Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

"Is Government the New God?" - The Religion of Totalitarianism (Academy of Ideas)

This is an excellent 13 minute video! 

Transcript:

ROD DREHER AND THE STATE OF OUR TIMES

It's important to keep reading Rod Dreher.  I do not have time to offer additional or better comments on the three posts listed below, but perhaps I can do so at a later time.  Each is important reading.

 --  Here is a post on Trump's evangelical support and it's pervasive pessimism -- which reflects my own thinking.

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/evangelicals-trump-shield-2020/

--  See also this on the religion of the New York Times:  https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/new-york-times-editorial-staff-meeting-racism-oberlin-faculty-senate/

And this on progressive education in California - https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/california-to-become-yugoslavia-ethnic-studies/

SHOULD AMAZON TRIBES BE ALLOWED TO KILL THEIR OWN CHILDREN?

Short version -- Deadly Cultural Relativism: Leftists Oppose Laws Protecting Indigenous Children From Being Murdered

Full version below:

(Right:  photo of Marcia and Edson Suzuki with their adopted daughter Hakani.  See story below)

John Daniel Davidson writes in The Federalist: [my bolding]

A post at Get Religion caught my eye yesterday with the title, “Should Amazon tribes be allowed to kill their young? Foreign Policy editors aren’t sure.” It linked to a story in Foreign Policy magazine from April 9 about a handful of indigenous tribes in Brazil that engage in the ritual killing of infants and children—namely, those with a disability, twins, and the children of single mothers, all of whom are considered to be a bad omen—and the legal efforts underway to end the practice.

One would think that the answer to the question posed by the subtitle to the Foreign Policy article—“Should Brazil keep its Amazon tribes from taking the lives of their children?”—would be a resounding, “Yes.” Surely no one would argue these tribes have a right to kill unwanted children. Surely even the most committed multiculturalist would not condone such barbarity. Right?

But to assume that would be to underestimate the force of cultural relativism on the Left. If our friends on the Left encountered, in the present day and in real life, the ritual human sacrifices of the Aztecs or the fires of the Canaanite god Moloch, more than a few would insist that we not pass judgement on these indigenous cultural practices, and would probably denounce those who tried to do so as racists and imperialists.

TWITTER CEO JACK DORSEY APOLOGIZES TO THE GAY CROWD FOR EATING AT A CHICK-FIL-A

I don't tweet.  If I did, I would seriously consider stopping using this service.  It's way too P.C. and far "Left" for my tastes. 

From the Daily Caller -

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Sunday expressed regret over eating at Chick-fil-A, because of the chicken company’s CEO’s personal views on gay marriage.

Dorsey tweeted a screenshot from his phone that showed a purchase he had made at Chick-fil-A using a mobile application. After a liberal backlash, however, Dorsey apologized for eating at the popular fast food restaurant.

At issue was Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy’s 2012 support for defining marriage as between a man and a woman, which he described as “the biblical definition of a family.”

Me:  This is so tiresome.  The new LGTQ fundamentalist religion calls for sinners to repent and anyone tempted to waver musst toe the line scrupulously to avoid being shamed and treated as an outcast. Corporations show craven compliance in a most disgusting way. 

-- I remember reading a few weeks ago this article: "Twitter is banning conservatives for posting facts." "... these bans come after users post 'hate facts' -- statements that are factually true, but politically inconvenient for progressives.

The most high-profile individual to be banned on this basis was Islam critic Tommy Robinson, who received a permanent ban from Twitter after he posted statistics showing that Muslims are vastly overrepresented in child grooming gangs in the U.K. Robinson is now taking Twitter to court to prove that “facts are now treated as hate.”

-- From a 5/3/18 post on this blog     -- Jamie Glazov suspended from Twitter for quoting  Islamic religious texts

Keep your eyes on twitter!  I am sadly confident we will read many more stories of Twitter censoring conservative views.

UNIVERSITY TRUSTEES PRIZE PERKS; SHRINK FROM REFORM

Paul S. Levy - University Boardrooms Need Reform 

Writer Paul S. Levy resigned from serving as a trustee of the University of Pennsylvania over Pen Law's treatment of law professor Amy Wax.  He received no support.   Levy writes:  Nobody in the university community has an incentive to speak out, and everyone seems afraid to do so.  Professors fear retaliation; students worry about social ostracism... 

Trustees and donors candidly admit in private that they do not want to jeopardize their children's chances for admission...  There's no incentive to rock the boat, and universities make sure they don't get much opportunity.  At the trustee level, the board is large and its formal meetings are entirely show and tell, with discussion severely limited and vote outcomes never in doubt.  Penn Law overseers do not vote on anything. 

Levy's conclusion: "When universities violate their values, trustees and overseers should resign, and donors should close their wallets.  Until that happens, nothing will change. 

Me:  Until students, professors and trustees develop a spine and convictions that overcome their self-regard for reputation and well being, universities will remain in the lamentable P.C. condition in which they currently wallow, a disgrace to founding documents and historic principles of intellectual debate.   

QUOTES OF THE DAY

  Western powers have been fighting jihad for more than 1,300 years — but for the American trained in cultural relativism and silly university ideals of diversity, reality can be so shocking that it’s simply easier and more satisfying to deny its existence.  - David French

   Western elites remain constitutionally unable to acknowledge that there are greater forces of evil in the world than the West itself.  - Heather MacDonnald

   The sexual revolution. . .  is the centerpiece of a new orthodoxy and new morality that elevates pleasure and self-will to first principles. This has become, in effect, a rival religion.  - Mary Eberstadt

PayPaL - HYPOCRITE OF THE YEAR?

From the Family Research Council:

After this week, PayPal may need a pal! After pulling the plug on a major expansion in Charlotte, the money transfer business is getting hammered over their political posturing that is clearly inconsistent with their corporate actions and policies. CEO Dan Schulman kicked off the controversy when he announced earlier this week that he was so outraged by North Carolina’s H.B. 2 that he was scrapping plans for their Charlotte office. Why? Because the state won’t force businesses to let men in the women’s restroom. Like most Americans, Governor Pat McCrory (R-N.C.) thinks that decision belongs in the hands of individual companies -- not imposed on them by the government’s heavy hand.

Unfortunately, Schulman must not have read the bill he’s blasting because he made the knee-jerk reaction to pull out of the state over a measure that actually empowers businesses to operate their way. Executives like Schulman now have the right to set their own bathroom policy (which PayPal apparently has -- and not in favor of the agenda they supposedly support). But that’s just the first of many duplicities reporters say. “Becoming an employer in North Carolina,” Schulman argued earlier this week, “where members of our teams will not have equal rights under the law, is simply untenable. The new law perpetuates discrimination, and it violates the values and principles that are at the core of PayPal’s mission and culture.”

