Crunchy Con: March 2007 Archives

I imagine I'll get dogpiled for saying so, but I deeply love France, and all things French. I'm completely unreasonable on the subject. You can trash France all you like, and I might even agree with you, but it won't make a fig of difference to me. I love the place. My friend Fred Gion and I spent a terrific evening in December of 2005 at La Table du Perigord, a little restaurant in the St-Germain neighborhood of Paris. Our meal was simple but sublime, and we spent almost four hours lingering over it, drinking wine and enjoying ... life. My love affair with France began when I was a little boy, not even old enough to read, and I listened to my elderly great-aunts tell tales of serving as Red Cross nurses in Dijon during the Great War. Aunt Hilda was seized by a Frenchman on the Champs-Elysees when the armistice was announced, and he kissed her madly. She pretended to be scandalized 60 years later. I thought it was amazing. Just think! The old ladies sat me on their leather couch in their cabin and showed me their photo album from France in the war, and I was in heaven.

When I was in high school, I discovered Hemingway's "A Moveable Feast," his supposedly non-fiction account of life in Paris in the 1920s, when he was a poor and unknown journalist. I. Could. Not. Get. Enough. Of course he lied, but they were fantastic lies, and I loved them. Since then, I've been to France a number of times, and I cannot get enough of the place. I learned, sort of, the French language, but of course it has faded from disuse. But I love to hear it spoken, I love to hear it come out of my mouth. I met a couple from Montreal when I was in Louisiana a few weeks back, and just speaking my rudimentary French with them was pure pleasure.

When I was dating Julie, I took her to Paris, and showed her the places I loved. It was all part of my elaborate courtship ritual: Paris helped me win my true love's heart. Not that you asked, but there is no finer feeling than to be young, completely and ridiculously in love, and in Paris in the springtime. The French are impossible, of course, but God love them, they know how to live. Back during the days leading up to the Iraq War, when idiots were pouring French wine down sewer drains (hey, I volunteered to make my gullet their sewer!), I wrote this defense of France on National Review Online. I think it holds up fairly well, especially because the French were wiser about the war than we were.

What prompts my reverie was reading over dinner tonight this story from the Times about the love letters of Ernest Hemingway and Marlene Dietrich, which are to be released. This passage struck me:

“I love you and I hold you tight and kiss you hard,” Hemingway ends one letter. In another he writes, “I can’t say how every time I ever put my arms around you I felt that I was home.” He begins another: “What do you really want to do for a life work? Break everybody’s heart for a dime? You could always break mine for a nickel and I’d bring the nickel.”

And yet the timing was never right. As A. E. Hotchner writes in his book “Papa Hemingway: A Personal Memoir,” Hemingway once told him: “The thing about the Kraut and me is that we have been in love since 1934, when we first met on the Île de France, but we’ve never been to bed. Amazing but true. Victims of unsynchronized passion.”

On that first trip to Paris with the woman I'd dreamed of and prayed for and hoped existed somewhere in this world, undiscovered, we paused on a bridge linking the Ile St-Louis with the Right Bank, and I kissed her hard. And then we went to Berthillon and had Earl Grey tea ice cream. She loved me! Me! In Paris! The memory of that time is realer than real. That was 10 years ago this month. One decade and three children later, she's still the same woman I fell in love with, and Paris is still the city I fell in love with. It was the realization of a dream that I thought existed only in books. France is where dreams come true. My dreams, anyway. I can hardly wait until my children are old enough to take to Paris. I hope there will be a place for us at La Table du Perigord.

Watch this video of a soldier just home from the war surprising his five-year-old son by turning up in his kindergarten class, and the reaction of the little boy. Nothing any of us can say about it could possibly transcend the meaning of the moment. Just watch.

While my own church continues to endure a serious financial scandal, I see that Julie "Bible Girl" Lyons is writing this week about grave problems within her religious tradition, Pentecostalism. Powerful stuff, as usual. Lord have mercy, but the lady can write. Excerpt:

I know from my own observation that sexual immorality is widespread among Pentecostal clergy, and in many cases no church governance structure exists to do anything about it. Church leadership is frequently passed down in families as though salvation is acquired through DNA.

Prosperity teaching — which, when taught responsibly, can extract people from the mire of poverty mindsets — has degenerated into unabashed greed and charlatanism, with preachers shilling for multilevel marketing schemes that will never benefit the vast majority of the peons who buy into their promises of easy money.

...There was a time when all Pentecostals preached a high standard of holiness. Sure, there were frauds — drunks and debauchers who pretended to be one thing and were found to be another. In the South, especially, the concept of the double life has a storied existence, evidenced by the plantation masters who proudly occupied the family bench in church on Sunday and ravished slave girls on Monday.

But in the Pentecostal churches, among the brothers and sisters, where few had earthly riches and social status was of no account, sin was an enemy for which there would be no quarter. Sinners had but one place in church: on the mourners’ bench. Jesus, after all, came to free us from the bondage of sin, and Pentecostals took him at his word.

