Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

MEDIA COVERAGE OF GOVERNMENT SOCIAL PROGRAMS INVARIABLY POSITIVE

Always at the beginning, with no follow-up later.  Jason Richwine spells it out:

Skeptics of government social programs have long been frustrated by a familiar pattern of media coverage. It starts with a new social program portrayed as the key to fixing problems like poverty or low test scores. The media proceed to either ignore the long history of similar initiatives found to have little effect, or they acknowledge the history but report that this program is fundamentally different from everything that has come before.

Either way, the media trumpet the positive results from early evaluations of the program, even when those results are based on small samples, short time horizons, non-experimental data, or all of the above. Years later, researchers find that a randomized experiment shows that the program has no effect, or that the effects quickly fade, or that the effects cannot be replicated on a larger scale. These findings are quietly reported in a technical article, with no fanfare and little public attention. By that time, the media have already moved on to promoting another new social program.

DENNIS PRAGER - THE LEFT'S HATRED FOR THE RIGHT IS VENOMOUS

Dennis Prager, in an article about Liz Cheney and her lesbian sister Mary, puts it this way:  {my emphases]

There are individual haters on the right and individual haters on the left. But there is no large-scale hatred in the United States of America today that compares with the hatred of the Left for the Right. Whereas the Right regards the Left as wrong — even destructively wrong — the Left regards all those on the right as evil: “Sexist,” “intolerant,” “xenophobic,” “homophobic,” “Islamophobic,” “racist,” “bigoted” are typical descriptions of the Right made by the most respected names on the left. This hatred is what enabled MSNBC’s Martin Bashir to broadcast — reading from a teleprompter, meaning that it was not spontaneous — that Sarah Palin deserves to have someone defecate and urinate into her mouth. (He later offered an apology; he has not been fired.)

But among all of the Left’s hatreds, none compares with its hatred of anyone who believes that marriage should remain defined as the union of a man and a woman. The Left believes anyone, or any business, that supports the only gender-based definition of marriage that has ever existed should be politically, personally, and economically destroyed. Recall, for example, the Left’s attempt to drive out of business a restaurant in Los Angeles because one of its employees donated $100 to California’s Proposition 8, the Left’s boycott of Chick-fil-A, and the Left’s vicious attacks on the Mormon Church.  [more . . .]

Me: The Left's hatred is born of a deep blindness difficult for those on the right to conceive, but a totalitarian, passion-driven revolt against right order and beauty.   See Prager's article above for elaboration.  See also Quin Hilyer's commentary on Prager's points and the leftist hatred.

SUPREME COURT WILL HEAR HOBBY LOBBY'S RELIGIOUS FREEDOM OBJECTIONS TO OBAMACARE

Good!  Mark Sherman at Breitbart reports:  (HT: Drudge)

The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to referee another dispute over President Barack Obama's health care law, whether businesses can use religious objections to escape a requirement to cover birth control for employees.

The justices said they will take up an issue that has divided the lower courts in the face of roughly 40 lawsuits from for-profit companies asking to be spared from having to cover some or all forms of contraception.

The court will consider two cases. One involves Hobby Lobby Inc., an Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain with 13,000 full-time employees. Hobby Lobby won in the lower courts.

The other case is an appeal from Conestoga Wood Specialties Corp., a Pennsylvania company that employs 950 people in making wood cabinets. Lower courts rejected the company's claims.

The court said the cases will be combined for arguments, probably in late March. A decision should come by late June.

The cases center on a provision of the health care law that requires most employers that offer health insurance to their workers to provide a range of preventive health benefits, including contraception.

In both instances, the Christian families that own the companies say that insuring some forms of contraception violates their religious beliefs.  [more . . .]

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER - IRAN DEAL WORST SINCE MUNUCH

Colson Center's new TV Series starts tonight! (Nov. 25, 8:30 EST, NRB Network)

Colson Center's new TV Series starts tonight!
(November 25, 8:30 EST, NRB Network)

"Worldview from the Colson Center" begins airing each Monday night on the NRB Network on DIRECTV, SkyAngel, ROKU and a number of affiliate stations. It will also be live-streamed from the NRB Network Web site and on the NRB Android app.

The first twelve episodes will re-present Chuck Colson’s much-acclaimed “Doing the Right Thing” video series on rebuilding our society’s ethical foundations.