That’s interesting, Congressman Robert Pittenger (R) points out, considering that PayPal has no trouble doing business with more than 25 countries where homosexual behavior is illegal “including five where the penalty is death. Yet, they object to the North Carolina legislature overturning a misguided ordinance about letting men into the women’s bathroom?” North Carolina hasn’t outlawed homosexuality or discriminated against anyone. It hasn’t even barred men from women’s restrooms. All it did was guarantee that businesses have the freedom to set those policies themselves!

Unfortunately, Big Business, like the cultural bullies it reports to, is too busy complaining about the phony speck in someone else’s eye to realize the plank in its own. While Apple, Google, Home Depot, Facebook, and others sink their companies’ time and money fighting laws they think are “anti-gay,” their own companies are partnering with countries that actually are! How is it that PayPal can take conservatives to task for protecting business’s autonomy, when they consistently turn a blind eye to international partners that stone or jail the very population they claim to support? No wonder Rev. Franklin Graham is calling PayPal the “hypocrite of the year.” “PayPal operates in countries including Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, and Yemen for pete’s sake. Just last month PayPal announced they would be expanding in Cuba, a country in which people who identify as homosexual and transgendered have been imprisoned, tortured, and executed. PayPal only agreed to come to Charlotte in the first place after holding out for millions in corporate incentives. And under the current law that they are so strongly protesting, PayPal could have chosen their own corporate bathroom policies.”

As if that weren’t embarrassing enough, Erick Erickson reminded readers that Schulman’s group is already in plenty of hot water for violating U.S. sanctions. According to the Wall Street Journal, PayPal was processing payments for blacklisted countries like Cuba, Sudan, and Iran -- as well as a man operating a nuclear weapons black market. “In all, nearly 500 PayPal transactions, worth almost $44,000, potentially violated U.S. sanctions, according to the Treasury Department.” Who is PayPal to lecture anyone on business ethics? While Schulman gets on his moral high horse, his own company is forking over more than $7.7 million in fines for helping to arm America’s enemies! So maybe, when it comes to common sense local laws, PayPal should do what North Carolina’s law suggests -- and mind its own business.

USMC vs. HUMAN NATURE

Is there no end to  egalitarian folly?

QUICK TAKES

**  What Happens When an Entire Country Becomes Infested with Demons?

Vatican City, Jun 16, 2015 / 03:09 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Can a country with deep Christian roots like Mexico find itself at the mercy of demons? Some in the Church fear so.

And as a result, they called for a nation-wide exorcism of Mexico, carried out quietly last month in the cathedral of San Luis Potosí.  [more . . .]

 

**  Thomas Sowell - The left’s obsession with “microaggressions” shows its micro-totalitarian tendencies

The political Left has come up with a new buzzword: “microaggression.” Professors at the University of California at Berkeley have been officially warned against saying such things as “America is the land of opportunity.” Why? Because this is considered to be an act of “microaggression” against minorities and women. Supposedly it shows that you don’t take their grievances seriously and are therefore guilty of being aggressive toward them, even if only on a micro scale.  [more. . .]

 

**  Tom Nichols - America, the unserious superpower

. . . But the status of a great nation is built on more than raw power. It includes intangible qualities like respect, admiration, and, yes, fear. We don’t need all three of them; no major power does. But we need at least one of them at any given moment, and right now, we’re bottoming out in each of these measures.  . .   [more . . .]

 

**  Dan Greenfield - Review of Ann Coulter's Adios, America

Coulter’s latest book, “Adios, America” is an uncompromising attack on the policies, justifications and rhetoric of amnesty. It’s full of the punchy quotes she’s known for, such as “Americans ought to be suspicious about being told incessantly fences don’t work. It’s like being told wheels don’t work”, accompanied by a broad survey of the entire immigration and illegal immigration debate.  [more . . .]X

GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL PUSHES LOUISIANA LAW TO PROTECT TRADITIONAL MARRIAGE PROPONENTS

Update 5/18/15 - New Survey Finds Two-Thirds of Louisianans Support Marriage and Conscience Act

 (Original post) - From Family Research Council, May 11, 2015:  (Emphases are mine)

There are plenty of Americans out there who don't understand why Louisiana is pushing the Marriage and Conscience Act. I have two words for them: Donald Verrilli. Late last month, the President's Solicitor General should have had every state scrambling to do what my home state is attempting: preventing on a small scale what the Obama administration wants to do on a national one. During the oral arguments at the Supreme Court, Verrilli admitted that one of the side effects of redefining marriage may be to punish the entities that believe otherwise -- even if they're religious!

The easiest way for the government to put the squeeze on these institutions is by stripping their tax exempt status -- which is just one of the things that Louisiana's Marriage and Conscience Acts would outlaw. "The central thrust of the bill guarantees that the state of Louisiana will not make tax determinations based on a person or organization's beliefs about marriage," Austin Nimocks explains.

"In other words, if a church believes that marriage is the union of one man and one woman, the Marriage and Conscience Act simply ensures that the government cannot functionally defund and eliminate that church's existence by withdrawing its nonprofit status."

Governor Bobby Jindal (R-La.) has been a staunch defender of the measure -- and the religious liberty it defends -- and spoke over the weekend about the bill's importance. Asked why he was focusing on this bill and not economic growth, Jindal fired back that the two issues aren't "mutually exclusive." "In Louisiana, we don't believe in discrimination against anybody. In terms of economics, look, our economy has grown twice as fast as the national economy. Our job creation three times as fast as the national economy. We actually right now have more people working than ever before, our highest ever per capita income ranking... So I think that we can have religious liberty and economic growth..."

The bill, he explained, simply says "the state of Louisiana cannot discriminate against those families, individuals or businesses that have a traditional view of marriage. To me, this is common sense. A business owner shouldn't have to choose between their sincerely held religious beliefs and being able to operate their businesses. They shouldn't have to lose their licenses, pay thousands of dollars in fines. The religious freedom act had a strong, bipartisan majority. I'm hopeful this bill will as well. We can have religious liberty and tolerance."

NAVAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS DESTROYING CHAPLAIN CAREERS

From Family Research Council:  (After reading FRCs report below, go over and look at a short video of Lt. Commander Wes Modder for yourself)

 . . . In the Navy, the message is clear: get on board with political correctness or lose your job. Like most Christians, Lt. Commander Wes Modder knew the military was changing. But he didn't know how much until the battle landed on his doorstep. For years, Modder had served some of the most elite fighting forces in the military: Navy SEALs.  [bolding mine throughout]

I say "had," because the 19-year veteran has been stripped of his duties for sharing the good news he was hired to share. In a stunning turn of events, the chaplain was sabotaged by one of his own men, who secretly gathered enough information on Modder's beliefs and private counseling sessions to file a formal complaint. Believe it or not, he was targeted by his own assistant -- who Modder didn't realize was gay. Looking back, the chaplain says the young officer asked a lot of questions about homosexuality, which Modder answered as most would expect: in accordance with the Bible's teachings.  

