An overlooked classic
I picked up the entire run of "Soap" on DVD at BJ's last week for only $37.99. I had forgotten how insanely funny this show was. (It took a hit, though, when Benson left.)
Witness below:
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June 30, 2008
June 28, 2008
Americans Donated Over $300 Billion in 2007
Americans donated $306 billion to charities in 2007, as U.S. philanthropic giving rose to a record level despite a downturn in the national economy, a survey being released today has found.
Charitable giving increased 1 percent last year, when inflation is taken into account, and surpassed $300 billion for the first time, according to the Giving USA survey.
So despite a slow economy, Americans gave more money than ever before. And, while it does include religious charitable donations, it doesn't include money liberals in support of their Messiah.
Book Review: Life of Christ by Fulton Sheen
I started this book back in December, figuring I'd make it my Advent reading, but it's quite a read and I hardly got any reading done with the business of December. So, I made it my reading for Eucharistic Adoration and read it during my time in the presence of the Lord. It's about 450 pages, with small print (at least the edition I have is), so it takes a while. I finally finished it up just a few minutes ago.
It's a very profound book, raising many points about the life of Christ I hadn't considered. it shows that despite his success on TV, Bishop Sheen wasn't just telegenic and able to speak well: he was also a scholar. While reading it today, it hit me that it says something unique about Jesus that someone could write a book with over 50 pages about what He did after He died. Sheen concludes with a chapter about the Church as the Body of Christ, continuing His mission today.
There's too much in this book, and I read some parts of it too long ago to write a thorough review, so I'll just leave it at this: read this book, and you'll learn a great deal about Jesus, notice a number of details you hadn't noticed in the Biblical accounts and make connections you hadn't either. You'll learn a lot about Jesus and be given a lot to reflect on. It's great spiritual reading in the best sense of that phrase.
Book Review: The Forgotten Man: A New History of The Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
Earlier this week, I finished Amity Shlaes' The Forgotten Man, a re-examination of the Great Depression that points out the errors in the commonly believed myth of that period in our nation's history.
One example is the belief that Herbert Hoover was a straight laissez-faire President who did nothing to attempt to revive the economy. In fact, Hoover was an activist as President, and even before during his tenure as Secretary of Commerce. The primary difference between Hoover and FDR was that Hoover restricted his activity to the Constitutionally permitted powers of the federal government; FDR showed no such respect for the will of law.
Similarly, FDR and his Brain Trust are commonly believed to have selfessly focused solely on reviving America's economy. But like another President who promised to focus like a laser beam on the economy, the objectives spread far and wide from the promised goal. In fact, FDR's advisors were open admirers of Communist Russia who were seeking to remake America in an image they chose. The Great Depression was actually viewed as a great opportunity to remake America, rather than something that needed to be overcome.
It's also claimed that FDR's policies brought us out the Depression. Shlaes shows that the US went into a double-dip Depression, with the economy getting worse just when the rest of the world was growing again. Others acknowledge that fact, and claim that it was World War II spending that brought us out of the economic funk. To the extent that World War II helped us, it was that focusing on the international situation took FDR's focus away from the domestic realm, allowing the economy to grow without further fetters being placed on it.
It's also claimed that FDR was a decisive leader who charted a bold course. In reality, he frustrated his advisers with his indecisiveness. On at least one occasion, he even sent representatives to an international economic conference with differing instructions, resulting in parts of the American delegation negotiating against each other, angering the British Prime Minister. On another occasion, after a conference that achieved the goals he had set for it, he repudiated it, rejecting the agreement reached.
This book was excellent in dispelling a number of myths about the Depression and careful readers will note a number of policy prescriptions for the future that will allow us to avoid similar situations in the future.
A few good points
"That anyone could doubt the right of the holy Virgin to be called the Mother of God fills me with astonishment. Surely she must be the Mother of God if our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and she gave birth to him! Our Lord's disciple may not have used those exact words, but they delivered to us the belief those words enshrine, and this has also been taught us by the holy fathers."--Saint Cyril of Alexandria, 370-444
"The intelligentsia always know enough about religion to distort it..."-Bishop Fulton Sheen, 1895-1979 "Life of Christ
" page 390
I couldn't help but think of Obama's claiming the Sermon on the Mount requires Christians to support same-sex marriage when reading that second quote.
Year of Saint Paul
This evening, the Church begins a year dedicated to remembering Saint Paul. It's believed he was born 2000 years ago in 8 A.D., so the Church is beginning its Jubilee Year on the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul tonight as is asking Catholics (and all Christians) to become more familiar with his writings, travels and sacrifices in spreading the message of Christ and learning to follow in his footsteps as a missionary, even if we don't travel the world as he did.
St Paul, the Apostle, pray for us.
June 27, 2008
I like the environment...
it's just environmentalists I can't stand.
