Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

GOOD CHEER IN THE SKY

This image grabbed my fancy.  (From a friend's email.)

HERE I AM, LORD

A friend concluded his chapel message with this hymn.  I thought it beautiful

 

The Social Conservative Review: The Insider's Guide to Pro-Family News--February 14, 2013

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

• "Bill Threatens Homeschool Freedom," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "Online Classes Expand Homeschooling Options," Reason.com

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "National School Choice Week: Time for More Freedom, Less Red Tape," Family Research Council
• "A former teacher and mom explains why American schools must allow competition," Fox News
• "Cage-Busting Leadership," Education Week
• "Who's The Boss?: Your Education And You," The Enlightened Mind
• "Why Liberals Should Want Less Spending on Colleges," Minding the Campus
• "Tweet Thine Enemy," Education Next

College Debt

• "Student Loan Debt Crisis: How'd We Get Here and What Happens Next?," Time
• "Best Value Colleges strive to cut tuition sticker shock," USA Today
• "Student Loan Debt Is Creating Generation Of High-Risk Borrowers With Low Credit Scores," The Consumerist
• "College will help with loans if grads don't land a good job," The Los Angeles Times

Government Reform
Regulation

• ""Pro-Business" or "Pro-Market"? And What's the Difference?," Economic Freedom
• "Washington D.C. at Work (or Not)," My Government Cost
• "USDA rules call for swing to healthier snacks in schools," Reuters

Waste/Fraud/Abuse

• "Head Start, Lies, and Government Programs," My Government Cost
• "Not All Exchange Is Created Equal," The Acton Institute
• "Hail Columbia!," City Journal

Health Care
Abstinence

• "College Gone Wild: Classes on How to Achieve Orgasm, Yet Neglects Abstinence," Family Research Council
• "Family Fact of the Week: Promoting the Value of Life and Good Teen Choices," The Heritage Foundation
• "Abstinence Could Reduce Cervical Cancer," The Christian Post

Health care reform: Political and Legislative efforts

• "No compromise in new contraception mandate," USA Today
• "HHS Announcement Changes Little - Superficial Accounting Gimmicks Do Not Equate to Conscience Protections," Townhall.com
• "Obama Loses Two HHS Mandate Cases In One Week," Breitbart.com
• "Health Care Spending In America, In Two Graphs," NPR
• "Bad Science and Failed Freedom Protections in the HHS Mandate," The Public Discourse
• "Pathway to citizenship could increase Obamacare cost up to $300 billion over a decade," The Daily Caller
• "CBO Is Increasingly Skeptical About ObamaCare," RealClearPolitics

Homosexuality

• "Boy Scouts Should Stand on Principle, Not Bow to Pressure," The Christian Post
• "Boy Scouts must stand firm for their values," The Washington Times
• "Brown U to Pay for Student Sex Change Surgeries," National Review Online
• "Homosexual Advocates Demand A Ban On Therapy," Turtle Bay and Beyond
• "Pope Benedict on Homosexual "Marriage"," SecretInfoClub.com
• "From a man of the French left, a passionate defence of marriage," MercatorNet

Human Life and Bioethics
Abortion

• "Reflections of a Former Fetus and Former Incubator," The Public Discourse
• "Forty years later, Roe v. Wade still divides," Kansas City Star
• ""What to Expect When No One's Expecting": Book Reveals Left's Dream of Child-Free America," Breitbart.com
• "New York City Schools Putting Young Girls at Risk," Students for Life
• "Sundance Film Festival "Hero" Leroy Carhart Kills Young Woman During 3rd Trimester Abortion In Germantown, MD," Maryland Coalition for Life
• "Roe's legacy of false freedom," MercatorNet.com
• "Obama Development Council Full of Abortion Advocates," Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute
• "The Guttmacher Institute Has A Bad Prescription For Mothers In Uganda," Turtle Bay and Beyond
• "Ark. governor says he'll OK abortion coverage ban," Associated Press
• "NAACP Sensitive About its Abortion Ties," Family Policy Network
• "Complaint Demands Investigation and Discipline Against Planned Parenthood for Botched Abortion and Death of Patient," Thomas More Society