SOCIOLOGIST: GARDENING SPREADS RACISM, FACISM

This will have to be placed on my "hard to believe" pile.   Whacky whacky whacky.  Read on:

Katherine Timpf of National Review Online reports: 

A sociology lecturer at the University of Westminster is claiming that panelists on a BBC radio show are covertly spreading racist and fascist messages when they talk about gardening.

Dr. Ben Pitcher claimed that people on Gardeners’ Question Time are really just using gardening as a covert way to talk about white identity without seeming racist.

“Gardeners’ Question Time is not the most controversial show on Radio 4, and yet it is layered with, saturated with, racial meanings,” he said on another Radio 4 show, according to an article in the Daily Mail.

“The context here is the rise of nationalism,” he continued.

The topics discussed on the show include different plant species and soil purity, which Pitcher identified as code language for racial purity. The Caucasian sociologist said radio personalities use discussions of “invasive” and non-native plant species to express opposition to foreigners. Another guest on Radio 4 — a baroness and former professor of cultural studies — agreed with Pitcher, comparing British concerns about rhododendrons to anti-Pakistani sentiments in the 1980s.

A frequent panelist on Gardeners’ Question Time, the aptly named Bob Flowerdew, called Pitcher’s claims “ridiculous.”

“Does he want us to stop using words altogether? Perhaps we shouldn’t use Latin names to avoid offending the Romans,” Flowerdew said.

HORATIO ALGER STORIES IGNORED BECAUSE OF "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS"

Jay Nordlinger writes:  (Be sure not to miss the last  paragraph!)

Years ago, I worked for a man who was a fairly high-flying lawyer. He went to three storied schools: Princeton, Oxford, and Harvard (in that order, I believe). One day, I got to asking him where he was from. West Virginia, he said. The family was poor. I don’t think there was a father. I believe it was a no-electricity, no-running-water situation. I believe he did not have a proper pair of shoes until 14 or something.

What I remember specifically is this: There were no books in the house, of course. But there was one guy in town who was well off — he was the banker, maybe — and he had books. He let Michael read pretty much all of them.

I remember thinking, “To much of the world, Michael is just another ‘privileged white male.’ Yet if he were of a different color — or even of the other sex — he would be hailed as a great bootstraps story.”

This brings me to Maine: and the governor, Paul LePage. He was born in Lewiston — no garden spot — in 1948. He was the first of 18 children. The family was Franco-American, and French-speaking. Paul’s father was a mill worker and drunk. A violent drunk. He beat the hell out of Paul, who escaped home at age eleven. Paul lived on the streets for two years — sleeping in stables and strip joints and the like. Eventually, a couple of families kept an eye on him. When he got to college age, he could not get in, because his English wasn’t good enough: He spoke French. But he finessed that — there’s a French word — and he worked his way up.

Okay, my point is this: LePage is a conservative Republican — and fantastically, sometimes thrillingly unpolished — but he if were a liberal Democrat, he would be a national celebrity as Horatio Alger incarnate. There’d be movies and songs and poems about him.

Am I expressing conservative paranoia and self-pity about the media and “the culture”? Or am I simply acquainted with reality?

By the way: If Clarence Thomas were a liberal Democrat, instead of a conservative Republican, his story would be taught to every child in the land, and his poster would be ubiquitous on kids’ walls. Hell, he might be on a coin already.

HEATHER MACDONALD - THE UNIVERSITY'S ROLE IN THE COLLAPSE OF THE WEST

"The University's Role in the Collapse of the West" may not be MacDonald's title but it comports well with her alarm at what has happened to Western culture via the universities and in particular the humanities.  Her article, "The Humanities and Us," begins with this paragraph:

In 2011, the University of California at Los Angeles decimated its English major. Such a development may seem insignificant, compared with, say, the federal takeover of health care. It is not. What happened at UCLA is part of a momentous shift in our culture that bears on our relationship to the past—and to civilization itself.

Until 2011, students majoring in English at UCLA had to take one course in Chaucer, two in Shakespeare, and one in Milton—the cornerstones of English literature. Following a revolt of the junior faculty, however, during which it was announced that Shakespeare was part of the “Empire,” UCLA junked these individual author requirements and replaced them with a mandate that all English majors take a total of three courses in the following four areas: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Disability, and Sexuality Studies; Imperial, Transnational, and Postcolonial Studies; genre studies, interdisciplinary studies, and critical theory; or creative writing. In other words, the UCLA faculty was now officially indifferent as to whether an English major had ever read a word of Chaucer, Milton, or Shakespeare, but was determined to expose students, according to the course catalog, to “alternative rubrics of gender, sexuality, race, and class.”

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:

 

CBN SPECIAL REPORT: "GENERATION IDENTITY" WAGES WAR ON FRANCE ISLAMIZATION

This short news report on young French men and women rising up against the Islamization of their society is a MUST SEE.  

They say they are at war with "the 68'ers," the baby boomers who run France, for wrecking their future with multicultural policies that some fear are turning France into a Muslim nation. . .

Groups like "Generation Identitaire" are symptoms of a nation that is coming unglued. They are an unintended but a predictable by-product of a failed multiculturalism that, instead of creating a melting pot, has created ethnic tribalism and dangerous "no-go zones."

 The media has been covering up the seriousness of the situation in the name of political correctness.   (Watch the video and see the text below).  Is it too late to arrest Europe's cultural suicide?  I think maybe it is, especially if the government and media remain in cover-up mode. Text of the video:

PARIS - It was a political protest with shock value, the likes of which has never been seen on French TV news: a group of young people stormed a mosque in the city of Portiers, going to the roof and unfurling a banner calling for a national referendum on Muslim immigration.

The banner included the number 732, the year Charles Martel defeated the Islamic invasion in Portiers.

The group calls itself Generation Identitaire, or Generation Identity. They say they are at war with "the 68'ers," the baby boomers who run France, for wrecking their future with multicultural policies that some fear are turning France into a Muslim nation.

They released a video called "A Declaration of War."

In the video, members say, "We are Generation Identitaire. We are the generation of ethnic fracture, the total failure of coexistence, and the forced mixing of races. We have stopped believing in a 'Global Village' and the 'Family of Man.'"

Their rhetoric sounds racist, but they say they do not believe in racial superiority or racial stereotypes. Rather, they fear losing France to Muslim immigrants from Africa.

CBN News interviewed a leader of the group, Julien Langella, in the southern French city of Toulon.

