PC Dunderheads

FoxNews.com offers up a few samples of that bane of modern society, the perpetually aggrieved citizen who takes umbrage at the possibility that someone, somewhere might be enjoying his or her life. These Gestapo-like enforcers of the PC orthodoxy keep a wary look-out for anyone who might show the slightest hint of having fun or doing good on the tax-payers dime, lest what they are doing have about it the foul odor of the incendiary R words - Religion and Racism:

A Christmas charity drive by some elementary school kiddies in Bellevue, Wash., has been axed after some parents complained that the "Giving Tree" with colored mittens all over it was a symbol of Christianity that has no place in public schools, according to KOMO-TV.

The tree at Medina Elementary School, described as a nondescript coil of silver with a star on top, had mittens as decorations with the ages and sex of prospective gift recipients along with some suggestions about what they wanted for Christmas.

When a parent complained that the tree was too Christian, the school covered the star on top with a bow to appease the parent but it wasn't enough. So the principal put the mittens on other secular symbols of the season - a sled, a snowman, a 'regular' tree and a plain old counter.

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The success of the Narnia movie is bringing the usual C.S. Lewis critics out of the woodwork - especially anti-Christian zealots who object to its allegory and allusions to Christianity.

The Associated Press, in an analysis of Lewis' Christianity, points out that Americans United for Separation of Church and State criticized Florida Gov. Jeb Bush for offending the Constitution by choosing "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" for his state's annual student reading campaign.

"This whole contest is totally inappropriate," said Barry Lynn, the group's director. "This would be like asking children to watch the movie 'The Passion of the Christ' and to write an essay with the winner getting a trip to Rome."

Oh, and Polly Toynbee of the UK's Guardian today says "Narnia represents everything that is most hateful about religion."

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A schoolgirl in the UK claims she was tossed out of school because she refused to remove a small crucifix necklace, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Sixteen-year-old Sam Morris says she was sent home from Sinfin Community School in Derby for breaking a school policy that bans jewelry. Her mother complained about the rule, claiming it is unfairly enforced because Sikh students are allowed to wear karas because it is required by their faith.

A school official defended the policy by saying Christianity doesn't require its adherents to wear crosses, but the Sikh faith does. "We have to be understanding," he said. "We live in a multi-faith society."

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The Toledo Blade quotes a high school principal as "quickly correcting himself" when he accidentally says his school has a Christmas tree up:

"Oh, it's a holiday tree," he corrects himself when questioned about end-of-year decorations. "We try to respect everybody's beliefs," he said. "The music department does a Christmas concert. Well, actually it's a holiday concert."

The anecdote comes in a roundup about how local schools have in recent years been sliding away from use of the C-word and opting for the more neutral "Holiday" instead.

A student at a high school in Missouri creating a giant calendar for the hallway was told by a teacher that Christmas tree imagery was off-limits, according to the Springfield News-Leader, and that only winter themes could used.

This follows news about an e-mail sent out to fine arts teachers across the district who were preparing for an assembly to be held later this month. The e-mail stated: "This is just a reminder that we agreed to have a winter assembly on December 8th at 9:00 in the HPER. This assembly will display the talents of your students and can include holiday themes, but not direct references to Christmas or the birth of Jesus."

And here are a few more examples of PC stupidity compliments of Tongue-Tied:

Third-graders in Madison, Wisc. won't be allowed to ring bells to raise money for the Salvation Army as they have in the past because one parent complained about the kids helping a religious-based charity, according to The Capital Times.

Students from Chavez Elementary have for years helped out the red kettle brigade during the Christmas season, along with hundreds of students from around the county. For some, it qualifies as part of their community service obligation.

Principal Howard Fried said the school administration stood down immediately when faced with the complaint. "When the objection was raised, the administration downtown told us, in no uncertain terms, not to allow it," he said.

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Black men, says a writer in the London Times, will think twice before seeing the new King Kong movie because the story "feeds into all the colonial hysteria about black hyper-sexuality" and "touches the raw nerve of the Darwin-based association between black men and apes."

The filmmaker, Peter Jackson, used the same hackneyed stereotypes in his Lord of the Rings triology, so Kong's racism comes as no surprise to writer writes Kwame McKenzie. In those films, he says, "the most fearsome baddies were big black and just a bit too Maori looking, the good guys - well white."

Mr. McKenzie says the folks who do movie ratings should look for negative racial stereotypes in addition to sex and violence.

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A UK author who said during a radio interview that it might not be such a hot idea to allow homosexual men to adopt young boys during a radio interview found herself under investigation by local police for her "homophobic incident," according to the Daily Telegraph.

Children's rights campaigner Lynette Burrows took part in a panel discussion about the UK's new civil partnerships act on a regional BBC program. During the course of the discussion she said placing boys with homosexual fathers was as risky as placing girls with two heterosexual men.

Scotland Yard said a member of the public complained of Burrows' homophobia and police are obligated to follow-up on such "priority crimes." No charges were filed.

We marvel that the average IQ is around 100 when we reflect that there are so many people, especially among the multitudes of liberal bureaucrats, whose IQ must approximate their age.

Reply to Critics of <i>Icons</i>

We noted a week or so ago that Intelligent Design: The Future was posting Jonathan Wells' response to critics of his book Icons of Evolution. Parts 1 through 5 are now up and can be read here.

On the subject of ID CafePress.com has a great selection of apparel with Intelligent Design motifs. Check it out here. Click on Browse Designs in the left margin for other offerings.

Sex and Christmas

Carol Platt Liebeau raises a pertinent question about our attitudes toward sex and religion in public places:

One of the most difficult tasks of a democracy is deciding which messages are suitable for universal consumption in the public square - especially when it comes to sex and religion.

Americans are bombarded with sexual images year-round. In October, Victoria's Secret introduced mall floor displays, titled "Backstage Sexy," featuring bare-bottomed mannequins in provocative poses and suggestions of bondage. Billboards advertising sex shops, strip shows and "gentlemen's clubs" appear alongside highways. Women's magazines at checkout counters offer graphic sex tips. Television is rife with innuendo and more. The FM airwaves are saturated with musical paeans to lust. When it comes to sex in the public square, envelope-pushing is the order of the day.

The graphic images, sights and sounds offend many religious, cultural or social conservative Americans. Some even voice outrage, but to little lasting effect.

That's because American "tastemakers" - elites in the media and the courts - have shaped a libertarian social consensus. That an advertising campaign, television program or song transgresses traditionalist values is irrelevant. Americans have decided, for better or worse, that one group's sensitivities cannot govern what is available to others. The traditionalists must avert their eyes from what offends them lest their sensibilities infringe on others' freedom of expression.

Contrast the treatment of sex in the public square with that of religion. A 2003 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll found that 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas. About 90% recognize Christmas as the birthday of Jesus Christ, according to a 2000 Gallup poll. These are substantial majorities, larger than the number of citizens who feel proud to be American (84%), higher than support for the war on terror only five months after Sept. 11, 2001 (93%), and greater than the percentage of Americans who believed that Elvis Presley was dead as of 2002 (88%).

Even so, in recent years, people who want to celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday avoid overtly religious allusions in the public square, lest a stray reference to the birth of Jesus somehow offend either nonbelievers or non-Christians.

The result has been a strait-laced self-censorship that would be derided were it applied to matters of sex rather than faith: Last year, a mayor in Massachusetts apologized for having identified the city's "holiday party" as a "Christmas party." In Denver, a religiously themed float was barred from participating in the city's December "parade of lights."

This year, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino briefly considered renaming the city's Christmas tree - an annual gift from Nova Scotia since 1917 - as a "holiday tree." Retail clerks are instructed to wish their customers "Happy Holidays" or to offer "Season's Greetings." Seasonal music on the radio is merrily (and almost exclusively) secular - much more "Frosty the Snowman" than "Joy to the World." Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus have supplanted angels, wise men - and, of course, the baby Jesus - as Christmas' most visible icons. Would anyone be surprised to hear a modern classic reissued as "Rocking Around the Multicultural Celebration Tree"?

All these measures spring from a laudable aversion to giving offense, and the impulse that prompts them is a tribute to the nation's history of religious tolerance. But nonbelievers or non-Christians are not being forced to celebrate Christmas (much less profess belief in Jesus' divinity). So it's worth wondering: In a nation founded on religious principles, why should spiritual messages be tailored to the sensitivities of nonbelievers, while sexual messages are not similarly constrained for the sensibilities of traditionalists?

If there's a standard for deciding what content is appropriate for the public square, surely it should be uniformly applied. At the very least, we should rethink a status quo that presumes religious messages will elicit the kind of indignation once reserved for the crude sexual messages that pass without comment (or censure) today.

Liebeau makes an interesting point here. If a traditionalist takes umbrage at the hyper-sexualization of our public spaces he or she is called a prude and told to just not look. Advertisers, shock jocks, and television studios have the right to free speech, and if you don't like it, that's tough, just don't listen.

