brothers!

 

Cell Phone Pix!

 

 

 

 

KRLA 870 AM Intelligent. Conservative. Talk Radio

The comic absurdity of the hysteria surrounding Gov. Mike Huckabee’s supposed “floating cross” TV commercial this week reminded me of a scene in one of my favorite movies of all time, “Absence of Malice.” The movie is great because it delves into the complicated world of newspaper ethics and features some great performances by Paul Newman and Sally Field.
KRLA 870 AM Intelligent. Conservative. Talk Radio

Politicians with a prayer - - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

The surfacing of the “religion question” in the Republican presidential primary campaigns of both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee has raised important issues and exposed much public confusion about the intersection of religion and politics.
Politicians with a prayer - - The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Should Animals Be Doing More For The Animal Rights Movement? | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Should Animals Be Doing More For The Animal Rights Movement? | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

Ryan T. Anderson on Abstinence on National Review Online#more

Virginia governor Timothy M. Kaine (D.) announced this November that he was rejecting a $275,000 grant from the federal government for abstinence education as he eliminated the state’s abstinence education program altogether. He couldn’t have picked a worse time to make his announcement.
Ryan T. Anderson on Abstinence on National Review Online#more

Pop Up Problem

Senate Panel Probes 6 Top Televangelists, Sen. Charles Grassley Asks Ministries To Turn Over Financial Records Within One Month - CBS News

The six ministries identified as being under investigation by the committee are led by: Paula White, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Eddie Long, Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn. Three of the six - Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland and Creflo Dollar - also sit on the Board of Regents for the Oral Roberts University.CBS News

Noah and Date Sep 2005

 

homeschool homies

Family Manager - Control Central

You’re juggling many jobs—running a household, nurturing children, making a living. Many of you are caring for aging parents, finishing degrees, and volunteering in the community. You’re striving to maintain physical, emotional, and spiritual balance, and find time for personal development and fun.
Family Manager - Control Central

The Rise of the Religious Left

By STEVEN MALANGA
October 16, 2007; Page A21, WSJ

Everyone knows the potent force of the Christian right in American politics. But since the mid-1990s, an increasingly influential religious movement has arisen on the left, mostly escaping the national press's notice.

This new religious left does not expend its political energies on the cultural concerns that primarily motivate conservative evangelicals. Instead, working mostly at the state and local level, and often in lockstep with unions, its ministers, priests, rabbis, and laity exert a major, sometimes decisive, influence in campaigns to enforce a "living wage," to help unions organize, and to block the expansion of nonunionized businesses like Wal-Mart.

The new religious left is in one sense not new at all. It draws its inspiration in part from the Protestant "social gospel" movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, especially Baptist Minister Walter Rauschenbusch, who believed that the best way to uplift the downtrodden was to redistribute wealth and forge an egalitarian society. Rauschenbusch called for the creation of a kingdom of heaven here on earth -- just as presidential candidate Barack Obama did last week at a church in South Carolina.


The popular Catholic writer John Ryan also advocated that government enact pro-union legislation, steep taxes on wealth, and more stringent business regulation. When FDR adopted several of Ryan's ideas, the priest was given the sobriquet "the Right Reverend New Dealer." His popularity reflected the tightening alliance between America's mainstream churches and organized labor. That alliance disintegrated during the 1960s, when clerics like the notorious rebel priests the Berrigan brothers began to agitate for a wider range of radical causes -- above all, a swift end to the Vietnam War. The more culturally conservative blue-collar workers who formed the union movement's core wanted no part of this.

The alliance has been revitalized thanks in large part to savvy labor bosses such as John Sweeney, who grew up in a prototypical Catholic pro-union household. When Mr. Sweeney took over the AFL-CIO in 1996, union membership was shrinking -- from 24% of the work force 30 years ago to 14.5% in 1996 (and just 12% today). He told church leaders that "unions need aggressive participation by the Church in our organizing campaigns."

The AFL-CIO launched "Labor in the Pulpits," a program that encouraged churches and synagogues to invite union leaders to preach the virtues of organized labor and tout its political agenda. Nearly 1,000 congregations in 100 cities nationwide now take part annually. Mr. Sweeney himself has preached from the pulpit of Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral, urging congregants to join anti-globalization protests in the capital.

Under the auspices of Labor in the Pulpits, Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist and Presbyterian clerics have composed guidelines for union-friendly sermons and litanies, as well as inserts for church bulletins that promote union legislation. One insert asked congregants to pray for a federal minimum-wage hike and also -- if the prayers didn't work, presumably -- to contact their congressional representatives. Another urged congregants to lobby Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act -- controversial legislation that would let unions organize firms merely by getting workers to sign authorizing cards, rather than by conducting secret ballots, as is currently required.

The Chicago-based, union-supported Interfaith Worker Justice (IWJ) arranges for seminarians to spend the summer months working with union locals. Some 200 seminarians have helped unionize Mississippi poultry workers, aided the Service Employees International Union in organizing Georgia public-sector employees, and bolstered campaigns for living-wage legislation in California municipalities.

Working with IWJ, the labor movement has spawned some 60 new religious left groups, ranging from the Massachusetts Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice to the Chicago Interfaith Committee on Worker Issues to the Los Angeles-based Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (Clue). In Los Angeles, Clue clergy helped crush several 2005 statewide ballot initiatives that unions opposed, including one that gave union workers the option of not paying dues that would fund union political activities.

In Memphis, clergy fought relentlessly -- via newspaper op-eds, public fasts, and preaching -- for the passage of living-wage bills that since 2004 have forced local businesses to hike wages well above the federal minimum. Labor-religious coalitions have worked spectacularly well: Some 125 municipalities have passed living-wage laws.

More than 100 religious organizations support IWJ financially, including the National Council of Churches of the USA (NCC), an umbrella organization of nearly 40 mainstream Christian denominations. The Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Episcopal Church are particularly active. The alliance between labor and the religious left also enjoys the powerful backing of the Catholic Church, whose American hierarchy, though often conservative on social issues, is firmly left-wing in its economic views.

Despite decades of economic progress that have reduced unemployment levels to record lows and made America a magnet for opportunity-seeking immigrants, leading clergy of the religious left depict the free market as a vast exploitative force, controlled by a small group of godless power brokers. Clergy describe Wal-Mart, for example, in terms that its thousands of suppliers, millions of employees, and tens of millions of customers would hardly recognize. The Reverend Jarvis Johnson, an IWJ board member, has urged congregants to invite the "hurting, blind and crippled" to a metaphorical banquet. Who are these poor, abused souls? "They are Wal-Mart associates who have to wait six months to a year to qualify for a health-care plan," Mr. Johnson explained.

Religious left leaders blindly refuse to acknowledge the considerable academic research showing that mandated wage hikes often eliminate the jobs of low-skilled workers -- the very people whom it seeks to help. David Neumark, for example -- a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley's Institute of Business and Economics Research and one of the world's foremost authorities on wage laws -- has found that while living-wage laws do boost the income of some low-wage workers, they also have "strong negative employment effects." That is, they vaporize jobs. In one study, Mr. Neumark noted that a 50% boost in the living wage produced a decline in employment for the lowest-skilled workers of between 6% and 8%.

