A friend of ours, Stovall Witte, is running for Congress in South Carolina. We recommend that citizens of the 1st Congressional District from Charleston to Myrtle Beach and there abouts will give this good man (who has consumed Nancy's book Total Truth, by the way) every due consideration.

Here from the Witte for Congress website is "Sto's" Vision Statement:

The people of the First District of South Carolina need someone in Congress they can trust with their national security, economic security and their constitutional security. Stovall Witte wants to be that Member of Congress.

Stovall has spent his life serving others in many different positions of leadership. He has stood firm on a solid foundation of conservative values and is a man of strong moral character.

He recognizes that we have people in Congress who seem not to realize we’re at war. His position on national security is a priority for him both personally and professionally. He is committed to ensuring that it becomes a higher priority for the leaders of our country.

Stovall understands the future of our nation lies in the hands of our children. What will that future look like if Congress continues to spend our children’s money? Stovall has seen the compromises that are made at the expense of our nation and it’s future, and is passionate in his pursuit of a better working government that is held accountable for wasteful spending.

Stovall believes that we have people in Congress who don’t seem to care that they’re passing laws that aren’t in line with the Constitution. He understands that a government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have – including your Freedom. Stovall will be a devoted ally in the defense of Freedom as a Member of Congress for the First District of South Carolina.

"The U.S. Census Bureau has changed its interpretation of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to allow it to tabulate same-sex couples who self-identify their union as a marriage, even though DOMA prohibits any federal agency from recognizing same-sex unions as marriages," reports CNSNews.

And I might self-identify my bank account as holding $100 billion, but that does not make it so. And getting the Census Bureau to agree with me does not make it so, either.

This reported Census Bureau change is yet more evidence that secular radicals who repudiate the American mainstream as a nation under God who endows us with unalienable rights (see the Declaration of Independence) are imposing their private values and subjective policies upon the American people.

Human beings who respect the verifiable, knowable, and public Creator, who respect the wonderful diversity of male and female created in His image, and who respect the ontologically given and liberating structure of marriage as between a man and woman, will of course reject this secularist assault upon balance, liberty, and sanity for persons in both their private and public lives.

Secularists may market themselves as having a better idea, but their bank account, like their philosophy, is empty.

Rather than placing one's faith in pie-in-the-sky secularism, Americans do far better to "read the directions" from the Creator. Holistic reality-oriented trust grounded in fact, evidence, and reason has always been the Creator's way. Maybe that helps explain the wonder and fulfillment of real marriage, not to mention the wonder and fulfillment of real freedom.

Speaking of freedom, one wonders: Do they have copies of the Declaration over at the U.S. Census Bureau? Self-identified Americans living free under God might like to know.

Quin Hillyer writes at American Spectator:

Andy McCarthy is right. He writes . . . to complain about a hit job in the L.A. Times against Ginni Thomas, long a conservative activist in her own right, who just happens to be the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Ginni Thomas is just launching a new organization dedicated to propounding First Principles, educating younger people about our nation's founding and its founding values, and mobilizing on behalf of those values in the public sphere. More power to her. But the L.A. Times treats it as a major conflict for . . . her husband. Read Andy's whole blog post to see his superb explanation for why the L.A. Times piece is outrageous.

Meanwhile, I'll go farther. I say that the establishment media is, as a collective entity, intellectually and ethically corrupt. Not just liberal, but intellectually dishonest, often knowingly, to a stupendous degree.

"Back to Ginni Thomas," Hillyer concludes. "Here's hoping that her new venture succeeds beyond even her own wildest imaginings. And here's hoping that when it does, one of the results is that it bedevils the establishment media at every turn."

"Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is grateful that actor Sean Penn has defended him against his critics within the U.S. media," reports AP. 

A nurses union is launching in Holland today a campaign "against demands for sexual services by patients who claim it should be part of their standard care," reports Reuters.

"The union said in a statement Thursday that the campaign follows a complaint it had received in the last week from a 24-year-old woman who said a 42-year-old disabled man asked her to provide sexual services as part of his care at home," according to Reuters.

"20th Century Fox TV and Fox appear ready to end the long-running hit after this season, the show’s eighth," writes Michael Schneider at Variety.

But that's not all for 24, folks. Look for 24, star Kiefer Sutherland, and gang on the Big Screen, reportedly set in Europe. 

Hat tip: Big Hollywood

"A professor at an evangelical Christian college in Pennsylvania says his guidelines for 'sexual identity therapy' are being misunderstood by some Christian proponents of traditional marriage,"  reports OneNewsNow.

"Dr. Warren Throckmorton of Grove City College says he has not lost faith in God's ability to change people who are struggling with homosexuality, but believes most of those people are not likely to experience a 'diminishment' in same-sex attraction."

OneNewsNow also reports that "Throckmorton says he personally holds a 'traditional view of homosexuality and sexual ethics.' However, when asked whether he believes homosexuality is 'normal, natural and healthy,' he said he could not answer that with a simple 'yes' or 'no' response. He said 'in a professional therapy situation' it is accurate to say that 'homosexuals can live normal, natural, and healthy lives that are free of mental illness'."

"A conservative activist is asking a Christian college in Pennsylvania whether it supports the 'sexual identity therapy' of one of its professors who is unwilling to discourage some of his clients from remaining in the homosexual lifestyle," reports Jim Brown at OneNewsNow.

"Dr. Warren Throckmorton of Grove City College was once a spokesperson for the ex-'gay' group PFOX (Parents and Friends of Gays and Ex-Gays) and produced a documentary titled I Do Exist, which highlighted the testimonies of former homosexuals who chose to leave that lifestyle," reports OneNewsNow.

To ask the professor a question, please use the following email address, which is made available on Dr. Throckmorton's Grove City College webpage: EWThrockmorton@gcc.edu.

Richard G. Jewell (rgjewell@gcc.edu) is president of Grove City College. William P. Anderson (wpanderson@gcc.edu) is provost and vice president for academic affairs. For additional contact information on Grove City College, please see this page.

"The nation’s leading radio host Rush Limbaugh said Tuesday that he would leave the United States for medical care if President Barack Obama’s healthcare plan is passed and implemented -- a comment that was erroneously reported as meaning he’d permanently move to the Central American nation of Costa Rica," reports Newsmax.

Kyle Smith writes at the NYPost:

After all of Hollywood's Iraq movies have flopped (even the Oscar-garlanded The Hurt Locker earned only $15 million at the box office), one studio thinks it has the following secret to success: The previous films didn't insult the United States enough.

Green Zone, opening Friday, is a $100 million slime job that conjures up a fantastically distorted leftist version of the war and wraps it around a frantic but preposterous action picture.

"Green Zone isn't cinema," Smith concludes. "It's slander. It will go down in history as one of the most egregiously anti-American movies ever released by a major studio."

As Geoffrey Dickens notes at Newsbusters, Dan Rather on the Chris Matthews Show last weekend "stepped on one mine after another in the racial minefield that exists when talking about the nation's first black President."

