For Whom The Bell Tolls

Okay, last week's bizarre story was the battle of the midget KISS tribute bands. But this week I'm finding something almost as disturbing.

As you may have heard, creepy radio talk show host Art Bell's wife died unexpectedly on January 5 of a massive asthma attack at the age of 47. They had been married for 17 years. I felt bad for the guy when I heard.

Well, a couple of days ago, Bell, who's 60, announced that he has married a Filipino girl in her early 20's, and that he's selling all his stuff and moving near Manila to be with her. He says he dated her via internet video conferencing. Eeeew. (The wedding photos, which are even more disturbing, can be found here.)

Now, losing a wife must be a terrible thing, and I'm not his judge. Who knows what somebody will do under some stress? But I can't help but notice that if his last wife--the dead one--had a 90 day warranty on her, it would only have expired three days before he remarried. Hey, I'm all for picking up and going on. I've even told my wife that if, heaven forbid, something ever happens to me, she has my blessing on getting remarried. But I've also told her that I hope maybe she won't actually begin dating at the funeral. My hope is that I at least am a substantial enough part of her life that the next husband won't be able to just slip in and finish my half-eaten bowl of ice cream.

I'm sure spending night after night doing nothing but talking to mentally ill callers who think they regularly travel out of their bodies, as Bell does, eventually takes its toll on a person. Perhaps one loses a sense of decorum. But he did this quickly enough that the dead wife barely missed being a bridesmaid. I don't know what the proper waiting time is, and I'm no Emily Post, but I'm thinking it's gotta be longer than this. We're not even talking about beginning the dating process, in which case 90 days still seems a bit hasty. We're talking about courting, engagement, marriage and relocation.

If my wife, whom I dearly love, is remarried and moving within 90 days of my death, I want to be exhumed and receive a full toxicology screening. I'm just saying. You're my witnesses.

Related Tags: Art Bell, remarriage

Fulfilled Prophecy

Last week, I was asked by a commenter here if I really "think the media has it in for Christians."

I did a little empirical experiment this weekend that you can do yourself to find out. On Saturday, I turned on the television with my two kids and flipped to CNN to check the news. They were in the midst of showing a documentary on Jesus Christ, presumably because of the Easter holiday. I said to my children, "Watch this. We've just turned this on and we haven't seen anything about this program's perspective yet. But because I know how the media works, I know without a doubt that it will be critical of historic Christianity, and I can tell you that within the next few minutes, we will see at least several of the following five people: John Dominic Crossan, Bart Ehrman, Amy-Jill Levine, Elaine Pagels, or Marcus Borg."

The reason I mentioned these names is because all of these five are ultra-liberal scholars who categorically reject the truth claims of Christianity. Crossan and Borg are members of the Jesus Seminar, which scholars both liberal and conservative characterize as residing on the radical fringe of liberal scholarship. Pagels is a devout evangelist for the "Gnostic Gospels," the Nag Hammadi writings that were written centuries after the life of Christ and found in Egypt in the 1940's. Ehrman is a disaffected former "fundamentalist" who has built a career attacking historic Christianity. Levine is a feminist scholar who believes the New Testament is anti-woman and anti-semitic. And yet some (or all) of them have turned up on every documentary I've seen on a secular network in the last five years on Christianity. Despite the hundreds of scholars, both conservative and liberal, doing first-class work, the media continues going to the same five people for the same perspective over and over and over again. Why would that be?

Sure enough, within less than five minutes, we saw Bart Ehrman and Amy-Jill Levine on the CNN documentary. My kids were somewhat impressed at my prognosticative ability. Then I flipped over to PBS. To our surprise, they were showing a different Jesus documentary. "Watch," I said. "Same rule applies, sight unseen." And again, within five minutes, we saw John Dominic Crossan, Bart Ehrman, and Elaine Pagels. In other words, in less than ten minutes of random documentary-watching on the subject of Jesus, we saw four of the five people I had named. By this point, my kids were really impressed.

To be sure, each of these programs attempts to present some semblance of an appearance of "balance." They'll do this by invariably bringing in one of two people: N.T. Wright or Ben Witherington III. One or the other of these guys will provide the "conservative" viewpoint in the face of the scores of predictable liberal scholars. Both of them are okay (though even as token "conservatives," Wright, while personally believing in Christ's bodily resurrection, thinks it's basically optional for Christianity, while Witherington believes that the apostle John didn't write the Gospel of John), but why don't we find any of the hundreds of other good, conservative scholars working in the field on any of these programs? And why are they always outnumbered five or eight to one? And, why, for that matter, don't we find anyone other than the same five people pushing even the liberal perspective on these shows? Is it possible that the producers of these documentaries have a preconceived story they want to tell, and they like the way these guys usually tell it?

Does the media have a built-in bias against Christianity? You tell me. Biblical scholarship is not a tiny, arcane field with only a handful of knowledgeable experts. How is it that I can name most of the guests that will be appearing in any CNN/Discovery Channel/History Channel/National Geographic special sight unseen? Try it yourself if you don't believe me. Memorize (if you don't know them already) the five names I mentioned, and the next time you're flipping through channels with someone and you see a documentary on Jesus or early Christianity, tell them immediately who is about to appear. They'll be amazed and you'll look incredibly smart. But in reality, it won't be intelligence that caused the feat, it will be the tired and predictable (and lazy) bias of the mainstream media.

Related Tags: biblical scholars, biblical scholarship, CNN, PBS, Jesus documentary, Jesus documentaries, Jesus Seminar, John Dominic Crossan, Amy-Jill Levine, Bart Ehrman, Marcus Borg, Elaine Pagels, N.T. Wright, Ben Witherington, Discovery Channel, History Channel, National Geographic

If This Isn't The Most Disturbing Story Of The Day...

...I'll quit the business.

Rival bands clash over little-person KISS tribute

By Robert W. Welkos
Times Staff Writer

They might be pint-sized performers onstage, but offstage they're in a giant-sized dispute.

Joey Fatale, the 4-foot, 4-inch New Yorker who heads the all-dwarf KISS tribute band MiniKiss, is denying published reports that he tried to sneak past security last month at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to confront a rival band leader, 4-foot "Little" Tim Loomis of Tiny Kiss, for allegedly ripping off his idea for such a group.

Loomis, a former drummer for MiniKiss, was performing with Tiny Kiss, which includes three little people and a 350-pound woman, on St. Patrick's Day at Beacher's Madhouse, a Las Vegas variety show, when the incident occurred.

Oh yeah, and there's a photo.


(Photo by Dan Anderson)

Related Tags: MiniKiss, Tiny Kiss, KISS

I See Where This Is Going

Fantasy baseball started (along with real baseball) last week. In the online league I'm in, we play a head-to-head format. That means each week my team is pitted against another team in the league. If my team outscores his for that week, I win that week's "game." The won-loss record then determines the standings.

Anyway, in Week One, I had the second highest score in my entire 14-team league. I even doubled some of the scores of other teams in the league. It was huge. Lights out.

Of course, the number one high score belonged to the guy I was playing. I had the second-highest point total in the league, and I'm 0-and-freakin'-1.

Oh yeah, I can see what kind of year this is going to be. When does football start?

Work Emails

With the new Busch Stadium in St. Louis opening today, my friend Dave and I were exchanging observations on the event via email. Obviously, being big Cardinal fans, we both wish we could be there.

In a seemingly unrelated note, you may know that the birth certificates of many Domincan players have been disputed over the last few years, and baseball commentators are always speculating on the fact that Albert Pujols doesn't seem like he's only 25. And Dave and I are both 37.

