Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

ONE FOR THE BOOKS: HISTORIAN SHOUTS DOWN CONGRESSMAN AT HEARING (Brinkley vs. Young)

 

From Yahoo News (HT: Drudge):

Televised congressional hearings often serve as a platform for members of Congress to berate, bloviate and showboat for the cameras, but at a House Natural Resources Committee hearing Tuesday, historian Douglas Brinkley wouldn't stand for it.

The topic at hand was drilling in the the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The trouble began when Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young misstated Brinkley's name after referring to the hearing as "an exercise in futility." In a certain breach of protocol, Brinkley cut him off.

Young didn't like that one bit.

"You just be quiet," Young demanded.

"You don't own me," Brinkley shot back. "I pay your salary!"

 Washington Republican Rep. Doc Hastings, the chairman of the committee, tried to break it up, but then Brinkley interrupted him.

"I work for the private sector," Brinkley said.

When the chairman returned the floor to Young, the rumble began anew.

"We're the ones who ask the questions, and you're the one who answers the questions," Young said. "Boy I'm really pissed right now."

Obviously, it's a must-watch; you can see the exchange in the video above.

Me:  My, my.  As one person suggested,  it's worth watching the reaction of the girl sitting behind the Congressman.  As far as policy goes, I don't agree with Brinkley, a history professor at Rice University and author of  “The Quiet World” about efforts to protect the Alaskan wilderness.  He advocates making ANWR a national monument to protect it from oil and gas drilling.  But Brinkley is absolutely right.  As a taxpayer, he does pay the Congressman's salary!  Luke Miller, a spokesman for Representative Young, said the fiery exchange was “nothing more than a publicity stunt by Mr. Brinkley in order to sell books.” If so, it may prove an effective strategy.   At the least, I don't think the Congressman's supercilious attitude will play well with the viewing public.

FISCAL CRAZINESS

From FRC:

Right now, the federal government is borrowing 42 cents on every dollar it spends--in part, because the Left insists on funneling hundreds of millions of dollars to abortion groups like Planned Parenthood. Decisions like that one have helped rack up more than $14 trillion in U.S. debt. That's a $45,500 "birth tax" to every child born in America this year!

Why is there even an argument about fiscal restraint?

SEN. CHUCK SHUMER (D-NY) ATTACKS FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL

Sen. Shumer attacked FRC on the floor of the U.S. Senate.  Leftists (and pro-abortionists) like Shumer need to be engaged and defeated.  I very much like FRC's response:   (my bolding)

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Family Research Council Action (FRC Action) President Tony Perkins responded today to direct attacks on the floor of the U.S. Senate by Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

Sen. Schumer took to the Senate floor today railing against FRC for its opposition to yesterday's vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on a three-week Continuing Resolution that sustains taxpayer funding of abortions in the District of Columbia and fails to cut federal funding for scandal-plagued Planned Parenthood. He compared FRC's efforts to a "heavy anchor bogging down the budget."

In response, FRC Action President Tony Perkins said:

"With all due respect, it is Senator Chuck Schumer and his allies on the Left that mean to not only impose their radical social and fiscal agenda on Americans, but also force Americans to pay for it. Nearly three-quarters of Americans are opposed to the government forcing them to fund abortion. How is respecting the majority's wishes and cutting spending in a budget a 'right wing' move? Removing federal funding of abortion is a centrist move, since the vast majority of Americans hold that policy position.

"Senator Schumer should come clean and tell the American people why six months into the year Congress has yet to adopt a budget for this year. Why would the last Congress which was totally controlled by Mr. Schumer and his party not pass a budget? They failed to pass a budget because they were too busy forcing their far left social agenda on America including taxpayer funding of abortion, government control of health care and open homosexuality in the military. They were busy forcing taxpayers to pick up the tab for a 'far-ranging social agenda.' What was that tab? Annual deficits in the last two years alone that total almost three trillion dollars.

"There is a time and a place to address the misguided policies and deficit spending that Mr. Schumer and his liberal colleagues have been forcing Americans to pay for. Mr. Schumer is wrong. Now is the time and this is the place.