Religious left clerics also ignore the evidence that much poverty in prosperous, opportunity-rich America results from dysfunctional -- dare one call it "sinful"? -- behavior. Around two-thirds of poor families today are single-parent households, largely dependent on government subsidies and headed by women with little education. The entry-level, low-wage work for which these mothers are qualified makes it hard to support large families. And the time they must devote to raising their kids makes it hard to climb the economic ladder. Poverty is increasingly about the irresponsible decision to have children out of wedlock. In many inner city communities where poverty is entrenched, 75% of all children are now born out of wedlock.

In any event, the religious left's sympathies do not seem to be those of churchgoers. While the NCC and its member churches pursue a variety of left-wing causes -- even partnering with the activist organization MoveOn.org and featuring speakers like Michael Moore at events -- a Pew poll found that 54% of white, mainline Protestants and 50% of Catholics voted Republican in the 2004 presidential elections. Those who attended church regularly voted Republican even more heavily -- at nearly the same rate as evangelical Christians, in fact.

For four decades, as the leadership of America's mainline churches has moved steadily leftward, those churches' memberships declined as a percentage of the U.S. population while the number of Christian evangelicals exploded. Left-wing clerics may be buying greater political influence with their alliance through organized labor, but the price may be further alienating their shrinking flock.

Mr. Malanga is senior editor at the Manhattan Institute's City Journal, from whose autumn issue this is adapted.

S.N.L. Skit Spoofs Thompson - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

A sure indication that perceptions of Fred Thompson, the Republican presidential candidate, as a little slow-off-the-mark are already beginning to solidify in the public mind: “Saturday Night Live” featured a couple of jokes painting him as such, and, most potentially devastating, Darrell Hammond did an impression of him as doddering and playing HARD off his “Law and Order” fame.S.N.L. Skit Spoofs Thompson - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

HEATED DEBATE-Split Over Global Warming Widens Among Evangelicals

Texas Christians Cite Conflicting Scripture; Staying 'On Mission'
By ANDREW HIGGINS
September 28, 2007; Page A1

WACO, Texas -- Suzii Paynter, director of the public policy arm of Texas's biggest group of Baptist churches, traveled to central Texas early this year to talk to a local preacher about a pressing "moral, biblical and theological" issue. She wanted to discuss coal.

Christians have a biblical mandate to be "good stewards of God's creation," Ms. Paynter says she told the Rev. Frank Brown, pastor of the Bellmead First Baptist Church here in the county where President Bush has his ranch. So, Texas Baptists should demand that controversial plans to build a slew of coal-fired power plants be put on hold.


Mr. Brown was not impressed. God, the pastor said, is "sovereign over his creation" and no amount of coal-burning will alter by a "millisecond" his divine plan for the world. Fighting environmental damage is "like chasing rabbits," he recalls telling her. It just distracts from core Christian duties to spread the faith and protect the unborn.

Ms. Paynter and Mr. Brown, devout Baptists both, stand at opposite ends of a debate over the environment that has been roiling America's potent but often fractious community of evangelicals. Christians have been arguing about coal in Texas, oil drilling in Alaska and hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. The most charged issue of all is climate change, a focus of world attention this week with conferences at the United Nations and in Washington, D.C. America's Christians are divided on basic questions: How serious is it, what causes it, and what should mankind do about it?

All sides cite the Bible. Ms. Paynter points to a New Testament passage that says the good shepherd does not exploit his sheep and to a psalm that declares "the earth is the Lord's and all its fullness." Mr. Brown quotes an Old Testament verse promising that "while the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease."

Behind the theological disputation, however, is a struggle grounded in the here and now. Who speaks for American evangelicals, and on what issues? Evangelicals in the U.S. share a cluster of core principles: belief in the authority of the Bible, a determination to spread the faith and a commitment to salvation through Jesus. But defining the group beyond that is difficult. They also have a long history of quarrels over their agenda and tension over leadership, particularly since the rise in the 1970s of the formidable political force known as the "religious right."

The dispute over the environment has gained urgency in the run-up to next year's presidential election. Liberal Christians have long championed green issues. Some of their more conservative brethren, particularly in Washington, then joined them in that cause. Now, as anxiety over the environment seeps into the evangelical heartland of the South, pastors and ordinary believers are also wrestling with what was long scorned as a left-wing fetish. A look at how the struggle is playing out in Texas shows the different forces at work -- and suggests its outcome is unlikely to be resolved soon.


"Global warming is a proxy battle," says the Rev. Jim Ball, a graduate of Baylor University, a Baptist college in Waco, and now head of the Evangelical Environmental Network, a group set up in 1994. The combatants are "those moving forward on a broader agenda, and those who want to keep evangelicals focused on just three things -- abortion, judges and gay marriage."

The split is also a struggle between generations, says the Rev. Benjamin Cole, a 31-year-old Baptist preacher from Texas. A blogger on Southern Baptist affairs, Mr. Cole says some younger evangelicals are tiring of lock-step loyalty to the Republican Party. "We wake up each morning and see an elephant on the pillow next to us," he says.

But many veteran leaders of the religious right regard the green movement as a dangerous distraction. Shortly before his death in May, Virginia Baptist preacher the Rev. Jerry Falwell denounced the clamor over global warming as "Satan's attempt to redirect the church's primary focus."

Evangelical Christians have been the Republican Party's most-loyal constituency in recent years. In 2004, 78% of white evangelicals voted for George W. Bush, according to exit polls. Democrats are working hard to dent this alliance. Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a churchgoing Roman Catholic, frequently refers to scripture to support her calls for action against global warming.

"They've really got traction going when it comes to planting trees and reducing greenhouse gases," says Paul Weyrich, an early pioneer of Republican outreach to conservative Christians who heads the Free Congress Foundation, a Washington think tank.

An episode this spring brought national attention to the brewing dispute. Mr. Weyrich joined two dozen other conservative Christian leaders in warning that global warming "is dividing and demoralizing" evangelicals. In a letter to the National Association of Evangelicals, they denounced the umbrella group's Washington-based vice president for governmental affairs, Richard Cizik, an outspoken champion of action against global warming. They demanded that he shut up or resign.

The NAE's board backed Mr. Cizik, who has continued to speak out. Combating climate change, says Mr. Cizik, is no longer just for "latte-sipping, endive-eating elitists from Harvard" but a core issue for all Christians.

How many evangelicals share this view is hard to assess. Each side has its own poll results. A summer survey commissioned by the Evangelical Climate Initiative, group of prominent Christians alarmed by rising temperatures, found that 70% think climate change will pose a "serious threat" to future generations and 64% want immediate action to curb it. The unpublished survey, due to be released next month, was carried out by Ellison Research, a private company. A separate poll carried out around the same time by Barna Group, a conservative Christian research outfit, used a narrower definition of evangelicals and found that only 33% consider global warming a "major problem."

Splits among Baptists in the South are particularly pronounced. Former Vice President Al Gore, a churchgoing Baptist from Tennessee, has become the nation's best-known campaigner against global warming. But the Southern Baptist Convention, which claims more than 16 million members, stands with skeptics. "We don't believe in global warming," said a veteran preacher at the convention's annual meeting this June in San Antonio, Texas. The meeting passed a resolution that dismissed as "very dangerous" proposals to regulate carbon-dioxide emissions and asserted that scientists disagree on the cause of rising temperatures.