INFORMATION THEORY SUPERCEDES AND UPENDS PREVIOUS ECONOMIC THEORIES

Steve Forbes has produced an illuminating article on how wealth is created and how best to grow an economy.  He explains for a layman the importance of George Gilder's book, Kowledge and Power.  Below are some excerpts:

. . . The assumption since around the time of Adam Smith was that the economy was a closed system that functioned similarly to Isaac Newton’s clock-like universe. Mathematics took over. The byword in economics became equilibrium. The key task was to figure out how an economy could be made to run smoothly, like an engine. But some in the early 20th century, including an Austrian named Joseph Schumpeter, declared the whole premise to be utterly preposterous. Equilibrium was a myth; disruption was the norm, and the innovator and entrepreneur drove the system forward. “Creative destruction” was how Schumpeter famously put it. . . .

Ultimate power is in the hands of government. But knowledge, of course, is spread among billions of individuals. The constructive role of government is obvious when one understands that wealth creation comes from the mind, from entrepreneurs creating new things—such as Steve Jobs’s iPod, iPhone, and iPad—which requires sound money, low taxes, and predictable rules and regulations.

This seemingly simple insight has enormous implications. Economists—and, obviously, politicians—must put aside the illusion that government can productively guide economies. Doing so hurts the creation of new knowledge, which comes only through the endless experiments of individuals. Economies are not machines that are susceptible to the wise ministrations of mechanics.  . . .

Information theory makes painfully plain the foolishness and destructiveness of government efforts to redistribute wealth as a means of stimulating economic growth. Take capital away from capitalists and it will wither rather than multiply. Who would you rather invest your capital with, Warren Buffett or the U.S. Post Office?

Gilder’s uplifting message is that if policy is based on the recognition that capitalism is a system of creating new knowledge, our current malaise will quickly go away. Gilder discusses how several countries (Israel, Canada, and New Zealand) in the grip of economic crisis rapidly transformed themselves into innovative, productive powerhouses. The U.S. did so after World War II and again in the 1980s. It can do so again, far faster than most observers think possible.

Paul Robert Schneider - Martyred Christian Pastor in Nazi Germany

Timothy George tells the story of this breathtakingly courageous hero of the faith.

Paul Robert Schneider (1897-1939) was the first Protestant pastor to die in a concentration camp at the hands of the Nazis. His story is one of unmitigated courage, self-sacrifice, and martyrdom. Only in recent years has he begun to receive some of the recognition he deserves. 

Me:  I value stories like this, and many more like it, for continual inspiration towards faithful living.

QUICK TAKES

   ** Andrew C. McCarthy - The Scheme behind the Obamacare Fraud (Extremely important - McCarthy maps out Obama's "grand plan")

   ** Former Secret Service Agent Bonino: Holder Justice Dept is a "Travesty"   It's totally politicized.  Very scary.  (HT: Drudge)

   ** William Kristol - Israel Will Fight   Crunch time approaches.  Kristol thinks Israel will fight.   (HT: Drudge)

   ** - Lowry: Revisionist History of JFK Assassination ‘More Useful Politically’ to Democrats (Video) How is it that the "right wing" is blamed for a murder committed by a Communist?

  ** - Fund: Nuclear Option ‘Expands the Pool of What Kind of Radical Liberals’ Obama Can Nominate (Video)

And yet the advertisers on MSNBC are all major corporate sponsors — as opposed to the advertisers on Fox News, which in large part are smaller businesses, despite the channel's high ratings.

Leftist garbage is saleable and acceptable in a world dominated by conservatives who refuse to fight back. The media portray Fox News and MSNBC as mirror images of one another, but that's clearly false — the lineup of Fox News has nothing like the disgusting material regularly emanating from MSNBC. But Fox News is the channel regularly subjected to boycotts. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/leftist-garbage-msnbc#sthash.AQdfqajB.dpuf

And yet the advertisers on MSNBC are all major corporate sponsors — as opposed to the advertisers on Fox News, which in large part are smaller businesses, despite the channel's high ratings.

Leftist garbage is saleable and acceptable in a world dominated by conservatives who refuse to fight back. The media portray Fox News and MSNBC as mirror images of one another, but that's clearly false — the lineup of Fox News has nothing like the disgusting material regularly emanating from MSNBC. But Fox News is the channel regularly subjected to boycotts. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/leftist-garbage-msnbc#sthash.AQdfqajB.dpuf

And yet the advertisers on MSNBC are all major corporate sponsors — as opposed to the advertisers on Fox News, which in large part are smaller businesses, despite the channel's high ratings.

