Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

U.N. AMBASSADOR SUSAN RICE A SHAMELESS ADVOCATE FOR EXPORTING ABORTION ON DEMAND

President Obama will likely choose Susan Rice as his next Secretary of State.  FRC reports:

[...]  As a member of both the Clinton and Obama administrations, Rice has been a shameless advocate for exporting abortion-on-demand--even to countries with moral objections. "Reproductive rights are human rights," she tweeted on World Population Day. "They are essential, which is why the U.S. works tirelessly to protect them."

Like Hillary Clinton, Susan Rice has several liberal cheerleaders, including Planned Parenthood, National Organization for Women, and Emily's List. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about global diplomacy under Susan Rice, take this statement from Planned Parenthood chief Cecile Richards: "Susan Rice has consistently affirmed... [and] understands the important role the United Nations plays in promoting and protecting women's health around the world, especially in developing countries. We expect that she will work effectively with other countries to fulfill the UN's development agenda, including the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) on maternal health," whose goal is to "achieve universal access to reproductive health care" [read: abortion]. For more on Susan Rice's record--and the red flags her nomination to State would raise--check out FRC's new backgrounder.

JOURNALISTIC LIES ABOUT THE FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL

The accusation: that FRC supports the death penalty for homosexuals in Uganda.  Totally false.  It doesn't.  But liberals spread their lies fervently.  And that produces hate.  And hate produces killers.  One man recently tried to kill all the members of the FRC office staff.

PLease read the following statement by the Family Research Council:  (The bolding is my own)

It used to be that the media reported the story. Now they are the story. With fewer journalists able to separate the news from their personal politics, groups like FRC are no longer fighting bias--but outright deception. If you read Monday's Update or follow me on Twitter, then you know that FRC was highly complimentary of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who took the bold step of leading his country in a public prayer of confession for a multitude of sins Uganda committed over the last 50 years, including the genocide of Idi Amin. "We want Uganda to be known as a nation that fears God and as a nation whose foundations are firmly rooted in righteousness and justice..."

Not surprisingly, the U.S. media wasn't nearly as impressed by this gesture as FRC--a fact I alluded to in a tweet that same day. "American liberals are upset that Ugandan Pres is leading his nation in repentance--afraid of a modern example of a nation prospered by God?"

Well, as we learned two years ago, if you want to get the press's attention, just say the word "Uganda" and wait for the firestorm. For years, the African nation has been condemned for its severe laws criminalizing homosexuality. Despite allegations to the contrary, FRC has never supported that policy--or any policy that imposes the death penalty on homosexuals. What we do oppose is the suggestion that gay and lesbian acts are universal human rights. So when Congress introduced a resolution in 2010 denouncing Uganda's punishment for homosexuality, FRC fought--at the request of some Members--to strike the pro-homosexual "human rights" language from the final measure.

Several liberals, including David Weigel at the Washington Post, chose to misrepresent our involvement as an indication that we opposed the entire bill! "Family Research Council Lobbied against Resolution Condemning Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Law," Weigel's headline read. It was a convenient storyline for extremists like the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) who resort to demonizing FRC when they can't compete with us ideologically. Although Weigel later posted a retraction, the damage had already been done.

Now, more than two years later, the lies about FRC's position have resurfaced. After Monday's story, HRC had the audacity to post that by applauding President Museveni, FRC was "praising the 'kill the gays' bill." I challenge anyone with a half a brain to read my tweet or Update story and conclude that FRC is any way supporting the death penalty of homosexuals. But gay activists have their hooks so deeply in the mainstream media that reporters no longer bother to check their facts. Once the blogs start spreading the lies of organizations like HRC and SPLC, they percolate up to reporters like Carolyn Lochhead at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, who regurgitate HRC's garbage without so much as a courtesy call to our office. And these aren't harmless little lies either. They're the same intentional misrepresentations that led to the controversy over FRC's alleged ties to Chick-fil-A--culminating, as you may remember, in the violent shooting of one of our own employees!

Americans need to understand that this cozy relationship between the liberal media and unreliable sources like HRC is fostering a culture of hatred and violence--that same culture that led to the attempted mass murder of the entire FRC office. While it's troubling that any organization would deliberately spread untruths, it's more disturbing that someone who claims the title of journalist would report these lies as fact. Is it any wonder that distrust of the media is at an all-time high?

Update 11/30/12 - Current news is that Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill will not contain the death penalty.

SUPREME COURT JUDGE ANTONIN SCALIA RECOMMENDS HIS OWN BOOK

Why not?  It sounds like a great book to me!  Peter Landers writes in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog,

Justice Antonin Scalia would like people to buy his new book—a “significant” once-in-a-century work, in his view—but even before that, he thinks there are two works every American should read.

The two are the “Federalist Papers,” the 1787-88 defense of the Constitution written mostly by Alexander Hamilton and James Madison, and Alexis de Tocqueville’s “Democracy in America,” said the justice in a weekend appearance at the Federalist Society, a conservative legal group holding its annual Washington meeting. . .

Later, when asked what books every American should read, he pronounced it a “disgrace” that so few people are familiar with the Federalist Papers. It’s not good enough to read just the famous installments like No. 48, in which Madison warned against the legislature “drawing all power into its impetuous vortex,” Justice Scalia said; one must read the work cover to cover.

Those still left with time on their hands may wish to purchase “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts,” by Justice Scalia and Bryan A. Garner, a 567-page tome that lists for $49.95.

The justice said his book, described in this July WSJ article by Jess Bravin, was the first in 100 years comprehensively to gather common-sense canons for interpreting the words of state and federal laws. He contrasted it with the touchy-feely methods of his liberal antagonists.

“You have no idea how crazy modern academic writing is,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe it if it wasn’t in books.”

ARE YOU RECEIVING ACCURATE MIDDLE EAST NEWS?

Yesterday a friend told me about a website that tracks the accuracy of news reporting on the Middle East.  I'm glad to know about it and commend it to you.  The website is called camera.org.    "Camera" stands for Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America.  Check it out here - http://www.camera.org/

WALTER HOOPER ON C.S. LEWIS' NARNIA FILMS

From the National Catholic Reporter interview:  (HT:  Sept/Oct 2012 Bulletin of the New York C.S. Lewis Society)

Have the Narnia films helped or hindered our understanding of Lewis?

Lewis didn't expect his books to survive long after his death, so he would have been surprised by the films, as would Tolkien. As for the films themselves, these lack subtlety and have too many special effects. I think [director] Peter Jackson did a much better job with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, combining a vision with great talent. Whereas Jackson generally stuck to what Tolkien wrote, the Narnia producers just changed the stories as they wished.

I was consulted, especially about the character of Aslan. It was always Lewis' proviso that Aslan must be handled very carefully. He represents the Son of God, so you can't blaspheme with him. I've read many screenplays of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, however, and almost all have portrayed Aslan as a comical character. Lewis would also have disliked the way human persons are placed inside his animals. He'd seen Walt Disney's Fantasia and would have been thrilled to see what can be done now with computer-generated images. But it's the scripts which always let us down. They should stick to what Lewis wrote, as with Shakespeare.

I agree with Hooper.

DID PRO - GAY SITCOMS DETERMINE OUTCOME OF STATE VOTES ON SAME-SEX MARRIAGE?

Short answer: Yes.  I agree with John Stonestreet's viewpoint:      Listen Now | Download

[...]  Writes one commentator very bluntly at the Patheos.com blog “Bad Catholic”: “According to Hollywood, gay men are…just fabulous. You can hardly turn on a sitcom, read a novel, or watch a movie without seeing the Gay Man Abstraction. . . " a guy who’s “funny, cute, kooky, has great taste in clothes, and will always solve [the] straight female protagonist’s problems by the end of the episode.”

And a recent survey from the Hollywood Reporter confirms how this portrayal has changed the public’s attitude on homosexuality and same-sex “marriage.”

When asked whether favorable portrayals of gay characters on shows like “Glee,” “Modern Family” and “The New Normal”  had changed their views on gay “marriage,” twenty-seven percent of respondents—or over eighty percent of those whose views had changed—said that they were more in favor of gay “marriage.”

Says pollster John Penn, that’s due especially to the influx of young voters who grew up watching these shows.

“Views on gay marriage are totally defined by age,” says Penn. “Almost twice as many voters under 35 say these shows made them more in favor of gay marriage. . ."

Translation: The hearts and minds of Americans—especially our young people—are being changed when it comes to same-sex “marriage” and homosexual practice because of entertainment, not arguments.

