You can see video of Ann Coulter's brilliant, upbeat, and funny CPAC 2009 speech here. This will take you to the CPAC video streaming page.

Ignore the video box on the left for the moment. Find the archive menu on the top right and select "Saturday." Click on the "February 28, Session 8" box (right side of page).

After the video loads, you'll see Tom DeLay introduced by David Bossie. DeLay offers a good set of humorous remarks and then introduces Coulter. She is at the top of her game.

Among Coulter's lines (roughly quoted): "I love going on the 'View' because being around those gals makes me feel so young and pretty."

You may recall that in 2007 at CPAC, Coulter remarks on John Edwards created a "Faggot" firestorm, which I comment on here. 

I do not know how long CPAC will keep this page alive. The organization is selling DVDs of speakers' remarks.

By the way, DeLay once told me at an earlier CPAC that Nancy Pearcey was one of his heros because of her work (28+ chapters!) in How Now Shall We Live? (tri-authored with novelist Harold Fickett and Prison Fellowship Chairman Charles Colson). I was attending CPAC on behalf of Human Events.

Once again, Tom, thanks for the kind words.

Rick Moran writes:

Ah - state compulsion; the essence of tyranny. When the state demands that you do something that goes against your most deeply held beliefs, they are exercising the same level of control over you as any dictator or tyrant.

This report from the Chicago Tribune is what elicited Moran's remarks: 

Taking another step into the abortion debate, the Obama administration Friday will move to rescind a controversial rule that allows health-care workers to deny abortion counseling or other family-planning services if doing so would violate their moral beliefs, according to administration officials.

The rollback of the "conscience rule" comes just two months after the Bush administration announced it last year in one of its final policy initiatives.

True enough, what Moran describes is of grave concern. But what Obama is doing may be even more troubling than Moran describes. For this move does not simply come up against mere "conscience" or against the "moral beliefs" of individuals.

The right to life is not merely a “moral belief,” it is a moral fact. On the basis of scientific data, we know that human beings are human beings from the moment of conception. This is a biological fact that has nothing to do with pay-grades. Even if you are unemployed, or just running for President of the United States, this fact remains true.

Also, on the basis of verifiable and knowable information from our true Creator -- the Creator upon whom the high freedoms of this nation are grounded, as is recognized in the Declaration of Independence and which the Constitution is designed to protect -- we know that human beings possess tremendous dignity and innate worth, even from the moment of biological conception.

It follows from these facts that human beings of course have the right and duty to protect their neighbors, even if their neighbors are the "least of these." Healthcare workers should be admired, not attacked or undermined, for their efforts in this area.

A humane government is one that recognizes and respects the God-given and therefore inalienable right of individual people, including healthcare workers, to counsel towards life and away from death.

To forbid this humane behavior is deep intolerance and tyranny, again, not just against privately held "belief systems" or "value sets" that secular elites can steamroll with impunity.

Rather, it is a Washington-centric system setting itself up as Deity -- a pretended absolute -- against the moral facts of life and against human obligations that attend living in community with our true Creator and with our neighbors, big or small, born or unborn.

What needs to be rolled back is not the freedom of the individual to express him or herself under God. What needs to be rolled back is a Washington-centric secular establishment at odds with the rights and dignity of humanity and at odds with the Creator whose character and existence form the basis of those liberating rights. The Obama move is inhumane and ill-advised.

Part of a "succession plan," according to AP.

Michael Petroni to chart Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

Speaking of Churchill: When Obama Talks, the Market Drops.

Hat Tip: NetRightNation.

Homosexuals complained, the Constitution reigned.

Start by pulling the plug on Washington.

Volunteers get rowdy bumper sticker in Tennessee.

Backstage at the political circus, socialism:

Only a month into Barack Obama's presidency, an acclaimed psychiatrist is warning that Americans are being slowly corrupted by socialism as Obama's policies intrude into their economic, social and political lives -- a tactic he believes will secure future votes for the Democratic Party.

"We have a desperate population, and it's feeling even more desperate than usual," Dr. Lyle Rossiter told WND. "People are really quite frightened. They're looking for magic, and they think they are going to find it in this man."

Rossiter is a forensic psychiatrist and author of The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness. In his book, he explains how the kind of liberalism being displayed by both Barack Obama and the Democratic Party can only be understood as a psychological disorder. He examines how modern liberal collectivism undermines the legal and moral foundations of ordered liberty. . . .

"It was bad enough under Bush, who expanded government beyond all bounds, federalized education and further socialized health care with a drug bill for seniors. It will get worse under Obama."

Here's a blog and news report on how Gov. Bobby Jindal could have done a better job with his "big speech" after President Obama the other night.

A viewer who had not seen the Jindal speech might conclude the governor's performance was so poor that he alreadly has one political foot in the grave.

There's no harm in getting a little advice on how to put your best foot forward -- so long as the marketers and handlers don't wag the dog.

Best advice? Ignore any input that gets in the way of your authentically communicating what's really on your mind. 

National politics is enough of a dog-and-pony show as it is. What you see is rarely what you get. 

From OneNewsNow:

"Students, activists, lawmakers, and celebrities in the conservative movement are gathering at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) the next three days to chart what they believe should be the future course of a Republican Party that was battered by President Obama and Democrats in November."