Bioethics and Biotechnology

• "Should Christians Pursue Prenatal Testing?," Christianity Today
• "Yearning for Tyranny of Moral Enhancement," National Review Online

Euthanasia and End of Life Issues

• "Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide: Changing Mores, Slippery Slope or Both?," Decoded Science
• "Belgian Twin Euthanasia Story the Tip of a Chilling Iceberg," LifeNews.com
• "How my mother died," MercatorNet

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.

• "Key protein revealed as trigger for stem cell development," Phys.org
• "Ageing: Stem cells on a stress-busting diet," Nature
• "Adult Stem Cell Clinic Moves to Mexico," National Review Online

Human Trafficking

• "Underground Trade, Part One: Hiding in Plain Sight," The Huffington Post
• "Okla. House panel supports human trafficking bill," Associated Press
• "The Power of Survivor Voices on Human Trafficking Awareness Day," The Polaris Project

Marriage and Family
Adoption

• "Michael Oher, Adopted Family Celebrate Super Bowl Victory," ABC News
• "Benefits of transracial adoption," New Rhythm Project
• "Adoption bill aims to maintain 'loving, stable' homes for children," KSL.com

Family Economics

• "The Personal Income Tax at 100," The American
• "The Wealth of Nations Depends on the Health of Families," The Public Discourse
• "Congress's Policies Steal Our Freedoms While Rewarding Irresponsibility," Forbes
• "Underlying Causes of Poverty -- Living Apart from the Rule of Law," Poverty Cure
• "Boomers Stick Next Generation with the Gas Bill," Via Meadia
• "Northern Ireland: Coming to America?," The Acton Institute

Family Structure

• "Place Matters: What Do Millennials Want in a Home?," Patheos.com
• "Advice For Parenting Young Kids," Reformissionary
• "Go for the Yahtzee," HOPE International
• "Shape or be shaped: Christians in an era of marriage decline," MercatorNet.com
• "I'm Not Afraid to Raise Daughters," The Gospel Coalition
• "Liberty Counsel Files Amicus Briefs In Defense of Marriage with U.S. Supreme Court," Liberty Counsel

Media
Pornography

• "Pornographers to Use Facial-Recognition Technology," PornHarms.com
• "Adult stars answer questions about porn," Student Life
• "Policing Pills and Pornography," Newsweek Pakistan

Internet

• "Twitter 'Experimenting' With Vine Porn Censorship," Mashable
• "Study: Facebook Is Your Frenemy," The Atlantic

Religion and Public Policy
Religious Liberty

• "Religious Groups Remain Concerned About Contraception Mandate," Time
• "Schools Tussle Over Sex Standards," Christianity Today
• "Government shouldn't define 'church'," Fox News
• "Inglorious revolutions," WORLD Magazine
• "Religious Liberty, the HHS Mandate, and the Conscience that has Escaped our Attention," Intercollegiate Review
• "Deciding Who Gets Religious Freedom: The Latest HHS "Accommodation"," The Public Discourse
• "An Open Letter to Christians About Religious Freedom," The Christian Post

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.