But what popular media isn’t telling us about homosexuality and gay “marriage” is more manipulative still. In the well-adjusted, sex-savvy, healthy and loving portrayals we see of gay characters and their relationships, something important gets lost: the cost of living counter to God’s design: a higher risk of HIV, greater promiscuity, depression and substance abuse, and a lower life-expectancy—all well-documented consequences of an active homosexual lifestyle.

But in this election, entertainment-driven stereotypes which ignore these realities may have tipped the scales for the first time ever. Three states have just voted to allow same-sex marriage, and more importantly, polls now show that a majority of all Americans favor the change.

Scottish politician Andrew Fletcher once said, “Let me write the songs of a nation, and I don’t care who writes its laws.” If he were alive today, he might add, let me write the popular sitcoms of a nation.

Folks, we’ve spent years, money, talents, reputations and voices communicating the logical, moral and political reasons why marriage can only mean a man and a woman for life. But we’ve failed to do what the other side has succeeded at for so long: capturing the culture’s imagination.

Christian ideas have been very present in theology and politics, but not the arts.  And so now we face a political road ahead that’s rougher than we’ve faced in a long time. And so our real work lies in the culture. And rather than give up and accept the “new normal,” we’ve got to take a page from the other side’s playbook.

We’ve got to realize that the ideas that most effectively shape a culture are not necessarily those that are argued, but those that are embodied. They capture the heart and mind because they capture the imagination.

Further Reading and Information

THR Poll: 'Glee' and 'Modern Family' Drive Voters to Favor Gay Marriage--Even Many Romney Voter
Hollywoodreporter.com | November 3, 2012

ERITREA - CHRISTIAN PRISONERS AND REFUGEES SUFFERING UNIMAGINABLY

Elizabeth Kendal offers a tremendously valuable summary of what has been happening in Eritrea. 

Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa on the Red Sea coast, has one of the most brutally repressive dictatorships in the world. The population is equally divided between Christians (90 percent Eritrean Orthodox) who live mostly in the highlands and Muslims who live mostly in the coastal lowlands. Eritrea won its independence from Ethiopia in 1991 and Isayas Afewerki has been the president since independence was declared and internationally recognised in 1993. In 2001, in the wake of a two-year border war with Ethiopia (1998-2000), Afewerki began cracking down hard on anything that could be viewed as a threat to national unity. He cancelled elections and closed all independent media. Opposition figures -- politicians, activists and journalists -- were removed, mostly to underground 'secret prisons' for the 'disappeared'.

In May 2002, reportedly at the behest of the Eritrean Orthodox Church (EOC), the government began cracking down on 'foreign' and 'non-traditional' religion. A Biblical revival and renewal movement had exploded within the EOC. While some priests accommodated or even embraced the movement, others resisted, forcing those desiring a more evangelical Christianity to leave the EOC for Protestant fellowships. The exodus has caused great angst in the hierarchy of the EOC. Now only state-sanctioned Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Mekane Yesus (Evangelical Lutheran) denominations are legal and worshipping in a Protestant fellowship is a criminal offence. However, by mid-2005 the authorities were oppressing the EOC as well, specifically those EOC priests supportive of the renewal movement and protesting religious persecution. When EOC head, Patriarch Abune Antonios, complained about the persecution of his priests, Afewerki had him deposed, placed under house arrest and replaced with a government administrator.

By the end of 2010 an estimated 3000 Eritrean Christians of all denominations (mostly Protestant) were incarcerated purely for their faith; today the number is estimated at around 1500. Whilst most prisoners are held in shipping containers in desert camps, some are kept in underground cells. The conditions are inhumane: children and the elderly are amongst the prisoners sharing skin diseases, dysentery and other horrors in confined, unventilated spaces. Torture is routine. An Amnesty International report published in May 2004 details the tortures suffered by Christian prisoners.Several Christians have died in custody and others have perished in the desert trying to escape.

Because Eritrea has no independent media, news of persecution is difficult to obtain for it must be leaked at great personal risk. Open Doors (OD) reports that on 30 October a Christian by the name of Adris Ali Mohammed (31), a Muslim convert from the town of Tesenai, died in custody. Adris had spent almost two years in a suffocating dungeon located in Eritrea's Aderset Military Camp, where some 100 Christians are believed to be detained. According to sources, Adris had stood firm through two years of terrible suffering and systematic torture aimed at forcing him to renounce his faith. According to OD, 'Military officials secretly buried Adris outside the camp.'

The repression has created a refugee crisis with many Christians amongst them. In July The Guardian reported that the Eritrea military runs a business kidnapping Eritrean refugees out of refugee camps in Sudan and trafficking them into the Sinai where they are sold to Bedouin gangs 'who use starvation, electrocution, rape and murder to extort up to $40,000 from relatives in the Eritrean diaspora for their release'. (See also NYT, 31 Oct 2012, for horrific details.) According to Strategic Policy magazine (4, 2012) Maj-Gen. Tekle 'Manjus' Kiflai has been identified as the 'co-ordinator of the human smuggling operation' which reportedly serves as 'a major revenue source for the PFDJ', the ruling People's Front for Democracy and Justice. This very powerful Maj-Gen. Tekle, an ethnic 'Christian', is rumoured to be a possible successor to Afewerki. Eritrea also funds, arms and trains anti-Ethiopian forces across the region, as well as rebels fighting against the Government of South Sudan.

But change is looming. For many years Afewerki had been funded and propped up by Gadhafi (Libya) and Mubarak (Egypt). With these two backers now removed, Eritrea's principal ally is US-allied, Islamist Qatar which is fully occupied trying to orchestrate regime change in Damascus, Syria. Furthermore, Afewerki is so unwell that when he disappeared in March, rumours circulated that he had died. Eventually he quelled those rumours by making an appearance on State TV on 29 April. Afewerki allegedly has a liver complaint for which he has received medical treatment in Qatar. Whilst Eritrea is ripe for change, the rot runs deep.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY THAT GOD WILL --

* interpose himself in Eritrea to bring deep and radical change; may he bring judgment on all who trade in suffering and terror and bring an end to belligerence and repression. May he open the door to a new era of justice, liberty and peace, to his glory.

'In my distress I called upon the LORD . . . and my cry to him reached his ears. Then the earth reeled and rocked; the foundations also of the mountains trembled and quaked, because he was angry. He rescued me, because he delighted in me.' (Psalm 18:6,7,19b ESV)

* have mercy on his sorely persecuted Church. Lord, comfort and protect them, sustaining them in body and soul, especially prisoners and refugees. Lord, provide all their needs, fanning their faith into flame so they may not lose hope; may their trust be in you.

* redeem this era of intensive persecution by refining and unifying the Eritrean Church and use their stories of faithfulness to soften the hearts and open the eyes of multitudes.


SUMMARY FOR BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE
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CHRISTIAN PRISONERS & REFUGEES SUFFERING UNIMAGINABLY IN ERITREA

Eritrea has one of the most brutal dictatorships worldwide and the repression has created a refugee crisis. Since May 2002 Christians have been severely persecuted and an estimated 1500 are suffering torture and appalling prison conditions today, simply for their faith. With no independent media, news is extremely difficult to obtain. Open Doors reports that on 30 October a Christian Muslim convert, Adris Ali Mohammed (31), died in custody after two years of systematic torture aimed at forcing him to renounce his faith. Christians in refugee camps are no safer as the Eritrean military runs a lucrative operation on behalf of the government, trafficking them to Bedouin gangs in the Sinai. Please pray for Eritrean Christians and that God will effect deep and radical change in Eritrea.

MALE TRANSSEXUAL IN WOMEN'S LOCKER ROOM

John Stonestreet writes at Breakpoint:

Colleen Francis made himself right at home in the locker room at Evergreen College in Olympia, Washington. The forty-five year-old student showered, used the sauna and walked around naked in front of the other people using those facilities.

Now if you’re having trouble squaring the name “Colleen” with the male pronoun “himself,” you’re not the only one. Those present in the locker room also had trouble with the combination that the locker room in question was the women’s room and “Colleen” is anatomically a male.

Thus when he showers, sits in the sauna, and walks around naked, Francis is exposing himself not only to his fellow students but students from local high schools and families who also use the college’s swimming pool and locker room. Thus, among the females he has exposed himself to are minors, some as young as six.

If you’re wondering, “Why doesn’t someone stop Francis,” well, they tried to, and that’s when the story became surreal. The swimming coach from the local high school and the mother of one of the team members called the police. When the police arrived Francis informed them that he was a transsexual and that, under Washington State law, he was entitled to use the women’s locker room.