That having been said, here's our email exchange. This is time well-spent:

John: Whaddya say we plan to meet [at the new ballpark] in October of 2046, when they begin demolition on it?

Dave: I'm in. You bring the geritol and I'll bring the prunes.

John: The good news is, even though we'll be old, Albert Pujols will still be older....

Dave: His birth certificate is like the odometer on my car. Each year he gains a year. He's still only twenty five. But he was first born in 1959.

John: I watched "Woodstock" again on PBS the other night, and I noticed Albert Pujols dancing in the front row to Country Joe and the Fish.

Dave: He must have taken one of the brown tabs. He should have reported to the nurses tent. I heard he used to date Joni Mitchell.

John: We should have all gotten some idea when he was featured as a guest on the old "Ed Sullivan Show."

Dave: He was truly great in those early Sun record days. Nothing quite like that picture of Albert Pujols, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, and Carl Perkins. The million dollar quartet.

John: Yeah, it was only the fact that he was balding which left him behind in the major cultural transformation from radio to television. If he had the hair of those other guys, he'd still be performing today.

Dave: Double true. His voice characterizations in Orson Wells' "War of the Worlds" were simply astounding. What a talent.

John: Well, from what I understand, the original plan was to build the entire RKO radio network around him. He was just such a phenomenal talent. But he was drafted when the U.S. was gearing up for the war in Europe, which put the kibosh on the whole thing. I guess they were conscripting Dominican troops. It really was a World War.

Dave: Well, he served with Black Jack Pershing in the Rainbow Division during the First one, it's only natural they'd call him back into service.

John: How could they not? I mean, having distinguished himself by receiving the Congressional Medal of Honor because of his actions at the Battle of Antietam, and with President Lincoln's accolades ringing in everyone's ears, it would be natural for Black Jack to want to get hold of him. And once you're in with those people, you're in!

Dave: So we've got him at about 170 years old now? He's now the same age as Montgomery Burns. Excellent.

Only tangentially related is this snippet from Albert's ESPN bio, which convulses me in fits of giggles every time I look at it:

Proper Name: Jose Alberto Pujols
Born: January 16, 1980
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Height: 6-3
Weight: 225 lbs.
Age: 26
Pronounced: POO-holes

So I grant that I could probably be more mature. Which I would be, if I were only as old as Albert Pujols.

Related Tags: Albert Pujols, Busch Stadium, St. Louis Cardinals

No News Is No News

I walked into my local Borders last night and was stunned to find virtually an entire display on books regarding "The Gospel of Judas" right at the front of the store. I'm amazed at how much publicity this thing is generating, and evidently the publicity push has been in the planning process for a year or longer.

But while the media is breathless about the "new revelations" contained in the document, centuri0n points us to the fact that the Associated Press reported on this story over a month ago, and brought the proper perspective that's so lacking in all the other coverage.

In Richard N. Ostling's story from March 2, he writes:

An expert on ancient Egyptian texts is predicting that the "Gospel of Judas" a manuscript from early Christian times that's nearing release amid widespread interest from scholars will be a dud in terms of learning anything new about Judas.

James M. Robinson, America's leading expert on such ancient religious texts from Egypt, predicts in a new book that the text won't offer any insights into the disciple who betrayed Jesus. His reason: While it's old, it's not old enough.

"Does it go back to Judas? No," Robinson told The Associated Press on Thursday.

....He says the text is valuable to scholars of the second century but dismissed the notion that it'll reveal unknown biblical secrets. He speculated the timing of the release is aimed at capitalizing on interest in the film version of "The Da Vinci Code" a fictional tale that centers on a Christian conspiracy to cover up a marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

"There are a lot of second-, third- and fourth-century gospels attributed to various apostles," Robinson said. "We don't really assume they give us any first century information."

How many times have you heard that in the feverish TV news accounts?

Related Tags: Gospel of Judas, Judas, Jesus, Richard Ostling, Richard N. Ostling, Associated Press, Borders, James M. Robinson, James Robinson

You Read It Here First

On March 28, we brought you the story of the Islamic crackdown on Christianity in Algeria.

Late last week (April 6, to be exact), the story hit the New York Times.

That raises the total number of stories broken here at Rabe Ramblings, in the three-plus years of this blog, to...one.

Related Tags: Algeria, New York Times, Islam, Islamic

Product Placement

Predictably, the "Gospel of Judas" received a lot of television coverage last night, including a puff-piece on ABC's "Primetime," which was little more than a promotional trailer for the upcoming National Geographic television special.

What nearly all the accounts made little mention of, of course, is the fact that this document, even if authentically ancient (which there's no reason to doubt), dates to more than 100 years after the life of Christ, and decades after the biblical gospels. You'd think a fact like that would at least deserve a few seconds.

And of course, they all interviewed Bart Ehrman and Elaine Pagels again (and watch--they'll turn up in every story on these documents), both of whom make money selling books touting these later gospels as meaningful.

Nonetheless, Al Mohler has an excellent article today on the whole controversy.

Related Tags: Bart Ehrman, Bart D. Ehrman, Elaine Pagels, Gospel of Judas, Gnostic Gospels, ABC's "Primetime"

The Gospel of Judas

I see that the media today seems to be quite excited about the "Gospel of Judas" that's been discovered, a translation of which was released today. Evidently, the news media has become a subsidiary of The National Geographic Channel, which has been heavily touting it's documentary on this manuscript for weeks now. It was found in 1970.

As the AP describes it:

For 2,000 years Judas has been reviled for betraying Jesus. Now a newly translated ancient document seeks to tell his side of the story.

The "Gospel of Judas" tells a far different tale from the four gospels in the New Testament. It portrays Judas as a favored disciple who was given special knowledge by Jesus -- and who turned him in at Jesus' request.

Wow, that's scandalous stuff. Except that it comes from a document that was written, at the earliest, more than 100 years after Christ's crucifixion. That means it was written, virtually all scholars agree, much later than the four gospels of the New Testament. While it may give us interesting insight into the people who wrote it in the second century A.D., it tells us nothing of historical value about the first century events themselves regarding Jesus and the apostles, coming far too late to be historically reliable. It's simply another fanciful addition to the many Gnostic Gospels.

The story goes on:

Christianity in the ancient world was much more diverse than it is now, with a number of gospels circulating in addition to the four that were finally collected into the New Testament, noted Bart Ehrman, chairman of religious studies at the University of North Carolina.

Eventually, one point of view prevailed and the others were declared heresy, he said, including the Gnostics who believed that salvation depended on secret knowledge that Jesus imparted, particularly to Judas.

Though Bart Ehrman is turning up a lot in the media lately since he has a new book to flog (as well as a vested interest in arguing for the value of these later Gnostic gospels), he is, once again, mostly incorrect.

As a historical matter, there are four--and only four--gospels circulating in the first century: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Virtually all reputable scholarship, conservative or liberal, has agreed on that. All of these supposedly competing gospels begin circulating in the second century, or in many cases even the third century (and indeed scholars are dating this copy of the Gospel of Judas to about 300 A.D., more than a quarter millenium after Christ and the times of the eyewitnesses).

But these novelties do sell books and TV programs, which is really what this is about anyway.