Are former news anchor Rather's comments as serious as a journalist describing Venezuela strongman Hugo Chavez as a dictator? Should Rather go to jail, as recommended by Hollywood star Sean Penn?

Jim Meyers reports at Newmax:

Mitt Romney has a simple answer when asked if former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is qualified to run for president: “Sure she is.”

"Many of the same news organizations and research groups today dismissing concerns about Barack Obama's constitutional eligibility were far more eager to cover the issue when Republican presidential candidate John McCain was the subject," writes Jerome Corsi at WorldNetDaily.

"An archive search shows the question of McCain's birth certificate and his eligibility to be president was actively pursued by Democratic Party activists and the mainstream media in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election," Corsi continues, "despite the ridicule now heaped upon those questioning Obama's qualifications under Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution."

"The daughter of ex-lesbian Lisa Miller appeared to have suffered emotional trauma following forced visits with Miller's ex-partner, according to sworn testimony submitted to a Vermont court," reports LifeSiteNews.

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Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat

"A shotgun-toting airman in training at Sheppard Air Force Base is in custody after being confronted outside a dormitory," reports AP. "Spokesman George Woodward says no shots were fired, nobody was hurt and the base 'wouldn't issue a weapon to an airman in training'."

"The Religious and Evangelical Left, plus the Islamic Society of North America and a few others, are making a final Custer-like stand on behalf of much cherished Obamacare," writes Mark Tooley at Frontpage magazine.

"In an ad featured in The Hill, a Capitol Hill newspaper aimed at congressional staffers, a religious coalition called 'Faithful Reform in Health Care' demanded that Congress 'complete the task at hand on behalf of the millions who are left out and left behind in our current health care system.'

"Some of these groups, or at least their elites, have very little theology any more," Tooley explains. "But they are increasingly unified behind a single unifying spiritual principle: worshipping at the altar of the state."

"A computer-addicted couple let their real life baby starve to death while they raised a virtual daughter online, police said today," reports the U.K. Daily Mail. "The couple spent 12 hours a night at internet cafes while their three-month-old daughter was left home alone at their apartment in Suwon, South Korea."

David Harsanyi writes at the Washington Examiner:

Though a political victory is a must for the Obama presidency, those who are invested ideologically in the promise of government-run health care understand that even a small victory today can be an enduring one.

Once Washington gains a toehold -- and considering government controls 49 cents on every health care dollar spent, by "toehold" I mean "bearhug" -- it is an inescapable reality that whatever it comes up with will be expansive and expensive.

That's the message Pelosi was telegraphing to her allies when -- in addition to pointing out how itty-bitty the bill will be -- she added that it will be "big enough" to put the country on a "path" toward sustainable health care reform.

The righteous "path," naturally, ends at the gates of a single-payer system. The infrastructure to reach this objective -- price controls, new entitlements and wide-ranging mandates -- will be set in place once Democrats use reconciliation to pass the bill, deal with the short-term electoral consequences and let history work itself out.

"Don't be fooled," Harsanyi cautions. "The endgame has not changed."

"The Washington Times reports American reliance on government is at an all-time high," Cal Thomas writes. "This is not our Founders' America. We seem to have declined from a 'can-do' spirit, to 'can't do' -- at least without government -- and soon, unless we change our ways, 'won't do'."

But isn't trusting more in government a path to progress? No. "The more we come to rely on government, the fewer freedoms we will enjoy," Thomas continues. "Government will start dictating what we can own, eat and drive, how much of our money they will let us keep, how we run our businesses, how many -- if any -- guns we can own, and what we may and may not say. Oh, wait! They are already doing that."

What to do? "To preserve freedom we must fight for it," Thomas concludes. "Bondage comes when we refuse to fight and are satisfied with the king's largesse. That foul odor coming from Washington is the frog in the kettle coming to a boil."

Related
Secularist Washington-Centrism Is Un-American

If Obama and the Democrats impose unconstitutional healthcare upon the nation, either their days are numbered or the days of America the free are numbered.

Matthew Gilbert at Boston.com says Palin was "playful," and the clip he provides makes the point.

Here Politico compares (with clips) Palin on Leno with Romney on Letterman (who appeared with Letterman last night), calling the counter-programming an "epic battle of late-night hosts and prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates."

Also with clips, Mark Memmott at NPR says both Palin and Romney "got in some good lines."

Who won the ratings battle? At TV by the Numbers, the headline over Robert Seidman's report declares, "Leno Crushes Letterman in Return."

"A judge in Montana has ruled against a high school valedictorian who wasn't allowed to speak at her graduation ceremony because she wanted to give God credit for her success," reports OneNewsNow.

"Last Wednesday," reports LifeSiteNews.com, "Judge Gregory Todd ruled in a summary judgment that [Renee Griffith,] a student at Butte High School was not unconstitutionally censored for refusing to remove references to Christ and God from her valedictory speech.  Her attorney has said that they will appeal to the Montana Supreme Court."

From Investor's Business Daily:

Al Gore resurfaces in an op-ed to say that nobody's perfect, everybody makes mistakes and climate change is still real. And he has some oceanfront property in the Himalayas to sell you.

If hyperbole and chutzpah had a child, it would be the opening paragraph of Gore's op-ed in Sunday's New York Times. Gore surfaced from the global warming witness-protection program to opine that despite admissions of error and evidence of fraud by various agencies, we still face "an unimaginable calamity requiring large-scale, preventive measures to protect human civilization as we know it."

"A ruling by a federal judge in Delaware could be a step in the right direction toward protecting school boards across the country that wish to open meetings with Christian prayer," reports OneNewsNow. 

"The U.S. Congress is allowed to open its sessions with prayer, and according to Judge Joseph Farnan, the Indian River School Board in Delaware is closer to a legislative body than a school, so it should be allowed to open its meetings in the same manner."

But why erect a wall around the schools? 

This judge seems not to realize that the "unalienable rights" of the Declaration do not end at the school door.

Not just school board members, but also teachers, students, principals, and other human beings are "created equal" and are "endowed" by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights," among them "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

This false wall of separation between prayer and school -- between who we are as humans and how we learn as humans -- smacks of secular hubris. 

Instead, the 1st Amendment prevents Congress from passing any "law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof" or "abridging the freedom of speech."

Congress, and the federal establishment generally, needs to get back to the rules of freedom as set forth in our Founding documents.

Of course prayer in schools is constitutional. Free-thinking Americans set free by the Creator bow to no human king, to no judicial elite, nor to an overweening Congress. Nor to the privations of secular philosophy. It's all part of keeping a republic.

"It was standing room only at the Boston Brighton Tea Party organised by the Freedom Association early this evening at which Dan Hannan was guest speaker," writes Jonathan Isaby at ToryDiary. "He said that it was time to 'bring sanity and order back to the public finances' an that had to be done by reducing expenditure rather than increasing taxes."

Hat tip: Big Government

"An armed forces watchdog concerned with readiness says she was encouraged by the recent testimony of members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who expressed concerns about President Obama's call to end the military's ban on homosexuals serving in the military," reports Chad Groening at OneNewsNow.