If that sounds ridiculous to you, well, it worked. The coach apologized and the college informed parents that state law, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of “gender expression or identity,” tied their hands. The best they could do was to provide screens for those made “uncomfortable” by Francis’ presence.

The Alliance Defending Freedom is representing the parents of the children and has promised to take action if any of the girls is harmed, but absent a change in the law, it may not make a difference.

That’s because what’s happening in Olympia is the logical outcome of two very potent and destructive trends in American society.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: WHAT TO EXPECT FROM OBAMACARE

 

AFTER GAY MARRIAGE SUCCESS, WHAT'S TO STOP POLYGAMY, POLYANDRY, POLYAMORY?

These are serious questions.  Ken Klukokoski writes:

Supporters of traditional marriage lost big on Election Day, with four states redefining marriage to include same-sex couples. Marriage defenders acknowledge they have serious work to do on several fronts going forward, even as the nation must now begin to consider the question of polygamy.  

Washington State and Maine redefined marriage in their states to include two-man and two-woman couples. In Maryland the legislature recently did so with a new statute that was signed into law by Governor Martin O’Malley, a Democrat weighing a presidential run in 2016, and a statewide ballot measure to overturn that law narrowly failed. And in Minnesota, a proposed state constitutional amendment to reaffirm marriage as one man and one woman narrowly failed to pass.  

Traditional marriage has previously enjoyed a success record of 33-0 in statewide contests, winning in every state the people were given a chance to vote. The record from this week was a batting average of 1000 for the other side, resulting in a 33-4 national tally.

Predictably, both liberals and social libertarians say this week’s results show that gay marriage is inevitable nationwide. And some in the Republican Party trying to redefine conservatism as a political movement solely focused on economic issues (with some also arguing for strong national security) say this is proof that the GOP should throw these issues overboard going forward.

But the facts from the election returns don’t support the contention that marriage is a losing issue. First, it appears that supporters of gay marriage had vast resources to promote these ballot measures that swamped social conservatives, easily outspending supporters of traditional marriage. The Left managed to heavily market this issue not only to their base but also developed ads targeting Republicans, young people, and minorities with customized messages as to why those specific audiences should support gay marriage. Traditional marriage supporters had insufficient funds to effectively respond.

LAURA HOLLIS - POST-MORTEM ELECTION ANALYSIS

I think Laura Hollis has written an extraordinarily perceptive post-mortem analysis.  I commend it to you.

I am already reading so many pundits and other talking heads analyzing the disaster that was this year’s elections. I am adding my own ten cents. Here goes:

1. We are outnumbered

We accurately foresaw the enthusiasm, the passion, the commitment, the determination, and the turnout. Married women, men, independents, Catholics, evangelicals – they all went for Romney in percentages as high or higher than the groups which voted for McCain in 2008. It wasn’t enough. What we saw in the election on Tuesday was a tipping point: we are now at a place where there are legitimately fewer Americans who desire a free republic with a free people than there are those who think the government should give them stuff. There are fewer of us who believe in the value of free exchange and free enterprise. There are fewer of us who do not wish to demonize successful people in order to justify taking from them. We are outnumbered. For the moment. It’s just that simple.

2. It wasn’t the candidate(s)
Some are already saying, “Romney was the wrong guy”; “He should have picked Marco Rubio to get Florida/Rob Portman to get Ohio/Chris Christie to get [someplace else].” With all due respect, these assessments are incorrect. Romney ran a strategic and well-organized campaign. Yes, he could have hit harder on Benghazi. But for those who would have loved that, there are those who would have found it distasteful. No matter what tactic you could point to that Romney could have done better, it would have been spun in a way that was detrimental to his chances. Romney would have been an excellent president, and Ryan was an inspired choice. No matter who we ran this year, they would have lost. See #1, above.

3. It’s the culture, stupid.
We have been trying to fight this battle every four years at the voting booth. It is long past time we admit that that is not where the battle really is. We abdicated control of the culture – starting back in the 1960s. And now our largest primary social institutions – education, the media, Hollywood (entertainment) have become really nothing more than an assembly line for cranking out reliable little Leftists. Furthermore, we have allowed the government to undermine the institutions that instill good character – marriage, the family, communities, schools, our churches. So, here we are, at least two full generations later – we are reaping what we have sown. It took nearly fifty years to get here; it will take another fifty years to get back. But it starts with the determination to reclaim education, the media, and the entertainment business. If we fail to do that, we can kiss every election goodbye from here on out. And much more.

4. America has become a nation of adolescents
The real loser in this election was adulthood: Maturity. Responsibility. The understanding that liberty must be accompanied by self-restraint. Obama is a spoiled child, and the behavior and language of his followers and their advertisements throughout the campaign makes it clear how many of them are, as well. Romney is a grown-up. Romney should have won. Those of us who expected him to win assumed that voters would act like grownups. Because if we were a nation of grownups, he would have won.

But what did win? Sex. Drugs. Bad language. Bad manners. Vulgarity. Lies. Cheating. Name-calling. Finger-pointing. Blaming. And irresponsible spending.

This does not bode well. People grow up one of two ways: either they choose to, or circumstances force them to. The warnings are all there, whether it is the looming economic disaster, or the inability of the government to respond to crises like Hurricane Sandy, or the growing strength and brazenness of our enemies. American voters stick their fingers in their ears and say, “Lalalalalala, I can’t hear you.”

It is unpleasant to think about the circumstances it will take to force Americans to grow up. It is even more unpleasant to think about Obama at the helm when those circumstances arrive.

THE POPULACE HAS CHOSEN ECONOMIC SUICIDE

It amazes me that "smart people" choose catastrophy.  Mark Steyn notes:  (my bolding)

[...]  If you add up the total debt — state, local, the works — every man, woman, and child in this country owes 200 grand (which is rather more than the average Greek does) Every American family owes about three-quarters of a million bucks, or about the budget deficit of Liechtenstein, which has the highest GDP per capita in the world. . . .

In the course of his first term, Obama increased the federal debt by just shy of $6 trillion and in return grew the economy by $905 billion. So, as Lance Roberts at Street Talk Live pointed out, in order to generate every dollar of economic growth the United States had to borrow about five dollars and 60 cents. There’s no one out there on the planet — whether it’s “the rich” or the Chinese — who can afford to carry on bankrolling that rate of return. . . According to one CBO analysis, U.S.-government spending is sustainable as long as the rest of the world is prepared to sink 19 percent of its GDP into U.S. Treasury debt. We already know the answer to that: In order to avoid the public humiliation of a failed bond auction, the U.S. Treasury sells 70 percent of the debt it issues to the Federal Reserve — which is to say the left hand of the U.S. government is borrowing money from the right hand of the U.S. government. It’s government as a Nigerian e-mail scam, with Ben Bernanke playing the role of the dictator’s widow with $4 trillion under her bed that she’s willing to wire to Timmy Geithner as soon as he sends her his bank-account details.

If that’s all a bit too technical, here’s the gist: There’s nothing holding the joint up. . . .

Americans as a whole have joined the rest of the Western world in voting themselves a lifestyle they are not willing to earn. The longer any course correction is postponed the more convulsive it will be. Alas, on Tuesday, the electorate opted to defer it for another four years. I doubt they’ll get that long.

UNDERSTANDING AMERICA

Michael Barone put it well in his Tuesday column, "America Is Two Countries, Not on Speaking Terms."

"One America tends to be traditionally religious, personally charitable, appreciative of entrepreneurs, and suspicious of government. The other tends to be secular or only mildly religious, less charitable on average, skeptical of business, and supportive of government as an instrument to advance liberal causes... Now the two Americas disagree, sharply."

It should also be noted that the two Americas watch different TV programs and read different publications and websites.   Those influenced by right-wing media are a much smaller population than those influenced by the mainstream (liberal) and leftist media.  Check the graphic below from Buzzfeed on "What Your books and Websites Say About Your Politics."   David French makes the telling point that the "statist outlook is relentlessly reinforced in a news and pop-culture bubble that conservatives simply aren’t penetrating."  He points to the chart below and says:

You’ll note the obvious truth that not only do conservatives and liberals read different publications, but even “moderates” read disproportionately liberal publications (which is perhaps one reason why “moderates” are really less-liberal liberals and not less-conservative conservatives)

French goes on to make a number of good points:

The Social Conservative Review: The Insider's Guide to Pro-Family News -- November 8, 2012

The Family Research Council does superb work in assembling these articles.  For previous issues of the Social Conservative Review, click here.  The items below are found here.