Leftist garbage is saleable and acceptable in a world dominated by conservatives who refuse to fight back. The media portray Fox News and MSNBC as mirror images of one another, but that's clearly false — the lineup of Fox News has nothing like the disgusting material regularly emanating from MSNBC. But Fox News is the channel regularly subjected to boycotts. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/leftist-garbage-msnbc#sthash.AQdfqajB.dpuf

nd yet the advertisers on MSNBC are all major corporate sponsors — as opposed to the advertisers on Fox News, which in large part are smaller businesses, despite the channel's high ratings.

Leftist garbage is saleable and acceptable in a world dominated by conservatives who refuse to fight back. The media portray Fox News and MSNBC as mirror images of one another, but that's clearly false — the lineup of Fox News has nothing like the disgusting material regularly emanating from MSNBC. But Fox News is the channel regularly subjected to boycotts. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/leftist-garbage-msnbc#sthash.AQdfqajB.dpuf

nd yet the advertisers on MSNBC are all major corporate sponsors — as opposed to the advertisers on Fox News, which in large part are smaller businesses, despite the channel's high ratings.

Leftist garbage is saleable and acceptable in a world dominated by conservatives who refuse to fight back. The media portray Fox News and MSNBC as mirror images of one another, but that's clearly false — the lineup of Fox News has nothing like the disgusting material regularly emanating from MSNBC. But Fox News is the channel regularly subjected to boycotts. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/leftist-garbage-msnbc#sthash.AQdfqajB.dpuf

nd yet the advertisers on MSNBC are all major corporate sponsors — as opposed to the advertisers on Fox News, which in large part are smaller businesses, despite the channel's high ratings.

Leftist garbage is saleable and acceptable in a world dominated by conservatives who refuse to fight back. The media portray Fox News and MSNBC as mirror images of one another, but that's clearly false — the lineup of Fox News has nothing like the disgusting material regularly emanating from MSNBC. But Fox News is the channel regularly subjected to boycotts. - See more at: http://cnsnews.com/commentary/ben-shapiro/leftist-garbage-msnbc#sthash.AQdfqajB.dpuf

C.S. LEWIS DIED 50 YEARS AGO TODAY; SAME DAY AS JOHN F. KENNEDY

No individual has had a more profound effect on my thinking than C.S. Lewis.  In saying that, I realize I am but one of thousands of people who gladly say the same.   Michael Gerson, former speech writer for George W. Bush, penned a good piece on Lewis today.   It sparkles.   I urge you to click through and read it.  In the course of his article he links to Lewis's essay "The Poison of Subjectivism," a profound short essay which I have reread many times over the years.   Gerson titles his piece, "C.S. Lewis, our guide to the good life."

- John Stonestreet of Breakpoint has penned several excellent pieces on Lewis and his writings this week.  Check out "Narnia's Got it All: The World According to C.S. Lewis."   For the audio:   Listen Now | Download

- Stonestreet interviewed author and Lewis aficionado, Professor Joe Rigney,  who explains "How to Live Like a Narnia."  It's a 24 minute audio interview.  Listen Now | Download  Rigney wrote "Live Like A Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis's Chronicles.

My own previous posts on Lewis can be found here:  http://muddlingtowardmaturity.typepad.com/my_weblog/c_s_lewis/

Note: Breakpoint has been featuring C.S. Lewis all week:

Listen Now | Download

• Narnia's Got It All
  By John Stonestreet
• See-Through Morality
  By John Stonestreet
• C. S. Lewis, Reepicheep, and Our Chests
  By John Stonestreet
• Screwtape and the Cure of Souls
  By Eric Metaxas
• Remembering C. S. Lewis
  By Eric Metaxas
• God's Double Agent
  By Eric Metaxas

IGNORANT PONTIFICATING ON INTELLIGENT DESIGN

MichaelBehe, an advocate of Intelligent Design and the author of Darwin's Black Box, responded to an article in the National Catholic Register written by Mark Shea.  Behe points to a scene in Woody Allen's Annie Hall which expresses his annoyance:

Behe responds to the ignorant critics of Intelligent Design.