In recent years, though, I have seen a type of church emerge that has many of the bells and whistles of Pentecostalism, such as prophetic “words” from God, exuberant worship and high-octane preaching, but there is no standard of holiness. I call these people post-holiness Pentecostals — rollers without the holy.

In place of preaching against sin, the leaders exalt their status as “prophets” and teach that their followers have no right to question them. If they do, they’re branded “Jezebels” with “rebellious spirits” who’ve become instruments of Satan to bring down God’s anointed. None of this has a speck of Biblical support, but even one’s right to examine teaching through the lens of Scripture is discounted. When these leaders end up in grievous sin, members are shamed into believing that their only recourse is to shut themselves in the private prayer closet and beg for God to speak to their leader.

Which, by the way, I’m sure God has already done, many times over. If the Holy Spirit lives inside of us, we are continually made aware of our own sin.

I’ve never figured out how these leaders and their followers get around Paul’s command to “expel the immoral brother,” or his warning not even to eat with someone who calls himself a brother and involves himself in sexual immorality, or his counsel that we have a duty to judge those in the church. I’ll guarantee that you’ll never hear in these churches the testimony of Jude, who foresaw a day when the church would be dominated by “…godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

Look around you: We are living in that day.

The recent scandals among Pentecostals have shaken me. I struggle to understand how people who’ve come into contact with the very presence of God through worship, who’ve seen the power of the Holy Spirit at work in miraculous ways, can get involved in such craziness.

I was talking yesterday to a dear Catholic friend about church scandal, and I mentioned to him how down I was about the mess in the Orthodox Church in America -- but how I was determined to find a way to get through it without violating my conscience by turning away from it, or to shipwreck myself as I did within Catholicism. I have no idea how to do that, but I know I have no choice but to find a way. He said, "It does seem like the Lord won't let you get away from having to face the reality of sin." Yes, it does.

The Discovery Institute's president has sent the following letter to the heads of the geology, biology and anthropology departments at SMU:

I am writing to invite you or a representative from your faculty to participate in a dialogue about the theory of intelligent design on Friday night, April 13th, ahead of the formal commencement of our conference that evening on your campus.
We noted with interest the comment of one of your SMU faculty colleagues, Dr. Bretell, who stated in the Dallas Morning News that the science faculty plan to use the conference “as a teaching moment.”

As educators ourselves, we applaud you for this and would like to enhance the teaching opportunity for your students by creating a forum in which your faculty can participate in an open dialogue with proponents of intelligent design—in particular, with our three conference speakers, Dr. Michael Behe, Dr. Stephen Meyer, and Dr. Jay Richards.

If you accept our invitation, I will arrange for the first portion of our Friday night program to be devoted to this discussion. We propose the following format: one of our speakers would make a fifteen-minute presentation explaining the merits, from our point of view, of the theory of intelligent design. Then we would invite one of you to make a presentation explaining your main criticisms of the theory. We would then allow your panel to ask us a series of challenging questions of your own choosing. After that we would open the discussion to a few questions from the audience.

We are all committed to respectful scholarly dialogue and to the use of scientific methods of reasoning in the investigation of nature. In our view, science progresses in part as scientists and scholars discuss and evaluate competing interpretations of scientific evidence. We think that the format we are proposing will allow for such discussion and will, therefore, create a teaching moment for all who participate and observe the discussion.

We hope you will join us. May I ask you to respond at your earliest convenience by contacting Robert Crowther in our Seattle office at [deleted], or [e-mail address deleted].


Yours sincerely,

Bruce Chapman

President, Discovery Institute

Sounds good to me. Will the professors agree to participate in this teaching moment? I'd love to hear both sides make their presentation, and I bet I'm not the only one.

UPDATE: A colleague of mine at the paper e-mails to say:

I completely disagree. The SMU scientists should not take the bait. Framing this as a debate puts evolution and ID on equal footing -- "On the one hand, some experts believe THIS. On the other hand, other experts believe THIS." This is precisely the fraud that the Discovery Institute wants to perpetrate. Because if both "theories" are considered valid, well, then, why not teach both in science classes? Why exclude one? Is that fair?

ID and evolution are not two scientific theories to be weighed against one another, as if on a balance scale. One is a scientific theory, supported so massively and consistently by empirical evidence as to be virtually unassailable. The other is an interesting notion -- rather like reincarnation, or ESP - that is intriguing to ponder, but absolutely without scientific support.

There is, in other words, no experimental evidence -- none -- to support the idea that the world is so wondrously complex that some intelligent designer "must have" created it. Maybe that's true. As a matter of theology, I happen to believe that it's true. But it isn't science.

We don't teach "alternative theories" of gravity in physics class, or "alternative theories" of neurology in medical school. And we shouldn't.

I see his point, but I see this controversy as akin to a debate about global warming. To me, the evidence for man-made global warming is overwhelming, and those who disbelieve in it are operating primarily on faith, not evidence. But there are significant numbers of people who do hold those views, and I think it would be in the public interest to see a critical exchange between the two sides. I would hope that it would educate the disbelievers, or at least open some minds. Or maybe the other side would come up with facts or logic that caused me to reconsider some of my positions.

