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Saturday, September 29, 2012

From Prank to Prom: Bullied Teen Saved by Kindness of Town

By Rick Pearcey • September 29, 2012, 04:30 PM

The UK Daily Mail reports:

A Michigan sophomore beamed last night as she faced the bullies who voted her to the homecoming court as a sick joke.

After initially planning to skip the celebrations, Whitney Kropp, 16, bravely walked out onto the field during Ogemaw Heights High School's homecoming football game to accept the honour, and more than 1,000 people showed up to support her.

"The kids that are bullying you, do not let them bring you down. Stand up for what you believe in and go with your heart and go with your gut," Whitney said, shortly after the halftime celebration.


Greece: Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Given "Police Powers" Over Immigrants

By Rick Pearcey • September 29, 2012, 01:43 PM

At International Business Times:

Greek police have been accused of directing the victims of crimes allegedly committed by immigrants to seek retribution from the violent neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party. . . .

Support for the Neo-Nazi party is soaring in the near-bankrupt state, as are racially motivated attacks on immigrants. . . .

[I]n September, a dozen flag-waving Golden Dawn supporters raided a street market in northeast Athens, asking migrants to show their passports and overturning their stalls to leave space for Greek vendors.

The reporting regarding the Neo-Nazi group Golden Dawn echos what we know of the critical events of 1930s Germany.

What is crucial is to learn from the past -- and the present. That is, to realize that similar events, with all-too-similar outcomes, can occur in any nation that lacks the cultural foundations to sustain human freedom and dignity.

Barack Obama and the Democrat Party, and not a few squishy secularized Republicans, have operated for years in alienation to those foundations. 

The language and outward trappings of freedom are maintained, but the machinery, practice, and thoughtforms energizing the nuts and bolts of governance are in the opposite direction.

It can be argued, therefore, that both parties equally risk disaster, the Democrats at full speed, the Republicans at a jog. Or better, a stumble.

Societies built on shifting sand, and the freedoms of societies build on shifting sand, will not stand against the winds and rains of life in a broken world.

It matters not whether you call yourself Greece or the USA. It matters not whether you call yourself Democrat or Republican. When the foundations finally erode, the house of freedom will fall.

Far better to build the house upon the rock. Wind and rain will still come. Crisis is unavoidable in a broken world.

Let us, therefore, counsel realism, not despair. For a house built upon the rules of freedom, rooted in a real and verifiable Creator who endows humanity with unalienable rights, will stand.

This is the secret of a "shining city upon a hill." Available to all.

Ancient Greece did not have this message, and neither does Athens today. But the American Founders did, and they expressed that vision-for-freedom in the Delcaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

America today hangs in the balance: Will she go the way of ignorance, liberated from freedom and encouraged to accept totalistic state control over lunch rooms, patients, toilets, media, churches, filmmaking, energy, and more?

Or will she advance on the sure foundations of life secured in knowledge and freedom and community liberated -- with our humanity intact -- by a Creator who is objectively and knowably there?

The November election is crucial.

It is a moment to stand in the gap and push back the invader. But it is also an opportunity to educate the wobbly. And to expand the beachhead of freedom in America again.

That's right. Sometimes "Love Thy Neighbor" means hitting the beach.

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Viral Audio: Howard Stern Interviews Expose Obama Supporters in Harlem

By Rick Pearcey • September 29, 2012, 11:30 AM

Howard Stern staffers Sal and Richard went to Harlem to ask individuals why they are supporting Obama. As of this morning, the audio has been listened to more than 1.4 million times.

Questions include:

Do you hope he will eventually find and kill Bin Laden?

What is it about Mitt Romney that you don't like? Is it that he's pro-choice?

Because he's a Muslim?

Do you think Obama made the right choice by choosing Paul Ryan as his vice president?

Do you think he picked Paul Ryan because he's African-American or because he's qualified?

Do you think McCain has a shot this time out to beat Obama for this election?

what percentage of the vote do you think Obama will get over McCain this time?

Do you think Bin Laden should just go to jail?

How long of a jail term do you think Bin Laden should get when we find him?

Are you happy with Obama's vice president pick Paul Ryan?

Do you like Obama because he's pro-life?

Do you like that he's anti-gay marriage?

Do you support Mitt Romney because he's black?

Are you upset that Romney is for gay marriage? Does that bother you?

Do you think people are upset that Sarah Palin's running again this time?

Does it bother you that Obama is a Mormon?

And does it bother you that Mitt Romney is black?

How do you think Sarah Palin's going to do as McCain's running mate in 2012?

There's been talk that he'll drop Sarah Palin in this election. Will you vote for him then?

And you're going to vote for Obama as well?

"Nobody seems to know that Osama bin Laden is dead," comments The Daily Caller, "but the good news for Obama is that they think he can get it done in his second term." 

Listen here.  



Friday, September 28, 2012

Al Mohler Blasts Joel Osteen

By Rick Pearcey • September 28, 2012, 08:38 AM

Susanna Rose reports at LifeSiteNews.com

Texas Megachurch Pastor Joel Osteen squirmed under a barrage of question about his beliefs on homosexuality during a discussion on CNN’s “Talking points with Soledad O’Brien” last Thursday. 

“I always wonder when you say homosexuality is a sin and there’s a bunch of people who clearly are gay who are in your church,” said O'Brien. “You’re calling them sinners. I mean, that is the opposite of uplifting, I would think.”

“Well, Soledad," said Osteen, "I don’t necessarily focus on that. I only talk about that in the interviews.” 

The Biblical and intellectual weakness of Osteen's response, demonstrated throughout Rose's report, elicited a sharp response from Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Seminary in Louisvile, KY.

“Viewers of CNN saw a display of confusion, evasion, and equivocation coming from one presented as a Christian pastor,” Mohler said, as quoted by Rose.

“What they were really seeing," Mohler noted, "is the total theological bankruptcy of the word of faith movement and the gospel of positive thinking."

Related
What Religion Is Joel Osteen?
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Thursday, September 27, 2012

Fox News Breaking: Team Obama Secretly Labeled Libya Embassy Attack as Terror, From Day One

By Rick Pearcey • September 27, 2012, 10:22 AM

Minutes ago, Fox News anchor Bret Baier confirmed on Fox:

1) Despite its public statements to the contrary (asserting a "spontaneous reaction"), the Obama administration internally labeled the September 11 attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, as a terror attack, within 24 hours of the assault.

2) There is, as of this moment today, no FBI personnel on the ground in Benghazi to investigate the terror attack. Fox News anchor Martha Maccallum later suggested this presence may indicate conditions on the ground in Benghazi remain unsafe.


"Mugged": Ann Coulter's Home Run

By Rick Pearcey • September 27, 2012, 08:08 AM

Jeffrey Lord reviews Ann Coulter's new book at American Spectator

In writing her newest book, Mugged: Racial Demagoguery From the Seventies to Obama Ms. Coulter takes the time to carefully and in detail explode the self-made liberal myth of liberals and liberalism as heroes in the American civil rights movement. . . .

The idea of liberals as civil rights heroes is not only a tragedy and a myth but a seriously bad joke. . . . 

[A]ny group on record with enthusiastic support for slavery, segregation, lynching, the Ku Klux Klan and, in today's world, everything from racial quotas to illegal immigration is decidedly no kind of American hero. . . . 

[R]acism and the Left go together like ham and eggs or peanut butter and jelly. Without playing the race card the Left would die of political oxygen deprivation.

"Mugged isn't a book," Lord concludes. "It's a public service advertisement for a colorblind society. Martin Luther King would have loved Ann Coulter."

Related
Black Pastor Uses Lynching Photo to Get Out the Vote

How to Have a Race War
Racism! Racism! And Oh by the Way: Racism!



Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Eugene Genovese, RIP -- From Marxist Hostility to Respect for Christianity

By Nancy Pearcey • September 26, 2012, 10:28 PM

Today marks the passing of Eugene Genovese, scholar and historian.  I published in First Things the following review of one of his books, noting his move from Marxist hostility to religion to a genuine respect for Christianity:

Genovese took up southern history reluctantly, after a professor challenged him to test his Marxism by taking the slaveholders as a laboratory case in “how a ruling class really rules.” His initial forays, Genovese writes, were marked by “the biases of an atheist and a historical materialist” -- to whit, that religion was “no more than a corrosive ideology at the service of ruling classes.” If at the beginning, Genovese says ruefully, “someone had told me that religion would emerge as a positive force in my book -- indeed, as the centerpiece -- I would have laughed and referred him to a psychiatrist. In the end, the evidence proved overwhelming, and I had to eat my biases.”

What was the evidence, and which biases was Genovese forced to choke down? Fundamentally, he discovered that Marxism gravely underestimates the power of religion.

Among both black and white southerners, Genovese noted, “the overpowering evidence of religious faith aroused in me a skepticism about the reigning tendency in Academia to, as it were, sociologize faith out of religion -- to deny the reality of spirituality.”

Among the slaves, Christian faith “carried an extraordinarily powerful message of liberation in this world as well as the next,” Genovese wrote. That message empowered them to create a vibrant culture under extreme adversity -- a dynamic not explainable in Marxist or any other merely sociological terms. 

As Genovese put it, “No such theory or combination of theories could suffice to explain the power of the folk religion, as manifested, for example, in the spirituals.”

In the academy today it is fashionable to charge Western religion with complicity in a host of social evils: slavery, racism, sexism, imperialism.

But Genovese will have none of that. All civilizations have been disfigured by various evils, he argued. 

What sets the Christian West apart, he said, is that it alone raised “a profound theoretical opposition to those enormities, challenging their moral foundations and raising mass movements against them.”


Imposing Extremism: School Kids to Drink "Gay" Power Kool-Aid

By Rick Pearcey • September 26, 2012, 09:23 AM

Scott Lively writes at WND:

LGBT History Month is not yet universally adopted by public schools. Nevertheless, throughout October tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent school children will be subjected to the most despicable brainwashing ever conducted in American classrooms. They will be taught, through carefully constructed lesson plans, to view homosexuals as a superior class of human beings whose influence on society has been wholly benign, but whose contributions to society have been limited due to irrational prejudice and bigotry. They will learn the importance of protecting homosexuals from societal “homophobia,” perhaps even emanating from their own parents, and that homosexuality is a perfectly normal and healthy (and unchangeable) form of sexual identity. In other words, they will be indoctrinated in provably false and thoroughly biased pro-”gay” propaganda.

After documenting the unsavory origins and twisted direction of "gay" power extremism, Lively concludes:

The “gay rights” movement is not benign. Its history is a poisoned stream whose headwaters begin in the swamp of Sadean perversion and whose direction was set by the same people who created the Nazi Party. In America its course has run mostly through underground sewers until the past few decades when control of the movement fell into the hands of modern marketing experts who have hidden the truth under a white-washed facade of their own shrewd design. And it is this sugar-sweetened poison that is about to be spoon-fed to America’s public school students. It is a “gay” Kool-Aid of dangerous lies and it is to our great shame that this once-Christian nation will allow these innocent children to consume it without so much as a whimper of protest.

Related
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Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Health Premiums Up $3,000; Obama Vowed $2,500 Cut

By Nancy Pearcey • September 25, 2012, 02:20 PM

John Merline reports at Investor's Business Daily:

During his first run for president, Barack Obama made one very specific promise to voters: He would cut health insurance premiums for families by $2,500, and do so in his first term.

But it turns out that family premiums have increased by more than $3,000 since Obama's vow, according to the latest annual Kaiser Family Foundation employee health benefits survey.


Chick-Fil-A: "No Such Concessions" to Homosex Extremism

By Rick Pearcey • September 25, 2012, 10:18 AM

Ben Johnson reports at LifeSiteNews.com:

After a Chicago alderman claimed last week that Chick-fil-A had agreed not to fund pro-family organizations, the fast food chain’s president Dan Cathy has set the record straight.

“Chick-fil-A made no such concessions, and we remain true to who we are and who we have been,” he said in a statement posted on Mike Huckabee’s website on Friday.

Related
Chick-Fil-A Promises No More Money for Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage
Male Homosexual "Partners" Face Child Porn Charges
What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today 



Friday, September 21, 2012

Review: "The Magician's Twin -- C.S. Lewis on Science, Scientism, and Society"

By Rick Pearcey • September 21, 2012, 06:34 AM

Tom Bethell writes at American Specator:

We normally associate C.S. Lewis with Christian apologetics, English literature, and the Narnia stories; less so with science and questions about evolution. But as the Discovery Institute's John G. West points out in The Magician's Twin, throughout his life Lewis was concerned about the abject submission of culture and politics to the growing authority of science. Lewis respected science, but he rejected the idea that it is the only reliable method of knowledge about the world. He called that error scientism. As for evolution, his skepticism about it increased over the years.



Thursday, September 20, 2012

CNET: Wicked PR Scandal Erupts at Wikipedia

By Nancy Pearcey • September 20, 2012, 02:49 PM

Violet Blue writes at CNET News:

Concerned Wikipedians raised the alarm Monday that two trusted men -- one a trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation UK, the other a respected Wikipedian In Residence -- are allegedly editing Wikipedia pages and facilitating front-page placement for their pay-for-play, publicity-seeking clients.

According to Blue, one of the men, Roger Bamkin, a "trustee of the Wikimedia Foundation UK, whose LinkedIn page describes him as a high-return-earning PR consultant, appeared to be using Wikipedia's main page 'Did You Know' feature and the resources of Wikipedia's GLAM WikiProject (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) initiative to pimp his client's project."

Said client happens to be: "The country of Gibraltar," Blue writes.

"At the same time Bamkin's consulting work as a representative of Wikimedia Foundation reared its ugly head," Blue continues, "Wikipedia community members exposed the SEO-focused, PR-strategy Wikipedia page editing business run by respected GLAM editor Max Klein."

What to make of this? "Many people would consider the idea of 'Did You Know' -- and Wikipedia's front page -- being successfully used in a for-profit commercial venture by any entity to be harmful to Wikipedia, reputation or otherwise," Blue observes.

"But then again," Blue concludes, "Wikipedia and alleged conflicts of interest are not known to be handled with practicality -- or clarity. Just ask Philip Roth."


Half-Baked? Doubts About Reported Shift at Chick-Fil-A

By Rick Pearcey • September 20, 2012, 10:37 AM

LifeSiteNews reports: 

A Chicago alderman and homosexual activist who in July went public with his efforts to block Chick-fil-A from opening a franchise because its president, Dan Cathy, supports traditional marriage, is claiming to have gotten his wish. . . .

However, it is unclear how much has really changed.

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Fowl Claim About Chick-Fil-A?

By Rick Pearcey • September 20, 2012, 10:08 AM

Aaron Goldstein writes at American Spectator:

An Illinois LGBT group is claiming that Chik-fil-A will cease giving money to groups which support traditional marriage and oppose same sex marriage. . . .

Something seems fowl about this whole thing. If TCRA's ["The Civil Rights Agenda"] claims are true then I would like to hear it from Dan Cathy himself. TCRA did not release the text of the letter sent by WinShape nor did it indicate who signed the letter. So something doesn't quite smell right to me.