"The center of the debate continues to be Section 654, Title 10, which says homosexuality is not compatible with military service -- a law that is often confused with Bill Clinton's administrative policy known as 'don't ask, don't tell'," Groening explains.

The "watchdog" in question is Elaine Donnelly, who is "president of the Center for Military Readiness, which has been leading the charge against repealing the law," Groening writes.
 
"It's somewhat encouraging to see that [these other members of the Joint Chiefs] are not going along with that parade," OneNewsNow quotes Donnelly as saying. "Senator [John] McCain was exactly correct in saying we have a Congress for a reason. Members of Congress need to get actively involved and they need to insist on sound [military] priorities instead of pushing this diversity agenda to extremes."

Radio talk show host Sandy Rios writes:

Imagine the dismay of many to learn that, in an effort to educate its students, Wheaton has moved to the left, so much so that in a survey by the Wheaton Record, 60 percent of its faculty voted for President Barack Obama, the most pro-abortion, pro-homosexual agenda, spiritually confused president the nation has ever elected.

Related
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"A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to the rights of Americans, according to a new national poll," reports CNN.

"Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens."

"On the eve of the Obama administration's most aggressive push yet to pass a national health care plan, a 50-year-old audio recording of Ronald Reagan speaking out against 'socialized medicine' has become a huge YouTube sensation," reports Fox News.

"Nearly 1 million viewers have watched the video, in which the late president, speaking before he became California governor, warns that government intervention in the health care system creates a slippery slope." Here's the video.

AP reports:

Weeks after scoring a publicity coup with a 30-second Super Bowl ad featuring Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow, conservative Christian group Focus on the Family is at the center of another marketing tug-of-war -- this time involving the major governing body of college sports. 

The National Collegiate Athletic Association removed a Focus on the Family banner ad from one of its Web sites this week, NCAA spokesman Bob Williams said Wednesday.

The NCAA made the decision after some of its members   -- including faculty and athletic directors -- expressed concern that the evangelical group's stance against gay and lesbian relationships conflicted with the NCAA's policy of inclusion regardless of sexual orientation, Williams said.

The NCAA's groveling obedience to political correctness is a pro-homosexist anti-family attack -- and yet another reason for millions of free-thinking Americans to rise up in loving rebellion to declare their God-given and Creator-based independence against secular tyranny masking itself as personal liberation.

"A young man who stood up at the recent Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington and dressed down the group for accepting sponsorship by same-sex marriage supporters is himself being vilified by so-called conservatives," writes Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily.

Related
Homosexuals at CPAC: The Perils of Regress

"Sure, I'd be glad to try to help him," McCain told The Hill.

Hat tip: Robert Stacy McCain

"Liberty Counsel is representing Christian Educators Association International (CEAI) in a lawsuit against the Santa Rosa County School District after a federal judge denied CEAI's request to overturn a consent decree requiring faculty and staff to stop expressing their faith in public schools," reports Bill Bumpas at OneNewsNow.

This federal judge apparently understands neither the U.S. Constitution nor the concrete, public nature of Christian "faith."

Nothing in the Constitution, Declaration, or Bill of Rights gives a local school the power or authority to tell teachers and students to shut up and sit down when it comes to matters of the free exercise of the Christian faith. The 1st Amendment places limits on the Congress, not on the people. It's high time Congress, courts, and schools listen to not just "we the people" but to "we the people" endowed by our Creator with "certain unalienable rights," etc., etc.

Moreover, nothing in the data of the verifiable information we have in the Bible reduces "faith" to subjective feelings and private prayer closets from which there is no escape. What we have instead is a logically coherent worldview rooted in history, verified in space and time, and able to be practiced in the real world. The God of the Bible is very much a public figure, and those who affirm living in liberating community with our Creator get to do that everywhere, even in the schools.

Biblical "faith" is a matter of wholistic trust based on good and sufficient reasons, not a matter of private epistemology pushed aside and hidden away in some corner. We as individuals and communities ought to resist and reject this regressive pie-in-the-sky secularism imposed by judges foisting their private agendas upon the clear meaning of the texts of the founding documents.

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The attendance of an openly homosexual group at CPAC 2010 helped Ron Paul win the presidential straw poll, writes Lisa Fabrizio at American Spectator.

"But far from anointing Ron Paul as their presidential nominee of choice," she explains, "the most indicative effect of including gays was this result from the poll: while the great majority of respondents named reducing the size of government as the most important goal of conservatism, only nine per cent cited the promotion of 'traditional values.' Scary stuff when you realize that the former is impossible without the latter for our particular constitutional republic."

Fabrizio cautions: "A smaller government that is not based on the moral underpinnings of our founders would have been just as repulsive to them as a larger one that is. As John Adams said, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. . . . Our Constitution is designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for any other."

Read the rest of "The Perils of Progress," by Lisa Fabrizio.

Lee Doren writes at Big Journalism: "While some people debate the merits of the current healthcare legislation in Congress, or attempt to expose corruption in our government, Max Blumenthal instead engages in character assassination using the most questionable sources."

Here is video that "summarizes Blumenthal’s Alinsky tactics and highlights clips from the most recent CPAC where he continues his viciousness," Doren writes. "As Andrew Breitbart wondered, what does Blumenthal really stand for, if it isn’t for destroying people’s lives?"

"Political and cultural website the Root has released a list that lumps Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, and Michael Steele along with world dictators and other mass murders as 'Black Folks We'd Like To Remove From Black History'," notes Philip Klein at American Spectator.

Here's a Root Question: What matters most in assessing human beings? The content of one's skin color, the content of one's character, or the content of one's politics?

To some, but apparently not to all, the answer seems self-evident.

These three speeches make strategic points relative to the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and human freedom and dignity in America:

1) The speech by retired Army Lt. Col. Allen West, a candidate for Florida's 22nd congressional district

2) The speech (Part 1, Part 2) by Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina

3) The speech by Marco Rubio, who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Florida

"A conservative military watchdog says the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was 'way out of line' when he recently asked troops if they supported repealing the ban on homosexuals serving in the military," reports OneNewsNow.

John Stossel explains why the government monopoly over education needs to be broken and that parents, even poor parents, are just the people to do it.

Stossel writes:

Parents care about their kids and want them to learn and succeed -- even poor parents. Thousands line up hoping to get their kids into one of the few hundred lottery-assigned slots at Harlem Success Academy, a highly ranked charter school in New York City. Kids and parents cry when they lose.

Yet the establishment is against choice. The union demonstrated outside Harlem Success the first day of school. And President Obama killed Washington, D.C.'s voucher program.

This is typical of elitists, who believe that parents, especially poor ones, can't make good choices about their kids' education.

Is that so? Ask James Tooley about that (http://tinyurl.com/ydgln9z). Tooley is a professor of education policy who spends most of every year in some of the poorest parts of Africa, India and China. For 10 years, he's studied how poor kids do in "free" government schools and -- hold on -- private schools. That's right. In the worst slums, private for-profit schools educate kids better than the government's schools do. (emphasis added)

"Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told a standing-room-only crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Thursday that Democrats in Congress and the White House are the inspiration for a revolution that he and fellow conservatives hope is sweeping the nation ahead of the 2010 mid-term elections," reports CNSNews.com.

