Shire Network News #166 has been released. The feature interview is with Bruce Bawer, the Oslo-based US author of "While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within" and Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom about his experiences as a gay man in what he thought [...]
If anti-abortion protesters threw stink bombs into abortion clinics, and threatened to demolish the building, what would happen to those protesters? Well, they’d probably get thrown in jail and decried in the media. (Perhaps get called a "Christianist" by Andrew Sullivan.)
But, change the cause, and those tactics become, as the [...]
Jump over to La Shawn Barber’s Corner and watch the latest in a long line of videos catching Planned Parenthood in the cover-up of statutory rape.
Again I ask, how long before these places get investigated on a nationwide level?
[...]Front-page Daily Kos writer SusanG is exuberant about the energy bill that recently passed in the House.
In an unprecedented move, the White House retracted yesterday the embargoed text for the president’s usual weekly address, which it generally sends to news outlets the evening before the official Saturday remarks are [...]
Remember when candidate Barak Obama said that he wouldn’t raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year? That promise may not last 6 months into President Obama’s tenure. George Stephanopoulos reports:
White House senior adviser David Axelrod said the president won’t rule out a health care reform bill [...]
This is a great article from the Washington Times regarding the persecution of Christian in communist Vietnam, and our government’s complicity in it.
[...]You can’t engage in diplomacy with an enemy would simply will not be negotiated with. Case in point:
The [Iranian] government appeared to fall back on a familiar playbook: trying to rouse Iranians through populist appeals against outside interference and dark accusations of foreign conspiracy. Mr. Rezai’s aides said the [...]
Don’t you just hate it when it’s the insurance company making your healthcare decisions rather than you or your doctor? Well, when it’s the government insuring you, this is what you can expect.
President Obama suggested at a town hall event Wednesday night that one way to shave medical costs [...]
…and using the United Nations as the club.
British homeschoolers may no longer be able to teach independently. Children’s Secretary of Britain accepted a report in full last week that could change the face of homeschooling in Britain indefinitely. In the report, the author, Graham Badman, Chair of the British [...]
Betsy Newmark has a great write up on the issue of Iran in the President’s press conference yesterday. Essentially the toughest two questions were dodged. When asked if accepting the legitimacy of the election would betray what the demonstrators are trying to achieve, Obama said:
Well, look, we didn’t have [...]
No. No, they don’t.
A new three-year study of the Top 25 movies released in 2006-2008 earning the most money overseas shows that international moviegoers prefer clean movies with strong or very strong Christian, moral and/or redemptive content and values.
This study is significant because it matches our annual study of [...]
Smoking dope causes cancer.
SAN FRANCISCO — Marijuana smoke has joined tobacco smoke and hundreds of other chemicals on a list of substances California regulators say cause cancer.
The ruling Friday by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment likely will force pot shops with 10 or more employees to post [...]
No, it’s not the title of a new soap opera. Just some thoughts on the inevitable change all parents go through.
I had a "first" for Father’s Day this year; the first time one of my kids called me for Father’s Day instead of being here for it. She’s working at [...]
Shire Network News #165 has been released. The feature interview is with Israeli historian Yaacov Lozowick, author of "Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel’s Wars" and a former peace activist who found himself voting for (gulp) Sharon. Click here for the show notes, links, and [...]
Imagine this statement by a some guy in DC bucking for a job in government:
I am a member of a private organization of male professionals from the profit, nonprofit and social sectors. The organization does not invidiously discriminate on the basis of sex. Women are involved in its activities — [...]
We got a tip at SCO about an article by Mike Rosen-Molina dealing with how churches can use and are using Social Media to get the Word out. While churches have had web sites for quite some time, the emergence of social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter change [...]
I haven’t posted as much recently. I thought summer would slow things down, but apparently not so much around our house. I’ve been collecting things to write on, but they’re starting to get stale, so before they’re completely irrelevant, here are a few quick hits to start the week.
Economy: Never [...]
Out of one side of his mouth:
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Reuters) - President Barack Obama sought on Tuesday to show he was serious about improving the U.S. budget picture as he called on Congress to pass new limits on tax cuts and spending programs to avoid adding to deficits.
Obama urged [...]
"Buyer’s remorse" is a phenomenon where, once a purchaser gets a product home and uses it, they decide it’s not living up to its potential, the advertising hype, or their expectations (realistic or otherwise). According to Rasmussen, looks like America is getting a case of "Voter’s remorse".
Voters now trust [...]
In a post from about a month ago, I noted that the Obama administration put out a prediction of what would happen if the stimulus bill was passed and if it wasn’t. They predicted a smaller bump in the unemployment rate if their stimulus plan passed. Spend the money, they [...]
Shire Network News #164 has been released. The feature interview is with Cliff May, head of the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, about his recent appearence on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, civility in political discourse, and what constitutes torture. Click here for the show [...]
…(and his post has the quotes to show that many Lefty bloggers do), then Collin Brendemuehl wants to know if the Left is going to blame itself for what one of its "peace activists" did; killing a military recruiter.
The question is simple: Where is the contrition? Where is [...]
Eric Scheie posting at "Classical Values" asks how do we have a legitimate conversation about socialism — do we have it, do we want it — without sounding like some conspiracy theorist.
Unfortunately (as I have pointed out in several posts), the "s" word is so fraught with [...]
From Larry Wright:
(Click for a larger image.) All this promise of rescuing GM and Chrysler, and yet, as of this morning, both are in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
"The General Motors board of directors authorized the filing of a Chapter 11 case with regret that this [...]
