Vincent Funaro reports at Christian Post:

Lecrae will perform alongside hip hop legends and pioneers LL Cool J and Run DMC at the Christmas in Brooklyn event, which takes place on Dec. 19 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. . . .

 Lecrae has had a huge year with his album reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Top 200 and performing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. He has also been a voice in the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, over the Michael Brown case.

John Nolte writes at Breitbart:

On his HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher and elsewhere, Bill Maher has spent more than a decade thrashing Christianity. But now that he's speaking some politically incorrect truths about the religion of Islam, some students at Berkeley have had enough. Students are petitioning the school to drop Maher as a 2014 commencement speaker. According to a just-aired MSNBC report, the petition has 10,000 signatures.

"If you reveled in Maher's sweeping attacks against Christians but are horrified at his uncovering of some of the ugly truths about Islam, the only bigot is you," Nolte states.

AFP reports:

France's government is drawing up a new set of rules for theatres after the Paris Opera ejected a woman for wearing a veil during a performance, the institution's deputy director said Sunday.

The incident took place when a veiled woman was spotted on the front row of a performance of La Traviata at the Opera Bastille, Jean-Philippe Thiellay told AFP, confirming a media report.

"France brought in a law in 2011 banning anyone from wearing clothing that conceals the face in a public space, or face a 150 euro ($190) fine," AFP reports.

"The spectator and her companion -- tourists from the Gulf, according to MetroNews -- were asked to leave by an inspector during the interval," the AFP report continues.

"He told her that in France there is a ban of this nature, asked her to either uncover her face or leave the room. The man asked the woman to get up, they left," Thiellay is quoted as saying.

Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson said the news media will not even mention the name "Jesus Christ" in a straightforward or even reverential way because they are so politically correct it precludes them from referencing God, and as a result America is "swimming in a cesspool of politically correct crap."

Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

U2 frontman, investor, and philanthropist Bono, who isn’t shy about discussing his Christian faith, wrote a poem in honor of evangelist preacher Billy Graham that describes Bono’s relationship with Jesus as a "journey from Father to friend," and how he learned of this through "the voice of a preacher," Graham, "that gave my life a Rhyme."

Also, in a separate tribute to Billy Graham, Bono said, "At a time when religion seems so often to get in the way of God’s work, I give thanks just for the sanity of Billy Graham, for the clear and empathetic voice."

"As reported at the website for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association on Sept. 1, and picked up by the Huffington Post, Bono has been a long-time fan of Rev. Billy Graham, and went to visit him and his family at their home in Montreat, North Carolina in 2002," according to CNSNews.com.

Drew Zahn reports at WND:

In the early hours of Thursday morning, "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" on CBS featured a guest musical performance with vehemently anti-religious lyrics, including a line wishing the mother of Jesus "would’ve had an abortion."

Kristeen Young was host Craig Ferguson’s guest, performing her song, Pearl of a Girl, which takes all three of the world’s major, monotheistic religions to task for allegedly repressing women.

"I never knew I was a girl until they stooped to tell me," Young sang in the first verse of her song. "I never knew I was disturbed until they dropped three volumes on me. But in the Bible/Torah/Quran there are really no good roles for me except concubine and wash woman. I used to be the sad one, now I just wanna stab them."

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Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

The controversial GQ interview of Duck Dynasty patriarch Phil Robertson, which led to his temporary suspension from the popular A&E show in December -- and sparked a national debate on free speech and sexual morality -- was a form of "spiritual warfare," said Jase Robertson, who added that as the interview went on, "it felt more like an attack because our family has a prayer at the end of the show."

Duck Dynasty’s Jase Robertson, the second oldest son of Phil and "Miss Kay" Robertson, related his experience of that GQ session -- which was initially attended by the show’s entire cast but they eventually walked out because of its hostile questioning -- in an interview with CNSNews.com on July 8 in Washington, D.C.

Jase Robertson and his family were at the nation’s capital to attend a press conference to raise awareness about cleft palate and lip, a condition their 10-year-old daughter Mia was born with and for which she has undergone several corrective surgeries.

"Prior to the press conference, CNSNews.com spoke with Jase Robertson about his new book, Good Call: Reflections on Faith, Family, and Fowl, where he touches on the GQ interview, stating it was the only one he ever walked out on and that he had asked his father 'to stop the interview because the questions were hypothetical, argumentative, and controversial'," CNSNews.com reports.

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Mark Tapson writes at Frontpagemag.com:

For some reason, feminists who hold beauty pageants in contempt were watching the Miss USA Pageant the other night when Miss Nevada Nia Sanchez, a 4th-degree black belt in taekwondo, responded [see video here] to a question about sexual assaults on campus. She had the temerity to recommend that women learn to defend themselves, and the resulting outrage reveals just how badly modern feminism is serving today’s young women.

The 24-year-old Miss Sanchez was asked why a "horrific epidemic" of campus sexual assaults has been "swept under the rug for so long" and what colleges can do to combat it. The question seemed designed to steer her toward discussing the "rape culture" in which feminists believe we live, but Miss Sanchez didn’t take the bait. Instead, she replied that perhaps colleges themselves have suppressed this reputation-damaging information, and that one thing women can do is be prepared to fight back: "I learned from a young age that you need to be confident and be able to defend yourself, and that's something that we should start to implement for a lot of women."

"This message of self-empowerment for women elicited a roar of approval from the audience, but didn't sit well with feminists at home," Tapson explains. "They took to Twitter to express their horror and disappointment at what they considered, incredibly, to be 'victim-shaming'."

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Ken McIntyre writes at The Foundry: 

The twin brothers who lost their reality TV show when a website attacked their Christian beliefs say they’ll not only "stand up" to bullying intolerance but also keep a commitment to six families by selling their properties without taking a cent.

David and Jason Benham, who recently met and prayed with the six families scheduled to be on their canceled show, told Dana Loesch on her online show on TheBlaze TV that Christians in other countries face far worse than losing television deals.

"We are really not being persecuted in this country yet. We’ve got a lot to be thankful for," David Benham said. "So we just remember those folks that are truly being persecuted. And it really strengthens our resolve in this nation to really stand up to this bully, this agenda to silence, and say: 'OK, enough is enough.'"

The Benham brothers are correct to stand up to bullies, but the evidence suggests that they miss the mark when they say they are not "truly being persecuted."

True enough, the brothers are not being physically attacked, but physical assault is a later indicator, not an early indicator, of persecution.