About ID: I believe that God created us, and evolution was the method he used to do it. But I simply don’t know enough about the case for ID to say conclusively that I disbelieve it -- and I certainly was unfavorably impressed by the sneering, over-the-top presentation the anti-ID folks made to the DMN editorial board a couple of years ago. Which doesn't make the case for ID any more or any less valid, but it did make me more curious to hear that case. There's something about ID that reduces opponents to sputtering, which creates the impression that they're trying to make you feel like an idiot for asking questions.

Here’s something from Michael Ruse, a philosopher of science who’s written about the struggle between ID and Darwinism. I interviewed him last year for the Sunday commentary section of the DMN. Ruse calls ID "creationism lite," but says scientists are making a mistake by refusing to engage the debate:

More scientists should get involved in this debate. There's a very strong negative force among young scientists not to get involved in the public domain. If you're trying to get tenure, you don't spend your summer fighting ID. Many people are not good at public involvement, but I'd like to see more of it.

I see evolution and creation as very much the top end of the iceberg. It's a litmus test of this whole red-blue division in America. I'd like to see the left, the Democrats or whatever we call ourselves, be more open to people's concerns. I mean, it's not helpful, and certainly not in America, when Richard Dawkins says all religion is evil. We have got to talk about moral values. We people of the left, we people of the Enlightenment, if you like, have got to start talking about broader issues. I would like to see science teaching, including the teaching of evolution, to be part of this, rather than something we isolate.

I think Ruse is right: people are thinking about this and talking about it, so why not meet them where they are? As disgusting as I think "Loose Change," that 9/11 conspiracy film is, if there were to be a debate about it on SMU’s campus, given how widespread the belief in a conspiracy is (a Scripps poll found that one-third of the American public believes the US government was involved in killing 3,000 of its own citizens), it’s worth dignifying the conspiracy nuts by sharing the podium with them, just to refute their case with facts and logic. Mind you, I don't at all equate the ID folks with conspiracy nuts. I'm just saying that it'd be smarter for the SMU professors to engage the ID people in a public forum and show the audience why the ID people are wrong. Refusing even to talk to them is not causing any fewer people to believe in ID. If ID is as dangerous as the SMU profs say, then they should not hesitate to take it on and try to debunk it.

"We're obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offense people have taken," said Matt Semler, creative director of a Manhattan art gallery, who presumably made that statement with a straight face. Semler's gallery is planning to exhibit a large chocolate sculpture of Jesus -- complete with penis -- at the start of Holy Week (the timing was a complete coincidence, Semler claims; watch your wallet around this Semler creep). The title of the statue? "My Sweet Lord."

Here, from artist Cosimo Cavallaro's website, is an image of the Christ statue. Cavallaro is inviting gallerygoers to taste the statue before it's taken down on Easter Sunday. Boy, won't that be fun, watching people break off the Lord's penis and eat it on Easter Sunday. Just imagine the catty blasphemy you'll hear. Oh, what would we ever do without those oh-so-brave New York hipsters.

The thing is, they're cowards. If they had guts, they'd create and display a statue of a naked Muhammad, with his penis exposed, on Ramadan. To be clear, I would think it a terrible thing if they did that, would hope they wouldn't, and would denounce them if they did. But of course they wouldn't do that, because they know exactly what would happen to them if they did. Christians, though, are fair game to be shat on by our cultural betters.

Of course the Catholic League has gone ballistic:

"This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever," said Bill Donohue, head of the Catholic League, a watchdog group. "It's not just the ugliness of the portrayal, but the timing — to choose Holy Week is astounding."

No, it's not remotely one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities. Language like that makes it easier to dismiss Christian complaints. The heroic Msgr. Pius Ncube, a Catholic archbishop in Zimbabwe, recently announced his willingness to be shot to death by his government to stand up against the dictator Robert Mugabe. If the worst thing American Christians have to worry about is some jackass artist making blasphemous fun of Christ on Holy Week, we've got it better than most of our brethren in the world. That said, this really is offensive, and so completely gratuitous. I'm glad Bill Donohue is going to make some bad people miserable for a few days. What is to be gained by this exhibit? What artistic or public interest is served by it? If Christians had the reputation for threatening to silence critics through violence and threats of violence, you could see possibly the rationale. But there's no rationale, other than the ersatz thrill of blasphemy. That, and publicity.

Like my DMN colleague, former religion editor Bruce Tomaso, I'm glad we live in a country where people are free to be blasphemous creeps and not have to face criminal action, or the threat that their gallery will be firebombed, or the likelihood that some bishop will put a fatwa on their heads and some believer will attempt to carry it out. Still, this is rotten, and I hope no Christian ever again stays at the Roger Smith Hotel, in whose in-house gallery this thing is to be exhibited. In fact, I have to make a reservation today for a quick business trip to NYC, and was looking for a cheap hotel to stay in. Scratch that one off my list, forever. What a great thing it would be if Catholics and other Christians in NYC staged a peaceful Holy Week prayer vigil outside this hotel.