Late last week, the news was that a Bible study in San Diego county was trying to be shut down by county officials; holding a religious assembly without a permit.
Apparently after some notoriety, the county backed down.
Sweeping issues of religious freedom and governmental regulation are swirling around Pastor [...]
From Chuck Asay:
What’s that definition of “insanity”, again? Ah yes, doing the same thing over again and expecting different results.
[...]Should a court be where "policy is made"? I thought that’s what we had elected representatives for. But Obama’s pick for the highest court in the land, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, seem to think so. (Well, until she realizes she’s being recorded, and then she gives a wink and a [...]
Shire Network News #163 has been released. Instead of an interview this week, "Tom Paine" in Australia joins Meryl Yourish in Richmond Virginia, and "Brian of London" in Tel Aviv for a three-way discussion about life, politics, Jihadi’s attacking on every front while Obama sits back, peers hawkishly in the [...]
From Michael Ramirez:
(Click on the cartoon for a larger version.)
Until Hamas is willing to alter their charter, calling for the destruction of Israel, is there any reason to think they’re negotiating in good faith?
[...]Following similar action in the House, the Senate voted (rather overwhelmingly; 90-6) to reject the shutdown of the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The Left has made this a drumbeat for years, but now that they’re in a position to actually do something about it, they suddenly get all [...]
From Chuck Asay:
(Click on the cartoon for a larger version.)
He’s just going to introduce efficiencies into the system, that’s all. No, really.
[...]I’ve been light on the blogging this week (mostly copying and pasting) because my eldest is graduating from high school this evening. We’re turning a corner as a family; the first one to leave the nest on her way to college, and the changes in both her life and the [...]
Just ask California and New York. Attempts to balance the budget by taxing the rich even more has resulted in states in crisis. Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore, writing in the Wall St. Journal, have the details.
Here’s the problem for states that want to pry more money out of [...]
Hugo Chavez would be proud.
A report Friday said federal officials are pressuring Bank of America Corp. to revamp its board and bring in directors with more banking experience.
The story in The Wall Street Journal called the regulators’ move "unusual" as the government does not own a stake in [...]
For the first time since the Gallup organization has been polling this issue (1995), more Americans consider themselves pro-life than pro-choice, and the percentage of pro-life designations is the highest ever.
(Click on the picture for the source article.) Gallup calls this jump a "significant shift". [...]
President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.
“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We [...]
Let them brand themselves.
A member of the Republican National Committee told me Tuesday that when the RNC meets in an extraordinary special session next week, it will approve a resolution rebranding Democrats as the “Democrat Socialist Party.”
No, no, no, no, no. Let their actions speak for themselves, from [...]
That’s the introduction from a Bible Quiz master in our denomination when he or she is about to quote someone’s words and is asking who spoke those words. So here’s a similar question for you; who said these words? One hint is that it’s from a category of people, not [...]
Back in January, the Obama administration put out a prediction of what would happen if the stimulus bill was passed and if it wasn’t. It was called “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan”. In it, they predicted that, while unemployment figures would ultimately recover from [...]
First off, Robert Gates says that the extended hand of friendship is being rebuffed by the Iranians.
He said Tuesday that so far, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s response to the US outreach has been "not very encouraging."
"We’re not willing to pull the hand back yet because we think there’s [...]
For a very modest definition of the word "trim". This administration has said it would be more fiscally responsible than the last, and then proceeded to put us into debt in a way never before seen. Well then, it made a promise about cutting the budget. So how’s that [...]
From CongressDaily:
House Appropriations Chairman David Obey dealt a blow to President Obama Monday by rejecting his request for funding in the FY09 supplemental spending bill to shut down the military’s Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center by early next year.
The White House requested $80 million in the FY09 war supplemental to [...]
I haven’t done this in a while, so I have some rather old examples in addition to the rather recent ones.
Signing statements: Once the bane of the liberal blogosphere, and criticized by Obama himself, they seem to be coming back into vogue. Perhaps not as much as under [...]
Shire Network News #162 has been released. The feature interview is with Reut Cohen, host of Pajamas TV’s Shairia and Jihad Review show. Click here for the show notes, links, and ways to listen to the show; directly from the web site, by downloading the mp3 file, or by [...]
Near the beginning of this Wall St. Journal opinion piece, noting how car companies have been "bailed out" for decades, is this breakdown of who will own General Motors once the new restructuring is in place.
The United Auto Workers (UAW) would own 39% of GM. The federal government would [...]
Health care and any overhauling thereof should not be done lightly. It should not be rushed through Congress, like, say, the TARP bill was. This is a big deal.
Well, apparently Obama thinks it’s too big to fail.
President Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress are poised to trample Republican [...]
I brought this thought up in a comment on Mark’s post on torture; it’s fine to be against torture, but what do you consider torture? John McCain, having endured the Hanoi Hilton, might have one definition. Abu Zubaydah’s definition is to be in a cell with a stinging [...]
Take two similar stories and try to figure out how the media will cover each. With a hat tip to Newsbusters, here are the two stories:
1. A former Catholic priest comes forward Monday (4/20/09) to claim that another priest abused him as a teenager nearly 30 years ago. (The [...]
Kevin Roose, student at the ivy league and liberal-leaning Brown University in Providence, RI, decided to go "undercover" at a religious conservative school and write about his observations. And what more religiously conservative than Liberty University, founded by none other than Jerry Falwell.
To Roose’s credit, it was not his [...]