Seriously, if so many of them weren't so smug and arrogant, I think we'd have done a lot more to save the environment than we have.
June 26, 2008
Mendel called model for balancing science, religion
Mendel called model for balancing science, religion
As a 19th-century Augustinian friar, Gregor Mendel was expected to pursue his groundbreaking genetics research with the same passion he reserved for his religious studies.
Combining those disciplines isn't popular today. Villanova University, an Augustinian Roman Catholic college, is trying to change that by highlighting Mendel's work.The school will declare the "Year of Mendel" starting this fall and is sponsoring an exhibit on his work at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The effort complements an award Villanova has given since 1928, the Mendel Medal, to scientists who balance religious conviction and scientific progress.
The Catholic Church may be responsible for much of the science we have today. Off the top of my head, she's long sponsored research into: astronomy. The Church's support for astronomical research goes back centuries, Gallileo was working for the Pope, for example. Even today, the Vatican sponsors "The Pope Scope," which at one point was the second largest telescope in the world, if it's not still. The Big Bang Theory was developed by a Catholic priest in the 1920s and was rejected by secularist scientists until the 1960s. Additionally, geology was so dominated by Catholic priests that it was referred to as the Jesuit science. There's many more examples, but I'm very tired today. And, as we see above, the Father of Genetics was a Catholic priest.
This I didn't know:
Catholics are more likely than other Americans to believe in evolution. A survey conducted last year by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found 58 percent of Catholics believed in evolution compared with 48 percent for the nation as a whole.
The Church has long cast a favorable look upon evolution. It's the more fundamentalist Churches that tend to reject it. The Church and Evolutionism come into conflict only when Evolutionists try to portray evolution as a disproof of the existence of God or try to cast a solely material origin on human life and consciousness.
Influential Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn of Vienna, who has been speaking about evolution and faith, has affirmed that the Catholic Church rejects creationism. In a 2007 speech in New York, he said that "the first page of the Bible is not a cosmological treatise about the coming to be of the world in six days." He also said that "the Catholic faith can accept" the possibility that God uses evolution as a tool. But he said science alone cannot explain the origins of the universe.
In the strictest sense, I don't think the Church completely denounces creationism and allows her members to believe in it, but encourages them not to. (But, hey, I could be wrong.)
This sort of award, though, is beneficial to show people that science and religion need not be at odds if they both keep their eyes on their true: a search for the truth. Religion cannot speak to scientific truth, and the reverse is true as well. If both sides stick to their areas of expertise, this false and harmful war between science and religion can come to an end, and all Truth can be more fully accepted.
Sequels that didn't match the original
The Catholic Cavemen propose a list of sequels that fail to live up to the example set by the original:
Frank Sinatra, Jr.Desi Arnaz, Jr.
Ronald Reagan, Jr.
The New Coke
The New Europe
New Jersey [my favorite on the list]
I don't agree with the full list, especially the commenter who suggested Star Trek II! (There's one in every crowd, I guess.) But I can tell you that Paul Joseph Smith, Jr is far superior to the original.
(Yes, my dad reads this blog.)
McCain's Tax Policy Economically Sound
McCain Builds Levees for Taxes
Suggesting that McCain = Disaster is weird. The fiscal program of the presumptive Republican nominee for president is hardly disastrous. Or, to put it all in diluvial terms, Mr. McCain's levies are like levees. They may look expensive on paper. But they'll provide a valuable infrastructure that will shore up the American house in ways that will prove more than worth it later.
Amity Shlaes, who wrote the excellent book The Forgotten Man, which I just finished last night, argues that while McCain's tax policies may look expensive (from the government's point of view, anyway), they will more than pay for themselves and strengthen our nation.
Kelo v. New London house torn down for nothing
Remember that landmark Supreme Court ruling known as the Kelo decision? The court decided that eminent domain allowed the city of New London, Connecticut, to seize a private owner's land for economic redevelopment by another private owner. The ruling was very unpopular and forced Susette Kelo to sell her home, which she never wanted to leave.Now, three years later, Kelo's house has been torn down and the lot where it once stood is vacant. In fact, Real Clear Markets reports that there is no new construction in the area because the city-sponsored developer has been unable to secure financing — because interest is minimal.
Kicking someone out of their house because their taxes aren't high enough is shameful. Kicking them out their house and not even finding someone to build on it? That's pathetic. New London should be forced to rebuild Kelo's house and give it to him for free.
Hat Tip: Club For Growth
Obamacons?
What is an "Obamacon?" The phrase surfaced in January to describe British Conservatives entranced by Barack Obama. On March 13, the American Spectator broadened the term to cover all "conservative supporters" of the Democratic presidential candidate. Their ranks, though growing, feature few famous people. But looming on the horizon are two big potential Obamacons: Colin Powell and Chuck Hagel.