I address this topic in "Easter and Other Four-Letter Words":

The "systematic efforts by those who seek to eradicate Christian principles from our schools and the public square should be seen for what it is -- persecution," said Rena Lindevaldsen, an attorney with Liberty Counsel. "Any avid observer of First Amendment issues will recognize that the efforts made by certain groups to 'maintain the separation of church and state' are blatantly discriminatory." For "only Christian teachings and beliefs are targeted for removal," and yet "secular humanism runs rampant in the schools" and "students are regularly taught Buddhist principles and Muslim beliefs."

But haven’t we been told that real persecution happens in other countries? Besides, how can Christians possibly be persecuted here in America, where they are in the majority? A brief look at the Biblical information on the word "persecution" may help clarify what we are talking about, and help us avoid overstating, or understating, what confronts us here in the States.

Biblically speaking, "persecution" can be understood to include a range of hostile actions against Christians. Consider the activities of Saul. In Acts 8, we learn that there "arose a great persecution against the church" and that "Saul was ravaging the church." Here the persecution was "great" but did not include killing or maiming, for Saul limited himself to dragging off "men and women" and committing "them to prison."

In Acts 9:1, Saul was "still breathing threats and murder against the disciples." Here, the persecution includes "threats" and a strong desire to kill Christians, as well as Saul’s attempt to acquire the authority to carry out the threats. Later, the great persecutor would be on hand to witness the stoning of Stephen, but Saul’s own action as a persecutor demonstrates that persecution is an activity that includes but is not limited to killing or maiming.

Consider also the career of Saul-turned-Paul, for he who once persecuted Christians later embraced Christianity. In 2 Tim. 3:11,12, Paul talks about the "persecutions and sufferings that happened" to him at "Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra." When we turn to Acts 13 and 14, we discover that "persecutions" include several elements. In Antioch, Paul’s teaching was opposed by people who drove Paul and Barnabas out of the district. In Iconium, unbelievers "poisoned [Gentiles’] minds" against Christianity and intended to "mistreat" and "stone" Paul and Barnabas, but the two of them left -- thus, Paul and Barnabas suffered persecution even though they had the good sense to leave before experiencing ill-treatment in a physically intense form.

In Lystra, the opposition pursued Paul and turned the crowds against him. He was stoned, dragged out of the city, and left for dead. Here we see persecution in many of its elements: Pursuit of the Christian, stirring up anti-Christian animus, and then decisive physical action based on that anti-Christian animus. It is this range of Biblical data that led one of my former professors in New Testament Greek to conclude that there are different kinds of persecutions: "physical, social, mental, and spiritual" (see W. Harold Mare, "Persecution," in Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology).

It seems clear that what we see in contemporary America is a form of persecution. This is simply to state a fact, a fact that should always be kept in balance even as it is acknowledged. "As a boy," Os Guinness of Trinity Forum told me, "I lived through the Chinese revolution and its wave of savage persecution against Christians, so we must always keep a sense of perspective. And of course, we must always respond, not with victim-playing, but in the way Jesus taught his followers to face hatred and opposition. But there's no doubt that prejudice and discrimination against the 'old faith' are mounting and that extreme persecution may be in the wings." . . .

"Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems," wrote John R.W. Stott in Christian Counterculture: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount. This is not to say that the clash of irreconcilable systems necessarily always results in physical or legal violence -- and Christians especially should take care not to persecute those with whom they have theological differences, as for example occurred when pre-Reformer Jan Hus was burned at the stake in July 1415 at the Council of Constance.

And yet, Stott’s comment about the clash of irreconcilable systems offers insight into much of what we have today: A smaller, but more organized and culturally powerful secular elite gripped by an anti-Christian worldview has successfully targeted the larger but less-organized and culturally less-powerful Christian community in America.

The two groups represent mutually irreconcilable worldviews, with the secularists declaring that Christianity is at best a subjective crutch that belongs in the closet and that, at worst, is responsible for just about all the ills of the modern world. A smaller group with a vision, plan, and the will to execute the plan, often has the advantage over a larger group, even a majority, if that larger group lacks these strengths and instead fears its loss of privilege, influence, or its "personal peace and affluence," as Francis Schaeffer once put it.

The Christian community as a whole has yet to mount an effective answer to the challenge of today’s low-intensity persecution in America. What is needed is an answer that says (and demonstrates, observably) that Christianity is a total way of life based on verifiable truth about God, humanity, and the universe, and that the Judeo-Christian worldview alone gives an adequate intellectual and livable basis for the dignity of man and human creativity, the fight against evil and injustice, and the possibility of substantial healing across the whole of private and public life, including government, law, and education. We have to ask ourselves: If we have yet to sufficiently challenge the milder opposition we now face in America, what makes us think we will be ready if we have to face forms of "extreme persecution” that "may be in the wings"? 

Thankfully, we in America have not yet faced the kind of systematic persecution that Guinness lived through as a boy in China and that others even now face in North Korea, China, in Islamic nations, and so on, around the globe. We should be thankful not just because friends and families are not being harmed, but also because the relative freedom we still enjoy in this land can be used to better provide aid to our brothers and sisters afflicted elsewhere around the globe.

Having said this, let us not forget that Christians in America have been subjected to a measure of lethal anti-Christian violence. We can think of the three students in Paducah, Ky., who in December 1997 were gunned down at Heath High School, where they had gathered in the lobby to pray. Five other members of the group were wounded. Then in April 1999, among the many casualties of Columbine High School in Colorado were one wounded and two murdered Christian students (the killers reportedly asked students, "Do you believe in God?").

Then in September 1999, seven people died and seven were wounded at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Ft. Worth after a gunman fired into a congregation gathered for a Wednesday night prayer meeting. Those who think that severe, organized persecution could never happen here may want to consider the implications of abortion in America: that secularists are willing to spill human blood, even that of the innocent unborn, if they have the power and the law behind them. Is there anything more fascist than abortion?

"Social ostracism," wrote E.M. Blaiklock in The Christian in Pagan Society, "in the early history of the church preceded official persecution." There is a pattern in the move from milder to more extreme forms of persecution: First ostracize and demonize, then destroy. How many more years of the demonization of Christians will it take before the power-centers of society feel sufficiently emboldened to act against those who refuse to bend the knee to a modern Nero-class of government elites protected by activist supporters in the press, Hollywood, and on campus?

If the church, for example, can be demonized as a kind of cancer (which happened to a local congregation in Castle Hills, Texas, as Limbaugh’s Persecution reports), do we really think that anti-Christian hate groups will not employ this kind of sentiment to justify the attempt to remove the church and other "cancerous" groups from the body of society for the health of society? Christians are being persecuted in America, admitted one critic of the Limbaugh book, and they should be, according to this person -- because we live in a multicultural society.