Yet many of these same intrepid champions of libertarian morality grow suddenly meek and timid when it comes to offending anyone who might be a dissenter from the majority view of Christmas. We need to be inclusive, they say. We need to make everyone feel welcome in our malls, they insist. We can't turn people off to the products we advertise by inserting a religious message, we're told. No, we suppose not. We can place billboards in the public square that tell our young people that sex (or alcohol, or both) are great ways to spend the holidays, but we'd never dream of insulting the gods of secularism by displaying religious symbols or music in our stores at Christmas time. Wrong message. Bad for business. Don't want to offend. Separation of Church and commerce, or something.

We suggest that Christians might take a page from the secularist playbook. When next we are asked what we plan to do over the holidays we should reply that, well, among other things we intend to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. If our interlocutor winces at the brazen vulgarity of our plans we should simply reply, hey, if you don't like what I say then don't listen to me say it.

The Worst Idea Ever

Sometimes very smart people say the most ridiculous things. Peter Watson, the author of Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention is the latest example. He was interviewed last weekend by Deborah Solomon for the New York Times Magazine. At one point the interview goes like this:

Solomon: "What do you think is the single worst idea in history?"

Watson: "Without question, ethical monotheism. The idea of one true god. The idea that our life and ethical conduct on earth determines how we will go in the next world. This has been responsible for most of the wars and bigotry in history."

With one short sentence Mr. Watson shows himself to be a most unserious intellectual. The single worst idea - worse, mind you, than the idea of totalitarian fascism which was responsible for over 10 million deaths in the 20th century; worse than the idea of totalitarian communism which was responsible for over 100 million deaths in the same century; worse than the idea that man is just a brute animal which should live for his own pleasures, an idea responsible for millions of wasted and shattered lives - is the idea that there is a transcendent, personal God who enjoins us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

The worst idea in history is the idea that there is a non-arbitrary, non-subjective ground for human rights, dignity, morality, and meaning. The worst idea ever is the idea that there is a basis for believing that we are more than a pile of atoms, just so much dust in the wind.

The worst idea ever is an idea that has inspired the building of hundreds of universities, hospitals, and orphanages. It's an idea which fueled, or gave birth to, numerous charitable organizations, the women's and civil rights movements, the abolition of slavery, the rise of modern science, and it's an idea which has inspired, in addition to a multitude of other benefits to mankind, much of the greatest art, literature and music ever produced by human effort.

Nevertheless, the sage Prof. Watson sees it as "without question" the single worst idea in human history. Has he ever asked what the benefits of atheism have been? Atheism or atheists gave us the holocaust, the forced famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, the Gulag, the Cambodian killing fields, the rape of Nanking and a myriad of contemporay sociological dysfunctionalities like pornography, drugs, and gangsta' rap. But it's the idea that there is a God who judges the crimes of men that Mr. Watson abhors. With all his learning one has to wonder if Mr. Watson has never read Tocqueville.

Solomon: "But religion has also been responsible for investing countless lives with meaning and inner richness."

Watson: "I lead a perfectly healthy, satisfactory life without being religious. And I think more people should try it."

Mr. Watson responds to the objection that belief in God has invested millions of lives with meaning by testifying that he himself doesn't need such belief. What he needs is not the point, of course. The fact is that millions of people's lives have been enriched, directly or indirectly, by belief in God and for Mr. Watson to ignore this fact is to make himself intellectually frivolous and irrelevant.

Mere Christianity

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost laments the fact that so many Christians see it as their God-given mission in life to rip apart the theological beliefs of other Christians. It's not that beliefs aren't important, but some beliefs are very important and some are not. It's unfortunate that Christians too often can't tell the difference.

Which are the important beliefs, the ones that we really can't be Christians without believing? Well, I wouldn't want to argue about the list, but I'll suggest these seven propositions are pretty much the sine qua non of Evangelical belief. It would be hard to maintain a muscular Christian faith while denying any one of these seven affirmations.

1. God exists

2. Scripture is authoritative

3. Man is fallen

4. Death is not the end of our existence

5. Jesus is in some sense divine

6. Jesus' death on the cross is essential to our eternal life

7. Jesus rose literally and historically from the dead

The reader may disagree with some of the above or, more likely, may wish to include other propositions in addition to these seven. That's fine, but this is what I consider to be the core of Christian belief, what C.S. Lewis called "mere Christianity," and over the days leading us to Christmas I wish to elaborate on each of these claims and explain how and why I believe each is essential to Christian faith.

More Good News From Iraq

Despite the impression the MSM strives to create of an Iraq in chaos and on the brink of civil war, that's not the perception of most Iraqis according to this ABC/Time poll:

Surprising levels of optimism prevail in Iraq with living conditions improved, security more a national worry than a local one, and expectations for the future high. But views of the country's situation overall are far less positive, and there are vast differences in views among Iraqi groups - a study in contrasts between increasingly disaffected Sunni areas and vastly more positive Shiite and Kurdish provinces.

An ABC News poll in Iraq, conducted with Time magazine and other media partners, includes some remarkable results: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.

Not all the results are good, of course, Iraqis are less positive about the outlook for the country as a whole than they are about their own lives, for example, but the fact that most Iraqis are optimistic about their future is an important bit of news. We'll be interested in how the evening news shows and the nation's pundits spin it.

Reform or Disband the U.N.

Here's another reason, if one were needed, why the U.N. cannot be trusted to arbitrate the world's conflicts: At a public meeting celebrating the International Day of Solidarity With the Palestinian People held at U.N. headquarters on November 29th, the three top U.N. officials, including Kofi Anan, appeared on a platform on which was displayed a map of the middle east. The map was a pre-1948 edition which does not show Israel. What message do you suppose the leadership of the U.N. is sending by that little gesture? Lest there be any doubt, those assembled also observed a moment of silence for Palestinians who died as suicide murderers.

The U.N. has become a society of thugs, tyrants, and thieves - third world petty crooks and dictators masquerading as statesmen. The organization is a charade, pretending to be devoted to settling disputes when in fact it's dedicated to plundering the wealth of the developed world and facilitating the demise of Western values and civilization. It's past time to pitch it into the Atlantic and start over with nations that share a common commitment to the principles upon which the U.N. was originally founded.

No Clemency For "Tookie" Williams

We take no pleasure whatsoever in the fact that Stanley "Tookie" Williams is apparently going to be executed tomorrow morning. We do take some measure of satisfaction, however, in the fact that justice is finally going to be done, at least in part, for the families who have suffered so much because of this man.

Williams had nothing but contempt for the lives of his victims and those who loved them. He held their lives so cheap that he laughed about how one of them died. It would be a gross miscarriage of justice were he allowed to live out his years at taxpayer expense while the families of his victims live everyday with the pain he so callously and savagely inflicted.

Mr. Williams will die tomorrow. What will be done to him is just. The manner in which it will be done, having given him every opportunity to convince an entire series of courts that he doesn't deserve to die, will be compassionate. The state of California is giving Tookie Williams far, far more than what he gave those four innocent, terrified victims in 1979.

He should be executed as painlessly as possible and then completely forgotten. He should expect no better and indeed deserves far worse.

Embarrassment to Our Children

Chris Wallace thinks its time for daddy to recuse himself from offering political opinions according to this NewsMax article:

Fox News Sunday anchorman Chris Wallace says father Mike Wallace has "lost it" - after the legendary CBS newsman told the Boston Globe last week that the fact George Bush had been elected president shows America is "[expletive]-up."

"He's lost it. The man has lost it. What can I say," the younger Wallace lamented to WRKO Boston radio host Howie Carr on Friday. "He's 87-years old and things have set in," the Fox anchor continued. "I mean, we're going to have a competence hearing pretty soon."

Wallace Jr. quickly dispelled any notion that he was joking. When Carr suggested that his comments were likely to be covered by NewsMax, he responded: "You know what? Fine. Go ahead. Call them. That's fine. I'll stand by that."

Returning to the topic of his father's competence, Wallace Jr. explained: "He's checked out. I don't understand it," beyond the fact that Wallace Sr. has "problems with the war."

"I don't know why he said what he said," he added.

On Thursday, the elder Wallace told the Boston Globe that if he had the chance to interview President Bush, he'd ask: "What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?"

Still, despite his criticism, Wallace Jr. seems to have inherited some of his father's shoot-from-the-lip-style. Asked about DNC chair Howard Dean's recent prediction that the U.S. would lose the war in Iraq, Wallace told Carr:

"We are in a war. We do have 150,000-plus American soldiers over there. I mean, it's Tokyo Rose, for God sakes, going on radio saying we can't win the war."

We guess parents are always an embarrassment to their off-spring.

Down the Rat Hole

Think about Live 8 and all the warm feelings it produced because we knew we we're doing something good for the poor people of Africa. And then read this:

"It is widely reported that an African child dies of hunger and malnutrition every three seconds while in the same period African leaders steal $14,000 from their people and put it in foreign bank accounts. In the words of Milovan Djilas, they squander the nation's wealth as though it was someone else's and dip into it as if it were their own. Isn't it strange that exactly two weeks after the G8 deal that wrote off 80 percent of my country's debt, all our parliamentarians, who earn $300 per month, are to receive $25,000 each in free car loans and $60 a day in rent allowance? I call it free car loans because five years ago they each received $20,000 but have yet to pay it back.