"It's not about hate of other people," Langella insisted. "It's about heritage. It's about loving our people and our land. And we fight for this."

Groups like Generation Identitaire are symptoms of a nation that is coming unglued. They are an unintended but a predictable by-product of a failed multiculturalism that, instead of creating a melting pot, has created ethnic tribalism and dangerous "no-go zones."

"Assimilation is now impossible in France," Langella said. "It was possible when immigrants came from European countries because they are like us ethnically; they are like us culturally."

The Great Replacement

The French Republic, which is supposed to be strictly secular, has actively helped Muslims build mosques and spread Sharia law. Polls show most French are alarmed about it.

Renaud Camus, one of France's leading writers, said flatly that France is being colonized by Muslim immigrants with the help of the government and the media. He calls it "The Great Replacement."

"The Great Replacement is very simple," he explained. "You have one people, and in the space of a generation, you have a different people."

Camus accused the French media of covering up the situation in the name of political correctness, essentially telling the French that the Islamization they see happening with their own eyes is not happening.

"Television is saying every day and school is saying every day that what is happening is not happening, that it is all in your head, that it is an optical illusion," Camus told CBN News.

"Practically every day Catholic Churches are attacked, and people (are stoned) in a very old Muslim tradition. And if they can't deny that this has happened, they say that this is the result of racism," he said.

Boomer's Tarnished Legacy

Generation Identitaire is also upset that their future has been looted by the baby boomers' out-of-control welfare spending.

In their video, they say, "We are the generation doubly punished: condemned to pay into a social system so generous with strangers it becomes unsustainable for our own people. Our generation is the victims of the May '68'ers, who wanted to liberate themselves from tradition, from knowledge and authority in education."

Aurélie Lamacq, a member of Generation Identitaire, said she is angry with the baby boomers for leaving a mess for her generation "because they had everything."

"They had the cool job. It was easy at the time to buy a flat or house. Their children were secure, and they have taken everything from us," Lamacq charged.

She added that she too no longer believes in cultural assimilation between Christians and Arab immigrants.

"We can't live together because we are not the same ethnically," she said. "We don't have the same religion. We don't have the same way of life, the same values. We have nothing in common. Nothing."

Some believe France is on a trajectory toward more social conflict over immigration and perhaps, someday, civil war.

"The political elite has to understand that it's a fight to the death because it's a matter of survival," Langella said.

It seems likely that groups based on ethnic identity, like Generation Identitaire, will continue to attract more and more followers in France.

- - Related Stories:

French Media Ignores Protest against Radical Islam

'Islamization' of Paris a Warning to the West

AIR FORCE CENSORS EXPRESSIONS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH

The Family Research Council (FRC) makes extremely sobering observations.  I have always held our military in high regard and felt we were blessed by its traditional values of virtue and self-discipline and faith and its ability to resist political correctness eating away at so many of our culture's foundations.  But as FRC reports, things are no longer well, especially with the Air Force.  

Air Force Rejects Faith--Plane and Simple

In the U.S. Air Force, the one thing leaders are throttling back is faith. When President Obama took office, his policies had a chilling effect on religion across the military--but no branch has taken Christian censorship to extremes like the Air Force. To most people, the turning point came last year after a service-wide memo from Gen. Norman Schwartz. It was a stern warning that religious favoritism and proselytizing would not be tolerated in the Force. Instead, Gen. Schwartz urged "neutrality"--which has since turned to hostility--on faith.

Assaults on religion have come in almost daily waves since then, and service members are still struggling to cope with the changes. One by one, officers started flushing God out of their everyday routines--an overcorrection that has left several airmen confused about their rights. First, the Air Force suspended a 20-year-old class on "Just War Theory" because it included scriptural references. Next came the stripping of "God" from the Rapid Capabilities motto and the purging of Bibles from Air Force Inn checklists. At Christmas, the Academy ordered cadets to stop promoting a Christian charity for needy kids. Leaders even removed an article from a Squadron Office School curriculum for referencing chapel. FRC started to notice a change in 2010--before Schwartz's memo--when Andrews Air Force Base rescinded my invitation to speak at a prayer breakfast.

"When viewed individually," Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) said, "any of these actions is concerning. But taken together, they highlight an alarming pattern in the Air Force that we do not see in other branches of the military." The tension is so significant that the Air Force Times published a long expose about the new climate of political correctness and how it's affecting morale. Several servicemen emailed the paper anonymously, many concerned that believers are being forced into the closet. "Christian airmen say they're constantly walking on eggshells at work to avoid offending their non-believing colleagues." Another said, "I don't think the Air Force pushes religion on anyone. The only thing I have seen is the push to take any reference to Christianity out."

So far, Gen. Schwartz's strategy seems to be having the desired effect. In a Military Times poll, Air Force members were less likely than those in any other branch to say that "religion plays a larger role in their lives today than it did when they joined the service." In other words, the Air Force is systematically driving a wedge between the troops and their greatest source of solace and strength. What a tragedy. Our military was designed to protect religious liberty--not impair it. As Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said, "When our sons and daughters join the military, they are not signing away their First Amendment right to religious liberty." He and 65 other House members are so outraged by the Air Force's pattern of religious hostility that they're calling on Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to conduct a full investigation. "Censorship," they write, "is not required for compliance with the Constitution and should not be required for compliance with military directives." We applaud the dozens of Congressmen who signed on to this letter to support the troops when they need it most.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Bill Muehlenberg quoting Mark Steyn:

"If it’s a choice between an unlovely citizenry with all its flaws or an overbearing state policing their opinions, I know which is the lesser evil."

PARENTS: BEWARE THE LEFTIST ASSAULT ON YOUR CHILDREN

Marybeth Hicks has written a book that seems "Must-reading" for parents.  It's titled, Don't Let the Kids Drink the Kool Aid:  Confronting the Left's Assault on Our Families, Faith, and Freedom.  I saw her interviewed on the 700 club yesterday.  