"Of course, the Senator is right in one regard. FRC Action, Heritage Action and the Club for Growth are an 'anchor' in this process. We will do our best to ensure this country drifts no further to the Left and out into the sea of irrelevance where the irresponsible spending he and his colleagues have promoted would send us."

SEN. RAND PAUL DECRIES GOV'T COERCION RATHER THAN PERSUASION

From Jim Loft's Gateway Pundit:

Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) went off on big government bureaucrats during the Energy and Natural Resources Committee this week. Paul questioned the Department of Energy’s commitment to protecting consumer choice during consideration of Appliance/Light Bulb Energy-Efficiency Legislation. 

You'll enjoy this!

 

Paul, a Republican, blamed his plumbing conundrum on federal legislation that forces Americans to buy more energy efficient appliances.

“Light bulbs, refrigerators, toilets, you name it. You can’t go around your house without being told what to buy,” Paul said.

“You restrict my purchases. You don’t care about my choices. You don’t care about the consumer.

“Frankly, my toilets don’t work in my house, and I blame you and people like you who want to tell me what I can install in my house. I find it insulting.”

Paul was speaking during a hearing on a bill to improve appliances’ energy efficiency and another proposal to repeal a 2007 law that phases out traditional incandescent light bulbs in favor of more energy-efficient options.

HOUSE GOP BUDGET PROPOSES DOING AWAY WITH LIBERAL GIVEAWAYS

From the Family Research Council:  (I say "hooray" to these proposed budget cuts and hope they pass.)  Update note: I need to clarify.  The post below refers to a budget to temporarily fund the federal government, commonly known as a "continuing resolution" (CR). 

If there's anyone who doesn't feel the love this Valentine's Day, it's the organizations on the Left. Late Friday, House leaders came back to the table with a second budget--and to the disappointment of most liberal groups, it hit the $100 billion bulls-eye. The casualties of these latest cuts happen to be some of the Democrats' biggest allies: the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (PBS and NPR), the Corporation for National Service (Americorps), Legal Services Corporation, Title X "Family Planning" programs (Planned Parenthood), and others. After some frank conversations, House leaders took the advice of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and FRC to hack away as much as possible in this first go-round of the continuing resolution (CR). For years, the liberal political establishment has treated the government like an ATM, withdrawing hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for causes that Washington has no business funding. Most Americans have no idea that this symbiotic relationship between liberal politicians and organizations exists. Yet year after year, Democrats funnel our money to their friends, who in turn, help keep those leaders in power.

REMEMBERING PRESIDENT RONALD REAGAN

Today is the 100th birthday of Ronald Reagan.  Alan Sears describes the time and the man well:

Time gets away from all of us, and it’s hard, sometimes, to remember what a pall lay over the United States 30 years ago. The economy was in near ruins. Our enemies abroad had been emboldened to increasing aggressions by the passive “tsk-tsk-tsks” of a president who chided his own people for their moral “malaise.” Even amid celebrations of its 200^th year of liberty, the country seemed downcast and disenchanted at the prospects of a bleak and listless future.

Then he walked in.

“It’s morning in America,” he said, with a smile like the rising of the sun.  He embraced his nation and its destiny, unfazed by the waning economic indicators and the rattling sabers of Communist armies and insurgents around the globe.  He exuded joy and hope and confidence … and looking on themselves through his warm gaze, Americans began to share his belief that this nation’s best years might still lie ahead. . .

It will go down as one of the great marvels of history that President Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Pope John Paul II all achieved positions of crucial leadership at almost exactly the same moment.  Together, by the grace of a merciful God, that extraordinary trio accomplished what seemed impossible: the thwarting of the Communists’ global agenda, and the toppling of the theretofore impregnable Soviet government.