"When asked yesterday whether she agreed or disagreed with one of the world’s top climate-change scientists that there had been no statistically significant global warming over the last fifteen years, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Administrator Jane Lubchenco would only say 'that it is inappropriate to look at any particular short period of time to discern the long-term trend'," reports CNSNews.com.

Here is video from Eyeblast.tv.

The Tea Party movement has thrown statists into "full crisis mode," writes Phil Boehmke at American Thinker.

"Now comes news" that Clintonistas are plotting "a new clandestine attack against" this dire threat to big secular unconstitutional, anti-Declarational government.

"There he goes again," begins an editorial at the Washington Examiner. "In the latest Economic Report of the President, Obama repeats his claim that the $787 billion economic stimulus program 'has saved or created roughly two million jobs so far.'

"Administration officials stopped saying that last year after journalists and think tankers across the political spectrum examined the supporting data posted on the official recovery.gov Web site and found it full of factual holes."

"It appears that everyone and his brother is seeking to categorize, direct, and control the incredible, increasingly powerful phenomenon known as the Tea Party Movement," writes Lloyd Marcus at American Thinker.

Jef Akst writes at TheScientist:

Last Friday, biology professor Amy Bishop shocked the country when she allegedly shot and killed three of her colleagues at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, purportedly motivated by the university's recent decision to deny her tenure. Although certainly one of the most heinous crimes in recent memory, it is by no means the first criminal offense to disturb the scientific community.

Akst then provides a "timeline of some disquieting events from the last few years."

BioEdge reports:

"Wanted: nurse or spiritual caretaker in possession of a Completed Life Certificate to assist suicides."

If a group of elderly grandees in the Netherlands calling itself "Out of Free Will" succeeds with its plan for decriminalizing assisted suicide, job advertisements like this will be appearing in the newspapers.

"It is the animal kingdom, in its full 'Glory'," comments Br. Casimiro Kuypers. "The next step would be: If you cannot work any more, you should be disposed of in a medical acceptable way. It is the nazi doctrine of 'lebensunwertes Leben' ["life unworthy of life"] to the full."

Dick Morris and Eileen McGann write at Newsmax:

Enter Coats. Exit Bayh. Bye, bye, Bayh!

The first time Evan Bayh gets a serious race for re-election, he quits!

The Scott Brown victory is still rippling through the House and the Senate, causing retirements among committed, dedicated, long-term liberal Democrats. Seeing voter anger, they are heading for the hills.

If present trends continue, will new GOP faces on the Hill signal a real shift toward the constitutional republic so brilliantly designed by the Founding Fathers?

Or does this indicate a momentary surge of "voter anger" to be followed by rearranging the deck chairs on the U.S.S. Titanic?

Fred Lucas reports at CNSNews.com:

The nation's top conservative leaders will gather Wednesday at Collingwood in Alexandria, Va. -- a property that was once the site of George Washington’s River Farm -- to sign a document organizers are calling the Mount Vernon Statement. It is designed to signal that a united and resurgent conservative movement is declaring philosophical war against the big government and moral relativism advanced by the nation’s liberal cultural, academic and political establishments.

The statement emphatically says no to the type of "change" pushed by political leaders who ignore the Constitution's limits on government power.

"In recent decades, America’s principles have been undermined and redefined in our culture, our universities and our politics," says an excerpt from the statement. "The self-evident truths of 1776 have been supplanted by the notion that no such truths exist. The federal government today ignores the limits of the Constitution, which is increasingly dismissed as obsolete and irrelevant." . . .

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Noel Sheppard writes at Newsbusters:

"With the coldest winter ever recorded, with snow setting record levels up and down the coast, the Nobel committee should take the Nobel Prize back," [Donald] Trump recently told members of his Westchester, New York, country club, according to the New York Post.

Referencing the Post, Sheppard notes that "the crowd of 500 stood and applauded. I guess there weren't any liberal media members there."

"A pro-family advocate in Michigan says he's honored to be on the front lines in fighting for First Amendment rights to speak out against homosexuality," reports OneNewsNow.

"Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, is concerned that the 'Hate Crimes Act' signed into law last year will be used to prosecute those who speak in favor of traditional biblical morality."

"Going green will not be optional in Cambridge, Mass., if the Cambridge Climate Congress [CCC] has its way," reports Joshua Rhett Miller at Fox News. "It will be mandatory." 

Among the proposals from the CCC: "There will be congestion pricing to reduce car travel. Curbside parking will be eliminated. There will be a carbon tax 'of some kind,' not to mention taxes on plastic and paper bags. And the Massachusetts city, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will advocate vegetarianism and veganism, complete with 'Meatless or Vegan Mondays'."

"It's not a good idea for Republicans to accept President Barack Obama's invitation to a 'bipartisan' health care summit, because it would not advance acceptable health care reform," writes David Limbaugh. "The only thing it likely would advance would be Obama's propaganda message -- and, thus, his socialist agenda."

Mark Finkelstein writes at Newsbusters:

So more snow fell from Philly to D.C. because the temperatures were warmer than normal during the blizzards? 

That got me wondering: Just what were the temperatures in D.C. on the snow days, and how do they compare to the norm? 

And guess what?

Nancy and I are delighted to release the following press statement (here, and below) regarding the September 2010 publication of her new book, Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning:

** Press Release **
NANCY PEARCEY’S NEW BOOK

SAVING LEONARDO
A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on
Mind, Morals, and Meaning

New book by Nancy Pearcey, best-selling author of Total Truth,
goes on sale Sept. 1, 2010, published by Broadman & Holman

Feb. 11, 2010 -- Is secularism a positive force in the modern world?  Or is it a destructive ideology that must be unmasked and resisted if human beings are to live as whole persons with dignity and freedom? 

In Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, Dr. Nancy Pearcey offers an unflinching analysis of the profound personal and social devastation wreaked by secular worldviews in every area of life.  The assault is being launched from the classroom to the courtroom, from the talk shows to the television screen, from the pulpit to politics.

In this riveting account, Pearcey, a former agnostic, also exposes the stealth secularism that is transmitted through stories and images, where people are often unaware of its insidious impact on their minds, choices, and behaviors. 

It is a colorful narrative, boldly executed, with more than 100 images from high art to popular culture, from books to films.  What you read may change forever your outlook on the “hot button” political issues that dominate cable TV and talk radio, by offering a fresh and surprising diagnosis of the underlying ideologies that shape those controversies.

Saving Leonardo brings those ideologies to life with rich historical drama, illuminating the rise and fall of hopes and dreams as secular worldviews spin out their dehumanizing impact into our daily lives.  It is a highly readable account that brings into sharp focus the ideas and the people—scientists, philosophers, artists, writers, film directors—who have woven secular themes throughout the entire fabric of modern culture. 