Earlier this year, an international panel of hundreds of scientists concluded that human activity is "very likely" the main driver of global warming.

David Gushee, a Southern Baptist professor of Christian ethics, denounced the San Antonio resolution as akin to the organization's previous refusal to combat racism. Mr. Gushee, who helped draft a Southern Baptist Convention apology for past racism in 1995, says, "I don't want to be writing another resolution of regret in 50 years time" about the environment.

American evangelicals are a vast community with sometimes widely divergent views. They are generally thought to number upwards of 100 million people but estimates vary widely depending on how they are defined. In the 19th century, evangelicals split on the issue of slavery. The civil-rights movement in the 1960s caused further splintering, as did a host of theological and personal squabbles. The 1960s also saw wrangling over the environment.

In speeches at Wheaton College in 1968, Francis Schaeffer, a hugely influential evangelical intellectual who died in 1984, criticized fellow Christians for neglecting "God's creation." Though a conservative, he hailed "hippies" for their attacks on "the poverty of modern man's concept of nature." His remarks were collected in a 1970 book, "Pollution and the Death of Man."

But Mr. Schaeffer's call to arms over the environment was soon drowned out by another cause he championed: the war on abortion. He became a fiery leader of pro-life Christians following the 1973 Supreme Court decision legalizing the procedure.

"Suddenly, abortion was a litmus test for everything," recalls Mr. Schaeffer's son, Frank, who followed in his father's footsteps but has now broken with conservative evangelicals. Frank Schaeffer, who has just written a memoir called "Crazy for God," says the late Mr. Falwell and others "deformed and distorted" his father's legacy. He is rooting for those who want to widen the evangelical agenda to include action on global warming.

Francis Schaeffer's role as both a pioneer of the pro-life movement and an early environmentalist underscores the varied strands of the conservative evangelical movement. Those strands are on full display in Texas.


One fan of the late Mr. Schaeffer is the Rev. Jack Graham, chief pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a stadiumlike house of worship in Plano, Texas, that seats 7,000 faithful. Mr. Graham, a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is a big supporter of President Bush, but says he is happy to challenge stereotypes about evangelicals. "We don't believe the Earth is flat," he says.

Yet his skepticism about science runs deep. Prestonwood's bookshop stocks a host of books seeking to debunk the theory of evolution, and its parking lot is packed each Sunday with gas-guzzling sports-utility vehicles. "I have a lot more people asking, 'How can I get through the week?' than about the future of the planet," says Mr. Graham. Christians, he says, have to be careful not to "worship creation instead of the Creator."

Nonetheless, he says, they must not abuse nature, either. Mr. Graham is agnostic on the main cause of global warming but thinks science is "tilting towards human activity as contributing to the state of the world."

Prestonwood last year began a drive to save energy and, in December, was named America's "best green church" at a Dallas conference of church builders, suppliers and managers. It recently installed a computerized system to control its outdoor sprinklers and cut down on wasteful watering of its 140-acre grounds. The church has throttled back on air conditioning, started switching to environmentally friendly fluorescent light bulbs and taken lights out of many vending machines. A full-time "energy manager" prowls the premises after hours, leaving admonishing notes for staff who neglect to turn off lights and computers.

One big motive for all this is money. Prestonwood, which has its own school, TV station, five basketball courts and eight sports fields, has cut its utility bills by $1.1 million since summer last year, when it hired Dallas-based Energy Education Inc. to advise it on how to save energy. But, says Mr. Graham, another reason is the Bible. "Biblical Christianity," he says, quoting Francis Schaeffer, "has a real answer to the ecological crisis."

Other Texas Christians are also trying to conserve energy, including Ms. Paynter, who heads the Christian Life Commission, the public-policy branch of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, a group that Mr. Graham views as insufficiently conservative. Ms. Paynter's Baptist church in Austin, pastored by her husband, teaches "creation care" at summer Bible camp, gets a portion of its power from a renewable-energy grid and has set up recycling bins.

But unlike Mr. Graham, Ms. Paynter is in no doubt about man's role in global warming and considers air quality and other environmental issues as matters of urgent concern. She says her interest was sparked when, at an event for children, she noticed that about 10 of 35 kids present had asthma inhalers.

In poorer, more rural parts of Texas, however, green issues still struggle for a hearing from believers infused with "end times" theology, the conviction that the world will inevitably come to a cataclysmic end and that nothing can or should be done to delay this.

After his discussion with Mrs. Paynter, Mr. Brown, the Baptist preacher in Bellmead near Waco, wrote a lengthy blog entry denouncing environmentalism as a red herring. "Our concern is not to spend hours and hours on how to keep the globe from warming; that is the enemy of hope," he wrote. "Our command is that...we storm the gates of Hell and keep the enemy on the run by the grace of GOD!"

When Ms. Paynter urged Baptists to join the coal power-station debate, she got angry phone calls and messages from outraged preachers and ordinary Baptists. "I do hope our tithes and offerings are not supporting this type of activity," read one email. "Let's stay on mission and keep proclaiming the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ."

But other Baptists cheered. Mary Darden, a deacon of a big Baptist church next to Waco's Baylor University, organized a group called "Keep Waco Green." Though a firm Democrat, she rallied both liberals and conservatives in opposition to plans by TXU Corp. and another utility to create what environmentalists called a "ring of fire" around Waco with plans to build four coal-fired power plants in the region.

The Waco region's Baptist association helped out by informing members about a public meeting to protest the plants.

In March, opponents of the plants declared victory after investors announced a buyout of TXU and promised to scale back on their expansion plans. Ms. Darden organized a celebratory dinner and dance. The "Coal Plant Victory Bash" was attended by secular environmentalists, a conservative state legislator and Christians of all political stripes. Among them was John Wessler, a conservative Christian and a "Keep Waco Green" activist. "God created a balance and we were about to go way out of balance in Waco," he says.

Mr. Wessler, a health-care adviser, says he got involved out of fear that the plants might spew toxins such as mercury and hurt the health of his family. His daughter has asthma. Now he says he's paying more attention to global warming, too, and thinks it "logical" that man is to blame. He's thought about buying a Toyota Prius hybrid car to replace an old Mercedes. But, he says, "I'm not there yet."

