Stan Guthrie

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2010-03-07T08:09:00.001-06:00

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Oscar’s 15 Biggest Best Picture Snubs

2010-03-07T07:55:00.003-06:00

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

Onward, He Said, Regardless

2010-03-06T08:24:00.001-06:00

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

By Charles Krauthammer

Saving Prisoners, and Ourselves

2010-03-05T06:07:00.000-06:00

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.

On the Radio: Organic Church

2010-03-04T12:13:00.001-06:00

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

Google Profile

2010-03-04T09:03:00.000-06:00

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

'Best Time for a Christian'

2010-03-04T05:56:00.000-06:00

Resilient evangelicals vow to restore Haiti, body and soul.

By Tim Stafford in Port-au-Prince

Shamu's Twitter Account Shut Down

2010-03-03T15:27:00.000-06:00

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

2010-03-03T06:12:00.002-06:00

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

Lie As You Go

2010-03-02T13:24:00.003-06:00

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

2010-03-02T05:59:00.006-06:00

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.

Books & Culture Web Redesign Completed

2010-03-01T05:58:00.003-06:00

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.

When Responsibility Doesn’t Pay

2010-02-28T05:53:00.001-06:00

While Barack Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand-new, even-more-unsustainable entitlement at the health-care “summit,” thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split-screen — because they’re part of the same story.

By Mark Steyn

A Valued Member of the Seaworld Team

2010-02-27T07:44:00.004-06:00

"Meghan McArdle reports on the Seaworld press conference this afternoon about the killer whale that killed a trainer earlier this week:

When asked by a reporter about the fact that this same whale has apparently killed three other people, he repeatedly makes the irrelevant point that it only killed one other person at Seaworld . . . small comfort to the folks who take their tykes there. He also repeatedly refers to the whale as a valued member of the Seaworld team, which seems to me to be taking animal rights a little far. After all, a valued member of the Seaworld team who kept killing people would open up the company to enormous liability dangers.

..."

By Joseph Bottum

My comment: Admit it, when you saw the title of this post, you first thought of the poor woman trainer who had died. Right?

Dearth of Jobs, Death to the Family?

2010-02-26T09:57:00.001-06:00

Where others have failed, the church must meet society's looming challenge.

By Collin Hansen

On the Radio: Government Intervention

2010-02-25T10:14:00.006-06:00

Here's my interview with John Blok of New Day Florida about ministries protesting too much government intervention.

Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

2010-02-23T15:53:00.000-06:00

More good news from The New York Times.

By Peter S. Goodman

Podcast: Stan and John, Together Again

2010-02-23T06:04:00.000-06:00

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson, the new dynamic duo, discuss the latest from the world of Books & Culture, and from John's bookshelf.

Discipline and Its Limits

2010-02-22T06:10:00.003-06:00

Tiger Woods, who is a self-professing Buddhist, said in his serial infidelity he had stoppped following the dictates of his religion and instead had indulged himself in the easy temptations of fame and fortune. After his highly scripted mea culpa, another follower of the noble Eightfold Path spoke up.

The Dalai Lama agreed with the superstar golfer's assessment, commenting that Buddhism preaches self-discipline and an awareness of the consequences of one's actions, values on which Woods had turned his back.

As another mere mortal only too aware of my own susceptibility to temptation, I wonder whether Eldrick Woods has yet grasped his true predicament and its solution. His answer, perhaps Buddhism's as well, to his loss of discipline is the application of more discipline.

It's a bit more complicated than that, of course. Buddhism, an offshoot of Hinduism, tries to steer a “Middle Way” for devotees between indulgence and asceticism. Buddhists do this through the disciplined adoption of right views, goals, speech, conduct, lifestyle, efforts, awareness, and concentration. These disciplines Woods now says he will return to, and, for all I know, he will succeed.