 

Her book receives praise from people I highly respect:

“Fellow moms and dads: It’s time to unite and reclaim the hearts, minds, and souls of our children from socialist indoctrinators! In shocking detail and with investigative zeal, Marybeth Hicks exposes the Left’s cradle-to-grave campaign to undermine religion, the traditional family, and free market capitalism. The best defense against this corrosive culture of entitlement and grievance is a good offense. Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid provides an invaluable playbook for parents who reject the Nanny State.”
—MICHELLE MALKIN, nationally syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times bestseller Culture of Corruption

“This is a tremendously important and timely book about the greatest disaster that could befall our country. No, it’s not economic—as bad as the economy is—it’s cultural, with a generation growing up utterly divorced from traditional American ideals. As Marybeth says, if we want to perpetuate America we need Americans, but our culture is rapidly undermining our children’s commitment to faith and freedom. Reading Marybeth Hicks’s Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid might be the most patriotic thing you do this year. If you care you about this country, please buy it, please read it, and please spread the word.”
—ERIC METAXAS, the New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery

“As important as it is to win the political battles, as Marybeth Hicks shows in her stunning new book Don’t Let the Kids Drink the Kool-Aid, if we don’t win the cultural battle for our children’s minds and hearts, we’ll have no future at all. Too many of us dismiss the propaganda of the liberal media, the public schools, and popular culture as harmless, but as Marybeth shows, it has demonstrably changed the way the next generation of Americans is thinking. Buy this book, be warned, and better yet—follow my friend Marybeth’s advice and take action.”
—DAVID LIMBAUGH, nationally syndicated columnist and author of the New York Times bestseller Crimes Against Liberty

Her columns for the Washington Times can be found here.  Previous books include Bringing Up Geeks: How to Protect Your Kid's Childhood in a Grow-Up-Too-Fast World and The Perfect World Inside My Minivan -- One mom's journey through the streets of suburbia.

LEFTISTS FORCE AIR FORCE TO CANCEL ETHICS CLASS WITH "INAPPROPRIATE" BIBLE VERSES

I read the following post from Jim Loft's Gateway Pundit and became depressed.  The military, the one remaining institution friendly to traditional values, is being targeted by atheists and radical secularists to purge it of any Christian influence.  And the military is caving in.  First it was pressure to cave in to homosexual activists, and now militants won't allow the military to teach "just war" theory (assuming the accuracy of the story).  Heaven help us.   Jim Loft writes:  [his bolding]

It’s an Obama world.
The Air Force cancelled an ethics class that included Bible verses. The spokesman for the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command said the inclusion of the Bible verses was an “inappropriate approach.”
FOX News reported:

The Air Force has suspended a course that was taught by chaplains for more than 20 years because the material included Bible passages.

The course, called “Christian Just War Theory” was taught by chaplains at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., and used Scripture from both the Old and New Testaments to show missile launch officers that it can be moral to go to war.

But the watchdog group, Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said the course violated the constitutional separation of church and state and filed a complaint last Wednesday on behalf of 31 missile launch officers – both instructors and students.

David Smith, the spokesman for the Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command, said the main purpose of the class was to help missile launch officers understand that “what they are embarking on is very difficult and you have to have a certain amount of ethics about what you are doing to do that job.”

He said the class was suspended the same day the complaint was filed.

The class is currently under review by Air Force officials who will determine whether or not to revise the material or end the class.

“In an effort to serve all faiths, we try to introduce none in our briefings and our lectures,” Smith told Fox News Radio. “Once we heard there were concerns, we looked at the course and said we could do better.”

Smith said the inclusion of the Bible verses was an “inappropriate approach” in a “pluralistic society.”

The godless Left wins again!

Me:  There's more to the Fox report than Jim included in his post.  The Fox report goes on:

“The use of Bible passage and other elements was just inappropriate,” he said. Mikey Weinstein, the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, hailed the military’s decision to suspend the course. “We’re very pleased that the Air Force did it,” Weinstein told Fox News Radio. “Had they not done that, we would have filed an immediate class-action lawsuit in federal court to force their hand.”   // Comment: Makes me wonder who and what the "Military Religious Freedom Foundation" is.

Weinstein said the officers who complained are Protestant and Roman Catholics, noting the class was simply “unconstitutional training.” 

“The United States Air Force was promoting a particular brand of right-wing fundamentalist Christianity,” he said. “The main essence was that war is a natural part of the human experience and it’s something that is favored by this particular perspective of the New Testament. 

Weinstein said he was particularly concerned about a passage of Scripture that was taught from the New Testament book of Revelations. The passage, chapter 19, verse 11, describes Jesus as a mighty warrior, Weinstein said. 

But David French, senior counsel at the American Center for Law and Justice, said there is no violation of the Constitution. “Just-War theory has been a vital part of American military history for the last several hundred years,” French said, dismissing the complaints as what he called “another attempt to cleanse American history of its religious realities.”  [my emphasis]

“It’s about cleansing religion from the public square and building a completely secular society and military, said French. Commander Daniel McKay, a retired U.S. Navy Chaplain, agreed, telling Fox News Radio he was deeply concerned by the military’s decision. 

“Why is it inappropriate to give our people guidelines that have withstood the test of time – to give us moral guidance,” McKay asked. “I think there are certain segments within our society who are making concerted efforts to take us away from our Judeo-Christian values, principles and morals,” he said. 

“History will prove that if you stay true to God’s wisdom, it will serve us well and it has served us well.” McKay said it’s possible that parts of the military are trying to play “all sides of the fence – trying to take a middle-of-the-road approach.” 

That, he said, is a mistake. “If you stay in the middle of the road, you become road kill,” McKay said, urging the military to stay true to what the Founders established. 

“You need to take a stand.” The Air Force and Weinstein denied that political correctness had anything to do with the suspension of the class. “Everyone in the military takes an oath to support and defend, protect and preserve this United States Constitution, which absolutely separates church and state,” Weinstein said. 

“The military is made up of people from all walks of life, all faiths,” Smith said. “It’s most appropriate to let folks practice their faith on their own and not try to introduce something else to them.”

CHRISTIANS IN BRITAIN DEEMED UNFIT TO BE FOSTER PARENTS UNLESS THEY HOLD POLITICALLY CORRECT VIEWS ON HOMOSEXUALITY

Charles Colson:   "When do homosexual “rights” trump religious rights? Whenever a court says so."  Colson writes:

For 15 years, Owen and Eunice Johns served as foster parents to British children. Social workers praised them as “kind and hospitable people” who “respond sensitively to” children.

But London’s High Court has just ruled that the Johnses are unfit to foster.

The reason: The Johnses are devout Christians, and their views about homosexuality may harm the children in their care. This opinion echoes that Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, which, according to the Daily Mail, claimed foster children risked becoming “infected” by the Johnses’ Christian beliefs.

The case came about when the Johnses re-applied to the Derby City Council to foster children after taking a break. But instead of welcoming them back with open arms, social workers expressed concern that the couple’s beliefs were in violation of the new Equality Act Regulations, which protect the rights of homosexuals.

WALL STREET JOURNAL - CLUELESS ABOUT ISLAM

I noted the ridiculous editorial independently, but am glad Mark Krikorian took the time to write about it:

[The WSJ..]  ran an editorial this week entitled “Islam’s Christians” that would have fit in nicely at the New York Times. The piece bemoaned the persecution of Christians in Iraq and Egypt but contrasted their current plight with the shangri-la of tolerance that reigned in the Middle East until recently:

With the rise of radical Islam, this tradition of peaceful and productive coexistence has been displaced by a practice of religious cleansing.