Educational Freedom and Reform
Homeschooling

• "Global Conference Issues Call for Homeschool Freedom," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "Paul Ryan Champions School Choice," OneNewsNow
• "5 Secrets to Creating Brilliant Students," Crosswalk

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "Even When The Heart Condemns," The Examined Life
• "Public and Religious Education: L'Etat, C'est Tout," The Public Discourse
• "Reform Agenda Gains Strength," Education Next
• "Obama the Education Spending Hawk," Education Week

College Debt

• "New Student Loan Repayment Option Could Help Recent Graduates," U.S. News and World Report
• "Research Student Aid Before You Reform," The Chronicle of Higher Education
• "US military sounds alarm over mounting student loan debt," Reuters
• "Pay attention to college affordability, candidates," Chicago Tribune
• "Four Ways Colleges Can Cut Costs for Students," Fox Business

Government Reform
Regulation

• "How government regulation turned the U.S. into one big national zoo," National Post
• "The Science of Government Regulation," U.S. News and World Report
• "Regulation Nation," Values and Capitalism

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Obama Lags House Republicans on Data Transparency," Cato @ Liberty
• "How to Explain the Entitlement Crisis to an 8-Year-Old," The Acton Institute
• "The Kindest Cuts," City Journal

Health Care
Abstinence

• "Art Imitating Life--Parks and Recreation Takes on Abstinence-Only-Until-Marriage Policies," RHRealityCheck.org
• "Report: Parents support abstinence education," Dyersburg State Gazette

Conscience Protection

• "Anti-Conscience Mandate Halted Against Second Family-Owned Business," The Heritage Foundation

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "Listen for Free: Autocam's John Kennedy on Obamacare Mandate," The Acton Institute
• "The end of the art of the turnaround," The American
• "Jesus, the Chief Justice, and Justice: A Christian View of Obamacare," Patheos
• "Another Reason The HHS Mandate Won't Work," Alliance Defending Freedom
• "ObamaCare Creates the 'Public Option," The Galen Institute

Homosexuality

• "Same-Sex Marriage Ten Years On: Lessons from Canada," The Public Discourse
• "32-0 and Counting ," The Catholic Thing
• "Marriage and the New York Times ' Fear of Democracy," National Review Online
• "Billy Graham Endorses Minnesota Same-Sex Marriage Ban," Christianity Today
• "Washington, Maryland, Maine narrowly redefine marriage: Minnesota vote too close to call," LifeSiteNews.com

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "Let's Actually Get Real About Abortion," First Things
• "Rape, Conception, and God: Why Mourdock Was Right," The Public Discourse
• "The Obama Campaign and the War on Women," Crystal Clear Conservative
• "Doubting China's One-Child Policy Change," Christianity Today
• "EU Court Rules Poland Must Ensure Doctors Perform Legal Abortions," National Review Online
• "Pro-Lifers, Rejoice: We Won!," CNSNews.com
• "Montana Approves Measure for Parental Notification on Abortion," LifeNews.com
• "5 Ways Presidents Affect the Pro-Life Cause," The Gospel Coalition

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Zombies and the Real Problem of Bioethics," National Review Online
• "Did President Obama Restore Science to Its Rightful Place?," The American
• "Scientists in Oregon Create Embryos With Three Genetic Parents," LifeNews.com

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Liverpool Care Pathway Used as Euthanasia," National Review Online
• "Our Dangerous Obsession with 'Health'," First Things
• "Assisted suicide measure narrowly defeated; supporters concede defeat," The Boston Herald

Stem Cell Research
To read about the latest advances in ethical adult stem cell research, keep up with leading-edge reports from FRC's Dr. David Prentice, click here.

• "Novel technique to produce stem cells from peripheral blood," Phys.org
• "President Obama and the Embryonic Backfire," The Huffington Post
• "Studies On Stem Cell Therapy After Heart Attack Show Mixed Results," RedOrbit.com
• "A Triumph for Ethical Stem-Cell Research," National Catholic Register

Human Trafficking

• "Severe Shelter Beds Shortage for Survivors of Human Trafficking," The Polaris Project
• "Ugliness of human trafficking is coming out of the shadows," Orlando Sentinel
• "California's Prop 35: Why Some Oppose an Anti-Sex-Trafficking Initiative," Time

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Washington asks for cuts in adoption support," The Seattle Times
• "Foster kids praise adoption program," Star Tribune

Family Economics

• "Two Percent Economic Growth: Real or Apparent?," The Center for Vision and Values
• "Black Depression," Via Meadia
• "The Christian Case for the American Dream," Her.meneutics
• "Speaking into the Silence: Conservatives and Poverty," Values & Capitalism
• "Wage gap myth exposed - by feminists," American Enterprise Institute
• "Are Young Families Today Worse Off Than Their Parents Were?," The Sacramento Bee

Family Structure

• "Spiritual Disciplines in the Home," The Examined Life
• "Men Don't Mother," The Public Discourse
• "Three Parent Children a Step Closer," National Review Online
• "A Faithful Marriage: Love, Righteousness, and Peace," Crosswalk
• "Parents, Let Your No Be No," The Gospel Coalition
• "How Many Children Should We Have?," Challies.com
• "The Blessing of Children," The New Atlantis
• "Depressed teens need to shut off social media sites, stop texting, experts suggest," The Deseret News

Media
Pornography

• "Responses to Pro-Porn Arguments," PornHarms.com
• "LA Votes To Require Condoms For Porn Performers, Adult Film," International Business Times

Internet

• "Internet Search and the Nature of Competition," The American
• "iPhones, iPads, and Christian Parenting," Moore to the Point
• "Friendship Does Not Compute," The New Atlantis

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "A War on Religion?," The Public Discourse
• "The IRS and the Churches," First Things
• "US Catholic Bishops Launch Website on Religious Liberty," The Acton Institute
• "Protect high school students' rights to free speech," The Washington Post
• "Has The IRS Given Up On Auditing Churches?," Alliance Defending Freedom

Religion in America
Check out Dr. Kenyn Cureton's feature on Watchmen Pastors called "The Lost Episodes," featuring how religion has had an impact on our Founding Fathers.

• "'The Weightier Provisions of the Law'," The Gospel Coalition
• "Do Christians Have a Duty Not to Engage Culture?," First Things
• "Martin Luther's View of Faith & Work," Institute for Faith, Work, & Economics
• "More God on the Quad: Religions on Campus," The Huffington Post
• "Small Government Christian," Patheos
• "In Defeats, Evangelicals' Political Unity at All-Time High," Christianity Today
• "Elections, Political Parties and an Eternal Hope in a King," Values and Capitalism

Secularism

• "How to Resist an Aggressive Secularism," BrandonVogt.com
• "Archbishop Chaput on the Politics of Secularism," Patheos

International
Israel

• "Israel lays down red lines on Iran," AEIdeas.org
• "The Limits of American Power," The Jerusalem Post
• "Obama and the Politics of Contempt," The Jerusalem Post

International Economy and Family

• "The Argentina Scenario," City Journal
• "Relief at last for family finances," London Daily Telegraph
• "China shows signs economic recovery taking shape," KXAN.com

Religious Persecution

• "Report: Catholic Bishops Warn of Refugee Crisis in Syria," The Acton Institute
• "What Will Become of the Middle East's Christians?," First Things

Sharia law -- U.S., foreign

• "Parents Kill Teenage Daughter in Acid Attack in Kashmir," AFP

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Free Speech, the Supreme Court, and Neutral Principles," The Public Discourse
• "Supreme Court Hears Case on Class Action Limits," The FedSoc Blog

Judicial Activism

• "Obama Victory Could Spell End Of Conservative Supreme Court," Forbes
• "Surveying the State Supreme Court Elections," The FedSoc Blog
• "The Most Dangerous Branch," National Affairs

Other News of Note

• "In Need of a Friend," Crosswalk
• "America's Fundamental Transformation," The Center for Vision and Values

Book reviews

• ""Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe" by Anne Applebaum," The Washington Post
• "Death Is For Real," Christianity Today
• "Wisdom & Wonder & Interdisciplinary Studies," The Acton Institute
• "Reading the Financial Crisis," City Journal
• "Book Review: John Allison's The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure," Forbes
• "Controversy and Interpretation: A Review of *Biblical Womanhood*," Mere Orthodoxy

SEAN HANNITY: "AMERICA NO LONGER A CENTER-RIGHT NATION"

Hannity said on his radio show today:

“The reality is that America is changing…the allure and the appeal of socialism and redistribution of wealth has taken hold with about half the electorate,” he said.