UPDATE: My Bnet colleague David Kuo has a somewhat different take on the matter, saying that this offensive artwork is a good reminder for Christians about how Our Lord was mocked and despised by the public in his day, and he patiently endured it out of his love for us. Thanks for that reminder, David.

UPDATE.2: The Chocolate Jesus exhibition has been cancelled. And Matt Semler resigned. I'm sure Bill Donohue has sent him a conciliatory bouquet of tulips.

A few years ago, the Washington Post advertised for a religion writer, saying that "The ideal candidate is not necessarily religious nor an expert in religion." Can you imagine the Post, or any newspaper, advertising for a sportswriter who is...

Detroit Free Press columnist Desiree Cooper says it doesn't matter if a dead elderly homosexual died of gay-bashing, as he claimed, or, as the autopsy found, of a degenerative disease that caused his spine to compress. What really matters, she...

The new issue of the paleoconservative monthly Chronicles features a favorable review of the book "Food Is Different: Why We Must Get the WTO Out of Agriculture," by agronomist Peter M. Rosset. The review is not available online. According to...

D. Kyle Sampson, A.G. Gonzales's recently departed chief of staff, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Sen. Arlen Specter said that this will probably be the most interesting testimony since Anita Hill. I'm going to be watching it all...

Andrew Roberts' "A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900" turned up in the office mail recently. Hick that I am, I had no idea that Roberts is an English historian and conservative commentator. I thought the Churchillian title was...

Bill Holston is a Dallas lawyer who works on human rights and asylum cases. He won a good one this week, and helped deliver a man from evil. Read his account of it and be glad that there are men...

Andrew Sullivan on "green Orthodoxy."...

A thoughtful left-liberal reader writes:A question about the state of the conservative movement that puzzles me: why has the either irrelevance or falsity of global warming become such a touchstone? To me, it has something of the quality of a...

Good news on the bee front. Julie found on the web an amateur beekeeper in the Highland Park area of Dallas, who came right over this morning. Julie writes:OK, extremely cool experience with the wonderful Tom DeNolf. Amateur beekeeper, lives...

Steven Emerson's excellent and detailed New Republic column about the terror connections of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the New York Times's air-brushing of same, is a great example of why the US media are biased towards giving...

This is wild: Dan Rather interviews a young Karl Rove in the basement of Nixon re-election headquarters. Fast-forward to the four-minute mark, and prepare to be wowed by the cool sideburns, the full head of Rovian locks, and the intensity....

What we have here in north Texas is a failure to communicate. When a man can't make a weepy audiocassette to be played for his pet monkey while said monkey is on an overnight trip without being accused of interspecies...

So I get home tonight and my three-year-old Lucas has told his mother that there's a beehive in the backyard on the hammock. She thinks it might be a small wasp nest or something that the kid is overreacting to....

Peter Suderman wants to know. He says liberals are always on about community-building, but don't seem to like it one bit when megachurches succeed at it. Excerpt:The church I grew up in, for example, provided significant financial support for needs...

More bad news for the religious left. Political analyst Stu Rothenberg says Democrats should forget about competing for the Evangelical vote. Excerpt:A candidate’s religiosity is not enough for most evangelicals, though it may cause evangelical voters to stop and consider...

Fred Thompson and Tommy Thompson are both running, or thinking of running, for the GOP presidential nomination. Daniel Larison asks, "Why not a Thompson-Thompson ticket?"Oh joy! But only if Captain Haddock can run the Defense Department....

Andrew Sullivan draws attention to a Clive Davis post documenting the utterly heartless attitude that D.H. Lawrence had to the lame, the halt and the weak. What many people nowadays don't grasp is that this was the era of eugenics,...

I don't mind telling you that when it comes to dentists, I'm the biggest wuss this side of the Pecos. I devolve into Woody Allen-style hand-wringing and whining and nervous joke-making and everything you can imagine. Happily, I have a...

My colleague Jeff Weiss had a nice piece in the Dallas Morning News this weekend about members of the faculty at Southern Methodist University up in arms over a planned presentation of intelligent design theory on campus. The Discovery Institute...

GetReligion's Mollie Ziegler flags a "truly horrible story" by a Reuters reporter, in which the reporter inadvertently discloses not only her ignorance of basic tenets of the Christian religion -- the reporter is under the impression that "Left Behind" theology...

This should be good. The influential Reformed writer Douglas Wilson has read "Crunchy Cons," and is now beginning a series of blogs reviewing it. He apparently liked the book, but is not uncritical. I'm grateful for his attention, and am...

UK conservative columnist Peter Hitchens calls Prince Charles a crunchy conservative. Excerpt:I think that his general view of life is actually quite close to the rather attractive position known in the USA as 'crunchy conservatism', for which I have a...

A couple of you have made combox reference to this incredible undercover account of a reporter who worked as a car salesman. I'm so glad you did. What a great piece. People, you need to read this to be prepared...