This is something so provincial and uninformed that only an educated cosmopolitan could write it; maybe we should be thankful the piece didn’t pine for the tolerant utopia of Al-Andalus. “Tradition of peaceful and productive coexistence”? Why do they think there were only a million Christians left in Iraq before our invasion? Why is Egypt, once a Christian country, now 90 percent Muslim? Has anyone taken communion in Hagia Sophia in the past 500 years? Did the Christians all just move away from all that “peaceful and productive coexistence”?

Even the glimmer of sense at the end is based on a fantasy version of Islam:

Living amid an overwhelmingly large majority, the small Christian sects pose no conceivable threat to Islamic hegemony. One can only conclude that they are attacked merely because they exist amid Islamic majorities. The implications of watching a strain of Islam show that it cannot coexist with others extend well beyond the borders of Iraq.

Get that: “a strain of Islam” that “cannot coexist with others” — what other strains are there? But then we probably shouldn’t expect better from the anonymous editorialist who wrote this:

Some of these Christian minorities have coexisted with Islam in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East since the time of Jesus.

Now, I’m not too good with dates, but I’m pretty sure there was no Islam at “the time of Jesus.” And that’s not the kind of slip that happens when you’re in a hurry, like writing “there” for “their” — that’s the kind of thing that happens when a completely uninformed person substitutes political correctness for reality.

I expect that the seminar on Capitol Hill today by Voice of the Copts featured a more realistic view of all that “peaceful and productive coexistence,” because the Copts have been staring down the business end of Islam for almost 1,400 years now.

Me:  What are we to make of an influential paper with no one on its editorial staff who knows even the most elementary facts about Islam and its history?  Amazing.  Shocking.  Depressing.

Video: The 12 days of "Winter"

Educational dogma in America today.  (HT: Ed Morrissey)

 

POLITICALLY CORRECT "PAYPAL"

For awhile Paypal declared Pamela Geller's Atlas Shrugs a "hate site" and threatened to deny her service but later reversed itself.  Geller now recommends Gpal as an alternative.  She writes about Paypal's abuse in an article for Human Events: [my emphases]

The little money that my organization Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and the Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), as well as my website AtlasShrugs.com, generate came close to being cut off Friday when Paypal called all three websites “hate” sites. The leading online payment service said it would close my accounts if I do not act first and remove the Paypal option from each website. After an avalanche of emails from Atlas readers, PayPal reversed itself and said the whole thing had been a mistake; but the implications of the incident for conservatives remain ominous. . .

SIOA is an advocacy group devoted to defending the freedom of speech, the freedom of conscience and the equality of rights of all people. Atlas Shrugs is a news site and a political blog. I am not responsible for the bad news in the world. I just report on it.

So for PayPal, defending American values and reporting the news accurately had become “hate.” Truth is the new hate speech. 

ANN COULTER INTERVIEWED BY CANADIAN BROADCASTER, MICHAEL COREN

In case you hadn't heard, a brouhaha has erupted in Canada over Ann Coulter's visit to three universities.  (See links below)

The interview is fun viewing.  Coulter sets the record straight in many areas...  (HT: Atlas Shrugs)

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 2

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 3

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 4

Michael Coren with Ann Coulter - part 5

Fears of violence; speech cancelled... (HT: Drudge)

'This has never, ever, ever happened before -- even at the stupidest American university'

UPDATE: Coulter launches Human Rights complaint...

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION RIDDLED WITH POLITICAL CORRECTNESS -- WHICH PUTS US AT RISK!

From Robert Costa at The Corner:

Rep. Peter King of New York, the leading Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, tells National Review Online that the Obama White House has built an “iron curtain” around national-security information in order to block Congress from investigating Northwest Airlines Flight 253. “This administration is not cooperating,” says King. “They have a stonewalling mentality.” . . .

The following, excerpted from Costa's short post at the Corner as well, could qualify as the "quote of the day": (my bolding)

“Some people call it profiling, but I call it common-sense screening, and that’s what we need to do,” says King. “When the FBI went after the mafia, they investigated Italian groups. When they investigated the IRA, they went to Irish bars. If you’re looking for the Ku Klux Klan, you don’t go to Harlem. When you know that nearly 100 percent of the terrorists coming after us are Muslims, you need to put aside political correctness and focus on young males from Middle Eastern countries. Israel does it and it makes sense. Otherwise, we’re wasting time by grilling the Scandinavian grandmother. The overwhelming majority of Muslims are good people, but we have to be frank. The terrorists are Muslims. We need the president to come out and admit that we’re at war with Islamic terrorism.”  [more . . .]

Update: Ralph Peters posts a scathing article related to the above, "Lying to Ourselves."

We proclaim that the terrorists "don't represent Islam." OK, whom do they represent? The Franciscans? We don't get to decide what's Islam and what isn't. Muslims do. And far too many of them approve of violent jihad. . .

On Christmas Day, a Muslim fanatic attempted to butcher hundreds of Christians (dead Jews would've been a bonus). Our response? Have airport security analyze the contents of grandma's mini-bottle of shampoo -- we don't want to "discriminate." [more. . .]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

FOOLISH DIVERSITY LED TO DEATH

Michelle Malkin posts an excellent and comprehensive article.

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

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

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

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

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

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

MUST-SEE VIDEO EXPLAINING "POLITICAL CORRECTNESS" AND THE MSNBC "NARRATIVE"

Bill Whittle has produced a 13 minute video (after a 30 second commercial) which genuinely educates.  I'm indebted to Wintery Knight for the link.  He titles his blog post "How the Left Wing Media Suppresses News That Doesn't Fit Their Agenda").

Ever heard of the "Frankfurt School"?  Ever wondered about Feminist theory?  Gender theory?  The (exclusive) focus on slavery in America (and nowhere else?)  Get educated and watch this video!!   It's time we begin to understand the nature and development of the intellectual climate that now dominates the airwaves and universities.  While we're at it, we can learn more about "political correctness" by watching the following videos:

• Part 1 (10:36)
• Part 2 (10:30)
• Part 3 (7:36)

THE IRRESPONSIBILITY AND INTELLECTUAL DISHONESTY OF LUMPING TOGETHER ALL "FUNDAMENTALISTS"

Yesterday I highlighted the blog, Wintery Knight, saying how valuable it was, and today, lo and behold, Wintery Knight puts up a MUST- SEE post (and video) of Michael Coren, a Toronto talk-show host and columnist, smacking down two leftists who want to lump all "fundamentalists" into the same category -- i.e. any mention of Islamist terrorism is countered by the dangers of alleged "Christian fundamentalists."  Total rubbish.    WK's post is outstanding in every way.  Go over there immediately and see for yourself! 