"If Christians do not fight for the right to express their faith, they will soon find themselves living in an America where the more severe forms of persecution become mainstream," cautioned Lindevaldsen. Clearly, resisting the spirit of Herod and Pilate is not nearly as difficult as it some day may be, should the opposition actually enjoy the support of most Americans.

I concluded at that time, in days before Easter 2004: "There’s no need to wait for the arena and the full blast of evil against good. We can act now by waging love in small ways. Easter is at the door. Let the Easter eggs roll. Enjoy the colors of the day and the rising of the sun as it breaks over the horizon and casts the darkness away.

"But we might also remember to tell a friend what it’s all about. That there was in space and time and history circa A.D. 33 a huge stone that you could touch with your hands. The rock was set in front of a tomb owned by Joseph of Arimathea, guarded by flesh-and-blood Roman guards whose lives depended upon making sure the body of Jesus of Nazareth remained undisturbed by friend or foe. Everything went according to plan, according to fate, the laws of life and death, the gods of Rome, and according to the wishes of the political and religious elites. Until the stone moved."

FYI -- For more on persecution in America, please see Persecution: How Liberals Are Waging War Against Christianity, by David Limbaugh. I was honored to serve as primary editor of this book.

"Due to the overwhelming response, Fathom Events has agreed to an encore performance for Thursday May 15th at 7:30 p.m.," Pearcey Report editor at large and "movie star" Nancy Pearcey writes on her Facebook page.

Here's our first posting in Pro-Existence on this project.

To buy tickets and find locations for tonight's event, please click here. 

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"Shocking allegations by former child actor Michael Egan against openly 'gay' X-Men director and producer Bryan Singer have stunned Hollywood into relative silence. I say 'relative silence' because, unless he’s a Catholic priest, the relativist left’s false narrative is that a 'gay' man is always the victim and never the victimizer," Matt Barber writes.

"Nonetheless, this latest episode has once again shined the spotlight on the long-established link between the homosexual lifestyle/movement and pedophilia -- a link that, despite 'progressive' denials to the contrary, is hiding in plain sight," says Barber.

Read more at LifeSiteNews.com.

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"Sarah Palin left no stone unturned" during her CPAC keynote address last weekend, writes Jennifer Burke at TPNN, "even addressing the victory
. . . in the case of Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson vs. the anti-Christian and politically correct police from the left. In doing so, she exposed the hypocrisy of the left."

Burke quotes from Palin's remarks:

They claim to want tolerance and open debate. But their goal is to shut anyone up who doesn’t toe their line.

Phil Robertson, our buddy from Duck Dynasty. Here’s Phil talking about faith with a reporter from GQ. (First mistake) In between saying he loves humanity, he loves all sinners and leave it to God to judge, he quoted the Bible. He got colorful in expressing his opinion.

They fired the devout Christian for expressing his devout Christian views on a television show about his devout Christian family because nothing is ever wrong on cable TV.

In another time, Phil might have stayed fired. But not this time. People all over America knew that Phil’s right to express himself was our right. We pushed back and we won. And now everyone is happy, happy, happy.

To read more from "Pure Tea: Sarah Palin Crushes Ruling Class in Both Parties at CPAC 2014," by Jennifer Burke, go here.

View Palin's keynote address here.

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"The Rev. Michael Maginot has signed a deal with Evergreen Media Holdings to bring "The exorcisms of Latoya Ammons" to the big screen," IndyStar.com reports.

Maginot "declined to disclose the terms of his contract with Evergreen Executive Chairman Tony DeRosa-Grund, calling it a 'standard deal,'" according to IndyStar. "DeRosa-Grund produced The Conjuring, grossing $318 million worldwide."

In an article previous published by the Star, Latoya Ammons "claims that she and her three children had been possessed by demons." The report "received international attention. More than a dozen movie producers and countless TV shows have clamored for interviews."

Maginot reportedly "performed a series of exorcisms on Ammons" and says "he signed a contract with DeRosa-Grund because he felt the producer wouldn’t sensationalize what happened, acccording to the Star.

"The story is good as it is,” Maginot told the Star. "You don’t need to go crazy with it." The priest also says he "signed a contract with Zak Bagans, host and executive producer of Ghost Adventures on the Travel Channel, to make a documentary," the Star reports.

Mark Tooley writes at American Spectator:

There’s been a strange controversy over the now rescinded Oscar nomination for Alone Yet Not Alone, the song by quadriplegic Christian author Joni Eareckson Tada for an independent movie of the same name.

The nomination was reputedly "controversial" because it’s a religious song for a faith-based film.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Board of Governors explained that there had been inappropriate lobbying by the song composer, who’s a former board governor.

The composer says his mere email advocacy pales next to more typically sophisticated media campaigns for big budget Hollywood film songs.

It’s reportedly the first time the Academy has rescinded a nomination.

Hollywood likes to adopt the pose of being a rebel. But sometimes, let us say, "reactionary" seems a more apt description. 

Some controversy is just too much too bear, I suppose. Rebels must be taught lessons.

In any case, for a discussion of a film that upsets Tinseltown stereotypes, my review of "reel rebel" Fireproof may be of interest. 

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Paul Bond writes at The Hollywood Reporter:

The filmmakers behind Dinesh D'Souza's upcoming doc have vowed to press on while their star defends himself after his indictment on federal charges that he violated campaign finance laws in 2012.

On Sunday, they released a trailer for the move, America, that is set for release on July 4. . . . ["being released in time for the 4t of July," D'Souza says in the trailer].

In America, D'Souza -- who wrote and produced the film -- makes the claim that 1960s radical leftism is more or less indistinguishable from current mainstream liberalism, a doctrine that he says preaches the United States is the product of "stealing and plunder" from Native Americans, Mexicans, and African-American slaves.

"I want to take this progressive, leftist critique head on," D'Souza says in the trailer. The movie will include re-creations of some of the major events in American history.

"America is directed by John Sullivan and co-produced by Gray Frederickson, who won an Oscar for producing The Godfather Part II, and Gerald Molen, who won an Oscar for Schindler's List. D'Souza and Sullivan co-directed 2016: Obama's America," THR reports.

Click here to view the trailer (3 minutes, 1 second) on YouTube.

"Question Authority" should be the motto of every free-thinking American and of every free-thinking human being.

If this documentary lives up to what is promised in the trailer, it should be a very powerful treatment more than a little worrisome to the Obama administration and its allies in media, Hollywood, politics, and academy. "Test everything."

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In an interview with Fox News, Missy Robertson (wife of Jase) is asked what she has "come to learn about the audience that watches Duck Dynasty" following A&E's suspension of her father-in-law, Phil.