Related Tags: The Gospel of Judas, Gnostic gospels, Bart Ehrman, Bart D. Ehrman, Judas, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Bible, National Geographic Channel

Why The GOP May Get Swept This Year

Those Republicans sure know how to take record-low approval ratings and drive them into the ground. It only makes sense, during these difficult days, to find an issue that's extraordinarily unpopular with voting Americans and wrap it around your neck. And since that ports deal got scuttled, they had to find something.

Hmmm, a welfare state combined with a sudden influx of 11 million aid-receiving residents. That should work. Why, Europe is thriving under those conditions.

Changing The World One Bumper At A Time

The other day while driving, I saw a car (I think it was a Prius) with a bumper sticker on it that said "Eracism."

And it was amazing, because suddenly I could feel my whole attitude changing. See, I had been this virulent, hateful racist oppressing people and discriminating at every turn and delighting in it. I used to tell people, "I'm a racist. And I'm proud of it. I just happen to think that it's the right way to be."

But when I saw that bumper sticker, it's as if the scales fell off my eyes and I could see again. Suddenly, my foolishness came fully into focus, and I realized "By golly, that dude in the Prius is not only environmentally friendly, he's right! Racism isn't good and praiseworthy, like I thought it was. It's bad, and should be erased!"

Anything less witty might not have done the trick. In my seething, reflexive hatred, I probably would have been impervious to "Please quit being a racist," or "Racism is an awful thing," or something clumsy like that. But the simple, witty elegance of "Eracism" profoundly changed me. If only more people were willing, like Prius-guy, to take such a bold and lonely stand against such popular and beloved practices as racism. Oh, what a different world we'd live in.

And you know something else? Mean people really do suck. I understand that now after driving behind a 20-something girl who lives in my neighborhood. Who knew that changing the world was this easy and sterile?

Related Tags: Eracism, bumper stickers

Having Atom

The Terri Schiavo post from last week has sparked a spirited discussion in the comments section, in which a materialist is nonetheless trying to assign greater objective value to one set of chemical reactions (in the brain of an uninjured person) than to another (in the brain of Terri Schiavo).

Of course, if one believes that matter is all that exists, then it is supreme silliness to try to claim more worth for some matter than for other matter. Indeed, the very concept of "worth" is nonsense under such a view.

However, because materialists cannot live for even a moment under the view they profess (which is why they spend so much of their meaningless chemical brain reactions on trying to convince other people to get their meaningless chemical brain reactions to fire the same way on this issue), they continually contradict themselves, smuggling in concepts of intelligence and value where all that exists is only atoms colliding. They can't help from trying to transcend the mere material in all their discussions despite themselves.

Feel free to take a look at the discussion so far.

Related Tags: Terri Schiavo, materialism, materialists, atheism, atheists

Dark Anniversary

It's almost impossible to believe, but it was already one year ago today that the judicially-ordered execution of an innocent woman, Terri Schiavo, reached its completion.

Everybody has written/is writing their books on it, including her scumbag ex-husband, but there is only one I'm planning to read: David Gibbs III's forthcoming Fighting for Dear Life

Nobody worked harder to keep Terri alive than David did as the lawyer for Terri's parents, and he saw some pretty amazing things along the way, including bad behavior on both sides of the issue. I have no idea how much of what he saw will be included in the book, but nobody was in a better position to know what happened in those final months. He's truly one of the good guys.

Related Tags: Terri Schiavo, anniversary, David Gibbs III, Fighting for Dear Life

Story On Islamic Crackdown Spreading

WorldNetDaily has picked up the story of the Algerian crackdown on Christianity today. They write:

As attention focused on an Afghan Christian convert who faced the death penalty for his conversion, Algeria quietly passed a law that punishes anyone who persuades a Muslim to leave his faith, with up to five years in prison, and banishes house churches.

The government said the law's purpose is to prohibit "clandestine organizations" it claims are secretly trying to convert Muslims, according to London-based Alarab Online.

Hopefully there will be a bit of a snowball effect, as the word on the Islamic crackdown begins to spread.

(And thanks to John, Yorkie Lady, Will, Paulo, and others who've picked up the story.)

Related Tags: Algeria, Algerian law, conversion, converts to Christianity, WorldNetDaily, Alarab, Islamic, Islam, Muslim

Oily Little Weasels

I told you the other day about these weaselly little radio management types who fired Dave Lenihan for his slip of the tongue while talking about Condoleezza Rice (when he accidentally used the word "coon" instead of "coup").

Just a recap of what I was saying the other day:

These [KTRS management weasel] guys aren't principled; they're afraid. They were willing to throw their guy under the bus without even talking to him, without even considering whether it could have been a silly mistake, because they're gutless weenies. KTRS' CEO is running to every media outlet in the country talking about how evil this host supposedly is, how he's a hatemonger, and how KTRS doesn't support that kind of thing. Of course, they liked him enough to hire him, but now after one misstatement they evidently know the true darkness that lurks in his heart.

...Mark this: These weaselly radio guys would let somebody call himself "Big Lips McJive" and sing "Mammy" on the air in blackface if A). It would draw ratings, and B). They thought they could get away with it. So don't let them fool you. Dave Lenihan wasn't fired because the management of KTRS is so high-mindedly diversity-friendly. He was fired solely because he failed test B).

Well, today comes the news that the NAACP itself says KTRS management overreacted:

After previously coming out against Lenihan, leaders with the civil rights organization said they support him and believe his comment was just a mistake, and, that the NAACP and KTRS radio both jumped the gun and overreacted.

Leaders say they will write a letter to Lenihan's former employer KTRS and ask that the station reconsider firing Lenihan.

Of course, KTRS will rehire they guy. And they ought to rehire him. But unfortunately they will rehire the guy for the same reason that they fired him--not because of principle, but because they're afraid of public reaction. They take orders from interest groups. Did he really go from great guy to dark, evil-hearted racist back to great guy in one week's time? Or are his radio managers grimy little suck-up worms who drift whichever way the wind blows?

I've worked for some of these people, and I can tell you which is far more likely.

Related Tags: Dave Lenihan, KTRS, Condoleezza Rice, coon, NAACP

Crackdown On Christianity In Algeria

I received a call from a friend of mine yesterday who does missions work overseas. He had some bad news, though certainly timely in light of the Rahman case in Afghanistan.

Though it hasn’t gotten any press attention (with the lone exception, as far as I know, being a story in the London-based Alarab Online), a new law was passed last Tuesday (March 21st) in Algeria that levies possible stiff criminal penalties against Christians. It’s a result of the increasing influence of radical Islamists there.

Up until this point, the Algerian government had been relatively tolerant of Christianity on a legal basis (though it’s still dangerous among the people to be a Christian there--you know, “Religion of Peace” and all…). According to my friend, this law will have a massive effect on Christian work and worship being done in Algeria.

The new law levies stiff fines and prison sentences against Christians who share their faith or distribute any literature or videos that promote Christianity.

According to the law:

Art. 11. — Without prejudice of more serious penalties, the punishment is imprisonment from two (2) years to five (5) years and a fine from 500.000 DA to 1.000.000 DA for whomever:
1 - incites, constrains or utilizes means of seduction tending to convert a Muslim to another religion, or by using to this end establishments for teaching, for education, for health, of a social or cultural nature, or training institutions, or any other establishment, or any financial means,
2 – makes, stores, or distributes printed documents or audiovisual productions or by any other aid or means, which has as its goal to shake the faith of a Muslim.

Furthermore, the Algerian government will now regulate all the places where Christians can worship, with the officially-Muslim government having to explicitly approve any new Christian church (which means, in other words, “good luck”). The law also provides for the possible imprisonment and expulsion of Christian missionaries and other religious workers for the same “offenses.”