HOW THE UNITED STATES HAS CHANGED WITH RESPECT TO CHRISTIANITY IN THE PUBLIC SQUARE

Dr. James C. Dobson notes, "How different was the world when President Harry Truman addressed the American people from the lawn of the White House on the occasion of the lighting of the National Community Christmas Tree":

""Through Jesus Christ the world will yet be a better and a fairer place. This faith sustains us today as it has sustained mankind for centuries past. This is why the Christmas story, with the bright stars shining and the angels singing, moves us to wonder and stirs our hearts to praise. Now, my fellow countrymen, I wish for all of you a Christmas filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and many years of future happiness with the peace of God reigning upon this earth."

Student Sues L.A. City College District Over Gay-Marriage Speech

Los Angeles Times' story here.  

Me: Free speech anyone?  The curse of political correctness must be defeated.  It's an abomination, a betrayal of American liberty, a tyranny allowed to go unchallenged too long.

TOO CHRISTIAN FOR THE CHRISTIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA

Edward Feser reports:

Last Wednesday I reported on a controversy involving the decision by academic press Wiley-Blackwell to suspend publication of the Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization, allegedly on the grounds that it is “too Christian.” The editor of the Encyclopedia, George T. Kurian, has claimed in a memo sent to the work’s contributors that the press intended to pulp the entire initial print run of the work and demands that it be revised so as to make it less pro-Christian, more friendly to Islam, and in general more “politically correct.” 

More . . .

John Updike (1932-2009) Wrote a Magnificent Poem on Christ's Resurrection

John Updike, the American writer, died yesterday at 76.  I hadn't read his poem, "Seven Stanzas at Easter," until yesterday.  I think it magnificent.    (HT: Justin Taylor)

Make no mistake: if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,
each soft Spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His Flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart
that—pierced—died, withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping transcendence;
making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages:
let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.

For remembrances and evaluations, see Russell Moore Charlotte Allen, and Mike Potemra who disagrees with Charlotte Allen on the place of sex in Updike's novels.

PAUL WEYRICH, MORAL MAJORITY CO-FOUNDER, HAS PASSED AWAY

Update: 12/21/08 - Terry Mattingly analyzes the obituary coverage and notes the total absence of coverage of  Weyrich's religious affiliation - an ordained permanent deacon in the Catholic Church.

 (Original post) National Review offered Weyrich appropriate editorial tribute.  I recall that in 1999 Paul Weyrich write a memorable article that shocked me at the time.   I was reminded of it today when Christianity Today provided a link to it on its website.  Weyrich said back in 1999 that the cultural war had been lost.

The culture is becoming an ever-wider sewer. We are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great that it simply overwhelms politics. . .

The ideology of Political Correctness, which openly calls for the destruction of our traditional culture, has so gripped the body politic, has so gripped our institutions, that it is even affecting the church. It has completely taken over the academic community. It is now pervasive in the entertainment industry, and it threatens to control every aspect of our lives.

I find it one of the most jarring articles -- in the sense of "awakening" one to the current state of our nation -- that I can recall reading.  Remember, he wrote it in 1999.  Who would have thought that those who define marriage as the union of  a man and a woman would find themselves more and more on the defensive?   Weyrich probably saw it coming.  Read the whole article.

THE POST-CHRISTMAS, POST-CHRISTIAN WEST

Andrew Strattaford reports on "Winter Festival News":

Via the Daily Mail:

A school choir was forced to withdraw from a Christmas event because organisers branded its carols 'too religious'. Around 60 children aged between seven and 11 had spent six weeks practising favourites including Once In Royal David's City and Silent Night for the Corringham Winter Festival. But they were let down at the last minute when their headteacher was informed their programme did not 'dovetail' with the festival's theme.

Strattaford's response:  "Idiotic."   I concur.

DISTORTING AMERICAN HISTORY TO PRODUCE SELF-HATERS

Mona Charen's article, "Giving Thanks for Genocide," laments "the current pedagogical fashion is to distort American history into something like a war crime."  She draws on Michael Medved's new book, The 10 Big Lies About America, in setting the record straight.

Me:  This anti-American phenomenon promotes national suicide, and it has been doing so for years.  It now takes determination (and often extra-curricular specialized reading) for a young person to retain -- or attain -- a positive opinion of the United States.

Update - Mark Steyn offers a few choice comments on a related subject,  "warts-only education."  Excerpt:

QUICK TAKES

- Michael Reagan - The Left's Racist Group Think   - "To leftists, you aren't a person: you're only a member of a race, a sex, or a class"    Add to that Victor Davis Hanson's observation that race, class, and gender (RCG) - liberal mantras for the last 30 years -- are now entering new unforeseen solidarities in this primary season.

- Eli E. Hentz - Palestinian Peoplehood Based on a Lie  - "The Palestinian claim that they are an ancient and indigenous people fails to stand up to historical scrutiny."

- Good point from Andy McCarthy - 

Can Somebody Explain to Me ... how Obama sat in Wright's church for 20 years and managed never to hear anything, but hears 20 seconds of a Bush speech that doesn't mention him and perceives a shameful personal attack?

John Leo - "The Hazards of Telling the Truth" - on Mary Lefkowitz's Demolishing of Afrocentric Baloney

Update 5/7/08 - John J. Miller posts an audio interview with Mary Lefkowitz.

- At a local college some years ago, I heard a guest lecture by Mary Lefkowitz, classicist at Wellesley College (now retired).  I recognized that she grounded her lecture in established fact and that she was a woman of uncommon courage in her willingness to confront Afrocentric nonsense.  What is Afrocentrism?  John Leo's column explains and at the same time spotlights Lefkowitz's most recent book, History Lesson: A Race Odyssey, "a personal account of what she experienced as a result of questioning the veracity of Afrocentrism and the motives of its advocates. She has advanced the intellectual case against Afrocentrism before, in "Not Out of Africa:How Afrocentrism Became An Excuse to Teach Myth as History (1997); here she takes a more personal approach..."

I am so glad I came across John Leo's article, published today in the Wall Street Journal.  Read it for background into the controversy and weep over the "kind of affirmative action program for the re-writing of history" that is Afrocentrism.  (continued on page 2)

EDWARD SAID UNDERGOES IBN WARRAQ'S SCRUTINY

- Update 2/18/08 - Alyssa A. Lapen offers a major positive review of Warraq's book .  I found the review very valuable.

-Robert Spencer thinks Islamic scholar Ibn Warraq's new book, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said’s Orientalism, delivers a body blow to the Saidist establishment.  (If unfamiliar with Edward Said, be sure to read Spencer's whole article).