Novak's using the term Obamacons, but I'm not sure it applies. Powell has never been a conservative; he's a Republican but not a conservative. Hagel can be called a conservative. (Lifetime ACU rating: 84.67%) A better term might be "Obamacans" or the unwieldy "Obamalicans".
That danger was highlighted in a June New Republic article on "the rise of the Obamacons" by supply-side economist and author Bruce Bartlett, a middle-level official in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations. He expressed "disgust with a Republican Party that still does not see how badly George W. Bush has misgoverned this country" -- echoing his scathing 2006 book, "Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy." While Bartlett says, "I'm not ready to join the other side," his anti-Bush furor characterizes the Obamacons.
I think we see it, but our personal liking of Bush, plus the need to support any President in war time, keeps a lot of our criticism muted. McCain's not a savior, he's not terribly conservative (lower lifetime ACU rating than Hagel), but he'll prosecute the war on terror, rather than negotiate with those who wish to kill us. ("Instead of killing us, what if you just chopped off our arms?") Unlike McCain, Obama seems to think the hippies and flower children had a point.
McCain's not perfect and doesn't deserve conservative support, but to a greater extent Obama doesn't deserve to be President, so conservatives should lean McCain, while reserving the right to abandon him if he abandons us.
Quote of the Day
"But as the plan of the convention aims only at a partial union or consolidation, the State governments would clearly retain all the rights of sovereignty which they before had, and which were not, by that act, EXCLUSIVELY delegated to the United States."
-- Alexander Hamilton (Federalist No. 32, 3 January 1788)
Reference: The Federalist
June 25, 2008
Sadly, this is true...
Let me put this bluntly — every time the Supreme Court meets in secret conference, it sits as a constitutional convention, rewriting the Constitution at will. -- Mark Levin
Quote-a-palooza
"It is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth- and listen to the song of that syren, till she transforms us into beasts." - Patrick Henry
"When the terrorists attack again- as Homeland Security has repeatedly warned us they will- how many survivors will be consoled because the Supreme Court and the State Department looked out for the 'rights' of terrorists before the rights of their dead loved ones?" - Cal Thomas
"Obama would bring us back to September 10th America. And September 10th is sure to be followed by September 11th." - Andrew McCarthy
"[T]he Democrat Party right now, in this election cycle, wants you hurting. They want gasoline prices to continue to rise. They want the price of food to continue to rise. They want you mad as hell at the Republicans for it. They want you to accept government sponsored changes to so-called fix all this, as articulated by [Barack] Obama." - Rush Limbaugh
"The day after Al Gore endorsed Barack Obama in Detroit, MSNBC kept repeating the allegedly big news with the on-air question 'Will Gore Help or Hurt Obama?' Left out of that question: Who cares? Does Gore's endorsement matter at all?... He doesn't bring a single vote Obama doesn't already have." - Brent Bozell
"The most fundamental fact about oil worldwide is that there is lots of it. Though frequently overlooked, the ability to refine crude oil plays an essential role in the supply and demand equation." - Alan Caruba
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid huffs that global warming is 'the most critical issue of our time.' Really? More critical than energy prices? Than health care? Than wages? Than terrorism? Than nuclear proliferation? Keep huffing, Mr. Reid- that deflating bubble needs all the air it can get." - Rich Lowry
"The United States leads the world in too many areas for us to start imitating those who are trailing behind." - Thomas Sowell
"Every dogma has its day, and so it is with the posturing that blames the run-up in oil prices on 'speculators.' The new political consensus is that further 'common-sense regulation' of the energy futures market is necessary. Let's grant that the sentiment is common, but the sense- like the evidence- is nonexistent. On Sunday, Barack Obama rolled out a proposal that will supposedly thwart market manipulation by 'a few energy lobbyists and speculators.' John McCain chimed in that Mr. Obama was merely following his lead; last week, the Republican denounced 'some people on Wall Street' for 'gaming the system.' If there's a Congressman who isn't calling for his own crackdown, he's gone into witness protection... The futures market may be a convenient scapegoat, but it's simply a price discovery mechanism. Major energy consumers- refiners, airlines- buy and sell these contracts to lock in goods at a future price, as a hedge against volatility. Essentially, they're guesses about coming oil supply and demand, as well as the rate of inflation. The political theory is that such futures trading is creating a bubble in the spot market (i.e., oil purchased for immediate delivery) beyond oil fundamentals. Thus, $4 gas. But there's no inherent reason to 'bet' that commodities will go up rather than down. Bet wrong... and you lose. If a company purchases the future right to buy oil at $140 a barrel and it instead sells for $130, the option is worthless. Besides, somebody has to take the other side of any futures contract: Some are trying to predict where the price will go in the future, while the other side is attempting to sell its future price risk. But no one knows how things will end up. Mr. McCain calls such exchanges 'reckless wagering.' But speculators- normally known as 'traders' - are really managing the exposure risks of American businesses to higher oil prices. Traders not affiliated with major producers or consumers provide liquidity to the market. Without the second group, futures markets would be determined exclusively by commercial participants. Another word for this is a cartel." - The Wall Street Journal