The car search continues today, but it will involve one less dealership. The other day, I visited an area dealership and talked to the manager about what I was looking for in a car. While we were waiting on some...

Remember how the A.G. said that he wasn't in the loop on the U.S. Attorney firings? Oops! Seems that documents show he was in fact present at a November meeting at which the plans were finalized. Maybe I'm missing something,...

Here's a pretty powerful analysis, from a Christian perspective, about what leftism in power increasingly means for Christians and social traditionalists. It's written by a conservative disgusted with the conservative movement and the Republican Party. It brought to mind something...

My Bnet colleague David Kuo is a cancer survivor, and he writes that we shouldn't feel sorry for Elizabeth Edwards....

The nonpartisan Pew Center has a new study out measuring American political attitudes, and it's bad news for conservatives. From the L.A. Times report:Public allegiance to the Republican Party has plunged since the second year of George W. Bush's presidency,...

I heard a good talk last night by Ken Myers, the happy genius of the indispensable Mars Hill Audio Journal household. Our host was Dr. David Naugle, head of the philosophy department at Dallas Baptist University (N.B., for Dallas area...

Let's say you're a struggling student, and you need some extra work to help make ends meet for your large family while you complete your advanced degree. Let's say that a nice Dallas lady needs some yard and handyman work...

Our Scion xB-loving combox friend Rawlins Gilliland has discovered truthiness. Hear (or read -- but really, you need to hear his smooth-bourbon Texas voice) his public radio commentary denouncing Internet rumor-mongering here. I can't get my dad to stop forwarding...

Timothy Noah gets all up in Jonah Goldberg's grill over the oft-delayed debut of "Liberal Fascism." Noah speculates, with unsheathed glee, that the book, which purports to tell us how much contemporary American liberalism has in common with classical fascist...

Jeremy Lott has an interesting interview with Philip Jenkins, who has some observations that might surprise. Among them, the belief that even though the Second Vatican Council bears some responsibility for the big falloff in Catholic orthodoxy and observance in...

I gotta say it's impressive that George P. Bush, Jeb's son and 41's grandson, has volunteered for military service as a Navy Reserves intelligence officer. As we know all too well from the Iraq experience, reservists could easily see active...

I think David Brooks has a sensible take on the US Attorneys' Firing controversy today. I am more troubled by the firings, and therefore more sympathetic to the Democrats in this case, than Brooks is, but overall his take seems...

She's got Stage 4 breast cancer, which is the final stage. Her doctor said that this kind of cancer is "heterogenous," meaning that some people who get it respond well to treatment, but others don't. It is not curable, only...

I deleted the Cardinal Mahony post from yesterday. I believe it is certainly possible to have a rational and respectful critical conversation about the Cardinal and related issues. But a couple of people cannot seem to do this without screaming...

Got the news yesterday from my mechanic that the problems facing my 1993 sedan will cost two to three times the car's worth to fix. It really is the end of the road for the old girl. And the problems...

Daniel Larison helpfully points out that there are no small number of us who are sick and tired of the Baby Boomer Sturm und Drang playing out in presidential politics. Reading this part of his post gave me insight as...

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life did an interview last year with Samuel Huntington, focused on his "Clash of Civilizations" thesis five years after 9/11. Good stuff. Here's Huntington explaining why he came to believe that culture and...

White House press secretary Tony Snow is earning his money right now. He's being jumped in the press briefing over the Justice Department scandal. I don't find him particularly convincing in all this, but Bush should thank the Precious 8...

Slate takes up the question of whether or not it's licit for Christians to smoke pot. What do you think? Leaving aside the matter of breaking the law by using marijuana, do you think it's a sin? I'm not so...

In a combox thread below, a regular commentator wrote, of religious believers:Seriously: the embrace of irrationality is a slippery slope. Once you stop requiring some sort of reasons for what you believe, then where are you? I'd suggest you're in...

I'm working on a column revisiting Samuel Huntington's 1993 book "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order" -- this inspired by David Frum's gloomy (and correct) claim that Huntington is a winner of the Iraq War. (By...

Good cities are liturgical, say the guys at The Common Task, whose purpose they say is to "humanize culture." Excerpt:The shape of a building, a courtyard, or a street does not mechanically determine what happens there—right form only makes certain...

From Stuart Buck's blog comes this incredible story of a black educator from the early 20th century, who was miraculously delivered from a lynching in the South. The rope was around his neck, and he was told to say a...

OK, this is scary. I have no idea whether or not any of this is true, but based on my own experience, I definitely agree with this:"So at that moment, my belief system absolutely crashed," he said. "You can't understand...

Ron Unz is the new publisher of The American Conservative....

The columnist nears the end. God bless her and keep her....

In today's Los Angeles Times, I review the new book "The Vatican's Exorcists," by Tracy Wilkinson, finding it frustratingly even-handed. Excerpt:You step out of the book feeling as if you've read a newspaper series in which the reporter has dutifully...