Don't you just love writers who purport to criticize what some person or group thinks, but never manage to quote them? Mark Shea, a blogger for the National Catholic Register, holds forth on why some Thomistic philosophers look askance at claims of intelligent design in biology. Of course, we at ENV and Discovery Institute have been down this road many times before, holding joint science/philosophy conferences (see here, here, and here), writing books

• The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities

• Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology

• The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design

• A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature

and blogs (see Jay Richards's series on "Catholics and Intelligent Design," here, here, here, here, and here) about all manner of philosophical and other distinctions proper to a scientific claim of intelligent design. (For those who want a relatively painless introduction to some of the relevant issues, here is a place to start.) Unfortunately, Shea betrays no evidence of having read or listened to any of it. Instead he issues the kind of opinion a well intentioned person might form after perusing, say, a New York Times story on the topic.

- See more at: http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/11/marshall_mcluha079201.html#sthash.aXxEQwV7.dpuf

Don't you just love writers who purport to criticize what some person or group thinks, but never manage to quote them? Mark Shea, a blogger for the National Catholic Register, holds forth on why some Thomistic philosophers look askance at claims of intelligent design in biology. Of course, we at ENV and Discovery Institute have been down this road many times before, holding joint science/philosophy conferences (see here, here, and here), writing books

• The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities

• Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology

• The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design

• A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature

and blogs (see Jay Richards's series on "Catholics and Intelligent Design," here, here, here, here, and here) about all manner of philosophical and other distinctions proper to a scientific claim of intelligent design. (For those who want a relatively painless introduction to some of the relevant issues, here is a place to start.) Unfortunately, Shea betrays no evidence of having read or listened to any of it. Instead he issues the kind of opinion a well intentioned person might form after perusing, say, a New York Times story on the topic.

- See more at: http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/11/marshall_mcluha079201.html#sthash.aXxEQwV7.dpuf

Don't you just love writers who purport to criticize what some person or group thinks, but never manage to quote them? Mark Shea, a blogger for the National Catholic Register, holds forth on why some Thomistic philosophers look askance at claims of intelligent design in biology. Of course, we at ENV and Discovery Institute have been down this road many times before, holding joint science/philosophy conferences (see here, here, and here), writing books

• The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities

• Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology

• The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design

• A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature

and blogs (see Jay Richards's series on "Catholics and Intelligent Design," here, here, here, here, and here) about all manner of philosophical and other distinctions proper to a scientific claim of intelligent design. (For those who want a relatively painless introduction to some of the relevant issues, here is a place to start.) Unfortunately, Shea betrays no evidence of having read or listened to any of it. Instead he issues the kind of opinion a well intentioned person might form after perusing, say, a New York Times story on the topic.

- See more at: http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/11/marshall_mcluha079201.html#sthash.aXxEQwV7.dpuf

Don't you just love writers who purport to criticize what some person or group thinks, but never manage to quote them? Mark Shea, a blogger for the National Catholic Register, holds forth on why some Thomistic philosophers look askance at claims of intelligent design in biology. Of course, we at ENV and Discovery Institute have been down this road many times before, holding joint science/philosophy conferences (see here, here, and here), writing books

• The Design Inference: Eliminating Chance through Small Probabilities

• Intelligent Design: The Bridge Between Science and Theology

• The Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions About Intelligent Design

• A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature

and blogs (see Jay Richards's series on "Catholics and Intelligent Design," here, here, here, here, and here) about all manner of philosophical and other distinctions proper to a scientific claim of intelligent design. (For those who want a relatively painless introduction to some of the relevant issues, here is a place to start.) Unfortunately, Shea betrays no evidence of having read or listened to any of it. Instead he issues the kind of opinion a well intentioned person might form after perusing, say, a New York Times story on the topic.

- See more at: http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/11/marshall_mcluha079201.html#sthash.aXxEQwV7.dpuf

CLARENCE THOMAS, GETTYSBURG, AND AMERICAN LIBERTY AND OPPORTUNITY

I consider Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas a great man, and Ken Klukowski's article offers a superb window into Thomas' mind and heart:

When asked last week how he ended upon the Supreme Court of the united States, Justic Clarence Thomas said, 'It was totally Forrest Gump,' in a revealing--and hilarious-on-stage interview at last week's Federalist Society Natinal lawyers Convention.

This full-length interview was a window into the soul of America’s most conservative High Court justice—whose remarks on Gettysburg could not draw a more stark contrast with President Barack Obama.