Yesterday I wrote:

We look forward to direct statements from Chick-Fil-A regarding today's report in the LATimes, statements that confirm or deny its core assertions. Meanwhile, one can be thankful that the aggression of extremist forces unleashed in America today has placed the options in stark contrast.

A particular business can be salt and light in a broken world. Or it can be part of the problem. Let's work and pray that the light keeps shining at Chick-Fil-A.



Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Justin Bieber's Mother Was Encouraged to Abort -- and Refused

By Nancy Pearcey • September 19, 2012, 10:51 PM

From LifeNews.com: 

Prior to becoming pregnant, [Bieber's mom] Mallette suffered sexual abuse, a subject she discusses in her new book, “Nowhere But Up: The Story of Justin Bieber’s Mom.” Of that abuse, Mallette told Gifford, “I’ve learned it’s normal and natural for anybody who’s been through sexual abuse to carry that shame and that blame and feel like there’s something wrong with you. So I definitely carried that.”

The shame was so much Mallette attempted to kill herself. She told Gifford that the suicide attempt was “a culmination of, you know, built up over the years with the abuse and the pain and at the time I was messed up with all the drugs and alcohol. I was in a depression and the drugs and alcohol kind of spurred that on some more."

By the age of 17, Mallette became pregnant with Justin, and at the time, she was encouraged to abort the baby. Of course, Mallette said that was an option she couldn’t consider. “I just knew I couldn’t. I just knew I couldn’t. I just know I had to keep him,” she told Gifford. “And, do the best. I -- you know, I didn’t know how I was going to do it. But I just knew that I couldn’t -- I couldn’t abort. I had to do my best. I had to see what I could do. And I was determined to do whatever it took.

The full interview aired September 18-19 on the Today Show.


Report: Chick-Fil-A Promises No More Money for Pro-Family, Pro-Marriage

By Rick Pearcey • September 19, 2012, 05:07 PM

"Chick-fil-A has pledged to stop giving money to anti-gay groups and to back off political and social debates after an executive’s comments this summer landed the fast-food chain smack in the middle of the gay marriage debate," reports Tiffany Hsu in an LATimes story titled, "Chick-Fil-A Promises to Stop Giving Money to Anti-Gay Groups."

Hsu also reports that the "Civil Rights Agenda, which dubs itself the largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy group in Illinois, said Chick-fil-A agreed in meetings to stop donating to groups such as Focus on the Family and the National Organization for Marriage."

The Chick-Fil-A website currently states the following:

Chick-fil-A is a family-owned and family-led company serving the communities in which it operates. From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our Restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect -- regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.

If the Chick-Fil-A statement is meant to indicate the company will not support pro-family and pro-marriage groups and that it will instead "leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena," then it has abdicated in significant measure its responsibility to stand up for the good and the true.

Politics is downstream from culture -- and culture includes not just the arts and humanities but also business, the academy, social life, and more.

Clearly, a business cannot simultaneously "love thy neighbor" while at the same time allowing the community of one's neighbor to be subjected to radical, extremist forces seeking to impose their private anti-marriage and anti-family agenda upon the American public.

Neither a privatized church nor a privatized business is adequate to the high calling of living in liberated community with God and man across the whole of society. 

Such privatization is passivity, and such passivity is pacification.

Businesses have consequences, as do corporate cultures. Much more than profit is at stake. And much more than a positive experience inside a business establishment is at stake. 

Wisdom is meant to be shouted from the rooftops and practiced in the streets. This goes to the core of the cultural expression of corporate stewardship.

We look forward to direct statements from Chick-Fil-A regarding today's report in the LATimes, statements that confirm or deny its core assertions. Meanwhile, one can be thankful that the aggression of extremist forces unleashed in America today has placed the options in stark contrast.

A particular business can be salt and light in a broken world. Or it can be part of the problem. Let's work and pray that the light keeps shining at Chick-Fil-A.

Related
Male Homosexual "Partners" Face Child Porn Charges
Coulter on "Faggot" Easy to Defend
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat

The "Gay" Anti-Science
What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today


Top Muslim Calls for U.N. to End Free Speech

By Rick Pearcey • September 19, 2012, 08:54 AM

Drew Zhan reports at WND:

One of the world’s most influential Muslims is now calling on the United Nations -- in light of the YouTube movie blamed for violent protests across the Mideast -- to impose international restrictions on free speech, criminalizing any statement that impugns Islam.

Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, a professor at King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia, is a member of several international organizations, including the Centre for Studying the Aims of Sharia in the U.K., as well as serving as the vice chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars.

In a "Declaration Regarding the Offensive Video to Muslims," Bin Bayyah writes: 

We ask everyone to ponder the ramifications of provoking the feelings of over one billion people by a small party of people who desires not to seek peace nor fraternity between members of humanity. This poses a threat to world peace with no tangible benefit realized.

Is it not necessary in today’s world for the United Nations to issue a resolution criminalizing the impingement of religious symbols? We request all religious and political authorities, as well as people of reason to join us in putting a stop to this futility that benefits no one.



Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Jimmy Carter Grandson Behind Romney Video

By Rick Pearcey • September 18, 2012, 10:35 AM

At WND:

Former president Jimmy Carter’s grandson helped leak video of Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser to Mother Jones Magazine, New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog reports.

James Carter IV helped connect Mother Jones reporter David Corn with video of Romney at a fundraiser saying, among other things, that it is not his “job” to win over the 47 percent of voters committed to President Obama, because they are “dependent on government” and he will “never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”


The Hero: Family Research Council Guard Leo Johnson Honored

By Rick Pearcey • September 18, 2012, 09:13 AM

Ben Johnson reports at LifeSiteNews.com:

When Family Research Council employee Leo Johnson braved three bullets to stop a hate-filled homosexual activist from committing a mass murder, he did not expect to receive an award. But that’s exactly what happened to sustained, enthusiastic applause at this weekend’s Values Voters Summit in Washington, D.C.

“During that fateful day," Mr. Johnson told the gathering, "and I think about it a lot, there’s no other place I’d rather have been than right there where I was. . . . Thank you -- and I will be back.”

Related
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Monday, September 17, 2012

White House Correspondent Doesn't Stand for Pledge of Allegiance

By Rick Pearcey • September 17, 2012, 08:30 AM

Warner Todd Huston writes at Big Journalism:

NPR White House correspondent Ari Shapiro doesn't stand for our national anthem and won't recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Why? Because he places his position as a "journalist" above love of county. But, one wonders, does Shapiro understand that without this country he wouldn't be free to be a journalist?

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Shark "Rescues" Man Lost at Sea 15 Weeks

By Rick Pearcey • September 17, 2012, 08:16 AM

Sky News reports:

A lost fisherman who drifted at sea for 15 weeks, sleeping next to his dead brother-in-law, was eventually helped to safety -- by a shark. . . .

[Toakai Teitoi] continued to pray regularly and on the morning of September 11 caught sight of a fishing boat in the distance but the crew were unable to see him.

Dejected, he did what he had done most days, curling up under a small covered area in the bow to stay out of the tropical sun.

Mr Teitoi said he woke in the afternoon to the sound of scratching and looked overboard to see a six-foot shark circling the boat and bumping the hull.

When the shark had his attention it swam off.

"He was guiding me to a fishing boat," says the fisherman. "I looked up and there was the stern of a ship and I could see crew with binoculars looking at me."



Saturday, September 15, 2012

Black Pastor Uses Lynching Photo to Get Out the Vote

By Rick Pearcey • September 15, 2012, 06:12 PM

NBC News reports:

A pastor in Indiana has put up a sign that uses a historical image of the 1930 lynching of two black teenagers in an effort to recharge the black vote.

Rev. Joy Thornton, the senior pastor of Greater St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church in Indianapolis, said he’s concerned that African-Americans have grown complacent about voting, and he wants to urge people to exercise the right he says was hard won, the Associated Press reported.