Rolling Stone magazine put together an all-star intelligence panel (Zbigniew Brzezenzki, Richard Clarke, Michael Scheuer, Nir Rosen and others) to figure out what would be the Best Case Scenario in Iraq, the Worst Case Scenario, and What's Likely to Happen....

A Muslim friend and reader of this blog writes:Before you buy the idea that the West needs to ban all Muslim immigration please keep in mind that my parents (hard-working, bright, thoughtful people) are Muslims and that I (a decent...

No matter what you think of the Iraq War, you really owe it to yourself to read George Packer's long report on how this nation has treated the Iraqis who risked everything to help us succeed there. It'll rip your...

The other day I mentioned in a blog a recent line by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in which she said the failure of European liberals to stand up to criminal and fascistic behavior by Muslims living in Europe only serves to...

Dear Eight-Pound, Six-Ounce Newborn Infant Jesus, please, in your mercy, don't let this commenter from Mark Shea's blog near a voting booth. (See Ricky Bobby say grace here.)...

More interesting stuff from Sam Tanenhaus, about his WFB piece. Here's Tanenhaus explaining why he thinks Bill Buckley is a lot more critical of Bush and the GOP than National Review, or the more established conservative journals:Well some of it...

From a couple of years ago, here's the Catholic philosopher's explanation for why he was planning to sit out the 2004 election. Worth thinking about as we prepare for 2008. Excerpt:But the only vote worth casting in November is a...

CBS News reporting just now that the president is going to fire Alberto Gonzales in an attempt to stanch the bleeding from the US Attorney firing scandal....

One more reason why The American Conservative is becoming such a hot read: Michael Brendan Dougherty's critical analysis of the cult of 24's Jack Bauer on the Right, and how it undermines the public's moral sense. Excerpt:Agent Jack Bauer has...

Via Russell Arben Fox -- whose post on why he's uncomfortable siding with either pro-choicers or pro-lifers is well worth a read -- here's an excerpt from a sermon about abortion delivered by Stanley Hauerwas, in which the Christian ethicist...

Powerful prophetic witness from the OCA's Archbishop Job of Chicago, and Father John Reeves of Pennsylvania! In all human enterprises, only God knows how much wrongdoing and suffering might have been avoided if only good men had chosen to speak...

England slips slightly further into the mire of dhimmitude: Leeds University has cancelled a lecture on Islamic anti-Semitism after Muslim students complained in advance of the German lecturer's remarks. The pathetic cowards in university administration are claiming it had nothing...

The always-fascinating Asia Times Online columnist Spengler writes this week that the death of Christianity in Europe means the death of Europe. We'll get to that in a second, but I was taken (for obvious reasons) by this conclusion to...

Sure, Garrison Keillor is a flawed spokesman for traditional marriage. But what about David Blankenhorn? Here's a USA Today profile of him. Excerpt:David Blankenhorn may be best known as an advocate for the importance of fathers, but the 51-year-old think-tank...

Fascinating Sam Tanenhaus piece on how William F. Buckley is watching the movement he as much as anybody else built go to pieces over Iraq. Excerpt:Beyond this, Buckley recognizes, as Bush's defenders have not, that the trouble originates with the...

Via Andrew Sullivan, word comes that Garrison Keillor is getting blistered for having made disparaging remarks about gay marriage. From Keillor's Salon.com column:Monogamy put the parents in the background where they belong and we children were able to hold center...

That's what Giacomo Cardinal Biffi told Pope Benedict XVI in their recent Lenten retreat, according to a fascinating entry on Ruth Gledhill's blog (which is itself based on reporting from the Catholic news agency Zenit). Cdl. Biffi, who said in...

Atty General Alberto Gonzales has employed the classic passive-voice description of a scandal. He's taken "responsibility" for the scandal, which is meaningless: "taking responsibility" is what modern politicians do to give the appearance of personal courage, but of course it...

NR's Rich Lowry tells a hard truth about "the governing principle of abortion politics in America: Almost no major politician really cares about it." In other words, they'll say what they need to say to get elected. Theocon Cal Thomas,...

Here is a great example of why the First Amendment is so important:After this April's implementation of the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SOR's), British religious schools may no longer be allowed to teach school children that the Christian viewpoint on sexual...

Plainly and incontrovertibly, what this poor soul needs is proper theology and geometry....

A liberal named Benjamin Nugent has written a pretty interesting piece wondering why Republicans don't write good novels. Daniel Larison's answer to the question is vastly more interesting than the Nugent piece itself. I exhort you to read his entire...

Writing about the end of the Anglican Communion, George Weigel states the dividing line in modern American religion -- a chasm that runs right down the middle of just about every church in America:Shortly after Rowan Williams was named to...

I went out today to Audubon State Park, a couple of miles from my mom and dad's place, to visit Oakley House. It's a plantation house where John James Audubon lived for four months in 1821, tutoring Eliza Pirrie and...

Newsweek quotes one of the dismissed US Attorneys thus:Another fired prosecutor, John McKay, of Seattle, tells NEWSWEEK that local Republicans pressured him to launch a criminal probe of voting fraud that would tilt a deadlocked Washington governor's race. "They wanted...