NPR : Bishops Move to Ease Concerns on Homosexuality

Bishops in the Episcopal Church have crafted a document they hope will ease conservatives' concerns in the United States and abroad. In Africa and South America, which have the most active members in the worldwide Anglican Communion, bishops wanted a statement from the Americans about the direction of the church — and specifically on its views on homosexuality.NPR : Bishops Move to Ease Concerns on Homosexuality

Worship Goes Big-Screen and Hi-Fi, With Direct-Deposit Tithing - washingtonpost.com

"At First Baptist Church of Glenarden in Prince George's County, parishioners who don't make it to church on time are directed to an overflow room to watch the Sunday service on a huge projection screen. If they can't make it to church at all, they can catch the service online, anytime."Worship Goes Big-Screen and Hi-Fi, With Direct-Deposit Tithing - washingtonpost.com:

NPR : Pastor Brings Jesus into an L.A. Dance Club

NPR : Pastor Brings Jesus into an L.A. Dance Club

The least popular children's book of all time

 

Joe Carter on God’s Warriors on National Review Online

For several weeks CNN has been hyping their miniseries God’s Warriors as an “unprecedented six-hour television event.” The series dedicates two hours each to “God’s Jewish Warriors,” “God’s Muslim Warriors,” and “God’s Christian Warriors.” Prior to the first airing, CNN invited several bloggers to preview a few clips from the series and to submit a question for Christiane Amanpour to be answered during a special webcast.
Joe Carter on God’s Warriors on National Review Onliner

Robert Rector on Poverty on National Review Online

The Census Bureau will release its annual report on poverty in America tomorrow. The report will show, as it has in recent years that around 37 million people live in official poverty. Presidential candidate John Edwards, who hopes to lead the nation in a new crusade against poverty, will, no doubt, seek to reap much publicity from the report.
Robert Rector on Poverty on National Review Online

Youngest Brother was going to kill Oldest Brother, but Middle Brother tips hime off...

Dan,

Jon asked me to keep this a secret, but I thought you should know.
See the forwarded message below.

Tim

On Aug 7, 2007, at 3:43 PM, jon harper wrote:

Tim--

I have been thinking about killing Dan. No real reason, just
something to do. Also, there is a cool new reality show on the CW
tonight. Don't tell Dan. I mean about killing him. You can tell him
about the show--who cares if he watches it if I'm going to kill him.

Authentically yours,
Jon

FOXNews.com - Fred Thompson, the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan? - Opinion

In 1980 presidential candidate Ronald Reagan transformed American politics when, speaking to an audience of Evangelical Christians, he declared: "You can't endorse me, but I endorse you."
FOXNews.com - Fred Thompson, the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan? - Opinion

I Heart Huckabee: 'Likeable' Mike Takes Second Place in Iowa Straw Poll -- 08/13/2007

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee says he has new momentum heading into the next phase of the Republican presidential campaign following his second-place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll on Saturday.
'Likeable' Mike Takes Second Place in Iowa Straw Poll -- 08/13/2007: "Huckabee "

Amazon.com: MANGROOMER Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Hair Shaver: Health & Personal Care

You laugh but I want one!

MANGROOMER Do-It-Yourself Electric Back Hair Shaver: Health & Personal Care

John Edwards Vows To End All Bad Things By 2011

John Edwards Vows To End All Bad Things By 2011 | The Onion - America's Finest News Source: "AMES, IA—In an effort to jump-start a presidential campaign that still has not broken into the top Democratic tier, former Sen. John Edwards made his most ambitious policy announcement yet at a campaign event in Iowa Monday: a promise to eliminate all unpleasant, disagreeable, or otherwise bad things from all aspects of American life by the end of his second year in office."

OC, MD-2007 July

New Pictures-June 2007

Focus on the Family - Small Changes

Oneplace.com: Focus on the Family (Dr. James Dobson) - Broadcast Archives: "'Houston, we have a problem.' Just a two-degree shift in Apollo 13's homeward course would have caused the spacecraft to miss the earth by thousands of miles. Indeed, minor changes can make a big difference. The same principle applies in daily life. For example, how long did you maintain your New Year's resolution to lose 20 lbs? Setting the bar too high often leads to discouragement, but smaller, more manageable changes can increase your likelihood of success. Psychologist and author Dr. John Trent discusses simple adjustments that can lead to life-changing results.
'How in the world such can a small degree of difference lead to such a great effect? I don’t meet couples that, when they got married, were 11,121 miles apart. They started off two degrees [apart] and all of a sudden they woke up one day and were miles apart.' - Mr John Trent "

Pictures from my trip

"It is Finished!"

After approximately 630 hours of class time, 288 hours out of the country, and 252 hours meeting with my study group I am finished with my studies. I am now a holder of a Masters in Technology Management from George Mason University.

As I was walking to accept my diploma you'll notice I am grinning from ear to ear at the thought of being able to spend time with my wonderful family and friends again. Thanks to all of you, especially my wife Shari, for all of your support over the last 18 months.

If for some crazy reason you would like to order a picture for yourself go to http://www.gradimages.com and type in customer number 743517. The other picture of me is goofy though so don't pick that one :)

TECHMAN Chronicles-The Bangalore Zone

Today we had a couple of hours to kill in the afternoon so we went down to an area called Commercial Street ("I used to like this area before they sold out and became so commercial, ha ha"). We went to an area which turned out to be the Muslim quarter. I have to admit I was a little nervous walking by the mosque as Friday sermons were beginning.

Like always there were plenty of pushy vendors but I learned that those are mostly in the street. If you go into the stores some of them tend to be less pushy-but they will talk your ear off trying to tell you why you should buy their product.

I did see a couple of interesting things but they were basically just tchotchkes so I didn't buy anything, and I have absolutely no interest in silk, so I began to grow a little bored. I went ahead on my own, albeit a little apprehensively, but I became more confident as people seemed to leave me to myself for the most part. I decided instead of taking a taxi/rickshaw I would take a chance and try winding my way back to the hotel, knowing full well all I had to do was make eye contact with a taxi and they would take me to the hotel if I couldn't find it.

Then I saw the weirdest thing. There were four men who, for lack of a better word, were Hindu transvestites. They were asking everyone for money-not just westerners like me but everyone. They were really spooky but after they finally passed me (after asking me for money of course) I felt sorry for them. Talk about untouchable! I think even here they were pretty much freakshows. I sort of felt like maybe God was trying to tell me something.

I kept walking back to the hotel and noticed the building in the picture below. You don't see too many churches here so I decided to take a picture. Afterwards I saw a young man walking by and decided to ask him where the Chancery Hotel was. He didn't seem to understand, which was weird because most people speak English here. But there was an older man walking behind us and he pointed it out to me. He began to talk me up a little bit so I figured he probably wanted some money, but he just seemed so gentle and nice that I decided I would talk to him a little while and give him 10 or 20 rupees for the favor of telling where the hotel was. As we were talking, a constable walked by and began to eye us warily. I think he was going to shoo the man away but I nodded to him that it was okay.

The man said he was from Madrassa and be had come here looking for work, but that the only work was for young men with computer skills. True enough I knew. He was 54 years old and mostly only knew farming. He began telling me about his children and how he was trying to keep them in school. I knew it was a pitch but it also seemed like the truth. As he was talking about his kids and his frustration with not being able to find work his voice cracked and his eyes teared up.

If you're a cynic you could say this was all part of an act but I don't think so. I think the man was just tired, hot and frustrated with his life, and was happy to unload some of his frustration on another human being (he had no family or friends in the area). He said every day he prays to God but nothing seems to happen. If you know anything about Hinduism you know there are literally thousands of gods so I asked him which one he prays to. He reached into his tunic and showed me a necklace with a cross on it and said "Jesus."