Missy replies:

Our fans are truly passionate! I can say personally that I am completely overwhelmed by the outspoken support of our family.

People have called to me from the open windows of their cars, across parking lots, in the grocery store, at the mall, just about everywhere I go in public.

They have gone out of their way to make a point in letting us know that they support our family 100 percent and appreciate our taking a stand for Christianity in a public way.

Missy's emphasis on standing for "Christianity in a public way" is quite to the point. For the Biblical worldview, properly understood, refuses to let itself shrink into a "private value system" or "belief system" (or "my truth" or "my values") but rather has always embraced the concept of publicly verifiable and publicly actionable information from the Creator.   

"Christianity is not a series of truths in the plural, but rather truth spelled with a capital 'T,'" Francis Schaeffer stated in an address at the University of Notre Dame. 

As such, said Schaeffer, what is affirmed is "truth about total reality, not just about religious things. Biblical Christianity is Truth concerning total reality -- and the intellectual holding of that total Truth and then living in the light of that Truth."

Thus the title of Nancy's book Total Truth: Liberating Christianity From Its Cultural Captivity. 

In contrast to Schaeffer's affirmation, and to Missy's emphasis, we have the likes of "A&E and other secularists," who "seek to domesticate Biblical content from the Creator by redefining 'faith' as a 'personal matter' for so-called 'religious people'," as I noted in my most recent column.

"This effort reflects the modern reduction of 'faith' to a private 'belief system' or 'religious feeling' and is the product of anti-Christian secularism, not of a robust, pro-verification Christianity. Instead, the Biblical record concerns testable information regarding objective reality and is meant to be acted upon by free-thinking human beings across the whole of life, including public life."

What Missy states directly in this interview was also noted by Korie (wife of Duck Commander CEO Willie) when she said during a New Year's Eve interview on Fox, "At the end of the day we sit down and thank God for our blessings. . . . Hopefully we can spread that message. . . . As a country, if we can come back to that a little bit, maybe we’ll have a great 2014."

Yes, Christianity is so true to reality that its message can properly be applied to the country.

As I see it, the "Christian worldview is decidedly not 'religious' in the dumbed-down modern sense of the term but rather challenges people to 'test everything,' to evaluate truth-claims, and to think and see for themselves." 

Control freaks are right to be wary: Knowing the truth can not only set you free, but it can liberate a nation as well.

"Diehard fans of the A&E show 'Duck Dynasty' are planning to show their loyalty by holding a Phil Robertson appreciation day at Chick-fil-A franchises nationwide on Jan. 21," Fox News reports.  

"According to the Chick-Phil-A Day Facebook page, Robertson supporters are encouraged to wear 'Duck Commander or camouflage gear' to their local Chick-fil-A to 'stand for free speech' and 'sit for good food'," Fox News states.

"The event already has over 24,000 likes and nearly 60,000 listed attendees since its creation on Dec. 20," Fox reports.

Yesterday, A&E released an announcement stating that the network has decided to "resume filming . . . with the entire Robertson family."

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The following statement from the Arts and Entertainment Network was published yesterday at The Hollywood Reporter:

As a global media content company, A+E Networks' core values are centered around creativity, inclusion and mutual respect. We believe it is a privilege for our brands to be invited into people's homes, and we operate with a strong sense of integrity and deep commitment to these principles.

That is why we reacted so quickly and strongly to a recent interview with Phil Robertson. While Phil's comments made in the interview reflect his personal views based on his own beliefs and his own personal journey, he and his family have publicly stated they regret the "coarse language" he used and the misinterpretation of his core beliefs based only on the article. He also made it clear he would "never incite or encourage hate." We at A+E Networks expressed our disappointment with his statements in the article and reiterate that they are not views we hold.

But Duck Dynasty is not a show about one man's views. It resonates with a large audience because it is a show about family . . . a family that America has come to love. As you might have seen in many episodes, they come together to reflect and pray for unity, tolerance and forgiveness. These are three values that we at A+E Networks also feel strongly about.

So after discussions with the Robertson family, as well as consulting with numerous advocacy groups, A&E has decided to resume filming Duck Dynasty later this spring with the entire Robertson family.

We will also use this moment to launch a national public service campaign (PSA) promoting unity, tolerance and acceptance among all people, a message that supports our core values as a company and the values found in Duck Dynasty. These PSAs will air across our entire portfolio.

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Michael Chapman reports at CNSNews.com:

Joe Perry, lead guitarist for the rock band Aerosmith, which is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and who with front-man Steven Tyler is in the Songwriters Hall of Fame, tweeted a defense of the Duck Dynasty controversy concerning anti-gay behavior saying, "More crackin' down on Freedom of Speech in the US or what?"

In a follow-up tweet, Perry said, "Seems to me people have a right to express their opinions & religious beliefs. But that doesn't mean we have to agree."

Perry sent his messages "to his 250,000-plus followers" in a December 22 tweet, according to CNSNews.

"Not unlike the Robertsons in Louisiana, Joe Perry, and his wife Billie Perry, and their children hunt and eat wild game," according to CNS.

"Billie Perry tweeted, on Dec. 25, a photo of her and Joe and the family packing rifles and wearing camouflage. In the tweet, she said, 'Christmas Day getting ready for the big game (food) hunt! Hello Poppa Hemingway'," CNSNews reports.

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"A&E's indefinite suspension of 'Duck Dynasty' star Phil Robertson over his comments regarding homosexuality, and the subsequent backlash, is an important cultural moment in American life," Ben Shapiro writes.

"In all likelihood, Robertson will eventually be reinstated by A&E," Shapiro predicts. "In the meantime, we can learn some valuable lessons from this culture clash."

According to Shapiro, those lessons are:

1. "Hollywood hates conservatives and kowtows to GLAAD."
2. "Americans like conservatives on TV."
3. "Too many conservatives are uncomfortable with religious conservatives."
4. "The media don't understand or want to understand sin."
5. "The market works."

"In the end, the 'Duck Dynasty' controversy is a lesson in leftist intolerance," Shapiro concludes. "In leftist America, babbling . . .  about the moral imperative of killing unborn 21-week-old children is a virtue, while citing Corinthians is sin. Traditionally religious Americans must take note of this clash of values and recognize that the culture war is indeed a war for the spiritual soul of the country. An anti-Biblical America is a worse America."

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What I Saw at Chick-Fil-A Today

The following column is by Professor of Law J. Matt Barber:

As widely reported, Phil Robertson, the patriarch in A&E’s breakaway hit "Duck Dynasty," recently ran a-fowl of homosexual pressure groups, ruffling "progressive" feathers throughout concentrated pockets of deep blue America. He remains suspended "indefinitely" for candidly summarizing, in a recent interview with GQ Magazine, the millennia-long "Love the sinner, hate the sin" Biblical stance on homosexual practice.