What can be done?  Having once been captured by secular worldviews herself, Pearcey understands them from the inside.  She is an unerring guide to the fatal weak points where they can be exposed and overcome.  She is also a trailblazer, pointing the way forward toward a humane worldview that is rationally defensible, life-affirming, and rooted in creation itself.  As the American Founders themselves affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, human rights are unalienable only when a society respects them as endowments from the Creator. 

In a culture where the center is deconstructed and character is disintegrating, Saving Leonardo offers a practical and inspiring program to resist secularism and recover freedom and dignity—one that no free-thinking person who cares about the future of his family, or his nation, can afford to ignore.

Nancy Pearcey is editor at large of The Pearcey Report and professor of worldview studies at Philadelphia Biblical University.  For additional biographical background on Dr. Pearcey, please see http://www.pearceyreport.com/about.php.

For more information, please contact J. Richard Pearcey, editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (www.pearceyreport.com), at pearcey@thepearceyreport.com.

For information about Broadman and Holman, please visit http://bhpublishinggroup.com.

Herbert London writes at Human Events:

I’ve said this before but no matter how many times it is said, it bears repeating: the threats that the United States face from a fanatical Islamic foe are made possible by our devotion to positions that undermine our heritage, accomplishments and founding. . . .

Our vulnerability does not stem from a lack of resources or even inept leadership, but rather from a void that emanates from not knowing what we believe. Our real enemy is a lack of confidence, of not believing in our own national achievements.

Arnold Toynbee argued that civilizations die as a result of suicide, not murder. I am not yet willing to concede death, but there isn’t any doubt that America is at risk because of a loss of self-confidence. What ails us internally is at least as threatening as the forces found externally.

Related
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War

"Veteran political analyst Dick Morris tells Newsmax that the Republicans’ chances of retaking the Senate this year are 'very bright' -- and even a GOP capture of the House is 'very doable'," reports Jim Meyers at Newsmax. "Morris also said Sarah Palin is now the 'most popular' Republican and has White House ambitions for 2012."

"Chris Matthews Monday went on a twelve minute attack on former Alaska governor Sarah Palin that should make his fellow MSNBCers and the liberal blogosphere quite happy," writes Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters.

"The mainstream media (MSM) spent the last year treating the Tea Party movement as if it were a cancer on the body politic, not an organic outcry from a citizenry that had enough," writes Christian Toto at Human Events. "That was before the movement helped elect three GOP candidates -- particularly Scott Brown's stunning takeover of the so-called Ted Kennedy seat in Massachusetts."

But "now, the MSM knows better than to tar and feather tea partiers -- or use a derogatory sexual term to describe them," Toto continues. "Instead, the press treated this weekend's premiere National Tea Party Convention in Nashville as it would anything else outside its liberal bubble -- with grudging respect mixed with mudslinging."

"Watching Sarah Palin's speech to the Tea Party National Convention last [Saturday] in Nashville on PJTV, it was clear that she has a rapport and comfort with the Tea Partiers that is unmatched among politicians at the national level," writes Mark Tapscott at the Washington Examiner.

Related
National Tea Party Convention as Cultural-Political Earthquake
From Going Rogue to Going Constitutional

"While Barack Obama remains obsessed with George W. Bush, Sarah Palin hardly acknowledged his existence in Nashville at the Tea Party convention," writes C. Edmund Wright at American Thinker. "Her back to the future vision for America skipped right over all the Bush years and went back to the principles of Ronald Reagan."

C-SPAN 1 has scheduled live coverage today of Joseph Farah and Angela McGlowen at 9 p.m. eastern.

Also, PJTV is providing "live wall-to-wall coverage, Friday and Saturday" (registration is required, but it's free). 

"The central argument in favor of same-sex marriage or overturning 'don't ask, don't tell' contains a fatal flaw," writes Frank Turek in a new column. "In fact, this is the flaw at the heart of the entire gay rights movement."

"House Minority Leader John Boehner (R.-Ohio) said [yesterday] that Harry Knox, who serves on President Barack Obama’s faith-based advisory council, appears to be an 'anti-Catholic bigot' and should resign as a White House adviser," reports CNSNews.com.

"Earlier this week," CNSNews continues, "Knox said he stood by a statement he made last year that Pope Benedict XVI is 'hurting people in the name of Jesus' because the pope does not support promoting the use of condoms as a means to stem the spread of HIV."

This Is Good:

I thought long and hard about my participation in this weekend's event. At the end of the day, my decision came down to this: It's important to keep faith with people who put a little bit of their faith in you. Everyone attending this event is a soldier in the cause. Some of them will be driving hundreds of miles to Nashville. I made a commitment to them to be there, and I am going to honor it.

But participation won't be limited to those in Nashville who have a ticket. It's much bigger than that. Because the Tea Party movement is spread out across the country — with no central offices or annual events — this is an opportunity to connect with like-minded folks. Yes, there will be speeches given in a room in Nashville. But we'll also be speaking with thousands of Americans watching online at twitter.com/SarahPalinUSA, or through various news outlets. And the conversation will continue on my Facebook page.

This Is Even Better:

My only goal is to support the grassroots activists who are fighting for responsible, limited government — and our Constitution. In that spirit, any compensation for my appearance will go right back to the cause. [emphasis added]

Read all of Palin's "Why I'm Speaking Tea Party Convention."

Related
From Going Rogue to Going Constitutional

"Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is under increased pressure after the head of Greenpeace called for him to step down," reports the U.K. Telegraph.

Jane Chastain writes at WorldNetDaily:

Radical feminist groups have been burning up the airwaves and chewing up newsprint in an effort to persuade CBS to reconsider its decision to air a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl featuring football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam, called "Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life" . . . .

Feminist groups are tying themselves in knots over this ad and the reason couldn't be more obvious. They claim to be "pro-choice," so why not simply celebrate Pam Tebow's choice?

These feminist spokespersons are afraid to attack Tim Tebow or his mother directly. Instead, they attack Focus on the Family, a group that promotes adoption and pregnancy help centers that offer tangible help to women with crises pregnancies.  

Related
Don't Fall for "Pro-Choice" Ploy on Tebow Ad

"After CBS agreed to run a Super Bowl commercial featuring Tim Tebow, several feminist and pro-choice groups rose up in protest against the ad, calling on the network to pull it," reports Casey Curlin in a story titled "Liberals Tackle Groups Trying to Sideline Ad" at the Washington Times.

"Now, however," reports Curlin, "even some liberals are calling those attacks misguided, saying the choice to give birth to an unborn child is also part of pro-choice beliefs."

In other words, as long as the "pro-choice" premise that allows members of one class of humanity (pregnant women) to decide whether members of another class of humanity (preborn citizens of the United States) live or die, so-called liberals are supposed to happy. And "conservatives," too, I suppose.

Independently minded people should not fall for this ploy. Why? Because the pro-life position is not a "private belief" but an ethical fact. And for this reason, compassion requires revolt against any kind of self-styled "progressive" inhumanity imposed upon individuals currently residing in mothers' wombs across the land.