• "Christian Athletes Are Not Role Models," Christianity Today
• "Roman Catholics and Confessional Lutherans Explore Deeper Ties," First Things
• "From Prison to the Pulpit: A Stunning Story of God's Grace," The Gospel Coalition
• "Martin Luther on the Passions of Evangelical Politics," Mere Orthodoxy
• "The Most Offensive Word in America," Relevant Magazine

Secularism

• "Vatican art exhibit is a challenge to secularism, archbishop explains," Catholic Culture

International
Israel

• "Britain Is No Place for Jews," FrontPage Magazine
• "The Folly of Containing Iran," Commentary Magazine
• "About the next government," CarolineGlick.com

International Economy and Family

• "China's Cheap Labour Force Down by 3.45 million in 2012," News Network of India
• "British Hospital Carnage a Window into US Future," Via Meadia

Religious Persecution

• "Ai Wei-Wei / Chen Guangcheng Interview," New Statesman
• "'Insulting Quran' Charges Snare Two Christian Children in Egypt," Persecution.org

The Courts
Constitutional Issues

• "Repeal the 17th Amendment," The Independent Institute
• "An Occasion in Which National Security Trumps Civil Rights?," The FedSoc Blog
• "Despising the Constitution," The Library of Law and Liberty

Judicial Activism

• "Obama Nominates Two Government Lawyers to Federal Circuit," The FedSoc Blog
• "Supreme Court, in upcoming marriage cases, urged not to 'disqualify' religious conviction," Baptist Press

Other News of Note

• "Not All Politics Is Political," The American Conservative
• "Privilege: the Real Postal Problem," The Acton Institute
• "Missing a Chance at Greatness," City Journal
• "The Stoning of Dr. Ben Carson," The American Spectator

Book reviews

• "Finding the City on a Hill," The Center for Vision and Values
• "Michelle Rhee: My Break With the Democrats," The Daily Beast
• "Review: Auralia Thread," The Enlightened Mind
• "Men of God and Country in World War II," The Acton Institute

LOSS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH AND THE DECLINE OF THE WEST

Many of us perceive the truth of what Pat Buchanan states:

[...]In Europe, Christianity is regarded less as the founding faith of the West and the wellspring of Western culture and civilization, than as an antique; a religion that European Man once embraced before the coming of the Enlightenment. Many cathedrals on the continent have taken on the aspect of Greek and Roman temples – places to visit and marvel at what once was, and no longer is.

The Faith is Europe, Europe is the Faith, wrote Hilaire Belloc. And when the faith dies, the culture dies, the civilization dies, and the people die. So historians and poets alike have written.

Surely that seems true in Europe. In the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, Western Man, under the banners of God and country, conquered almost the entire world. But now that Christianity has died in much of the West, the culture seems decadent, the civilization in decline.

And the people have begun to die. No Western nation has had a birthrate in three decades that will enable its native-born to survive.

Dispensing with Christianity, Western peoples sought new gods and new faiths: communism, Leninism, fascism, Nazism. Those gods all failed.

Now we have converted to even newer faiths to create paradise in this, the only world we shall ever know. Democratic capitalism, consumerism, globalism, environmentalism, egalitarianism.

The Secular City seems to have triumphed over the City of God. But in the Islamic world, an ancient and transcendental faith is undergoing a great awakening after centuries of slumber and seems anxious to re-engage and settle accounts with an agnostic West.

As ever, the outcome of the struggle for the world is in doubt.

CHRISTIANS IN SYRIA FLEEING EN MASSE

A terribly sad story of which we are largely ignorant. 

BEST SPEECH OF THE YEAR: NEUROSURGEON BEN CARSON FOR PRESIDENT!

The Wall Street Journal thinks he would make a good president.  I do too.  He is blessedly free of political correctness, that debilitating disease that infects most everyone in the public eye.  THIS TALK IS MUST VIEWING!

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Whether this weekend finds you blowing two feet of snow off the driveway or counting the hours until "Downton Abbey," make time to watch the video of Dr. Ben Carson speaking to the White House prayer breakfast this week.

Seated in view to his right are Senator Jeff Sessions and President Obama. One doesn't look happy. You know something's coming when Dr. Carson says, "It's not my intention to offend anyone. But it's hard not to. The PC police are out in force everywhere."

Dr. Carson tossed over the PC police years ago. Raised by a single mother in inner-city Detroit, he was as he tells it "a horrible student with a horrible temper." Today he's director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins and probably the most renowned specialist in his field.