It is insulting that the bill for this lavish behavior is passed on to the disrespected poor as they struggle to pay a 40 percent tax on fuel that is used to support, among other things, government entities that consume almost one-third of the country's fuel. One would have thought that African leaders would be better advised to use resources to build the infrastructure that will increase the volume of trade within the continent and thereby improve economic activity." - Franklin Cudjoe, Ghanaian libertarian advocate

When will we ever learn that the worst way to address poverty is to throw money at it? This will be a good lesson to keep in mind as pressure mounts to "do something" about the awful condition of the poor in New Orleans and other major urban areas. People should be helped, of course, but help should be contingent upon a willingness to make changes in lifestyle choices. If people are to receive public assistance they should be expected to foreswear the behaviors that perpetuate their poverty. To expect the taxpayer to fork over a significant portion of his/her earnings to people who feel no obligation to do anything in return helps no one and is successful only in generating resentments.

Perhaps this sounds harsh, but if so, it's the sort of harshness with which people need to be more frequently confronted. Too often the poor in this country are impoverished because throughout their lives they rejected the advice of others who urged them not to have sex and babies until they were in a committed marriage and once they were married to stay that way. They rejected the advice of others to shun drugs, alcohol, and other dysgenic behaviors, and to do all they could to get a good education. They rejected the advice of others to build their lives around their children and not around their own wants and desires. They rejected all of this and more, and now they demand the tax-payer pay the bill for their lack of wisdom so that they don't have to bear the full brunt of the consequences of their foolish choices themselves.

It's past time to tell people that if they want what you have they should adopt the same values and virtues of education, fidelity, hard work, etc. that enabled you to acquire what you have. If they're unwilling to do that then they shouldn't feel entitled to much help from society at large.

Countdown to March

The Israelis are planning an attack on Iran's nuclear production facilities by the end of March according to this report in the London Sunday Times:

Israel's armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations.

The crisis is set to come to a head in early March, when Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the IAEA, will present his next report on Iran. El-Baradei, who received the Nobel peace prize yesterday, warned that the world was "losing patience" with Iran. A senior White House source said the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda and the issue now was: "What next?" That question would have to be answered in the next few months, he said.

Defence sources in Israel believe the end of March to be the "point of no return" after which Iran will have the technical expertise to enrich uranium in sufficient quantities to build a nuclear warhead in two to four years. "Israel - and not only Israel - cannot accept a nuclear Iran," Sharon warned recently. "We have the ability to deal with this and we're making all the necessary preparations to be ready for such a situation."

A "massive" Israeli intelligence operation has been underway since Iran was designated the "top priority for 2005", according to security sources. Cross-border operations and signal intelligence from a base established by the Israelis in northern Iraq are said to have identified a number of Iranian uranium enrichment sites unknown to the the IAEA.

Since Israel destroyed the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq in 1981, "it has been understood that the lesson is, don't have one site, have 50 sites", a White House source said. If a military operation is approved, Israel will use air and ground forces against several nuclear targets in the hope of stalling Tehran's nuclear programme for years, according to Israeli military sources.

It is believed Israel would call on its top special forces brigade, Unit 262 - the equivalent of the SAS - and the F-15I strategic 69 Squadron, which can strike Iran and return to Israel without refuelling. "If we opt for the military strike," said a source, "it must be not less than 100% successful. It will resemble the destruction of the Egyptian air force in three hours in June 1967."

Aharon Zeevi Farkash, the Israeli military intelligence chief, stepped up the pressure on Iran this month when he warned Israel's parliament, the Knesset, that "if by the end of March the international community is unable to refer the Iranian issue to the United Nations security council, then we can say the international effort has run its course".

The March deadline set for military readiness also stems from fears that Iran is improving its own intelligence-gathering capability. In October it launched its first satellite, the Sinah-1, which was carried by a Russian space launcher. "The Iranians' space programme is a matter of deep concern to us," said an Israeli defence source. "If and when we launch an attack on several Iranian targets, the last thing we need is Iranian early warning received by satellite."

Russia last week signed an estimated $1 billion contract - its largest since 2000 - to sell Iran advanced Tor-M1 systems capable of destroying guided missiles and laser-guided bombs from aircraft. "Once the Iranians get the Tor-M1, it will make our life much more difficult," said an Israeli air force source. "The installation of this system can be relatively quick and we can't waste time on this one."

The date set for possible Israeli strikes on Iran also coincides with Israel's general election on March 28, prompting speculation that Sharon may be sabre-rattling for votes. Benjamin Netanyahu, the frontrunner to lead Likud into the elections, said that if Sharon did not act against Iran, "then when I form the new Israeli government, we'll do what we did in the past against Saddam's reactor, which gave us 20 years of tranquillity".

The Iranians seem determined to push the world toward more war in the Middle East. They believe that it is their destiny, foreordained by Allah, to impose Islam on the entire world and that it is their divinely mandated duty to begin this process by exterminating Israel. The Israelis see this clearly, even if many in the West do not or are indifferent to the threat, and they refuse to place their future existence in the hands of those who care so little about it.

It is frightening to think what forces might be unleashed by an Israeli strike against Iran, but it is far more frightening to think what could happen were the chief sponsors of Islamic terrorism around the world to begin producing nuclear weapons.

Narnia

Just got back from seeing Narnia with my fifteen year old daughter. Maybe I'm too hard to please, but although I thought it was good, and in some ways excellent, I can't really rave about it. Part of the problem, perhaps, is that we watched the film in a theater full of adolescents of varying chronological ages which was somewhat distracting, at least early on.

The movie gets off to a sluggish start (after the opening sequence of a WW II bombing raid over English city), taking a bit too long to set the stage for the four Pervensie children's introduction to the land of Narnia. Once there, though, the story picks up the pace and remains quite faithful to Lewis' tale.

I was impressed, in fact, by the fidelity of the film to Lewis' Christian imagery. The theme of redemption, substitutionary atonement, and the sacrificial death and resurrection of Aslan, who destroys the wicked witch in the final conflict of good vs. evil are all pretty explicit. So, too, is the centrality of humanity to God's plan to redeem the cosmos.

It's a good family film with generally outstanding cinematography (some scenes appear to be deliberately shot in a retro fashion which reminds the viewer of older filmmaking) and adequate acting on the part of the main characters. The girl who plays Lucy (Georgie Henley)is talented, but Jadis the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) seems a little unconvincing in the role of incarnated evil.

The computer generated images are fantastic. You cannot tell whether the creatures you see in the film are real or products of computer wizardry, and in fact the beavers are among the movie's highlights. The final battle scene, similar in some ways to The Lord of the Rings' visual effects, is amazingly realistic.

I have never seen a movie in which the resurrection of Christ was depicted in a way that does the event dramatic justice. Unfortunately, this one doesn't either. One moment Aslan is dead, then there's an earthquake and he's alive, but the filmmakers don't really capture the awe and incredulity that would accompany such an event. Maybe it's asking too much for any movie to capture something of what that would be like.

Nevertheless, seeing Narnia is a fine way for kids to be exposed to the romance of redemption in the Christian gospel. It'll fire their imaginations, and they'll see a portrayal or aspect of Christ (unintended by the film's creators or not) that is not usually emphasized in films with religious overtones - Christ the Warrior-King.

My daughter gives it five stars (out of five). Her curmudgeonly father gives it four.

The Case For Resolve

Military historian Frederick Kagen has an article on Iraq in the Weekly Standard which is nothing short of excellent. He examines the arguments for pulling out of Iraq now and finds their premises either foolish, mistaken, or if correct, then nevertheless not warranting the conclusion that America should withdraw. Here are a few paragraphs from the piece that might afford a good overview:

The irony is that demands for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces do not spring from any particular recent bad news from Iraq (there has been little) or justified alarm about the Army's ability to sustain itself (high levels of retention continue to make up for problems with recruitment). On the contrary, the most recent news from Iraq is promising. American strategy has improved, and prospects for success are better than they have ever been.

Since early September, coalition efforts along the Syrian border to clear towns of insurgents have not generated anger, violence, and outbursts--on the contrary. The clearing of Tal Afar in mid-September by a combined American and Iraqi force followed a request by the citizens of that town for an American intervention. Operations in villages in the upper Euphrates since then have generated limited and sporadic resistance, mainly from cornered insurgents. The lessons of the October referendum are very clear, moreover: Dramatic and aggressive joint action by U.S. and Iraqi forces to preempt and defeat the insurgents' attempt to derail the election worked spectacularly well. The truth is that calls for a precipitous retreat from Iraq, or for setting arbitrary deadlines or milestones for withdrawal, now threaten to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

The urgency of an American withdrawal from Iraq is no greater now than it has been for some time, and those most loudly demanding immediate withdrawal have no convincing evidence to support their demands.