In an epigraph, he [Warraq] quotes Arthur Koestler, a man who knew a thing or two about the decline of civilizations: “The predicament of Western civilization is that it has ceased to be aware of the values which it is in peril of losing.” Ibn Warraq identifies three characteristics of Western intellectual inquiry – and of the work of the Orientalists whom Said disparages – that cannot be found consistently in non-Western (including Islamic) intellectual endeavors, and which are in danger of

GAINSVILLE, FL. GRANTS SPECIAL "GENDER IDENTITY" RIGHTS

**Update 2/8/08 - Third grade transgendered student  (HT: Drudge)

--
The Family Research Council comments as follows on the news story that the City of Gainesvile has voted to "protect transgender rights."  (The underlining is my own).

In Gainesville, Florida, the city commission voted to expand upon their already pro-homosexual ordinances by giving special rights to people based upon "gender identity," which is a personal decision--not a biological reality. Proving yet again that safety and common sense are no match for political correctness, the city commission passed an outrageous ordinance that defines gender as "an inner sense of being a

SELWYN DUKE - "THE RACE FOR THE AMERICAN MIND"

Selwyn Duke eloquently describes the threats to free speech which continue to grow in the U.S.  His article is definitely worth a read. After citing examples of censorship and the continuing threats, he concludes:

Education isn't easy when people aren't listening.  A great victory for the left is that it has dumbed-down civilization, making people lovers of frivolity and vice, comfortably numb.  It has created legions of disengaged, apathetic hedonists who wouldn't read a piece of commentary if it was pasted to a stripper.  Such people can be led by the nose and, when they occasionally notice the goings-on in their midst, will welcome the silencing of the "haters."

(HT: Michelle Malkin)

FREE SPEECH UNDER ASSAULT IN CANADA: THE CASE OF EZRA LEVANT

I don't have time right now to review the case of Mark Steyn, but will do so in due course.  Right now I want to post his comment on, and the link he provides to another case: the grilling that the Alberta Human Rights Commission gave to Ezra Levant, the man who published the Danish cartoons in Canada in the  Western Standard magazine.  Levant is utilizing video documentation of the interrogation to alert the world to what is happening.  Check that link!   As one news source reported:

"A secular government bureaucracy has essentially been hijacked by a radical Muslim imam," [Levant] said. "It's being used to further his fatwa against these cartoons."

Update 1/13/08 - Mark Steyn has more.

Update 1/14/08 - Stanley Kurtz notes absence of MSM coverage:

The electrifying Ezra Levant story has lit up the blogosphere. In the mainstream media it is nowhere to be seen. This is what the blogosphere is for. Will MSM even bother to show up? With how brief a story, how many days late?

(Later) - Kurtz also alerts us to Levant's opening statement to the Alberta Human Rights Commission today which he says serves as a "free speech document."

More "Merry Christmas" Greetings This Year?

Carol Iannone reports:

This year the "Merry Christmas" salutations and farewells were more numerous than ever.  A few years ago, it seemed, even in Christian churches and among Christians, a "Merry Christmas" might be met with embarrassment or disapproval, because if a non-Christian happened to be passing by, he might feel excluded.  But this year I gave many Merry Christmases and received even more, even in the supermarket and at the newsstands, and even from clearly non-Christian folks!  This is how it should be.  It spreads holiday cheer to all.  And it shows what a little pushing back against multi-culti and PC can do.

Me:  My experience tallies with Carol's, I am glad to say.

Mark Steyn: Freedom of Speech vs. "Human Rights Commissions"

Mark Steyn notes:

If you want to know the difference between a country with a First Amendment and a country with "Human Rights Commissions", here it is:

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission's decision to impose a 'lifetime' ban on a local Catholic's freedom to publicly criticise homosexuality, was upheld this week in its entirety by Saskatchewan Court of Queen's Bench.

Archbishop of Canterbury Calls America "Imperialist"

Never underestimate the folly of supposed "leaders."  Take Rowan Williams, for example, the current Archbishop of Canterbury.  An article in the Times of London reports:

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has said that the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.

According to the article,

Williams suggested American leadership had broken down: “We have only one global hegemonic power. It is not accumulating territory: it is trying to accumulate influence and control. That’s not working.”

He contrasted it unfavourably with how the British Empire governed India. “It is one thing to take over a territory and then pour energy and resources into administering it and normalising it. Rightly or wrongly, that’s what the British Empire did — in India, for example.

And how about this?  The interview was given to a Muslim magazine.

In the interview in Emel, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, Williams makes only mild criticisms of the Islamic world. He said the Muslim world must acknowledge that its “political solutions were not the most impressive”.

All of which led the historian Victor Davis Hanson to respond in a classic, must-read rebuttal:

I suggest that the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams read a little history about the British experience in India before he offers politically-correct but historically laughable

Gore Wins 2007 Nobel Peace Prize - Plus a Look Back at Past Nobel Peace Prize Winners

Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).   Powerline asks the question, "When did the Nobel Peace Prize go off the tracks?" and supplies this reminder of past recipients (HT: Hugh Hewitt):

2005
MOHAMED ELBARADEI (joint winner).  He's done such a nice job with Iran. 

2004
WANGARI MAATHAI. The Kenyan ecologist peacefully teaches that the AIDS virus is a biological agent deliberately created by the Man.

2002
JIMMY CARTER JR., former President of the United States of America. A true cosmopolitan, he has undermined the foreign policy of his own country and vouched for the bona fides of tyrants and murderers all over the world.

2001
UNITED NATIONS, New York, NY, USA. 
KOFI ANNAN, United Nations Secretary General. Among other things, they have

Political Correctness on American University Campuses

Update: 9/17/07 - Stanley Kurtz offers a powerful positive review of "Indoctrinate U."  He notes further that "folks in the Washington DC area have a chance to see it–and more. Indoctrinate U will be showing at the Kennedy Center as part of the American Film Renaissance film festival, which looks like it will be traveling to Dallas, Traverse City, and Hollywood as well. This festival will be showing a number of movies of interest to conservatives, including "The Call of the Entrepreneur" and "ACLU: At War With America."

**
Deroy Murdock writes of Indoctrinate U. as

a fascinating and jarring new film by first-time documentarian Evan Coyne Maloney. Supported by the Moving Picture Institute and premiering September 28 at Washington, D.C.’s American Film Renaissance festival, “Indoctrinate U.” CAT-scans the politically correct cancer that gnaws away at American higher education.

Murdock writes further:

Maloney reports that 91 percent of campuses restrict student speech. Brown University banned words that cause “feelings of impotence, anger, or disenfranchisement.” West Virginia University instructed students that “instead of referring to…‘girlfriend’ or ‘boyfriend,’” they should