"Barack Obama, the Different Kind of Presidential Candidate, has begun his metamorphosis into the same old kind of presidential candidate by backing away from his earlier promise to accept public financing. Naturally, he claims it wasn't a promise at all but just a possibility, depending on whether John McCain would agree to accept public financing, too, which Sen. McCain did, and on various other escape clauses. We all know the drill by now: When caught in an obvious contradiction, obfuscate." - Paul Greenberg
"Barack Obama's campaign reported it may raise a hundred million dollars in the month of June alone. It's the best month in political fundraising history. He's lucky the Senate killed that windfall profits tax before he had to pay it himself." - Argus Hamilton
"I, for one, am getting sick and tired of being played by the Obama crowd. Michelle didn't mean she'd never been proud of America, Barack didn't mean Iran was a small country we had no reason to fear, and Father Pfleger didn't mean a word of his racist screed. Right... and a bear doesn't make do-do in the woods." - Burt Prelutsky
"[O]nly a true Orwellain could actually play the race card in order to complain that someone else might play it." - Arnold Ahlert
Jay Leno: President Bush blasted Congress for not allowing oil exploration in the Alaskan Wildlife Reserve. Democrats said it wouldn't do any good, because it wouldn't produce oil for 10 years. You know, the same thing they said 10 years ago. ... Hillary Clinton is taking a month off from her job as senator to rest up from her campaign. How does that work? Think about this. You've been neglecting your job, trying to get a better job. You don't get that job. So, you take a month off from the job you were trying to get out of, and go on vacation. Huh? Imagine if you tried that with your boss. "Hey, boss, listen. Boss, I'll tell you, I've been looking for another job. I am exhausted! I want to take a month off. Here's where you can send my check." Let me know how that works out for you. ... Barack Obama announced this week he'll visit Iraq and Afghanistan before the election in November. He said he wants to see an area that's been overrun by violent extremists. So, sounds like he already misses his old church.
"Don't Make Me Angry... You Wouldn't Like Me When I'm Angry"
What happens to me when the Phillies lose six in a row:
"Phanatic SMASH!"
Switchpitcher vs. Switchbatter
No, not an alternative lifestyle dream date.
If you missed it, last Thursday Yankee prospect Pat Venditte pitched a scoreless ninth to finish off a 7-2 Staten Island win over cross-borough rival Brooklyn Cyclones. But the big story in this rather lopsided loss was the last at-bat, which was nothing more than a four-pitch strikeout, with the last strike coming on a curveball a good half-foot outside of the strike zone.
Sounds like a pretty boring AB in a pretty boring game, but it was a breathtaking piece of baseball history, the like of which may not have been seen since 1888 and the glory days of "Ice Box" Chamberlain.The final batter switch-hitter Ralph Henriquez came up to bat with two out and one on in the ninth, was batting lefty in the on deck circle, but came up to the plate batting righty. The ambidextrous Venditte—oh, did I mention that?—switched his Greg Harris-esque six-fingered glove to his left hand and prepared to throw right-handed. Henriquez switched to the left side of the plate. Venditte switched his glove to his right hand. Henriquez switched. So did Venditte. And so on, and so on.
Read the whole article to learn about the new rule passed by the league to handle the situation, and that rule isn't necessary.
June 24, 2008
Why Trains Don't Work in America
I can imagine taking the train to New York on vacation, because I am a train nut and the trip would be fun in itself. But let’s think about this as a business trip: taking the train would not only cost about 1.5 times as much — or four times as much with a compartment, and I’m just sure I’d be all set to go right to work in New York after two full days in a coach seat — but it consumes four working days in travel time. I can manage a one-day business trip by plane, but a one-day trip to New York by train is a five-day trip. Subsidies won’t help: counting in the lost time, Amtrak would have to pay me $4,000 to make up for the time difference. The travel time difference is so large that Amtrak couldn’t compete if train tickets were free.
I've had the same experience. I love trains and a couple years ago I was planning on taking the train to Boston for a weekend, but Amtrak was more expensive than the train and would take three to four times as long. I have to go to Cleveland for a wedding right after Christmas this year and the train ride is three to four times as long as a plane flight and twice as long as driving would be. (Plus, we'd need to rent a car while in Cleveland to get around.)
When in Europe two years ago, I took the train between cities and loved it but trains just aren't time-efficient for the distances we need to travel here in America. While over there I discussed with a friend of a friend that Europeans also had an advantage in building public transportation because we assumed much of the demolition costs for them during World War II. We paid to clear the space they needed to build their subways and light rail systems, but having to bear the costs of demolition and construction, it becomes economically infeasible to repeat that over here. Plus, as noted the distance and the fact our cities tend to cover a larger geographic area than theirs. Comparing our use of public transportation and Europe's really is comparing apples and oranges.