We should interject that that's because the urgency does not stem from any threat to American forces but rather to the fear that the Bush administration is actually going to be vindicated in Iraq and the use of military force as an instrument of foreign policy will be validated. The Left, as they see matters, simply cannot allow this to happen and their only realistic hope at this point is to pressure the United States into quitting the effort before it succeeds.

The situation in Iraq presents a firmer basis for optimism today than it ever has before. The challenges remain great, and failure will continue to be a real possibility for months if not years to come. The greatest danger to success in Iraq now lies on the American home front, in the danger that misrepresentations of Iraqi reality, politically motivated policy demands, and simple fear, exhaustion, and confusion will undermine the commitment necessary to succeed. The other danger is that those who do want to succeed--the Bush administration, CENTCOM--will inadvertently undermine our commitment by continuing mistakenly to emphasize the damage the American presence does to the prospects for success.

The goal of a counterinsurgency is to defeat the insurgents militarily and politically. In the long run, of course, the Iraqis themselves will have to maintain order in their own land. That does not mean that they can defeat this rebellion alone. The U.S. military has capabilities to locate targets, move forces rapidly to their locations, strike them with precision while minimizing collateral damage, and begin reconstruction far beyond anything the Iraqi military will have for a long time. In addition, American soldiers and marines have a much higher level of professionalism and detachment from this struggle. They have been playing a vital role in suppressing the rebellion, and they will have to continue to play that role for the foreseeable future. Continued U.S. military engagement is needed for success in Iraq--success that seems now to be closer than it has ever been--if we hold fast to the sound strategy for victory that has recently emerged, and do not lose our nerve.

Between these selected paragraphs Kagan lays out a series of arguments that everyone interested in what's going on in Iraq will want to read. Somebody at the White House should hire this guy because nobody there seems able to articulate the case this well.

Eternal Recurrence in the Democratic Party

Ed Morrissey has a column at the Daily Standard that certainly lends weight to the adage that history repeats itself. Here are a few nuggets:

The good news for the Democrats is that their leadership has settled on an electoral strategy for 2006. The bad news is that they have cribbed their game plan from one of the most disastrous campaigns in their history. The Democratic leadership has decided to elevate surrender to a party platform for the upcoming elections, with their national chairman, House leader, and last presidential nominee all running up the white flag as the Democratic war banner.

When was the last time that an entire political party stood for backpedaling the way the Democrats have in the past two weeks? Since Rep. John Murtha made his supposedly stunning announcement that he wanted an immediate withdrawal of all troops from Iraq, the Democrats have embraced surrender.

Not even during the Vietnam War did a major American party position itself to support abject retreat as a wartime political platform. For that, one has to go back to the Civil War, when the Democrats demanded a negotiated peace with the Confederate States of America and a withdrawal from the South. Celebrating the popularity of former General George McClellan, who had come from the battlefield to represent a party whose platform demanded a negotiated settlement (which McClellan later disavowed), the Confederates assumed that the war could be over within days of McClellan's presumed victory over the controversial and hated Abraham Lincoln. Even some Republicans began to question whether Lincoln should stand for reelection--until Sherman took Atlanta and exposed McClellan as a defeatist and an incompetent of the first order.

Murtha's demand for a pullout gave the party's leadership a chance to openly embrace defeatism, much as McClellan did for Northern Democrats in 1864, using McClellan's field experience for the credibility to argue that the American Army could not hope to defeat the enemy it faced.

Of course "redeployment" by disengagement with no intent to return to the battlefield has another term in military parlance: full retreat.

More than 140 years after McClellanism first raised its ugly head in the Democratic party, it has returned to drive party descendants into a frenzy of confusion and defeatism. Just as Iraq has begun to establish its democratic structure and its troops have begun to show progress towards organizing for their self-defense, the Democratic leadership is frantically looking for ways to bug out. Not even the courageous voices of Joe Lieberman and Steny Hoyer in opposition to their party leadership appear able to stop the panicked rush of the Democrats to claim defeat as their standard. The distaste of watching the Democratic leaders try to top one another in declaring America the loser in Iraq will convince voters to keep Democratic hands off the levers of national security for the foreseeable future.

Well, at least we should hope so.

The Republicans, inspired by Dennis Hastert's bold call for a vote on an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, have finally roused themselves from their torpor and decided they're tired of being the supine party. These new ads they're launching should be good for a few chuckles.

Got Gold?

From the link:

The dramatic rise in the gold price over the past two weeks caught even the gold bulls by surprise. Many in the slowly growing ranks of gold enthusiasts had been expecting a short-term decline in the gold price, as a punctuation in a long-term rise.

Well, it may be more accurate to say "most of the gold bulls were caught by surprise". I never doubted for a moment that something like this would happen. To me, it was inevitable. Like the sun rising tomorrow.

That gold blew through the $500 mark to $530 and settled at $525 per ounce for the week was simply a confirmation of what I have been saying all along. The world is awash in fiat currency as never before and prudent investors are beginning to react to the fact as any thinking person would.

Sure, gold seems "expensive" now compared to what it was last month or the months before but one needs to consider the bigger picture - the global condition we are in, and if one looks at this thoughtfully, they will realize that the price of gold is going to go much, much higher.

The recent developments are because the people in one country, Japan, have come to this awareness. The article linked above mentions that the last upturn in the gold price was because Europeans came to the same conclusion. Country after country will reach the same point eventually at an accelerated pace and the price of gold will be reflected accordingly.

In 1980, gold was $800 per ounce. Adjusted for inflation, that is approximately $2,300 per ounce today. In other words, gold at $525 is cheap and, as I see it, an incredible bargain. I have droned on in the past about how our government steals the wealth of the citizens through the hidden tax of inflation but there is a "silver lining" to this and that is that since gold is denominated in U.S. dollars, gold becomes a better investment each and every day.

Sure, if you wait for a pullback, you might be able to save $10 - $20 per ounce but there are many people who subscribed to this thinking lately only to end up standing at the station and find the gold train has pulled away without them.

Here we get some insight into the near-term future:

The trend is expected to continue in 2006 too and $850 an ounce is not an impossible level in 12-18 months, say analysts. Physical markets have also been supporting the price rise, a trader said. The physical demand is expected to rise to 3,957 tonne in 2005 from 3,840 tonne in the previous year. Mine production is expected to see a marginal increase to 2,495 tonne from 2,461 tonne.

Gold looks like a "no-brainer" to me.

Gospel? What Gospel?

The creators of the new Narnia movie are either dumb, disingenuous, or they have a very low opinion of the degree of open-mindedness of non-Christians:

Disney's holiday season release of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" is set for this weekend -- and some Christians are worried the media giant is more intent on cashing in on the faithful, rather than sharing the film's Christian message.

The Disney backed film is based on one of C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" books. Lewis was a noted Christian apologist, and his Narnia books have been viewed as religious allegory about the life of Christ. While Disney clearly hopes to tap into the same audience that made Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" a huge box office hit, the same people behind the firm version of "Narnia" are vocal in downplaying its supposed links to Christianity.

"Faith is in the eye of the beholder," declared one of the movie's actresses, Tilda Swinton, who said Lewis' original book is more "spiritual" than religious. "You can make a religious allegory out of anything if that's what you're interested in," she told BBC News.

The $150 million film, made by Walden Media and distributed by Disney, is the story of a struggle between good and evil in the snowy kingdom of Narnia. Four English siblings enter the enchanted land and discover talking animals who await the return of the lion king, Aslan. The inhabitants believe he will free them from the tyranny of Jadis, the White Witch.

Aslan sacrifices himself to save the life of a human boy, or "Son of Adam." He later rises from the dead to lead his troops in a battle against the witch's forces. But the film's director, Andrew Adamson, also has pooh-poohed the idea that the allegory reveals Christ's resurrection, saying that concept is a common theme in the fantasy genre.

"The religious aspect is something the press is more interested in than the world at large," he told the BBC. Said "Narnia's" producer, Mark Johnson: "When I read the book as a child, I accepted it as a pure adventure story. It never occurred to me Aslan was anything more than a great lion" rather than a Christ figure.

"Christian themes were very important to C.S. Lewis and imbued everything he did, but he himself denied any religious implications."

Despite those comments from the movie's creators, the film has already received pledges of support from evangelical groups in the United States, many of whom say Lewis - who wrote seven books in the "Narnia" series - did create the story as an allegory about the life of Jesus.

Reportedly, elementary schoolchildren and teenagers in Bible study groups are booking theaters to see the PG-rated movie, which opens Friday. "We believe that God will speak the gospel of Jesus Christ through this film," said Lon Allison, director of Illinois' Billy Graham Center.

But a Hollywood insider who has dealt with Disney's marketing executives told NewsMax that the media giant has had great apprehension promoting the film to Christian groups and has done so only in a low-key manner. "Disney is loathing the idea that the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity or a preacher like Jerry Falwell will actively promote the film. They want the Christian community's money, but not their viewpoint," the source said.

