www site     



pearceyreport.jpg
   RSS 
Link to us   
HomeStoreAboutTotal TruthBlogContactDonateSpeakingArchives
pro-existence banner no. 2 black by Rick and Nancy Pearcey.jpg

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

TV News Decline: Fake It and Audiences Will Flee

By Rick Pearcey • June 30, 2010, 04:14 PM

"Broadcast Evening Newscasts Lose More than 1 Million Viewers in Past Year," reports a headline at TVNewser.

Mark Tapscott takes up the theme at Beltway Confidential:

Employee layoffs and publication closings among daily newspapers gets most of the coverage as the legacy media continues its decline, but the same trend is evident in the numbers for the three broadcast network evening news programs.

TVNewser reports that more than a million former viewers stopped watching NBC News Brian Williams, ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, and CBS News Katie Couric during the second quarter of 2010, compared to the same quarter last year. The total losses by network were 440,000 for NBC, 260,000 for ABC, and 340,000 for CBS.

The big networks are failing their viewers in at least two ways.

First, increasingly they are no longer reporting news. The networks have rejected the mainstream of journalism in which reporters are expected, in a fair, blalanced, and accurate way, to marshall facts in support of stories about crucial events and happenings around town and around the world. Instead of news and a passion for facts, we have propaganda and passion for ideology.  

Second, increasingly they are no longer supporting freedom. The major broadcast networks have rejected the mainstream principles of freedom as set forth so well in the Declaration of Independence and then safe-guarded governmentally in the U.S. Constitution.

Therefore, the unspoken and hidden premise of so much "coverage" is that of the superiority of the secularized and centralized state over against the individual and, ultimately, over against any rival entity that challenges the power, authority, and supremacy of the new savior masked as government. 

Unfortunately for the networks (but good for us), human beings are created for objectivity, truth, and dignity. The same Creator who has created all people equally (of the same high ontological worth and significance) has also endowed us with a drive for truth and for holistic decision-making and personal commitment based on truth. 

Therefore, a people hungry for real information (from toothpaste to technology to theology) resists pretend journalism, fake reporting, and distortion directed toward "change" instead of a fair treatment of the facts at hand.

And, therefore, yes, the door is open for a Fox News -- and for any journalistic outlet that knows something about the difference between fact and opinion and which respects the God-given intelligence and dignity of thinking minds keeping an eye on what ABC, CBS, and NBC are up to.

Instead of a "field of dreams," the networks have created a broadcast "field of schemes." And as audiences observe what the formerly mainstream media have built, they are turning away. They are deciding one by one that the real game in town is at another ballpark, one where real professionals play by the rules.


Atlanta Pastor: "Dreadful Trend of Silencing Christians"

By Rick Pearcey • June 30, 2010, 08:36 AM

"Unless freedom-loving people wake up now, their children will wake up to discover that they are living under Sharia law," writes Michael Youssef, founder of Church of the Apostles in Atlanta, Ga.


Italy Goes Hat in Hand to End Crucifix Ban

By Rick Pearcey • June 30, 2010, 06:34 AM

"The Italian government is appealing to the European court of human rights to overturn a ban on classroom crucifixes," reports the BBC.

"This case against crucifixes was brought by a woman who argued that her children had a right to a secular education under Italy's constitution."

Apparently, the sovereign nation of Italy no longer exists. This need not be so.

Someone please go tell the European court and the Italians: If unalienable rights endowed upon humanity by the Creator are not universal, they are not unalienable.

If Italians want to live in an exceptional nation that need not go begging to other human beings for "rights," they may want to consider listening to, and applying instead, the information we have from the Creator. The Creator-based concepts that made, and can again make, the United States exceptional (see the Declaration of Independence) are equally available and applicable to any being created equal in the image of God. That includes the Italians.



Tuesday, June 29, 2010

It's a Bird, a Plane . . . a Flying Car? -- Video

By Rick Pearcey • June 29, 2010, 10:11 AM

Yep. More at the UK Telegraph.


Australian Prime Minister Does Not Believe in God

By Rick Pearcey • June 29, 2010, 08:36 AM

"I'm not going to pretend to a faith I don't feel," says Julia Gillard. But she has "great respect for religion," according to the UK Telegraph.

Three quick points:

1) Faith, at least "trust" placed in our Creator, is a matter of facts, not of feeling. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, for example, is not a feeling. It is either a fact of history or it is not. If it is a fact of history, a reasonable person acts in accordance with that fact; an unreasonable person does not.

2) If the prime minister does not "believe in God," why does she "respect religion"? If a particular "religious" truth claim is false (for example, an assertion that the Easter Bunny is God), why respect it? If a relgious assertion is false, one might hold respect for the misinformed "believer," but "religious" truth claims are the same as any other truth claim. Those which are true ought to be affirmed, and those which are not true ought not to be affirmed. 

3) Finally, the epistemology of the Creator as set forth in the information given in the Biblical data rejects the concept that "faith" is merely a private experience in which people can pretty much "believe" whatever they want and feel good about it. That's not faith, it's nonsense. Biblical "faith" is not about a privatized a way of knowing but rather a fact-based way of trusting -- it's a decision of the whole person based on good and sufficient evidence (as Francis Schaeffer often said) that certain propositions about God, man, and the universe are true.

Gillard gets high marks for her lack of pretense. But based on what we have in this report in the Telegraph, what she rejects has little to do with real Christianity, for what she thinks she rejects is already equally rejected, and even more profoundly rejected, by Christianity itself. 

The real thing -- holistic commitment based on knowable truth -- so that people might live lives of community with their Creator and fellow man -- has always been much more rigorous and reality oriented that what sometimes passes for "faith" these days.

As for me and my house of free-thinkers, we too have great respect -- for truth.

Related
"Religion Very Harmful to People," by Udo Middelmann



Monday, June 28, 2010

Why Are Women Freezing Their Eggs?

By Rick Pearcey • June 28, 2010, 02:25 PM

They're waiting for "Mr. Right," reports BBC.


"Lloyd Marcus for President!"

By Rick Pearcey • June 28, 2010, 01:35 PM

This black is black is black Tea Party dude is American, And He's Proud -- a total mystery, therefore, to the closed-down, formerly mainstream media as represented, for example, by CNN.

You see, in that radical pro-humane document called the Declaration of Independence, people are given a basis for emancipation from idols of the good, the bad, and the media (yep, even worshipping something good and God-given -- such as skin color -- can tear you apart, e.g., "black values," "white power").  

Instead, all of us, red and yellow, black and white, get to be human beings first, created in the image of God, and then we get to enjoy the diversity of this good creation in all its wonder.

But diversity without God is not our strength, it's our downfall, a demon let loose upon the land by a secularism that couldn't care less about the human being, seeing as how ultimately we're really just space junk, cosmic upchuck, complex bits of matter on a meaningless rock in a dying universe -- that is, if you believe the unquestioned dogma of the First Church of the Secular Humanist Anti-Gospel.

Far better to be a heretic for humanity, living in a community of resistance with our true Creator and our fellow man. One of our jobs is to "distract" the Heaven out of Obama and gang, the better to save them from themselves and us and our country from them.

If Lloyd Marcus ever does become president, he'll have the advantage of knowing who he is and why he's here. That puts him light-years ahead of the current uninformed occupant of the White House and his disciples in the press.  

If you're a free-thinking human being who embraces all of God's children and enjoy a litte tea now and then, "It's the Media, Stupid," by Lloyd Marcus at American Thinker, has a place at the table reserved just for you.

Related
Hey Obama, Show Us Your Papers 
Crying "Racism!" to Divide and Conquer
Racism! Racism! And Oh by the Way: Racism!
How to Have a Race War 


Welcome Cindy Simpson to The Pearcey Report

By Rick Pearcey • June 28, 2010, 09:27 AM

In today's edition of The Pearcey Report we feature an article by Cindy Simpson, who writes on the question: "Should GOP Call 'Truce' on Social Issues?"

As the author's footnote states at the end of her article, Cindy is a "'citizen journalist' inspired by Nancy Pearcey's book Total Truth and a proud member of the New Resistance. Her work also appears at American Thinker."

This is Cindy's first article for The Pearcey Report, and we look forward to more.


Celebrity Minister Dropped as Liberty U Seminary Dean

By Rick Pearcey • June 28, 2010, 07:24 AM

"A Baptist minister who toured the country to talk about his conversion from Islam to Christianity is no longer the dean of Liberty University's theological seminary following allegations he fabricated or embellished facts about his past, the school said Friday," according to OneNewsNow.

"The university founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell said that a board of trustees committee concluded Ergun Caner made contradictory statements. Although it didn't find evidence that he was not a Muslim who converted as a teenager, it did discover problems with dates, names and places he says he lived, a statement said," reports OneNewsNow. "Caner will remain on the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary faculty, but won't be dean when his term expires on June 30."

Comment: It is crucial to do the Lord work in the Lord's way, which among other things means truthfulness in resumes, publishing (claims to book or column "authorship," for example), PR, marketing, fundraising, etc., is vital. Anything less is hypocrisy, makes Christianity a laughingstock, reveals a cynicism at the heart of some ministries and big names, does untold harm to unsuspecting people, suggests a church captured by secularism, and takes God's name in vain.

Related
Francis Schaeffer, the Religous Right, Cultural Decline, and Aping the World
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach
David Limbaugh: "It's Not About Me" -- Wink, Wink



Saturday, June 26, 2010

Obama: "You've Got a Lot of Golf Courses Here, Don't You?"

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 02:00 PM

Mr. Obama in Canada, just off the helicopter

Hat tip: American Thinker


Richard Dawkins Would Like to Start Atheist School

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 01:48 PM

In such a school, Dawkins says he "would never want to indoctrinate children in atheism. . . . Instead, children should be taught to ask for evidence, to be sceptical, critical, open-minded. If children understand that beliefs should be substantiated with evidence, as opposed to tradition, authority, revelation or faith, they will automatically work out for themselves that they are atheists."

For someone who despises Christianity, Dawkins seems to know nothing of its emphasis on freedom of thought, critique, the demand for evidence, the appropriateness of questioning, and the call for commitment of the whole person based on evidence and rational analysis vis-a-vis the real world we know in our daily experience.

For more on the liberating epistemological perspective of the Judeo-Christian worldview, please see "Christmas Spirit in the Dirt."

Related
Atheist Goes Back to Court 
True Scandal: 78% of Americans "Believe" in the Resurrection
Obama Team Claims Right to Ban Books, Speech


Politico: Palin Praises Column Linking Obama, Hitler

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 11:01 AM

You see, folks, it's OK to learn the lessons of history, lest you repeat the failures of the past -- unless, of course, learning the lessons of the fascist past casts the actions of the Democrat present in a somewhat unfortunate light.

And so, don't you know, there are a couple of people in this country who, yet again, find fault with something Sarah Palin has said or done.

All of which means, according to Palin-haters, is that neither Sarah Palin nor anyone like her ought ever to be President of the United States, etc.

Or could it be that the column in question is too close for comfort?


England v. Germany: Octopus Predicts Winner -- Video

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 10:26 AM

If Paul the Octopus is correct -- and he reportedly boasts a 100% accuracy rating thus far for this year's soccer shootout -- the Brits may need a stiff upper lip by game's end. Here's a video report from the UK Telegraph


Homeschoolers Alarmed by Kagan Nomination

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 09:48 AM

"Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan's press for considering international law as 'the context' for interpreting U.S. law has incited worries her appointment could pave the way for world treaties that threaten both parental rights and homeschooling in the United States, reports WorldNetDaily.


Germany Warns United States . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 09:40 AM

. . . "Don't become 'addicted to borrowing'," headlines Der Spiegel.


Little Penguins Incinerated

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 09:28 AM

"Thirteen penguins burnt to death when a weed reduction operation on Montague Island bird sanctuary went wrong," reports the Sidney Morning Herald.

"Despite the death of the protected little penguins, the Environment Department initially called the burn-off a success."


Jewish Dancers Attacked in Germany

By Rick Pearcey • June 26, 2010, 09:15 AM

A Jewish dance group was attacked in Germany last Saturday while performing during a street festival in Hanover," reports Arutz Sheva.

"Members of the Haverim dance group were pelted with stones as they took the stage. One dancer was injured. As youth threw stones, they screamed 'Juden Raus' (Jews out). . . . Five of the six suspects" aged 9 to 19 are "Muslim immigrants."



Friday, June 25, 2010

Americans Don't Watch Soccer? -- Video

By Rick Pearcey • June 25, 2010, 10:53 AM

Watch this terrific video of U.S. World Cup reaction, at home and abroad. Here's video of the shot heard and celebrated round the world.

Hat tip: Beltway Confidential

Related
The "Phantom Call": FIFA Studies Ref's Decision in Slovenia-U.S. Match
The Right Hates Soccer?


White House Welcomes Shariah Finance Specialist

By Rick Pearcey • June 25, 2010, 08:47 AM

"The Obama administration has announced its appointment of 13 White House fellows," reports WorldNetDaily, "and the first person featured on its short list is a Muslim attorney who specializes in Shariah-compliant transactions."



Thursday, June 24, 2010

Fat Women Would Willingly Pile on Pounds for This

By Rick Pearcey • June 24, 2010, 11:12 PM

"A third of overweight women would rather gain weight with hope of undergoing free weight loss surgery than diet to slim down," reports the UK Daily Mail.

"Some 32 per cent would deliberately pile on the pounds and become 'morbidly obese' if it meant they could have an NHS funded operation."


Will Obama Bypass Congress to Legalize Illegal Immigrants?

By Rick Pearcey • June 24, 2010, 10:51 PM

File under "Secret Talks, Unilateral Action":

The Obama administration has been holding behind-the-scenes talks to determine whether the Department of Homeland Security can unilaterally grant legal status on a mass basis to illegal immigrants, a former Bush administration official who spoke with at least three people involved in those talks told FoxNews.com. 

The Obama people will not "confirm or deny the claim," reports Fox News.

Meanwhile, consider: When it comes to "getting things done" in Washington, D.C., sometimes Congress, and to be honest, the U.S. Constitution, can be such a distraction. Oh, the frustrations of Chairman Obama. The work of imposing a community organizer's extremist agenda is never done.


Paris Hosts Cyber-Shelter for Battered Bloggers

By Rick Pearcey • June 24, 2010, 03:10 PM

If you're a journalist or blogger needing protection from "repressive authorities" in countries such as China, Vietnam, or Iran, this "virtual anti-censorship shelter" may have you saying, "Oui!"


1st Obama-BP-Gulf Oil Disaster Suicide?

By Rick Pearcey • June 24, 2010, 01:09 PM

A "Gulf boat captian shoots himself on deck after 'becoming upset over oil spill'," says the UK Daily Mail.


HuffPo's Frank Schaeffer Also Wants to Eradicate . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 24, 2010, 10:11 AM

. . . Limbaugh, Beck, and O'Reilly. More at Newsbusters.


Poll: Oil Spill Sinking Obama

By Rick Pearcey • June 24, 2010, 09:40 AM

48% dissapprove of Obama's job performance, reports The Daily Caller:

The two-month-old oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is taking a major toll on President Obama’s presidency, according to a new poll released Wednesday evening.

The Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey of 1,000 adults also shows that Obama is suffering from a backlash against his policies, and that the nation remains generally conservative on issues of government spending and the size of government.

The number of Americans who think the country is on the wrong track is the highest of Obama’s presidency in this particular poll, at 62 percent. And disapproval of Obama’s job performance has also climbed to an all-time high in these polls, at 48 percent, while approval is at an all-time low, at 45 percent.



Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Barton Tweets Out "Joe Barton Was Right"

By Rick Pearcey • June 23, 2010, 01:25 PM

"Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) promoted an article on Wednesday on his official Twitter account by a writer who backed his criticism of the government's handling of BP," reports The Hill.

Perhaps also of interest to Barton could be this: "Bless Joe Barton, Good-Bye GOP."


Obama Pushes Pro-Homosex Agenda, "Suspending Power of Congress"

By Rick Pearcey • June 23, 2010, 09:53 AM

CNSNews.com reports:

Without action by Congress, President Barack Obama on Tuesday announced that his administration will issue regulations applying the Family and Medical Leave Act to homosexual couples and requiring most hospitals to allow homosexuals to visit their partners.
 
One conservative group criticized the White House for handing out "political favors" to the homosexual lobby -- and vastly expanding presidential power in the process.
 
"Piece by anti-democratic piece, the White House is executing its plan for a vast expansion of presidential power," the Family Research Council said. "What this administration has accomplished is nothing less than suspending the power of Congress."


Germany to Offer Exit Hotline for Islamic Terrorists Ready to Quit

By Rick Pearcey • June 23, 2010, 12:06 AM

From Der Spiegel:

Germany has been offering programs for people who want to leave the neo-Nazi scene for years. Now, in a bid to combat the threat of Islamist terrorism, authorities are setting up a telephone hotline for those keen to give up jihad.



Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Krispy Kreme Gets Taste for . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 11:32 PM

. . . New Zealand. "The brand has spread from the American south to having more than 600 stores around the world," which brings back memories of late nights on Walton Way in Augusta, Ga.


Alaska Newspaper and Writer of Palin Editorial Part Company

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 11:17 PM

"The managing editor of the newspaper in Sarah Palin's hometown has left his job, just weeks after he wrote an editorial noting Alaska's protective 'deadly force' law in reference to the former governor's new neighbor, an author who is writing a book about her," reports AP.

Apparently there was something of an uproar after the column. To the effect that the editorial was "threatening and advocated violence," etc. Also apparently, the column had absolutely 100% totally nothing to do with the departure of the managing editor. "Just a strong coincidence."

It seems to me that the new, intrusive Palin neighbor, author Joe McGinniss, might have appreciated a little heads-up on the local legal situation. That he would move right next door seems self-evidently creepy, such that one does not know what plans prying eyes might have for the Palins.


Where Is Israel's Newly Launched Spy Satellite Looking?

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 10:48 PM

Arutz Sheva says the new gizmo is putting Iran "under the microscope."


Coffee Reduces Risk of Cancer

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 10:37 PM

"Drinking coffee may protect against mouth and throat cancers, research suggests," reports the UK Independent. "Four or more cups of coffee a day can reduce the combined risk of both diseases by 39 per cent."


Apostolic Images From 4th Century Under Street in Rome

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 09:43 PM

Archaeologists have discovered the "earliest known images of the apostles Andrew and John . . . in the richly decorated tomb of a Roman noblewoman," reports the Guardian.

The tomb would have be built during the period when Rome was converting to Christianity from paganism, according to the project leader, Barbara Mazzei.


You Won't Believe How She Got That £1million Recording Contract

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 08:55 PM

Tweny-two-year-old Joanna Marie Skillet dropped in to encourage friends at the Royal Academy of Music where she ended up singing a cappella in the corridor, bowling over management from IMA Productions, and emerging with a big record deal. Here's more from the Daily Mail.


Obama Fatherhood Proclamation Mentions "Families" With "2 Fathers"

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 01:28 PM

As information in this report from CNSNews.com reveals, the hapless White House occupant currently known as Barack Obama continues to impose his private, intolerant, and intellectually vapid morality upon a people created in the image of God and a society formed and founded upon the basis of liberating norms rooted in verifiable information from the Creator. 

Fortunately, "We the People" have the unalienable right and responsibility from our true Creator to protect our families and therefore to remove from office any fool or screwball who says in his heart and expresses in his policy the anti-American "anti-value" that preaches the death of the God of the Founders and Declaration.  

And by the way, that "We the People" includes you, Reverend. And if you're a mega-preacher hiding your lamp under a mega-pulpit in a mega-church, think of it this way: Love thy neighbor.

We are under extremist assault from within, America, by a president and an ethos that reject the Creator's glorious structural norms for family life, not to mention the other "blessings of liberty." Our only hope is to repel this internal assault upon the enduring American mainstream and to replace it with the only known and verified vision-for-freedom and dignity under God available to man.

The Obama regime is a manmade, self-imposed disaster of epic proportion. We need to get in there and clean it up.

Saving the family environment is an ongoing mandate commissioned by Heaven. Obama may not like it, but don't worry. He's just the hired help. He serves at our pleasure.


Suing Arizona? For What?

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 11:21 AM

The feds are long since AWOL on sufficient border protection, and now the hapless Obama regime seems imperiously upset that a "sovereign state such as Arizona" is "doing something, anything, in the face of decades-long wanton negligence," notes the Augusta Chronicle.


Joe Barton and the Betrayal of the Republicans

By Rick Pearcey • June 22, 2010, 07:54 AM

Deborah B. Sloan writes at American Thinker:  

There is no greater injustice than punishment of a man for doing something good, and no more loathsome cowardice than when those responsible for defending good sacrifice their cause to accommodate an uncompromising evil. But this type of betrayal is not uncommon for the Republican leadership, and it happened again last week in Congress.

Thursday's House committee hearings with BP CEO Tony Hayward consisted mostly of the empty political grandstanding one would expect from this type of proceedings, characterized by Mark Levin as Soviet-style show trials. 

There was an exception, however, when Representative Joe Barton spoke out against the Obama regime for extorting $20 billion from BP -- without due process -- to be distributed by an Obama appointee as compensation no only to Gulf residents harmed by the oil leak, but also those left unemployed by Obama's moratorium by fiat on all offshore drilling operations.

This was not to say that the Gulf residents shouldn't be compensated, but that the manner in which the funds were expropriated is reprehensible, and it is outrageous for the government to force a private corporation to finance a moratorium imposed by the president.

Update: See also, "Bless Joe Barton, Good-Bye GOP," published at The Pearcey Report.



Monday, June 21, 2010

Teacher Stabbed 80 Times

By Rick Pearcey • June 21, 2010, 11:14 AM

Police are seeking the husband of school teacher Judith Novellino as a "person of interest."


True Believers: Oil, Healthcare, and Obama's Cult of Big Goverrnment

By Rick Pearcey • June 21, 2010, 09:50 AM

In "Faith-Based Government," the Augusta Chronicle editorializes that there is

No doubt . . . the federal government will do for our health care what it is doing for the oily birds of the Gulf. And [Obama] continues to believe government spending is the magic bullet to jump-starting the economy. His "spread the wealth around" comment during the 2008 campaign was shorthand for, "I believe government can make life fair." His advocacy of health care reform that a vast majority of the American people oppose is a clear statement he believes government knows our wants and needs better than we do.

His core mistake is his abject belief in the nobility, efficacy and morality of a strong, attentive federal government.

The human being, of course, enjoys a calling to reject cults -- whether religious or political. The free-thinking and freedom-affirming biblical emphasis, for example, is that of embracing a way of life based on verifiable and rationally accessible truth about God, man, and the cosmos. And it brilliantly reveals the limitations and weakness of human government.

This spirit is what undergirds and energizes the Founders' vision of a polity that recognizes unalienable rights and responsibilities from a real Creator who acts into real human history, such that questions can be asked of God and, of course, of human beings created in his image and who wish to enter public service. And who may, for example, by hook or crook, find themselves in the White House.

The cult of "hope" and "change" that Obama asks us to join, and involuntarily fund with an oppressive tax burden that disempowers individuals and families, is one that requires intellectual and political suicide, for it goes against not just the content and norms of the Declaration and U.S. Constitution, but also against the data of history. Just look at the ravages of consistently applied principles of national socialism, communism, and secular liberalism.

Why any free-thinking person would want to join this cult, or allow his life and that of his family to be swept away (along with pristine beaches, quality healthcare, a sound economy, and all the rest) by its political hatreds and enthusiasms and idolatries, is a mystery to me. Cheap faith betrays the human spirit.


Look at What Obama Cracks Down on . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 21, 2010, 08:09 AM

. . . "On Arizona, not illegal immigration," notes today's American Spectator.

Apparently, an otherwise "constitutionally indifferent" federal government seems to think uppity American citizens trying to protect themselves and their families from foreign invasion need to be lawsuit-lashed into submission. 

That's right: "We're from Washington and we're here to ensure you don't help yourselves."



Saturday, June 19, 2010

The "Phantom Call": FIFA Studies Ref's Decision in Slovenia-U.S. Match

By Rick Pearcey • June 19, 2010, 02:18 PM

"The fate of Malian referee Koman Coulibaly, who disallowed Team U.S.A.'s apparent third goal in Friday night's match against Slovenia, now rests in the hands of top FIFA officials," reports the Wall Street Journal.

Here is U.S. goalkeeper Tim Howard on the controversy, along with video from ESPN.

Here's another video. And here is a fan comment, plus video, on the "Phantom Call."

Related
The Right Hates Soccer?


Nikki Haley S.C. Guberatorial Opponent Gets Religion

By Rick Pearcey • June 19, 2010, 11:54 AM

Alex Pappas at The Daily Caller:

Is Nikki Haley’s primary run-off opponent in the South Carolina gubernatorial race subtly using her religious background to try to alienate the Indian-American candidate born with the name “Nimrata Randhawa” from conservative voters?

Her opponent, Rep. Gresham Barrett, has been vocal about his deep Christian faith. Haley -- although a baptized Methodist -- was raised by Sikh parents, but converted to Christianity when she was 24.

One well-known Republican in the state thinks so, noting that Barrett’s last campaign commercial was about his faith. “You’re running for governor, not pastor,” the Republican said dismissively of Barrett.

Phillip Bowers, co-chairman of Barrett’s campaign, circulated an e-mail Friday afternoon suggesting Haley has lied about her religion. “There are lots of contradictions to her story. It’s not my place to question her faith, but I do question her honesty. If anyone finds the truth, please let me know,” said Bowers, in an email obtained by The Daily Caller.

A few quick points:

1. There is nothing untoward in evaluating a person's religion. If religion is important to a candidate for office, and if religion influences a candidate, then it seems proper to ask questions about the religion of a candidate. Of course, the questions ought to be relevant and not just a matter of: "Oh, my, she has a different religion."

2. Saying someone is "running for governor, not pastor" is no excuse for not having to answer questions about one's religion. Presumably, one's religious views are held in good faith because one thinks them true and applicable to the real world. Otherwise, why bother? But if this is so, go ahead and answer questions that are relevant to the job for which your are applying, whether it be governor or dog catcher.

3. Not your place to "question her faith"? Nonsense. All "faiths" should be open to question and possible falsification, if you wish their application to the real world. These faiths include faith in science, government, education, various ideologies, political passions, wooly activism, and so on. And, of course, religion.

If you are a human being, you therefore question, for questioning is part of the equipment the Creator has endowed upon each of us to protect us from nonsense masquerading as true science, healthy politics, sound religion, and "I'm from Washington and I'm here to help."
 


Obama Supporter: "Bully" Rep. Etheridge "Shook Me by the Shoulders"

By Rick Pearcey • June 19, 2010, 10:57 AM

Does Bob Have a Problem? "A video of Rep. Bob Etheridge physically confronting a college student in Washington brought back unpleasant memories for one former Moore County resident," reports The Pilot in North Carolina.

"Brandon Leslie, who moved away seven years ago and is now an attorney in Oxford, Miss., said he had an encounter with the now seven-term Democratic congressman from Lillington almost 14 years ago."

Hat tip: Mark Hemingway

Related
Fallout: Congressman Who Attacked Student . . .


Eyewitness Recalls "Terrifying" Hitler Rally

By Rick Pearcey • June 19, 2010, 10:21 AM

"Daphne Brock was one of a number of women, now in their 90s, who visited Germany in the 1930s as part of their cultural education," reports BBC News. Click here to access audio.


The Right Hates Soccer?

By Rick Pearcey • June 19, 2010, 09:10 AM

"Scribe Dave Zinn recently published a few thoughts on why right-wingers despise soccer," writes Matthew May at American Thinker.

As a free-thinking human being who follows the evidence and therefore embraces the Declaration, the U.S. Constitution, and Judeo-Christian worldview, I am tempted to jump into this debate.

But Holland and Japan have just started the second half of their game in South Africa, and why debate love of soccer as "the beautiful game" when one can enjoy its beauty on display in HD only a click away?

I play pick-up soccer most week-days with my Latino friends, with whom I recently enjoyed going to RFK to watch A.C. Milan play D.C. United, an event I was asked about by a security officer at the U.S. Captiol while I was visiting my old neighborhood a few weeks ago with friends from Georgia (we once lived on Capitol Hill). The officer initiated the topic of the AC/DC match because I was wearing one of my favorites jerseys -- A.C. Milan's red and black.

I'm also on an indoor soccer team -- which happens to have several players from Ghana. We had a great time reveling in Ghana's victory in the World Cup last Sunday.

Time to go. Holland is now leading Japan. It's 1-0. I enjoy Holland's pedigree, but always have a soft spot for the underdog, in this case, Japan.

Time for another espresso and eyes back on "the beautiful game."

Before I go: I support Brazil to win the World Cup (even though not exactly an underdog) and am absolutely thrilled with the U.S. play in yesterday's 2nd half against Slovenia. Favorite club team: Barcelona.

The next World Cup will be held in Brazil. And we have friends in Sao Paulo. Hmm.

Related
World Cup Science: How to Blast the Perfect Penalty Kick 
Jai and Rene's Baby Shower



Friday, June 18, 2010

Tea Party Express Targets GOP Senator

By Rick Pearcey • June 18, 2010, 04:55 PM

"The Tea Party Express is targeting Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in the Republican primary, backing Joe Miller, a lawyer from Fairbanks," Jason Pye writes at United Liberty.

Among Joe Miller's supporters: Sarah Palin.


Fallout: Congressman Who Attacked Student . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 18, 2010, 01:44 PM

. . . Trails his GOP opponent, notes the following at the American Spectator:

A new poll from the conservative Civitas Institute gives a snapshot of the political ramifications of U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge’s roughhousing ways.

The survey of 400 registered North Carolina voters in Etheridge’s district found his Republican opponent, Renee Ellmers, leading 39 percent to 38 percent. Those are remarkable numbers given the dynamics of the district. Democrats outnumber Republicans two-to-one in voter registration, and Etheridge won re-election in 2008 by a hefty 67 percent.


Gingrich: "Secularizing America Essential for the Left"

By Rick Pearcey • June 18, 2010, 08:11 AM

Why is secularizing America essential for the left? "Because socialism will be possible only with the suppression of the Declaration of Independence’s proclamation 'we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights'," Newt Gingrich told Newsmax

The Founders' approach, which is the enduring and defining American mainstream, "means no judge, no bureaucrat, no politician can take away your God-given rights," Gingrich said. "Unless you secularize this country, you can’t take away from the American people the rights that God gave them, and so there is an inherent tension between a creator-endowed model and a socialist model."



Thursday, June 17, 2010

Ex-Porn Star on Capitol Hill

By Rick Pearcey • June 17, 2010, 10:14 AM

"Porn destroys human lives and is destroying our nation," says Shelly Luben, founder of the Pink Cross Foundation, in town for a briefing at the U.S. Capitol.

Private choices have public consequences. Always have, always will. Some choices emancipate, others enslave.

This holds true for politicians, ministry leaders, entertainers, and the neighbor next door. To be a person is to externalize one's inner thought world, whether that world is one of light and truth or of darkness and destruction. 

This is inescapable and cannot be legislated away. And you can be sure that those who are stumbling as persons in the arena of their private lives will be weakened, if not failing, as persons in the arena of their public lives. 

More quickly than one might think, this can mean the difference between freedom and unfreedom, the difference between self-government and a boot on the throat. The destiny of nations begins at home.  

Related
Rolled Model: Tennis Pro Harkleroad "Proud of My Body" 
Bruni-Sarkozy and the Unbearable Lightness of Nudity



Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Ann Coulter Discusses the "Most Qualified Democrat I Have Ever Seen"

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 10:48 PM

That person would be Alvin Greene, the surprise winner in the "South Carolina Democratic senatorial primary."


Vitter: Obama Exploiting Oil Spill . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 10:29 PM

. . . "To push" his "liberal agenda." Upshot: "More pain to bear" by the people.


President Lied to the American People About Oil

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 04:20 PM

"Blatantly False" -- Contrary to what the President of the United States said last night on TV from the Oval Office, in a nationwide address to the American people, "we are not running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water," writes Chad Stafko at American Thinker.

"In fact," Stafko continues, "It is due to the President's party of extreme environmentalists that BP had to drill some 40 miles from the coastline in deep waters to extract oil."


Hospital Refuses to See Cancer Patient

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 03:51 PM

Why? "Because records showed he was dead."


Bachmann: Obama on BP's Throat Is "All About Extortion"

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 03:34 PM

Christopher Neefus reports at CNSNews.com:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) said Tuesday that President Barack Obama is exceeding his legitimate constitutional authority in telling BP it must set up an independent fund, not controlled by the company, for compensating victims of the Gulf oil spill. She described the administration's policy as an action "that's all about extortion." . . .

"The president just called for creating a fund that would be administered by outsiders which would be more of a redistribution-of-wealth fund, and now it appears we’re going to be looking at yet one more gateway for more government control, more money to government," she said. "If there’s a disaster, why is it that government is the one who always seems to benefit after a disaster?"


White House Giving Healthcare Breaks to Organized Labor

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 03:14 PM

Jonathan Strong at The Daily Caller lays out "five more ways Obama's healthcare law boosts unions."

In the so-called "America" Obama is trying to re-create in his image, it pays to have organized friends in high places. 


Another Abortcentration Camp Bites the Dust

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 08:07 AM

The Beacon Women's Center in Montgomery, Ala., was a "shop of horrors" that couldn't pass state inspections.

How many preborn American citizens with the constitutional and God-given unalienable rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" were slaughtered there so "pro-choice" fascist abortion fat cats could reap obscene profts?

How about plugging that literally damned hole in the American soul across the nation, Mr. Obama?


Talk, Talk, Talk: What Mr. President Barack Hussein Obama Said Last Night

By Rick Pearcey • June 16, 2010, 07:10 AM

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. More at "Talk Is Cheap."



Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Atheist Goes Back to Court

By Rick Pearcey • June 15, 2010, 11:21 PM

Activist atheist Michael Newdow wants a case re-heard as he seeks to remove "So Help Me God" from oaths of office administered to U.S. presidents. 

Nothing in the Constitution, however, including the First Amendment, supports his private views, but Newdow seeks to use the courts as an instrument of oppression to impose them anyway.

Now at this point, let me say that, as a free-thinker, if I thought atheism answered the basic philosophic questions of life in ways that are logically consistent, empirically verifiable, and existentially livable, I too would embrace atheism. But clarity of thought rooted in the real world has not allowed such a conclusion.

The point of the Constitution, in contrast to certain secular myths, is to set up a system of government that protects the liberty embraced in the Declaration of Independence. It emphasizes a freedom that rests squarely upon the concept of a Creator who is the source of "unalienable rights" and the giver of the "blessings of liberty."

Clearly, the Creator is at the heart of the defining mainstream definition of American polity. Equally clearly, deviations from that mainstream are deviations into extremism, measured in extremity by the distance one departs from what truly is the heart of the enduring American mainstream.

Well, you ask, what about the "separation of chruch and state"? OK, what about it? It seems to me that any discussion of the so-called "separation of church and state" that wishes to deal with facts and not with liberal fantasy should begin with locating that phrase in the Constitution or Declaration. But this cannot be done because the phrase is not in there.

"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'," famously states the data given in that book of verifiable information we have from the Creator. The point is not that the fool is unintelligent but that he is uttering something entirely alien to who he is and to what this cosmos as a creation is.  

And so an educated man can utter foolisheness not just in his heart but also publicly in court. Before Newdow goes back into hallowed chambers whose ultimate authority rests upon divine law (even if some judges work in ignorance of this), it may serve him well to go back first to the Declaration and Constitution. Perhaps it's time to question the liberal propaganda lesson and start thinking freely for oneself. Even if it's the humane, and godly, thing to do.


Good News: 66% of Americans "Angry" at Media

By Rick Pearcey • June 15, 2010, 02:10 PM

"That 66 percent includes 33 percent who are 'very angry' at the media, according to pollster Rasmussen," writes Mark Hemingway at Beltway Confidential.

"It’s important to note, however, that the question did not in any way define media or differentiate between media outlets such as CNN and Fox News," according to Rasmussen Reports.

This anger appears to be a healthy anger, insofar as it represents a rejection of a media that are now formerly mainstream -- that is, they no longer operate philosophically or pragmatically along lines consistent with either the founding and defining mainstream of the American experiment (see the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution, etc.) or the enduring mainstream of objective journalism (where objective facts and rational analysis trump political or group passions).

A people engergized by the enduring and God-given "blessings of liberty" will, and should, demand a journalism that "tests everything" (including things scientific, political, ethical, theological, and philosophical) not on the basis of political attitudes but on the basis of objective fact and reasoned analysis. 

What to look for is this: Extremist, out-of-the-mainstream forces of liberalism will try to "save" the old and dying formerly mainstream journalism by subjecting it to Washington-centric financing (our tax dollars) and control (at the expense of our freedom). Collaborationists will accept this; true journalists will not.

But also look for a return to a humane journalism of "testing everything," of embracing a healthy skepticism that respects facts instead of propagandizing them. Human beings created in the image of God need and desire accurate information about God, man, the cosmos, and how to live in a dangerous and broken world.

Americans are witnessing daily the on-going collapse of the empire of the formerly mainstream media. Let it die. Indeed, let the "dead bury the dead" (to borrow from information given in Matthew 8:22). 

But also let the door open ever-wider for a mainstream journalism of resistance rooted in truth. Anyone can participate. But you have to accept the facts of life.


Intel: Al Qaeda Training British Muslims

By Rick Pearcey • June 15, 2010, 11:43 AM

"British intelligence officials are warning that operatives from the international Al Qaeda terrorist organization are training local Muslims to carry out another "Mumbai" attack.


Afraid to Joke About Islam

By Rick Pearcey • June 15, 2010, 10:52 AM

Entertainment & Terror: A political satirist says "he fears joking about Islam could lead to his death": "I'm writing a line and I think, 'If this goes down badly, I'm writing my own death warrant there'."


Accusation No. 39: Tea Party "Cynics" at the Polls

By Rick Pearcey • June 15, 2010, 07:36 AM

Don't look now, but cultured despisers of the Tea Party aren't just accusing Grandma and Uncle Fred of being angry, fascist, and racist. Why, they're "cynical," too.

But who, really, in America today is cynical? Jeffrey Folks at American Thinker takes a sincere look.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War



Saturday, June 12, 2010

Hey "Hardball" -- If Titanic Sank Today, Obama Would Blame . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 12, 2010, 07:07 PM

Bush. Just like a Louisiana congressman informed member of the formerly mainstream media Chris Matthews.


Karzai Said to Doubt West Can Defeat Taliban

By Rick Pearcey • June 12, 2010, 06:52 PM

"Some Afghan and Western officials" reportedly say Karzia has "lost faith in the Americans and NATO to prevail in Afghanistan."


React to Jerry Brown Comparing Whitman to Goebbels

By Rick Pearcey • June 12, 2010, 02:57 PM

"Jerry Brown's campaign for California governor continues to suffer fallout from off-the-cuff comments he made to a radio reporter comparing Republican Meg Whitman's messaging to Nazi propaganda."


Neo-Marxist Behind Obama "Reinventing Journalism"

By Rick Pearcey • June 12, 2010, 02:30 PM

That would be Robert McChesney, who founded the antithetically named "Free Press" 8 years ago to save America from the 1st Amendment.

Bait on the hook of late to sell freedom of the press down the river? Dragons such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T, against which "We the People" -- poor damsels in distress -- need knight in shining armor Washington DC to step in and save the day. (Go here to buy Brooklyn Bridge . . .)

Upshot heard around the world: It's time for a "tea party movement in the newsroom." Here's more from Mark Tapscott.

Related
What's More Important: Freedom of the Press or Saving Newspapers?
Joe the Journalist: Should States License Reporters?


Bad Faith, Rosie O'Donnell, and Helen Thomas

By Rick Pearcey • June 12, 2010, 10:13 AM

To avoid bad faith and a merely private "faith" ("my" "truth") it is crucial that one's politics, commentary, science, ethics, theology, and worldview are rooted in real-world facts and the possibility of verifiability and therefore falsification.

Hence, the unfortunate attempt by Rosie O'Donnell to defend the anti-Semitic views of Helen Thomas, an effort that runs so afoul of history, space, and time that Eileen Toplansky can ask whether the woman is "merely uninformed or interminably stupid?"

I cast my vote for a Rosie who is passionately uniformed -- a state of being which, however, if practiced for years can produce a stupidity that seems interminable, if not dishonest, not just for an entertainer but also for a president. Bad faith, like a little learning, can be a dangerous thing. 

Related
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat



Friday, June 11, 2010

Crist Vetos Ultrasound-Before-Abortion Bill

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 05:46 PM

Apparently, abortion now is so cultish, so "personal" that scientific empirical information cannot be allowed to protect what is a Constitutional and Creator-given ethical fact of life: the unalienable right to life.

For comment, let us turn to Jim Morrison, The Doors, Riders on the Storm:

If you give this man a ride, Sweet family will die

Shame on Charlie Crist, enabler of raw fascist, state-delegated power, a barbarian looking for a home in the U.S. Senate. This isn't "personal," it's fascist.

Dignified and informed voters of Florida, created in the image of God, might want to know come November: "If you give this man a ride, Sweet family will die."


Update: We'll See Black Tea Party Attacker in Court

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 04:26 PM

"Bush-Hater" Punches: The police caught up with Mr. Govenor Spencer (union organizer, black liberation activist) after he drove away after he slugged "GOP official Nathan Tabor," and "lunged toward Tabor's wife," at a Tea Party protest rally in Greensboro, N.C., according to WorldNetDaily.

Here is video.

"Both men have filed assault charges against one another," reports WND. "We are going to deal with this in the courtroom," says the attacker's lawyer. "Mr. Tabor is going to find out that being wealthy doesn't make a difference in a courtroom."

Related
Video: Black Man Attacks at Tea Party Protest


Pelosi Demands BP Halt Dividends

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 03:38 PM

From Politico:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in her sharpest rebuke yet of the oil industry, said Friday that BP should not make dividend payments to stockholders until those affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are made "whole."


Gates: Iran Nuke 1-3 Years Away

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 03:25 PM

So, apparently, there is still time for a concerned world to pressure Iran, says the U.S. secretary of defense. And with the likes of Gulf Oil Disaster Team Obama on the watch and knowing how to kick whatever, what's to worry?


Teen Detained for Microwaving Hamster

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 11:39 AM

A 16-year-old boy "who microwaved his brother's hamster was sent to a young offenders institution."


Pelosi: We'll Stop Blaming Bush . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 11:17 AM

. . . "When the problems go away."


New "Red Dawn" to Attack Communism Again

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 08:42 AM

This time the Chinese invade a city near you, with RD-Day scheduled for Nov. 24, 2010. Here's the website. Video at YouTube.


Shrink Asks: What's Wrong With Obama?

By Rick Pearcey • June 11, 2010, 07:29 AM

Psychotherapist "Robin of Berkeley" offers a diagnostic assessment of an enigma wrapped in a president and asks what it means for liberals and conservatives.



Thursday, June 10, 2010

Anti-Islamic Party "Big Winner" in Holland

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 11:41 PM

Geert Wilders' "Freedom Party nearly tripled its representation in the Dutch parliament in Wednesday's elections," reports the UK Telegraph.  


Startling Admission From "Witness" to Flotilla "Murder"

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 11:17 PM

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Ann Wright "admits she did not see the events," reports IsraelNationalNews.com.


Crisis at Britain's "Most Famous Hospital"

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 11:02 PM

"Allegations of bullying and intimidation are swirling around the corridors."


Homosex Pedophiles Get Life for Murdering Woman

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 10:46 PM

Perverts Charles O'Neill and William Lauchlan were found guilty of murdering Allison McGarrigle and "dumping her body at sea," says the Daily Record. They thought the McGarrigle "intended to tell authorities about their abuse of a boy."


Taliban Execute 7-Year-Old Boy

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 10:32 PM

The boy was "abducted from his home," put on trial for spying for the Afghan government, found guilty, and hanged in public, according to the Daily Mail.


What's More Important: Freedom of the Press or Saving Newspapers?

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 04:56 PM

85% of Americans say: Freedom of the Press. More on this from Mark Tapscott.


Ashley Judd: No More Coal Mining on KY Mountain Tops

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 04:01 PM

The Hollywood actress calls upon media to pledge their "journalistic integrity" to fight against "environmental genocide."


The Danger of King Obama

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 11:11 AM

It's now 16-plus months into the reign of Barack Hussein Obama, and the topic of conversation among one writer's "friends and associates in London" concerns Obama's "incompetence and narcissism, and the danger he poses to the United States and its allies in Europe."


Video: Black Man Attacks at Tea Party Protest

By Rick Pearcey • June 10, 2010, 09:05 AM

The cursing "blame Bush" attacker seems to shove a woman, and clearly assaults a man identified as her husband, and then appears to drive away before police arrive. Video.

What are the chances that the formerly mainstream media will look into this?

More at 24th State.



Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Hey Obama, Make the Dang Call

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 10:25 PM

When Obama and his homies got together (reportedly) in the Oval Office on "Day 1" to fix the Gulf Oil Disaster, one wonders: Did anybody happen to have the BP CEO's phone number? Or maybe run out and get it along with the pizza?

As I understand it, way out here outside of the Oval Office, Mr. Obama has not yet spoken directly to Mr. Tony Hayward of BP. 

Yeah, like they'd have anything to talk about.

Here's a link to BP's website: It has contact information on it. I found it on the internet.

It's day 51 of the crisis, America.

Obama is now talking tuff about kicking a--. And yet the oil still spreads. Maybe Congress should raise taxes. That's never been tried before. And keep those "Blame Bush" and "Racism!" cards close at hand.

Who is that guy in the White House? And why is he there? Holding seminars? Fundraising? Socializing? Reaching out to McCartney's studio?

It's Day 51, America. Make the dang phone call.


Obama "Boot on the Throat" of Pensioners?

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 09:06 PM

"Barack Obama has been accused of holding 'his boot on the throat' of British pensioners after his attacks on BP were blamed for wiping billions off the company's value," reports the UK Telegraph.


Hezbollah Salutes Helen Thomas

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 08:45 PM

As Allahpundit quipped: "It's like the terrorist equivalent of a gold watch." More as Newsbusters.

Related
Disgraced Helen Thomas "Treated as If Departing Royality"



Mass Murderer Memorial . . . in Virginia

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 08:24 PM

Beltway Confidential confides: "At the National D-Day Memorial ceremony this past Sunday in Bedford, Va., memorial officials unveiled a bust of USSR dictator and mass murderer Joseph Stalin. No joke."


Why the Palin Electoral Factor?

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 08:12 PM

In a Newsmax report on how the "Palin Factor Was Crucial to GOP Victories" of yesterday, political strategist Ed Gillespie holds forth:

She’s got a lot of common sense. She connects with people’s everyday concerns about the direction of our government, the state of our economy, and the nature of our society today. She’s willing to shake things up. She’s willing to take a stand.

I think she is misunderstood by much of the media and political elite -- and well understood by rank-and-file voters.


When "Creepy Joe" Journalism Moves Next Door

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 09:22 AM

As formerly mainstream journalism drifts further and further away from the Founding American mainstream and from the indispensible commitment to objective truth over against political hatreds, we see not just the rise and fall of an anti-Semite in the White House press corps but also out-and-out creepiness in publishing -- for example, Sarah Palin's spying, disrepectful, and now whining "creep next door."


Disgraced Helen Thomas "Treated as If Departing Royalty"

By Rick Pearcey • June 9, 2010, 08:10 AM

The formerly mainstream press lost one of its stars, Lady "Helen the Hack" of the front-row seat, notes court observer "Thirsty McWormwood" over at American Spectator.

Related
In "Anguish" Over Helen Thomas
Hearst Heiress Pleased Helen Thomas Retires
Anderson Cooper and the Crisis of Journalism



Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Rest of Story: "Leave or Get Raped" Anti-Semite Rejects Islam

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 11:07 PM

On Oct. 31, 2008, on Arab TV Egyptian lawyer Nagla Al-Imam warned Israeli women to "leave the land so you won't get raped." 

And then came another shock. On Aug. 3, 2009, Nonie Darwish wrote in Frontpage Magazine that Al-Imam "recently announced her conversion to Christianity." Title of Darwish's article: "If You Convert You Die."

Here is the Nagla Al-Imam page on Facebook.