"It seems like, to me, a vagina -- as a man -- would be more desirable than a man’s anus. That’s just me," he bluntly opined. "I'm just thinking: There's more there! She's got more to offer. I mean, come on, dudes!"

Dudes worldwide -- save self-styled "gays," Pajama Boy and a few liberal men actually rumored to be heterosexual -- responded: "Eww! I know, right."

"You know what I’m saying?" continued Robertson. "But hey, sin: It's not logical, my man. It's just not logical," he noted.

Robertson also addressed other sins, paraphrasing 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: "Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers -- they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It's not right."

"I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different from me," he later added. "We are all created by the Almighty, and like Him, I love all of humanity."

Barring a handful of "progressive" revisionists, Christian theologians have since observed that, while Robertson's position on sexual sin is 100 percent Biblically, morally and biologically correct, it is, nonetheless, precisely 0 percent politically correct.

Furthermore, Robertson seems to have been quoting directly from the rare, though accurate, "Louisiana Revised Standard Living Translation."

Even so, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) was outraged. GLAAD spokesman Francis Twinklebean offered a scathing, though typically insightful, analysis of Robertson’s opinion: "Quack quack quack bigot," said Twinklebean. "Quack quack vile quack intolerance quack quack homophobia quack," he added, finally demanding: "A&E must fire Phil Robertson."

The "gay"-activist Human Rights Campaign (HRC) was no less distressed, as evidenced by HRC mouthpiece Randy Van Grindr: "The First Amendment? That’s so 1776," he said. "This is 2013. Speech isn’t free, you know. Intolerance will not be tolerated. Give us our pound of flesh! A&E must fire Phil Robertson."

A&E, which had already begun censoring the cast’s Christian speech with fake bleeps to cover words like Jesus and Christ, dutifully complied. "We’re just sick of all this redneck Jesusy stuff," A&E representative Moe Ronic told reporters. "And besides, making truckloads of money is really overrated," he added, referencing the show’s No. 1 all-time ranking.

"In fact," he continued, "just the other day I was sharing an Appletini with Bob, our program director, and he was pining for the good ol' days -- back when we had ratings like MSNBC's "Winter Solstice Generic Holiday Special."

"You know, more money means more work -- what, with the bookkeeping and all," he pointed out. "Most of us at A&E are actually quite excited to get back to the utter irrelevance and obscurity from whence we came."

Meanwhile, the Fox Network and a bevy of cable channels have reportedly lined up with drool bibs to pounce on the show should relations with A&E go deeper south.

A Fox source offered comment on condition of anonymity: "Remember that time someone disagreed with Christianity and got fired?" he asked. "Me neither. A&E needs the Robertsons more than they need A&E."

Still, questions remained as to who’s got it right on homosexuality; GLAAD, HRC and other "progressives," or Phil Robertson and Christianity. To get answers, we went straight to the Source: God, Author of all truth, sovereign Creator of the universe and Maker of mankind.

God said to relax. The issue has been long settled.

All sexual sin -– adultery, fornication, bestiality, incest and, yes, the practice of homosexuality -- is "contrary to sound doctrine," He noted unequivocally (1 Timothy 1:10). "Guys, when I said, 'You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination,' I meant it," He added (Leviticus 18:22).

The Creator then offered an urgent admonition to GLAAD, HRC, and others living under both sexual deception and the unrepentant homosexual lifestyle. He warned that unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences: "Because of this, [I] gave [you] over to shameful lusts. Even [you ladies] exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way [you fellas] also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. [You’ve] committed shameful acts with other men, and [have] received in [yourselves] the due penalty for [your] error" (Romans 1:26-27).

Still, being both wholly righteous and merciful beyond measure, The Heavenly Father then offered hope for homosexuals, as well as for every other sinner on the planet (that would be all of us). He was quick to point out that no one person is better than another, and that He loves us all, not because of our sins -– to include the "intrinsically disordered" homosexual identity and lifestyle -- but in spite of them. "None is righteous, no, not one," He said (Romans 3:10).

We are all lost and in need of the Savior, He further urged (especially yours truly), saying, with specific reference to homosexuality, adultery and other forms of sexual immorality: "And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by [My Spirit]" (1 Corinthians 6:11).

As untold thousands -– likely millions -– of former homosexuals will attest, through the unmatched grace of Christ, there can be freedom from all forms of bondage to sin -- even "LGBT" behavior.

Meanwhile, since the Duck flap hit, Jesus Himself has reportedly reached out to Phil Robertson with a Word of encouragement. He told him to keep fishing for souls and hunting for ducks. He said that Robertson shouldn’t sweat the small stuff -- like the ongoing assault for speaking truth in love.

"Phil," He said, "You will be hated by everyone because of me, but [if you] stand firm to the end, [you] will be saved" (Matthew 10:22).

"Oh, and by the way," Jesus added: "Well done my good and faithful servant."

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CBNNews reports:

New signs of the war on Christmas are popping up across the country.

The Hollywood Reporter said ESPN reversed a decision to drop a Christmas ad that mentioned Jesus, following a barrage of criticism from its viewers.

The ad, released by Glennon Children's Medical Center in Missouri, states in part, "We celebrate the birth of Jesus and the season of giving, bringing hope to the many children, parents and families that we serve."

"ESPN originally said the ad didn't meet its standards," CBN states. "The sports network only agreed to air it after facing a backlash."

Click here to view the 30-second ad.

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Writing at BBC.com, Nicholas Barber takes a shot at explaining why "there's no end of love of zombies": 

It can’t be a coincidence . . . that zombies are in vogue during a period when banks are failing, when climate change is playing havoc with weather patterns, and when both terrorist bombers and global corporations seem to be beyond the reach of any country’s jurisdiction. It can’t be a coincidence, either, that the fourth season of The Walking Dead got off to its hugely successful start just weeks after the United States federal government shut down.

Or it may be that a braindead U.S. federal government -- alive to power but not to the rules of freedom (the Constitution, the Declaration, unalienable rights "endowed" by the Creator, not by Washington, D.C., etc.) -- is of far greater concern to "The Walking Living" than is a merely temporary federal shutdown affecting only part of that nefarious creature from the Potomac lagoon.