"How Can we make her life hell this week?"
That's the question I figured the writers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer were asking themselves during the second season. It started with the episode "Surprise," where Spike and Drusilla began reassembling the Judge, an ancient demon who can vaporize a person without even touching them. Barely escaping with their lives, Buffy and Angel return to his apartment where they round third and cross home plate, so to speak. Buffy finds out in the next episode that this action gave Angel a moment of pure happiness that removed the gypsy curse, removed his soul and turned him back into the terror he had been for centuries, with a special vendetta against her for how she made him feel.
This, of course, has ramifications beyond her personal life, as the good guys have lost one of their most powerful soldiers to the enemy. (Imagine if Big Papi had switch from the Red Sox to the Yankees for a comparable switch from good to evil.)
They manage to defeat the Judge, through judicious use of a grenade launcher stolen from the military, but still face the combined threat of Spike, Angel and Drusilla.
Through the rest of the season, Buffy faces continued attempts to harass her by Angel, leaving notes and drawings by her loved ones to show that he can kill them at any time. This terrorism culminates in the murder of Jenny Calendar, a teacher at Buffy's school and sometime romantic partner of Giles', Buffy's mentor (called a Watcher on the show).
Angel finally switches tactics in the two-part season finale when the demon Acathla (variously called "Alfalfa" and "Al Franken" by Buffy, who's not that good with names) is unearthed by a construction crew. This demon, when awoken, will suck the Earth into a Hell dimension. Buffy figures out Angel's plan but again faces setbacks when her friends are attacked by vampires working on Angel's behalf, killing Kendra, the other vampire slayer, kidnapping Giles, putting Willow into a coma an breaking Xander's wrist. She then is arrested by the police for the crime when she is caught kneeling over Kendra's body and the school principal (who "never got a single date in high school") identified her as the likely suspect, likely out of spite since he knows she didn't do it. She escapes from the police and becomes a fugitive. Meanwhile, her mother finds out about her secret life as a Slayer and tries to stop her from going to battle Angel and saving the world. When Buffy continues to try to leave, knowing her responsibility, her mother tells her that if she leaves, she's never to come back.
Angel manages to awake Acathla, by using his own blood as part of the ritual, opening a portal to the Hell dimension. This means the only way to close the portal is by sending Angel through the portal. Buffy is losing the sword fight she and Angel are engaging in (with some very stunt doubles standing in for them), but suddenly just as Angel tries to kill her makes a comeback.
She is just about to run him through with the sword, and sending him into hell and saving the world, when Angel's soul is restored. (Unknown to Buffy, Willow was attempting the spell to restore the soul after regaining consciousness. Xander had been send to tell her, but didn't pass on the message.) So, while engaging in a tearful moment with the re-ensouled Angel, she notices the portal expanding. She asks Angel to close his eyes, kisses him and then runs her sword through his gut, banishing the man she loves to an unspeakable hell dimension, but saving the world.
Having lost her soulmate and being kicked out of her house, Buffy runs away from home, leaving her mom a goodbye note while her friends ponder what might have happened and when they'll see her again, as Sarah MacLachlin's "Full of Grace" plays, a song I have loved ever since.
It was during the climactic swordfight between Angel and Buffy in the season finale that I created and instituted my "No Phone Calls During Buffy" policy. (My phone rang, I knew who it was, and decided he could call back.) It was this run of episodes that really hooked me on Buffy, to the point that I stuck with the show during the decline years and the God-awful Season 6. (Season 6 was so bad, that I revoked the no phone call policy.)
I'm convinced that Seasons 2 and 3 of Buffy were some of the best TV ever created. Season 2 was a little more inconsistent, more peaks, but also more valleys, while Season 3 was more consistently good. (Season 3 didn't have anything nearly as bad as the episode with Buffy in the hospital from Season 2.)
What prompted all this was seeing the two-part finale on FX this past weekend. I flipped on the TV and caught the last half of the first part Saturday morning. That reminded me that the second part would be on Sunday morning! So I made sure I was up in time and had breakfast and said morning prayer in time to catch. Other than annoyance when I noticed some cut scenes, I loved it. (The big one I noticed was they cut the conversation where Spike and Buffy's mom were talking in the living room about where Spike lived.)
Buffy was a great show, and I do kind of miss it. It was funny finding out all my various friends who were closet Buffy fans. When I was vice-chairman of the Wilmington Republican Committee, it was kind of understood that our executive committee meetings couldn't begin until the treasurer and I had had our Buffy conversation. Another member of that committee who mocked me endlessly about liking the show later borrowed the DVDs from me so he could see all the episodes. (Although, he forgot he borrowed Season 6 from me and had it for months
If you get the chance, check the show out, you'll enjoy it. (But avoid Season 6.)