Hannity also compared Barack Obama to parents who always gives their children whatever they want:

“There is a certain appeal to the parent that will give you everything you want.  There’s a certain lack of hipness, if you will, for the parent that’s saying, you’ve got to eat your broccoli.”

“I think we have to face a reality that maybe America is no longer the center-right country that it once was…America has been conditioned now to be an entitlement society,” Hannity said.

FIVE WAYS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TIPPED THE SCALES IN FAVOR OF OBAMA

See Rich Noyes' accurate analysis.

WOMEN MADE THE DIFFERENCE IN OBAMA'S WIN

Carrie Lukas observes:  (my bolding)

Yet here is something that’s pretty clear, even as the dust settles. Men would have elected Gov. Romney President by a wide margin. Women, who cast about 53 percent of the votes, gave President Obama about a ten-point margin and another four years in the White House.

This should be a wakeup call for everyone on the Right. I count myself among those who assumed — clearly wrongly in hindsight — that the “War on Women” rhetoric wouldn’t work. From my perspective, the Democrats’ campaign for women was flatly insulting, treating women as sex objects (appealing to them to vote with their “lady parts”) and helpless wards of the state (Julia). The charge that Republicans want to restricted access to contraception — that is, beyond returning to the pre-ObamaCare status quo when religious organizations were not forced to pay for others’ contraception — is so far-fetched that it’s almost hard to know how to counter, since just engaging in the discussion grants the question a legitimacy it doesn’t deserve.

Survey research leading up to the election consistently suggested that jobs and economy — not the so-called “women’s issues” — were top of mind for female voters (just as they were for male voters). This suggests that, in spite of the Administration’s record of massive deficits, intractable unemployment, and rising cost-of-living, women believe that their prospects were worse under the more market-centered, limited-government approach advanced by Romney-Ryan. In other words, women remain unconvinced that Liberty Is No War on Women.

This election confirms that conservatives must, simply must, expand the coalition of those supporting our principles to include more women. This will require a lot of ground work to show women how the ideals of limited government and free markets do not threaten women’s basic security, but in fact can be the foundation of a healthier, more secure, safety net and greater prosperity and opportunities for women, as well as men.  A more robust, sustained effort to start that conversation with new groups of women needs to start today. 

                              - Carrie Lukas is the managing director of the Independent Women’s Forum and co-author of Liberty Is No War on Women

POLITICS AND ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT - HAVE BLACKS MISPLACED PRIORITIES?

Jason L. Riley makes several observations that strike me as noteworth in his Wall Street Journal article titled, "For Blacks, the Pyrrhic Victory of the Obama Era."  He notes: [my emphases]

- When the president assumed office, unemployment was 12.7% for blacks and 7.1% for whites. Today it is 14.3% for blacks and 7% for whites, which means that the black-white employment gap has not merely persisted under Mr. Obama but widened. . .

- But the historical reality for other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. is that political success has not been necessary for economic advancement. Germans were a third of the population in colonial Pennsylvania yet studiously avoided public office. Only after Germans had risen economically did they begin to distinguish themselves in politics. The impoverished Eastern European Jews who began arriving here in large numbers in the 1880s made little impact politically until well after they had established themselves economically. . . .

- Today, Asian-Americans are the nation's best-educated and highest-earning racial group. According to a Pew study released earlier this year, 49% of Asians age 25 and older hold bachelor's degrees, compared with 31% of whites and 18% of blacks. The median household income for Asians is $66,000, which is $12,000 more than white households and double that of black households. As with other groups, political clout has not been a precondition of Asian socioeconomic advancement. . .

- The election of Barack Obama four years ago gave blacks bragging rights, but bragging rights can't close the black-white achievement gap in education or increase black labor-force participation or reduce black incarceration rates. A civil-rights leadership that encourages blacks to look to politicians to solve these problems is doing a disservice to the people they claim to represent.

Asians, for their part, can point to an out-of-wedlock birthrate of just 16%, the lowest of any major group and a significant factor in Asian success. The black illegitimacy rate last year was 72%. Might it be that having a black man in the Oval Office is less important for black advancement than having one in the home?

ABORTION COVERAGE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES - MENDACIUS

Jon A. Shields contends that mainstream abortion coverage, superficial in the past, appears to be getting worse.  He writes:

Just consider the mendacious, slash-and-burn "New York Times Magazine" story by Emily Bazelon on Charmaine Yoest, the director of Americans United for Life.

I learned quite a lot from Shields' article, including that

American abortions laws [are]  far more permissive than any other western democracy, with the possible exception of Sweden and the Netherlands. The vast majority of western democracies limit abortion access to the first trimester and many impose more onerous regulations."  [my bolding]

Further,

In anti-Catholic France, for instance, abortion is legal only in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and only after counseling and a one-week waiting period. Waiting periods range from 7 days in Italy, 6 days in Belgium, 5 days in the Netherlands, and 3 days in Germany. By way of contrast, waiting period are generally 24 hours in the twenty-six American states that impose them. Given the relative conservatism of abortion laws in Europe, the New York Times might consider redirecting its concern abroad.

Shields says a whole lot more.

The first paragraph of

FOUR STATES VOTING ON GAY MARRIAGE TODAY

I've posted several times on the same-sex marriage issue being voted on today in four states - Maryland, Minnesota, Maine, and Washington - but I've not posted a good rundown on the specific way the issue is being framed in each state.  CBN News provides the information in this video.

  

Text:

Picking the president isn't the only decision voters will have to make Tuesday. Voters in four deep blue states are also weighing in on marriage and how it should be defined.

In Washington, Minnesota, Maine, and Maryland, voters will decide on marriage and what kind of history they want to make.

If all four states vote for traditional marriage, they'll extend an unbroken record where voters in 32 states have supported the traditional institution.

In Washington, voters will decide whether to let stand a gay marriage law approved by lawmakers and the governor. Supporters of the law include major employers like Starbucks, Amazon, and Microsoft.

STEM CELL BREAKTHROUGH: A SCIENTIFIC AND ETHICAL LEAP FORWARD

The awarding of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine this year went to an especially noteworthy recipient, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Japanese pharmacologist and researcher.  Breakpoint's Eric Metaxas offers a good introduction to the man and his work:

Listen Now | Download

Thirteen years ago, Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, a Japanese pharmacologist and researcher, made a social call to a friend’s fertility clinic. His friend invited him to look at some human embryos through a microscope.

What Yamanaka saw set him on a path that culminated in a Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology. And in the process has won him praise from the pro-life community.

As Yamanaka later told the “New York Times,” “when I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters . . . I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.”

The search for “another way” took eight years, but eventually Yamanaka and his colleagues at Kyoto University discovered a way to turn “adult skin cells into the equivalent of human embryonic stem cells without using an actual embryo.”

Using methods first developed with laboratory mice, Yamanaka and company “reprogrammed” the adult skin cells by adding “genes called master regulators to the skin cells’ chromosomes. These genes can change the cell’s behavior by turning other genes on and off.”

EXPERTS PREDICT LANDSLIDE FOR OBAMA; OTHER EXPERTS PREDICT LANDSLIDE FOR ROMNEY

This will prove interesting.  Each pundit gives their electoral college vote predictions.

Experts predicting an Obama landslide - here.

Experts predicting a Romney landslide - here.

Me: I am cautiously optimistic Romney will win.  If he doesn't, I will be devastated, feeling the country's stabilizing presence in the world will be unrecoverable, and we its citizens will be subject to ever-narrowing religious freedom and continually expanding totalitarian governance. 

Update:

     Peggy Noonan expects a Romney win -

I suspect both Romney and Obama have a sense of what’s coming, and it’s part of why Romney looks so peaceful and Obama so roiled.

HOW CAN I OPPOSE SAME-SEX MARRIAGE WHEN SOMEONE I LOVE IS GAY?

Regina Griggs and Peter Briggs wrote the article with the above title.  Excerpt:

The fundamental reason why marriage is treated as a public institution – and the reason it has always been defined as a male-female union – is the recognition that there is a unique role of heterosexual unions in reproducing the human race, and to keep the mother and father who create a child together to raise that child. Men and women are complementary in a way two persons of the same sex can never be. One need not consider homosexual relationships to be inferior in order to recognize that heterosexual ones are unique in their potential for natural procreation and the well-being of a child. While some same-sex couples raise children, such households are – by design – either motherless or fatherless. This is why even some openly gay people, like Maryland political activist Doug Mainwaring, oppose same-sex marriage.