Now, you have to realize that when people talk about religion in India you usually hear something like it is 90 to 95% Hindu and only 5 to 10% Muslim/Christian/other so this is pretty rare. My eyes brightened up and I told him I too was a Christian. I asked if he faced any extra persecution in this country for being a Christian but he said no, which actually in my mind blended even more credibility to his story. If he was just scamming me, and I had just admitted being a Christian too, he would have played up the persecution angle to gain some empathy. I also asked him if his kids were in Christian school and he said no but it was a private school. Again, a con would have probably lied about that and said yes they were in Christian school.
I decided I needed to give this guy the 20 bucks I could have easily spent on junk souvenirs. I don't say this to brag-if I were a better Christian I should have given them more. If you can't tell already I'm pretty cynical about these little Christian stories people occasionally e-mail you so I am hesitant to over-spiritualize things like this. But if you call yourself a Christian and believe what the Bible says then you know that God is in control of everything and nothing happens by chance.

Then I remembered where I had started talking to the man. Across the street where I had stopped to take a picture of the Indian Bible Society. Cue the "Twilight Zone" music please. And if you think of it when you say your prayers tonight throw one up there for Antoni and his two children.

Bangalore Traffic

I didn't actually take this video but it is very representative of the bus rides we've experienced here so far!
Next time I find myself complaining about DC traffic I will watch this.

TECHMAN Chronicles Part One-Alaska from the Air

Sunday, May 20-roughly 7 p.m. EST.

Many of you know that for the final part of my Technology Management program at George Mason I am traveling to Bangkok Thailand and Bangalore India. Incidentally one of the topics we will look at in Bangkok is the application of technology to help the poor, so even though this is strictly a secular trip perhaps it is in one sense a missions trip.

I had just finished watching the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" with Will Smith and his son (incidentally named Jaden). It was a tearjerker showcasing the sacrifices a father made, both for financial success and for his son. Needless to say I was feeling rather homesick missing my family. It reminded me of how precious they are to me and how I want to cherish every second with them when I come back.

This past year and a half has been a sacrifice for my family especially my wife who has been unswervingly supportive of me being gone not only every Saturday but one to two nights per week, meeting with study groups and doing homework. This trip is the culmination of the program and then my family can have me back (if they will still have me!)

At this point we're only about half way through the 13 hour flight so I went to the back of the plane to stretch my legs. I noticed someone taking pictures out of one of the back windows of the plane. I looked out to check out the view since I was sitting in an aisle seat and had been oblivious to the scenery below. Stretched before my eyes was a panoramic view of the Alaska Mountains including beautiful blue glaciers. At this point we're going all most 600 mph at an altitude of 32,000 feet. We have flown roughly 3100 miles. These pictures don't even begin to do justice to the view but they will have to suffice for now.

Blogging from Bangalore

Well here I am in Bangalore, India on my residency for my GMU "TECHMAN" program. For 170 rupees I get one hour of Internet time (that's about $3.50).

We left Dulles Airport Sunday around noon and arrived in Japan 13 hours later. We had a three hour layover and boarded our seven hour flight for Bangkok Thailand. The last two hours of that leg of the trip were the worst.

By the time we got our luggage and took buses to the hotel it was past midnight local time. We had been traveling for 24 hours straight!

We flew on All Nippon Airways and the service was excellent. Every seat had its own television set so we could watch movies. I alternated between reading, watching movies, getting up and walking around to stretch my legs, talking to my classmates, and taking catnaps. Even so it was grueling.

Bangkok international Airport is beautiful and has stores in it rivaling Tyson's corner galleria, complete with stores selling $400 silk ties. Yes, that's 400 US dollars! Good thing I had already picked out a Father's Day present for for my dad :)

Monday morning we made an excursion to The Grand Palace which was quite impressive. I hope to post some pictures later. Monday evening we all regreted having to fly again-- our itinerary calls for four days in Bangalore before coming back to Bangkok. However most of us simply wanted to stay in Bangkok. It was less than three hours flying time though, which was a walk in the park compared to what we had been through yesterday.

It's quite a contrast to Bangalore. It was crowded, filthy, and chaotic. The traffic here makes the Beltway looks like child's play. It's every man for himself-dog eat dog. Literally. There are scrawny, ferrel dogs everywhere, alongside the "holy" cows.

In Bangalore we will hear several lecturers and make site visits to some of the large IT companies here. This morning speaker talked about many of the infrastructure challenges faced by the growth in Bangalore. In the afternoon we visited the Jack Welch Research Center (GE).

As I am writing this blog the power went out-only for less than 10 seconds, but it shows that this really is a Third World country... despite the high tech companies abject poverty is never far away.

Still our hotel is quite nice so we can't complain. Tonight is my first night to really just relax and hopefully will be my first full eight hours of sleep. Anyway I will try to post an update as soon as I can.

New Pix!!!

Revenue collections hit record in April

Once again: Cut taxes, raise revenue:

Revenue collections hit record in April

Birth of Jayden

Jayden Samuel Harper arrived April 27 at 8 lbs 4 ozs, 21 inches at 8:14 am!  

Jayden Samuel Harper

George Bush - Malaria Dance

I love this video! Maybe this will improve his approval rating???

All My Tears

Pastor Neil recently talked about the importance of worship through music as a way to connect with God. My favorite time to do that is often in the car on the way to work, and one of my favorite artists to facilitate that is Jars Of Clay. If I could pick a song to play at my funeral (don't panic I am not dead but one day I will be), it might be this:

Album: Good Monsters
Song: All My Tears
When I go don't cry for me, in my Father's arms I'll be
The wounds this world left on my soul will all be healed and I'll be whole.
Sun and moon will be replaced with the light of Jesus' face
And I will not be ashamed, for my Savior knows my name

It don't matter where you bury me, I'll be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay, All my tears be washed away.

Gold and silver blind the eye, temporary riches lie
Come and eat from heaven's store, come and drink and thirst no more

It don't matter where you bury me, I'l be home and I'll be free
It don't matter where I lay, All my tears be washed away

So weep not for me my friends, when my time below does end
For my life belongs to Him, who will raise the dead again.

It don't matter where you bury me, 'cause I'll be home and I'll be free.
It don't matter where I lay, all my tears be washed away

Oooh, it don't matter.....Oooh, it don't matter

New Jersey School Criticized for 'Christian' Terror Drill

The Burlington Township High School in New Jersey along with the local police and fire departments are taking heat for a fake hostage drill conducted on school grounds last month.

The drill, aimed at testing the reactions of faculty and first responders during a simulated attack, included an imaginary scenario that has some Christians up in arms.

During the simulation, two mock gunmen from a fake right-wing fundamentalist group called the "New Crusaders" — a group that does not believe in the separation of church and state — stormed the school. The idea was that they were angry that one of their daughters was expelled for praying before class.

[TheoCon's Note] Upcoming drills will include other likely scenarios including a takeover by magical fairies, a "dirty bomb" attack by gremlins, and an assault by Nappy-headed Ho's.

Rant of the Day

Why will San Fran Nan meet with avowed enemies of the U.S. like Syria and Iran but won't meet with their own President??? Wow.

