Sunday, March 07, 2010

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Oscar’s 15 Biggest Best Picture Snubs

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will continue its long history of giving an Oscar for Best Picture to a movie that isn’t quite the Best Picture of the year. Avatar will beat out nine other nominees for the best prize. And while it’s better than most films (e.g., The Hurt Locker) it is slightly less worthy than the enchanting Up.

By Joe Carter

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Onward, He Said, Regardless

Obamacare is heading into its fifth act, and it’s looking like a tragedy.

By Charles Krauthammer

Friday, March 05, 2010

Saving Prisoners, and Ourselves


By Stan Guthrie

President Obama’s controversial new budget includes $237 million to purchase and prepare the little-used Thomson Correctional Center to house terrorists currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.

Perhaps the most unexpected element to the story, however, is not the massive expenditure to move the detainees onto U.S. soil. It is the fact, given that the exploding U.S. prison population represents one of the few growth industries in the current economy, that a state-of-the-art facility in northwestern Illinois is nearly empty.

Thursday, March 04, 2010

On the Radio: Organic Church

Here's my interview with John Blok of New Day Florida about the organic church movement.

Google Profile


In the interest of endless self-promotion, I invite you to check out my new Google Profile.

'Best Time for a Christian'

Resilient evangelicals vow to restore Haiti, body and soul.

By Tim Stafford in Port-au-Prince

Wednesday, March 03, 2010

Shamu's Twitter Account Shut Down


The suspension of the tweeting killer whale's Twitter account comes shortly after the death of Sea World trainer Dawn Brancheau, who was drowned by killer whale Tilikum during a SeaWorld show.

Huffington Post

HT: Doug LeBlanc

Podcast: Republic of Baseball



Eric Miller’s “Republic of Baseball” and other previews from the new issue of Books & Culture.

Tuesday, March 02, 2010

Lie As You Go

Democrats and their accomplices in the media are savaging the character of Kentucky Sen. Jim Bunning for holding up $10 billion worth of new unemployment benefits and highway construction. Is Bunning just another heartless Republican miser? No, he is simply demading that the Senate follow its own pay-as-you-go rule. If you want to spend on something, now you have to get the money from somewhere else.

Bunning is for the spending, as long as it's paid for. He says the cash should come from funds already appropriated for the "stimulus" package rather than be created ex nihilo (to be paid by taxpayers later). Democrats have already rejected this approach, apparently keeping the "stimulus" funds around for maximum advantage this November.

For this modest stab at fiscal sanity, Bunning's character and mental state are receiving flak from all sides, even from faint-hearted Republicans, who perhaps fear the power of Democrat hypocrisy.

Yes, hypocrisy. It is instructive to recall President Obama's February 13 "Pay as You Go" address, extolling the need for pay-as-you-go's discipline on Congress (though he conveniently forgot to mention his own profligacy). Before Bunning gets run out of town on a rail and the Republicans cave, perhaps fearing another government shutdown-style debacle, take a few minutes to listen to the president.

Democratic Death Wish

I heard some interesting thoughts from pollster Scott Rasmussen. He says that, despite last week's rigged healthcare "summit," opinions about Obamacare are unmoved. Most Democrats are in favor, and most Republicans and independents are opposed. Most seniors, who use the healthcare system the most, are also opposed.

In addition, only 21 percent of Americans polled believe that our elected representatives are ruling by the consent of the governed, and the Democrats' death wish on healthcare seems to bear this out. (Meanwhile, 71 percent of Americans give the Democrat-controlled Congress a "poor" rating.) The Obama administration, however, is suppposed to represent the whole country, not just Democrats.

Rasmussen, attempting to explain the healthcare fixation, lists three reasons for the Democratic disconnnect: (1) Democrats are only talking to their supporters, who favor the bill, and don't really believe the polls about widespread opposition; (2) with midterms coming up, they need to fire up their base; and (3) with their current majorities in Congress, they figure it's now or never on a government takeover of healthcare.

Perhaps if they weren't so obsessed with the socialization of healthcare and other huge aspects of the economy, the Democrats might have the real prospect of maintaining or even extending their majorities. I can't believe they haven't thought of this, based on the polls and the election stunners in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. The Democratic Party is full of smart people who nonetheless appear determined, like lemings, to walk off the political cliff. It's OK if they want to, but the rest of us prefer solid ground.

The only explanation I can think of is fanaticism. This once proud party, now run by leftwing ideologues such as Barack Obama, is ready to commit political and economic harakari in pursuit of a leftwing utopia that no one else sees or wants. The question is not whether Republicans have no ideas on healthcare (the "summit" proved for all to see that they do). But the president showed he has no intention of changing his basic approach, though he suggested he might allow a few minor Republican add-ons.

The question is not whether rational people can work with the Democrats to ameliorate the worst effects of their attempts to remake the U.S. into another sclerotic socialized Western European nanny state. The question is whether we can stop them in time.

Democratic leaders apparently want to die. The rest us should kindly pull the plug.

Monday, March 01, 2010

Books & Culture Web Redesign Completed


The sleek, redesigned Books & Culture website is finally ready. On it you'll find selected articles from the current issue, podcasts (with yours truly), and web-exclusive content. Premium members (and I'm one) will also receive access to the magazine's extensive archives and to the entire current issue, beginning on its mail date.

Check out the March-April issue for my review of Peter Kreeft's latest book, Between Allah and Jesus.

Friends, if you seek a quality Christian magazine that will entertain, inform, and challenge you to faithful and thoughtful engagement with today's issues and trends, then consider Books & Culture. It is the premier evangelical thought journal, one I'm proud to be associated with.