We at PFOX urge everyone to love their gay friends and relatives unconditionally, and never to cut them out of your life just because they are gay. But personal relationships should not dictate the definition of our most fundamental social institution.

As mentioned previously, tomorrow on election day, voters in Maine, Maryland, Minnesota and Washington State will be going to the polls to decide if they want same-sex marriage legalized in their state.   The situation in Maine became inflamed because of homosexual activists taking advantage of school children in the Gorman Middle School.  FRC has the story:

Parents are still steaming over a shocking scene at Gorham Middle School, where school administrators used "Diversity Day" to introduce kids to a vivid description of homosexual foreplay. The presenters, Proud Rainbow Youth of Southern Maine, hosted Gorham's assembly at the invitation of Principal Robert Riley. What was meant to be a conversation about "tolerance" quickly turned into a graphic explanation of gay and lesbian sex acts. Although several teachers said how "uncomfortable" they were, not one intervened--leaving families appalled and irate.

"I don't want my child taught heterosexual foreplay, let alone homosexual foreplay in school," fumed parent Kristy Howard (video here). "I don't think it's the place. If you feel something is wrong, you stop it immediately. And that didn't happen." Angry moms and dads said they found out about it when their children came home shell-shocked. Although Principal Riley sent home letters of apology, he still insists that the day "went very, very well." In fact, he told some reporters that he thought the assembly was "good for students." Of course, you don't have to be a conservative to appreciate the damage this kind of indoctrination can cause. Regardless of where they stand politically, most parents feel this is an inexcusable violation of their rights--and their children's innocence.

Unfortunately for Mainers, this is just a preview of things to come in area classrooms if Question One passes. School administrators can apologize, but this is the unvarnished truth of the homosexual agenda. "Recruiting children?" gay columnist Daniel Villarreal wrote. "You bet we are." In a candid article last year, Villarreal says parents are right to be worried. (Warning: link contains obscene language.) "[Conservatives] accuse us of exploiting children and in response we say, 'NOOO! We're not gonna make kids learn about homosexuality, we swear! ...But let's face it--that's a lie. We want educators to teach future generations of children to accept queer sexuality. In fact, our very future depends on it... Can we please just start admitting that we do actually want to indoctrinate kids?"

In some states, they already are. In California and Massachusetts, lessons like Gorham's are a natural progression of the laws that legalize same-sex "marriage" or mandate specific pro-homosexual curriculum. And if Americans don't speak out now, they may lose their right to later. Sacramento Reverend and FRC Watchman pastor Dr. Phillip Goudeaux is finding that out the hard way. The 2008 Obama supporter is changing his vote after the four-year onslaught of anti-life, anti-marriage policies. Now, Pastor Goudeaux, the leader of the largest multi-racial church in the state, is paying the price. He's been the target of death threats and harassment just for voicing his opinion. "They're getting it all mixed up," Dr. Goudeaux responded. "I'm voting for values and my commitment to the Kingdom of God . Why don't I have the right to stand up and speak my values without being hated on?"

The Left likes to argue that this debate is about "love" and "equality." It's not. This is about our children and our fundamental rights as Americans. Get involved today to protect yours.

-- There's also the problem of people losing their jobs because they believe in traditional marriage.  See video below. 

 

Me:  I feel strongly that the marriage vote in the four states of Maine, Minnesota, Maryland and Washington is crucial.  If you know someone living in these states, do what you can to be sure they vote at the polls.

AN ICE FISHING FUNNY

HT: JS

This guy decides to go ice fishing.  He collects his gear, goes out onto the
ice, pulls out an auger and starts drilling.

LOUD VOICE FROM ABOVE: "There are no fish there."

So the guy goes to another spot and starts to drill.

LOUD VOICE FROM ABOVE: "There's no fish there, either."

Undaunted, the guy tries a third spot.

LOUD VOICE FROM ABOVE: "Nope. Not there either."

The guy is getting a little nervous.  He looks up and calls out: "Are you
God?

LOUD VOICE FROM ABOVE: "No. I'm the arena manager."

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE TO BE VOTED ON IN FOUR STATES - MARYLAND, MAINE, MINNESOTA, WASHINGTON

Speaking of homosexuality, have you any idea the percentage of the U.S. population that claims to be gay?  The Family Research Council reports on the latest broad survey findings:

When Gallup asked people to estimate how many Americans were homosexual in 2011, most guessed 25%. Turns out, they were about 22% off. The actual number, Gallup reports today, is about 3.4%--a startling statistic for most people who just naturally assumed the media saturation was driven by a big population. Who can blame them? These numbers should be shocking to anyone who's lived through the deluge of gay and lesbian policy, entertainment, school curriculum, and corporate capitulation of the past 10 years.

According to Gallup, this survey is the largest single study of the U.S. LGBT population ever conducted. Over four months, Gallup canvassed the country by phone, interviewing more than 121,000 people. The results were based on answers to this question, "Do you, personally, identify as a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender?" Although surveys like this one can be tricky--pollsters are never sure how many people are truly candid--the numbers are consistent with FRC's research and other experts'. Just last year, the Department of Health and Human Services released a similar figure of 3.8%. In this instance, the biggest concentrations of LGBT were young adults (6.4%), women (3.6%), and young women (8.3%).

Although the homosexual community may not be the largest in the U.S.--it's certainly the loudest. That might explain the major disconnect between the media's portrayal and reality. Just last month, liberals celebrated a record number of homosexual and cross-dressing characters on TV--which is somewhat ironic today, considering the sliver of the population they represent. For years, these 3.4% have seemed to enjoy 100% accommodation. As a community, they've gone out of their way to demand special treatment--even trampling the freedom and values of the other 97% to secure it.

This may be a tiny fraction of the population, but they are quite literally rewriting history. . . 

HERO DOGS OF 9/11

From an email:

Nearly 100 dogs worked at the trade center ten years ago; only 13 are left.

These are the surviving dogs that worked the trade center that are still alive but retired, they are heroes too.
Their eyes say everything you need to know about them. Just amazing creatures. True heroes of 9/11 still with us today

Moxie, 13, from Winthrop, Massachusetts, arrived with her handler, Mark Aliberti, at the World Trade Center on the evening of September 11 and searched the site for eight days.

Tara, 16, from Ipswich, Massachusetts, arrived at the World Trade Center on the night of the 11th.  The dog and her handler Lee Prentiss were there for eight days.  

Kaiser, 12, pictured at home in Indianapolis, Indiana, was deployed to the World Trade Center on September 11 and searched tirelessly for people in the rubble.



Bretagne and his owner Denise Corliss from Cypress, Texas, arrived at the site in New York  on September 17, remaining there for ten days.

Guinness, 15, from Highland, California, started work at the site with Sheila McKee on the morning of September 13 and was deployed at the site for 11 days.
 
Merlyn and his handler Matt Claussen were deployed to Ground Zero on September 24, working the night shift for five days.


Red, 11, from Annapolis, Maryland, went with Heather Roche to the Pentagon from September 16 until the 27 as part of the Bay Area Recovery Canines.



Abigail, above, was deployed on the evening of September 17, searching for 10 days while Tuff arrived in New York at 11:00 pm on the day of attack to start working early the next day.


Handler Julie Noyes and Hoke were deployed to the World Trade Center from their home in Denver on September 24 and searched for five days.


Scout and another unknown dog lie among the rubble at Ground Zero, just two of nearly 100 search and rescue animals who helped to search for survivors.

During the chaos of the 9/11 attacks, where almost 3,000 people died, nearly 100 loyal search and rescue dogs and their brave owners scoured Ground Zero for survivors. The dogs worked tirelessly to search for anyone trapped alive in the rubble, along with countless emergency service workers and members of the public.

Traveling across nine states in the U.S. from Texas to Maryland, Dutch photographer Charlotte Dumas, 34, captured the remaining dogs in their twilight years in their homes where they still live with their handlers, a full decade on from 9/11.

Their stories have now been compiled in a book, called Retrieved, which was published on the tenth anniversary of the attacks.

Noted for her touching portraits of animals, especially dogs, Charlotte wanted Retrieved to mark not only the anniversary of the September 2001 attacks, but also as recognition for some of the first responders and their dogs.