Barber continues:

"We’re living in very uncertain times," says Max Brooks, who wrote the book on which the World War Z film is based. "People have a lot of anxiety about the future. They’re constantly being battered with these very scary, very global catastrophes. I think a lot of people think the system is breaking down and just like the 1970s, people need a 'safe place' to explore their apocalyptic worries. They can’t read stories about real plagues or nuclear war. That’s too scary. That’ll make them turn away. Zombie stories give people the opportunity to witness the end of the world they’ve been secretly wondering about while, at the same time, allowing themselves to sleep at night because the catalyst of that end is fictional."

"Zombies embody the great contemporary fear -- and, for some people, the great contemporary fantasy -- that we’ll soon be surrounded by ravenous strangers, with only a shotgun to defend ourselves," Barber concludes. "Compared to that, facing a werewolf or a vampire is a breeze."

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In USAToday film and music producer Mark Joseph reveals that "many, if not most, of the sexually charged female pop anthems of recent decades were based on the wishful thinking of male songwriters who persuaded female singers to express their desires, in the process confusing millions of members of the opposite sex about how women really view sexuality."  (emphasis added)

Joseph continues:

Amid Miley Cyrus' sexual coming out, her record-smashing single "Wrecking Ball" shot to the top of the charts. While a woman is credited as one of the writers, so are four men. Famed producer Dr. Luke, who had a writing hand in Katy Perry's I "Kissed a Girl" ("I don't even know your name; it doesn't matter; you're my experimental game") and Britney Spears' "Lace and Leather" ("Baby take your seat, eyes on me, this is my show; your one and only pleasure") was also involved. . . .

As Joseph points out, "This pattern has a long history." He explains:

Olivia Newton-John, the legendary singer who had delivered one of the sexiest songs of the 1980s, "Physical" [now says], "I didn't want to do it!". . . It turns out that the song -- once ranked as one of Billboard's top 50 sexiest songs of all time and one that, for then-teenagers like me, charted the outlines of female sexuality -- was written by two men. . . .

Even "Like A Virgin," Madonna's signature song of female sexuality, was written by a couple of guys, who returned in the 1990s using another woman to parrot their sexuality, this time with an over-the-top ode to masturbation, "I Touch Myself."

Although The Divinyls' lead singer, Christina Amphlett, was credited as one of four writers on the song, it was born when one of the two primary male writers jotted down the title in his notebook and wrote most of the song with his songwriting partner.

Pop's supposedly sexually liberating female songs, the article says, are "neither feminine nor liberating."

A related story is the surprising and now-notorious open letter from singer Sinead O'Connor warning Miley that she is being prostituted by the men in the music business:

 [They] will prostitute you for all you are worth, and cleverly make you think its what YOU wanted. . . .

Don't be under any illusions. . . . ALL of them want you because they're making money off your youth and your beauty. . . .

Real empowerment of yourself as a woman would be to in future refuse to exploit your body or your sexuality in order for men to make money from you. . . . I've been in the business long enough to know that men are making more money than you are from you getting naked.

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"My young son and I walked into a games shop to look for a present. Who knew we’d find sex and violence," writes Murray Williams at Cape Argus, published in South Africa. 

"So, like, can you deliberately skip this stuff" to play Grand Theft Auto V?" they asked the sales reps.

Answer: "No. You have to do the torture and anal sex thing [with a prostitute] to get to the next level."

Grand Theft Auto V is produced by Rockstar Games -- "Pushing Filth and Ruining Lives. Made Easy," states a headline banner on its website.

Rockstar Games is a label owned by Take-Two Interactive Software, which is "headquartered in New York City."

"The Rockstar Games [RG] label was founded in 1998 to create the most innovative and progressive interactive entertainment," states the Take-Two website. RG are "publishers of such popular game franchises as Grand Theft Auto, Midnight Club, Red Dead Redemption, Max Payne, Bully, Manhunt and more."

On Sept. 20, 2013, Take-Two released a press statement saying sales of Grand Theft Auto V "Surpass $1 Billion in First Three Days."

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On the Miley Cyrus fiasco, Aldous Huxley gives the broader picture: As the public sphere becomes increasingly controlled and authoritarian, the private sphere -- for example, sexual behavior -- becomes increasingly wild and choatic. From his preface to Brave New World:

"As political and economic freedom diminishes, sexual freedom tends compensatingly to increase. And the dictator
. . . will do well to encourage that freedom. In conjunction with the freedom to daydream under the influence of dope and movies and the radio, it will help to reconcile his subjects to the servitude which is their fate."

Today, of course, there are far more technological escapes via the internet, etc. And Huxley's words echo what sociologists like Peter Berger have also said -- that as the public sphere is increasingly structured and controlled by Big Government and Big Corporations, ordinary people compensate with the rejection of structure and restraints in the private sphere (see Berger's book The Homeless Mind).

In the words of John Whitehead of the Rutherford Institute, "Those concerned about the emerging police state in America . . . should be equally concerned about the pornification of America: They are two sides of the same coin."

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Penny Starr reports at CNSNews.com:

Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) has invited the rodeo clown that was banned for life from Missouri state fairs to perform in Texas’s 36th District. The unnamed man made headlines after he wore a President Barack Obama mask and asked the audience if they wanted to see Obama run down by a bull.

"Liberals want to bronco bust dissent," Stockman reportedly said in an e-mail to CNSNews. "But Texans value speech, even if it's speech they don’t agree with."

David Seaman writes at the Daily Caller:

President Obama did a face to face interview with comedian Jay Leno on the "The Tonight Show," because our commander in chief wouldn’t dare give such access to, say, anyone remotely resembling a journalist at this point. Too many of those "phony scandals" to wade through.

Obama offered a fantastic fireworks display of dishonesty and Orwellian doublespeak to Leno’s 4 million or so viewers at home.

"We don’t have a domestic spying program," Obama assured Leno. What we have, instead, are "mechanisms that can track a phone number or an e-mail address that is connected to a terrorist attack . . . That information is useful."

Which is the very definition of a domestic spying program: obtaining American citizens’ phone records and one-click access to emails, Facebook messages, and all Web history without a specific warrant. And then sharing that data with domestic law enforcement agencies, in a secretive agreement Reuters claims the government is now actively trying to cover up.

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Jeff Poor writes at The Daily Caller:

On HBO’s "Real Time" on Friday night, host Bill Maher entertained CSU-San Bernardino professor Brian Levin, director of the Center for Study of Hate and Extremism, who maintained that despite the events in recent days, religious extremism isn’t only a product of Islam.

But Maher took issue with that claim, calling it "liberal bull----" and said there was no comparison.

"You know what, yeah, yeah," Maher said. “You know what -- that’s liberal bull---- right there . . . they’re not as dangerous. I mean there’s only one faith, for example, that kills you or wants to kill you if you draw a bad cartoon of the prophet. There’s only one faith that kills you or wants to kill you if you renounce the faith. An ex-Muslim is a very dangerous thing. Talk to Salman Rushdie after the show about Christian versus Islam. So you know, I’m just saying let’s keep it real."