June 23, 2008
Quote-a-palooza
“The most sacred of the duties of a government [is] to do equal and impartial justice to all citizens.” —Thomas Jefferson
“If crime revives as an issue, it will be through liberal complaints about something that has reduced the salience of the issue—the incarceration rate. And any revival will be awkward for Barack Obama... Last July, Obama said ‘more young black men languish in prison than attend colleges and universities.’ Actually, more than twice as many black men 18-24 are in college as there are in jail. Last September he said, ‘We have a system that locks away too many young, first-time, nonviolent offenders for the better part of their lives.’ But Heather Mac Donald of the Manhattan Institute... notes that from 1999 to 2004, violent offenders accounted for all of the increase in the prison population... Obama sees racism in the incarceration rate: ‘We have certain sentences that are based less on the kind of crime you commit than on what you look like and where you come from.’ Indeed, in 2006, blacks, who are less than 13 percent of the population, were 37.5 percent of all state and federal prisoners. About one in 33 black men was in prison, compared with one in 79 Hispanic men and one in 205 white men. But Mac Donald cites studies of charging and sentencing that demonstrate that the reason more blacks are disproportionately in prison, and for longer terms, is not racism but racial differences in patterns of criminal offenses... James Q. Wilson, America’s premier social scientist, notes that ‘the typical criminal commits from 12 to 16 crimes a year (not counting drug offenses)’ and Wilson says that 10 years of scholarly studies ‘have shown that states that sent a higher fraction of convicts to prison had lower rates of crime, even after controlling for all of the other ways—poverty, urbanization, and the proportion of young men in the population—that the states differed. A high risk of punishment reduces crime. Deterrence works.’ It works especially on behalf of blacks, who are disproportionately the victims of crimes by black men.” —George Will
“Barack Obama’s recent call for responsible fatherhood is welcome, overdue—and misleadingly incomplete... In Obama’s words: ‘We know that more than half of all black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled—doubled—since we were children. We know the statistics—that children who grow up without a father are five times more likely to live in poverty and commit crime; nine times more likely to drop out of schools and 20 times more likely to end up in prison. They are more likely to have behavioral problems, or run away from home or become teenage parents themselves. And the foundations of our community are weaker because of it.’ Obama is right on all of the above, but the stats are even worse. More than 70 percent of black children are born out of wedlock. Since 1960, we’ve tripled the number of American children living in fatherless homes, from 8 million to 24 million. The population as a whole increased just 1.7 times during that period. What Obama fails to mention is that the problem of absent fathers, especially in the black community, is tied in part to well-intentioned social programs such as those the presumptive Democratic nominee intends to expand—domestic violence prevention and child support collections... Changing the system won’t be easy, but Obama is uniquely positioned to make a difference in the conversation. He should begin by saying that bringing fathers back into the family means ending the demonization of men and the culture’s trivialization of fatherhood. That would be a change we could believe in.” —Kathleen Parker
“With a few exceptions... when youth get involved in politics in large numbers, it is not a good thing... Having been a young person [in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s] and having watched as my university (Columbia) had its classrooms taken over and teaching interrupted by fellow students; having watched the sexualization of society that followed the ‘Make Love Not War’ generation; having watched America become obsessed with youth rather than wisdom as a result of the ‘Never Trust Anyone Over 30’ mantra of the ‘60s young people; having seen the myriad speech codes that arose, ironically, out of the ‘Free Speech’ movement at Berkeley and elsewhere; having watched pacifist-like doctrines decimate America’s moral compass; having witnessed a selfish preoccupation with an ever increasing number of inherent ‘rights,’ with a commensurate devaluing of inherent moral obligations, I, among many others, am not enamored of the ‘60s and ‘70s youth movement... [and] am not encouraged by the ecstatic reaction of young people to Barack Obama. The track record of politically excited youth movements in modern Western history is not a good one. And I see no reason why this will prove to be the first major exception.” —Dennis Prager
“It’s been at least five years since I’ve flown commercial, and for good reason: I don’t wish to be arrested for questioning actions by often arrogant, rude Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers. ... According to the February 2002 Federal Register, people can be arrested if they act in a way that ‘might distract or inhibit a screener from effectively performing his or her duties... But it’s going to get worse. The TSA aims to have 500 ‘behavior detection officers’ (BDOs) in airports by the end of this year. The job of the BDOs will be that of examining passengers for ‘body language and facial cues... for signs of bad intentions.’ They look for what the experts call ‘micro-expressions.’ Fear and disgust are the key ones, he said, because they’re associated with deception. That would make me a prime candidate for scrutiny and possibly trouble because if I ever had to go through airport security procedures, I would have those ‘micro-expressions’ of disgust and fear of arrest... Americans have been far too compliant and that has given the TSA carte blanche to treat travelers any way they wish. I’m staying away. TSA has its rules and Williams has his, and one of mine is to avoid tyrants and idiots.” —Walter Williams