"I felt this was a turning point, especially for the dogs, who although are not forgotten, are not as prominent as the human stories involved," explained Charlotte, who splits her time between New York and Amsterdam . "They speak to us as a different species, and animals are greatly important for our sense of empathy and to put things into perspective."

ctive."

HISTORIAN PAUL JOHNSON'S CHOICE OF BEST BIOGRAPHIES

Yesterday I posted on fiction and novel.  Today I want to post on "best biograpies" as selected by Paul Johnson, a man whose work I respect greatly.  Here's his 5 top choices:

Macaulay

By Sir Arthur Bryant (1932)

1. There is no doubt in my mind what is the best short biography ever written. It is Sir Arthur Bryant's life of Macaulay. I have taken it as the model for my own small-scale lives, of which I have done five, and my 60 biographical essays, in four volumes. What is required for this kind of work is a combination of ruthlessness and elegance. Ruthlessness in discarding everything but the essential; elegance in concealing your brutality behind a flow of prose in which not a word is wasted, room is found for wit and the telling anecdote, and the reader never gets an impression of hurry. Macaulay was a tough subject. He was a poet, a journalist of the highest class and a historical writer who enraptured his contemporaries but also a man of action, cabinet minister, reformer and the best administrator in the whole course of the British Empire in India. He never wasted a day. He always had a book or two in his pocket for reading—and remembering—in odd moments. His memory was prodigious. He never had to search for a word, in writing or speech. Coping with this phenomenon, and reducing his crowded life to a mere 109 pages, required a historian of the highest caliber and a writer of unusual gifts. Bryant was that man. In 1945 the world was astonished when the British electorate deposed Winston Churchill and replaced him with the Labour Party leader Clement Attlee. As they were processing to the House of Commons for the opening of Parliament, Churchill said to Attlee: "Who is our finest historian?" "Arthur Bryant." "Well," said Churchill, 'at least we agree on something.'

Ulysses S. Grant

By Michael Korda (2004)

2. Americans make very good biographers for thoroughness. But they write on an ample scale, and short biographies are rare. But they do occur, and one I admire is Michael Korda's "Ulysses S. Grant." Here was a man whose early life was humble and marked by failure, but once he got a grip on success he was unusually proficient. He contrived to end the Civil War, and to end it on a note of grace, to serve two terms as president, and then to write one of the most successful books in American literature. As Korda says, in the late 19th century, in every American home, you could count on finding two books, the Bible and Grant's memoirs. Korda manages to bring this man alive, and nail down his qualities and significance, in 158 short pages.

Lincoln at Gettysburg

By Garry Wills (2006)

3. Of Grant's contemporary, Lincoln, there are over 1,000 biographies, many multivolume, with more appearing every year. There are few short ones, and none outstanding, but there is one that contrives to take a particular episode and use it to epitomize and illuminate the whole life. This is Garry Wills's "Lincoln at Gettysburg: The Words That Remade America." The main text is only 175 pages, but it shows how Lincoln in this short speech was able to ennoble the war, to explain why it was necessary, to show why it succeeded in its objects and to give Americans a key text about themselves. The book sums up Lincoln's qualities and makes good his claim to be the exemplar of the American virtues and the central figure in American history. This is a two-day read—with the appendices three—but time profitably spent.

 

Rossetti: His Life and Works

By Evelyn Waugh (1928)

4. Of modern writers in English, I rate Evelyn Waugh as the one who used words most carefully, judiciously and imaginatively and who never employed one more than he absolutely needed. So it is no wonder that he wrote a fine short biography, "Rossetti: His Life and Works." Rossetti is not an easy man to write about. He was a poet as well as a painter. He can be seen both as the central figure in the one important artistic movement of the 19th century in Britain, the Pre-Raphaelites, but also as an outsider who never fitted into its aims. He was also a complex of opposites. He was industrious. He was lazy, almost beyond belief at times. He was highly literary. He rarely read books. He drew like an angel. His drawing was sometimes clumsy and indelicate. His coloring melted the heart. It was also harsh and disturbing. His thoughts about art, literature and culture were incisive and passionately interesting. They were also mindless, at times, and incoherent nearly always. Waugh contrives to fit all these opposites together and to convey, without wasting words, the course of the internal dialogue in himself by which he reached his conclusions. It is a notable achievement for a young man—published when he was 25, it was his first book—and well worth reading.

A Portrait of Charles Lamb

By David Cecil (1983)

5. Finally there is David Cecil's life of the 19th-century essayist Charles Lamb. I knew Cecil when I was an Oxford undergraduate, and he still makes me laugh, though I'm not sure whether I am laughing at Cecil himself or at Kingsley Amis's brilliantly funny imitations of him. Cecil was good at short books. He did an excellent one on Jane Austen, another on the young Lord Melbourne and a third on William Cowper. But his Lamb is the best. Cecil was attracted to Lamb by his gentleness, punctuated by occasional spasms of fury, by his exquisite use of words and expressions, and his interest in their gestation, and by his delight in human eccentricity. Lamb's life was made tragic by his beloved sister's periodic bouts of insanity, but it was always a continual comedy—occasionally a farce—thanks to Lamb's eye for the unconscious human behavior that makes one laugh and his ear for wit, as well as his genius for delivering it. This charming book can be read easily in a couple of days, but it will linger in the mind forever.

WHY PASTORS NEED TO READ NOVELS (EUGENE PETERSON ON ANNE TYLER)

Eugene Peterson, long-time pastor and writer of the popular Biblical paraphrase, The Message, offers in his book, Subversive Spirituality (1997) the following intriguing perspective:

[...] Reading a novel is among the more serious activities available to a pastor.  Pastors who neglect to read novels lack seriousness, or at least one aspect of it.  Read scripture, certainly; theology, of course; commentaries, diligently; and novels by all means. 

"Pastors who neglect to read novels lack seriousness."  Well that's an unexpected statement.  It whets our appetite for more. 

... Not all writers of fiction, of course, qualify as allies.  There are discernments to be exercised, but a considerable number take their stand with us against the pastor-debilitating world conditions. . .  

Agreed.  No doubt many novels would actually be quite destructive to a pastor and his imaginative life.  Peterson, though, offers a specific recommendation:

Anne Tyler provides me with eyes to see past the labels, ears to hear beneath sterotyping cliches.  She creates characters in her novels that are always just a little quirky, not quite fitting into society.  When I meet people like that in my parish, I am always a little impatient and try to fit them into categories that I am familiar with, so I won't have to take the extra time to get to know them.  I have, after all, a lot to do.  The church has programs for a variety of needs, and people are supposed to fit into the categories.  Most people are so used to fitting into categories supplied by them by hospitals, schools, shopping malls, and social services that they raise no objections when the church treats them similarly.  But insofar as they acquiesce, they lose capacity to realize what God is most interested in working in them:  sanctity, which means becoming more your created/redeemed self, not less, not being reduced to what will fit into a program, not being depersonalized in the cause of efficiency. 

Ooh, I find that really good  How often we are tempted to "fit people into categories."  Bad, bad, bad.  But so tempting. 

As I let Anne Tyler show me how character is formed, I learn to treat my parishoners with respect, with reverence even, and just as they are, not insofar as they fit into what is convenient for me and useful to the organization.  When I hesitate over details that make this man odd and somewhat of an embarrassment in the coffee hour after worship, Anne Tyler trains me to take in the oddness and love him not in spite of, but because of it. These irregularities that make this woman unsuitable as a role model in our youth ministry, Anne Tyler trains me to see as occasions for the grace of our Lord, not obstructions to it.

So honest!  Yes, some people do strike us as a potential embarrassment.  But, that's all the more occasion to celebrate "diversity"!  Ha.

All good novelists do this for us, develop characters in ways that show us this person unlike any other before or after, and that the human condition is capable of endless variations, and that each variation is a marvel.  But Anne Tyler, for me, is the contemporary master: her unforgettable characterizations of Morgan's Passing, of Macon in The Accidental Tourist, of Maggie in Breathing Lessons, have been a major source of energy and identifying, without condescension and without ridicule, characters that keep showing up in my congregation.  She gets me to know them by name and not by label.  She gets me to say their names in such a way that they realize they are precious, just as they are, in God's sight, and have a place in salvation that no one else will ever occupy.

Well said.  Peterson offers us a program and a strategy to correct our narrowness and lack of vision and imagination:

Whenever I find myself getting irritated and impatient with some sinner who doesn't fit in, I reach for another novel by Anne Tyler and sign up for retraining in character recognition and personal naming. 