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Ben Shapiro writes: 

Back on February 16, Saturday Night Live -- a show that would never have the guts to lampoon Muslim prophet Mohammed -- went after Jesus with both barrels. Or rather, they had Jesus go after everyone else with both barrels. The skit, titled Djesus Uncrossed, featured Christoph Waltz’s Jesus killing Roman soldiers using swords and firearms. "He’s risen from the dead," the voice-over says. "And he’s preaching anything but forgiveness."

In the aftermath of that slap against Christianity, Tim Wildmon’s American Family Association went to sponsors of the program and asked them to pull their advertising. The skit, Wildmon wrote, was "an affront to all people of faith, especially Christians . . . NBC would never do this to any other religious group, but it’s popular in Hollywood circles to go after 'crazy' Christians."

"Sears sent Wildmon a thank you, and pulled its ads, stating that they had also “taken steps to ensure that our commercials do not air online," Shapiro writes.

Meanwhile, Shapiro continues, "Wildmon is pushing more boycotts, stating, 'As long as corporations support this kind of offensive material, their sales are going to suffer as shoppers abandon retailers that support blasphemy. . . . When you embrace television programming with no morals, you can’t possibly embrace the public you are trying to sell to'."

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Mark Tapson at Frontpagemag.com explores "how deeply blacks are in thrall to the divisive racism of identity politics."

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At NewsBusters: 

Oscar-winning actor Jamie Foxx recently called Barack Obama "our lord and savior."

No word yet from fearless Foxx on whether he'll also call Obama "our Allah and prophet." 

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Robert Spencer at American Thinker analyzes methods of scorn, ridicule, and "anti-debate" used by English comedian Russell Brand to attack Islam-critic Pamela Geller when she recently appeared on his Los Angeles-produced TV show. 

These methods, Spencer argues, are the "tactics of hyenas, of totalitarians, of the Nazi brownshirts who used to show up at the lectures of dissenting professors, not to argue with them, but only to heckle them, threaten them, and demoralize them, so as to intimidate them into silence." 

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At The Blaze: 

Madonna was booed and had several concertgoers walk out after she told a New Orleans crowd to vote for President Barack Obama, the Associated Press reported.

“Who’s registered to vote?” Madonna asked during Saturday night’s performance of her “MDNA” tour. “I don’t care who you vote for as long as you vote for Obama.”

The Hollywood megastar and former mayor of Carmel, Calif., says in a new ad produced by American Crossroads:

In the last few years, America's been knocked down.

Twenty-three million people can't find full-time work, and we borrow $4 billion every single day, much of it from China.

When someone doesn't get the job done, you've got to hold them accountable.

Obama's second term would be a rerun of the first, and our country just couldn't survive that.

We need someone who can turn it around fast, and that man is Mitt Romney.

There's not much time left, and the future of our country is at stake.

Hat tip: Charlie Spierling, Beltway Confidential

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On his radio show today, an outraged Rush Limbaugh challenged "bird-brain" actress and Obama Co-Chair Eva Longoria for her pro-Obama efforts (which have included very demeaning, anti-women tweets -- rebelled against by the likes of Michelle Malkin). 

Limbaugh employed sharp-tongued humor to say Longoria is a "groupie" activist who goes from one sports star to the next. 

"Hulk Hogan's available," said Rush. "I heard that." Hogan is suing a neighbor over a sex tape.

Rush's point, I think, is that Longoria is not a serious, thoughtful person, and that she is trading on her looks and star power to advance her political cause. 

Longoria may be learning that if one is to become publicly involved in politics, a) being educated and informed is vital, b) you must expect counter critique, especially if you demonize others, and c) outside of the Hollywood bubble, many intelligent, informed, creative, and caring people have concluded Obama is a disaster for America.

Intelligent, informed, creative, and caring people are equally concerned that the liberal Hollywood bubble is also a disaster for human creativity and proper rebellion against the status quo.

Whether America in the main, or Hollywood in the specific, you cannot abandon the rules for freedom and sustain a society of freedom.

If and when Longoria arrives at a social or political position not consistent with Hollywood elites, let her then voice that position and see how those elites react. I double-dare say, if Longoria were, as a thought experiment, to show an openness to other voices, she might be surprised at the reception she receives from her Beverly Hills posse.

It's counterintuitive but true: Establishment Hollywood fears real rebels.

Come on, Eva. Be a rebel. Discover who your real friends are.

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Author and columnist Michelle Malkin writes:

Liberal celebrities want all of the adoration that social media engagement has to offer -- but none of the accountability that actual engagement requires.

For the Hollywood elite, it’s “do as they say, not as they tweet.”

But actress and outspoken Obama campaign co-chair Eva Longoria learned a hard lesson this week on Twitter.

"On Tuesday night after the second presidential debate," Malkin recounts, "Longoria shared a 'retweet' from one of her 4.4-plus million followers on the micro-blogging network. 'I have no idea why any woman/minority can vote for Romney,' the message read. 'You have to be stupid to vote for such a racist/misogynistic tw*t.'”

From this vainglorious public moment, it was all downhill for Ms. Longoria.

"For decades, conservative women and minorities had limited public opportunities to tell the Beautiful People that they didn’t speak for us," Malkin writes.

But now, Malkin concludes, "the game has changed. The walls have crumbled. The era of one-way political monologues from Tinsel Town hypocrites is over. To borrow language they understand: That’s a wrap. You’ve been schooled."

From the Associated Press:

The made-in-Michigan rock musician introduced [Paul] Ryan during a rally Monday night in the Detroit suburb of Rochester.

The rapper, born Robert Ritchie, told the raucous crowd gathered at Oakland University that he believes "you have to stand for something" even if it may alienate a few fans.

"He quieted the crowd a bit when he shared his pride over the election of Barack Obama as the first black president," AP reports.

"I am very proud to say that we had elected our first black president; I’m sorry -- I’m sorry he didn’t do a better job, I really wish he would have -- I do, but the facts are the facts," the rapper said.

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

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

Miller writes: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Paul Miller reports at The Carmel Pine Cone:

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

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

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

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

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

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From Chuck Norris:

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

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

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

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

Drew Zahn reports at WND:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Ms. Barkin shares her retweeted sentiment (in reply to "HighwayStarr"):

C'mon #Isaac! Wash every pro-life, anti-education, anti-woman, xenophobic, gay-bashing, racist SOB right into the ocean! #RNC

From the GSN Pressroom: 

GSN’s highly anticipated original series The American Bible Challenge garnered the network’s highest delivery in its 17-year history with 2.3 million total viewers for the night and 1.7 million total viewers for its series premiere at 8 pm ET on Thursday, August 23rd.