I know Christian workers in the area want to get the word out about this in hopes that the U.S. government can pressure the Algerian government into relenting on this and putting up some resistance against the radical Muslims who are in the process of overtaking their country. Algeria’s slipping quickly, and it’s right off the coast of Europe. I know the Christians there would be grateful for anything you'd like to do to get the story out.

Related Tags: Algeria, Christianity, Christians, Islam, Islamicists, Muslims, missions, missionaries, Alarab, Algerian law, Abdul Rahman, Religion of Peace

With Friends Like This...

While it's good news that Christian convert Abdul Rahman is being released and is not (currently) facing execution at the hands of the Afghan government, we still must not lose sight of the fact that he was released only as a result of tremendous pressure, and only on a technicality.

According to the AP:

An official closely involved with the case told The Associated Press that it had been returned to the prosecutors for more investigation, but that in the meantime, Rahman would be released.

"The court dismissed today the case against Abdul Rahman for a lack of information and a lot of legal gaps in the case," the official said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

In other words, if a solid case can be made that Rahman is fit for trial and that he did convert to Christianity, the death penalty would still apply.

And this points to the fundamental problem with the War on Terror, and why I believe it is unwinnable in its current form. President Bush either fails to understand or refuses to understand who the enemy actually is. For 4 1/2 years, he's been peddling the nonsensical line that "Islam is a religion of peace." But, of course, it isn't. He contends that "a great religion has been hijacked." But, of course, as we see here, it hasn't.

This is Islam. It's common, man-on-the-street Islam. It's not a faction. It's not a minority. It's not a "fundamentalist fringe." It's everyday, "moderate," popular Islam. This is Islam doing what it does--what it's always done. For those, including the president, who wish to claim that Islam is a religion of peace, my question would be, "Really? Where?" History tells us the exact opposite is the case.

Islam is an ideology that is directly contrary to Jesus Christ. It's contrary to freedom. And it really makes no bones about that. It's fairly frank in its goals and objectives. It wants to kill or destroy anything that isn't Islam. Which is what makes the ignorance of President Bush and others who propagate the "religion of peace" blather inexcusable.

This is the anti-Taliban, "moderate" Islamic government the U.S. installed. It was one of the "moderate" clerics, well known for opposing the Taliban, who recently said ""Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die."

The fact that worldwide pressure has caused them to stick a sock in it in this one case does nothing to change what they're about. Even today Afghan Muslims are protesting their government's release of Rahman. If America thinks it can band together with Islam to fight some sort of "War on Terror," it's sadly deluded.

Related Tags: Abdul Rahman, Afghanistan, Islam, Muslims, Islamic, War on Terror, George W. Bush, President Bush, convert to Christianity, Christian convert

Audio Killed The Radio Star

You've probably heard by now of the saga of the St. Louis talk radio host who was fired Wednesday for using the word "coon" in an on-air discussion about Condoleezza Rice and the possibility she'd become the NFL commissioner.

As the AP report recaps it:

"She's been chancellor of Stanford," [Dave] Lenihan [of KTRS radio] said on the air. "She's got the patent resume of somebody that has serious skill. She loves football. She's African-American, which would kind of be a big coon. A big coon. Oh my God. I am totally, totally, totally, totally, totally sorry for that."

He said he had meant to say "coup" instead of the racial slur.

You can hear the audio of the incident here.

While it sounds like a stupid slip of the tongue to me (the guy wasn't doing "shtick" at the time of the incident--he was in the process of talking about how much he admired her), perhaps the radio station would have, after some thought and investigation, felt the need to fire him. That's their prerogative. But the thing it's important for you to understand is that his management didn't fire him because they feel so strongly about the dignity of African-Americans in general and Condoleezza Rice in particular. They fired him because they're weasels.

I've worked in the radio business on and off and in various capacities for over 20 years (including 11 years in St. Louis). I've also worked in other industries, like television, .coms, customer service, newspapers, bars, and who knows what else. And nowhere--nowhere--will you find a bigger pack of weasels than in radio management. They're the bottom of the barrel. The program director of KTRS, the station that fired this guy, was once my boss for a short time. [He left, not I.] Trust me, you're dealing with oily weasels here.

Here's what it's really all about:

Twenty minutes after the utterance, Dorsey went on the air to apologize to Rice and KTRS listeners.

"There can be no excuse for what was said," [KTRS CEO Tim] Dorsey said. "Dave Lenihan has been let go. ... There is enough hate. We certainly are not going to fan those flames."

NAACP chapter president Harold Crumpton commended Dorsey for his swift action.

These guys aren't principled; they're afraid. They were willing to throw their guy under the bus without even talking to him, without even considering whether it could have been a silly mistake, because they're gutless weenies. KTRS' CEO is running to every media outlet in the country talking about how evil this host supposedly is, how he's a hatemonger, and how KTRS doesn't support that kind of thing. Of course, they liked him enough to hire him, but now after one misstatement they evidently know the true darkness that lurks in his heart. Without talking to him or giving him a chance to explain himself. Without even entertaining the bare possibility that it really could have been the embarrassing slip of the tongue it so clearly sounds like.

Mark this: These weaselly radio guys would let somebody call himself "Big Lips McJive" and sing "Mammy" on the air in blackface if A). it would draw ratings, and B). they thought they could get away with it. So don't let them fool you. Dave Lenihan wasn't fired because the management of KTRS is so high-mindedly diversity-friendly. He was fired solely because he failed test B).

Related Tags: Dave Lenihan, coon, KTRS, Tim Dorsey, Condoleezza Rice

You Should Read Some Of His Letters

It has truly become impossible to parody the politically-correct Left. They continually outdo themselves.

I just saw another perfect example in the news today:

ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Easter Bunny has been sent packing at St. Paul City Hall.

A toy rabbit, pastel-colored eggs and a sign with the words "Happy Easter" were removed from the lobby of the City Council offices, because of concerns they might offend non-Christians.

We're afraid that the Easter Bunny might offend the sensibilities of non-Christians. In St. Paul, Minnesota.

Related Tags: St. Paul, St. Paul, Minnesota, political correctness, Easter bunny

Mr. Mike

The comments following my last post reminded me of an old favorite by the wonderfully demented dead comedy writer, Michael O'Donoghue: "How to Write Good."

O'Donoghue, incidentally, was one of the founding writers on "Saturday Night Live," and had the distinction of appearing on the show's first-ever sketch in 1975, a cold-opening where he plays a language teacher. An unknown (though about to be very known) John Belushi is his foreign student. O'Donoghue offers such phrases as "I would like to feed your fingertips to the wolverines," which Belushi carefully repeats in a thick foreign accent. Suddenly, the teacher grips his chest, gasps, and keels over dead of a heart attack. The student watches him for a moment, and then dutifully grabs his own chest, gasps, and keels over.

Anyway, here's a snippet of "How to Write Good." Read the rest of it here.

Lesson 1 - The Grabber

The "grabber" is the initial sentence of a novel or short story designed to jolt the reader out of his complacency and arouse his curiosity, forcing him to press onward. For example:

"It's no good, Alex," she rejoined, "Even if I did love you, my father would never let me marry an alligator."

The reader is immediately bombarded with questions, questions such as "Why won't her father let her marry an alligator?" "How come she doesn't love him?" and "Can she learn to love him in time?" The reader's interest has been "grabbed"!