Human life, created in the image of a verifiable and knowable Creator, has intrinsic and objective value. And although liquidating innocent life under the banner of "choice" or "reproductive rights" has been an effective PR campaign in a society dehumanized by secular thoughtforms, its cruelty and inhumanity remain self-evident truths to any thinking person whose eyes are not blinded by pretheoretical ideological commitments.

Tim Tebow and his mother are to be commended for publicly affirming what is at the heart of the mission statement of the United States of America: That human beings have been "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights," and "that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," states the Declaration of Independence.

Tim and his mother have made a personal choice, but the content of their choice is anything but private: It affirms a universal truth that appies to all people and across all cultures.

By the same token, the "pro-choice" position isn't just "private." It's wrong and inhumane in its public consequences (50 million dead, and counting), and no free-thinking and responsible person ought to allow his or her life to suffer under the impositions of any such barbarism masquerading as emancipation. 

And, by the way, the Super Bowl is a great place to draw a bright line of distinction between "pro-choice" barbarism and that brotherhood of humanity that extends even to "the least of these." In the fight for life and freedom against death and tryanny, the real choice could hardly be more basic. In this contest of light over darkness, it's either win or die: If humanity wins, kids live and get to see the light of day. We're pulling for the home team. 

Jan Taylor, a friend of South Carolina First Lady Jenny Sanford, looks forward to reading Staying True, a memoir detailing the "private ordeal behind her very public betrayal" (see product description at Amazon) by husband and Gov. Mark Sanford, who was having an affair with a woman from Argentina.

Taylor writes:

I have known Jenny for 14 years. I have not read the manuscript but have been in weekly contact as she labored over the contents. The way she lives her life, and has lived her life, gives credence to the book she would produce.

Any traveler know that where there is much darkness, a "lamplighter" is invaluable. One wants this particular lamplighter, Jenny Sanford, to be filled with honesty, integrity, probity, and with a generous portion of empathy and truth.

Jenny Sanford is to be trusted because of the path that she has trod and the serious thought, prayer, and intellect that accompanied her as she walked.

AP reports that Barbara Walters will air an interview with Jenny Sanford this Thursday evening on ABC's "20/20." Staying True officially goes on sale Friday.

Illinois GOP Gubernational Primary Today: "Holy mackerel!" said Republican gubernatorial hopeful Adam Andrzejewski after being told yesterday he'd been endorsed by Rush Limbaugh. 

This time it's the mayor of Tampa. Florida.

"Adam Andrzejewski refers to his opponents in the Illinois Republican primary as 'the Redcoats,' while calling his own grassroots campaign for governor 'the ragtag army'," writes Robert Stacy McCain at American Spectator.

"Revolutionary War metaphors come easily for Andrzejewski, whose showing Tuesday in Illinois will provide an early test of the ability of Tea Party activists to deliver votes in Republican primaries during this year's mid-term campaign."

Invited to Appear on MSNBC: While David Shuster promised journalistic fairness and objectivity, "a simple Google search of David Shuster and [ACORN-buster] James O’Keefe immediately finds that Shuster went into a Twitter frenzy to tar and feather James O’Keefe and propagated what are now provably false lies about the Landrieu case," writes Andrew Breitbart at Big Journalism.

Chris Matthews "has outdone himself," writes Tony Gallardo at American Thinker. "After the State of the Union Speech, he said, 'You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour.'

"Hold on there, fellow," says Gallardo, "you're going to fast for me. My head is spinning. You are telling us he is black, but you didn't notice he is black. Exactly how does that work?"

Gallardo concludes, "By repeatedly insisting that they are post racial," liberals are "telling us they are obsessed with race."

And what a sad, unnecessary obsession. By way of contrast, not as chest-pounding but as a simple, liberating fact of life, I'll reaffirm what I wrote yesterday (on Twitter and Facebook): "Sorry, but when I watch Obama speak, I see a man, not a skin color."

Speaker, author, and former atheist Udo Middelmann, president of the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, writes:

The assumption that God is behind all things happening, behind the earthquake in Haiti, Katrina’s destruction in New Orleans, and catastrophes as large as the Tsunami or as little as a household accident, is built on the view of a closed system universe.

There is an effect: therefore there must be a cause. True, but who or what is the cause?

If there is a single cause, there is no distinction between good and evil. If there are many possible causes, we do well to discern and oppose the destructive ones.

To blame historic Christianity’s God is not justified in light of Scripture and the person and life of Jesus. The Bible speaks of a world which now gives God grief, where people and nature are not "at peace," and where God interferes precisely because, as the Lord’s Prayer tells us, His will is not yet being done "on earth as it is in heaven." God sent prophets because what people did was in opposition to the will of God, not in concurrence with it. 

Likewise, Jesus, who is God in the flesh and the exact image of the Father, does not walk about holding people’s hands in their misfortunes and accompany them through misery. Instead he aggressively opposes sickness, false teaching, vile government, and death itself.

Where other religions and secular philosophies start with the assumption of the normality of things and events, as sad as they are, God describes a sickening abnormality in his creation and acts, speaks, protests, and encourages us to do likewise.

There is no fatalism in Jewish and Christian teaching, though many times it seems to be in the language and explanations believers use to erroneously comfort themselves. There is the sound of false piety from what is in fact a total contradiction to what Jesus taught and did.

The faith and hope that God’s sovereignty is expressed in every event is something for the future.

For the time being, Haiti, Tsunami, Katrina, and your child falling out of a swing are things you should be upset about. We should not settle into acceptance, but rise for energetic and healing intervention to prevent each and recurrent tragedies.

For a more thorough development of these ideas you may want to consult my book The Innocence of God.

In addition to his work at the Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, Middelmann is also visiting professor of philosophy at The King's College in New York City. For more information, please contact Middelmann at The Francis A. Schaeffer Foundation, CH – 1882 Gryon, Switzerland.

"Much is being made of the president's peroration on the SCOTUS ruling last week permitting corporations to speak freely on political matters in federal elections," writes Clarice Feldman at American Thinker. 

"As he spoke, attacking the Court, whose members but for Chief Justice Roberts and Scalia were present, observers saw Justice Alito shake his head and say to himself 'not true'." (Here is video.)

"And he was right," says Feldman. "President and purported constitutional scholar Obama was once again showing he has no idea about the law."

"Fox is the most trusted television news network in the country, according to a new poll out Tuesday," writes Andy Barr at Politico.

"A Public Policy Polling nationwide survey of 1,151 registered voters Jan. 18-19 found that 49 percent of Americans trusted Fox News, 10 percentage points more than any other network."

From the Washington Times:

Mr. Obama came to Washington promising a new tone, an end to bitter partisanship, a new openness and frankness with the American people.

But transparency was obscured, partisan lines hardened, and the White House became an ivory tower of arrogance.

As Mr. Obama steps to the podium to give his State of the Union address tonight after a year in office, the man who stood above the world has crashed back down to Earth.

Molotov Mitchell reviews this "fantastic film featuring tremendous performances" from Gary Oldman, Denzel Washington, and Jennifier Beals.

The point of the film: In this "Christian 'Mad Max' story . . . . as liberal forces seek to destroy the Bible here in America, The Book of Eli paints a prophetic portrait of what could happen should they succeed."

"Stovall Witte, who worked as U.S. Rep. Henry Brown's first chief of staff before taking a position at Charleston Southern University, said Friday he is entering the increasingly crowded race for the 1st District seat Brown has held," reports SunNews.com. "Witte said he is resigning his position as the university's vice president for advancement and marketing to concentrate full time on the race."

When asked his opinion on the current Congress, Witte replied: "Stop the madness. We have people who seem not to realize we're at war. We have people who don't seem to care that they're passing laws that aren't in line with the Constitution. And then we're spending all of our children's money."

"A new poll shows Marco Rubio ahead of Charlie Crist for the first time in the race," writes Erick Erickson at Red State. "The Quinnipiac University poll has Rubio ahead by 3 and also beating Kendrick Meeks, the expected Democrat."

David Limbaugh writes:

The more painful exposure we have to Barack Obama -- and we're talking hyper-exposure at this point -- the more we realize how narcissistic he is. Indeed, we are treated to this overexposure precisely because of his narcissistic impulses. He can't keep himself out of the spotlight.

So it was that on the heels of his crushing personal defeat in the Massachusetts senatorial election last week, Obama's principal reaction was, "This isn't about me."

When someone says that one time or a few times, you might believe him. But when he says it repeatedly (see below), you have to conclude he is protesting too much and means just the opposite.

An Observation on the Washington Culture Power Machine: Sadly, the "not about me" syndrome is an equal opportunity syndrome. Christians especially may want to be careful, in an age of "Big Christianity" (with insidious parallels to Big Government) and big celebrity, in the embrace of "Big Namism," as if the Lord God can work only through huge ministries the have as their center of gravity a star "spiritual giant" (with a professed PR record of humility -- just ask his carefully cultivated "supporters") who has "written" oh so many impressive books, articles, columns, and so on. All topped off with humble "not about me" "think tanks," etc., beginning to spring up named after the carefully packaged and marketed humble one. Some of these people will tell you to your face, and will say in front of thousands (or millions if on TV), that it's not about them, even as they ink book deals where other people do the real work but the supposed "brilliant thinker" takes credit (because it advances the "work of the kingdom" -- Ananias and Saphirra of Acts 5 might have loved that con, until they were exposed).

This of course is a tragedy. But there is hope, a better way. And for an authentic and humane Biblical alternative to this "ape the world" embrace of secularism ("pragmatically" effective but leaving a trail of dead and wounded in its wake), I would suggest (as a start) No Little People, an essential book of sermons by Francis Schaeffer (who actually lived the alternative). And to help flesh this out, you may also find "Francis Schaeffer: A Student's Appreciation of a Distinct Approach" a worthwhile read. You might also consider chapter 13 of Schaeffer's True Spirituality ("Substantial Healing in the Church") as well as chapter 13 of Nancy's Total Truth ("True Spirituality and Christian Worldvew").

The road to Hell is paved not just with good intentions but also with people doing the Lord's work in the world's way, even though they have had every opportunity to know and do better. You might say Washington phoniness camoulflaged with Gospel-talk stinks to High Heaven. Judgment day could be full of surprises. 

"It's not every day that a Nobel Prize winner becomes involved in a U.S. election, but Lech Walesa -- famed for his Cold War leadership of the Solidarity movement in Poland -- will be campaigning this week for a GOP gubernatorial candidate in Illinois," writes Robert Stacy McCain at American Spectator.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Adam Andrzejewski is "seeking the seat previously held by impeached Democrat Rod Blagojevich and currently held by Pat Quinn," McCain continues. Andrzejewski is "backed by many Tea Party activists and has never previously held elective office -- a point in his favor, according to Walesa."

"Arkansas Democratic Rep. Marion Berry plans to announce Monday that he won't seek re-election this fall, people who have spoken to Berry told The Associated Press."

From Real Clear Politics: "President Obama uses two teleprompters while speaking to students at a school in Falls Church, Virginia."

Hat tip: Neil Russo

"Chief Justice John Roberts last week made it clear that the Supreme Court over which he presides will not hesitate to sweep away its own major constitutional rulings when doing so is necessary to defend America’s bedrock governing document," writes Theodore Kettle at Newsmax.

Two Points: "The announcement of that guiding core principle means two very big things. First, Roberts and his fellow strict constructionists on the court are now armed and ready with a powerful rationale for overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling if Justice Anthony Kennedy or a future justice becomes the fifth vote against Roe.

"Secondly, successfully placing Roberts atop the high court is beginning to look like former President George W. Bush’s most important legacy -- a gift that will keep on giving for conservatives for decades."

Report Back to the Front Lines: "It is now time to return, emboldened and better equipped, to where the battle for America is the fiercest, and reengage the tooth-and-nail struggle to prevent the Obama administration from fulfilling its all-encompassing visions of statism," writes Miguel A. Guanipa at American Thinker.

"The Augusta Chronicle reported on Tuesday that the All-American Basketball Alliance plans to kick off its inaugural season in June and hopes that Augusta will be one of 12 cities to host teams," reports the Atlanta-Journal Constitution.

"But here's the kicker: According to a press release the newspaper and other Augusta media outlets received from the new league, 'only players that are natural-born United State citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league'."

One strains to believe that this is not a joke. But just in case it is not, here is my reply:

1. As the offspring of two parents of the "Caucasian race," I reject this league.

2. As a naturalized "Caucasian" citizen of the United States, having been born in Germany of a wonderful German woman named Annie, I reject this league.

3. As a person of color -- after all, "white" is a color -- I reject this league.

4. As a graduate of Butler High School (Augusta, Ga.) and Augusta State University, I reject this league.

5. Meanwhile, I shall continue to enjoy the sport of soccer with my brothers -- all of them "created equal" by God -- from Ghana, Morroco, Mauritania, Sudan, Trinidad, Jamaica, El Salvador, Mexico, Virginia, and parts elsewhere in the great U.S.A.

6. I'm human, and I'm proud.

On Facebook is a photo of a billboard with the following content:

A citizens guide to REVOLUTION of a corrupt government.

1. Starve the Beast, keep your money.

2. Vote out incumbents.

3. If steps 1 & 2 fail?

PREPARE FOR WAR - LIVE FREE OR DIE

On the radio: "I'll treat you like a lady," said Sen. Specter. "So act like one."

"Yesterday's huge Supreme Court victory for free-speech rights in the case of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission serves as a warning to the Obama administration on other speech-related issues," states an editorial in the Washington Times.

"Several Obama appointees have denigrated the importance of the First Amendment, and one presidential appointee, Mark Lloyd, holds views fundamentally at odds with the Supreme Court and America's whole tradition of protecting free speech."

Here's a quote from Mr. Lloyd: "It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. . . . This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies."