The sign, which has stood for nearly a week along the street in front of the church, shows, on one side, a white mob gathered around the teens to watch the lynching in Marion, Ind. Atop the photo is the word “VOTE!!!” Beneath it is the question: “Is this a reason to vote?” The other side of the sign shows an image of slaves in chains, with wording beneath it that reads, “Lest we forget.”

One wonders how this pastor or other pastors might answer the following race-related questions regarding the Democrat and Republican parties:

1. What Party was founded as the anti-slavery Party and fought to free blacks from slavery?

2. What was the Party of Abraham Lincoln who signed the emancipation proclamation that resulted in the Juneteenth celebrations that occur in black communities today?

3. What Party fought to keep blacks in slavery and was the Party of the Ku Klux Klan?

4. What Party from 1870 to 1930 used fraud, whippings, lynching, murder, intimidation, and mutilation to get the black vote, and passed the Black Codes and Jim Crow laws which legalized racial discrimination and denied blacks their rights as citizens?

An answer key to these and additional questions can be found here. Remarks by Rep. Allen West can be seen on YouTube here.

Related
How to Have a Race War
Racism! Racism! And Oh by the Way: Racism!


Obama's Middle East Policy "Collapsing Right in Front of Us"

By Rick Pearcey • September 15, 2012, 02:41 PM

The Daily Caller reports:

Add conservative commentator Pat Buchanan to the growing list of critics of President Barack Obama’s Middle East policy, as anti-American unrest continues throughout Egypt, Libya and now Yemen.

Appearing on Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren,” Buchanan, author of "Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?," pointed to Obama’s 2009 speech in Cairo as the beginning of the administration’s “utterly naïve” foreign policy.


New Obama Ad: Yes, We Are Better Off Than We Were 4 Years Ago

By Rick Pearcey • September 15, 2012, 02:24 PM

Here's a report from The Blaze. Watch the ad here.


Male Homosexual "Partners" Face Child Porn Charges

By Rick Pearcey • September 15, 2012, 10:07 AM

The Houston Chronicle reports: 

Two Jersey Village men face felony child pornography charges after investigators raided their apartment and found illicit photos and videos of children as young as 5 engaged in sex, Harris County prosecutors said.

Christopher Duncan, 38, and his live-in partner, William Burklund, 20, are each charged with possession of child pornography, court records show. A judge set $20,000 bail for each.

"The City of Jersey Village offers its residents a safe, caring small town atmosphere in the heart of the Houston Metropolitan area,"says the Jersey Village website.

Challenging this mission statement is child pornography, which is an inhumane phenomenon and rightly policed. But also challenging this mission statement, and even more destructive strategically, is a homosexualist philosophy that would seek to normalize child pornography.

That philosophy preaches "'love' without limits." This slogan is a sermon in a nutshell, but it is bad faith and intellectually empty.

It is an angry preaching that not only lacks an adequate basis for defining love (and distinguishing it from mere lust) but the embrace of this view requires a) the rejection of the Creator's liberating norms for marriage and human sexuality and b) the acceptance of a private relativistic concept of "values" based on impersonal nature, "orientation," or just raw power. And it places children at the mercy of "loving" "adult" adults.

Today, the consumption of child pornography is a crime, as it should be.

Tomorrow, however, if homosexualist finger-wagging from the White House, Hollywood, the "news" media, and other secularized power establishments (not to be confused with the American mainstream) are successful in imposing their extremist philosophy upon Americans, no child or community will be safe.

Philosophies have consequences. Ideas that are true and humane can elevate a set of colonies to exceptional greatness. Ideas that are false and inhumane can tear down a town, city, state, or country. This can happen even if those ideas are marketed as "liberation."

The immoral criminal jailed today may be hailed as the pioneer tomorrow. Or Wisdom can triumph in the streets. 

Related
Coulter on "Faggot" Easy to Defend 
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat
 
The "Gay" Anti-Science 
What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today



Friday, September 14, 2012

U.S. Marines on the Ground in Yemen, But . . .

By Rick Pearcey • September 14, 2012, 01:41 PM

Fox News reports: 

U.S. Marines are on the ground in Yemen to deal with the aftermath of an attack on the U.S. Embassy in the capital city of Sanaa, as the Obama administration warns of sustained protests outside diplomatic posts across the Middle East and North Africa. 

But now, in the age of Obama, we have to ask: Do the Marines have bullets?


Report: Hillary Ignored Attack Warnings

By Rick Pearcey • September 14, 2012, 10:54 AM

Ben Shapiro writes at Breitbart.com:

The Independent is reporting shocking details about the attack on the Libyan consulate that resulted in the death of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens. The details are so explosive that they will result in a Congressional investigation. In fact, they’re so explosive that they should result in the resignation of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. . . . 

Yesterday, we reported that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was responsible under the law for the “security policies and programs that provide for the protection of all US government personnel . . . on official duty abroad.” Clinton herself seemed bewildered by the attacks on the Libyan consulate, asking, “How could this happen in a country we helped liberate, in a city we helped save from destruction?”

"But according to the Independent," Shapiro writes, Clinton "had no reason to be puzzled."

Shapiro continues:

Quoting senior diplomatic sources, the paper reports, “the US State Department had credible information 48 hours before mobs charged the consulate in Benghazi, and the embassy in Cairo, that American missions may be targeted.” Nonetheless, “no warnings were given for diplomats to go on high alert and ‘lockdown,’ under which movement is severely restricted.”

"The only question now," Shapiro writes, is this: "What did Hillary Clinton know, and when did she know it?"



Thursday, September 13, 2012

Poll: Akin Leading in Missouri

By Rick Pearcey • September 13, 2012, 02:30 PM

Maggie Haberman reports at Politico:

A poll commissioned by Citizens United's political arm shows [Republican] Todd Akin leading [Democrat] Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri.

The poll by the CU political victory fund and conducted by Wenzel Strategies, shows Akin ahead by almost 5 points. Mitt Romney leads President Barack Obama by 20 points.


"Satan Is Real": Polish Priests Launch World's 1st Exorcism Monthly Mag

By Rick Pearcey • September 13, 2012, 02:02 PM

Billy Hallowell reports at The Blaze:

In a tough economy, it’s encouraging to see any business or enterprise describe itself as “booming,” but, in Poland, one of the primary sectors that is experiencing exponential growth may raise some eyebrows -- Catholic exorcisms.

In an effort to capitalize on ever-growing acts to dispel demons, Polish priests are teaming up with publishers to create the world’s first, monthly expulsion-themed magazine.

Called Egzorcysta, the publication officially launched this past Monday. Its first issue, which includes 62 pages of content, has articles entitled, “New Age -- the Spiritual Vacuum Cleaner” and “Satan Is Real,” among others. The magazine, which will cost the equivalent of $3.10 per copy, has a print run of 15,000 to start.


Pacifist Attack on C.S. Lewis

By Rick Pearcey • September 13, 2012, 09:55 AM

Hal G.P. Colebatch writes at American Spectator:

Mark Tooley has done us a service by calling attention to Stanley Hauerwas's challenge to C.S. Lewis's demolition of Christian Pacifism. However, I believe there are several further points to make on this subject.

Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, had the wily old devil Screwtape point out to his pupil that, from the point of view of Hell war, though it caused agreeable terror, wickedness and suffering among humans, also, unfortunately, led to deplorable instances of bravery, nobility and self-sacrifice.

In wartime people were aware of what was in fact always with them -- death, and one of Hell's most useful tools, contented worldliness, was lost.

From Hell's point of view, war was a two-edged sword, and devils should not be too quick to unthinkingly rejoice over it. . . .


Sept. 11, 2012 -- and Obama Apologizes

By Rick Pearcey • September 13, 2012, 09:42 AM

"Our weakness," Mr. Obama, "once again invited terror." More at Investor's Business Daily.



Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Churches Open Doors to Kids During Chicago Teachers Strike

By Rick Pearcey • September 12, 2012, 09:48 AM

CBN News reports:

In the wake of the teacher's strike in Chicago, churches across the metropolis are stepping up to help the city's children.

Many are opening their doors to help feed kids who would normally eat their meals at school.



Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Nina Shea: 2 Severely Persecuted Christians Freed

By Rick Pearcey • September 11, 2012, 06:12 PM

Nina Shea writes at The Corner:

Last Saturday brought rare good news on the international religious-freedom front. Two high-profile Christian prisoners who had been severely persecuted under their countries’ Muslim apostasy and blasphemy laws were freed.

In Pakistan, Rimsha Masih, 14 years old and mentally disabled, was released on bail after being arrested on August 16 on charges that she had burned pages from a Koran -- an allegation that was bravely refuted by others. . . .

In Iran, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, imprisoned since 2009 and facing possible execution on charges of apostasy for his conversion to Christianity, was also freed.

Shea says the international outcry was key to positive outcomes in these two cases:

When the injustices became internationally exposed, these countries’ leaders, even leaders within their respective religious establishments, were reluctant to take responsibility for the law or Masih’s or Nadarkhani’s fate.

Nina Shea is director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. Forthcoming from Thomas Nelson Publishers in 2013 is the new book Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians, co-authored with Paul Marshall and Lela Gilbert.


3 Parents for California Children?

By Rick Pearcey • September 11, 2012, 05:41 PM

Jennifer Roback Morse writes at Public Discourse:

If California State Senator Mark Leno has his way, children in California will be able to have three legal parents. Before we dismiss SB 1476 as another example of California Weird, we had best look into it more closely. After all, the bill has passed both houses of the California Assembly and is awaiting Governor Brown’s signature or veto.

I believe this development was inevitable, more inevitable in fact than the much-vaunted inevitability of gay marriage. Once we started trying to normalize parenting by same-sex couples and redefine marriage to remove the dual-gender requirement, we had to end up with triple-parenting.

A deeper look at the whole picture surrounding SB 1476 reveals that not only should the three-parent law fail, same-sex “marriage” should fail as well. As we will see, embedded in this bill is an appalling power-grab by the state, and a grotesque misrepresentation of the facts by the bill’s authors.

"Triple-parenting and genderless marriage are destructive policies," Morse concludes. "They must be stopped. SB 1476 has passed both houses of the California Assembly. Governor [Jerry] Brown has the power to veto or to sign this ill-conceived law. He must decide, one way or the other, by September 30. Let us hope he does the right thing."


Humane Worldview vs. Kiddie Pole Dancing

By Rick Pearcey • September 11, 2012, 09:55 AM

You may have noticed in the news lately that a dance studio is offering "kiddie pole-dancing classes." 

As a counterpoint to this, friend and author Darrow Miller has alerted us to the intriguing creative work of Jeremiah and Mona Enna in Kansas City.

Miller writes: 

After spending time studying and dancing in Europe, the Ennas moved to Olathe, Kansas, near Kansas City. There they created The Culture House and the affiliate Storling Dance Theater. Their dream was to bring the performing arts and the local community together through “excellence, education and engagement.” The Ennas seek to found their work in the performing arts on an integrated Biblical worldview.

The whole point of an "integrated Biblical worldview" is to recover our humanity in a broken world, in a life of community with God and man.

This too is central to "cultural apologetics" -- that is, to being salt and light in all sectors of society, so that love and truth (His will) is exhibited "on earth, even as it is in heaven."  

Someone such as Francis Schaeffer, for example, whose work the Ennas claim as an influence on their creativity, understood the Biblical emphasis that the case for knowable truth from the Creator is meant to be articulated and lived out across the entirety of society. 

As such, this verifiable worldview is not [to quote a recent Acton Institute article] "some exercise in supernatural therapy for people bewildered by the adversities of life. Instead, [Schaeffer] drew out the connections between Christianity, social events, art, history, music, government, and the many other endeavors of human beings in the world."

Schaeffer's reality-oriented commitment "led Christians out of their tiny reading room and into an enormous library of human experience and learning."

This approach gives a basis for a genuine and humane renaissance of life and mind and imagination across the whole of human existence, including, and equally including, politics, science, education, entertainment, journalism, art, medicine, the humanities, church-life, and socio-political healing in the public square. 

Here is a video that explains the vision of Jeremiah and Mona Enna for the Artist Development Program at the Storling Dance Theater.

The next time we're in Kansas City, we hope to pay a visit to The Culture House and Storling Dance Theater.

Related
Rolled Model: Tennis Pro Harkleroad "Proud of My Body"
Fireproof: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes 
Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning

(Note: Portions of the preceding comments first appeared on Nancy Pearcey's page in Facebook)



Monday, September 10, 2012

Pat Robertson Advises: Move to Saudi Arabia So Man Can Beat His Wife

By Rick Pearcey • September 10, 2012, 05:10 PM

Rosie Gray writes at BuzzFeed:

Televangelist Pat Robertson, who campaigned with Mitt Romney this past weekend in Virginia, advised a viewer of his show today to move to Saudi Arabia in order to be able to beat his wife.

Robertson's tone indicates he's joking -- “Well, you could become a Muslim and you could beat her,” he said, adding that the man "can’t divorce her according to the Scripture, so I say: Move to Saudi Arabia.”

The response came as part of the 700 Club's "Bring it On" segment, where viewers can send in questions for Robertson to answer.

Robertson's tone is that of someone trying to inject humor into a very difficult marital situation. He did not succeed. 

My advice to Robertson: It's foolish to try to offer specific counsel to married couples on air, especially if you are not trained in these matters, and especially if the only information you have is a letter from a viewer.

It is important to respect the biblical insistence that, yes, there are real answers to the basic challenges of life in a broken world, but none of this is to applied in a simplistic, ham-fisted manner from afar.

Speaking of Saudi Arabia, Robertson himself may not need to leave the country, but with this kind of on-air performance, he may want to consider leaving TV land.  

Watch the segment on video here.


Shell Begins Arctic Alaska Drilling

By Rick Pearcey • September 10, 2012, 08:20 AM

Daniel Politi writes at Slate:

After waiting six years and spending $4.5 billion, Shell took its first step in drilling in the Chukchi Sea, 70 miles off the coast of northwest Alaska in what could mark the beginning of a new wave of exploration in U.S. offshore Arctic waters.

Shell announced that it begun drilling the “top hole” of an exploratory well early Sunday morning, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The company will drill around 1,300 feet deep but will not be able to tap the hydrocarbon deposits until an oil spill containment barge is on site. That means the well could be completed next year.

Environmental groups have long opposed drilling in the Arctic. . . .



Saturday, September 8, 2012

"West Wing" Actor: Rights Come From "Piece of Paper"

By Rick Pearcey • September 8, 2012, 01:42 PM

Fred Lucas reports at CNSNews.com:

Actor Richard Schiff, who won an Emmy Award for his portrayal of the dreary White House communications director “Toby Ziegler” character on the hit show “The West Wing,” said that his rights come from a document written by men.

CNSNews.com asked Schiff, “Given the whole party platform dust up, would you agree with the Declaration of Independence that all rights are God-given?”

Schiff didn’t object, saying, “If you believe in God, sure you can say that.”

“I think man wrote that. I think it was a group of men who sit down and wrote it,” Schiff, who was attending the Democratic National Convention, told CNSNews.com.