A schedule of events and speakers is here.

Click to watch CPAC Live. 

Michael Totten publishes a fascinating first-hand account of how he and Christopher Hitchens were attacked last week in Beruit.

But what's this embedded stinkbomb about Syrian Nazis being Christian?

The SSNP, according to the Atlantic in a civil war era analysis, "is a party whose leaders, men approaching their seventies, send pregnant teenagers on suicide missions in booby-trapped cars. And it is a party whose members, mostly Christians from churchgoing families, dream of resuming the war of the ancient Canaanites against Joshua and the Children of Israel. They greet their leaders with a Hitlerian salute; sing their Arabic anthem, 'Greetings to You, Syria,' to the strains of 'Deutschland, Deutschland über alles'; and throng to the symbol of the red hurricane, a swastika in circular motion." (emphasis added)

"Mostly Christians from churchgoing families"? Thanks for the Goebbelesque demonization.

In fact, the Judeo-Christian worldview depises the fascist worldview, which seems far more at home, philosophically, with the vacuum of meaning and ethics fostered by atheism. More about change and fascism here, and the fascist hatred for Judeo-Christian thoughtforms here.

The only time some might want to see a Hitler salute from a "Christian" is right before he plants a bomb next to Der Fuhrer.

Despite this editorial IAD -- and quite irrelevant to it -- we're relieved to see Hitch and co. alive, well, and pugnacious. When's the next trip?

Hat Tip: Instapundit.

Federal Frank knows all, smells fear. From CNSNews:

“I don’t think we found any Republican minds today,” Frank told a reporter minutes after the president had finished his speech. “They shut their minds down. They are so afraid of being yelled at by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity they won’t even clap for him [Obama], even when they agree with him.”

In other words: Republican minds are closed, but Barney Frank can read them.

A little skepticism may be in order.

One also wonders: With hubris and demonization like Frank's on display, why would any self-respecting free-thinking person created in the image of God allow his life to be run out of Washington?

Two more questions:

1) Is America worse off or better off with Barney Frank in office?

2) Is America worse off or better off with Rush Limbaugh in radio?

"Facebook repeatedly accepted ads for a get-rich-quick scam it apparently knew was defrauding users in a desperate attempt to earn revenue," reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Update: As of 12:42 am, February 26, this reported ad scam is still running on Facebook. I just accessed via my Facebook page an ad link to the same man-with-Ferrari picture exposed in SMH (but the "rich Ferrari man" has a different name in the ad linked via FB).

We plan to add the website of the Constitution Party as a resource link on the main page of The Pearcey Report.

This does not mean we endorse the Constitution Party.

It does mean we are concerned that neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party seems serious about moving forward on the basis of that Founding vision and those Founding documents that undergird the uniqueness and humanity of the American Republic and its experiment in freedom under God.

Update: See the Constitution Party link in the "Groups" column (right side) of the main page of The Pearcey Report, below the "Art Museums" box.

That's how Frontpage boosts an article on feminism, domestic violence, and the Buffalo beheading.

But in addition to "feminist courage" and "feminist cowardice," what about the feminist contradiction?

Out of concern for our neighbor, this must be faced: "Pro-choice" feminists support acts of horrific, slasher violence against humanity every single day of their lives. It's called abortion. 

The point is not that this is an intellectual contradiction, which it is   -- power and choice for me, but not for thee.

Or that this is an ethical contradiction, which it is -- domestic violence inside the womb is an acceptable necessity, but outside the womb is an unacceptable evil.

The point is that pro-abortion feminists have accepted into their bosom a violent contradiction that liberates a spirit of raw will-to-power out into the culture.

In such a setting, consistent with that contradiction, no female is ethically protected or respected: inside the womb or outside the womb; inside the home or at the TV station; in Pakistan or in the U.S.

It's open borders. Contradictions have consequences. Time to rethink.

Call it the Era of False Worship and Suspended Disbelief. Ethel Fenig at American Thinker isn't buying. 

Plus, says Erick Erickson of Red State, Obama "contradicted himself" and "refused to give details, just boilerplate pablum." In sum, "The great oratory failed."

Curtains for Hearst if paper cannot "dramatically lower expenses."

Frank Gaffney wonders what up.

It is no secret that Team Obama is all about symbolism and messaging. So presumably it was no accident that one of the new president's first gestures was to have a bust of Winston Churchill given to the United States by the British government removed from the Oval Office....  

If indeed this explicit disassociation with one of the iconic heroes of the last century was meant to convey a symbolic message, the question occurs: Precisely which message and for whom was it intended?...  

With the Oval Office now cleansed of Churchill, Gaffney suggests a suitable replacement might be a bust of appeasement icon Neville Chamberlain. 

What bust would you suggest to adorn the digs of Barack Obama? Why?

Washington Examiner's Mark Tapscott lays rubber on greedy LaHood power-grubers who "hate privately owned cars."

For all we know, VP Joe Biden thinks wrecking the American automobile is just as patriotic as paying higher taxes. 

What makes you think we'll be free tomorrow?  