The editorial concludes, "Yesterday's Supreme Court ruling stands as a rebuke to Mr. Lloyd's dangerous creed. There's nothing exaggerated about the importance of the First Amendment."

"I battle against Obama for the cause of constitutional liberty," writes Alan Keyes. "But it makes no sense to get so caught up in the battle that we forget the cause. There's no harm in rejoicing in Obama's Massachusetts setback, so long as we remember that when two of our opponents fight, it's better for us if neither gains strength from the victory."

Yesterday in a column titled Olbermann vs. America, what I wrote regarding Keith Olbermann's unfortunate response to the stunning Scott Brown victory included a challenge to Sarah Palin:

Yesterday's vote in Massachusetts is a vote against estrangement from our national and creaturely identities. Yesterday stems the tide against freedom, and for that we give thanks.

But strategic victory and a strategic initiative await a critical mass of Americans who insist on returning homeward (and thus forward) to the Founding Vision -- the Declaration, the Constitution, etc. -- where a real Creator and not the pretend god of the secular state is recognized as the center of gravity of human freedom.

I have said and written many good things about the views of Sarah Palin, but it should be pointed out that her heartfelt affirmation of a "commonsense, independent agenda" may not be enough to meet the strategic challenge of our moment in history. For "commonsense" could have made you a slave in Athens, eaten by lions in Rome, headless in France 1793-94, "verboten" in Deutschland, and frozen in the workers' paradise. 

So I am happy to report that last night on Fox in an interview with Sean Hannity, the former governor of Alaska did in fact bring the Constitution to the fore. Here's how the interview concluded:

Hannity: If you had to look into the Gov. Palin's crystal ball for 2010, what do you see happening? Do you see this continuing? Do you see the Republicans taking over Congress? Do they have a shot at the Senate?

Palin: I do. I have a lot of optimism for some takeover of just commonsense conservatives being elected and being reelected to make sure that we have a sound agenda and sound policies to get our country back on the right track.

I see that the momentum is on the commonsense and constitutional conservative side, and that this provide[s] a whole lot of optimism for all the country.

It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights to recovering America as a country that embraces freedom and dignity under God, as opposed to unfreedom and indignity under the heel of some kind of coercive, impositional state that in practice, in effect, seeks to replace the Creator.

Clearly, the Founding Fathers would have understood this emphasis. Just as clearly, Sarah Palin and the Republican Party would do themselves well to articulate and practice that self-same vision. Idolatry, including the idolatry of the secular state, makes for bad politics.

"U.S. President Barack Obama suffered a painful defeat in Massachusetts on Tuesday," writes Charles Hawley at Der Spiegel. "With mid-term elections looming, it means that Obama will have to fundamentally re-think his political course. German commentators say it is the end of hope."

"Fueled by Scott Brown's stunning 'Massachusetts Miracle,' the New York political scene is buzzing with talk of a movement to draft Larry Kudlow to challenge liberal New York Sen. Chuck Schumer," reports David Patten at Newsmax.

In many ways what you are seeing in Keith Olbermann's performance (Olbermann Renews "Teabagging" Attack on Scott Brown) is what American government and society would look like if secularist "liberalism" -- a worldview that rejects the Founding concept of a Creator who is the source of unalienable rights (and human reason and empirical data, by the way) -- wins the day.

That kind of secularism, if logically extended and lived upon, results in the abolition of unalienable rights, rational discourse, and the appeal to evidence. You will hear talk of "living Constitutions" and "values," but really all that's left is the inhumane application of raw power -- in the womb, the workplace, and the White House.

It is a recipe for America as wasteland.

For a Pretend Creator (i.e., a federal state) is not strong enough to carry the weight of rights, reason, and evidence. That kind of "god" will be crushed, and all that depends upon that kind of pretension will be crushed with it, including those who try to build a free society upon it.

Yesterday's vote in Massachusetts is a vote against estrangement from our national and creaturely identities. Yesterday stems the tide against freedom, and for that we give thanks.

But strategic victory and a strategic initiative await a critical mass of Americans who insist on returning homeward (and thus forward) to the Founding Vision -- the Declaration, the Constitution, etc. -- where a real Creator and not the pretend god of the secular state is recognized as the center of gravity of human freedom.

I have said and written many good things about the views of Sarah Palin, but it should be pointed out that her heartfelt affirmation of a "commonsense, independent agenda" may not be enough to meet the strategic challenge of our moment in history. For "commonsense" could have made you a slave in Athens, eaten by lions in Rome, headless in France 1793-94, "verboten" in Deutschland, and frozen in the workers' paradise. 

And perhaps rather surprisingly (ask King George), you could say that what the Founders gave us was actually uncommonsense, given the history of humanity in this hard world.

Yes: Extremely uncommon is the vision of the Declaration and content of the Constitution. Sadly, these brilliant documents do not keep us from making mistakes; happily, they do give us a basis for correcting them.

In contrast to secularists past and present, the Founding Vision gives a fixed point that liberates -- with a real Creator as the basis for real unalienable rights. Having a secure foundation is a good thing, because without a fixed point, talk of progress has no meaning.

I hope no one concludes from this a calling to hate an anchor on MSNBC, however heated or misguided the debate might be. The point is not hate, but love. Love of freedom and all the Blessings of Liberty from the One who gives the blessings, for everyone. This too is uncommonsense.

In a story titled "Shock Poll Victory Leaves Obama Reeling," Ros Krasny of Reuters reports, "U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he would welcome [Scott] Brown to the Senate as soon as he received the paperwork from Massachusetts officials." 

Katie O'Malley writes at Human Events: "Call them Tea Partiers, grassroots activists, or any number of coarse and insulting smears from the likes of Keith Olbermann, their power and impact can not be denied after this stunning victory."

From OneNewsNow:

An appeals court decision favoring a Ten Commandments display in Grayson County, Kentucky, will likely not be appealed.

The display -- entitled "Foundations of American Law and Government" and found on the second floor of the county courthouse -- also includes the Magna Carta, the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, The Star-Spangled Banner and the national motto, among other things. The Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that it passes constitutional muster. Mat Staver of Liberty Counsel and Liberty University argued the case.

"The White House communications director is lobbing new firebombs at Fox News, saying it is not 'a traditional news organization' and won't be treated as equal to other news networks," reports David a Patten at NewsMax.

"The remarks by Dan Pfeiffer, who recently replaced Anita Dunn as the White House communications director, indicate that the administration has no plans to back off its strident anti-Fox News rhetoric."

"From Pittsfield to Framingham, North Andover to Dorchester, the candidates for US Senate made a last dash across the state yesterday, issuing their final pitches to voters ahead of a special election today that has drawn the eyes of the nation," reports Boston.com

Speaking of "final pitches," here's this confident toss from Republican underdog but now leading in several polls Scott Brown to Barack Obama:

Let me just tell you something, Mr. President. You can criticize my record. . . . But don’t ever start criticizing my truck . . . . 'Cause in a few months, I’m gonna pack up that truck and drive it right down to Washington.