The Mozambique Miracle

The Mozambique Miracle
By MATTHEW KAMINSKI
April 7, 2007; Page A8

MAPUTO, Mozambique -- In the Hulene quarter of this former Portuguese colonial capital, private minibuses swerve around holes carved in seas of mud. Metal sheets provide shelter for thousands packed in without electricity or sanitation. Illiteracy and HIV rates are shockingly high. The stench and deprivation take the breath away.

Mozambique is one of the world's poorest countries. It's also an African success story. Here, such things are relative. To the immediate west, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe misrules his country toward calamity. Nigeria, Ivory Coast and others are beset by civil conflict and corruption. But Mozambique, scarred by 16 years of civil war and Soviet-style economics, turned itself in the right direction on its own. Optimism, however guarded, and Africa do sometimes go together.

For all the debates over development strategies, the secret to Mozambique's recovery is simple. "We opened our markets and dropped the centralized economy," says Miquelina Menezes, who chairs the country's association of economists and runs a fund devoted to bringing electricity to rural areas. "If you want to join the world, you have to change. We needed to rebuild the country and to rebuild confidence."

The elite never experienced an ideological conversion. The main drags in Maputo, once dedicated to Portuguese worthies, are still named after Mao, Lenin and Kim Il Sung. ("It's our history, not our present," laughs Ms. Menezes. "They won't change them again.") But hyperinflation and a stagnant economy forced leaders of the neo-Marxist liberation movement, Frelimo, to shift their approach. Starting in the early 1990s, the ruling party cut subsidies, opened to outside investment, privatized firms nationalized after independence in 1975 and got a grip on borrowing and the budget. An independent central bank brought inflation into single digits. According to the World Economic Forum's competitiveness index, Mozambique has reformed more than any sub-Saharan African country.

The payoff is the highest average growth rate, at 8% over the last decade, among the continent's non-oil exporters. GDP per capita is a still tiny $320, but that's compared with $178 in 1992. Since 1997, poverty rates decreased more in rural areas (from 71% to 55%) than in urban (62% to 52%), according to the World Bank. Child mortality has declined to 152 per 1,000 live births from 235. And primary-school enrollment has risen to 71% from 43%. Once a leading recipient of food aid, Mozambique now exports maize, with 5.6% average yearly growth in farming in the last 15 years. Banks, telecom and tourist firms, many from neighboring South Africa, have come in.

"[Economic and political] stability has been the key factor" to reviving the country, says Thiago Fonseca, who runs the Golo advertising agency here. His challenges: A lack of skilled workers and HIV/AIDS, which has claimed the lives of a couple of his employees. The nation's HIV prevalence rate is 16%, which will reduce life expectancy to age 36 by 2010, from 40 today.

Appreciating the change for the better takes some imagination. Like many of its neighbors, Mozambique went from colonialism -- under Portugal, still a developing country itself -- to a Cold War-proxy conflict that claimed a million lives (out of 20 million) and left a generation uneducated. Few of the paved roads have been worked on since the Portuguese left 32 years ago. "A lot of [the growth] is catch-up after war," says the World Bank's man in Maputo, Michael Baxter.

But neighbors in similar straits haven't put in place Mozambique's fixes. Inflation in Zimbabwe is 1,700%; nearby Malawi and Zambia, their economies distorted by subsidies on commodities, are growing haphazardly. "You need political will" to get it right, says Mr. Baxter. "Starting from a low base" or "being a former colony" -- oft-heard excuses for Africa -- has little impact on economic performance. What matters, as regional dynamo Botswana also shows, is governance.

A "donor darling," Mozambique doesn't obviously squander the more than $1 billion a year in Western aid, which accounts for half the budget. Experience here suggests that a commitment to economic opening ought to be the litmus test for aid recipients.

No country in this part of the world is assured of staying on track. Erratic "Uncle Bob," as his deferential neighbors call Zimbabwe's 83-year-old Robert Mugabe, is a useful reminder that local politicians pose the gravest threat to Africa's future. In each of the three general elections since the 1990 constitution, Frelimo has won by wider margins amid accusations of fraud. Absent any peaceful turnover of power in Mozambique, Frelimo and the state are increasingly becoming one; nearly all jobs are reserved for party members.

What if it lost elections? "We'd have a serious revolution," says Fernando Lima, publisher of Mediacoop, the largest independent press group. While the government is publicly committed to free speech and democracy -- to keep donors happy, at least -- Mozambique's civil society is hampered by state domination of media, low penetration of radio and television, and weak institutions such as the courts. "Every country in Africa says it's a multi-party democracy," says Leon Louw, director of the Law Review Project in Johannesburg. "It doesn't mean it's so; it only means it's better than it could be."

In the meantime, having done the so-called first generation of market reforms, the government is dragging its feet on legalizing land ownership, fighting corruption and loosening a restrictive labor code to bring in more investment. "Now they're stuck," says Mr. Lima. "There is a strong socialist background here. If we want to perform, we need to be different."

The road ahead for a place like Mozambique is staggeringly long. About 93% of its people lack access to electricity. Half can't read; half are undernourished. But Africa needs to start somewhere, and Mozambique shows how

Leslie Carbone: Peace Hypocrites Burn American Soldier in Effigy

Leslie Carbone: Peace Hypocrites Burn American Soldier in Effigy

Townhall.com::Democrats fear Fred Thompson...and should::By Mark M. Alexander

Beyond the field of announced GOP candidates with questionable conservative pedigrees, there is a potential suitor on the horizon who could close the wide breach between Republicans and conservatives. Fred Thompson, the former Republican Senator from Tennessee, is perhaps America's brightest and most capable prospect for President in 2008.

Townhall.com::Democrats fear Fred Thompson...and should::By Mark M. Alexander

Townhall.com::The Essence of Liberalism: Embracing Life's Losers::By Michael Medved

Townhall.com::The Essence of Liberalism: Embracing Life's Losers::By Michael Medved: "What constitutes the essence of modern liberalism?
Conservatives will return to decisive victories only if we come to terms with liberalism’s visceral appeal. The best way to overcome our ideological adversaries is to understand their approach to major issues."

Townhall.com::Why Fred Thompson Should Run::By Mona Charen

Townhall.com::Why Fred Thompson Should Run::By Mona Charen

Slide Show!

Voicemail Comedy from My Brother Jon (note-don't tell him he is on the Internet or he won't leave me any more funny voice mails)

Gabcast! TheoCon #8

Marketplace: EU like it's 1985

Schadenfreud!

A report out today from a European commerce association says stacked against a number of yardsticks, the E.U. economy is decades behind the U.S.

Marketplace: EU like it's 1985

Man these tires are HUUUGGGGGGEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Characters, Not Effects, Steal the Show in “Terabithia”

Characters, Not Effects, Steal the Show in “Terabithia”

Townhall.com::Pastor-Populist Mike Huckabee::By Marvin Olasky

Is Huckaby someone red letter Christians could get behind? He is socially conservative but has also done a lot for the poor.

