When she’s good, she’s really good. Noonan’s Op-Ed this morning is right on the mark: “At the Immigration Rally: Having an open heart doesn’t mean supporting open borders.”
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Who’s afraid of Derek Webb? (part 3)
(Click here for Part 1) (Part 2) As I said in part 2, there is much to commend on Derek’s new album, “Mockingbird.” But as I also indicated there, I will now address some items that I think are not so good. First, pacifism plays a big part on this album. That Derek embraces pacifism as the only Christian alternative comes through loud and clear in the song “My Enemies Are Men Like Me.” I don’t know how else to understand the following lines except as condemnation of anyone who might argue for the possibility of a just war: peace by way of war is like purity by…
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Who’s afraid of Derek Webb? (part 2)
(Click here for Part 1) When I got home from the Derek Webb concert on Tuesday night, I shot off a blog that was in protest of what I thought was an overtly left-wing political message on Webb’s new album “Mockingbird.” But I later deleted what I wrote because I came to the conclusion that Derek’s message actually deserved a little more serious consideration than I had given it. So that is why this has turned into a three part series. My initial response, however, was provoked in part by how the concert-goers received Derek’s lefty-friendly message. Consider, for example, the response from the crowd when Derek sang these lines:…
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Libby Leak: Much Ado about Nothing
As I was leaving my house to go to work today, I saw the reporters on CNN breathlessly reporting the breaking news about Scooter Libby. I didn’t have time to do anything but listen to a couple of minutes of the report and to read the banners at the bottom of the screen. The gist of the report was this. Scooter Libby, who is under indictment and who is thought to have leaked the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame, testified that President Bush authorized Libby to leak classified material to the press. This authorization came through Vice President Cheney. The report was clearly slanted to link Bush and…
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Who’s afraid of Derek Webb? (part 1)
I just returned home from a Derek Webb concert. Derek’s venue was the Gypsy Tea Room near downtown Dallas in the area known by locals as Deep Ellum. Deep Ellum used to be the hip part of town, the place where all the young urban twenty-somethings would descend every weekend for dining, music, and club hopping. This once very popular center has declined over the past several years as most of the nightlife has moved to the new and trendy “uptown” area. If you have ever been to a Christian concert, you might have been surprised by this one. When I saw and heard the Marilyn Manson style death-metal band…
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The Hammer Will Retire
No, I’m not talking about Judas Maccabeus. I’m referring to the “hammer†Tom Delay who has just announced that he will not be seeking reelection to represent his suburban Houston district in the U. S. Congress. This is huge political news. How the mighty have fallen. “Tom DeLay Says He Will Give Up His Seat†– TIME Magazine Exclusive “Rep. DeLay Won’t Seek Reelection” – Washington Post
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Marvin Olasky vs. Ralph Reed
The Washington Post has picked up Marvin Olasky’s reporting on Ralph Reed’s ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Here’s the heart of it. Olasky, a journalism professor at the University of Texas, is editor in chief of World magazine, the mission of which “is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Since Nov. 19, World has run 10 articles and essays describing the $4 million in gambling money Abramoff paid to Reed to lobby against casinos competing with Abramoff’s clients. The articles have highlighted incriminating e-mails and other disclosures that have raised doubts about Reed’s explanations of his activities. If you are interested in reading the full article, you can…
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Botched Abortions You Haven’t Heard About
The vaunted “safe, legal, and rare†abortions that we’ve heard so much about may be legal, but they are hardly rare, and in the following story are not safe either (that is, safe for the mother, since they are never safe for the baby). The F.D.A. has now received reports that six women in the United States died after taking RU-486, or Mifeprex. A seventh died in Canada. The two most recent deaths and two of the previous four underwent their procedures at Planned Parenthood clinics, a spokeswoman said . . . Since reporting drug side effects is voluntary in the United States, it is possible that more women have…
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Democrats Wind-up To Impeach Bush
Today’s New York Times confirms what I posted yesterday. Democrats are mobilizing to impeach President Bush should they win control of congress this year. Here’s a snippet: Last year, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee and a member of the panel when it weighed proceedings against President Richard M. Nixon in 1974, proposed an initial inquiry into a censure or impeachment of Mr. Bush over the war. So far, the Conyers proposal has attracted support from about two dozen of the chamber’s 201 Democrats. ImpeachPAC, a grass-roots group based in New York City that grew out of the last election, is agitating…
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Bush To Be Impeached?
An editorial in today’s Wall Street Journal claims that the Democrats intend to impeach President Bush if they win congressional majorities in the elections this Fall. Their intention to do so was amplified by Senator Russ Feingold’s attempt this week to have President Bush censured: In fact, our guess is that censure would be the least of it. The real debate in Democratic circles would be whether to pass articles of impeachment. Whether such an inevitable attempt succeeds would depend on Mr. Bush’s approval rating, and especially on whether Democrats could use their subpoena power as committee chairs to conjure up something they could flog to a receptive media as…