Late in his talk he dropped two very un-PC ideas. The first is an unusual case for a flat tax: "What we need to do is come up with something simple. And when I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe, God, and he's given us a system. It's called a tithe.

"We don't necessarily have to do 10% but it's the principle. He didn't say if your crops fail, don't give me any tithe or if you have a bumper crop, give me triple tithe. So there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. You make $10 billion, you put in a billion. You make $10 you put in one. Of course you've got to get rid of the loopholes. Some people say, 'Well that's not fair because it doesn't hurt the guy who made $10 billion as much as the guy who made 10.' Where does it say you've got to hurt the guy? He just put a billion dollars in the pot. We don't need to hurt him. It's that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands. That money needs to be back here building our infrastructure and creating jobs."

Not surprisingly, a practicing physician has un-PC thoughts on health care:

"Here's my solution: When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed—pretax—from the time you're born 'til the time you die. If you die, you can pass it on to your family members, and there's nobody talking about death panels. We can make contributions for people who are indigent. Instead of sending all this money to some bureaucracy, let's put it in their HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care. And very quickly they're gong to learn how to be responsible."

The Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon may not be politically correct, but he's closer to correct than we've heard in years.

Hannity interviews Dr. Carson:

 

THE SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW ASSOCIATION INSPIRED ATTEMPTED MURDER

But don't expect the mainstream media to report it.  They blacken and falsely accuse conservatives at every turn, but avert their eyes when a liberal activist attempts to kill conservatives.  Remember the story of the man who arrived at the Washington offices of the Famly Research Council intent on mass murder?  Read on. . .

It seems hard to believe, Jim Treacher wrote yesterday, "but once upon a time, there was a shooting the national news didn't want to talk about." That's because the shooting was at FRC. And although the gunman was a politically-motivated activist who stormed a building less than a mile from the White House, there's a reason most Americans have never heard of him. After years of insisting that conservatives were the hateful ones, the attack at FRC was an inconvenient storyline for a media bent on hiding where the real intolerance lies.

The day after Floyd Corkins walked into our headquarters and opened fire, I said that while Corkins was responsible for the shooting, he had been given a license to perpetrate this act of violence by groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) which has recklessly labeled every organization with which they disagree a "hate group." The media insisted we were overreacting. But yesterday in federal court, prosecutors explained that FRC had it right all along. In the official filing, FBI evidence verifies the fact that Corkins was inspired by SPLC to target our office. "He was a political activist," the statement read, "and considered the FRC a lobbying group. He committed the shooting for political reasons. He had identified the FRC as an anti-gay organization on the Southern Poverty Law Center Website."

Federal prosecutors read the statement of offense and then described FRC and our mission. No other organization was mentioned by name, but it was noted that Corkins had other social conservative groups on his hit-list. Of the many charges leveled against him, Corkins pleaded guilty to three, including domestic terrorism. "On August 15, 2012, the defendant assaulted [Leo] Johnson and the FRC with the intent to... coerce a significant portion of the civilian population of the District of Columbia and/or the United States; namely, any and all individuals associated with or supporting FRC, like-minded organizations, or otherwise holding beliefs contrary to or advocating against gay marriage."

Corkins confessed to Judge Richard Roberts that he hoped to intimidate gay rights opponents--which is exactly what SPLC has tried to do with its reckless labeling. And unfortunately for our own Leo Johnson, who was wounded in the attack, SPLC doesn't draw the line at name-calling. It insists on pinpointing FRC's location on the SPLC "hate map" as an open invitation to extremists like Corkins, who admitted yesterday that he intended to "kill as many as possible and smear the Chick-fil-A sandwiches in victims' faces." It would be a statement, he told the court, "against the people who work in that building." Although Corkins pleaded guilty, SPLC has yet to admit its role in creating this hostile environment. Even after an attempted mass murder of the FRC staff, the "hate map" is still prominently featured on the SPLC website today--which shocks most conservative pundits.