Thomas was the keynote speaker at last week’s annual gathering of the brightest conservative legal stars in America. He sat down opposite Judge Diane Sykes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. While constitutional conservatives would love to see Sykes—one of the finest judges in the nation—elevated to the Supreme Court herself one day, most are unaware that before she was a judge, Sykes actually earned a college degree in journalism. And it showed, as she conducted a fascinating interview that showed people a side of Thomas rarely seen by anyone except his close friends.

Sykes took Thomas through his childhood years, where he and his brother were raised in Pin Point, Georgia, until age seven by his mother (his father had abandoned them), until she could no longer provide for them and sent them to Savannah to be raised by their grandparents.

As he discusses in his candid memoir, My Grandfather’s Son, Thomas was raised in extreme poverty, in a house with no running water and only a single electrical light. Yet he considered his life idyllic, not even knowing the standard of living that many Americans enjoyed by comparison.

SAM WATERSTON READS THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS

I have always felt a special relationship to the Gettysburg Address, since as a 5th grader I played the part of Lincoln in a grade school assembly and recited the Gettysburg Address by memory complete with top hat perched on my head.  It's marvelous lines have stayed with me through the years.

Here is Sam Waterston reading the Gettysburg Address which Lincoln delivered 150 years ago today. (HT: Justin Taylor)

 

DR. NABEEL QURESHI'S TALK AT GEORGIA TECH ON "SEEKING ALLAH, FINDING JESUS"

I watched this talk by a former devout Muslim, a medical doctor and now a follower of Jesus, as it was live-streamed at Georgia Tech University a few short weeks ago.  I watched in the company of others, and all of us were impressed with Qureshi's graciousness, and his knowledge of both Christianity and Islam.

 

Update 11/19/13: Nabeel Qureshi tell his story here:  "An Intellectual and Spiritual Journey from Islam to Christianity."  http://answering-islam.org/Authors/Qureshi/testimony.htm  

Additional posts of possible interest:

-  WHAT RAVI ZACHARIAS SAID TO A FOUNDER-LEADER OF HAMAS

-   LIST OF WILLIAM LANE CRAIG'S DEBATES ON CHRISTIANTY & ISLAM

-   William Lane Craig - Tolerance and Certainty in Religion: Are They Mutually Exclusive?

-   Pope John Paul ll on Islam

-   ALL MONOTHEISMS ARE NOT ALIKE

-   WILLIS E. ELLIOT - "THE MUTUAL BLASPHEMY OF ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY"

-   UNLIKE MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY, A REFORMATION IS NOT WHAT ISLAM NEEDS

-   ARE JUDAISM AND CHRISTIANITY AS VIOLENT AS ISLAM?

-   POPE BENEDICT XVI'S BAPTISM OF A FORMER MUSLIM: IT'S SIGNIFICANCE AND MEANING

-   COPTIC PRIEST ZAKARIA BOTROS: ISLAM'S "PUBLIC ENEMY #1"

-   Fjordman reviews Robert Spencer's "Religion of Peace: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't"

-   The Muslim "Open Letter" Addressed to Pope Benedict and Other Christian Leaders

-   Robert Spencer's "Religion of Peace" Revisited

-   Andrew Bostom Reviews Robert Spencer's "Religion of Peace?: Why Christianity Is and Islam Isn't" Arab-Muslim Cultural Achievements a Myth

-  Can't Bring Bibles, Crucifixes, or Stars of David into Saudi Arabia

-   TIM KELLER (PART I): BLIND MEN TRYING TO DESCRIBE AN ELEPHANT

-   LETTERS OF C.S. LEWIS TO A SPIRITUAL SEEKER (SHELDON VANAUKEN) - NOW ONLINE

-   C. S. LEWIS - CHRISTIANITY COMPARED TO OTHER WORLD RELIGIONS

Potentially Fatal ‘Knockout’ Game Targeting Strangers May Be Spreading

This is awful.  (HT: Drudge)

 

Chris Lingebach reports:

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – A terrifying new ‘game’ that’s already caused deaths in Syracuse, St. Louis and New Jersey is sweeping the nation, and it preys upon unsuspecting people walking the streets, anywhere.