Today we seem to have forgotten that freedom cannot survive the unrestrained governmental encroachments that are raining down daily from our nation's capital.

You need not have written a doctoral thesis on the political theories espoused in the Federalist Papers to understand that socialism impoverishes nations despite the professed good intentions of its benefactors.

You needn't have a master's in history to realize that America is the freest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world because its prescient Framers devised a constitution that would maximize liberty by imposing restraints on government.

And you don't need to be a rocket scientist to grasp that unless we put the brakes on our out-of-control federal government soon, we will go the way of all other great nations before us.

Freedom is bleeding. When federal usurpers smile, their teeth seem as knives.   

Malkin: "Tons of groups and individuals are stepping up to the plate in the wake of last week’s anti-stimulus/anti-entitlement protests and the call for a nationwide Tea Party."

Drink tea, coffee! Support pre-revolution health breaks!  

Hat tip: Instapundit.

They believe it, that settles it. Think "peer pressure."

STATEMENT BY IOWA FACULTY ON HF 183:
THE EVOLUTION ACADEMIC FREEDOM ACT

We, the undersigned members of institutions of higher learning in Iowa, urge our legislators to reject passage of "The Evolution Academic Freedom Act" (HF 183) introduced by Rod Roberts (R-Carroll). The language of this bill comes primarily from the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which has conducted lobbying efforts and political activism against the teaching of evolution since 1994.

Evolution is as established a scientific theory as any other theory in science.  It is misleading to claim that there is any controversy or dissent within the vast majority of the scientific community regarding the scientific validity of evolutionary theory. Since there is no real dissent within the scientific community, then "academic freedom" for alternative theories is simply a mechanism to introduce religious or non-scientific doctrines into our science curriculum.

Similar efforts to undermine the teaching of evolution in schools repeatedly have been found to be unconstitutional, something witnessed most recently in Kitzmiller v. Dover (2005) in Pennsylvania.

We, therefore, urge our legislators to recognize HF183 as part of a long history of creationist assaults on science education, and reject passage of this bill.

It is therefore the intent of the general assembly that this Act be construed to expressly protect the affirmative right and freedom of every instructor at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary level to objectively present scientific information relevant to the full range of scientific views regarding biological and chemical evolution in connection with teaching any prescribed curriculum regarding chemical or biological evolution. (italics added)

On the other hand . . . 

Viva Change!

Image: Matt Weurker/Politico.

The Pacific Justice Institute defends a teenager: 

In the summer of 2006, the 18-year-old counselor took four girls on an approved outing to the beach where there was a "Surf Jam" at a pier where several bands played. Brad Dacus, president of the Pacific Justice Institute, says one of the bands performed Christian music for about ten minutes while the youngsters had lunch.
 
"Consequently, this counselor was not just reprimanded," shares Dacus; "this counselor was in fact suspended for six weeks without pay simply and solely because some of those foster care children were exposed to some music that had some Christian lyrics."
 
And the other bands? "One of the other bands there had some outrageously immoral lyrics, and another band had some other lyrics that were very immoral," says the attorney.

Three questions:  

1. How long? Before secularists begin arguing that using the law to defend Christians in court is a violation of that pretended absolute otherwise known as the separation of church and state? Mathematically speaking, and logically speaking, this seems only a matter of time plus sociological law tied to a "living" Constitution.

2. Was this suspension "insane and unjust"? Perhaps not if "sanity" means anything but the Creator in public, and "justice" means the safe and legal liquidation of followers of Jesus and Judeo-Christian thoughtforms from life in the city and joy on the beach. Worldviews have consequences. 

3. Why resist? Because "you may not be interested in law and politics, but law and politics are interested in you" (to recast Marshall Berman). Return from Safeway and paying the bills, and your country could be out to sea. Pushback is the humane thing to do.

Mark Noonan sees hooks in Washington smiles:

Among the many nefarious purposes of the Obama-Pelosi-Reid Spendulus bill is to make State government dependent upon the Federal government . . .

[H]ad Jindal taken these funds, then in three years he would have been forced to either raise taxes in Louisiana or go, hat in hand, to Obama for continued funding . . . and Obama would have named his price, which would have come down to Jindal enforcing Obama’s ideas on employment in Louisiana.

Jindal shows why our Federal system is a precious gift from our Founders -- it allows the people, if they have wise leaders at the State level, to cushion themselves against a Federal government gone out of control.

Apparently, some offers can be refused.

Hat tip: Blogs for Victory.

One should never waste an espresso crisis.

Atty. Gen. Eric Holder last Wednesday "told an audience at the Justice Department that despite the nation’s progress on racial relations, 'we have always been and continue to be, in too many ways, essentially a nation of cowards,'” reports CNSNews.  

"Though race-related issues continue to occupy a significant portion of our political discussion," said Holder, "and though there remain many unresolved racial issues in this nation, we, average Americans, simply do not talk enough with each other about race." 

A commenter at Free Republic (no. 49 down the page) is talking -- and sees storm clouds:

I’d like to ask the new Atty. General how he thinks it feels to wake up every morning and know that, by virtue of my white skin, I will be blamed for evils that happened decades before I was born?

I have never oppressed any Black but I am vilified and punished simply for being white. I can see a race war ahead of us. Either that or a Civil War between Libs and Conservatives. I suspect the race war is more likely.

A race war more likely? It's not going to happen, unless we follow the recipe for "How to Have a Race War."

However, a peaceful but determined uprising against the chains of an impoverishing and imposed secularism from Washingtoncentric elites might be another story.

Something tells me freedom has a broad appeal. 

"Maybe it's time for us to lock them up," suggests Joseph Farah. Named suspects currently at large: Mr. Bill Press and Sen. Debbie Stabenow.

The immediate concern? The Orwellian-tagged "Fairness Doctrine," in obedience to which Congress would enact a law abridging the freedom of the press. A direct contradiction to the 1st Amendment.

The concern for tomorrow? "We have so many people running around Washington, and elsewhere, including elected officials, who are openly and actively subverting the very foundation of our country's liberties," Farah writes. (italics added)

The point: If you uproot the tree of liberty from the soil of liberty, the tree dies.

It may retain its beauty for a while. The attendant PR about diversity and liberation from dirt may be cool, smooth, and with no sudden moves. Maybe Obamagirl will dance on YouTube.

But the tree per se is effectively dead. So it goes with liberty. And say hello to post-America America. The country you love may no longer exist. Geography does not equal destiny.  

Would such a punishment be fitting? I'm kind of partial to tar and feathers myself (see O Brother, Where Art Thou? for pointers on the technique applied to a KKK politician).

But one mustn't be closed-minded: Jail may well be the ticket. But not without throwing in a copy of the Constitution. Particularly hard cases might be forced to read the Declaration, especially the scary parts about the Creator.   

What poses a greater threat to the American Dream of freedom and dignity under God -- predatory lending or predatory government?

From a Jeffersonian slideshow at Sticker Patch. 

Hat Tip: Michelle Malkin

After drinks, an eventful Saturday afternoon.

A good thing -- if you like the idea of a free people under God, as opposed to a "safe" but eviscerated people under Washington.

Malkin writes: "So, a CNBC host is calling for a new 'tea party' to protest Barack Obama’s out-of-control spendulus/entitlement culture?

"We’ve been doing it all week. Seattle, Denver, Mesa.  Kansas this weekend. And more outbreaks to come. . . . The revolt against the savior-based economy continues."

Excellent. But now: Dont miss the accompanying photos on Malkin's site.

Posters that cry out:

* "Hail King Obama"
* "Fund Bikini Wax Now!"
* "I'll Keep My Freedom, You Keep the Change"

My favorite: "Free Beer for My Horses."

Evangelical Outpost digs our Rome-Florence-Paris worldview "conference on wheels."

It's not polite these days to think past slogans one imbibes on campus, in newsrooms, in science labs, or on Capitol Hill.

Therefore, everyone knows "diversity is our strength."

Therefore, everyone knows all religions are created equal.

Therefore, everyone knows that to question an agenda is to create a distraction.

But then come beheadings. And then comes the outcry of 3 wives and 19 children.

At the risk of being human, let me suggest a way of escape: Question religion, question diversity. Like the free-thinker's handbook says, "Test everything."

"Snoozeweek" magazine throws a hissy Fitna, now that the "Flying Dutchman," recently banned from entering merry old England, is heading our way.

Robert Spencer could be blue, but he'd rather sing.

Fox News has the story, accompanied by healthy scepticism in the comment section. 

A healthy "sales resistance" is key to keeping -- in this case, recovering -- a free republic.  

Hat tip: Matthews.

Facebook does the unthinkable: It reconsiders Change.   

Good move. Here's how The Consumerist on February 15 summarized Facebook's altered Terms of Service: "We can do anything we want with your content. Forever."

But on Facebook today is the following statement regarding its Terms of Service:  

Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

Lesson: Sometimes stepping back is stepping forward.

Meanwhile, one would think that organizations that truly care about people and privacy rights -- as opposed to caring about window-dressing PR about people and privacy rights -- do not unilaterally seek to obtain, without compensation, the work of one's hands or the work of one's mind.

That kind of approach may be a policy. But it's hardly a service.

What happened to the Facebook page of Christian author and apologist Dr. R.C. Metcalf?

His page no longer exists today, but it was in good working order earlier this week, according to one of his page's visitors.

"Facebook should be dubbed a Social 'Notworking' site since they kicked author and Christian Apologist R.C. Metcalf off the site!," quips Shawn White. White says he got the term "notworking" from Metcalf.

Moments ago, I clicked on a link for Metcalf's Facebook page and saw this message: "The page you requested was not found."

No page. No explanation. Person deleted.

A website mobilizes to defend Rush Limbaugh and free speech.

From today's "Rush Roundup" --

Despite facts to the contrary the "I hope he fails" bit continues to make the "news". The number of articles and stories (and these are just a very few) show they're still going after the talkmaster.

The Fairness Doctrine looms. It's time to speak up if you're ever going to have a voice.

I just saw a post on the Internet Infantry blog where a comment purported to Howard Dean talks about targeting conservative Internet sites.

Be assured that if they're successful in taking down Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others, they'll be coming for your favorite conservative hangout.

An Islamic "moderate" backslides -- or does he?

Robert Spencer writes:

Now comes the clearest, most harrowing indication of all that Bridges TV’s founder was not the moderate he appeared to be, but was rather a man who had imbibed deeply the traditional Islamic understanding that women are possessions of men, to be punished severely when they get out of line.

Of course, this singular lesson of the beheading of Aasiya Hassan, who apparently had raised Muzzammil’s ire by filing for divorce, is the one that the mainstream media and the American Muslim community is doing its best to obscure.

That's how Jim Foss sees it.

Robertson objects to Limbaugh's having said, "I hope Obama fails."

Here's Pat's analysis, at U.S. News & World Report:

That was a terrible thing to say. I mean, he's the president of all the country. If he succeeds, the country succeeds. And if he doesn't, it hurts us all. Anybody who would pull against our president is not exactly thinking rationally.

But here is Rush, pulling "against our president" -- "I know what his politics are. I know what his plans are, as he has stated them. I don't want them to succeed."  

What's irrational about that?

Based on his rhetoric and action, President Obama is trying to impose a secular socialist regime upon this country, a Washington-centric vision of government that stands in total antithesis to the Founders and in total antithesis to that humanity and freedom rooted in the Creator so boldly acknowledged by our Declaration of Independence. 

On this analysis, to the degree that Obama succeeds, to that degree America courts failure. The rationality of success in liberty seems to require the lack of success in Obama.   

The Rochester, Minn., branch of L’Abri Fellowship, founded by Francis and Edith Schaeffer, held a conference in town last weekend (February 13-14).

Bob Osburn, Executive Director of the MacLaurin Institute, was there:

"The annual Rochester L’Abri conference, an annual respite from winter’s bitter chill, is a combination family reunion and Chautauqua festival for Christians who have and are cutting their intellectual eye-teeth on Francis Schaeffer.  This year’s conference lived up to its sterling reputation, albeit with a slightly small crowd of 550 as compared with the usual 700.

"First, there are the L’Abri workers themselves.  Schaeffer was an evangelist with a deep feel for the human being in front of him, and his successors carry on that tradition of Christian humanism. They serve and serve and serve, all with good cheer and unusually sensitive attention to the person in front of them.

"Second, of course, there are the registrants, who vary in age from middle school all the way up to their 80s, with a large slab of Baby Boomers and an increasing contingent of 20-somethings. They are a combination of home-schoolers, thoughtful middle-aged professionals, college-aged students, and assorted others -- all questing for answers to deep questions, and finding them. This is no cult, just a community questing honestly for answers.

"Speaking of the content, over 40 different workshop and plenary sessions on topics ranging from gardening to Pascal to music were led by seasoned L’Abri veterans who are universally alarmed by facile answers and eager to get below surface issues to presuppositions.  

"This year’s thematic focus on creation provided needed compensation for those eager to hear -- but not hearing -- in their churches about the profound implications of the first two and the last two chapters of the Bible. Suffice to say, God loves His creation enough to redeem it, and we should too."

Here’s the website for Rochester L’Abri. More on Edith Schaeffer here.

By the way, Osburn tells Pro-Existence that as of March 31, he’s embarking on a “new venture with the Wilberforce Academy, an educational initiative aimed at training students to be redemptive change agents in their home societies.” We look forward to hearing more about this new work.    

Related: Francis Schaeffer: “The Central Problem of Our Age.”

Toronto girl overcomes discouragement from teachers, disqualification by judges.

Here's her winning presentation.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the clamor over the recent "horrible" change in its Terms of Service.

His reply seems to come down to this: Trust us -- "We wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want."

Is this sufficient?

Adam Ostrow over at Mashable is mixed. Yes, it's a "fiasco," and Zuckerberg doesn't apologize or get to "the heart of the issue." But it "isn’t going to change the way I use Facebook."

At a minimum, however, we will think twice about what we post on Facebook. And more than that may be required. The expansive rights they ask for seem rather exravagant, to say the least.

What are your thoughts? Has Zuckerberg saved face for Facebook?

Hat tip: Rachelle Gardner.

The Consumerist summarizes Facebook's new Terms of Service: "We can do anything we want with your content. Forever."

As one might expect, reactions to this move are not entirely positive.

Among them: "Ridiculous." "Disturbing." And: "Horrible," "for those of us using Facebook to help market a small creative business. . . . What’s even more awful is that Facebook would make this change without notifying its users." 

Any lawyers in the house on this? Doctors? Ambulances?

Mark Steyn wonders.

Camille Paglia blasts Democrats:

* What?! -- "I don't get it . . . . Not for one second should the government be wandering into surveillance of, monitoring of, the ideological content of talk radio."

* Betrayal -- "The Democrats have totally betrayed the soul of the party, OK, to even mention this."

* Try This -- "Every true liberal Democrat should be speaking up in defense of talk radio."

* Roots -- "Stupid theory . . . comes from the 1930s . . . fascism."

The entire interview with Mark Simone, uncut.

Socialism: "Any of various theories or systems of social organization in which the means of producing and distributing goods is owned collectively or by a centralized government that often plans and controls the economy." -- Dictionary.com (emphasis added)

Obama: "His administration is establishing a presidential task force to direct the restructuring of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, a senior administration official said Sunday night," reports AP. (emphasis added)

See also: "Regarding Change: Liberals Drink Deeply From Fascist Well, Says Reviewer."

Horror. The accused is a "prominent moderate." He founded a TV network to "help portray Muslims in a more positive light."

Slogan: "Connecting people through understanding."

Hat tip: Mitch Majeski

If politics is "downstream from culture" (as former Capitol Hill staffer Bill Wichterman has observed) and culture in general is downstream from Christian culture in particular ("You are the salt of the earth," Matt. 5:13), these guys -- Rick Ianniello, Ray Ortlund, Mike of On Coffee -- may be on to something regarding the "central problem of our age."

They quote from Francis Schaeffer:

The central problem of our age is not liberalism or modernism, nor the old Roman Catholicism or the new Roman Catholicism [yes, Schaeffer was a Protestant!], nor the threat of communism, nor even the threat of rationalism and the monolithic consensus which surrounds us. All these are dangerous but not the primary threat. The real problem is this: the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, individually or corporately, tending to do the Lord’s work in the power of the flesh rather than of the Spirit. The central problem is always in the midst of the people of God, not in the circumstances surrounding them. [bold added] 

You can find this quote on page 66 of No Little People, a book of sermons that are absolute must-reading for any person who prefers not to have his life's work "eaten up" by the secularism of our age.

Not just the secularism in society at large, mind you, but also, very sadly, by the "real problem," by the secular "power of the flesh" we sometimes observe in the methods and mentality embraced in certain circles of big-time, hard-charging Christian ministry.

Nancy and I agree with Schaeffer and Scripture that this is not a secondary matter. Fortunately, we have been able to witness some of this first-hand, so that we might post a "warning label" to help protect others from going down splashy but spirit-eroding dead-ends. This is an issue we do well to focus on, simply as a matter of spiritual balance and humane vitality.

You may have seen and experienced something of this "in house" secularism yourself. In fact, it is very likely you have. If so, we know you are hurting. This is true no matter what the PR says, or what a politician might say while handing out an award or medal to the latest and greatest hero of the ga-ga crowd (ever-so-humbly accepted, of course). You can read all about it in next month's machine-cranked fundraising letter on a mission from God.

But running over people in an effort to "change the world for Christ" or "engage the culture" does not glorify God or evince love of neighbor. Quite the opposite. It's a practical expression of taking the Lord's name in vain.

In my view, what Schaeffer is helping to awaken us to (I know, it's hard to wake up at times) is central to the real crisis behind the crisis of our age. Moreover, it's an analysis that may help explain much that is retrograde, dehumanizing, undignified, and ineffective as a strategy of cultural engagement.

Look: We have had massive organizations at work for decades. Millions and millions of dollars. Years of blood and sweat and pounds of flesh. No one is saying we have nothing to show for this. And yet things seem to be getting worse on a weekly if not daily basis. Just turn on the TV. You begin to wonder if the current strategy is a cultural and spiritual loser.

Maybe Schaeffer was on to something. Maybe there's a reason the Lord had to get him out of this mess and over into Switzerland just so he could get his head together. Just maybe.

Secularism both cultural and religious is taking huge bites and chunks out of the freedom and dignity of humanity. As a way forward, as a way to begin crafting and living an authentic Biblical alternative, you might want to consider chapter 13 of Schaeffer's True Spirituality together with chapter 13 of Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth. These chapters make the central and humanizing case that the Lordship of Christ applies across the whole of life. Boards of big organizations might be shocked, but this Lordship applies even to the nuts and bolts and nitty gritty of ministries CEOed by really famous people whose big names sell lots of books authored or "co-authored" by other people.

Call me a romantic, but I think we can do better than ape the phonies of this world. It's a lot more fun and humane to be a real person doing real work. True enough -- Your hyped name may not be slapped on the covers of as many books, magazine articles, commentaries, radio broadcasts, Larry King's guest list, or White House appointment calendars. So what?!

As the Leader of this revolution pointedly says, those folks "have their reward" (Matt. 6). You can read about that too in No Little People.

The International Arts Movement, founded by artist Makoto Fujimura, is now on Twitter.

You can "follow" IAM on Twitter by clicking here, as I did at 8:14 this morning.

Official brochures for our summer 2009 worldview tour of Rome, Florence, and Paris -- titled From Plato to Picasso to You -- are now yours for the viewing.

Included is information on the following: A tour overview, your tour directors, the itinerary, plus details about accommodations, meals, transport (including a night train to Paris), registration, whom to contact for follow-up, and so on.

"We expect this to be a tremendous time of fellowship, on-site examination of significant venues in Western cultural history, and discussion of the relationship of humane and Biblical living across the whole of thought and life."

What are your thoughts on the news, people, quotes, and events of the day?

The MacLaurin Institute is looking for a director. Here's a job description.

"Adam, Ne Pas de Printemps," encaustic, by Carol Bomer.

Top Conservatives on Twitter (TCOT) are throwing a "National House Party" tonight.

AmSpec is pro-Benjamin Netanyahu as the likely new Prime Minister of Israel.

But how about BB here in the U.S. as President?

It's not, like, our "living" Constitution would in principle forbid his being elected President or anything.

This would be a historic development in the history of political diversity: As far as I know, there has never been a Jewish person who held simultaneously the offices of U.S. President and Israeli PM.

If push comes to shove, the Supreme Court could write an amendment.

Days ago AP reported Jennifer Figge swam the ocean blue. "Not quite."

A "few seconds of thought and a pocket calculator" indicate the impossibility of this feat, notes an observer, even though there's a picture of her swimming right there in the ocean (one supposes it's her).

Now there's nothing wrong with marketing, with putting your best foot forward. But why not market truth, and why not market truth truthfully?

It seems we are in abundant supply of pretend authors, fudged data, phony stimuluses, cheating students, market-driven ministry, and activist-driven journalism. Plus assorted groupies and enablers and staff who know what's going on but courageously rock not the boat that pays their bills, establishes their identity, and affirms their vested interests.

Selling souls is big business and requires team players you can trust not to ask questions. As insiders well know, certain CEOs and trusted "spiritual giants" excel at spotting the right kind of person for this kind of sensitive job. My how the "giants" are enraged when regular people grab hold of God and rebel against the con.

Maybe this instead: Real work by real people. Let's tell the truth about that. It'll make the swim all that more enjoyable.

Your thoughts?

La Shawn Barber wonders on Facebook "how one can follow Christ and support the slaughter of the unborn."

She was responding to "Christian Obama-Voters," the Ultimate Oxymoron at Breitbart's "Big Hollywood."

I replied: "There is no logical or worldview connection between following the Lord of Life and embracing the culture of death.

"Philosophical chop suey, cognitive incoherence -- a seedbed of hypocrisy and inhumanity -- is the unconscious mental menu of many people."

Any thoughts?

They're burning billions "behind closed doors."

It's Casey up to bat in U.S. New & World Report. Hits home run.

Political editor John Gizzi of Human Events sat in the third row at yesterday evening's White House press conference.

Gizzi understands fair and balanced journalism, is a true gentleman, and possesses an encyclopedic memory.

Americans are well-served when press events include the likes of Gizzi, who offered this report on President Obama's first White House news conference.

This CNSNews video features editor Terry Jeffrey interviewing Ann Coulter, two colleagues from my Human Events days.

Or the end? In any case, Jethro Bodine suggests 11 Alinsky rules for radicals that Obama has learned well.

Joshua Trevino offers lessons on how to make a site work online, in light of the uncertain future of Culture11.

A council in northern England says the woman "failed to respect and preserve" the faith of the teen.

This call for respect rings a bit hollow. After all, the girl "made her own decision," according to the Telegraph.

The mom should resist and take captive this aggressive secularism, rather than deny her calling to live as a whole person in humane community, even in her professional life, with our true Creator.

And according to this report, that is what she's doing. Viva resistance.

When people rely on the "kindness" of government.

In the mail this week arrived Rules for Radicals, a "pragmatic primer for realistic radicals," written by Saul Alinsky and published in 1971.

What's striking, immediately, about this book is that Alinsky at the outset acknowledges his debt to the "very first radical," who turns out to be none other than: "Lucifer." This appears on the page preceding the table of contents.

The problem for Obama, who famously asserts that he is a "Christian," is that he appears to be in significant debt to the thinking and tactics of this man Saul Alinsky (as is noted here by an Obama opponent and here by a supporter).

The challenge for Obama -- if he wants to be understood as an authentic Christian -- is that the Lordship of Christ applies to the whole of life, including the tactics of political and social change one employs.

Methods matter far more than some people appear to realize (this challenge applies with equal force to the so-called religious right, let us say in fairness). "Thy will be done on earth as it is done in Heaven" is not a relativistic option up for vote on Capitol Hill. To be tossed aside if electoral results or fundraising pressures require.

How can an Obama, or any public figure claiming to be an authentic follower of Jesus of Nazareth, also embrace the spirit of one who is the intellectual, moral, and worldview antithesis of this same Jesus, this true Messiah verified in history?

So what's going on? Is Obama a hypocrite, a manipulator? Deeply confused? Or was Alinsky simply hyping his book for street cred and publishing attention?

"Oreo Memories," charcoal, by Carol Kelly Dorn.

The Fireproof DVD was released January 27 on Amazon and ranks no. 3 today in the category of "Movies and TV."

No Sundance hype, no Academy Award nominations, and yet -- "none of that really mattered," notes the Houston Chronicle.

What's going on? Perhaps something like this: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes.

Here's a link to Fireproof via Amazon's video on demand.

Meeting in Chicago at the Gospel Coalition Conference.

Hat tip: Challies

The President's performance at the National Prayer Breakfast has an individual of "godless" faith singing from the Barack hymnbook.

Andrew Sullivan also praises prayerful Obama for walking the walk on the behalf of atheists. "Good for him," says the prominent homosexual activist.

But as free-thinking individuals created in the image of God, let us question authority:

Are the President's Prayer Breakfast remarks a step forward, or a step backward, in relation to applying information given in the Bible, by our true Creator, to the whole of life, including political life and its application in public policy? 

Here are text and video of the event.

The Gentlelady from California speaks, revealing the depth of the present crisis.

