• Culture,  Politics

    Ann Coulter Needs to Repent

    I haven’t read the context of Ann Coulter’s remarks; her book won’t be released until tomorrow. So all I have seen so far are the excerpts in the Associated Press.According to the AP, Coulter’s new book has some pretty nasty things to say about a certain group of liberal-leaning 9-11 widows. The AP contains the following description of Coulter’s remarks: Coulter writes in a new book, “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” that a group of New Jersey widows whose husbands perished in the World Trade Center act “as if the terrorist attacks happened only to them.”She also wrote, “I’ve never seen people enjoying their husbands’ deaths so much” (source). Like…

  • Culture,  Politics

    Banning Same-Sex “Marriage”: Politics As Usual?

    You have probably already heard that the Senate is set to debate an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would define marriage as the union between one man and one woman. In his weekly radio address last Saturday, President Bush came out strongly in favor of the amendment. He said: Marriage is the most enduring and important human institution, honored and encouraged in all cultures and by every religious faith. Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society. Marriage cannot be cut off from its cultural,…

  • Culture,  Politics

    Why Europe Hates America

    Do you want to know why folks abroad don’t like America? It’s because of reports like this one in the BBC: The BBC has uncovered new video evidence that US forces may have been responsible for the deliberate killing of 11 innocent Iraqi civilians (source). That line is the lead from the story, but it’s not even the most provocative part (nor necessarily inaccurate). In one of the paragraphs that follow, the story suggests that this kind of atrocity is routine for American troops. In reporting the announcement that U.S. soldiers will be undergoing “ethical training” as a result of the killing, the BBC reports: The news of ethical training…

  • Culture,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Abortion Nonsense: Ramesh Ponnuru Taken To Task

    In today’s Wall Street Journal, Peter Berkowitz reviews Ramesh Ponnuru’s anti-abortion tour de force The Party of Death. In this critical review, Berkowitz puts forth the same pro-abortion arguments that have been refuted time and again by pro-lifers. He writes: Invisible to the naked eye, lacking body or brain, feeling neither pleasure nor pain, radically dependent for life support, the early embryo, though surely part of the human family, is distant and different enough from a flesh-and-blood newborn that when the early embryo’s life comes into conflict with other precious human goods or claims, the embryo’s life may need to give way (source). The problem with Berkowitz’s critique is that…

  • Culture

    Something I Will Never Get Over

    It’s Memorial Day weekend, and there are many war movies being shown on television. Tonight, I am watching “Saving Private Ryan,” which I believe is probably the best WWII movie ever made (and I have seen many).Every time I watch this movie, I’m reminded of something I will never quite get over. In 1998, “Saving Private Ryan” was nominated for best picture along with “Life Is Beautiful,” “Thin Red Line,” “Elizabeth,” and “Shakespeare in Love.” Believe it or not, “Shakespeare in Love” won best picture and beat out “Saving Private Ryan,” to my lasting chagrin. Now you tell me, which movie has proven to be the classic and which one…

  • Culture,  Theology/Bible

    Gandalf Says the Bible Is Fiction

    Just in case you didn’t see this, I wanted to put it here. In a Today Show interview last week, Gandalf (a.k.a. Ian McKellen) said that the Bible is fiction. Matt Lauer asked the cast how they would have felt if the DaVinci Code movie had included a disclaimer at the beginning saying that the story was fiction. McKellen replied with the following: Well, I’ve often thought the Bible should have a disclaimer in the front saying this is fiction. I mean, walking on water, it takes an act of faith. And I have faith in this movie. Not that it’s true, not that it’s factual, but that it’s a…

  • Culture,  Politics

    Enron Convictions: A Rush to Judgment

    There has been a rush to judgment. But I’m not referring to a federal jury’s decision yesterday to convict former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay and his protégé Jeffrey K. Skilling (see Washington Post coverage). What I am talking about is a rush to condemn President Bush along with Lay and Skilling. I was going to write an essay yesterday warning readers that partisan Democrats and their accomplices in the media would try to make the Enron convictions a political issue. But Howard Fineman of Newsweek beat me to the punch in his online column: “Kenny Boy, Meet Brownie: The conviction of Enron’s founder marks another dark moment in the…

  • Culture,  Music

    The South Rises Again on American Idol

    I’ve already theorized in an earlier post why southerners dominate the American Idol competition. Now that Alabama-native Taylor Hicks has won, the winning streak continues. Here’s the money quote from the Washington Post: Taylor Hicks, the 29-year-old Captain K ringer from Birmingham, kept up the South’s winning streak on the most popular television show in the country (source). “Oh, I wish I was in the land of cotton, Old times there are not forgotten . . .” Okay, I’ll stop gloating.

  • Culture,  Politics

    First Human-to-Human Transmission of Bird-Flu

    From the Washington Post: The outbreak in the North Sumatran village of Kubu Sembilang, was not only the largest bird flu cluster in the world but also the first in which investigators believe the virus was passed from one person to another and then to a third (source). From the New York Times: International health officials emphasized that laboratory tests from the family did not suggest that the A(H5N1) bird flu virus had mutated in any way that would allow it to spread among humans more readily, which scientists have said could set off a devastating worldwide pandemic (source). We will be watching this story very closely.

  • Culture,  Music,  Politics,  Theology/Bible

    Dixie Chicks Abandoning Dixie

    My wife and I are fans of the Dixie Chicks–at least when they are not saying things that are so over-the-top offensive that we feel like joining the boycott. As many of you know, the Dixie Chicks have been on the outs with their fan-base ever since Natalie Maines zinged President Bush during a concert in London in 2003. But when I talk about offensive rhetoric, I am not talking about their politics. What I am talking about is reflected in some recent comments by Martie Maguire: