. writes at The Corner

"Overseas, you are ready for it. But here, you can't even defend yourself," said Jerry Richard, a Fort Hood solider who was nearby when Major Nidal Hasan went on his shooting rampage.

What do the Pentagon bureaucrats have to say about that? If soldiers on this base had been allowed to carry the weapons they use overseas, the service weapons they train with, Hasan would have been able to shoot perhaps one or two people, not 41. (As of this writing, 13 are dead, 28 wounded.)

"It's a tragedy to lose soldiers overseas and even more horrifying when they come under fire at an Army base on U.S. soil," said President Obama.

Indeed. How ironic: Survive Iraq or Afghanistan then get picked off like a game bird in a bland, institutional "Soldier Readiness Center" in Texas.

REACTIONS TO OBAMA'S DECISION NOT TO ATTEND THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL

November 9th is the date of the grand celebrations in Berlin.  President Barack Hussein Obama will not be attending.  Should he be?  Conservatives think so.  Here are some reactions published by National Review Online:  (excerpts - read the whole article for more complete reporting)

FRANK GAFFNEY

Nine words say it all: Undermine our allies. Embolden our enemies. Diminish our country.

That’s the Obama Doctrine in a nutshell, and the slighting of Germany with regard to one of the most symbolic and consequential expressions of the quest for freedom undertaken in the  teeth of Soviet oppression does all three.

PAUL KENGOR

Obviously, this is an outrage. There’s no good excuse for it, even as Obama’s disciples grasp for one.

First, this is what we ought to expect from a president whose mentor was Frank Marshall Davis and who, in the 1980s, when President Reagan was seeking to breach the Berlin Wall, was being educated by — and chose to “hang with” — what he himself acknowledged were “Marxist professors.” Obama was raised, nurtured, and

HOW IMPORTANT IS "HUMAN RIGHTS" IN OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY?

Answer:  Not Important at All.

I find that disgusting.  Chuck Colson's report is an eye-opening, important read.  I knew about Obama's refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama, following are some things I didn't know:  (excerpts)

Obama and his aides have also reportedly refused to meet with a representative of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

And now we learn that the President has been quietly cutting off aid to groups that monitor human rights abuses and fight on behalf of human freedom—especially in Iran.

Colson says:

In the Wall Street Journal, David Feith and Bar Weiss write that the administration has eliminated millions of dollars in funding for the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center, Freedom House, and the State Department’s Iran Democracy Fund.

These actions go against everything America stands for. Our worldview is largely informed by our Christian heritage—one that puts human dignity first. Has this administration forgotten that human rights have always been America’s greatest export?

Colson points out rightly,

We believe that all humans are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, as our Declaration of Independence says. We can’t just write off these rights for the sake of climate change or the economy; they’re central to who we are.

[More . . .]

PEACE PRIZE CARTOONS (from an e-mail)

EUROPE DUMPS DEMOCRACY

Paul Belian reports:

The Czech Republic ceased to exist as a sovereign state when Vaclav Klaus, its president, put his signature under the Treaty of Lisbon at 3 pm November 3^rd, 2009. The Czech Republic was the last of the 27 member states of the European Union to ratify the treaty which turns the EU into a genuine state to which it members states are subservient.

 The new European superstate, however, is not a democracy. It has an elected parliament, but the European Parliament has no legislative powers, nor does it control the EU’s executive bodies. The latter, who also have legislative power overriding

LIGHT BLOGGING. . . ON THE ROAD

Yesterday I had poor internet access and was unable to do any blogging. 

The most comprehensive reporting on Major Nidal Malik Hasan and the Fort Hood shooting remains Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugged.  She is doing outstanding reporting on the Muslim aspect of this terrorist act.  The Arab street is rejoicing.  I like the irony of this: it was an American woman who took down the jihadist.  Check Atlas Shrugged for updates and links.

UPDATE: Frank Gaffney, in reporting on President Obama's strange comments on the Ft. Hood incident, notes:

. . . Perhaps the president publicly handled this attack as he did because he was unsettled by the fact that the alleged shooter is a devout Muslim, Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who evidently adheres to the theo-political-legal program authoritative Islam calls “Shariah.”

Now, Shariah requires its adherents to engage in jihad — the imposition of Islam, by force wherever possible. This reality was characteristically obscured by Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, a Muslim Brotherhood front and unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorism financing conspiracy.

During a news conference, he preposterously declared: “No political or religious ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence.”

Actually, Shariah not only justifies such violence but also demands it.

To cite but one example of the requirement for individual Muslims to wage jihad, Shariah expert Andrew Bostom observes that the influential Ottoman cleric, Sheikh Shawish, wrote in 1915:

“To whoever kills even one single infidel of those who rule over Islamic lands, either secretly or openly, there is a reward like a reward from all the living ones of the Islamic world. And let every individual of the Muslims in whatever place they may be, take upon him an oath to kill at least three of four of the ruling infidels, enemies of Allah, and enemies of the religion. He must take upon him this oath before Allah Most High, expecting his reward from Allah alone, and let the Muslim be confident, if there be to him no other good deed than this, nevertheless he will prosper in the day of judgment and we ask the Most High to extend the People of the Faith by the favor of their Lord.”