Israeli Women Warned: "Leave the Land So We Won't Rape You"

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 09:49 PM

The warning was transmitted on Arab television by a female Egyptian lawyer who proposed sexual harassment of Israeli women as a form of resistance against Israel (video).

This anti-Semitic woman was speaking a couple of years ago, but her call for the explusion of Jewish women from "our Arab countries" is all too current, given the recent anti-Semitic remarks of former White House journalist Helen Thomas.


NATO Convoy Attacked Near Pakistan Capital

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 09:17 PM

The attack occured 6 miles outside of Islamabad, the "closest to the heavily guarded capital the militants have struck thus far," reports the BBC.


Charlie Crist Removes Pro-Life Message From Website

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 04:36 PM

Why? La Shawn Barber at Michelle Malkin's website notes that the current Fla. guv and U.S. Senate candidate has to decide -- this week -- whether to sign a bill that requires 1st-trimester pregnant women in Florida to view an ultrasound of their child, or hear a description of such a child, before they decide to go ahead and kill that thing.

Exceptions are allowed for "rape, incest, or domestic violence" -- circumstances of conception that babies generally are not able to control and therefore, one might think, fairness and justice suggest they not suffer the inordinate penalty of capital punishment by dismemberment or other ACLU-approved methods of social justice.

Killing people because of the circumstances of their conception sounds a lot like class warfare, doesn't it? And the "little guy" in the oppressed class seems to be getting the short end of the stick.

Instead of "suffer the little children to come unto me" (Mk 10:14), it's "suffer the little children."

In any case, Crist has a senate election to win against pro-life GOPer Marco Rubio. Does a guilty conscience bleed when it dreams?


Gore Pops Up in Manila

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 03:42 PM

The green crusader used the near-death of his son in 1989 to help sell the notion that saving the environment will "save money." 


In "Anguish" Over Helen Thomas Retirement

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 03:16 PM

In addition, "contradictions ran rampant" at MSNBC.


Taxpayer-Funded Course Teaches Teens How to Wear High Heels

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 12:06 PM

Says a 16-year-old: "Since I started the course I've felt more confident in my heels."


Pelosi Heckled . . .

By Rick Pearcey • June 8, 2010, 11:40 AM

. . . at liberal gabfest.



Monday, June 7, 2010

World Socialist Web Site: Thousands Oppose Gaza Flotilla Attack in London

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 08:43 PM

Zach Reed writes at the World Socialist Web Site:

Upwards of 10,000 people marched from Downing Street to the Israeli Embassy in London on June 5 to condemn the criminal attack on the Gaza aid flotilla by Israel on May 31. The attack, which occurred in international waters, saw the murder of nine Turkish civilians on board a Turkish-flagged ship attempting to deliver much-needed aid to Gaza, which remains under an Israeli blockade.

Here's what's really going on, according to Mr. Reed: "In reality, the world’s major powers continue to defend Israel because they pursue their own criminal imperialist ambitions and represent the same class forces."


Health Service Wants Jail Time for Unregistered Tobacco Sellers

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 08:32 PM

Courts would "have the power to jail dairy owners and other retailers for six months for selling tobacco without approval under a proposed registration system," reports the NZHerald.


World Cup Science: How to Blast the Perfect Penalty Kick

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 08:21 PM

Beginning with "pick a spot," here's shoot-out advice for England footballers just in time for the World Cup.


Reuters Crops Knife From Photo of "Humanitarian" Flotilla

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 08:06 PM

"The blogosphere was in an uproar Monday regarding allegations that the Reuters news service had intentionally cropped-out incriminating details from photos released a day earlier by a Turkish newspaper showing bloodied IDF naval commandos aboard one of last week’s Gaza-bound protest ships," reports The Daily Caller.


Video: Human Events Goin' Bat Crazy

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 07:47 PM

Video: New editor on the block "Swingin' Joe Mattera" is up to bat with what's next in the Human Events lineup.


Hearst Heiress Pleased Helen Thomas Retires, Urges Co. Apology to Jewish Community

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 06:22 PM

"Upon news that Helen Thomas is retiring in the wake of her comments on Israel, Victoria Hearst is urging Hearst Corporation CEO Frank Bennackto 'make a public apology to the Worldwide Jewish Community, assuring the Jewish people that the Hearst Corporation is not anti-Israel'," according to a press statement.

Here is video of Thomas recommending that the Jews "get the h--- out of Palestine" and "go home" -- to Poland and Germany and America and "everywhere else." 

This video points out that 6 million Jews were killed "at home" in Germany and Poland.


Waste of Time? Gulf Coast Churches Ask God to Stop Oil Flow

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 04:24 PM

Wesleyans, Nazarenes, and Southern Baptists were among those who gathered Sunday for the "Oil Spill Day of Prayer." 

The biblical information encourages both human action and Godly action in bringing about substantial healing in a broken world. Both the creature and the Creator are respected.

Unlike atheistic materialism, the Biblical data avoid smashing man on the altar of the machine (be it cosmic or governmental). Human beings are respected and described for what we know ourselves to be: Significant. First causes. Choosing beings able to affect the course of history. The wonder of being created in the image of God. Yes, even the "sinner" is a level of being higher than that of complex, organic space junk coughed up by an impersonal universe, as materialism would seem to require. 

And yet humanity is not God. And therefore we are saved from having to destroy ourselves by giving into that old temptation to deify humanity and set ourselves on high -- as if we were the Creator. Because we then would destroy ourselves, having reached for what we cannot ever be in our finitude and createdness, stretching beyond ourselves to escape the wonder and goodness of who we truly are, in exhange for a false hope, a false promise, and a pie-in-the-sky secularism of an anthroprocentric  heaven on earth. Which no socialistic paradise that I have ever heard of has come close to fulfilling.

Will God act supernaturally to stop the flow or oil? Or will man act supernaturally as a first cause into the cosmic machine to restore balance in the sea and on the land? Whatever the particulars of this moment in history, the theme is everlasting: God and man, significant in work and community, co-working as Creator and creature together for goodness and justice unto the ends of the earth and in the depths of the sea. 


Hating Facts: Liberals Escape From Reason

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 01:26 PM

"Ignoring the facts is one of the liberals' favorite tactics, because their agenda is not motivated by any facts at all," writes Herman Cain at WorldNetDaily. "Their agenda is totally politically motivated for the purpose of concentrating more power to government rather than the people."

Or put it this way: Operationally speaking, liberalism has "escaped from reason," to borrow a phrase made famous by thinker Francis Schaeffer (see his book Escape From Reason; for a fuller treatment, see Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth).

That is to say, liberalism in both its tactics and philosophical approach has become a political "faith" in the poor sense (and unbiblical sense) of the word faith (for a corrective, go here).

Instead of liberating people to "test everything" -- which is part of the Creator's inbuilt protection against religious, scientific, and political snakeoil -- liberalism instead pushes its "religious" agenda against fact per se and pounds the pulpit with greater ferocity when inconvenient facts raise their challenging heads.

True believers and stubborn sceptics are therefore supposed to click their heels and salute "settled science," turn tail and run in fear from unsubstantiated charges of "racism!," and genuflect before the new and improved manmade "civil right" consensus of the week, so that transgendered lesbian albinos can visit their inter-species canine spouses while sick in a San Fran hospital for kitty kats.

In contrast stands the reasonableness, wholeness, facticity, and humanity of the Founding worldview, rooted in verifiable information from a real and knowable Creator who gives the blessings of liberty and inalienable rights so that any person and nation who acts upon that information can experience excellence and exceptionalism even in this less than perfect world.

It's amazing what human beings can accomplish when they read the directions.


Barack Obama: Let Them Eat Tar Balls

By Rick Pearcey • June 7, 2010, 08:03 AM

With an eye on that big party tent permanently parked at the Obama White House, even as din of desperation and disaster from the Gulf of Mexico occasionally interrupts yet another evening's song and dance with the stars, Stuart Schwartz at American Thinker suggests Barack Obama is simply doing what the Prince of Chicago is known for doing best, baby: party, party, party.  



Saturday, June 5, 2010

Feminist Left's Mission to Demonize Sarah Palin

By Rick Pearcey • June 5, 2010, 03:16 PM

Columnist Jedediah Bila responds to attacks on the "fake feminism of Sarah Palin."