Just so there'll be no misunderstanding about grabbers, I've listed a few more below:

"I'm afraid you're too late," sneered Zoltan. "The fireplace has already flown south for the winter!"

Sylvia lay sick among the silverware...

Chinese vegetables mean more to me than you do, my dear," Charles remarked to his wife, adding injury to insult by lodging a grapefruit knife in her neck.

"I have in my hands," Professor Willobee exclaimed, clutching a sheaf of papers in his trembling fingers and pacing in circles about the carpet while I stood at the window, barely able to make out the Capitol dome through the thick, churning fog that rolled in off the Potomac, wondering to myself what matter could possibly be so urgent as to bring the distinguished historian bursting into my State Department office at the unseemly hour, "definitive proof that Abraham Lincoln was a homo!"

These are just a handful of the possible grabbers. Needless to say, there are thousands of others, but if you fail to think of them, feel free to use any or all of these.

Now, I grant that it might not be to everyone's taste...

Related Tags: Michael O'Donoghue, Saturday Night Live, How to Write Good, John Belushi, wolverines, National Lampoon

Honing In On A Peeve

I was talking with someone the other day about what reoccurring annoyances drive us batty, when I realized that one of mine is people who use the word "reoccurring."

They mean "recurring," and there's no "o" in it. "Reoccurring," though widely used, is only a bastardization of the proper word. But at this late date, the point is probably mute irregardless of what's correct.

But At Least She's Getting Really Old

The always-excellent Mark Levin has the goods on Ruth Bader Ginsburg's asinine speech in South Africa from last month. (Incidentally, as a side note: am I the only one who finds it strange that these Supreme Court Justices can flit around the globe giving these speeches, and sometimes we don't find out what they said for months afterward? It shows me two things: 1). Somebody needs to be keeping a far closer eye on these clowns, and 2). the Supreme Court is allowed to operate under a veil of way too much secrecy and anonymity. They should install television cameras in the Court yesterday.)

Referring to congressional legislation that would explicitly bar the Court from citing foreign law in it's rulings, Ginsburg said:

These measures recycle similar resolutions and bills proposed before the 2004 elections in the United States, but never put to a vote. Although I doubt the current measures will garner sufficient votes to pass, it is disquieting that they have attracted sizable support. And one not-so-small concern - they fuel the irrational fringe.

Ah yes, that irrational fringe that thinks that U.S. courts ought to be applying U.S. laws and the U.S. Constitution. Crazy people, those.

Ginsburg goes on to ridiculously compare judicial originalists to the perpetrators of the Dred Scott decision (when precisely the opposite was actually the case--the justices responsible Dred Scott were judicial activists). As Levin points out:

To the best of my knowledge, Ginsburg has never spoken publicly about the attacks on the judiciary or nominees to the bench by leftwing groups, bloggers and members of Congress — whose rhetoric and tactics are typically poisonous. Perhaps the reason is that she’s sympathetic to their goal, which is the perpetuation of judicial supremacy.

With the merciful retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor, Ginsburg is the most dangerous woman in America. If we had a populous that was familiar with the Constitution and American history, she'd already have been impeached.

Related Tags: Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mark Levin, Supreme Court, Dred Scott, foreign law, Constitution

A Public Non-Commitment

This wasn't me. Honest. In case you were wondering.

I happen to think that such a thing probably wouldn't be an altogether terrific idea, for the most part, and should be generally disavowed, all things considered. To some degree.

Related Tags: Supreme Court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Roe, Roe, Roe Your Boat

Doug Wilson offers an interesting perspective on the abortion ban that was recently passed by the South Dakota legislature, for pro-lifers who fear it was an over-reach:

...[I]ncrementalism does not work unless there is a significant group of people who want it all now. Pro-lifers should take a look at the leftist playbook. The incrementalists are the ones who make it happen. The hard-liners are the reason it happens. And one thing you will almost never see -- because leftists have incrementalism figured out -- is an incrementalist green (to take one example) apologizing for a hard-liner green. They don't do that, because they understand how it works.

For all the incrementalists who want to nibble Roe to death, God bless you. Get back to your nibbling. It is your work that will ultimatley prevail. And if South Dakota (and about fifteen other states) show that they don't want anything to do with abortion, and they don't want anything to do with it now, don't start wringing your hands. The hardliners are the only reason you have any traction at all, and the more vocal and influential they are, the better it is for you. If you don't apologize.

Related Tags: Doug Wilson, abortion, Roe v. Wade, incrementalism, South Dakota abortion ban, South Dakota legislature

Speak On, O Lips That Can Do No More Harm

I've been buried under a project for the last week, so I haven't been able to stop in much. I did notice while I've been missing, however, that former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave a speech where she implied that conservative attempts to reform the judiciary will lead us to a dictatorship.

I'm sure whatever else she said was also, much as her jurisprudence, monumentally stupid. But I don't really know, because I pretty much zoned out at the words "former Supreme Court Justice," which filled me with an ineffable joy and sent me into ecstatic waves of euphoria. Just seeing those words appended to the beginning of a sentence makes her addled, moronic legal opinions now harmless and bearable, which is as it ought to be.

Related Tags: Sandra Day O'Connor, Supreme Court, dictatorship

Hammerin' Hank Remains The King

It's over for Barry Bonds.

Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters have the definitive goods on him and his rampant steroid use. He may continue to play (though I won't be a bit surprised if he now hangs it up before spring training ends), but now even if he surpasses Babe Ruth's or Hank Aaron's home run marks, it will always be tainted with an asterisk, just as Mark McGwire's 70 home run season in 1998 is.

And if you were among the eight people in North America who still doubted that Barry Bonds is a complete turd, this excerpt from the forthcoming book will disabuse you of your fantasies.

Related Tags: Barry Bonds, steroids, steroid use, Barry Bonds' steroid use, walking excrement, waste of human skin, BALCO, San Francisco Chronicle, Mark Fainaru-Wada, Lance Williams, Game of Shadows, Mark McGwire

Oh yeah, and today is my three-year blogoversary. Blah, blah, blah...

Those Little Town Blues

Got back from N.Y. late last night. Had an outstanding time as always. New York is an interesting place, to say the least.

Before going to see "Spamalot," (which I enjoyed greatly; my wife not as much), we went to eat at the legendary 21 Club restaurant. Andy Rooney was eating a couple of tables over from us. If such a thing is even possible, he actually looks even older and crankier in person. At first, I thought he was sitting behind a small shrub of some kind. Then I realized that was his eyebrows.

I also met this guy from Saturday Night Live who played John Kerry for them during the last election:



And as if that weren't enough, we also met the guy on the right of this picture, which comes from the now-famous "Chronic-What?-cles of Narnia" video ("Mr. Pibb plus Red Vines equals crazy delicious") which Slate says "...[made] Saturday Night Live a cultural touchstone for the first time since Christopher Walken pleaded for 'more cowbell.'":



He was a very, very nice kid who seemed genuinely grateful for the bit of success he's currently enjoying.

Oh, and, we were frightened on the street at 12:45am by a guy who insisted we watch a balloon trick. And I mean he insisted. After I politely declined his invitation to observe his little trick by saying "we have to be somewhere," the guy planted himself in front of us and pleaded with us to watch the trick. My wife was nearly insensate with fear, but I was more calm, figuring that a guy with a small balloon inflater could only do so much damage to us if he decided to rob us with it. Fortunately, he didn't, and let us merrily on our way after we watched him make a deer (I think) jumping through a heart.

So where else in the world can you get all that in one weekend?