A recent report from New York-based CBS 2 shed light on the growing trend, displaying unsettling footage of teens participating in this game – which goes by the name ‘Knockout’ – and involves randomly targeting passersby, with the ultimate goal being to knock them out with one punch as they walk by.

One victim shown in the footage was 46-year-old Ralph Santiago of Hoboken, N.J., who was found dead with his neck broken and head lodged between iron fence posts, according to NJ.com.

Video surveillance shows Santiago walking in an alleyway in broad daylight, and just as he’s about to pass a pack of teenagers, one launches the fatal, knockout blow.

And what’s the point?

“For the fun of it,” one teen said in the video.

“They just want to see if you got enough strength to knock somebody out,” said another.  [more. . .]

MAR STYN - THE INCOMPETENCE OF OUR NEO-MONARCHY

I think Steyn deserves a prize for coining the Obama reign a " neo-monarchy".  He writes:

Until October 1, Obama had never done anything — not run a gas station, or a doughnut stand — other than let himself be wafted onward and upward to the next do-nothing gig. Even in his first term, he didn’t really do: Starting with the 2009 trillion-dollar stimulus, he ran a money-no-object government that was all money and no objects; he spent and spent, and left no trace. Some things he massively expanded (food stamps, Social Security disability) and other things he massively diminished (effective foreign policy), but all were, so to speak, preexisting conditions. Obamacare is the first thing Obama has actually done, and, if you’re the person it’s being done to, it’s not pretty.

The president promised to “fundamentally transform” America. . . .  But Obama is an incompetent, so “fundamentally transformed” is a euphemism for “wrecked beyond repair.” . . .   But on he staggers, with a wave of his scepter, delaying this, staying that, exempting the other, according to his regal whim and internal polling. . .

Me:  Obama's lawlessness had better be stopped by Congress soon, or the United States will no longer be a functioning constitutional republic and a nation of laws.

OPRAH - OBAMA CRITICS ARE RACISTS

Sterling Beard reports:

Oprah Winfrey today shared some thoughts on race and President Obama with the BBC while in the U.K. to promote The Butler.

When asked by the BBC’s Will Gompertz if she thought Obama had to deal with racism, the queen of talk responded in the affirmative.

“Probably it’s crossed my mind more times than it’s crossed your mind,” Oprah said.

She went on to say that there is “a level of disrespect for the office” that “occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he is African American. . . . There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”

In order to further racial progress, she said, “generations of people, older people, who were born and bred and marinated in it, in that prejudice and racism, . . . they just have to die.”

To which Victor Davis aptly commented in a piece titled, "The Moral Decline of Oprah," the following:

. . . Aside from her historical ignorance, Oprah Winfrey has increasingly turned to the race card to explain the president’s plummeting polls. In her race-obsessed world, Syria, Benghazi, the NSA, IRS, AP, and ACA messes do not explain why a reelected president crashes from a recent 60 percent approval rating to less than 40 percent in less than a year.

Instead, in Oprah’s no-win, racialist world, to the degree that Obama is popular, Americans are considered for the time being as not racist; to the degree that he is not, the country suddenly is collectively under suspicion (e.g., “everybody’s thinking it”).

That Obama might be utterly inexperienced in the manner of Jimmy Carter, less than veracious in the manner of the impeached Bill Clinton, or suffering the same second-term blues of Ronald Reagan during Iran-Contra or popularity crash of George W. Bush after Katrina simply cannot for Oprah be true of an African-American president, who for some reason must not suffer the same fate and treatment as almost all who have held the highest office. Instead, in this raciallyobsessed world of Oprah, that Obama is faring no different from his predecessors is now the country’s fault. And as remedy, he must be given deference if the country wishes to avoid the latest therapeutic rant from Oprah.

In fact, Oprah has no record of worrying about the level of disrespect shown the office. If she did, she might have said something a few years ago when her president was routinely being compared to a Nazi, and often by her own fellow celebrities, writers, politicians, civil-rights activists, and filmmakers. That she said nothing then, but now says a lot, explains not America’s problem with race, but her own race obsessions, which have blinded her to her own prejudices and hypocrisies.

JOHN BOLTON - RAMIFICATIONS OF OBAMA'S MIDDLE EAST FOREIGN POLICY RADICALISM

John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, says:

Americans must realize that we are seeing not merely a series of separate U.S. policy failures or a run of bad luck in the Middle East. Obama is presiding over declining American influence and prestige because he thinks we are too powerful, too dominant in the world. And so, by extension, are our allies in the region, especially Israel.