In short, the Fort Hood “outburst of violence” (to use the president’s formulation), looks like the first successful incident of jihadist mass murder in America since 9/11. This could not be a message happily conveyed by a chief executive committed to “outreach to the Muslim world” and so deprecating of his predecessor, who had managed for seven years to prevent such incidents here in America.

[ more . . .]

IRANIANS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST THE REGIME THROUGHOUT IRAN

Atlas Shrugs has numerous video and photos.   An example:

What is the response of the United States?  Michael Ledeen says,"Obama Speaks Appeasement to Evildoers"

As Michael Rubin notes, there are ongoing demonstrations against the Iranian regime all over the country. It seems clear that the violence from the Revolutionary Guards and Basij is worse than anything to date. The Supreme Leader delivered a verbal beating to President Obama, demanding a full American retreat. And what does our president do? He issues a statement that doesn't even mention the regime's savagery, instead mewling and whining, asking for the Iranian regime to make nice. Here he is, in full Carter/Chamberlain mode:

We do not interfere in Iran’s internal affairs. We have condemned terrorist attacks against Iran. We have recognized Iran’s international right to peaceful

EMERGENT CHURCH: IS TRUTH REALLY PLURAL?

Albert Mohler offers a major review and critique of John R. Franke's Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth,  (HT: Between Two Worlds).

In recent years, John R. Franke, a professor at Biblical Theological Seminary in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, has been among the foremost proponents of the embrace of a postmodern worldview. A major figure in the emergent church, Franke has been a significant critic of modern evangelicalism. In his new book, Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth, Franke offers an argument that pushes the postmodern envelope and offers what amounts to a completely new way of understanding truth. Truth, Franke argues, is inherently plural.

Franke's new book is part of the "Living Theology" series published by Abingdon Press in cooperation with Emergent Village. The book deserves close attention, for it presents a vision of truth we are sure to confront in years to come.   [more . . .]

DEALING WITH TRAGEDY: STEPHEN CURTIS CHAPMAN

Justin Taylor provides excerpts from a Christianity Today interview with Stephen Curtis Chapman:

Steven Curtis Chapman’s new album, Beauty Will Rise, is the first recording he has done since the tragic death of his 5-year-old daughter, Maria Sue.

CT’s Mark Moring interviewed Steven about the album and about the pain in their grief. Here’s an excerpt:

Ain’t feeling it at all. I’m just not sure. I needed to hear my pastor speak truth again to me. I needed to hear somebody say again, here’s what’s true.

That has been an important process, the whole thing of taking every thought captive and saying, God, this is what I choose to believe. Because I’ve found myself, especially in the first few days and weeks after Maria went

MALAYSIA REFUSES TO LET CHRISTIANS HAVE 10,000 BIBLES THAT USE "ALLAH" FOR "GOD"

Robert Spencer reports:

Islamic Tolerance Alert from modern, moderate Malaysia: an update on this story. The Malaysian government is refusing to release the confiscated Bibles: "Actually the publications, the Bibles are already banned."

A Christian spokesman says: "This constitutional right (to practice freely) is rendered illusory if Christians in Malaysia are denied access to Bibles in a language with which they are familiar."

Uh, yeah. Details here.

PAMELA GELLER OFFERS HER VIEWS ON THE BLOGOSPHERE

I have come to find Geller's Atlas Shrugs an important daily read.  Among other things, she understands the threat of Islamic supremacism, and works tirelessly for conservative principles.  She is also the major chronicler of the Rifqa Bary case.  She posts excerpts of her interview with "Stop the ACLU."  Following are a few excerpts:

My political party is capitalism. I think the Constitution is as close to a religious document as you can get. America is the most noble experiment in human history: noble, moral, benevolent and successful. My goal at the outset was preserving the America I grew up in – fighting for the free, protecting and defending the individual’s rights against majority tyranny and minority plotting. And that is still my goal. . .

Turning to the overall picture of the right blogosphere…. what has changed for the worse is the abandonment of the issue of Islamic supremacism by the big blogs — the most dangerous threat facing the West, more dangerous than Nazism, more insidious than communism and they won’t touch it. Of course Jihad Watch covers it comprehensively, but that’s what Spencer does. Islamic jihad is not a tangential issue. It is the defining conflict of our time.

Her response to a question about new blogs I found helpful:

The most interesting blogs are the international blogs like New Zeal and anti-jihad blogs like the Finnish Tundra Tabloids that are doing incredible work exposing the scoundrels on the Hill.  New blogs like Brave New Commie,Vigilant Squirrel Brigade, and summer patriot, winter soldier offer a refreshing new perspective. But guys like Vanderleun, who have been around awhile, are still fresh, original and delish. And Oleg at The People's Cube, outstanding.    [MORE . . .]

LET YOUR VOICE BE HEARD: A MESSAGE FROM CONGRESSMAN MIKE SPENCE

Congressman Mike Pence released the following video, urging all Americans to rise up and let their voices be heard in opposition to the Pelosi health care plan.

Transcript:  (from Gateway Pundit):

“As President Ronald Reagan said: ‘Since the American founding, we have been a people with a government, not the other way around.’”

“Now comes the Pelosi plan for a government takeover of health care. It is a freight train of runaway spending, bloated bureaucracy, mandates and higher taxes.

“If the liberals in Washington have their way, they will forever change the relationship between the government and ‘we the people.’

“If the Pelosi plan for a government takeover of health care passes, we will each become