Townhall.com::Pastor-Populist Mike Huckabee::By Marvin Olasky

Curse of the Christian-Bashers

Curse of the Christian-Bashers
By MARY EBERSTADT
February 16, 2007; Page W13-WSJ

Heavens, it's getting crowded in the pews these days -- at least with Democratic presidential candidates. Here is Sen. Barack Obama in California's Saddleback pulpit at the invitation of mega-selling pastor Rick Warren. There is Sen. Hillary Clinton with downcast eyes in Newsweek, praying before the cameras in New York's Riverside Church. And there preaches John Edwards, also in Riverside Church, weaving his personal faith into everything from AIDS to the minimum wage. Clearly the push is on to show that, for now anyway, the Democratic hopefuls are just plain folks in the religion department.

All the more reason to plumb the curious episode of Amanda Marcotte, that blogger for the Edwards campaign who resigned on Monday and was followed out the door Tuesday by another technical consultant, Melissa McEwan. Both quit thanks to circulation by conservatives of some of these former staffers' Internet musings. That is to say, in Ms. Marcotte's case especially: scatological Catholic-baiting rants about "theocracy" marked by leering references to the pope and liberal use of the F-word.

So far, so unremarkable. Just being a bilious feminist with a potty mouth doesn't much distinguish one in the blogosphere these days. What does matter is something else: We have here a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern moment, in which the fate of bit players becomes emblematic of a larger drama.

For what the blogger tempest really illuminates is a fact that could come to haunt the Democrats as they vie for national office: namely, that their past few wilderness years have also been boom years for the church-loathing liberal/left punditry. As a result, anti-Christian invective now graces (or disgraces) many of the books, magazines, Web sites and blogs to which liberals, including the Democratic elite, habitually look for ideas. One motto of this cottage industry is that the most serious threat to the American republic can be found in, no, not those religious fundamentalists, the ones that first leap to mind after 9/11; but, incredibly, certain other believers -- our nation's Christians.

The cover of Damon Linker's 2006 "Theocons: Secular America Under Siege," for example, declares: "For the past three decades, a few determined men have worked to inject their radical religious ideas into the nation's politics. This is the story of how they succeeded." Again, he is not talking about al Qaeda. Other books in a similar vein include Michelle Goldberg's "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," praised on its cover by Katha Pollitt for exposing "the ongoing takeover of our country by right-wing Christians." There is Kevin Phillips's "American Theocracy," which identifies in its subtitle "radical [CHRISTIAN\]religion" as a "peril" facing the nation. Enter also Randall Balmer's "Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament," which opens with the unfortunate metaphorical notion that evangelical faith has been "hijacked by radical zealots" and closes with a vow about "taking America back."

To repeat, this apocalyptic rhetoric is not being heaped on, say, bomb-toting Islamists but on your church-going neighbors next door. Some authors even argue that those neighbors and Islamic "fundamentalists" are joined at the hip. Mel White's "Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right" is one; he warns that Christians want to "forcibly" take back the country.

Not to be outdone is the recent tome "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America," by New York Times reporter Chris Hedges. It delivers more of the same, studded with that tonier F-word, "fascism." Yet despite the book's conflation of prayer groups and jackboots, Publisher's Weekly awarded "American Fascists" a starred review and praised its attentiveness to a supposedly "serious and growing threat to the very concept and practice of an open society."

Of course, whatever has been hurled against Christians in books and magazines has been positively restrained by the standards of the blogosphere. Like Ms. Marcotte's more embellished arias, a lot of blog commentary cannot be printed in a family newspaper.

Sophisticates and secularists have always titillated themselves by despising the Bible Belt. But professional Christian-bashers have never been as "embedded" in the liberal mainstream as they are today. And therein lies a problem for Democrats. More Amanda Marcottes are not what the party needs as it scrambles to re-establish its religious bona fides with wary red-staters. No wonder so many Democratic candidates are in church. Now they really have something to pray about.

Curse of the Christian-Bashers

Curse of the Christian-Bashers
By MARY EBERSTADT
February 16, 2007; Page W13-WSJ

Heavens, it's getting crowded in the pews these days -- at least with Democratic presidential candidates. Here is Sen. Barack Obama in California's Saddleback pulpit at the invitation of mega-selling pastor Rick Warren. There is Sen. Hillary Clinton with downcast eyes in Newsweek, praying before the cameras in New York's Riverside Church. And there preaches John Edwards, also in Riverside Church, weaving his personal faith into everything from AIDS to the minimum wage. Clearly the push is on to show that, for now anyway, the Democratic hopefuls are just plain folks in the religion department.

All the more reason to plumb the curious episode of Amanda Marcotte, that blogger for the Edwards campaign who resigned on Monday and was followed out the door Tuesday by another technical consultant, Melissa McEwan. Both quit thanks to circulation by conservatives of some of these former staffers' Internet musings. That is to say, in Ms. Marcotte's case especially: scatological Catholic-baiting rants about "theocracy" marked by leering references to the pope and liberal use of the F-word.

So far, so unremarkable. Just being a bilious feminist with a potty mouth doesn't much distinguish one in the blogosphere these days. What does matter is something else: We have here a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern moment, in which the fate of bit players becomes emblematic of a larger drama.

For what the blogger tempest really illuminates is a fact that could come to haunt the Democrats as they vie for national office: namely, that their past few wilderness years have also been boom years for the church-loathing liberal/left punditry. As a result, anti-Christian invective now graces (or disgraces) many of the books, magazines, Web sites and blogs to which liberals, including the Democratic elite, habitually look for ideas. One motto of this cottage industry is that the most serious threat to the American republic can be found in, no, not those religious fundamentalists, the ones that first leap to mind after 9/11; but, incredibly, certain other believers -- our nation's Christians.

The cover of Damon Linker's 2006 "Theocons: Secular America Under Siege," for example, declares: "For the past three decades, a few determined men have worked to inject their radical religious ideas into the nation's politics. This is the story of how they succeeded." Again, he is not talking about al Qaeda. Other books in a similar vein include Michelle Goldberg's "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," praised on its cover by Katha Pollitt for exposing "the ongoing takeover of our country by right-wing Christians." There is Kevin Phillips's "American Theocracy," which identifies in its subtitle "radical [CHRISTIAN\]religion" as a "peril" facing the nation. Enter also Randall Balmer's "Thy Kingdom Come: An Evangelical's Lament," which opens with the unfortunate metaphorical notion that evangelical faith has been "hijacked by radical zealots" and closes with a vow about "taking America back."

To repeat, this apocalyptic rhetoric is not being heaped on, say, bomb-toting Islamists but on your church-going neighbors next door. Some authors even argue that those neighbors and Islamic "fundamentalists" are joined at the hip. Mel White's "Religion Gone Bad: The Hidden Dangers of the Christian Right" is one; he warns that Christians want to "forcibly" take back the country.

Not to be outdone is the recent tome "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America," by New York Times reporter Chris Hedges. It delivers more of the same, studded with that tonier F-word, "fascism." Yet despite the book's conflation of prayer groups and jackboots, Publisher's Weekly awarded "American Fascists" a starred review and praised its attentiveness to a supposedly "serious and growing threat to the very concept and practice of an open society."

Of course, whatever has been hurled against Christians in books and magazines has been positively restrained by the standards of the blogosphere. Like Ms. Marcotte's more embellished arias, a lot of blog commentary cannot be printed in a family newspaper.