The other shoe has dropped in the scandalous case of the Greek Orthodox priest in Dallas who retired last year, and who was revealed recently to have been accused -- credibly in the eyes of the Greek Orthodox episcopal authorities...

Via Andrew Sullivan, here's a pretty amazing pro-Obama YouTube video that should instill fear in the hearts of the Sentient-American community. Just imagine four years of Hillary!...

Columnist Richard Reeves says the Democrats are pussyfooting around on the war. They were elected to get America out of Iraq, he writes, but they're dawdling, and running around in circles:Democrats were elected to end the war, not to debate...

My column from yesterday's Dallas Morning News, in which I explain why the admirable Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a tragic hero three times over. In brief, it's because: 1) though she's more European than the Europeans, the people whose culture...

There's a couple living one parish over from St. Francisville who are totally off the grid, and pretty much growing their own food. Here's a feature story on them from Country Roads, a good local publication. They sound kind of...

This is pretty much an encouraging word. A reader from Washington, DC, sends good news about Bishop-elect Kevin Farrell of Dallas, who is presently serving as an auxiliary in the Archdiocese of Washington. Excerpts from her letter:I am one of...

I don't listen to a lot of music in the car anymore. I live close to the office, and live most of my life in Dallas within a fairly circumscribed area. So I'm not in the car much. When I'm...

I have a death in the family to report: my Birkenstock sandals have expired. The pair of black-leather Birks that I famously purchased at my wife's insistence in the spring of 1998 have finally, nine years later, given up the...

If you wanted to read the best histories of the fall of the Roman Empire (OK, you Orthodox, the Western Roman Empire), which would be the ones to read? Besides Gibbon's, I mean. And why?Thanks....

Bible Girl continues the story of the powerful Dallas-area Pentecostal pastor accused of shocking abuse of women. Excerpt:In what kind of church atmosphere would a woman submit to the unthinkable — allowing her pastor to paddle her repeatedly in various...

Whaddaya know -- the Iraq "surge" is going to be bigger, longer and costlier than we were told....

As regular readers know, I encourage people to buy locally-grown fruits and vegetables over organic ones. Reader James Kabala sends along the cover story from Time magazine -- which poses the "organic vs. local" question. It's an excellent tour of...

Rich Lowry writes that he was taken aback by how good Barack Obama's Selma speech was. Here's the text -- and yes, it's very, very good. The words on the page only suggest how stirring this speech must have been...

Rich Lowry has an interesting post up on The Corner observing that Giuliani's unwillingness to pander to the social right, and his heartlessness in his last divorce might actually play to his benefit:For the moment, Rudy's weaknesses and failings may...

Now Karl Rove is catching hell for calling Barack Obama "articulate." Here's the full quote:"He's charismatic, he's articulate, he's a very strong figure on the national stage," White House political adviser Karl Rove told an Arkansas crowd. "But something tells...

Here's an e-mail I just got from a Texas conservative friend:I think it's a good thing to hash out right now the issue of whether pro-life conservatives can support Rudy for president. Full disclosure: I'm pro-life and I've given a...

Andrew Sullivan checked with Michael Barone, and the post about the US attorney firings that appeared on his blog, or -- how to say this -- appeared to appear on his blog was not his own. Not sure if he...

As reader Maclin Horton points out, there are some theocons/social cons who will never, ever accept Rudy Giuliani as the GOP nominee. This from the editorial in the National Catholic Register, which foresees complete disaster for the pro-life movement if...

Hooray! Right-wing Film Geek e-mails to say that Steven Spielberg is going to make a "Tintin" movie. Blistering bashi-bazouks, but that's good news....

A week or so ago, we were talking about whether or not Europeans should fight to resist Islamification, or should acquiesce to the inevitable, and work instead to encourage such moderate Muslims as do exist. A reader of this blog...

We spend a lot of time on this blog lamenting the Decline and Fall of Everything. That has a lot to do with my personality, admittedly. But Mr. Pecker-Keeper-Upper from Blighty, however inane much of his commentary is, does suggest...

For one pecker-keeper-upper columnist in Britain, everything's coming up roses. Among the signs that we're living in the best of times:Very few people smell. Lidos are reopening. Canals are being dug once again. Unleaded is normal. There are salmon in...

From Matthew, at the St. John cathedral community in Eagle River, Alaska:It was a pleasure meeting you last Friday at St. John's. I read your blog, about your children growing up in urban Dallas where they don't have to deal...

Make sure you don't have any liquid in your mouth before you click on this link and hear Hillary Clinton speaking to a black audience in the fakest, most patronizing Southern accent imaginable. You'll want to play it again and...

Prof. Phyllis Chesler married a charming Afghan man and went home with him to Kabul. She had her passport confiscated, and was forced to live in gender apartheid. She writes in today's Times of London:Long before the rise of the...