THE LATEST "SOCIAL CONSERVATIVE REVIEW: THE INSIDER'S GUIDE TO PRO-FAMILY NEWS, FEBRUARY 3, 2011

These compilations from a variety of sources by the Family Research Council continue to offer interested people a gold mine.  A new edition appears every two weeks.  Readers will find in each a wealth of information not readily found elsewhere. For previous reviews I've posted, click here.   For a complete list of articles from this latest edition,  click "continue reading" below.

Meanwhile here's a quote from Hadley Arkes' article on Ave Maria University in south Florida:  (my underlining)

But a collision of worlds – and a serious challenge – came out at dinner with a dear friend, an accomplished professor, a graduate of Harvard transplanted from the Northeast. He has two daughters at Ave Maria and he said, when I pressed him, that he wouldn’t send any of his children to Harvard. The new sexual ethic, whether on pornography, promiscuity, abortion, homoeroticism, is so pervasive, touching every aspect of life, that there is little room for those who will not pay homage to that reigning ethic. I do think that it is mainly the schools with a religious character that can offer now real academic freedom and a course of study in the humanities not warped by ideology.

Me: What an extraordinary admission!  For "real academic freedom" and a "course of study in the humanities not warped by ideology,"  it is to religious schools one must go.

STEVEN HAYWARD - TEACHING THE CONSTITUTION TO FOREIGN STUDENTS

I found Steven Hayward's blog post exceptionally interesting, especially his mention of a bright young Egyptian lady in his class.  Hayward writes:

For five years I taught a course in constitutional interpretation as an adjunct professor with the Fund for American Studies/Georgetown University Capital Semester program, which brings students from  other universities to DC for one semester to experience internships along with a full course curriculum. The stars of the program were often foreign students, which the Fund recruited especially from eastern Europe and the Middle East. In general the foreign students in the program came to class better prepared and were more serious than the American students, which may not be surprising as the fundamental questions of political order and social progress are more urgent in the young democracies of eastern Europe and the non-democracies of the Middle East. . .

So the central objective of my course was to get students to grasp the principles of the U.S. Constitution, as well as the underlying institutional and theoretical problems inherent in delineating and protecting individual rights. . .

Above all, I tried to get students to learn the ability to make distinctions between the principles of the Constitution and its compromises, and thereby have a deeper appreciation of the prudence or moderation of statesmen as Aristotle had in mind. This is extremely difficult to convey to students even over the course of a semester. It is almost impossible, for example, to get students to understand that the odious "three-fifths" clause of the original Constitution was actually a compromise that limited the power of slave-holding states, who wanted slaves counted as whole persons to increase their numbers in the House. Most students have simply marinated too long in the cliché that the Founders considered slaves as only three-fifths of a human being. They were usually stumped when I asked them if they'd have felt better about the Founders if they'd counted slaves as whole persons and thereby increased the political power of slaveholding states. . . 

OMNIBUS BILL CONTAINS EARMARKS FOR PLANNED PARENTHOOD AND OTHER ABORTION GROUPS

- Update - Good News!  Sen Reid pulled the Omnibus bill.  He didn't have the votes. 

- Kathryn Jean Lopez writes:

A pro-life Hill aide points out more Omnibus outrageousness: 

$327 million is allocated for the Title X Family Planning Program which provides funding to groups like Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation.  This is a $10 million increase over last year (FY10 level was $317 million) and a $44 million increase over the last four years (FY07 level was $283 million). (page 979)

Other similar bonuses include: 

  $710 million is appropriated for international family planning/reproductive health which provides funding to organizations that promote and perform abortion overseas.  This is a $62 million increase over last year (FY10 level was $648 million) and $270 million increase over the last four years (FY07 level was $440 million). (page 1379)

There’s also this: 

 The bill establishes an Office of Global Women’s Issues at the department of State headed by an Ambassador-at-Large, and the position of Gender Integration and Development Advisor at USAID.   In prior efforts to establish these positions and offices, pro-life leaders have expressed concern that the offices will support international efforts to promote abortion. (pages 1449-1453)

And there’s even more along these lines — including a stealth undermining of abortion funding in the District of Columbia.