Sophisticates and secularists have always titillated themselves by despising the Bible Belt. But professional Christian-bashers have never been as "embedded" in the liberal mainstream as they are today. And therein lies a problem for Democrats. More Amanda Marcottes are not what the party needs as it scrambles to re-establish its religious bona fides with wary red-staters. No wonder so many Democratic candidates are in church. Now they really have something to pray about.

Joel Surnow 1/2 Hour News Hour Promo

Debate Between Chrisitan Left (Tony Campolo) and Right (Richard Land)

Laura Ingraham: Free Stuff

Townhall.com::Liberalism is really about money and power::By David Strom

Townhall.com::Liberalism is really about money and power::By David Strom

Beer and the Bible

In a back room at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, about 50 people gathered on a recent Wednesday night to talk rock 'n' roll.

Why are Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain considered by some to be messiahs? When did rock music lose its edge and become another product manufactured and marketed by huge conglomerates such as Viacom?

It was a conversation perfectly suited to the setting. Beer-stained wooden tables and the smell of hops complemented a free-flowing, spirited debate among hip young people in scruffy beards and T-shirts.

STLtoday - News - Nation

You come up with the Caption!

Sometimes a Picture really is a Thousand Words

YouTube - Pop Up Video: Huckabee Rocks!

We've had a sax player...now we need a rocker!

YouTube - Pop Up Video: Huckabee Rocks!

Brownback and Romney

I can't say I have fully examined Mitt Romney as a presidential prospect, but one disappointment I have is that he has not been consistently pro-life and used to be in favor of homosexual rights. He started off not too long ago (1994 I think?) ardently pro-choice and pro-homosexual rights lobby. That does not disqualify him in my eyes if he has strong convictions now, I just want to be sure he is not simply an opportunist.

He is charismatic, a successful businessman and can capitalize on his Massachusetts health care plan if it pans out.


I am more excited about Sam Brownback and would like to know more about him.

Speaking UP for Speaking Out

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

The U.S. Senate is about to vote on legislation aimed at curbing lobbying corruption. There is a section of the bill which unfairly targets grassroots lobbying organizations and would penalize them for alerting Americans about important issues and attempting to influence government policy.

If the bill passes, organizations like Focus on the Family Action, the American Family Association, FRC Action and American Values may be severely hampered from informing you in the future about significant legislation affecting the family. Representatives from each of these ministries join Dr. Dobson to tell you what you can do to prevent this ill-advised Senate measure from passing.

Click on the headline above to hear the broadcast.

Reason number 237 I could never be a Democrat: embryonic stem cell research.

Reason number 237 I could never be a Democrat: embryonic stem cell research.

Despite the fact that adult stem cells and more recently in the news, amniotic stem cells, show much more promise without the controversy, Democrats are set this week to propose more funding for embryonic stem cell research. President Bush has vowed to veto any such legislation. Amen.

Bush's Tax Legacy

This WSJ editorial is a great example for why conservative fiscal policies are good for the economy and hence good for the poor.

Bush's Tax Legacy
January 6, 2007; Page A6 WSJ

In his op-ed column on these pages this week, President Bush made some news by underscoring his opposition to raising taxes. We were certainly glad to hear it, and to publish it, because by our lights the tax cuts and economic growth that has followed are his most notable domestic achievements (give or take a Supreme Court Justice).

That growth was underscored again with yesterday's buoyant jobs and income report for December. Job growth exceeding expectations at 167,000 and the jobless rate held at a very low 4.5%, despite a slowdown in manufacturing and construction. Since the Bush tax cuts on dividends and capital gains passed in mid-2003, the economy has created 7.2 million new jobs according to the survey of business establishments, and an additional 1.2 million in the more variable household survey.

Can Bush's Tax Cuts Survive?1As for the inevitable political complaints that these new jobs are all lousy, average hourly non-supervisory wages have now climbed 4.2% over the past 12 months, or twice the official rate of inflation. With flat or falling energy prices, and a tight labor market, real wages are also starting to show impressive gains.

Meanwhile, tax revenues continue to roll into the Treasury and state coffers. Federal receipts rose by 14.6% in fiscal 2005, another 11.8% in 2006, and kept rising by 9% in this year's first two months despite slower GDP growth. The budget deficit, in turn, has fallen by $165 billion in two years, and including state surpluses is now down to about 1% of GDP, which as an economic matter is negligible. Tax revenues as a share of the economy are also back above 18.5%, which is their modern historical norm.

This record is so impressive that liberal critics have been forced to ignore it and focus on other alleged outrages, such as "inequality," or CEO pay, or some vague prediction of future doom. And, yes, the future is unpredictable. But in the field of economics there are few more definitive tests than the results from the tax cuts of 2003. Critics predicted disaster, supporters the opposite, and the supporters can point to more than three years of prosperity as vindication -- despite $70 oil and $3 gasoline, and lately despite the worst housing slowdown in 15 years.

However, those lower tax rates are set to expire at the end of 2010, and the Democrats who now control Congress want them repealed. The "pay-as-you-go" rules that the House just passed would make their extension all but impossible. What this means is that if Congress merely fails to act, the tax cuts expire and the economy will be hit with one of the largest tax increases in history in 2010.

The dividend rate would snap back to 39.6% from 15%, the capital gains rate to 20% from 15%, and the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 35%. Marginal and average tax rates for the middle class would also increase, returning to the Clinton-era levies that had driven taxes as a share of GDP to a postwar high of 20.9%.

Now in the minority on Capitol Hill, Republicans can't do much about this. But it certainly poses a dilemma for Democrats -- all the more so because they must also cope with the rising burden of the Alternative Minimum Tax. The AMT -- created by Democrats in 1969 to capture a few millionaires -- will engulf some 23 million taxpayers this year without a change in law.

This week, the new Democratic Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Montana's Max Baucus, called the AMT a "monster in the tax code" and introduced a bill to repeal it. The only catch: Under Congress's wacky "static revenue" analysis of calculating the impact of tax cuts, AMT repeal would "cost" the Treasury as much as $1.2 trillion over 10 years. Maybe they can find that much in Congressman William Jefferson's freezer.

Our guess is that Democrats will try to finesse all this in the near term. With President Bush now saying he'll oppose a tax increase, they'll be wary of voting for one that would be vetoed and provide Republicans with an issue in 2008. So perhaps they'll try a one- or two-year AMT fix to get them past 2008, while waiting for their Presidential nominee to advance a more detailed tax proposal. Most likely, that would involve a pledge to keep the lower Bush rates for the "middle class," while raising rates on "the rich."

Bill Clinton played that tune all the way to the Oval Office, only to raise taxes on everybody once he got there. It'll be fascinating to see if voters give his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the same leave if she's the Democratic nominee. In any event, what we seem headed for is a two-year national donnybrook over taxes and income that will be decided by the voters in November 2008

Well, we had a great time in Williamsburg over New Year's weekend. It wasn't too far away and was a nice change of pace for us to get away and have a great time as a family. Here are some pictures:

Noah in a HUGE magnolia tree:




Discovering the panorama feature on my phone:



Clowning around:


Jamestown:



Downtown Williamsburg:

Large giant dinosaur lines up children but surprisingly, does not devour them.