“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now... Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.” —John F. Kennedy
“First, if I may, I’d like to establish the scope of the topic under discussion. For when we speak about the economy, we’re dealing with more than mere numbers, more than statistics about productivity and employment. We’re dealing instead with one of the most basic aspects of human existence: We’re dealing with the way the great majority of men and women spend most of their hours, most days, throughout the most productive years of their lives...I believe it’s important to remind ourselves that in dealing with the economy we’re dealing with human creativity. This insight has represented the underpinning of our economic expansion. We cut tax rates, reduced government regulation, and restrained Federal spending; and we unleashed the creativity of individuals and businesses. We gave them freedom to create; to keep the rewards of their own risk-taking and hard work; and to reach for new, bold ideas.” —Ronald Reagan
“There is only one way to drive down the rising cost of gasoline for the long term: significantly increase the domestic supply of oil. We are the only nation in the world with access to known oil deposits on our own land or off our shores that essentially refuses to tap those resources. The main stumbling block is a lack of political consensus, which is in especially short supply in an election year. Instead of coming up with real solutions to our growing energy crisis, the Democrats in Congress would rather rail against the oil companies. But oil company executives don’t set the price of oil—and taxing their companies more won’t do anything to lower the cost of gasoline at the pump... It’s time Congress put election-year politics aside and get serious about allowing domestic oil production to solve this crisis.” —Linda Chavez
“[W]e constantly hear we can’t drill our way to lower gas prices, but how does anybody know when we haven’t even tried? Despite enormous improvements in extraction technology, the amount of oil produced domestically in America went down in the last eight years. It went down in the 1990s. It went down in the 1980s. In fact, it’s been trending down since the 1970s, back when Barack Obama’s ‘new’ ideas seemed fresh coming from Jimmy Carter. Today, we produce about as much domestic oil as we did in the late 1940s, even though we keep finding, but not utilizing, more proven reserves. That hardly sounds like a country that’s been dedicated to ‘drilling our way’ to anything.” —Jonah Goldberg
“As we enter the second half of the campaign year, facts are undermining the Democratic narrative that has dominated our politics since about the time Hurricane Katrina rolled into the Gulf coast—most importantly, the facts about Iraq. During the Democratic primary season, all the party’s candidates veered hardly a jot or tittle from the narrative that helped the Democrats sweep the November 2006 elections. Iraq is spiraling into civil war, we invaded unwisely and have botched things ever since, no good outcome is possible, and it is time to get out of there as fast as we can. In January 2007, when George W. Bush ordered the surge strategy, which John McCain had advocated since the summer of 2003, Barack Obama informed us that the surge couldn’t work. The only thing to do was to get out as soon as possible. That stance proved to be a good move toward winning the presidential nomination—but it was poor prophecy. It is beyond doubt now that the surge has been hugely successful, beyond even the hopes of its strongest advocates.” —Michael Barone
“[Barack] Obama is the kind of leader who can bring us together. He may have the most one-sided, partisan voting record in the Senate, but that just shows how ready he is for a fresh start. He will take on the ‘special interests,’ like the farmers. He voted for the largest farm bill in history ($307 billion). Take that! Obama is going to set a new tone in politics. Yes, he did promise to abjure private financing of his presidential campaign if the Republican nominee would do the same, but as everyone can see, things have changed. Public finance would provide only $85 million, whereas Obama has raised more than three times that already. As the candidate explained so upliftingly, ‘It’s not an easy decision, and especially because I support a robust system of public financing of elections’ but ‘this is our moment and our country is depending on us.’ Somebody catch me, I may swoon.” —Mona Charen
June 21, 2008
New Obama Poster
June 20, 2008
Skunks on a Plane!
Hat Tip: Dyspeptic Mutterings
The Theory of the Internet, in T-Shirt Form
The McDonald's Diet Plan
Virginia man sheds 80 pounds eating at McDonald's
A Virginia man lost about 80 pounds in six months by eating nearly every meal at McDonald's.
Not Big Macs, french fries and chocolate shakes. Mostly salads, wraps and apple dippers without the caramel sauce.Chris Coleson tipped the scales at 278 pounds in December. The 5-foot-8 Coleson now weighs 199 pounds and his waist size has dropped from 50 to 36.
If only it did involve Big Macs. That's a diet I could get behind.