"When Congresswoman Giffords and several others were shot in Arizonaby Jared Loughner, the Left went into overdrive blaming Sarah Palin for a map that had a list of political targets on it. After the fact, we learned that Loughner was apolitical and he clearly had not used Sarah Palin's map of political targets. That did not stop the Left from blaming the right," said RedState's Erick Erickson. "By the way, Palin took down her target map after the controversy. The Southern Poverty Law Center? Crickets..." The Daily Caller's Treacher shakes his head at the double standard. "Now we have another [shooter] and another map. Except this time, the [shooter] is pointing directly at that map and saying, 'That's why I picked those people.' But since the targets of his thwarted rampage don't hold the correct opinions, they don't count."

The bottom line is that the Southern Poverty Law Center (the same one embraced by President Obama's Justice Department), is dangerous and driven by an anti-Christian animus. Their leaders are inciting hatred, and in this case, a clear connection to violence. They need to be held accountable, and they need to stop before people are killed for supporting traditional values. Only by ending its hate labeling of Christians will SPLC send a message that it no longer wishes to be a source for those who would commit acts of violence against Americans whose only crime is thinking differently than the radical Left. But whether the SPLC continues to demonize Christians or not, I can guarantee one thing: the Family Research Council team will not be distracted from our mission--not by bullets and certainly not by bullies.

SUPERBOWL HALFTIME - PURITY OUT THE WINDOW

I didn't watch the  Superbowl halftime program.  In fact I just got in on the final 3 minutes of the game, the most exciting part.  But knowing what I know of contemporary American culture, I have every confidence John Stonestreet got it right when he writes in Beyonce and the Super Bowl:

Rachel Campos-Duffy, a blogger on the Today Show’s “Moms” site, described Monday how watching the Super Bowl like millions of other families turned into a “parenting challenge” when the halftime show began.

That’s putting the performance of Beyonce and her similarly half-dressed dancers mildly. The hyper-sensual show left Mrs. Campos-Duffy’s kids with a quizzical look on their faces. The eight-year-old simply said, “She looks weird.”

If only all our kids were so confused. But sadly, so many of them are thoroughly familiar with sexuality packaged as music and performance. As Campos-Duffy wryly observed, “I half-expected a stripper pole to pop out of the platform, which was actually staged to look like a peep show.” Well, the commercial for the CBS sitcom “Broke Girls” that immediately followed half-time featured just that—a stripper-pole.

I mean, this was the Super Bowl, for cryin’ out loud. CBS and the NFL knew very well children and families would be watching. And what they gave America with this performance and many of the commercials was another chapter in the ongoing sexualization of American culture—and of our kids.

DHS PURCHASES 21.6 MILLION MORE ROUNDS OF AMMUNITION

I wonder what's going on.  Does anybody else find this news eery, worrisome or suspicious?  Infowars reports (HT: Drudge):

The Department of Homeland Security is set to purchase a further 21.6 million rounds of ammunition to add to the 1.6 billion bullets it has already obtained over the course of the last 10 months alone, figures which have stoked concerns that the federal agency is preparing for civil unrest.

A solicitation posted yesterday on the Fed Bid website details how the bullets are required for the DHS Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Artesia, New Mexico.

The solicitation asks for 10 million pistol cartridge .40 caliber 165 Grain, jacketed Hollow point bullets (100 quantities of 100,000 rounds) and 10 million 9mm 115 grain jacketed hollow point bullets (100 quantities of 100,000 rounds).

The document also lists a requirement for 1.6 million pistol cartridge 9mm ball bullets (40 quantities of 40,000 rounds).

An approximation of how many rounds of ammunition the DHS has now secured over the last 10 months stands at around 1.625 billion. In March 2012, ATK announced that they had agreed to provide the DHS with a maximum of 450 million bullets over four years, a story that prompted questions about why the feds were buying ammunition in such large quantities.