Me:  Ichabod!  The stench of Hades hangs over this lame duck Congress.  Evil has never been more bold and obvious in our government than now.  A lame-duck Congress should not exist.  As another has written,

No Founding Father could ever have predicted this scenario.  In the 18^th Century, there weren't 737s or SUVs. They designed the lame-duck to give new members time to travel by horse or wagon to the Capitol to take their seats. Framers never expected it to be an extension of the current Congress.

A pro-life Hill aide points out more Omnibus outrageousness: 

$327 million is allocated for the Title X Family Planning Program which provides funding to groups like Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the nation.  This is a $10 million increase over last year (FY10 level was $317 million) and a $44 million increase over the last four years (FY07 level was $283 million). (page 979)

Other similar bonuses include: 

  $710 million is appropriated for international family planning/reproductive health which provides funding to organizations that promote and perform abortion overseas.  This is a $62 million increase over last year (FY10 level was $648 million) and $270 million increase over the last four years (FY07 level was $440 million). (page 1379)

There’s also this: 

 The bill establishes an Office of Global Women’s Issues at the department of State headed by an Ambassador-at-Large, and the position of Gender Integration and Development Advisor at USAID.   In prior efforts to establish these positions and offices, pro-life leaders have expressed concern that the offices will support international efforts to promote abortion. (pages 1449-1453)

And there’s even more along these lines — including a stealth undermining of abortion funding in the District of Columbia.

"THE BEST SERMON ON RELIGION AND POLITICS"

Well, that was the title Justin Taylor gave a recent blog post describing a sermon delivered by Pastor Mark Dever on September 19th at Capital Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.  Dever's text was Mark 12:13-17 -  "Jesus Paid Taxes."   It's length was 70 minutes.  How many pastors today deliver 70 minute sermons, and in particular, one that could be described as "a biblical theology of Christians and the state, at once full of unction, intellectually challenging, and affecting the heart"?  Remarkable indeed. 

For those without 70 minutes to spare, Collin Hansen has provided an overvew.  David Crowe, a visitor that day, blogged "Capital Hill Baptist Church - Reflections From a Visit." I thought it noteworthy that 750 people jammed the church, and pre-teens were found - not doodling - but taking notes on the sermon!

What strikes me is the great value of the internet!  Not many clergy are capable of delivering such meaty messages, but because of the internet, a message such as this can be heard by anyone anywhere in the world.  What resources are at our disposal!  Are we making use of these resources?  I need to take much better advantage of them myself.  An iTunes podcast of Dever's sermon is available here.  

Some time ago I posted a video of Pastor Mark Dever offering a video tour of his library.  Click here.  You'll find it fascinating.

Speaking of Christianity and politics, the other day I happened to be at Barnes & Noble and there I thumbed through a copy of Wayne Grudem's just-published Politics - According to the Bible.  I found it quite intriguing.  I hope to browse more on a future visit.  Another recent publication that has caught my eye (which I haven't had a chance to browse yet), is  City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era by Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner with a foreward by Tim Keller.  Justin Taylor has posted blurbs and some principles from the book, plus Tim Keller's foreward.   In addition to the book's foreward, the preface in PDF format can be found here.

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/09/24/want-to-raise-a-boy-who-reads/

MAKING BABIES, MAKING MONEY: THE WELFARE STATE AT WORK

This is amazing. (HT: Atlas Shrugs)

  Things are getting out of hand! This letter came from a doctor in Danville, IL. 
 
  Dear Mr. Limbaugh, 
 
  I was speaking to an emergency room physician this morning. He told me that a woman in her 20’s came to the ER with her 8th pregnancy. She stated “my momma told me that I am the breadwinner for the family.” He asked her to explain. She said that she can make babies and babies get money for the family. The scam goes like this: The grandma calls the Department of Child and Family Services and states that the unemployed daughter is not capable of caring for these children. DCFS agrees and states that the child or children will need to go to foster care. The grandma then volunteers to be the foster parent, and thus receives a check for $1500 per child per month in Illinois. Total yearly income: $144,000 tax-free, not to mention free healthcare (Medicaid) plus a monthly “Linx” card entitling her to free groceries, etc, and a voucher for 250 free cell phone minutes per month. This does not even include Wick and other welfare programs. Indeed, grandma was correct in that her fertile daughter is the “breadwinner” in the family. 
 