The indisputable evidence demonstrates that Obama's guiding ideology is as radical in international affairs as in domestic policy. Just as he wants to “spread the wealth around” domestically, so too he is at ease in “spreading” U.S. power around internationally. We will pay for Obama's radicalism for years to come.

Read the entire article for an incisive analysis of what is happening in the Middle East.  The article begins:

Under Barack Obama, American influence in the Middle East has sunk to levels not seen since before World War II. From Israel to Saudi Arabia, from Egypt to the United Arab Emirates, our friends are shaking their heads, wondering why we have seemingly taken leave of our senses.

Across this vital region, Obama is effectively empowering our opponents and turning his back on U.S. supporters and allies. He has openly courted implacable adversaries like Tehran's ayatollahs and the Muslim Brotherhood, allowed Chinese penetration to reach unprecedented levels and restored Russian clout to pre-1979 proportions. . .  [more...]

CARRYING A BOTTLE OF VEGETABLE JUICE HAS BECOME A STATUS SYMBOL

This is a fascinating development.  See the video and article.   (HT: Drudge)

SAEED'S LIFE IN JEOPARDY AFTER PRISON TRANSFER

This is serious; definitely a call to prayer!

 

From CBN News:

Saeed Abedini, an American pastor imprisoned in Iran for his faith, is facing life threatening conditions after a recent prison transfer, the America Center for Law and Justice reports.
    
Saeed's family says he has been moved from the brutal Evin Prison to Rajai Shahr Prison, known to be an even more dangerous jail.
  
"Going to Karaj is a severe punishment," Loes Bijnen, a Dutch diplomat from the embassy in Tehran, described the jail in a 2005 report.

"Once in there one stops to be a human being," she wrote. "One is put out of sight, even of human rights activists and the press. Murders or unexplained deaths are a regular occurrence."

According to the ACLJ, Saeed is in a ward with those convicted for crimes like rape and murder.

Family members tried to visit the pastor Monday but were told he isn't allowed to have visitors in the new prison.
    
"The transfer to this prison is a deeply disturbing development and can only be viewed as a move that puts Pastor Saeed's life directly at risk," ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow warned.

While there is broad bi-partisan support for a Senate resolution calling for Saeed's release, Sekulow says it's crucial President Barack Obama step in "directly and forcefully" to save his life.

***Urge the president to push for Pastor Saeed's release by signing the ACLJ's petition.

LITTLE RED WAGON (RADIO FLYER) CAR

From Joyce's email:

 

WHAT'S AT STAKE IN THE HEALTH CARE DEBATE?

Nothing less than the future of America.  Jeffrey H. Anderson writes:

. . .  It’s about whether Americans are a free people who have the unalienable right to keep the fruits of their own labor and freely decide for themselves whether or not to buy health insurance, even health insurance that someone else might call “substandard.” It’s about whether an administration that can’t roll out a website should be put in charge of American medicine. It’s about whether a president who lies to the American people can be trusted with matters of their health. It’s about whether ever more power and money should be consolidated and concentrated in the nation’s capital, at the expense of everyday Americans’ liberty and prosperity. And it’s about whether Barack Obama’s vision of America will prevail, or whether George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan’s vision of America will prevail.

The more one ponders [Obama’s] electoral, policy, and longer political agenda, the more the health care bill stands out as the centerpiece of the whole political enterprise. Stop it . . . and you have a good chance of stopping the transformation he seeks. Fail . . . and you permit what can be called, without exaggeration, gradual regime change at home. For the health care question involves . . . nothing less than the form of government and the habits and character of the American people.

Obamacare will decide Obama’s legacy. Depending upon what happens over the next three and a half years with his signature legislation, he will either be known as the man who entrenched the progressive commitment to big government, or discredited it.

      — Jeffrey H. Anderson is executive director of the newly formed 2017 Project, which is working to advance a conservative reform agenda.