To put that in perspective, during the height of active battle operations in Iraq, US soldiers used 5.5 million rounds of ammunition a month. Extrapolating the figures, the DHS has purchased enough bullets over the last 10 months to wage a full scale war for almost 30 years.

SYRIA: DESCENDING INTO HELL

Elizabeth Kendall of the Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin describes the scene:

Historically one of the most hospitable places for Christians in the Middle East, Syria is descending into 'hell'. Hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafis, the 'Arab Spring' has morphed into a Sunni Ascendency in which intolerant, fundamentalist Islam is subjugating and eliminating moderate and pluralist elements. The West is allied to the 'good' jihadists who are in turn allied to the 'bad' jihadists (al-Qaeda). Co-existence is being replaced with sectarian bloodletting. Secularism is being replaced with Islamisation. Jihadists are kidnapping, terrorising and killing Christians and destroying churches. Like most civilians caught in this civil war, Christians are suffering extreme hardship without medicines, doctors, heating, food and water. A Protestant pastor reports from Aleppo that starvation is now a greater concern than bombs. Please pray for the Church in Syria.

More details:

 

RUSH LIMBAUGH - RESISTANCE TO OBAMA HAS MELTED AWAY

I heard part of Limbaugh's commentary today  and felt disheartened.   Limbaugh says Santa Claus trumps freedom, Santa Claus trumps working, Santa Claus trumps everything.  And I think he's right:

[...] That's why Cantor is saying, "We're gonna have to do a better job of explaining who we are. We need to do a better job of explaining why we're doing what we're doing." Well, I think that epitomizes how lost they all feel -- and right now, folks, there is no fight. There's no desire for it. There's no fight mentality. There is no desire for any opposition of any kind at this point in time. That's what all of this means. It's a direct outcome of the 2012 election. It is Santa Claus trumping freedom. Santa Claus trumps everything. Santa Claus beats fiscal responsibility. Santa Claus beats individual liberty. Santa Claus beats individual responsibility. Santa Claus trumps all of this. It's no more complicated than that, but that's exactly what all of this means.

Santa Claus trumps everything.  Santa Claus trumps working.  Everybody loves Santa Claus.  That bugs 'em.  They think there's nothing in it.  There's no upside to opposing anything that's happening in the country right now.  And it's gonna get even worse as issues come up and more Republicans throw in the towel.  That is going to happen.  And I have no idea what's gonna arrest it.  At some point it'll stop.  At some point it's gonna reverse itself.  I don't know what it's gonna be, when, I haven't the slightest idea.  But Kasich's up for reelection.  He lost the state of Ohio, it went Obama, it went Democrat.  He's reading tea leaves.  Other governors are doing the same thing. 

There's some holdouts.  I mean, not every Republican is throwing in the towel.  But for the most part, the overarching philosophy or theory is there's nothing to be gained in opposing Obama.  The media's gonna come out and destroy you. The American people love Santa Claus and don't want to hear any opposition.  That's just gonna be categorized as mean-spiritedness, extremism, racism, what have you.  So you're gonna have to bite the bullet for a while, let this play out, because there's nothing that's gonna stop this, nothing foreseen that's going to stop it.  Something will, but I don't know what or when, but something will arrest this.  Because it always happens.

The Social Conservative Review: The Insider's Guide to Pro-Family News -- January 31, 2013

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

• "Common Core K-12 hits home," The Orange County Register
• "HSLDA Defends Homeschooling Family in Supreme Court," Home School Legal Defense Association
• "Back in the homeschool classroom: Blazing new trails," SWAC Girl

Legislation and Policy Proposals

• "School Choice Under Attack in New Hampshire," Institute for Justice
• "The ABCs of School Choice," The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice
• "Mr. Obama: Most Schools Aren't Like Your Daughters' School," Education Week
• "A Big Tent for Charter Schools," EducationNext