Touchstone magazine is a staple for the serious Christian reader, and if you are not a regular reader of Touchstone magazine, you should start your subscription today (click here to order). The January 2007 issue is about human life, and it is outstanding. Here is an excerpt from Patrick Henry Reardon’s excellent editorial: “Because ours is a journal ecumenical in structure, we are rarely apodictic in our views of public matters. In general, we have endeavored to be more Socratic than prophetic. Most of the subjects encompassed by our interest, after all, are open to more than one legitimate approach. . .
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President Gerald Ford, the War Hero
Roberty Drury’s and Tom Clavin’s column in today’s New York Times tells of Gerald Ford’s heroism in World War II. It concludes, “Like his fellow World War II veterans, Mr. Ford returned home and resumed his life, rarely speaking publicly of his heroism. But in contrast to the public’s image of him as a clumsy nonentity, Mr. Ford was a man whose grace under pressure saved his ship and hundreds of men on it.” Go read the story: “How Lieutenant Ford Saved His Ship.”
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President Ford Disagreed with Iraq War
I guess Bob Woodward always gets the scoop. He certainly does in today’s Washington Post. The headline of Woodward’s story reads “Ford Disagreed With Bush About Invading Iraq.” Woodward conducted the interview with President Ford in 2004 but only had permission to publish it after Ford’s death. It’s fascinating to see how different Ford is from Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, both of whom served in the Ford administration. It’s an interesting piece and worth the read.
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President Gerald Ford, R.I.P.
Former President Gerald Ford has died. President George W. Bush has released a statement saying that “President Ford was a great American who gave many years of dedicated service to our country. On August 9, 1974, after a long career in the House of Representatives and service as Vice President, he assumed the Presidency in an hour of national turmoil and division.
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Barack Obama: An Empty Suit?
A friend of mine recently said to me that he thought Senator Barack Obama was an empty suit. Peggy Noonan agrees with this assessment in her column “‘The Man From Nowhere’: What does Barack Obama believe in?” Noonan’s critique of Obama as a politician is withering:
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Harvesting Body Parts from Aborted Babies
Here is the brave new world in which we are living. The Associated Press reports that Doctors in Oregon took brain cells from an aborted baby and implanted them in a 6-year old boy. Last month in Portland, Ore., doctors for the first time transplanted stem cells from aborted fetuses into his head in a desperate bid to reverse, or at least slow, a rare genetic disorder called Batten disease. The so-far incurable condition normally results in blindness and paralysis before death.
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Shelby Steele on Victory in Iraq
I recently wrote a paper arguing that comparisons between the current so-called “American empire” and the Roman empire of old are tendentious at best. Yes, the United States is the lone superpower in the world and has complete military dominance among the nations of the world. But the United States does not colonize as a matter of government policy. As a matter of course, the U.S. does not conquer nations, occupy them indefinitely, and give them a government under the direct control of the U.S. government. After the U.S. wins a war, they leave. As Colin Powell said in 2003,
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Can Senator Clinton Get Elected?
Senator Hillary Clinton has been widely viewed as a front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for President of the United States. But I have long held the view that however much she is loved among Democrats, she lacks the appeal necessary to win the general election.
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The Way Forward in Iraq
About a year ago, I had a conversation with an old friend who had just returned from an 18-month tour of duty in Iraq. I asked Patrick if he thought the prospects for success in Iraq were really as bleak as American news reports make them out to be. His response was clear: “We can’t win unless the Iraqis want to win, and they are not taking responsibility.” A year later this still appears to be the case. The U.S. has the brute force required to pacify Iraq and could bomb the country into submission if it wanted to. But, of course, the U.S. prefers a political solution over a…
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McCain’s Baggage Going in to 2008
Senator John McCain has always been sort of a gadfly within the Republican party, and I think this fact will create some difficulties for him as he runs for President in 2008. Many conservatives have had persistent questions about his conservative bona fides, and Hugh Hewitt writes about what may very well be the heaviest baggage that McCain carries into 2008: