When Responsibility Doesn’t Pay

While Barack Obama was making his latest pitch for a brand-new, even-more-unsustainable entitlement at the health-care “summit,” thousands of Greeks took to the streets to riot. An enterprising cable network might have shown the two scenes on a continuous split-screen — because they’re part of the same story.

By Mark Steyn

A Valued Member of the Seaworld Team

"Meghan McArdle reports on the Seaworld press conference this afternoon about the killer whale that killed a trainer earlier this week:

When asked by a reporter about the fact that this same whale has apparently killed three other people, he repeatedly makes the irrelevant point that it only killed one other person at Seaworld . . . small comfort to the folks who take their tykes there. He also repeatedly refers to the whale as a valued member of the Seaworld team, which seems to me to be taking animal rights a little far. After all, a valued member of the Seaworld team who kept killing people would open up the company to enormous liability dangers.

..."

By Joseph Bottum

My comment: Admit it, when you saw the title of this post, you first thought of the poor woman trainer who had died. Right?

Dearth of Jobs, Death to the Family?

Where others have failed, the church must meet society's looming challenge.

By Collin Hansen

On the Radio: Government Intervention

Here's my interview with John Blok of New Day Florida about ministries protesting too much government intervention.

Millions of Unemployed Face Years Without Jobs

More good news from The New York Times.

By Peter S. Goodman

Podcast: Stan and John, Together Again

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson, the new dynamic duo, discuss the latest from the world of Books & Culture, and from John's bookshelf.

Discipline and Its Limits

Tiger Woods, who is a self-professing Buddhist, said in his serial infidelity he had stoppped following the dictates of his religion and instead had indulged himself in the easy temptations of fame and fortune. After his highly scripted mea culpa, another follower of the noble Eightfold Path spoke up.

The Dalai Lama agreed with the superstar golfer's assessment, commenting that Buddhism preaches self-discipline and an awareness of the consequences of one's actions, values on which Woods had turned his back.

As another mere mortal only too aware of my own susceptibility to temptation, I wonder whether Eldrick Woods has yet grasped his true predicament and its solution. His answer, perhaps Buddhism's as well, to his loss of discipline is the application of more discipline.

It's a bit more complicated than that, of course. Buddhism, an offshoot of Hinduism, tries to steer a “Middle Way” for devotees between indulgence and asceticism. Buddhists do this through the disciplined adoption of right views, goals, speech, conduct, lifestyle, efforts, awareness, and concentration. These disciplines Woods now says he will return to, and, for all I know, he will succeed.

But is Eldrick Woods getting his act together the end of the story? I think not. Discipline will not erase the memory of his horrible acts and the even worse attitude that led to them. Discipline will not heal the emotional scars of his wife, children, and the women he used for his own pleasure. Discipline will not take away the lies, the lost oppportunities. It will not rebuild his reputation (though it may help). Discipline, advocated by Buddhism and all the world's religions, will not buy forgiveness. Nor will it vanquish the demons (real or self-made) that pushed him down his disastrous path.

They say time heals all wounds, but I wonder. I think, rather, it covers them over, only to have them re-erupt when we least expect it. After the careful application of discipline, the pain will remain, the pus will continue oozing. The guilt, which Woods freely acknowledges now, will continue.

There's more. Woods has flouted his own standards, yes. But he has violated something more. If there is a Law that tells us that we are not to do what he did (and most of us in our more honest moments would acknowledge that there is), then we have to face the very real possibility that there is a Lawgiver.

Is Woods's newfound discipline enough to win this Lawgiver's pardon? Or is something more required? Look at it this way: Is good behavior on Death Row enough to win a condemned man's release?

Seen in this light, journalist Brit Hume's suggestion that Eldrick Woods might consider availing himself of the redemption freely offered in Christ makes a lot of sense. Doing so requires not discipline but humility, for Woods and for the rest of us.

Spotlight: Where It's Hardest to Believe

Charting the world's worst persecutors.

By Christianity Today

Ungovernable? Nonsense.

This isn’t structural failure; this is the system working the way it’s supposed to.

By Charles Krauthammer

The 2009 CT Critics' Choice Awards

What do a war movie, a hot air balloon, and a post-apocalyptic father-son love story have in common? They're among 2009's best movies, as chosen by CT critics.

Nightfall in America

The deficit in 2007 was $160 billion. In the next year the Pelosi-Reid Congress took it up to $458 billion, and when President Obama came into office in 2009 it hit $1.4 trillion. The current 2010 projected deficit is $1.6 trillion, which will lead to a tripling of our national debt from 2008 to 2020.

To the White House and congressional Democrats, these large figures are not a surprise, a mistake or a worry. They are part of a strategy to Europeanize America, to make the government larger, broader and in charge of almost everything. And that would of course require broad and massive tax increases.

By Pete DuPont

Global doubting

So now the U.N. panel's credibility is heavily damaged — and so is the science of global warming. Doubts about the science — and scientists — are creeping in. Many people can't help but wonder: Are some of these climate scientists trying to find the facts or hide them?

A Chicago Tribune editorial

Bayh Bails

In keeping with his reputation as a Democratic "centrist," Sen. Evan Bayh didn't specifically blame the Obama administration's smash-mouth liberalism for bailing out of the Senate. Instead, he pointed to excessive "partisanship," as if Republicans and Democrats are equally to blame.

"For some time," Bayh said, "I've had a growing conviction that Congress is not operating as it should. There is much too much partisanship and not enough progress; too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving. Even at a time of enormous national challenge, the people's business is not getting done."

If one party controls the White House and both houses of Congress, it's kind of hard to point to partisanship without specifically blaming Obama, Reid, and Pelosi. After all, partisanship works both ways. Have these three reached out to Republicans or simply tried to ram their agenda down our throats? The answer, as Bill Clinton once said, is "obvious."

And I'd be more inclined to believe Bayh's posturing as a shocked statesman if he had even once voted against Obama's big-spending, leftwing agenda. Perhaps that's the real reason he is getting while the getting is good. The people of Indiana apparently don't appreciate his lack of statesmanship within his own party.

A few weeks ago Bayh's real feelings slipped out, after Scott Brown won "Ted Kennedy's seat" after campaigning against Obamacare and the Mirandizing of terrorists. "If you lose Massachusetts and that's not a wake-up call," Bayh said candidly then, "then there's no hope of waking up."

Bayh has awakened to the fact that the American people are wise to what the increasingly partisan Democrats are up to. Reid, Pelosi, and Obama, however, continue to snooze on.

I Want to Be Accepted As I Am, But I’ll Take a Cure Too

Why we should consider correcting disabilities.

By Ellen Painter Dollar

Considering 'Curing' Down Syndrome with Caution

Why we shouldn't be too quick to think disabilities need correcting.

By Amy Julia Becker

Podcast: Jesus Freak

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson on a new memoir from Sara Miles.

Liberals and the Scientific Method

Warmists are acting as enforcers of orthodoxy, not seekers of truth.

By Mona Charen

Abstinence and the Left

Why does the New York Times hate teen abstinence?

By Robert Rector

Iranian regime change: An Obama achievement we could believe in

Thanks to the people of Iran, regime change is now a real possibility. Surely the administration could have more of a sense of urgency in helping increase the odds of that devoutly to-be-wished goal.

By William Kristol

Tebow Ad Scores With Pro-Life Groups

Pro-life groups cheer for surprisingly subtle Focus on the Family Super Bowl ad.

By Tobin Grant

With absolute power, Team Obama grows stupid

How could such smart people do so many stupid things? That question, or variations on it, is being asked in Washington and around the country about the Obama administration.

By Michael Barone

On the Radio: The CT Book Awards

Here's my interview with John Blok of New Day Florida about the 2010 CT Book Awards.

The 10 Most Redeeming Films of 2009

What do a lonely widower, a strong woman with a soft heart, and an African leader have in common? They're all key characters in the year's best redemptive movies.

Haiti: A Report from Samaritan's Purse

Dear Friend,

I have just returned from Haiti, where Samaritan's Purse is working non-stop to help survivors of the catastrophic Jan. 12 earthquake. It's almost impossible to describe the scope of the tragedy—not just the endless devastation and the lingering stench of death, but the anguished faces of women, children, and others who are desperate for food, water, and shelter.

Our teams on the ground estimate that Samaritan's Purse has been able to help close to 100,000 people since the quake struck.

Here are some of the ways we have responded:

SHELTER: Everywhere we went, I saw makeshift homes covered with heavy-duty blue plastic handed out by Samaritan's Purse. Already, we've distributed enough plastic for about 20,000 families. In the coming days we will begin providing thousands more with transitional housing where they can live until they are able to rebuild a permanent house.

MEDICAL CARE: While I was in Haiti, Samaritan's Purse reopened a clinic at one of the largest churches in Cite Soleil. It will be staffed by doctors who are volunteering through World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan's Purse. We are also continuing to provide doctors and support for the Baptist Haiti Mission hospital, where over 1,500 survivors have been treated; and we sent in a helicopter this week to carry medical brigades into some of the most isolated and hard-hit towns.

FOOD: We have handed out 250 tons of rice and other staples to thousands of families, focusing on the needs of mothers and other women. Our teams have also delivered food to over 40 orphanages where children had gone hungry since the earthquake.

WATER: We have set up large-scale water filtration systems at 10 locations, providing more than 20,000 people with clean drinking water. More filters have just arrived and will be installed soon.

This has been the most massive relief project in the history of Samaritan's Purse. We have chartered eight cargo flights and two trips by an ocean-going barge that delivered over a million pounds of heavy equipment and construction supplies. We thank God for providing the resources and opening the doors for us to deliver help into the crippled country.

We praise God for what He is doing through Samaritan’s Purse to meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people in Haiti. Your prayers and support are making a difference. Please continue to lift up our teams on the ground. They need God’s strength and wisdom as they help and minister to those who have lost everything. “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:L1).

If you would like to know more about what Samaritan’s Purse is doing in Haiti and how you can help, go to www.samaritanspurse.org or call us at 1-800-528-1980.


Sincerely,

Franklin Graham
President, Samaritan's Purse

Casting Too Wide a Net

Ministries protest proposed finance reform.

By Ken Walker

Why Pope John Paul II Whipped Himself

New book reopens questions on self-denial and "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions."

By Collin Hansen

Podcast: Crazy Drivers, a Transgender Son, the Death of a Daughter, and More

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson talk about The Best American Magazine Writing 2009.

An Interview with Jerry Jenkins

"I tend to be a perfectionist, so I give myself thoroughly to whatever project I’m engaged in. (I am also an inveterate editor/proofreader.) Nothing worth doing right will be easy, so fully engage in it and don’t cut corners."

By Kim Ford
christianfictiononlinemagazine.com

Tebow Ad Recap

The Tim Tebow ad wasn't nearly as explicitly pro-life as critics had feared and advocates had hoped. It tastefully introduced Pam Tebow and her son "Timmy" and directed viewers to the Focus on the Family website for the rest of the story.

I'm glad the Tebows stood up for their faith and for life and wish them success as they continue to do so in the days ahead. For the supposedly pro-choice people who wanted the ad censored from the public square, I can only say this: We're not going away. You can't shut us up, and you are on the wrong side of history.

Question Time Isn't the Answer

In the age of terror, America needs sober, bipartisan leadership.

At the Feinstein hearings, the head of the FBI said that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the would-be underwear bomber in a federal prison outside Detroit, is offering new information to investigators. Politico soon had a story by Mike Allen and Kasie Hunt saying a "law-enforcement source" told them, "The information has been active, useful, and we have been following up. The intelligence is not stale."

Assuming this is true, is it good that Abdulmutallab's friends back in Yemen, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Dubai, London and Houston, all of which he reportedly visited in the years leading up to his terror attempt, be told this? Is it good they be informed he is likely giving them up? Does it help us to warn them?

By Peggy Noonan

The Great Peasant Revolt of 2010

The president’s supercilious modesty is getting him into trouble.

By Charles Krauthammer

Beating a Dead Corpse?

At the National Prayer Breakfast this week President Obama twice mispronounced corps as corpse. While those on the left (including the media) no doubt will say that this display of the commander-in-chief's ignorance about the Marine Corps is no big deal, they said something else entirely about Dan Quayle's misspelling of potato. They said the vice president's mistake, which is less egregious than Obama's latest gaffe, had everything to do with his intelligence and fitness for office. So if they decide to give Obama a pass, they will have to send the former vice president an apology. That's spelled A-P-O-L-O-G-Y.

The Devil and Pat Robertson

Re-examining Our Secular Assumptions

By Stan Guthrie

Rush and the R-Word

Expressing frustration with members of the Democrats' angry leftwing base, in an unguarded moment Rahm Emmanuel, the president's chief of staff, called them "f-----g retards." Conservative radio talker Rush Limbaugh jokingly called Emmanuel's slur an insult to the nation's mentally handicapped (for being compared with Democrats).

Then Limbaugh continued mocking the Obama administration, recalling that last March the president said his bowling was so bad that it was like "the Special Olympics." In response to this latest insensitive comment, Sarah Palin, who has a child with Down syndrome, called on Obama to fire Emmanuel.

So the administration, taking a page from its "beer summit" playbook, is floating the idea of a White House meeting with advocates for the disabled (though I doubt the ex-governor of Alaska will be invited). Limbaugh, using Emmanuel's words against him (as he did Harry Reid's earlier blunder saying Obama was a "light-skinned negro"), called this proposed gathering the "retard summit."

Limbaugh's many media critics were quick to pounce, opining that Palin, to maintain her credibility (as if they believe she ever had any), will have to come down as hard on Limbaugh as she did on Emmanuel. I don't think so.

Palin knows Limbaugh's schtick better than his liberal critics do. He was mocking Emmanuel, not the developmentally challenged. Anyone who knows Washington isn't surprised this kind of language came out of the Chicago hatchet man's mouth, but anyone who follows Limbaugh knows that he keeps the show clean (for the most part). I think most of the outrage over Limbaugh (but not, somehow, over Emmanuel) is as phony as Obama's promise to pursue spending restraint-kind of like O.J. searching for the "real" killer.

However, as someone with a disability myself, I cringed when I heard Limbaugh say the words "retard summit," even though I knew what he was trying to do. That's because while Emmanuel was targeting recalcitrant leftists with his hateful speech, Limbaugh was actually using the "R-word" in describing people with mental challenges. He said they would come to the White House for a "retard summit." This hit a little too close to home. So even though Limbaugh was attempting to skewer Emmanuel (who has it coming) for his contempt for the mentally disabled (and leftists), Rush ended up offending innocent bystanders needlessly.

And from a political standpoint, Limbaugh's verbal misstep has backfired, at least somewhat. He has succeeded in taking the spotlight of scrutiny off of Emmanuel, where it belongs, and put it on himself. Perhaps Rahm Emmanuel should send him a thank-you note.

I know what Limbaugh said, and what he meant. But he should do the big thing anyway. Apologize.

On the Radio: Tim Tebow's Super Bowl Ad

Here's my interview with John Blok of New Day Florida about Tim and Pam Tebow's Super Bowl ad. The op-ed by Sally Jenkins is linked below.

New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg: Obama's 2011 Budget Violates Law

My comment: Gregg was initially tapped by Obama to be in his cabinet, and he wrote the TARP law, so he is a credible voice.

HT: Rick Nelson

Deficit Balloons Into National-Security Threat

The federal budget deficit has long since graduated from nuisance to headache to pressing national concern. Now, however, it has become so large and persistent that it is time to start thinking of it as something else entirely: a national-security threat.

By Gerald F. Seib

My comment: Another worry is that if our government is so burdened by debt, we won't have the resources and options we need to prevail in the war against jihadism. We are stranglinng ourselves financially. One more thing: The Bible says the borrower is the slave of the lender. Do we want to be slaves to those who hold our debt?

Haiti: A Brief Religious History

Nothing has ever been easy for this once-lush island nation.

By Elesha Coffman

Tebow's Super Bowl ad isn't intolerant; its critics are

I'm pro-choice, and Tebow clearly is not. But based on what I've heard in the past week, I'll take his side against the group-think, elitism and condescension of the "National Organization of Fewer and Fewer Women All The Time." For one thing, Tebow seems smarter.

By Sally Jenkins
Washington Post Staff Writer

The Obama Spell Is Broken

There is nothing surprising about where Mr. Obama finds himself today. He had been made by charisma, and political magic, and has been felled by it. If his rise had been spectacular, so, too, has been his fall.

By Fouad Ajami

My comment: Let's hope so, if Obama continues to implement his leftist ideology, as he gives every indication of doing.

Podcast: The Middle Ages on a Global Scale

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson on the second volume of Susan Wise Bauer's history of the world.