Last year, Hollywood witnessed the Christian zeal for Gibson's "Passion" movie, which has grossed anywhere from $400 million to more than $600 million worldwide, depending on the source. The producers of "Narnia" have generated advance buzz among Christians by showing previews to Christian leaders, preachers and evangelical organization, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal.

USA Today asked: "Is the world created by C.S. Lewis a rip-roaring piece of fantasy - or a fairy tale suffused with Christian imagery? "The answer is both, and that raises a related question: Can Disney succeed by selling the movie on two tracks - as a sort of cross between 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'The Passion of the Christ'? If so, 'Narnia' figures to be a holiday blockbuster."

Said producer Johnson: "We're not selling the movie to any particular group. With a movie this size, we're trying to sell it to everybody." Put another way, Disney would like to sell "Narnia" minus Christ - but still have Christians pay the bill.

Let's see. The most famous Christian apologist of the twentieth century writes dozens of books and essays on Christian themes both subtle and overt. He also writes a series of books in which a lion dies for the "son of Adam", comes back to life, and leads the forces of good in a final conflict against evil. But this should not be seen as Christian imagery according to the actress, producer and director. Right. And Star Wars should not be seen as a movie about intergalactic conflict. Next thing they'll be telling us that the Bible should not be seen as carrying any particular religious significance.

The creators of the movie are so afraid to state the obvious for fear that they'll alienate potential viewers among secularist bigots. Nor do they wish to turn off the Jewish audience by showing a movie that has Christian themes. It's a good thing for film and literature that Christians aren't as religiously xenophobic nor as philistine as non-Christians are apparently thought to be by the Disney folks. If they were, Chaim Potok would never have produced a best-seller and Fiddler on the Roof would've flopped.

For more commentary on Narnia see the 12/9 edition of National Review Online, especially the column by Catherine Seipp who catalogs some excruciatingly silly examples of PC carping about the movie.

All The Left Has Left

Why does the Left fear free speech? Once again the port-side brown-shirts have tried to shout down a conservative speaker on a college campus. This behavior seems to be pretty much exclusively a tactic of the Left which has swung 180 degrees from it's Berkeley free-speech days in the '60's. Today it's the Left which preaches tolerance of diversity but which cannot tolerate open discussion of opinions which differ from their own. It's the Left which decries hate-speech while constantly practicing it. It's the Left which has attacked campus speakers with pies, shoes, obscenities, and insults throughout the past year. It's primarily the Left which frequently abandons all pretense of civility and courtesy in our public discourse.

They have to do this, perhaps, because they understand that it's the only way they have a chance of prevailing in the struggle of ideas. They realize that their nostrums and policies cannot compete with those of conservatives in an open, polite forum. They intuitively recognize the intellectual blandness and bankruptcy of what they have to offer, so their only hope for success is to suppress the competition. When you don't have a compelling argument you raise your voice and shout down or drown out your opponent. That's the only recourse that the Left has left and every time they resort to it they announce to the world that their ideological cupboard is bare.

Iraqi Political Landscape

Pajamas Media has a special report from Iraq the Model's Mohammed who offers a good overview of the political lay of the land in Iraq as next week's national elections approach.

Curiouser and Curiouser

We noted a few days ago that Kansas University's Paul Mirecki, the atheist who headed the religious studies department, had planned on teaching a course on "Creationism, Intelligent Design and Other Mythologies" until e-mails were uncovered in which he used insulting language to describe his potential students. Since then he's lost his position as head of the department and now he's claiming to have been beaten severely by a couple of toughs in a pick-up truck along a lonely road. The attackers made it clear, he maintains, that the beating was in retribution for his contemptuous views on intelligent design.

Well, the fundamental premise here sounds highly dubious. The number of people likely to stalk a university professor and beat him "to within an inch of his life" because of his views on ID seems to us to be asymptotically close to zero. Such thugs are not usually conversant with the term "intelligent design" or the debate between ID and Darwinism, much less do they give a rip about it, so we have our suspicions.

So, evidently, does Michelle Malkin who has done the legwork and has the whole story, so far as it's known at this point, here. Take a look and see whether you don't think Mirecki's story smells just a wee bit fishy.

Fundamentalist Sumbitches

William Dembski posts Notre Dame philosopher Alvin Plantinga's well-known discourse on the definition of "fundamentalist" found in his Warranted Christian Belief:

We must first look into the use of this term 'fundamentalist'. On the most common contemporary academic use of the term, it is a term of abuse or disapprobation, rather like 'son of a bitch', more exactly 'sonovabitch', or perhaps still more exactly (at least according to those authorities who look to the Old West as normative on matters of pronunciation) 'sumbitch'. When the term is used in this way, no definition of it is ordinarily given. (If you called someone a sumbitch, would you feel obliged first to define the term?) Still, there is a bit more to the meaning of 'fundamentalist' (in this widely current use): it isn't simply a term of abuse. In addition to its emotive force, it does have some cognitive content, and ordinarily denotes relatively conservative theological views. That makes it more like 'stupid sumbitch' (or maybe 'fascist sumbitch'?) than 'sumbitch' simpliciter.

It isn't exactly like that term either, however, because its cognitive content can expand and contract on demand; its content seems to depend on who is using it. In the mouths of certain liberal theologians, for example, it tends to denote any who accept traditional Christianity, including Augustine, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin, and Barth; in the mouths of devout secularists like Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett, it tends to denote anyone who believes there is such a person as God. The explanation is that the term has a certain indexical element: its cognitive content is given by the phrase 'considerably to the right, theologically speaking, of me and my enlightened friends.' The full meaning of the term, therefore (in this use), can be given by something like 'stupid sumbitch whose theological opinions are considerably to the right of mine'.

Of course a fundamentalist is one who emphasizes and remains loyal to the basics, the fundamentals, of his craft or his convictions and is loath to be cajoled away from them. In that sense, there are fundamentalists in every endeavor, and in every ideological, political, and religious quarter. Since the word has pejorative connotations, however, it's used frequently by people who are given to the use of polemical abuse as a way of insulting people who are conservative in their religious or political views without having to resort to calling them a sumbitch.

Grounding Natural Rights

Carlos Alberto Montaner considers himself to be an agnostic but he nevertheless writes an essay whose point is that God is a sine qua non of moral judgment, a theme we have often written about ourselves here at Viewpoint. Montaner argues that human rights are contingent upon a transcendent moral authority and that if there is no such entity the whole notion and discussion of rights, as well as, we might add, right and wrong themselves, are little more than subjective blathering about personal preferences and arbitrary tastes.

Here are two paragraphs from Montaner's column:

The whole philosophical and juridical structure that supports liberal democracy hinges on the existence of a superior being from whom emanate the ''natural rights'' that protect individuals from the actions of the state or from the will of other people. If the premise of God's existence disappears, the theory of the existence of natural rights is automatically eliminated and the door is flung open to all kinds of abuses.

It's just that simple. If there are no natural rights, it may be acceptable to enslave prisoners, discriminate against women and execrate foreigners or homosexuals. All that's required is a decision by a legitimate source of power, such as a majority in numbers, for instance, or a group of notable and petulant wise men.

And, of course, if there is no God then there is no such thing as a natural right. Everyone would have the "right" to do whatever he or she has the power to do. Might would make right. If right is not grounded in something objective and transcendent, it simply doesn't exist other than as a matter of mere personal predilection.

You can read the rest of Montaner's article here.

Iconoclasm

Some readers may be familiar with Jonathan Wells and his book Icons of Evolution which drove the Darwinists into paroxysms of vein-popping rage. It was a good book.

The web site Intelligent Design: The Future is running Wells' response to his critics. Part I is up, and if you've never read it before and you're interested in the sorry legacy of Darwinian duplicity in high school biology textbooks, you might wish to check it out.

Total Depravity

Michelle Malkin notes how the fine human beings at Democratic Underground are responding to the news of Margaret Thatcher's failing health. It's hard to believe that people could sink as deep into the sewer as some of the people at that site who consider themselves compassionate, humane, and sophisticated liberals. If this is what liberalism and liberals have become then it's time to start treating liberals like the moral basket-cases they keep showing themselves to be and ostracize them completely from our political discourse.

If you have the stomach to visit the link be sure to scroll down through the comments to get a real sense of the degeneracy that resides on the left. It'll make you a convert to the Calvinist doctrine of total depravity.

And then there's Pat Oliphant, perhaps the most untalented, unfunny, immature political cartoonist, after Ted Rall, to disgrace the pages of our national newspapers. It astonishes me that any paper carries this guy. Does anyone who has attained adulthood think he's anything but an insipid, juvenile sleaze merchant?

Terrorists' Dream, America's Nightmare

We have written on this subject before, but it bears repeating. The most horrifying threat we face today is a single blast from a nuclear weapon detonated at high altitude over the North American mainland. Here's why:

EMP (ElectroMagnetic Pulse) is produced by atmospheric detonation of a nuclear device. The nuclear explosion sends out a spike of electromagnetic pulse - a wave - that shocks electronics and creates electrical currents in the earth. Effects are direct and indirect. The electrical devices themselves are rendered inoperable. This begins what the Commission report calls "unprecedented cascading failures of major infrastructures." In other words, if a power grid is fried, then systems depending on that power grid: lighting, water purification and delivery, communications, banking, hospitals, emergency - all these and more are affected. If the initial explosion is large enough, the Commission concludes, "the degradation of infrastructure could have irreversible effects on the country's ability to support its population."

This means mass starvation because food deliveries cease, urban deaths by dehydration as water systems fail, collapse of medical systems, breakdown of police functions, ineffectiveness of firefighters, loss of bank records, inability to move physically other than by foot, and a return of America to a "pre-industrial age" state. Americans who live in rural environments might survive. The larger the cities and the more densely populated they are, the greater the probability of mass death. An EMP attack, in other words, could be many times worse than nuclear explosions at ground level that intend to use explosive force to kill. Such an attack is indeed a terrorist's dream - and an American nightmare.

It's not like we're just learning about EMP. Soviet and American nuclear scientists first discovered this effect during atmospheric testing in the early 1960s. An American detonation, Starfish, over Johnson Island, had the unpredicted side effect of knocking out street lights, alarms, and power generation facilities in Oahu almost 100 miles distant. As recently as 1995, a Russian general threatened EMP attack during raucous negotiations with US representatives, noting that it "would only take one" weapon to knock out America.

Technically, a large enough weapon detonated at 75-400 kilometers above the US would induce serious EMP damage. The larger the weapon and the higher the detonation, the greater the circle of damage emanating from it. Only a single large weapon detonating over mid-America could permanently cripple the country. The result would be direct and indirect deaths of millions of Americans and the transformation of the US in an eye-blink to a pre-19th century environment.

So why is this a terrorist threat? Isn't EMP attack something that would come from a more sophisticated country, one, like Russia or China, that stands to lose as much as we do by such actions? And should we more properly worry about suitcase nucs and such from terrorists? The alarming answer is that delivery of an EMP weapon requires less than state-of-the-art technology. A rocket simply has to carry a nuclear payload to altitude and detonate it. Aiming can be very general, unlike targeting an installation or even a city. Alarmingly, such missiles exist, engineered by North Korea and sold to countries like Iran, Syria, and - we fear - soon to Venezuela.

The missiles do not have to be launched from land. They could, with rather conventional engineering modifications, be launched from the deck of a freighter off-shore from the American coastline. Terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda already possess a modest fleet of merchant ships. Both Iran and North Korea are furiously working to develop deliverable nuclear weapons. In the opinion of many, it is not a matter of if we are attacked by EMP but when. America has a surfeit of capable enemies - communists, dictators, and terrorists - and they form a deadly connection committed to our demise.

How do we stop this threat? There is no simple answer. America does not possess anti-missile capability of significance. If a Navy Aegis-class ship was in the neighborhood it might be able to intercept the terrorist missile attack. But to rely on such serendipitous circumstances to protect this country is madness. We could harden our infrastructure and try to protect against EMP attack, but because of magnitude that would be a futile undertaking.

The only sure defense, as General George Patton said is a "good offense." And, he concluded, "the quality of that offense depends on the warlike souls of those conducting it." As a country we need to make certain that we have sufficient steel in our backbones to take on and to defeat the threat from Islamofascists and rogue states before they are able to launch a missile at this country. In short, we need to change our mentality from that of complacent peacetime and assume an aggressive War Footing. And we need to do so before our enemies can exploit our weakness.

For more info go here and click on "view video." While you're watching it bear in mind that Iran is currently building two nuclear reactors that will enable them to produce nuclear weapons.

The Iranians simply can't be permitted to develop the capability of destroying the United States with a single strike. If they have it they will surely use it. I think President Bush and his team understand this. I doubt very much if the Democrats do.

Paranoia Will Destroy Ya

Abraham Foxman suffers from clinical paranoia. How else can we explain his belief that the biggest threat to Jews in the United States is the "religious right"? A Washington Times article says this:

A group of Jewish leaders meets in New York this week to develop a response to the religious right, which they say is eroding civil liberties and planning to "christianize America." Led by Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the private meeting is set for today, said an assistant to Mr. Yoffie.

Both men were unavailable for comment Friday, and neither organization would divulge details of the meeting, including who else is attending and where it is being held. But the meeting is the culmination of a month of attacks by Mr. Foxman and Mr. Yoffie on conservative Christian groups, starting with Mr. Foxman's speech Nov. 3 at an ADL function in New York.

"We face a better-financed, more sophisticated, coordinated, unified, energized and organized coalition of groups in opposition to our policy positions on church-state separation than ever before," he said. "Their goal is to implement their Christian worldview. To Christianize America. To save us."

The chief villains, he said, were the Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family; the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Alliance Defense Fund; the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association; and the Family Research Council, based in Washington. "This issue is serious enough for us to develop a strategy, and, clearly, our first task is to win the support of the American public," Mr. Foxman said. "We also need to come together with other Jewish organizations ... and to find allies beyond our community."

On Nov. 19, Mr. Yoffie compared the religious right to Nazis. "We understand those who believe that the Bible opposes gay marriage, even though we read that text in a very different way," the rabbi said. "We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations."

So, Christians are essentially Nazis. If Christians acquire much more political power in this country look for extermination camps for Jews to sprout up next to the local Wal-Mart.

When, we have to ask, have Christians talked about banning gay organizations (as distinct from gay marriage)? How, exactly, are Christians a threat to Jews? Neither Foxman nor Yoffie explain. In our post-modern, PC world there is no distinction between leveling an allegation and substantiating it. The fact that these men eagerly embrace the narrative of Christian tyranny and feel oppressed by a Christian hegemony that exists entirely in their febrile imaginations is all that's necessary to validate their claims.

Don Feder, president of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation, succinctly highlights the silliness of the fears voiced by such as Foxman and Yoffie when he says this:

"Foxman loves to whine about the religious right and how they're destroying religious liberty in America. Is wanting to keep God in the Pledge of Allegiance Christianizing America? Is opposition to gay marriage Christianizing America? Are efforts to keep public displays of the Ten Commandments Christianizing America? If so, Moses was a Christianizer."

The Times' article continues:

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, founder of the Chicago-based International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), pointed out that evangelicals are Israel's best U.S. friends. His group raised $44.9 million in 2004, mostly from evangelicals, for pro-Israel causes. In 2002, the IFCJ commissioned a poll of 1,200 Americans that found that "conservative church-going Christians" had the highest rates of support for Israel (62 percent) among non-Jewish religious groups. In 2002, Mr. Foxman penned "Evangelical Support for Israel Is a Good Thing" for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Conservative Christians and Jewish groups have united over Israel, foreign policy and the threat of Islamic terrorism, said Kristi Hamrick, spokeswoman for American Values. "It's common knowledge that no other non-Jewish community in the country supports Israel as loyally and generously as do evangelicals," said Paul Hetrick, vice president of media relations for Focus on the Family.

But no matter. For the paranoid conspiracy theorist all this is just proof of the cleverness of the plot. Christians are lulling Jews into a false sense of trustworthiness before they treacherously spring the Final Solution upon them.

2004 Republican electoral successes and President Bush's faith-based initiatives have made some Jewish organizations nervous about evangelicals' ultimate aims. "It's absolutely an issue," said Rabbi Arthur Waskow, director of the Shalom Center in Philadelphia. They aren't using outright violence themselves," he said of the religious right. "But they are one step down from people who are ready to use the coercive powers of the state to impose their own religious outlook."

Don't ask for evidence for any of this. That would just be a sign that you've already been co-opted by the conspiracy and are probably even working for the evil Dr. Dobson and his holocaust-loving minions.

Here's what this sort of Jewish antipathy toward Christians is going to produce: Eventually, Christians are going to get weary of it and are going to ask themselves whether their support for Israel is really worth the constant threat of terrorism on our soil. Wouldn't it be easier to just abandon Israel to her enemies and take care of things at home, they'll wonder. When that day of decision comes, the attacks by Jewish leaders on American Christians are going to do absolutely nothing to incline those same Christians to hang tough with Israel. If this country ever walks away from its commitments to Israel the Israelis will be able to give a hefty thank you very much to the likes of Abraham Foxman.

None Dare Call it Treason

The Democrats insist on being the party of defeat and defeatism. Now they are bent on becoming the party of treason as well. Here's the party chairman Howard Dean:

Saying that the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.

"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Dean says the Democrat position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.

"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don't have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We've got to get the target off the backs of American troops.

Dean didn't specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces.

Imagine that you are an American soldier in Iraq and you hear the leader of the Democratic Party announce that there's no way you're going to win the fight you are engaged in. What effect do you suppose that would have on your morale? What would those words from one of your nation's key political leaders do to your will to fight and your willingness to risk your life one more day in Iraq?

Now imagine that you are an insurgent, a terrorist, and you hear the leader of the Democratic Party say that America can't win and that we need to commence an immediate pullout. What effect would that have on your determination to keep fighting at least until the 2006, and maybe the 2008, elections to see if they bring Democrats back to power. You know that if the Democrats regain political dominance they will quit the war, their leader has said as much. Would you not feel encouraged to stick it out, to keep killing Americans as long as you can, to see if the Democrats prevail?

Howard Dean is undermining our troops and encouraging the enemy. He's either committing treason or he's a fool. When will his party tire of his reckless and irresponsible bombast and show him the door?

Trying to Keep the Cat in the Bag

According to George V. Coyne: "In the third paragraph of his op-ed article in the NY Times, 7 July 2005, Cardinal Schoenborn mistakenly defines neo-Darwinian evolution as 'an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection' and then condemns it. If you arbitrarily define something in a condemning way and then condemn it, you make dialogue pretty difficult." [From circulated e-mail.]

Okay. Well, let's ask some questions of Mr. Coyne. Is he saying that evolution is actually guided and planned? What evolutionary mechanisms carry out this extraordinary task? What is it, exactly, in the Cardinal's definition that is incorrect? And what percentage of evolutionary biologists would disagree with the Cardinal's definition?

The fact of the matter is that unless there is an intelligent agent behind the origin and evolution of life it must perforce be unguided, unplanned and purposeless. There is nothing in the mechanisms of neo-Darwinian evolution that can foresee the future, that causes them to work toward some goal, or that follows some plan. Life is a product of fortuitous serendipity, according to the Darwinians, and for Coyne to complain because the Cardinal correctly identifies this as their position is rather odd.

Indeed, we wonder if Coyne complained when Elie Weisel drafted a letter signed by 38 Nobel Prize winners to protest attempts to insert ID into public schools in Kansas. In the letter the signatories state that "evolution is understood to be the result of an unguided, unplanned process of random variation and natural selection." Was Mr. Coyne distressed over the difficulties the definition employed by these worthies posed for dialogue? We doubt it.

The reason Mr. Coyne objects to identifying this truth about Darwinian evolution, of course, is that he recognizes that this description removes evolution from the field of empirical science and places it squarely in the realm of metaphysics. As such, it's theoretical status is identical to that of intelligent design, and if this description, the description most biologists use for evolution, is allowed to be taught in public school classrooms, there can be no justification for excluding ID.

Shameful Gestures

That left-wing lawyer Ramsey Clark has never met an enemy of the United States that he didn't like, or a tyrant that he didn't fawn over, is a matter of historical record. Thus it comes as no surprise that this former attorney general under Lyndon Johnson has traveled to Iraq to help defend Saddam Hussein as he stands trial for numerous atrocities against his people.

Clark's supporters will insist, of course, that everyone deserves a fair trial, but it doesn't follow that someone who has a decent respect for mankind and a sympathy for all the grieving family members Hussein has left in his murderous wake should go so far out of his way to insure it himself. Nor does it mean that Clark should feel the need to show deference and respect for a man whose crimes are universally acknowledged and beyond all reasonable doubt. Indeed, Clark has even tacitly admitted that Saddam is guilty of the crime he is presently defending himself against. Yet that's the sort of person Ramsey Clark is. For him, evil, if it is in the cause of opposing the United States, deserves respect:

At the start of Monday's [trial] session, Saddam walked into the court with a smile, carrying a copy of the Quran and greeted everyone there. Most of the defendants and several of the defense lawyers, including Clark, al-Dulaimi and al-Nueimi, stood up out of respect when Saddam walked in.

Ramsey Clark has disgraced himself with this gesture and has embarrassed all those who have considered him over the years to be a champion of human rights. For more evidence indicting Clark's character read Christopher Hitchens' piece here.

Short Stories

Joe Carter's latest contribution to cultural literacy is a list of his twenty five all-time favorite short stories. Here are his selections:

1. Flannery O'Connor, Parker's Back (The last story [of] Flannery O'Connor is the first in my estimation of great short stories.)

2. Leo Tolstoy, Three Questions

3. Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

4. Frank Stockton, The Lady or the Tiger?

5. Ambrose Bierce, An Occurence at Owl Creek Bridge

6. W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw

7. Stephen Vincent Benet, The Devil and Daniel Webster

8. George Saunders, Pastoralia

9. Jonathan Lethem, Hardened Criminals(A strange tale that describes a prison whose walls are made entirely out of convicts.)

10. Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People (A Cinderella story -- Southern Gothic style)

11. Ring Lardner, Haircut

12. Shusaku Endo, The Final Martyrs (A great tale of cowardly regret by one of Japan's greatest Christian writers.)

13. Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

14. Thom Jones, The Pugilist at Rest

15. Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist

16. Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

17. Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Birth-mark

18. James Thurber, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

19. Shirley Jackson, The Lottery (One of the best examples of an undderrated genre: Horror.)

20. Jack London, To Build A Fire

21. Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game

22. John Cheever, The Swimmer (On first reading this story I could see what all the fuss was about. But years later I still can't forget the haunting ending.)

23. Flannery O'Connor, Good A Man Is Hard To Find

24. George Saunders, CivilWarLand in Bad Decline

25. Jonathan Lethem, The Happy Man (The soul of the main character in this strange story makes occasional visits to hell. His body, though, remains behind in a zombie-like state to be cared for by his exhaustively patient family. A peculiar, moving tale of speculative fiction by one of the best writers in America.)

I stand in awe of the extent of Carter's reading and his familiarity with films. I haven't read too many of the selections on this list myself, but almost anything written by Flannery O'Connor deserves to be on it.

Materialism, Muslims, and ID

Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol adds an interesting Islamic perspective to the Intelligent Design controversy at National Review Online. His whole essay is excellent, but these two paragraphs are particularly good:

From all this, one can see that the much-debated cultural gap between the West and the Muslim world is actually a two-sided coin: While the latter has some extremely conservative or radical elements that turn life into joyless misery, the former has extremely hedonistic and degenerate elements that turn life into meaningless profligacy. And if we look for a rapprochement between Westerners and Muslims, we again have to see both sides of the coin: While Muslim communities need reformers of culture that will save them from bigotry, the Western societies need redeemers of culture that will save them from materialism. Of course, the manifestations of the former (such as support for terrorism) are far more dangerous and intolerable than those of the latter, but as root causes, both must be acknowledged.

As the history of the cultural conflict between the modern West and Islam shows, ID can also be a bridge between these two civilizations. The first bricks of that bridge are now being laid in the Islamic world. In Turkey, the current debate over ID has attracted much attention in the Islamic media. Islamic newspapers are publishing translations of pieces by the leading figures of the ID movement, such as Michael J. Behe and Phillip E. Johnson. The Discovery Institute is praised in their news stories and depicted as the vanguard in the case for God, and President Bush's support for ID is gaining sympathy. For many decades the cultural debate in Turkey has been between secularists who quote modern Western sources and Muslims who quote traditional Islamic sources. Now, for the first time, Muslims are discovering that they share a common cause with the believers in the West. For the first time, the West appears to be the antidote to, not the source of, the materialist plague.

It's worth taking the time to read the whole piece.

Pouting Pundits of Pessimism

Bryan Westbury has a piece in the WSJ that those Bush critics who say that he is presiding over "the worst economy ever," etc. etc. should find embarrassing, but won't. Here are just a few of the highlights:

During a quarter century of analyzing and forecasting the economy, I have never seen anything like this. No matter what happens, no matter what data are released, no matter which way markets move, a pall of pessimism hangs over the economy.

It is amazing. Everything is negative. When bond yields rise, it is considered bad for the housing market and the consumer. But if bond yields fall and the yield curve narrows toward inversion, that is bad too, because an inverted yield curve could signal a recession.

If housing data weaken, as they did on Monday when existing home sales fell, well that is a sign of a bursting housing bubble. If housing data strengthen, as they did on Tuesday when new home sales rose, that is negative because the Fed may raise rates further. If foreigners buy our bonds, we are not saving for ourselves. If foreigners do not buy our bonds, interest rates could rise. If wages go up, inflation is coming. If wages go down, the economy is in trouble.

This onslaught of negative thinking is clearly having an impact. During the 2004 presidential campaign, when attacks on the economy were in full force, 36% of Americans thought we were in recession. One year later, even though unemployment has fallen from 5.5% to 5%, and real GDP has expanded by 3.7%, the number who think a recession is underway has climbed to 43%.

The trade deficit was supposed to cause a collapse in the dollar; but the dollar is up 10% versus the euro in the past eight months. The budget deficit was supposed to push up interest rates; yet the 10-year Treasury yield, at 4.5%, is well below its 2000 average yield of 6% when the U.S. faced surpluses as far as the eye could see.

Sharp declines in consumer confidence and rising oil prices were supposed to hurt retail sales; but holiday shopping is strong. Many fear that China is stealing our jobs, but new reports suggest that U.S. manufacturers are so strong that a shortage of skilled production workers has developed. And since the Fed started hiking interest rates 16 months ago, 3.5 million new jobs and $750 billion in additional personal income have been created. Stocks are also up, which according to pundits was unlikely as long as the Fed was hiking rates.

One key reason the U.S. economy has outperformed other industrialized nations, and exceeded its long-run average growth rate during the past two years, is the tax cut of 2003. By reducing taxes on investment, the U.S. boosted growth, which in turn created new jobs that replace those that are lost as the old economy dies.

Tax cuts! How can they work? They just increase the deficit, or so we've been told by those who oppose tax cuts because they can't stand to see the wealthy get to hold onto their ill-gotten booty.

It's astonishing that Bush inherited an economy that was going into recession and was subsequently punched in the face by 9/11, war, oil price rises, Katrina, Rita, and a host of lesser jabs, and yet it's still chugging right along producing jobs and goods. No wonder the Democrats are up in arms over reports that the military planted a few stories in Iraqi newspapers. That's about all they have to complain about and complain they must. It's in their blood.

The Solution

The solution to the Intelligent Design/ evolution controversy in our public schools, according to Andrew Coulson of the Cato Institute, is school choice. Read his argument here.

Bashing Fundies With Public Money

You may have heard that the University of Kansas was initiating a course to be taught by the chairman of their religious studies department who is, of course, an atheist. The class was intended to be a parody of Intelligent Design and creationism - as if having an atheist chair the religious studies department isn't parody enough for one university - with a rollicking assault on students' religious beliefs thrown in. Denis Boyles captures the flavor of the course and the professor who proposed it in an article in National Review Online:

Personally, I think it's a good thing that universities are finally being used for satire rather than self-parody, and on this point I appear to agree with the chairman of KU's religious-studies department, Paul Mirecki, and the campus group he mentors, the 120-member "Society of Open-minded Atheists and Agnostics" - a.k.a. SOMA.

Mirecki announced plans earlier this month to teach "the fundies" - as he referred to his theological enemies - a lesson by offering a course called "Intelligent Design, Creationism and other Religious Mythologies." The course announcement was instantly picked up by AP, CNN, and a bunch of daily papers and TV stations across the country. "The KU faculty has had enough," Mirecki told reporters with gusto.

Conservatives were irate, of course, but universities - well, what can you do? The class would have passed into the archive of goofy courses all colleges offer for whatever reason. However, Mirecki had made the strategic error of using SOMA's Yahoo usergroup to post his view that the purpose of the course was not education. It was theater:

"To my fellow damned," he wrote to the students, "Its [sic] true, the fundies have been wanting to get I.D. and creationism into the Kansas public schools, so I thought 'why don't I do it?' I will teach the class with several other lefty KU professors...The fundies want it all taught in a science class, but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face...I expect it will draw much media attention. The university public relations office will have a press release on it in a few weeks, I also have contacts at several regional newspapers.

The forum post was forwarded to an ad-hoc group of conservative Kansas bloggers and writers led by John Altevogt, a former Kansas City Star columnist and a political activist. Altevogt blew the whistle and the embarrassing post caused KU chancellor Bob Hemenway - a fervent backer of the course - to blink. Calling voters "fundies" wasn't helpful to a public university.

After nearly a week of backpedaling, Mirecki apologized for the statement: "I have always practiced my belief that there is no place for impertinence and name calling in a serious academic class," he wrote. "My words in the email do not represent my teaching philosophy or the style I use in class." The word "Mythologies" was dropped from the description. The chancellor said he would conducting a "review" of Mirecki's e-mail. The university insisted the show would go on.

But the cat was out of the bag. As Hemenway was telling reporters the course was "serious," Mirecki was telling readers of his SOMA list - at least until a few days ago apparently open to any who wished to join and read it - "This thing will be a hoot." Conservatives had set about conducting a review of their own, sorting through and circulating the rest of Mirecki's SOMA posts on the Internet, and they came away more concerned than ever. "These aren't just lighthearted messages," said Altevogt.

There's much more to the story, and indeed it gets better. It is astonishing, as Boyles' article informs us, that the entire religious studies department at Kansas is comprised of atheists and agnostics. As Boyles puts it, it's like having a bunch of David Dukes in the African-American Studies department. Paul Mirecki sounds like a pretty sorry excuse for a college professor although he's probably fairly typical of the left-wing genre.

Anyway, for the condign denouement of this sordid tale go here.

Keeping People Passive and Obedient

This sounds like it was written by someone in the scientific establishment talking about Neo-Darwinian evolution:

"The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum." Noam Chomsky

Evolutionists remind us often that there's lots of disagreement among scientists with respect to the tempo and mode of evolutionary change and the extent to which mutation and genetic drift are acted upon by natural selection to bring about change. The debate is lively enough but conducted within strict limits. Only blind, unguided causes are allowed into the discussion.

The true believers passively accept the orthodox dogmas and meekly submit to them. As soon as someone seeks to add intelligence to the mix of mechanisms believed to explain living things, however, the cries of heresy ring out and stakes piled high with kindling are prepared. Any evidence that points within an arc of 180 degrees of a cosmic intelligence or a deity is excluded a priori. Evolutionists are not interested in truth wherever it may lie, they're interested in promoting a physicalist metaphysics whose truth they refuse to question.

Why Major in Philosophy?

In the course of my teaching I often encourage students to consider an undergraduate philosophy major because I believe that a study of the questions philosophers have addressed provides the most important background a thoughtful and intelligent student could acquire. Students often ask, though, what they can do with such a degree. My reply is that most majors don't do anything professionally with their degree but rather they find it excellent preparation for the sorts of careers they do choose to pursue. Employers in most occupations prefer to train their employees themselves in the skills they'll need, and most professions require graduate level work in a specific field. Philosophy prepares a student for well for either path.

A friend sent along a link to a post by Dr. Roy Clouser, author of the outstanding book The Myth of Religious Neutrality, and professor of philosophy at Trenton State College, in which he addresses these same questions. His post is entitled Why Major in Philosophy? and it contains a lot of good advice for a young high schooler or undecided undergrad who thinks they might enjoy philosophy but who isn't sure if it will prepare them for making a living. Clouser writes:

For most students arriving at college, philosophy is the one subject they've never had before so it's natural that it's one of the last they consider majoring in. It's also natural to wonder what the major is good for--after all, few people ever plan to be professional philosophers! Yet, year after year, students switch their major to philosophy, and others tell us they wish they'd discovered it sooner so they could have done so.

What these students discovered - surprising as it sounds - is that philosophy is the single most useful major in the entire undergraduate curriculum! (Yes, useful!)

It's true, of course, that not many people become professional philosophers. But neither do most history majors become historians or English majors go on to become novelists. The fact is that most students don't pick a major because they plan to make their living in that field. They choose a major based on their interests and on how well it will prepare them for the widest possible number of occupations after college. If you are deciding that way too, we can say this for certain: If you have the interest, philosophy is best possible major - hands down.

Let me explain.

Philosophy deals with theories about the most basic beliefs and values that people have. These include topics like the nature of reality and human nature, the nature and sources of knowledge and morality, the proper structure for society and government, and the nature of religious belief. It also studies theories about the nature of science, art, language, and law. In this way, every philosophy major is exposed to the most influential interpretations of the most important issues people face across the entire spectrum of human experience.

But more than simply learning about these issues, philosophy includes a keen training in logic and critical thinking - in the ability to argue and debate the truth of the various theories and viewpoints that are studied. It sharpens one's ability to spot difficulties, pose questions, and to weigh the evidence for and against the reasons given for any view on any topic. (A bank V.P. once told me that his logical training was the most valuable thing he got in his entire undergraduate education - even more valuable than his business courses.)

Even from this short description you may be able to see why a philosophy major is the best possible background for anyone who wants to deal with the public or who wants to write - whether as a novelist, or news reporter. It is also the very best major for those thinking of pursuing any sort of career in religion. And it should come as no surprise that law schools consider it the best background for the Law SAT and a career in law. (Speaking of standardized tests, the highest GRE scores consistently come from three majors: math, physics, and philosophy.)

But there's more. It seems that a solid background in the influential viewpoints over a wide range of issues, and an ability to think logically about them, is also splendid training for a career in business according to several top business schools. But what may be most surprising of all is that the records of some of the best medical schools show philosophy as the undergraduate major of some of their most outstanding alumni!

So, if you have doubts about the major that's best for you - especially if you are presently an undeclared major - why not make an appointment at the philosophy department to talk over your interests with one of our faculty? Philosophy might, at least, be the ideal minor subject for you even if you decide not to major in it.

I offer only one caveat. Philosophy departments, like departments in any of the humanities, often are loaded with instructors who favor a particular school or style of philosophy. Some of these styles may be deadly dull to students who expect their philosophy experience to be an exciting intellectual excursion into the best that's been thought and written about life's most important questions. The student who wants to major in philosophy would do well to check out what approach the department is inclined toward before committing him or herself to majoring in it.