Schiff explains:

If they decided that God gave them the right to write it -- you see how confusing this is? If you believe in God and you believe God gave you that right, good for you, man. Keep on believing that.

The piece of paper gave me the right because it says it and it made it law. This is a country of laws. And if you want to believe in God, and abide by those laws, fantastic.

Related
Contra Jefferson: A Godless Party Expels the Creator 
DNC Video: "Gov't Is the Only Thing We All Belong To"
Secularist Washington-Centrism Is Un-American


Contact Wearers Beware of Eyeball-Eating Amoeba

By Rick Pearcey • September 8, 2012, 01:19 PM

Liz Klimas reports at The Blaze:

An acanthamoeba may not be a term you’re likely to hear at the optometrist while being outfitted for a new prescription for contacts, but it’s a good reason to heed their warnings about proper contact lens care.

The acanthamoeba is a microorganism found to essentially crawl through the eye’s cornea, causing not only pain but also potentially permanent blindness. The United Kindgom’s Press Association [UKPA] recently reported [that although] incidence of the infection is rare -- only about 75 people of the 3.7 million contact lens wears in the U.K. are treated each year -- it’s still worth being aware of how to best avoid contracting it.

"The UKPA states that the parasite, which burrows into the eye, can be picked up from a dirty case or from rinsing lenses in tap, river, pond or lake water," Klimas reports.

The UKPA "also notes the condition, Acanthamoeba keratitis, is often misdiagnosed," Klimas continues. "Once contracted, treatment includes a hospital stay with 'round-the-clock administration of disinfecting eye drops,' UKPA states. If the infection is bad enough, the cornea could need to be replaced or blindness could also result."


TSA Kicks Woman Off Flight . . . for Bad Attitude

By Rick Pearcey • September 8, 2012, 09:26 AM

Paul Joseph Watson writes at Infowars.com

A TSA screener admitted to a woman traveling through Houston Airport that she was prevented from boarding her flight for retaliatory reasons as punishment for a bad attitude rather than any genuine security threat, after the woman refused to allow TSA agents to test her drink for explosives.

In this video, a TSA agent agrees that his decision was "retaliatory" and was not because he honestly thought the woman was a "threat." Kicking her off the flight was not about "making the airways safer."

"The fact that the TSA screener admits the woman is being punished for her attitude confirms the premise that many of the TSA’s security procedures actually have nothing to do with safety and are more a form of obedience training for the general public," Watson writes.



Friday, September 7, 2012

The Outlaw Clint Eastwood: "Mission Accomplished"

By Rick Pearcey • September 7, 2012, 06:49 PM

Paul Miller reports at The Carmel Pine Cone:

After a week as topic No. 1 in American politics, former Carmel Mayor Clint Eastwood said the outpouring of criticism from left-wing reporters and liberal politicians after his appearance at the Republican National Convention last Thursday night, followed by an avalanche of support on Twitter and in the blogosphere, is all the proof anybody needs that his 12-minute discourse achieved exactly what he intended it to.

President Obama is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” Eastwood told The Pine Cone this week. “Romney and Ryan would do a much better job running the country, and that’s what everybody needs to know. I may have irritated a lot of the lefties, but I was aiming for people in the middle.” . . .

And while the Hollywood superstar has plenty of experience being adored by crowds, he said he hasn’t given a lot of speeches and admitted that, “I really don’t know how to.” He also hates using a teleprompter, so it was settled in his mind that when he spoke to the 10,000 people in the convention hall, and the millions more watching on television, he would do it extemporaneously.

"It was only after a quick nap in his hotel room a few blocks from the convention site, Eastwood said, that he mapped out his remarks -- starting with his observation about politics in Hollywood, then challenging the president about the failure of his economic policies, and wrapping up by telling the public 'they don’t have to worship politicians, like they were royalty or something,'" Miller reports.

"But even then," Miller writes, "with just an hour before he appeared on stage, it still hadn’t occurred to Eastwood to use an empty chair as a stand-in for the president."

Review
Video: Clint Eastwood at Republican National Convention 
Empty Chair Watch: Obama Says Fatherhood Trumps Politics
Did Clint Eastwood Really Make Mitt Romney's Day?


Contra Jefferson: A Godless Party Expels the Creator

By Rick Pearcey • September 7, 2012, 08:30 AM

Pat Buchanan writes:

The authors of the Democratic platform have inadvertently revealed to the world the sea change that has taken place in that party we once knew.

For the first time — and in the longest Democratic platform in history, 26,000 words — there was not a single mention of God, the Creator, whom Thomas Jefferson himself, father of the party, proclaimed to be the author of our right to life and liberty.

The convention had approved the new platform, but when a firestorm erupted, a panicked Barack Obama hastily ordered "God" reinstated.

"But when the amendment was offered to the convention by its chairman, Antonio Villaraigosa, the idea of restoring the name of God to the platform was hooted, jeered and booed by half the delegates on the floor, who three times howled, 'No!'," Buchanan recounts.

"The omission of God is being called an oversight," Buchanan writes. "But the viral reaction to returning God, even when Obama asked that it be done, testifies that this was no accident. God was deleted deliberately."



Thursday, September 6, 2012

Feds Seek Prison Time for Obama "Hope" Poster Artist

By Rick Pearcey • September 6, 2012, 08:42 AM

At The Smoking Gun:

Federal prosecutors want Shepard Fairey, the artist who created the Barack Obama “Hope” poster, to serve time in prison following his misdemeanor conviction for destroying and fabricating documents in connection with a civil lawsuit over the iconic campaign image. . . .

Fairey . . . has admitted destroying electronic records and creating fake documents in an effort to thwart a copyright lawsuit brought by the Associated Press, which contended that Fairey had based the “Hope” image on a photo taken by an AP lensman.

Plagiarism is an "act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author's work as one's own, as by not crediting the original author," states Dictionary.com. This would include "a piece of writing or other work reflecting such unauthorized use or imitation."

Note, however, one can plagiarize even if there is an under-the-table "authorization" to allow it (sometimes protected by a contract's "nondisclosure clause"). Ghostwriting, for example, is often preceded by a legal agreement in which a "big name" pretend author agrees to take credit for work in fact authored by the "ghost." 

The true authorship of the book is hidden from the reading public, for any number of rationalizations. Both the "author" and real writer (and their lawyers and organizations and publishers) have thereby agreed to deceive and manipulate to achieve some desired end (book sales, image enhancement, influence, etc.).

Being known as an "author," or having a list of 20 or 30 books he or she has "written," can do wonders for one's speaking fees, the status of one's organization, the rehabilitation of one's besmirched image, and the "legacy" you've carefully crafted for years so that all remains well when you're dead and gone.

It's all "nice and legal," but unethical. Two wrongs do not make a right. Even if "legal." Even if agreed to by consenting adults. This is true even if some big "Christian" celebrity's name (often PRed as a "spiritual giant") is stuck on the front of the book. Or on the front of 30 books.

Related
Francis Schaeffer -- "The Central Problem of Our Age"
Oxford, Cambridge, Plagiarism, and Christian Worldview
Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach



Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Democrat Platform: Zero References to "God," 100 References to "Obama"

By Rick Pearcey • September 5, 2012, 09:32 AM

"Perhaps they got the two concepts mixed up," suggests David N. Bass at American Spectator.



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

DNC Video: "Gov't Is the Only Thing That We All Belong To"

By Rick Pearcey • September 4, 2012, 06:55 PM

What an offensive, demeaning proposition spouted in this video: Belonging to "the government."

This is additional evidence that the Democrat Party stands outside and even against the enduring mainstream of what defines America.

As the U.S. mainstream is defined in the Declaration and Constitution, it's "We the People," under God -- that is, in liberating community with the Creator by whom we are endowed with unalienable rights.