In addition, consider this:

More and more Americans are seeing that the Obamacare website rollout problems are just the tip of the iceberg. The complicated law, like computer code, has 2,500 pages (381,517 words) and even more administrative regulations (11,588,500 words) written by unelected bureaucrats led by political appointees. These facts are undeniable! It is a massive seizure of 17% of the economy, a coercive redistribution of wealth, a myriad of lies, arm-twisting and political bribes employed to rob millions of the healthcare they preferred. Many doctors plan to retire or otherwise not participate (which will produce a shortage of doctors and long waiting lines), and as the law takes effect it will likely lead to economic ruin for many small businesses and working families. They cannot pay far higher premiums, coercive fines and penalties, expanded powers for an already politicized IRS, violation of individual conscience and religious liberties, compulsory taxpayer funding of abortion, shocking waste and incompetence, violation of common sense principles of finance and economics (borrowing, spending, enslavement of future generations), and more. (See Regulations, Senate Democrats, Resign, Insurance Heads call for Fix, Delay, Revenge is Tweet, 16 Million; Obamacare Apologetics, Awakening).

WILLIAM PETER BLATTY ON THE DEMONIC TODAY

Robert Morrison writes on "What's Really Demonic?" -[my emphases]

The Washington Post’s Dan Zak offered a column yesterday on his interview with William Peter Blatty, author of The Exorcist. Blatty’s novel rocketed to the top of the bestseller lists forty years ago and the movie shocked audiences everywhere with its stunning special effects. The devil never seemed so real. Certainly not to this writer.

Blatty is asking the Vatican to strip Georgetown University — America’s oldest Catholic institution of higher learning — of its designation as Catholic. His reason is that Georgetown invited pro-abortion HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius to be its commencement speaker last year. Zak tells us that Blatty spoke of “a particular abortion procedure in graphic detail.” Of course, the Post writer leaves out of his column the graphic detail and won’t even name that particular abortion procedure.

Recall how slavery’s defenders called it their “peculiar institution.” They sought to avoid mentioning manacles, slave ships, or human misery. They didn’t want to tell people at their Georgetown lunches what happened when a slave ship is in danger of being overtaken by a British man-of-war intent on hanging slave traders. The “cargo” of men, women, children, chained together, were thrown overboard. The weight of the first few would pull the hundreds of others in after them. That’s demonic. 

              [Me: How awful!  What's even worse is that as the reality  of gruesome abortion procedures became more and more widely known (see below), modern, enlightened "moral" people said  "I'm okay with it."  That would include, of course, Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi, and President Obama himself]

The Soviet Union called its slave-labor system the Gulag — an acronym for the State Administration for Camps. The bland name concealed what really went on in those camps. Author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn survived imprisonment to document the truth for the world in his comprehensive, three-volume study, The Gulag Archipelago. Nikolai Getman was also a zek, from the Russian word for locked-up ones. The artist painted a series of pictures to convey the horror of camp life and death. “Waiting to be Shot” shows starving zeks huddling in the snow in a frigid Siberian night. That was surely demonic.

Blatty is angry because Sebelius is forcing all of us to pay for abortions, for what Ronald Reagan called “the slaughter of innocents.” He was so moved by what he learned that his voice shook with emotion as he described what Sebelius approves. When she was governor of Kansas, she made a point of inviting partial-birth abortionists to dinner at Cedar Crest, the official residence.

In the forty years since Roe v. Wade, America has never had a governor more zealous in promoting abortion than Kathleen Sebelius. That’s why President Obama, who attends abortion conventions and tells them to “keep it up, God bless you,” chose Sebelius to run his health-care operation.

Here’s what William Peter Blatty doubtless described for Dan Zak. This is that “particular abortion procedure” that Dan Zak was too decorous to share with readers of the Post’s “Style” section. Nurse Brenda Pratt Shafer gave her testimony to Congress under oath:

I stood at the doctor’s side and watched him perform a partial-birth abortion on a woman who was six months pregnant. The baby’s heartbeat was clearly visible on the ultrasound screen. The doctor delivered the baby’s body and arms, everything but his little head. The baby’s body was moving. His little fingers were clasping together. He was kicking his feet. The doctor took a pair of scissors and inserted them into the back of the baby’s head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks that he might fall. Then the doctor opened the scissors up. Then he stuck the high-powered suction tube into the hole and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp. I never went back to the clinic. But I am still haunted by the face of that little boy. It was the most perfect, angelic face I have ever seen.

This is what Obama wants God to bless. The people who do these things are the ones Sebelius invites to dinner.

Is William Peter Blatty right? Is this demonic? We report. You decide.

         — Robert Morrison is a senior fellow at the Family Research Council.

 

Me - I was struck (again) with what lengths the pro-abortion crowd