Hat tip: David Theroux

Lighting a candle, on the side of a bus:

Atheists have started advertising on buses in the UK. Do you want to see your own message on the side of a bus? Well now's your chance.

For example: "I'm a bus. I'm telling you there's no God. Trust me. I mean, have I ever left you standing at the curb?" Or: "There's probably no Dog. Campaign sponsored by the dislexic atheists."

OK, sloganmeisters, here's your ticket to ride. What say you?

Hat tip: Challies

* Update: Cross-posted at RedState.            

She speaks:

I try not to forget to smile, because giggles are hard stones in the teeth of the authoritarian. So I continue my life, without letting them turn me into a whiner, with only one regret. Ultimately, everything that I live today has also been the product of my silence, the direct result of my former passivity.

Don't miss this story about Sanchez in today's American Spectator. One need not affirm all that Sanchez writes to agree: One voice can help make a revolution, help undo a devolution.

Something to think about in an America where secularism and Washington-centrism gnaw at human dignity and freedom on a daily basis.

 From Cal Thomas:

Though like many in his and our time, [Lincoln] wrestled with his inner demons. As [Harvard professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr.,] writes, ". . . He seems to have wrestled with his own use of the 'n-word,' which he used publicly until at least 1862, and which most Lincoln scholars today find so surprising and embarrassing that they consistently avoid discussing it . . . "

The point?

"Far from diminishing Lincoln," writes Thomas, the new book Lincoln on Race and Slavery and PBS TV film Looking for Lincoln "deliver the real Lincoln as a man who struggled, along with his country and culture, over the inherent worth of black people. In short, he becomes fully human, not a mythical figure above the temptations and frailties of average mortals."

Here's the latest:

It seems the worldview tour of Rome, Florence, and Paris -- "From Plato to Picasso to You" -- is looking for 22+ brilliant, creative, fun, and thoughtful folks to sign up to make it a "go" officially.

That means you!

And 21 of your friends, family members, and fellow free-thinkers.

La sooner, la better (as they say in France).

For more information, and to help get this "conference on wheels" rolling along, please call 215-702-4333.

Or email Claire Johnson at cjohnson@pbu.edu.

"Culture and the freedoms of people are fragile. Without a sufficient base, when such pressures come, only time is needed -- and often not a great deal of time -- before there is a collapse." 

-- Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?

"Shadowlands" opens February 6 at Theatre Coppell.

Lisa Fabrizio examines the new church in town:

Many folks have pointed out that Barack Obama has been treated by his supporters in and out of the media like a new messiah, the savior, the chosen one.

Many other folks, including me, thought that this was not only sacrilegious but a case of downright overblown rhetorical politics.

Now I'm not so sure . . . .

A human being in England has been caught red-handed acting outside the box of secularism, and . . . she . . . must . . . pay:

Nurse Caroline Petrie has been suspended and could even be struck off. What was her offence? Did she turn up drunk? Did she dispense the wrong medicine or forget to empty a bedpan? Was she knocking out prescription drugs to the local pusher?

Perhaps she was guilty of neglect, of deliberate cruelty, or of practising a bit of freelance euthanasia.

No. Her 'crime' was to offer to say a prayer for one old lady on the ward. It's what we used to call an act of Christian charity.

But that was enough to bring her to the attention of the 'diversity' nazis at the North Somerset Primary Care Trust. . . .

"So what is so heinous about Mrs. Petrie praying for her patients?," asks columnist Richard Littlejohn. "The truth is that Christianity forms no part of the 'diversity' agenda."

Yes, that is the ugly, fanged truth about the "diversity is our strength" mantra and its empire of enforcers.

And that's why wherever "diversity" is god and the accepted state religion, Christians and Christianity must be liquidated. They are at the top of the list of threats to the established order of imposed tolerance. No verifiable information from our true Creator can be allowed inside the palace gates to challenge the status quo.

This kind of cruelty is transnational. It holds not just for England, but also for any nation in the grip of a dehumanizing and intolerant secularism, including the United States.

Secularism is a failed and dehumanizing program. Resistance in the name of God and man, freedom and dignity, is essential, lest "diversity" covers a multitude of sickness and pain. We may need more humane nurses than you could ever imagine.

* Update -- cross-posted at RedState.

A pro makes the case for Watergate.

An opportunity for free-thinkers:

"The Center for Science and Culture at Discovery Institute announces an extraordinary opportunity for college students in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities to participate in an intensive nine-day seminar that will prepare them to make research contributions advancing the growing science of intelligent design (ID) . . . ."

In addition, here are links for articles on Discovery, Darwin, and the intellectual contribution of Biblical thought-forms to the rise of modern science.

Recently spotted in Facebook.

"Once one of the nation's most popular televangelists, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller is watching his life's work crumble," reports AP.

Assuming for the sake of discussion the basic accuracy of this report, let us ask: Is this kind of "crumbling" merely a personal matter internal to and limited to the Schuller organization?

Or might there be structural elements and methods of ministry that need to be examined?

And what lessons might be learned and applied in a culture increasingly dark and secularized, not just in its politics, etc., but also in its religion?

A spectator not entirely a fan of Tom Cruise says Valkyrie could have been worse.