For broader analysis and context, see Nancy Pearcey's "How Women Started the Culture War" in Total Truth.

Update: Here's a summary of the chapter "How Women Started the Culture War."

And here are to-the-point comments at WinteryKnight: "I think Nancy Pearcey is in the top rank of Christian scholars. Her book is a must read for Christians who want to develop a Christian worldview that touches on the full spectrum of life from kitchen table, to classroom, to workplace, to church pew, to marketplace, to ballot box, to far-flung battlefields."

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War


Big Government's Katrina

By Rick Pearcey • June 5, 2010, 02:46 PM

"The mess in the Gulf of Mexico is not just Obama's Katrina," says Christopher Chantrill at American Thinker.

"It's big government's Katrina."


Source: White House Linked to Flotilla Organizers

By Rick Pearcey • June 5, 2010, 11:23 AM

"A top adviser to President Obama is the contact person within the White House for communications with the Free Gaza Movement over plans to challenge Israel's blockade of the terrorist Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, according to a reputable source close to the Netanyahu government," reports Jerome Corsi at WorldNetDaily.

"The source, a career official whose reliability was established through his tips for the book Why Israel Can't Wait, identified John O. Brennan, deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism, as the contact."



Friday, June 4, 2010

Ayers, Dohrn Helped Organize "Peace" Flotilla

By Rick Pearcey • June 4, 2010, 08:36 AM

"It's not like these people don't have enough blood on their hands already," writes Rick Moran at American Thinker.



Thursday, June 3, 2010

Pearcey Report Goes Live With New Ad Network

By Rick Pearcey • June 3, 2010, 05:34 PM

We just got word that the Beacon Ad Network is now "live" and ready to accept advertising across its websites.

What is Beacon? It's the "first automated marketplace for placing ads on Christian websites," states the main page.

Those who enjoy The Pearcey Report may want to consider advertising via this new network.

Our Alexa ranking in the U.S. (today) stands at 74,690. Last month, we enjoyed (and appreciate) more than 95,000 page views.

Here's The Pearcey Report page at the Beacon Ad Network.

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see two ad zones where individuals, businesses, organizations, publishers, churches, and so on, can place ads to announce products, events, or services.

Each zone can take multiple ads, rotating and refreshing to help keep the page fresh. Beacon allows flexibilty in how many ads can run in a particular zone.

At present, ads are sold on a monthly basis. The idea is to make advertising online straightforward and uncomplicated. For more information on "A Better Way to Sell Ads," go here.

If you have a chance to look around, please let us know what you think. We hope you'll agree that this is a terrific way to be seen and heard and help support The Pearcey Report.


WPost Exposes Environmentalist Ties to British Petroleum

By Rick Pearcey • June 3, 2010, 10:00 AM

Green Groups Loving Black Gold: "British Petroleum's (BP) reputation has been marred by the April oil rig explosion and subsequent oil spill which is still gushing more than 40 days later," writes Julia Seymour at Newsbusters.  

"But according to the Washington Post, the reputation of some left-wing environmental groups has also been polluted by the incident."


Racial Slurrist Comic Sarah Silverman Didn't Think This Was Funny -- Video

By Rick Pearcey • June 3, 2010, 08:39 AM

So-called "progressives" are "so good at weeding out racists in our midst, they feel obligated to share with us the words used," writes Bob Parks at Big Government. "However, should they be called out when they use racial slurs, they lose their minds."

Here on YouTube is Silverman, who "used a slur and was called on it."


Afghan Parliamentarian: "Arrest" and "Execute" Christians

By Rick Pearcey • June 3, 2010, 08:01 AM

"An Afghan parliamentary secretary has called for the public execution of Christian converts from the parliament floor, according to International Christian Concern," reports ANS.



Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Palin Slams Formerly Mainstream NBC for Not Airing Her Side

By Rick Pearcey • June 2, 2010, 07:31 AM

Newsmax reports:

Sarah Palin slammed NBC Tuesday over a "Today" show interview segment with Joe McGinniss, the author of a forthcoming biography on Palin, because the network didn’t include a statement from her it promised to air.

McGinniss has stirred up much attention for moving in the house next door to Palin’s home. She’s responded by putting a huge fence to block his view and likening his tactics to those of a stalker.

Palin wrote on Facebook that the NBC segment offered the "most recent illustration of the untrustworthiness of America's mainstream media,” according to Yahoo! News.

This is well and good, but let us who care about a free and responsible journalism advance the ball strategically.

What Sarah Palin and Co. may want to incorporate into their critique is the realization that "America's 'mainstream' media" are better described as "America's formerly mainstream media," for the true center of the American mainstream is set not by current passions but by the Declaration and U.S. Constitution, grounded in historical fact and rooted in a real Creator, all of which the closed-down secularism of liberal media elites reject.

For this reason journalism suffers (as "lamestream"), individuals such as members of the Palin family suffer (loss of privacy), and America suffers (loss of identity).

The solution? A journalism of conviction rooted in truth about the real world. That's what fired the Declaration and U.S. Constitution in the first place. May it do so again, if the U.S. is to emerge from the 21st century strong and free.


Global Warming Theory Challenged by Top UK Scientific Body

By Rick Pearcey • June 2, 2010, 06:50 AM

File under "Test Everything," including "Settled Science" -- "The Royal Society, Britain's version of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, has been forced by climate dissidents to officially review its previous statements in unquestioning support of global warming theory," writes Thomas Lifson at American Thinker.



Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Conservative Media AWOL on Homosex in Military

By Rick Pearcey • June 1, 2010, 05:00 PM

Columnist Robert Knight writes:

When was the last time you heard a frank discussion about this on any of the top conservative talk shows, either on radio or television? Michael Savage is the only prominent talk show host to take it on, and he does it from Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco. How about Erick Erickson’s estimable Red State Morning Briefing? It’s vital, on-line reading, and I urge everyone to subscribe. And yet, while we’re on the verge of Congress’ raping the military to please a tiny, leftist lobby, the topic is nowhere to be found on Red State this week. Similarly, with a few exceptions, GOP leaders have been silent.

The gravity of allowing open homosexuality in the military cannot be overstated. It has the potential of destroying the all-volunteer force by discouraging recruitment, retention and shattering unit morale. Chaplains would find themselves muzzled on basic questions of morality and many would leave the services.  Recruits would undergo pro-homosexual "sensitivity" training. The already troubling problem of sexual misconduct would increase.


Pelosi Affirms Duty to Pursue Public Policies in Keeping With "Values" of Jesus: Video

By Rick Pearcey • June 1, 2010, 02:17 PM

Nicolas Ballasy reports for CNSNews.com:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) says she believes she must pursue public policies "in keeping with the values" of Jesus Christ, "The Word made Flesh."

Pelosi, who is a Catholic and who favors legalized abortion, voted against the ban on partial-birth abortion that was enacted into law in 2003.

In this video from May 6, Pelosi explains that her favorite word is "The Word" and "That is everything. It says it all for us. . . . Fill it in with anything you want, but of course we know it means, 'The Word was made flesh'."


Oxford Debate: Climate Realism Beats Warming at Campus Showdown

By Rick Pearcey • June 1, 2010, 10:08 AM

From "Climate Alarmists on the Run" at the Washington Times:

Former Vice President Al Gore was at his peak when the film An Inconvenient Truth made its initial Hollywood splash. Faith in man-made global warming had never been more widespread, with liberal academics and media subjecting to ridicule any who dared question the "settled science." Only a fool could deny that elevated carbon-dioxide levels had melted ice caps and stranded polar bears on rapidly diminishing ice floes.

How the tables have turned in a short time. On May 20, Oxford Union, the prestigious 187-year-old English debating society, formally considered the question of whether it was more important to focus on growing the economy or solving global warming.

Climate realism won the day, 135 to 110. It's no wonder, considering how the purportedly scientific arguments advanced in support of the scaremongering conclusions have fallen apart since the Climategate scandal invited verification of the left's previously unexamined claims.


"Prepare for War" -- Obama and Media Inspire Violence

By Rick Pearcey • June 1, 2010, 09:29 AM

Lloyd Marcus of the Tea Party Express offers up "Prepare for war" Malik Zulu Shabazz, chairman of the New Black Panther Party, as a case in point.