New York State of Mind

I'm traveling back to New York later this afternoon, only this time for fun. My wife's and my wedding anniversary was earlier this week, and I scored major points with her the last time we celebrated this way. Carried me for months. So I'm taking her back for a long weekend.

While we're there, I'm taking her to eat at this restaurant, to see this play on Broadway, and to visit this church.

In the meantime, I leave you with an Oscar weekend thought from Ann Coulter:

Is the idea of gay cowboys really that new? Didn't the Village People do that a couple of decades ago? Am I the only person who saw John Travolta in "Urban Cowboy"?

Related Tags: New York, Ann Coulter, Brokeback Mountain, Oscars

Old Mr. Hubbard's Got Crazy In The Cupboard

Rolling Stone has a fascinating, exhaustive, enormous piece this month on what it's like to be a Scientologist.

After reading it, you'll realize that jumping up and down on Oprah's couch like a kid on the short bus is one of the less strange things about Tom Cruise.

Because the "Church of Scientology" is famously litigious, the media has largely shied away from doing exposés on it. This article doesn't draw a lot of conclusions about Scientology--it just puts it out there in all of it's incredible weirdness for the world to see.

And it's definitive proof of the addage "You can find somebody to believe anything."

(Hat tip: Geoff Robinson)

Related Tags: Scientology, Church of Scientology, Scientologists, L. Ron Hubbard, Tom Cruise, Rolling Stone

Misty Water-Colored Memories

Well, the Winter Olympics are over, or as I like to call them, Chicksportapalooza.

I didn't see any of these Games, with the exception of one seven-minute stretch on the flight to JFK two weeks ago, where I did stop and watch. Song Airlines, a soon-to-disappear subsidiary of Delta, has Dish Network on a little LCD screen at every seat on the plane. Frankly, I never want to fly another airline. But that's a seperate issue.

Madly flipping through the channels, I came across some Olympic coverage on CNBC. Curling was the event. Ah, the memories will last forever. Another Winter Olympics etched upon my heart.

The bribes have been taken and the money has been laundered, so the next Winter Olympics are set for Vancouver, B.C. in 2010. I'm setting my TiVo now!

Related Tags: Winter Olympics, Olympics, curling, Song, Dish Network, CNBC

Attacktics

The thing I continue to find disturbing about the Bush Administration is the way it treats criticism from the right. When conservative critics disagree with the administration, it seems that President Bush and his advisors almost reflexively slip into the kind of argumentation you'd expect from the Left. Instead of dealing with substantive objections, they impugn the motives and morality of their conservative critics and ratify all the tired old liberal tropes about conservatives being racist, sexist Neanderthals

That's strange behavior for a supposedly "conservative" administration.

When conservatives were enraged that Bush nominated to the Supreme Court his unqualified friend Harriet Miers, who had no judicial record and no discernible judicial philosophy, the administration's initial response was to act like liberals: they labeled the opposition "sexist," thus slandering them and dismissing their legitimate judicial complaints. Now when conservatives (and pretty much everyone else) are opposing the UAE/ports deal, the administration's immediate response is to end the discussion by implying that the critics are "Islamophobic" and racist toward Arabs.

(Incidentally, for the record, I'll be happy to come right out and admit I am "Islamophobic," as is any person in his right mind. Despite Bush's incessant "religion of peace" nonsense, Islam has left only a bloody trail of violence everywhere it has ever been in history. Anyone who's not afraid of it is an idiot. So even if the opposition is "Islamophobic," does simply labeling it relieve the administration of the responsibility for addressing those fears? It's not as if they're illegitimate fears; I drove by a huge hole in the ground in Lower Manhattan the other day that tells me they are legitimate. The burden should be on the administration--considering recent world events--to explain to me why my "Islamophobia" is misguided, rather than simply marginalizing and dismissing it with a pejorative label.)

To act as if concerns about Arab nations owning American ports is simply xenophobic, red-necked bigotry--as if there's not even a conceivable difference to reasonable people between our ports being owned by an English company and our ports being owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates--is disingenuous at best and malicious at worst.

My friend Brad (a strong supporter of the president's, by the way), puts it brilliantly. Though he still hopes against hope that Bush is masterminding some brilliant political move here, he says:

If there's nothing else behind this than stupidity, I'd suggest we outsource his Secret Service security to a Middle East country- give him a little Justice Souter treatment.

Surely the president wouldn't object, would he? I mean, he's not some kind of xenophobe, is he?

Related Tags: President Bush, George W. Bush, Bush, Bush Administration, United Arab Emirates, UAE, port, ports, ports deal, Harriet Miers, Islamophobia, Islamophobic, Islam, Arab, xenophobic, racist, sexist, bigotry

Those Savvy Geniuses Are At It Again

Just got back from Indiana, and picked up about 40 valuable degrees Fahrenheit along the way. I'm told some people actually live up that way voluntarily.

Wow, President Bush really wasn't kidding when he told us he was a uniter and not a divider. He's pretty much united the entire nation against him with this deal selling our ports to the United Arab Emirates.

According to CNN.com:

Bush, who has yet to veto a bill, warned Tuesday that the United States is sending "mixed signals" by attacking a Middle Eastern company after a British firm ran the ports for several years.

Lawmakers who have called for the deal to be blocked need to "step up and explain why a Middle Eastern company is held to a different standard," he said.

Gosh. Okay. Hmmm. Let me see if I can give this a try. Could it be because so many Middle Easterners, with the help of Arab Middle Eastern governments, are actively trying to kill us?!? I'm just throwing it out there.

It's also nice that the president has finally found something he's willing to use the veto on after five years: a bill to block the sale. I think this will be just the thing to finally disabuse people of the longstanding notion that he's in the pockets of oil interests.

Related Tags: President Bush, George W. Bush, United Arab Emirates, Dubai, ports, port, veto, UAE

Global Warming Is Your Friend?

There's been a lot of discussion over the past week or so regarding the "Evangelical Climate Initiative," signed by Rick Warren^TM, among others.

Contrary to some opinions I've recently heard, environmental stewardship is an issue that Christian pastors ought to deal with. But they ought to know what they're talking about--which Warren and many others may not.

After the National Association of Evangelicals announced that it would not take an official stand on "global warming," Warren and a group of 85 other evangelicals broke away to join the so-called "fight against global warming."

While to some gullible evangelicals this issue might seem to present a golden opportunity to suck up to liberal environmentalists and receive breathless kudos from the media without any real cost, in reality environmental policy can have massive consequences--and liberals (who've never shown much grasp of the Law of Unintended Consequences) have a long history of adopting a "do something--anything" stance with disastrous results. For evangelicals to join them is naive at best, and potentially grievously harmful at worst.

It is not always best to "just do something." It often can be positively harmful. The price of going off half-cocked is high. As E. Calvin Beisner of the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance writes:

In developing countries, 2 billion people still do not enjoy the basic necessities and conveniences that electricity makes possible: lighting, refrigeration, hospitals, schools, manufacturing, water purification and sewage treatment...
[F]our million infants, children and mothers die every year from lung infections, due to constant pollution from their fires. Six million more perish annually from intestinal diseases, caused by unsafe water and spoiled food.

However, concerns about climate change are frequently cited to justify policies that prevent poor countries from building fossil fuel power plants. And yet, even the Kyoto Protocol would result in Earth's temperature being only 0.2 degrees F less by 2050 than it would be without the treaty. A better approach would be to develop technologies that generate abundant, reliable energy, at lower cost and with fewer emissions -- and export those technologies to poor countries.