  I hope you share this story with your listeners so that they know how the ruling class spends their tax dollars. 
 
  Also, many thanks for the fine service you provide in educating people about the merits of conservative thinking. 
 
  Cheers, 
 
  Sebastian J. Ciancio, M.D. Urologist, Danville Polyclinic, LTD.

SHOCK VIDEO: DEM CONGRESSMAN BRAGS: 'FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN DO MOST ANYTHING IN THIS COUNTRY'...

HT: Drudge   Wow.  This is pretty amazing.  The Federal Government has become a monster eating up liberty.  The Constitution no longer offers any restraints in the eyes of many members of congress.

BUMPER STICKERS

From a friend's e-mail:

 

WORLD MAGAZINE'S BOOK OF THE YEAR

Marvin Olasky:  (HT: Justin Taylor)

WORLD’s book of the year is The Battle: How the Fight Between Free Enterprise and Big Government Will Shape America’s Future (May 2010, Basic Books). This succinct work by Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, is the right book at this moment in U.S. history.

Honoring a book on current political and economic questions is unusual for WORLD. Our books of the year in 2008 and 2009 were The Reason for God and The ESV Study Bible. We generally rate timeless higher than timely—but sometimes we have to pay attention to the immediate. Samuel Johnson said, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” As the United States careens toward a crucial fall election, The Battle is concentrating minds.

WORLD’s 2010 Book of the Year makes a ­compelling case that the clash ­between free ­enterprise and socialism is a moral battle.  Read the whole review here.

Update: 6/23/10 - Kathryn Jean Lopez conducts a major interview with Arthur C. Brooks here.  Lopez interview with Brooks, part 2.

HOW IMPORTANT IS IT TO GET HISTORY RIGHT?

Mighty important.  According to Burton Folsom, Jr., professor of history at Hillsdale College (and author of New Deal or Raw Deal?), President Obama has a seriously deformed understanding of American history and economics.   This has enormous repercussions and leaves him with a skewed ideological perspective.  Folsom writes:

“What bothers me,” President Obama told the graduating class at the University of Michigan last month, “is when I hear people say that all of government is inherently bad.”

Folsom reponds:

Only anarchists think all of government is inherently bad. Government has a useful constitutional function in protecting contracts and providing for the national defense. We need a government strong enough to protect our private property.

The problem is when government oversteps its constitutional limits and politicians try to micromanage the economy. That is where President Obama and the Founders disagree. President Obama in his speech defended the government’s interference in railroad building and in the Great Depression. “When we needed a

PEGGY NOONAN: PEOPLE FEEL ALIENATED FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT - - WITH GOOD REASON

She writes:

 We are at a remarkable moment. We have an open, 2,000-mile border to our south, and the entity with the power to enforce the law and impose safety and order will not do it. Wall  Street collapsed, taking Main Street's money with it, and the government can't really figure out what to do about it because the government itself was deeply implicated in the crash, and both political parties are full of people whose political careers have been made possible by Wall Street contributions. Meanwhile we pass huge laws, bills so comprehensive, omnibus and transformative that no one knows what's in them and no one—literally, no one—knows how exactly they will be executed or interpreted. . .

This is not the old, conservative and long-lampooned "I don't trust gummint" attitude of the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It's something new, or rather something so much more broadly and fully evolved that it constitutes something new. The right never trusted the government, but now the middle doesn't. . .   (more . . .)

ETHNICITY, RACE, AND THE U.S. CENSUS

Rob Schwarzwalder makes pertinent points in his short USA Today article.  Excerpt:

Ethnicity and race . . .  define neither humanness nor citizenship, character nor value.

