Friday, January 23, 2009

Mac Is Back!

After having given up his evil ways (i.e. trying to pretend to be semi-conservative) during the presidential election, the press is finding itself falling in love with John McCain all over again. Of course, if he had any sense, he'd spit at them for their attacks on him during the campaign, but instead--like the wife of the guy in the tank top on "Cops"--he loves them too much to leave them.

If you were to plot the media's view of McCain on a line, it would go something like this:

Love...love...love...love...love...love...love...love...love...love...ALL-CONSUMING, RAGE-FILLED HATE...love...love...

The weird historical coincidence of it all is that the all-consuming, rage-filled hate period just happened to precisely coincide with the period where McCain was running against Barack Obama for president! What are the chances? Amazing how the objective media suddenly recognized his turn toward black-hearted evil just as he was running against Obama. And now that Obama has been inaugurated, they recognize McCain's turn back away from it.

He's clearly a changed man now. The sky has opened, and McCain's dark soul has been redeemed. At least I'm assuming that's what happened because the media suddenly loves him again. From today's Washington Post:

Senate Gets Reacquainted With McCain the Maverick

...Two and a half months removed from his defeat in the race for the presidency, colleagues say, McCain bears more resemblance to the unpredictable and frequently bipartisan lawmaker they have served with for decades than the man who ran an often scathing campaign against Barack Obama. In some instances, he's even carrying water for his former rival.

"Mac is back!" one of his devoted friends in the Senate declared as McCain walked into the chamber Wednesday to deliver his first speech of the 111th Congress: a blunt admonishment of Republicans delaying Hillary Rodham Clinton's confirmation as secretary of state.
Yes, you remember that scathing campaign McCain ran, where he chastised his own crowds for questioning Obama's national origin and fired a campaign aide for putting together an ad shedding light on the Jeremiah Wright comments? And who could forget the smear attack in which he brutalized Senator (now Secretary of State) Hillary Rodham Clinton, spitting "She has inspired generations of American women to believe that they can reach the highest office in this nation, and I respect her campaign, and I respect her."

Yes, McCain has turned from the Dark Side and is a new man. And lucky us, the objective, mainstream media is there to document the miraculous transformation.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

A Day That Lives In Infamy

I'm reprinting this from Challies.com, where John Ensor of Heartbeat International has guest posted today. Normally I would just print an excerpt, but I don't want to risk any of this being lost by your not clicking through the link. I hope Tim won't mind. The post marks this 36th anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision:

Why Are We Striving to Make Abortion Unthinkable?

Today I join hundreds of thousands in Washington, D.C., in the annual March for Life

In doing so, I acknowledge the resistance, even offense, taken by many by asserting that abortion is the moral issue of our day. I am familiar with the claim that asserts equal concern for poverty, global warming, aids prevention, war, and more. All of these appear to me worth researching and debating, as iron sharpens iron, as to the various causes and possible solutions.

But abortion is not on par. I remember how and when I came to this conclusion. It was the week of February 12, 1990, as marked on the Newsweek magazine I was reading. Kim Flodin, in an article on why she did not counter-march for abortion rights, wrote, "I was pregnant, I carried two unborn children and I chose, for completely selfish reasons, to deny them life so that I could better my own" (My Turn).

There it was: a momentary lapse into honest concrete language about abortion from an advocate. No ancient Baal worshiper could have described the reasons for their child sacrifice better. I was stunned that it had to be stated so plainly for me to grasp the preeminent evil of it. It is not one issue among equal concerns. Abortion is our postmodern version of child sacrifice for the Me Generation. As such, it is an incomprehensible and unthinkable evil.

Unthinkable is the best word to describe it because that is the way God describes it. "The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah saying, . . . "They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination" (Jeremiah 32:35; cf. 7:31, 19:5).

Among the many ways we offend God, the greatest offense are the shedding of innocent blood and idolatry. These two come together in child sacrifice. At the outset, God taught Israel to be shocked and repulsed by its practice among other cultures. "You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:31). The word even here rings remarkably close in meaning to unthinkable or something that "did not enter into my mind."

Some years ago, a woman named Suzanne came to me while I was setting up a pregnancy-help clinic in Boston. She said, "If I have the abortion, I will have more money to spend on my other two children." I asked, "What do you think your children would say if they knew you were doing this so that they could have cable TV and other stuff?" She said, "Well, I'll ask them." Then and there I knew the baby would live. Abortion is unthinkable to children--incomprehensible, horrific, something that would never enter their minds to do. Sure enough, the children were aghast at the thought. "We want the baby," they reassured her. Some months later, after the baby arrived, I heard her share her story. She said she was embarrassed to think back on her earlier state of mind. She had joined the circle of those who think abortion unthinkable.

Sanctity of Human Life Week is like Good Friday--a sobering time to stare unflinchingly past the ho-hum of abortion as a common practice; to grieve, lament, and morn; then to take up our cross and humbly obey God's call to "prosper" the cause of the fatherless and "defend the rights of the needy" (Jeremiah 5:28). In this context, that means becoming cross-bearers for child-bearers.

*****

John Ensor is the Vice President of Heartbeat International

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A Thrill Up The National Leg

Observations on this historic inauguration day, as Barack Obama is now the President of the United States:

With tousled hair, NPR just pulled the sheets up and is now smoking a cigarette.

Now that Obama is officially president, the honeymoon is over and the media has begun asking the tough questions. Which will he do first: heal the sick or raise the dead?

Hey, how about that oath of office with Obama and John Roberts? I don't think I've seen an exchange that awkward since the Sammy Sosa/Mark McGwire 62nd homer half-handshake half-hug. Or, to quote Dennis Miller from another context, "I haven't seen choreography that stiff since the Lee Harvey Oswald prison transfer.

Sadly, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) apparently collapsed at Obama's inaugural lunch with Congress today. On the other hand, let's be honest--it's merely one of thousands of times Ted Kennedy has collapsed at lunch. He is now said to be alert--a vast improvement over the middle 60 years of his life.

Strangely enough, Senator Robert Byrd (KKK-Virginia) also collapsed at the luncheon. Apparently the former Klansman fainted upon the realization that a black man is now president.

I'm glad we finally got rid of the elitist Bush Administration so that we can finally have an administration that looks like the real America. I loved that pro-choice feminist transgendered hermaphroditic brass band wearing hemp uniforms and Birkenstock shoes and riding in the electric car in the parade. Just like home.

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Click

Tap, tap, tap....(blow, blow)...(feedback)...does this thing still work? Hello? Testing, testing, one, two, three...

So now the report comes that President Obama has offered Dr. Sanjay Gupta the job of surgeon general. That's terrific. Maybe Anderson Cooper still has a shot at Secretary of the Interior (Design).

I guess it's only fair though. Obama owes CNN a lot. I'd figure he'd be naming journalists to just about every post.

I enjoyed this bit from the Washington Post's story on it:
The Michigan-born son of Indian and Pakistani parents, Gupta has always been drawn to health policy. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for Hillary Clinton.
But despite all that, the open-minded CNN was able to find a place for him anyway.