The Creator, and not the state, is the center of gravity of human freedom. Washington-centrism is an offense to the human spirit.

Memo to Democrat Party: "The government" belongs to us. As free-thinkers we can decide, under God, how to arrange our lives -- as individuals, as families, as neighborhoods, as communities, as towns, as counties, as states, and as a nation.

The federal government is merely one of the many governments in the United States. And again, it belongs to us. We do not belong to it.

Hat tip: Shannon Bream


Chuck Norris Says This Film Kicks!

By Rick Pearcey • September 4, 2012, 12:39 PM

From Chuck Norris:

"One by one, we have lost the freedoms that our forefathers, our brothers in arms and my son died for," says the main character in a movie that my wife, Gena, and I have been waiting eagerly to see in theaters. It opens nationwide Friday, Sept. 14, coinciding with the Sept. 11 commemoration of Patriot Day.

We are very excited to announce that Last Ounce of Courage is the first theatrical motion picture to be awarded with my "Chuck Norris Seal of Approval," in promotion of this independent film.

As the PR Newswire release explained, "Last Ounce of Courage is an intergenerational story of a grieving father inspired by his grandson to take a stand for faith and freedom against a tide of apathy and vanishing liberty. . . . Alongside fellow citizens of courage, faith and integrity, he champions the cherished principles we the people hold dear."

The film stars Marshall Teague (Road House, The Rock, and Armageddon), Fred Williamson (Black Caesar), Hunter Gomez (National Treasure), and Academy Award nominee Jennifer O'Neill (Summer of '42).


Former Prez of Turner Broadcasting Helps Create Alternative Network for Families

By Rick Pearcey • September 4, 2012, 09:08 AM

Drew Zahn reports at WND:

As former president of the Turner Broadcasting empire, Bradley Siegel presided over the TBS Superstation and Cartoon Network and helped to make TNT the No. 1 basic-cable network in America four years running.

But Siegel told WND he and his business partner, Charles Humbard, recognized the need for a positive, entertaining alternative to broadcast television. While the top on-air and cable channels were pumping out programs he calls “denigrating,” Siegel and Humbard determined to create a new network that affirmed values, faith and family, but without sacrificing production quality. . . .  

“Television programming was increasingly becoming very negative,” Siegel told WND in an exclusive interview. “It was relying on personal train wrecks, on salaciousness, on profanity, on things I thought were causing considerable harm to human values and the fabric of families, no matter what your faith."

Siegel says he and Humbard concluded "that there needed to be a place on television where audiences can get the same kind of entertainment values that they tune into the broadcast networks for, but without relying on the kind of denigrating, negative, exploitative themes that attract so many."

Siegel explains, "We worked very hard to create a network where families that want positive, uplifting, faith-affirming, family-friendly entertainment can still feel like they are watching an entertainment network, just like TNT or ABC or Discovery -- only without having to jump for the remote because something’s on they find offensive or they don’t want their child to see.”

"The result," according to WND, "has been an unprecedented boom in popularity for GMC TV, now the fastest-growing network in all of ad-supported cable television."

Related
Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen
Fireproof: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes



Monday, September 3, 2012

White Males Only Spoke at Republican National Convention

By Rick Pearcey • September 3, 2012, 07:30 PM

How do I know? Because I watch MSNBC.

Constitution-clinging, Declaration-loving Michelle Malkin claims to have a trove of video data demonstrating RNC speeches by Marco Rubio, Mia Love, Nikki Haley, Condoleezza Rice, Susana Martinez, Sher Valenzuela, and Rey Fernandez.

That's a distraction. And only rich racists would waste their time viewing that stuff.

Look. Once and for all. When it comes to RNC "diversity," MSNBC didn't broadcast it, they don't believe it, and that settles it.

Now can we get back to fundamentally transforming America?


Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy Is on Your Screen

By Rick Pearcey • September 3, 2012, 04:46 PM

Don't Miss This: Self-described liberal Jonathan Chait writes at New York magazine:

We liberals owe not a small measure of our success to the propaganda campaign of a tiny, disproportionately influential cultural elite.

This capacity to mold the moral premises of large segments of the public, and especially the youngest and most impressionable elements, may or may not be unfair. What it is undoubtedly is a source of cultural (and hence political) power.

Chait says television transmits "an ethos in which greed is not only bad but the main wellspring of evil, authority figures of all kinds are often untrustworthy, sexual freedom is absolute, and social equality of all kinds is paramount. Within the moral universe of this [Hollywood] culture, the merits of these values are self-evident. But to the large bloc of America that does not share this ethos, it looks like a smug, self-perpetuating collusion against them."

"The American people have been lied to," explains Ben Shapiro at Big Hollywood. "We’ve been told that our entertainment was just that -- entertainment, as opposed to propaganda. That was false. And Americans, by ignoring the problem, have allowed it to fester."

What to do? "Until conservatives wake up and realize that they won’t win back their country without winning back their culture," Shapiro warns, "they will continue to lose their country to those who know how to manipulate emotions with script, lighting, and camerawork."

Those who say they are Christians should be especially concerned. Not just because of Hollywood's aggression against the rules of freedom and humanity, but also because redeemed visionaries have unique resources by which to respond with great creativity, depth, and humanity.

After all, creativity is a liberating gift from the Creator, one that human beings are called to exercise across the whole of reality, so that families and individuals and cities and societies may flourish in community with God and man.

Creativity is profoundly spiritual, and it is high time that Christians, as an emancipated humanity created in the image of God, express in a sustained way the wonder of transcendence and imagination throughout all of life, including creative life.

So writers, actors, thinkers, poets, sculptors, musicians, painters, speakers, and more -- this challenge is for you. Paint the trees, love the flowers, describe the hills, tell the story, and unfold the drama. Set the captives free. Ring the bell of liberty. And let history declare that humans qua humans are on the march again.

Politics is downstream from culture. And culture is downstream from salt and light.

Related
Fireproof: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes
Ashley Judd: No More Coal Mining on KY Mountain Tops 
Hollywood Approval Rating in the Toilet


Empty Chair Watch: Obama Says Fatherhood Trumps Politics

By Rick Pearcey • September 3, 2012, 09:52 AM

So says the prez to CNN. But does fatherhood trump politics when it comes to abortion politics, Mr. Obama?

You see, according to Barack, if he weren't such a family man, why, he'd spend more time schmoozing and "backslapping" with D.C. bigwigs. He'd have more buddies on the Hill. His agenda would be getting through, and Obamacare would be loved in Fly-Over Land.   

However, it may be that Obama and Co. have been talking, politicking, social networking, etc., etc., nonstop for well-nigh 4 years (OK, he's played more rounds of golf than Arnold Palmer). 

And it may be that Americans are rejecting the Obama regime because he is aggressively seeking to impose his private, secularized ideology upon a people who still cling all-too-much to their Declaration and Constitution.

They prefer the rules of freedom, not the rule of Obama. Success, not failure.

Yep. He loves the kids. Just like it says in the Bible.

Except for "the least of these" who need to be aborted. Except for those who have the audacity to survive an abortion and are actually breathing outside of the womb.

Probably a bunch a young racists, anyway. Or uppity race traitors in the making. Besides, who could object except an angry mob of anti-Planned Parenthood extremists? They shouldn't be having kids anyway.

The policies of nice-guy Christian Obama would let abortionists knock "the least of these" upside the head with a 9 iron.

And then 6:30 comes, when Obama can be with his kids at the dinner table, help with the homework, and create a halo for the DNC convention this week. With final victory and ultimate transformation waiting in November.

So, you see, when Clint Eastwood talked to empty chair Obama the other day at the RNC, the point isn't really that Obama's an empty suit.

It is true that Obama is a mouthpiece for regressive politics and inhumane interests.