When I first came across the Peterson piece noted above, it struck me as valuable and important.  Then just the other day a friend's email offered  a link to another article that likewise celebrates novels. I recommend reading Jonathan Gottschall, "Why fiction is good for you." (HT: JC)

BREAKPOINT INTERVIEW WITH JOSH AND SEAN McDOWELL ON PORNOGRAPHY

John Stonestreet interviews Josh and Sean McDowell about the stranglehold of pornography over our culture, and even the Church.     -  Download

PRAYERS FOR COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD

Click through to a wonderful website with short suggested prayers for many nations of the world, mostly those who persecute Christians. Examples:

Father, we pray for . . .

AFGHANISTAN
•    for religious freedom to become a reality, so that the remnant Church will be free to witness and grow, bringing hope, healing and life to Afghanistan’s oppressed and suffering millions. Until then, Lord, sustain, comfort and build your Church and provide her every need. May the LORD of hosts break through in Afghanistan.




ALGERIA
•    where the government's tenuous peace with Islamic fundamentalists depends in part on its willingness to restrict and repress Christianity. May the largely young, growing and now vulnerable church grow in faith and grace, trusting in the LORD in all circumstances and for all things. May Christ continue to build his church in Algeria.  

 AZERBAIJAN
•    an authoritarian state threatened by the rise of intolerant fundamentalist Islam. Lord, give grace to the authorities that they may distinguish between good and bad, blessing and threat; so that the church need not be swept up in anti-terror measures that target 'non-traditional' and 'foreign' religion (i.e. jihadist and revolutionary Islam coming in from outside). Grant your people wisdom. May the church grow in faith and numbers.

 

 BANGLADESH
•   that the nation will remember its secular roots and preserve liberty and rule of law. May Bangladesh's persecuted Christian minority not lose hope. May they endure their trials and hardships as shining lights, with wisdom and grace. Lord, be their shield and defender, and add to their number.

SHOCKING: 40.7% OF BABIES IN U.S. BORN TO UNMARRIED WOMEN

Story here.

TECHNOLOGY GIVES ONE A CRICK IN THE NECK

Hello?  Can anyone actually sustain a real, live, in-person conversation?  A lost capability?  It's not just the younger set.  In a McDonald's recently, I saw three adults (the oldest around 80), simultaneously engrossed in fiddling with their individual iPads.    Intrigued, I went over to their table to ask how their iPads had changed their lives.  We proceeded to have a pleasant, informative conversation.  I'm glad to say conversations are still possible, at least with the older generation.  (Photos below were found here.)

Having a Coffee…

Get-together in a restaurant…

Enjoying the beauty of an art gallery …

Pleasantly chatting in a cafe …

Enjoying a day at the beach …

At the stadium supporting the team …

A couple spending quality time together …

Appreciating the city …

 

 

OBAMA'S FLIP FLOPS

Kimberley A. Strassel reports:  [These are amazing flip-flops!!!  I've supplied the topic headings]

*** Single-payer health system

"I happen to be a proponent of a single-payer universal health care program"—Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama, June 2003.

"I have not said that I was a single-payer supporter"—President Obama, August 2009.

*** Debt Limit

"Leadership means that the buck stops here. . . . I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America's debt limit"—Sen. Barack Obama, March 2006.

"It is not acceptable for us not to raise the debt ceiling and to allow the U.S. government to default"—President Obama, July 2011.

*** Same-sex marriage

"I favor legalizing same-sex marriages, and would fight efforts to prohibit such marriages"—Obama questionnaire response, 1996, while running for Illinois state Senate.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. I am not in favor of gay marriage"—Sen. Obama, November 2008, while running for president.

"It is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married"—President Obama, May 2012.

*** Sequestration

"We have an idea for the trigger. . . . Sequestration"—Obama Office of Management and Budget Director Jack Lew in 2011, as reported in Bob Woodward's "The Price of Politics."

"First of all, the sequester is not something that I've proposed. It is something that Congress has proposed"—President Obama, October 2012.

*** Public financed election

"If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election"—Sen. Obama, 2007.

"We've made the decision not to participate in the public financing system for the general election"—Sen. Obama, June 2008.

*** Patriotism

"I will never question the patriotism of others in this campaign"—Sen. Obama, June 2008.

"The way Bush has done it over the last eight years is . . . [he] added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back. . . . That's irresponsible. It's unpatriotic"—Sen. Obama, July 2008.

"I don't remember what the number was precisely. . . . We don't have to worry about it short term"—President Obama, September 2012, on the debt figure when he took office ($10 trillion) and whether to worry about today's $16 trillion figure.

*** Health insurance mandate

"[Sen. Hillary Clinton believes] that . . . if the government does not force taxpayers to buy health care, that we will penalize them in some fashion. I disagree with that"—Sen. Obama, Jan 2008, opposing the individual mandate for health insurance.

"I'm open to a system where every American bears responsibility for owning health insurance"—President Obama, June 2009, supporting the individual mandate.

*** Apologizing for America

"Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times when America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive"—President Obama, April 2009, in France.

"We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms"—President Obama, April 2009, in Trinidad and Tobago.

"Nothing Governor Romney just said is true, starting with this notion of me apologizing"—Barack Obama, October 2012, on whether he went on a global apology tour.

*** Spending freeze

"The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel"—Sen. Obama, September 2008.

"Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years"—President Obama, January 2010.

*** Energy production

"So if somebody wants to build a coal-fired plant, they can, it's just that it will bankrupt them"—Sen. Obama, January 2008, on his plans to financially penalize coal plants.

"Now is the time to end this addiction, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long-term solution"—Sen. Obama, August 2008.

"Here's what I've done since I've been president. We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. Natural gas production is the highest it's been in decades. We have seen increases in coal production and coal employment"—President Obama, October 2012.

***  One term accomplishments to decide whether he should be re-elected

"If I don't have this done in three years, then there's going to be a one-term proposition"—President Obama, 2009.

"We've got a long way to go but . . . we've come too far to turn back now. . . . And that's why I'm running for a second term"—President Obama, October 2012.

ABBOT AND COSTELLO ON UNEMPLOYMENT

The following is how Washington fudges reality.  From an email (JS):

COSTELLO: I want to talk about the Unemployment Rate in America. ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible Times. It’s 9%. COSTELLO: That many people are out of work? ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. COSTELLO: You just said 9%. ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed. COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work. ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. COSTELLO: Okay, so it’s 16% unemployed. ABBOTT: No, that’s 9%… COSTELLO: WAIT A MINUTE. Is it 9% or 16%? ABBOTT: 9% are unemployed. 16% are out of work. COSTELLO: IF you are out of work you are unemployed. ABBOTT: No, Obama said you can’t count the “Out of Work” as the unemployed.You have to look for work to be unemployed. COSTELLO: BUT THEY ARE OUT OF WORK!!! ABBOTT: No, you miss his point. COSTELLO: What point? ABBOTT: Someone who doesn’t look for work can’t be counted with those who look for work. It wouldn’t be fair. COSTELLO: To whom? ABBOTT: The unemployed. COSTELLO: But they are ALL unemployed! ABBOTT: No, the unemployed are actively looking for work. Those who are out of work gave up looking. If you give up, you are no longer in the ranks of the unemployed. COSTELLO: So if you’re off the unemployment roles, that would count as less unemployment? ABBOTT: Unemployment would go down. Of course! COSTELLO: The unemployment just goes down because you don’t look for work? ABBOTT: Absolutely it goes down. That’s how it gets to 9%.If you counted them ALL it would be 16%. He doesn’t want anybody reading about 16% unemployment. COSTELLO: Now that would be tough on his reelection? ABBOTT: Absolutely. COSTELLO: Wait a minute. Does that mean there are two ways to bring down the unemployment rate? ABBOTT: Two ways is correct. COSTELLO: Unemployment can go down if someone gets a job? ABBOTT: Correct. COSTELLO: And unemployment can also go down if you stop looking for a job? ABBOTT: Bingo. COSTELLO: So there are two ways to bring unemployment down, and the easier of the two is to have Obama's supporters stop looking for work. ABBOTT: Now you’re thinking like the Obama Economy Czar. COSTELLO: I don’t even know what the hell I just said! ABBOTT: Now you’re thinking like Obama!

MICHAEL SHERMER & DINESH D'SOUZA DEBATE - "IS CHRISTIANITY GOOD FOR AMERICAN POLITICS"

October, 2012