At NRO's Phi Beta Cons blog, Carol Iannone has a great post up. She says that the consternation conservatives have when things like universities taking down crosses occurs tells us how the right's inability to see "how its own contradictory...

Reader Jason B. sends along a link to Father Jonathan Tobias's blog, in which the priest talks about how the word "conservative" has been badly abused today. Excerpts:The Republican Party has done more than any other to destroy the good...

I haven't watched the TV show "Survivor" since that fantastic first season (Rudy Boesch -- that's the Rudy I want to see run for president). This morning in an editorial board meeting, one of my colleagues who is a devotee...

As reported by my correspondent, calling from the minivan:"Why you got married?""Because I love Daddy and wanted to be with him forever.""Why I wasn't there?" -- gets teary -- "Why I wasn't invited.""Because you weren't here yet.""Was I staying with...

I've been reading some of the conservative defenses of Scooter Libby, saying he shouldn't have been convicted for lying to federal investigators, and that this case should never have been brought because there was no underlying crime. What I can't...

The Times-Picayune has a stunningly well-done series on how incredibly fast southeast Louisiana is sliding into the sea. Here's a fantastic interactive graphic explaining how the entire region was built up in time, and how thanks to the works of...

A reader at Wheaton sends this link to a Newsweek interview with GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. The interviewer wonders why somebody with such strong social conservative credentials -- he is an ordained Baptist minister, after all -- isn't catching...

My terrifying overlords at Beliefnet asked me to come up with three "spiritual parenting" tips for a forthcoming feature. What helpful hints could I give to other parents about how to raise spiritually aware chirren? I sent in these, but...

Foreign Policy is a great magazine. Much of its content is free on its website -- including part of this month's symposium on the winners of the Iraq War (hint: ain't none of 'em us). One entry in the Iraq...

The rumors were correct: the new bishop is Kevin Farrell, an auxiliary of Washington. I hear his introductory press conference went very well this morning. He was affable and lively, and engaged the press with skill. The contrast with his...

Ross Douthat makes an interesting point:In the forty-eight hours since, Ann Coulter's remarks have provoked distancing, disavowals and disdain not only from all three major GOP Presidential campaigns, but from practically every conservative blog there is. Which was, of course,...

Smart stuff from Daniel Larison:Of course, the relevant question any conservative should ask about any given measure or proposal is not, “Would Reagan approve?” The question is, “Does this contribute to a humane, well-ordered, decent society that enjoys the benefits...

Good Joel Garreau piece in today's WaPo about the battle over the power company's plans to run massive lines through the Piedmont region of Virginia. This will all sound very familiar. One one side:The proposed Meadow Brook-Loudoun power line, as...

A Utah reader writes:If you want to see obstruction regarding action on Global Warming, watch all the liberals run for cover when any logical action is proposed to prevent catastrophic destruction from the effects of Global Warming. Consider that the...

Being in Alaska this past weekend, I was constantly being shocked to learn what a truly wild place it is. You can't leave your cat outside, because raptors will swoop down and carry her off for din-din. Moose wander into...

My DMN colleague Jeff Weiss floats the rumor -- which is apparently more than just a rumor -- that the Pope will replace retiring Dallas Bishop Charles Grahmann tomorrow. The new bishop, they say? Bishop Kevin Farrell, an auxiliary in...

This has been around for a bit, but it's pretty great: a 90-second moving map showing the rise and fall of empires governing the Middle East and the Mediterranean....

Erin Manning is one of the smartest and most interesting of this blog's regular commentators. Here's part of what she had to say from the weekend thread on environmentalism and its controversies among Christians:[T]he idea that the growth in human...

I had a great day here in Alaska yesterday. I went up to visit the Cathedral of St. John, an Antiochian Orthodox parish in Eagle River. I'd heard about the community surrounding the parish before I came here, and when...

Has the movement launched by Ronald Reagan really devolved to the point where one of its most influential grassroots gatherings features Ann Coulter denouncing a Democratic presidential candidate as a "faggot," to cheers from the audience? Is this really the...

Dr. James Dobson and other religious right leaders have called on the National Association of Evangelicals to fire the Rev. Richard Cizik, a top NAE official who has been advocating for Evangelicals to get involved in environmental causes ("Creation care")...

Get Religion directs you to a website where you can see if your favorite websites are blocked by the Chinese gummint. Turns out Beliefnet.com doesn't make it past the Chi-com velvet rope. Will no one stand up for the English-speaking...

What Ross said....

A couple of years ago, two young environmentalists named Shellenberger and Nordhaus wrote a controversial essay telling older environmentalists that they've failed in part because they keep seeing environmentalism as a discrete issue -- that is, its own thing, unconnected...

One of the pleasures of having a long flight is being able to read. Here's a striking passage I came across today from Wendell Berry, from a 1999 essay collected in his "Citizenship Papers" (2004):In agriculture, industrialization has dispersed --...

OK, so I'm in Anchorage. It's 13 degrees out there, which is fine. But the wind is gusting so hard that the wind chill is between -20 and -30. That's below freaking zero!You watch: ain't nobody coming to see me...