June 18, 2008
Book Review: What's so Great about Christianity by Dinesh D'Souza
Much like "More Christianity," this book is also written in homage to "Mere Christianity." (Reading this so close to the other two was a coincidence.) It's primary focus to responding to the wave of aggressive atheism that seeks to belittle Christianity and drive it from the public square. (It shouldn't escape notice that these "brave" atheists focus on Christianity, a religion of peace, rather than Islam, which leads some of its followers to behead those who attack Islam.)
Most of the attacks of the New Atheists focus on denying the goodness of Christianity through ad hominem or inaccurate statements, and D'Souza shows the error of these claims. He begins by exposing that it's not Christianity that is dying out, but rather atheism. The societies that are growing and expanding are theistic societies, while it's the atheistic West that is failing to reproduce. This claim exposes the narrow and limited viewpoint that is so typical self-appointed cultural elites: a failure to look at what the "little people" are actually doing, instead of what the elite takes them to be doing. He also exposes the attempts of the elite to foist their world view on the young by denying the rights of parents to educate their children.
The second part of the book deals with the history of the West, showing how separation of Church and state, plus the concept of limited government are essentially Christian ideas, how Christianity is the belief that understands and accounts for human frailty and fallibility, while also acknowledging the innate dignity of all humans. Despite the claims of atheists that their ideal society would be the most peaceful and tranquil, D'Souza shows that jettisoning Christianity would remove the necessary underpinning that atheists unknowingly rely upon. From there he moves to Christianity showing that Christianity, in fact, was responsible for much of the scientific development throughout history, and how much of recent scientific study affirms Christian teaching. (He also shows that those opposing scientific discoveries that supported Christianity, such as the Big Bang, were acting against science and denying evidence, acting more out of "faith" than those they accused of rejecting science.)
He then takes on the world of philosophy, with a special focus on Immanuel Kant as Kant has put forward the most successful and influential arguments against the existence of God. D'Souza, though, shows how, by Kant's own standards and practices, Kant's argument fails. he then shows that miracles are indeed possible and why Pascal's Wager makes sense.
He also explores the question of suffering pointing out that Christianity uniquely among world religion religions and philosophies is able to provide a meaning to suffering and making anything other than something negative. While on the topic, he shows that the atheistic societies and governments have killed far more people than even the most wildly exaggerated accusations against Christians would claim. He further goes on to show that the mere existence of the questions of morality points to something greater than a merely human and natural universe. After all, if we're merely a product of evolution seeking to pass on our own genetic materials, why would any of us be willing to give our lives for a stranger? Why would Catholic priests, nuns and brothers take vows of celibacy? The materialist mindset has no answer for these issues as they are so antithetical to the Evolutionism "theology."
He concludes with a section on why, having shown the logic, rationality and public benefits of Christianity, each of us should accept it for ourselves.
One thing that jumped out at me during this book was the weakness of many of the atheist arguments. I know there are very intelligent people on the other side of this topic, but it shows how even smart people can accept extremely flawed and shallow arguments in support of a position. (I try to avoid that, although I'm sure I'm far from perfect on that count.)
I think the best quote about this book comes from the Advance Praise section:
As an unbeliever, I passionately disagree with Dinesh D'Souza on some of his positions. But he is a first-rate scholar whom I feel absolutely compelled to read. His thorough research and elegant prose have elevated him into the top ranks of those who champion liberty and individual responsibility. Now he adds Christianity to his formula for the good society, and although non-Christians and non-theists may disagree with some of his arguments, we ignore him at our own peril. D'Souza's book takes the debate to a new level. Read It.-Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine
I've had much the same experience with D'Souza's work. Even when I go in The Enemy At Home: The Cultural Left and Its Responsibility for 9/11expecting to disagree with him, I find myself bowing to his logic and research. He belongs on anyone's list of must-read authors, agree or disagree with him.
Book Review: More Christianity by Dwight Longenecker
I had picked this book up while on a retreat last November and read it after finishing "Mere Christianity," as I thought it would make a good companion piece, as the author intended. Longenecker, a convert to Catholicism from Evangelicalism via Anglicanism and since ordained a Catholic priest, wrote this book to show the inadequacies of Lewis' "mere Christianity" (as Lewis himself acknowledged) and to show that a true understanding of what "more" there is to Christianity will lead people to Catholicism, as it did Longenecker himself.
One common theme of Father Longenecker's writing (here and elsewhere) is that come the day of his particular Judgment, he'd rather tell God he believed too much than not enough. For example, he'd rather believe that God does allow the communion of Christians and our ability to intercede for each other to extend beyond the grave than to deny the possibility. He'd rather be guilty of overestimating God's goodness and love than underestimating it and this attitude helped bring him home to Rome.
He deals with a number of topics including Mary, the saints, the Eucharist, and the Papacy, among others, showing how those beliefs are present in the Bible, were held by the early Christians and also make logical sense.
It's a quick read that's worth the effort showing the limitations and failings of a "mere Christianity" and showing the path to the "more Christianity" God wishes us to have.