But is Eldrick Woods getting his act together the end of the story? I think not. Discipline will not erase the memory of his horrible acts and the even worse attitude that led to them. Discipline will not heal the emotional scars of his wife, children, and the women he used for his own pleasure. Discipline will not take away the lies, the lost oppportunities. It will not rebuild his reputation (though it may help). Discipline, advocated by Buddhism and all the world's religions, will not buy forgiveness. Nor will it vanquish the demons (real or self-made) that pushed him down his disastrous path.

They say time heals all wounds, but I wonder. I think, rather, it covers them over, only to have them re-erupt when we least expect it. After the careful application of discipline, the pain will remain, the pus will continue oozing. The guilt, which Woods freely acknowledges now, will continue.

There's more. Woods has flouted his own standards, yes. But he has violated something more. If there is a Law that tells us that we are not to do what he did (and most of us in our more honest moments would acknowledge that there is), then we have to face the very real possibility that there is a Lawgiver.

Is Woods's newfound discipline enough to win this Lawgiver's pardon? Or is something more required? Look at it this way: Is good behavior on Death Row enough to win a condemned man's release?

Seen in this light, journalist Brit Hume's suggestion that Eldrick Woods might consider availing himself of the redemption freely offered in Christ makes a lot of sense. Doing so requires not discipline but humility, for Woods and for the rest of us.

Spotlight: Where It's Hardest to Believe

2010-02-21T06:23:00.000-06:00

Charting the world's worst persecutors.

By Christianity Today

Ungovernable? Nonsense.

2010-02-20T06:08:00.000-06:00

This isn’t structural failure; this is the system working the way it’s supposed to.

By Charles Krauthammer

The 2009 CT Critics' Choice Awards

2010-02-19T09:21:00.002-06:00

What do a war movie, a hot air balloon, and a post-apocalyptic father-son love story have in common? They're among 2009's best movies, as chosen by CT critics.

Nightfall in America

2010-02-18T09:27:00.002-06:00

The deficit in 2007 was $160 billion. In the next year the Pelosi-Reid Congress took it up to $458 billion, and when President Obama came into office in 2009 it hit $1.4 trillion. The current 2010 projected deficit is $1.6 trillion, which will lead to a tripling of our national debt from 2008 to 2020.

To the White House and congressional Democrats, these large figures are not a surprise, a mistake or a worry. They are part of a strategy to Europeanize America, to make the government larger, broader and in charge of almost everything. And that would of course require broad and massive tax increases.

By Pete DuPont

Global doubting

2010-02-17T06:16:00.002-06:00

So now the U.N. panel's credibility is heavily damaged — and so is the science of global warming. Doubts about the science — and scientists — are creeping in. Many people can't help but wonder: Are some of these climate scientists trying to find the facts or hide them?

A Chicago Tribune editorial

Bayh Bails

2010-02-16T10:08:00.003-06:00

In keeping with his reputation as a Democratic "centrist," Sen. Evan Bayh didn't specifically blame the Obama administration's smash-mouth liberalism for bailing out of the Senate. Instead, he pointed to excessive "partisanship," as if Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame.

"For some time," Bayh said, "I've had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress; too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the people's business is not getting done."

If one party controls the White House and both houses of Congress, it's kind of hard to point to partisanship without specifically blaming Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. After all, partisanship works both ways. Have these three reached out to Republicans or simply tried to ram their agenda down our throats? The answer, as Bill Clinton once said, is "obvious."

And I'd be more inclined to believe Bayh's posturing as a shocked statesman if he had even once voted against Obama's big-spending, leftwing agenda. Perhaps that's the real reason he is getting while the getting is good. The people of Indiana apparently don't appreciate his lack of statesmanship within his own party.

A few weeks ago Bayh's real feelings slipped out, after Scott Brown won "Ted Kennedy's seat" after campaigning against Obamacare and the Mirandizing of terrorists. "If you lose Massachusetts and that's not a wake-up call," Bayh said candidly then, "then there's no hope of waking up."

Bayh has awakened to the fact that the American people are wise to what the increasingly partisan Democrats are up to. Reid, Pelosi, and Obama, however, continue to snooze on.