And he is a man who hides behind his girls as his regime is being rejected and when his campaign needs a lift.

But don't miss the larger point: What Obama preaches and practices is empty and vain. Those who follow the empty chair will be left with nothing.


The Media's "Fact Check" Smokescreen

By Rick Pearcey • September 3, 2012, 08:11 AM

Investors Business Daily asks:

If media "fact checkers" are just impartial guardians of the truth, how come they got their own facts wrong about Paul Ryan's speech, and did so in a way that helped President Obama's re-election effort?


The "Gay" Anti-Science

By Rick Pearcey • September 3, 2012, 06:33 AM

Attorney and columnist Matt Barber writes:

Woe to any scientist with an interest in objectively researching and reporting on “LGBT”-related issues. If your findings fail the left’s socio-political “butterflies-and-rainbows” litmus test, the “progressive” establishment will try to destroy you -- guaranteed. Thus, on these matters, honest scientific inquiry will require courage.

Kansas State University, July 2010: Family Studies professor Dr. Walter Schumm releases the most comprehensive study to date on the effects of homosexual “parenting.” Published in the Journal of Biosocial Science, the study determined, among other things:

Children raised in “gay” households are up to 12 times more likely to self-identify as “gay”;

Of those in their 20s -- presumably after they’d been able to work out any adolescent confusion or experimentation -- 58% of the children of lesbians called themselves “gay,” and 33% of the children of “gay” men called themselves “gay.” (Contrast these rates with current studies indicating that around 3% of the general population is homosexual.)

Just before the research was released, AOL News reported, “Schumm says it shouldn’t have taken until 2010 to do the meta-analysis. Too often his colleagues impose ‘liberal or progressive political interpretations’ on their studies, which inhibit further inquiry. ‘It’s kind of sad,’” he said.

Sad, yes, but it’s also by design. “I just want to know the truth about something,” he confessed. Unfortunately, there are many with an extreme socio-political agenda who depend entirely upon suppressing the truth.

“As if expecting a political backlash himself,” reported AOL, “Schumm concludes his study with a quote from philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer. ‘All truth passes through three stages: First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.’”

Indeed, left-wing backlash was both swift and fierce. Schumm was instantly decried as a “quack,” a “conservative plant” and a“fraud.” Over the past two years, both Schumm and his study have passed through all three of Schopenhauer’s fiery stages, only to emerge unsinged.

But the damage to honest inquiry was already done. The message to anyone else who might conduct such a study was clear: If you dare release research on homosexuality and we don’t like your findings, we’re coming for you.

Not everyone got the message.

University of Texas-Austin, June 2012: Dr. Mark Regnerus leads a team of researchers on another peer-reviewed homosexual “parenting” study labeled: "How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relations? Findings from the New Family Structures Study."

The study was published in the journal Social Science Research. Its website FAQ page summarizes the findings: “The data show rather clearly that children raised by gay or lesbian parents on average are at a significant disadvantage when compared to children raised by the intact family of their married, biological mother and father.”

Focus on the Family’s Citizenlink distills the research: “According to [Regnerus'] findings, children raised by homosexual parents are more likely than those raised by married heterosexual parents to suffer from poor impulse control, depression and suicidal thoughts, require mental health therapy; identify themselves as homosexual; choose cohabitation; be unfaithful to partners; contract sexually transmitted diseases; be sexually molested; have lower income levels; drink to get drunk; and smoke tobacco and marijuana.”

Again, you could’ve set your watch to the liberal response. They went ballistic.

Notorious homosexual activist Scott Rosenweig (aka, Scott Rose. Warning: link to Rosenweig’s extremist history is profane and offensive) filed a formal complaint, demanding that the University of Texas both investigate and, ultimately, fire Dr. Regnerus for his findings.

A gaggle of homosexualist academics and liberal activists pounced, bewailing the study as “homophobic” and “methodologically flawed.” Darren E. Sherkat, a professor of sociology at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, conducted an “audit” of the already peer-reviewed study and arrived at the unassailable, scholarly and poignantly worded conclusion: “It’s bulls--t.”

Except that it wasn’t.

On Wednesday, the University of Texas -- no bastion of conservatism -- released a highly anticipated report on its findings,  summarily dismissing Rosenweig, Sherkat, and the dozens of “progressive” critics who couldn’t stomach the study’s game-changing implications. This painstaking inquiry was spearheaded by an independent consultant who formerly ran the Office of Research Integrity at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Noted UT-Austin: “As with much university research, Regnerus’ New Family Structures Study touches on a controversial and highly personal issue that is currently being debated by society at large. The university expects the scholarly community will continue to evaluate and report on the findings of the Regnerus article and supports such discussion.”

Still, observed the report, the research was properly conducted and “no formal investigation is warranted into the allegations of scientific misconduct lodged against associate professor Mark Regnerus.”

Experience of the millennia, indeed child-like common sense, frequently informs reality. Children are best served -- vastly so -- when raised by a mother and father.

Although there are sometimes unavoidable circumstances that short-circuit the mom-dad gold standard (single parenthood, etc.), this undeniable truth, to borrow from Schopenhauer, has, heretofore, been “accepted as being self-evident.”

So why on earth would we intentionally and selfishly sabotage it?

While we don’t necessarily need studies to reaffirm that which is so obvious, it is helpful to find a fast-growing body of research available to refute the “new-normal-modern-family” propaganda that sits tendentiously atop today’s moral-relativist house of cards.

Still, those who seek to deconstruct legitimate marriage and the natural family will always endeavor to suppress honest inquiry. They must.

Even so, whether liberal or conservative, “gay” or straight, the scientific community should be allowed to pursue truth in an environment that holds objective scientific inquiry sacrosanct. They should be free to follow the evidence wheresoever it may lead, even when such ends prove unfashionable.

But alas, the lie shall forevermore seek to imprison truth. So it was in a world once flat; and so it remains in a world with throwaway parents.

But take heart. In the end, truth does prevail. For it is the promise of Truth Himself: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:30-32)

Matt Barber serves as vice president of Liberty Counsel Action.

Related
Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat
Growing Up With Two Moms: The Untold Children's View
Pro-Same-Sex "Marriage" Lesbian: "Institution of Marriage Should Not Exist"
What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today



Saturday, September 1, 2012

Stephanopoulos on Video: No Liberal Bias in Media

By Rick Pearcey • September 1, 2012, 10:50 PM

Surprising as it may seem, despite George Stephanopoulos's denial, viewers of this MRC TV video may still think liberal media bias in the formerly mainstream media is alive and well.

Related
Formerly Mainstream Media vs. Shooting at Family Research Council
CNN Star Caught Reading Liberal Blog on Air
"Objective" Journalism and the Formerly Mainstream Media


Media Silent as Liberals on Twitter Call for Ann Romney's Death

By Rick Pearcey • September 1, 2012, 07:27 PM

Joe Newby at Examiner.com writes:

On Wednesday, liberals on Twitter called for the death of Ann Romney, the wife of GOP nominee Mitt Romney, Twitchy reported. As of this writing [August 29], the so-called "mainstream media" has refused to report on the hateful threats issued on the social media site.

It is correct to designate liberal press outlets as "so-called 'mainstream media,'" for they no longer represent either the mainstream of journalism (a commitment to fact-based reporting and comment) nor the mainstream of freedom (a commitment to the framework and rules of freedom as set forth in the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.

The quicker a majority of Americans recognize, reject, and replace the formerly mainstream media with a press corps that embraces facts and freedom, the better off all of us will be.

Related
Formerly Mainstream Media vs. Shooting at Family Research Council
CNN Star Caught Reading Liberal Blog on Air
"Objective" Journalism and the Formerly Mainstream Media