America's charter text affirms that "all men are created equal." The Constitution is premised on this assertion, in that it assumes human dignity and the right of representative self-government. Thus, the census is needed to assure that such self-government can be expressed accurately within the context of the U.S. Congress.

Instead, the Census form categorizes people not by citizenship and place of residence, but fundamentally by race and ethnicity. This is un-American.

Human beings are made in the likeness of their Creator.  This, with their citizenship and home address, is really all the Census Bureau needs to know.

HOW WELL DO MEMBERS OF CONGRESS KNOW THE CONSTITUTION?

Here's a three-minute video of a citizen springing a pop-quiz on Congressman Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey   The point is these men and women are sworn to "uphold the Consititution of the United States."  That's mighty hard to do if you don't know what it says.  Shame.    

"Allahpundit" says:

The point here, of course, is to demonstrate what an afterthought the Constitution has become for members of Congress. No surprise, then, that the item that’s currently getting the most votes for the proposed tea party “Contract from America” is the one demanding that each new bill cite the section of the Constitution that empowers Congress to act. Although how useful would that be, really? No matter what the purpose of the bill is, the citation will always, always be to the Commerce Clause. It entitles Congress to do anything it wants, don’tcha know.

QUICK TAKES

Ed Morrissey - Amnesty International: Haters of Western Civilization and defenders of Jihad.  Really?  Yes. Right up there with CAIR and Human Rights Watch.

--  Mark Steyn - Shame!  Black Congressmen lie about racial epithets   Breitbart - $100,000 offered for evidence.  No takers

A DOCTOR WRITES A LETTER TO HER PATIENTS

Since she cannot serve two masters, the government and her patients, she chooses the latter.  Daniel Foster reports:

An M.D. in family practice passed along this letter she sent to her patients after Obamacare became law. She relates that, so far, "100% of those who have contacted me about it have supported me and accepted the new conditions."

March 23, 2010

My Dear Patient,

As you must know, Congress has just passed extensive legislation governing health care delivery and insurance systems. Whether you agree with what it does or not, we are all now subject to this law and its sweeping changes.

I have always conducted my medical practice with my patient’s best interests as my first priority. Although not legally obliged to do so, I have routinely provided you with a receipt that has all the codes necessary to bill your own health insurance company for any reimbursement to which you are entitled. Until now, that insurance company was a free enterprise despite the fact that it was heavily regulated by state and federal laws. Now the situation is quite different. Through the new law’s mandates,

PHYLLIS SCHAFLEY RESPONDS TO BART STUPAK'S CAVE-IN ON ABORTION

From the Newswires: (HT: Drudge)

WASHINGTON, March 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Phyllis Schlafly, president and founder of the conservative grassroots public policy organization Eagle Forum, made the following remarks after the public announcement that formerly pro-life Democrat Bart Stupak (D-MI) will cast a "yes" vote for the Senate health care bill today in the House:

"It is naive for any elected official, especially one who describes himself as 'pro-life,' to expect that a promise to issue an Executive Order that reasserts the intentions of the Hyde Amendment will be fulfilled by the most pro-abortion president to ever sit in the White House. Perhaps Mr. Stupak and his fellow pro-life Democrats forget that President Obama's first Executive Order was the repeal of the Mexico City Policy to allow for international funding of abortion."

"Not only would an Executive Order be rendered meaningless in the face of Congress passing legislation which actively provides

QUICK TAKES

The following articles make struck me as worth posting:

Steve Lohr - How Privacy Vanishes Online

George Leef - "Do We Need -- Or Want -- More Students in College?"

Mark Earley - Virtual Worlds and Neglect of the Real

Dennis Prager - The Bigger the Government, the Less You Are Needed

GOVERNMENT PAYROLL HAS REPLACED GOODS-PRODUCING JOBS

From Clusterstock:  (HT: The Corner)

We've gone from providing jobs in profit-making private industry to providing jobs in profit-eating government work. Toward the end of 2007, the total number of government jobs exceeded the total number of goods producing jobs. Welcome to the government payroll economy.