That's the kind of viewpoint one rarely hears in the mainstream media. Because the orthodoxy of the so-called "environmental movement" is unquestioned, the movement only needs to point to the mere existence of global warming as proof that "something must be done about it."

But what if they're wrong? What if global warming isn't harmful? What if "doing something about it" will result in disaster? Or even more astoundingly, what if global warming is our friend?

Dr. Roy Spencer, who was once Senior Scientist for Climate Studies at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and is now principal research scientist at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, writes in a document called "An Examination of the Scientific, Ethical and Theological Implications of Climate Change Policy," (PDF file):

My belief, shared by a growing number of others in the climate field, is that the level of future warming will be modest, due to stabilizing mechanisms within the climate system. Unfortunately, the benefits of such a modest amount of global warming are seldom discussed. There is comparatively little government research money available to investigate possible benefits, and the media would rather report predictions of gloom and doom anyway.

The largest positive impact could be in agriculture....Much research has been performed into the combined effects of extra warmth and extra CO2 on various kinds of plants, with the bulk of the results showing net benefits to plant health and growth.

In other words, the rise in global climate could be helping to feed third-world people. How often have you heard that view presented in the media? But hey, why would the media listen to some NASA climatologist on global climatology?

So, do Rick Warren and the other signers of the "Evangelical Climate Initiative" know enough to declare Spencer wrong? Are they even aware that there are opposing scientific views? Do they realize that the knee-jerk policy objectives of do-gooder environmentalists could actually wind up harming the third world people they're purporting to help?

Fortunately, an antidote exists for the boilerplate usually peddled by the environmental left, for those who want to educate themselves on the issue so they don't inadvertently wreak destruction in the name of "compassion" and "stewarship." Several organizations offer excellent articles, including the Acton Institute's section on Environmental Stewardship and the Interfaith Stewardship Alliance.

This is not a case where it is good to act before we know what we're doing. The lives of millions of poor people could ride on these decisions, it would be nice if we were right.

Related Tags: Rick Warren, Evangelical Climate Initiative, National Association of Evangelicals, global warming, climate change, climatology, environmental movement, environmentalists, environmentalism, environment, E. Calvin Beisner, Roy Spencer, Interfaith Stewardship Alliance, Acton Institute

Call Me Mr. Lucky II

Today I'm going to Indianapolis (and Ft. Wayne), where it's 23 degrees. According to the weather websites, though, it feels like 12. So I got that going for me, which is nice.

I'll have my computer with me this time, though, so I may get to check in from up there.

UPDATE-11:40pm: Cold.....so....cold......Oh my....not...used...to...this...

Around The Horn

At the end of a busy traveling week (and New York City did a wonderful job of clearing away the snow; by the time I got there, you'd not have even known it snowed more than a few inches), let's take a look at what's going on around the web. I'm admittedly late to the party on a lot of this.

• The ladies over at the evangelical outpost really have their panties in a wad over Ann Coulter. If there's any group who knows what's funny and what isn't, it'd be my fellow evangelicals...
  
  The column that sparked their snit can be found here. And a substantial archive of her horrific and hilarious columns can be found here. (Warning: Not for nancy-boys and delicate Victorian prudes.)

• Pastor John Piper sailed through his prostate cancer surgery on Tuesday, which is welcome news. My prayer is that he returns to "active duty" quickly.

• I'm currently working on a television documentary on The Da Vinci Code, the movie version of which is scheduled to be released in May (starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard). In New York, I stopped by the Opus Dei U.S. headquarters to ask some questions. Nobody tried to kill me or anything. In fact, they seemed like regular, nice people. No murderous, albino monks to be found. In fact, Opus Dei doesn't even have monks, as it turns out. But everything else in Dan Brown's book is a fraud, so I shouldn't have been suprised.

• If there's one blog in the blogosphere that deserves to be read by more people, it's Terrible Swift Word. Brian's given it an all-new look, and there might not be anybody in the blogosphere who more directly corresponds with the thoughts rattling around inside my head. This week, he delineates the different kinds of movie remakes ("Whatever," "Again!?" and "Sacred Ground,") and offers some observations on the disturbing new Flavor-Flav reality show.

• The Therapist reports:

  Arab Muslims Riot Over Coverage Of Earlier Riots
  
  Middle East--Complaining about "distinctly monolithic reporting" with regard to rioting, Arab Muslims around the Middle East took to the streets to protest media coverage of their earlier takings to the street.

  Read the rest here.

• Which puts me in the mind of something Ann Coulter said in the infamous column that gave the evangelical outpost the vapors:

  The "offense to Islam" ruse is merely an excuse for Muslims to revert to their default mode: rioting and setting things on fire. These people have a serious anger management problem. So it's not exactly a scoop that Muslims are engaging in violence. A front-page story would be "Offended Muslims Remain Calm."

And that, kids, is how we play Around The Horn.

Related Tags: Ann Coulter, evangelical outpost, evangelicals, John Piper, Da Vinci Code, The Da Vinci Code, Opus Dei, Dan Brown, Terrible Swift Word, The Therapist, Muslims

Call Me Mr. Lucky

It only makes sense that I'd schedule a business trip to New York City for the day after their biggest snowstorm in recorded history.

We'll be landing at JFK, where a Turkish Air flight carrying 198 people skidded off the runway last night. Good times.

(Mostly) Stayin' Alive

I failed to note last week that (as Sam The Lovably Grumpy Atheist pointed out), Grandpa Al Lewis dropped off my "surprised they're still alive list" by...well...dying.

According to the news reports, he was 82. And if he was 82, I'm 9.

My "surprised they're still alive list" has been spread out all over this blog in lots of different posts, so I'll merge the lists (removing the contestants who have already been "voted off the island," so to speak) and publish it here so you can play along at home:

• Joey Bishop

• Doris Day

• Harry Morgan

• Glenn Ford

• James Arness

• Conrad Bain

• Jack LaLanne

• Kitty Carlisle

• Buck O'Neill

• Ingmar Bergman

• John Forsythe

• Rose Marie

• Al Molinaro

• Barbara Billingsley

• Karl Malden

• Jane Wyman

• Larry Storch

• Jack Warden

Print it up and post it on the refrigerator. It's fun for the whole family!

Related Tags: "Grandpa" Al Lewis, Al Lewis, dead celebrities

Try Some Acme Pepper Spray

If you kill a cartoon rioter, does he return in the next scene healthy as if nothing had ever happened?

I think the best way to stop these Muslim cartoon rioters without violence is to paint a big black spot that looks like a hole on the ground in front of them, which they will then fall into.

Civil Wrongs

Why was President Bush at Coretta Scott King's funeral today? Every visit to kiss the rings of the so-called "civil rights leaders" who show up at these things simply lends them false legitimacy and gives them yet another opportunity to demonstrate that they are rude jackasses. Bush, and every other self-respecting leader, present or former, ought to ditch these phony events from now on.

The "civil rights" establishment is thoroughly corrupt, plain and simple. One ought not to associate with them. Mrs. King herself may have been a fine person (I have no idea one way or the other; she's a celebrity widow, and all the hoopla is still mainly about her husband), but any event at which Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are treated as royalty is not an event appropriate for civilized people. For far too long white people have acted as if collective guilt demands solicitousness toward the race-mongering black "civil rights" racketeers. It doesn't, and it's time to stop it.

If the "black community" wants to continue following fools like Jackson, Sharpton, Farrakhan, and the rest, that's its problem. But why keep putting a stamp of approval on it? Call it what it is. Enough already. Blacks aren't owed any more deference than anyone else in America, and acting as if they are only harms them and empowers the hucksters who lead them.

Related Tags: Coretta Scott King, President Bush, George W. Bush, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, civil rights, Louis Farrakhan

Hot In Herre

The National Association of Evangelicals hasn't taken a public stance on global warming despite a few calls from within the organization for it to do so, which evidently makes the Washington Post none too happy.

See if you can guess where the Post stands from its headline: Evangelicals Will Not Take Stand on Global Warming.

The Post is evidently flummoxed that evangelicals, while professing to care for the environment, would fail to fall into lock-step with the green activists of the left on warming. Perhaps it could be because they don't understand the concept of being "prudent." Or of "examining the actual evidence."

One of my professors is quoted in the Post's article. He has extensively researched environmental issues and is affiliated with the Acton Institute, which has done important work in this field, and he was one of many urging the NAE to look before it leaps onto the green bandwagon:

...E. Calvin Beisner, professor of social ethics at Knox Theological Seminary, a conservative Presbyterian school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., applauded the NAE's non-position.

Beisner, who helped draft [a letter urging caution] to [NAE president Ted] Haggard from evangelical leaders, said they had feared that the NAE was going "to assume as true certain things that we think are still debatable, such as that global warming is not only real but also almost certainly going to be catastrophically harmful; second, that it is being driven to a significant extent by human activity; and third, that some regime, some international treaty for mandatory reductions in CO2 emissions, could make a significant enough drop in global emissions to justify the costs to the human economy."

While many environmental leftists will beat their chests and make a lot of noise over statements like this, one thing you'll notice they'll never do is answer them. Asking them to justify their assertions on the causes and effects of global warming will draw little more than a blank stare.

Currently the green left is of the "do something--anything" school of thought, without much regard to the actual evidence. I'm glad there are sensible voices urging us to seriously examine whether there is any real link between human behavior and global warming. If not, all the calls to monkey around with world economies in an effort to "fix" it is so much spitting in the wind.

Related Tags: global warming, environment, National Association of Evangelicals, Ted Haggard, E. Calvin Beisner, Knox Theological Seminary, Acton Institute, Washington Post

I Know "The West Wing" Was Cancelled, But...

So I see that the face transplant woman in France came forward yesterday for her first press conference. Transplant recipient Isabelle Dinoire said, "I hope the successful operation will help other people like me to live again."



I'm glad things went well, of course, but my question is: Before the transplant, wasn't Stockard Channing still using her face?


(Photo courtesy of AP)

Related Tags: Isabelle Dinoire, face transplant

Cartoon Violence

It's hard not to be a little amused by the irony in the violent Islamic protests against political cartoons portraying the prophet Mohammed as a terrorist.

"How dare you portray our great prophet as a bomb-throwing terrorist! Now we must kill you and burn your buildings!"

John Piper says of the recent unrest:

Am I missing it, or is there an unusual silence in the blogosphere about the Muslim outrage over the cartoons of Mohammed. To me this cries out for the observation that when artists put the crucifix in a flask of urine, Christians were grieved and angered, but not one threatened to kill anyone. Our longing is to convert the blasphemers with the Good News of Christ's death and resurrection, not kill them. Our faith is based on One who was reviled not just in cartoons but in reality and received it patiently for the salvation of the cartoonists. These riots are filled with intimations about the glorious difference between Christ and Mohammed, and between the way of Christ and the way of Islam. And the cowing of the press around the world and the US government is ominous for the fear we are under of Islam--not just extremist Islam. I do not respect the teachings of Islam which when followed devoutly lead to destruction. So I have been pondering which will take me out first, Islam, Uncle Sam, or cancer. No matter, all authority belongs to Jesus. I just want to bear faithful witness to his glorious gospel of peace to the end.

(Hat tip to Justin Taylor)

Related Tags: Islam, Muslim violence, political cartoon, cartoons, Mohammed, John Piper, terrorist, terrorism, protests

Around The Horn

Pat Buchanan lambastes President Bush on the foreign policy parts of his State of the Union address:

Intending no disrespect, [Bush's stated intent to "seek the end of tyranny in our world"] is noble-sounding nonsense. Our security rests on U.S. power and will, and not on whether Zimbabwe, Sudan, Syria, Cuba or even China is ruled by tyrants. Our forefathers lived secure in a world of tyrannies by staying out of wars that were none of America's business. As for "the end of tyranny in our world," Mr. President, sorry, that doesn't come in "our world." That comes in the next.

Ann Coulter might be a sore winner, but she's hilarious as always:

There now ... nominating a conservative to the Supreme Court wasn't that scary, was it? Hey, who wants to go again?

...Only because of the grassroots revolt against [Harriet] Miers were Republicans in Washington finally forced to face their worst nightmare.

Terror, thy name is Samuel Alito. Or as he is now known: "Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito."

In the whirlwind surrounding Alito's confirmation, I almost lost sight of the fact that his confirmation marked the official end of Sandra Day O'Connor's confused, monarchial reign over America. Good riddance.


Desiring God has announced their 2006 National Conference, to take place September 29-October 1: Above All Earthly Powers: The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World. Among the guest speakers will be D.A. Carson, David Wells, and Timothy Keller. My wife and I vowed last year to make DG's annual conference a part of our annual plans. Also, Desiring God has an update on John Piper's prostate cancer surgery, scheduled for February 14.

Related Tags: Pat Buchanan, State of the Union, Ann Coulter, Samuel Alito, Sam Alito, Sandra Day O'Connor, Desiring God, John Piper

The Sky Is Falling!

The closet leftists in the media are desperately hoping that Justice Alito's first vote at the Supreme Court yesterday signals that he's actually a raving liberal.

In a 6-3 vote, the Court decided not to overrule a temporary stay of execution issued by a lower court in Missouri for an inmate who was supposed to die by lethal injection at midnight last night.

"Alito Breaks With Conservatives In First Vote!" "Alito Sides With Liberal Justices!" "Alito Blocks Execution!" The media is soiling themselves over the silver lining they think they've suddenly found in the cloud. Except it's not.

Alito didn't block anything, first of all. He decided to let stand the ruling of the court closer to the case. He simply sided with the status quo. It was not a "Supreme Court decision," nor was there any formal ruling. There is absolutely no indication that this vote has anything to do with death penalty ideology; all indications are that Alito believes the death penalty itself is perfectly constitutional.

Oh, and for his supposed "break" with conservatives? Buried several paragraphs down in the CNN story, after the orgasmic excitement over Alito's supposed defection, is this:

An initial vote in the Taylor case came Wednesday afternoon, when all the justices rejected Missouri's effort to immediately end a stay of execution for Taylor.

In other words, earlier in the very same day, the conservative justices had all voted exactly the same way Alito did. Justice Scalia agreed with Justice Alito on this case yesterday. Justice Thomas agreed with Justice Alito yesterday. Chief Justice Roberts agreed with Alito on this case yesterday. The fact that they later in the day changed their minds does nothing to change the basic fact of this case: it's not a "liberal/conservative" issue. All of the Supreme Court justices were able to see a good reason for upholding the stay at some point yesterday.

Much as liberals would love this to be a sign that Alito is actually John Paul Stevens without the stupid bow tie, they're grasping at straws. He's going to be a nightmare for them.

Related Tags: Supreme Court, Samuel Alito, Sam Alito, death penalty