The American Bible Challenge outperformed the previous record by over half a million viewers and solidified itself as a destination program by posting triple-digit gains from its strong lead-in across all demos (“Family Feud” hosted by Steve Harvey). . . . 

“The best-selling book of all time is now GSN’s most-viewed program of all time, which proves that consumers are yearning for fun, family-friendly entertainment,” said Amy Introcaso-Davis, Executive Vice President of Programming and Development, GSN. “We are incredibly proud of this show and are happy that it connected with so many viewers.”

"America, a heavily-Christian nation, is clearly friendly to Bible-based content," Billy Hallowell writes at The Blaze. "This very well may be what drove the show’s initial success. Mixing the world’s most popular book with a game show format -- and adding in [Jeff] Foxworthy as a host -- has, thus far, proven a recipe for success." 

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For what it's worth, Hank Stuever writes:

GSN’s new game show, “The American Bible Challenge,” is just as dull as it sounds, like mandatory fun time at Sunday school, with three teams competing to answer arcane questions about details buried in the verses of the Old and New Testaments. . . . 

But why does this sort of thing have to be dull? For as long as there has been television, there have been pastors, priests, ministers and flocks who have deeply desired to translate the energy and excitement of their beliefs to the secular airwaves. . . . 

And yet, for some reason, church services make for the least exciting programming in all of creation, even when jazzed up with everything from puppets to Christian rock to tears that streak the mascara. The same is true in the music and movie industries -- entertainment is just stubbornly secular.

Rubbish, Mr. Stuever, that is, for example, if you would agree that human sexuality contains significant moments of entertainment. You see, a strong case can be made that sex is God's idea. Sounds kinda "spiritual."

In any case, now that the secularists over at WPost have had their comforting stereotypes dutifully reinforced, it's time for their journalists and other activists to get back to making the world safe for a non-America America (that would be an America alienated from its mainstream definition as given in the Declaration of Independence). 

I will admit that I don't see many gamehows these days. Nevertheless, I do hope "The American Bible Challenge" has a category for "What Obama doesn't know about the Bible." Or, contra Mr. Stuever, a category on how "Biblical Thoughtforms Influenced the Declaration and Constitution."

That concept might have interested King George. I know it's gotten the attention of the secular faithful.

They may tell you that it's an unentertaining, boring concept. Which is why they're always talking about it.

In remarks that appear at The Hollywood Reporter, film director Peter Bogdanovich discusses the Colorado theater massacre, The Dark Knight Rises, and violence in film. Among his remarks, this:

Jack Minor reports at WND:

Jane Pitt, mother of actor Brad Pitt, has been scared into silence by the hate-filled, vulgar and even violent reaction to her public assertion that Barack Obama is “a liberal who supports the killing of unborn babies and same-sex marriage.”

WND's Joseph Farah writes:

What does it mean to be a follower of Jesus?

That’s the question I would like answered by Carrie Underwood, other Christian celebrities, and, quite honestly, most non-celebrity Christians and their pastors.

Last month Underwood, a country-music superstar, suggested in an interview with the U.K. Independent that she has no problem with same-sex relationships and marriage.

It’s not unusual, of course, for entertainers to take such positions -- in fact, it’s expected. But what made the interview newsworthy all over the world is the fact that Underwood claims to be a Christian.

Obama voters don't think, they just consume. Like braindead zombies on AMC's The Walking Dead.

More food for thought here.

Robert Spencer says The Learning Channel's the bait-and-switch starts like this:

TLC’s much-ballyhooed All-American Muslim reality show makes its agenda clear in its opening sequences: shots of a hijabbed girl roller-skating, Muslims dancing at a wedding, an American flag waving proudly in the breeze, and newspaper clippings proclaiming “4 in 10 Americans ‘suspicious’ of Muslims,” “Outrage at Ground Zero ‘Mosque,’” and “Muslims Brace for Backlash.” The point of the show is to depict Muslims as ordinary folks just like you and me who are subjected to unjust suspicion.

At the Hollywood Reporter:

The L Word actress Leisha Hailey says she was kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight after kissing her girlfriend.

In a series of tweets Monday, Hailey wrote that she and fashion designer Nina Garduno, who have been together since 2006, "were escorted off the plane for getting upset about the issue."

"I have been discriminated against by @SouthwestAir," she tweeted. "Flt. attendant said that it was a 'family' airline and kissing was not ok."

In fact, in a free country, no business, including SouthwestAir, should be forced to accommodate immoral behavior -- including "public displays of affection" between homosexuals. 

The only discrimination on display here is that of Mz. Hailey's discrimination against the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," as the Declaration of Independence puts it.

Bravo to SouthwestAir for defending the wonder of male and female together in family and community with our Creator.

Let's hope, work, and pray that SouthwestAir remains a family airline and refuses to submit to the impositions of small-minded Hollywood actresses in the grip of dehumanzing and divisive ideologies.

Hat tip: Drudge Report

Kathleen Gilbert reports at LifeSiteNews:

Discussing her gender-bending role in the new movie Albert Nobbs, American actress Glenn Close has said that gender “doesn’t matter” and all those too outdated to reject natural gender and gender roles will just have to “die off.”

Albert Nobbs, screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival, features Close as a cross-dressing woman working as a butler in 19th-century Ireland. The idea behind the film, a pet project of Close’s for fifteen years, is to help scuttle conventional ideas of gender -- or any idea of gender.

On the other hand, the Creator of the Declaration, whom American exceptionalism recognizes is the source of unalienable human rights and freedoms (having been "created equal and endowed by their Creator") also created this little thing called male and female, a wonderful expression of humane and liberating diversity.

Imagine: How boring, small-minded, monodimensional, alienating, and otherworldly is this flat gospel brought to us by yet another secular evangelist pounding the podium of Hollywood.

And did I mention how enslaving is this secular gospel? This superficial "tolerance" of Tinseltown?

Enslaving as in opening wide the door for state totalitarianism -- after all, if there is no permanent human nature, no essence of man, no definition of who and what we are, including "gender," there is then no human nature that a centralized state could possibly ever offend.

Altogether Now: Imagine there were no genders . . .  And la, la, la. As the tanks of tyranny fire up their engines.

But how much better and liberating is "Vive la difference!"  

This is why resistance is not only good for you, but can be a whole lot of fun.

Meanwhile, Mz. Close, please get back to us when the Creator dies off.

An angry backlash from conservatives is looming against a video game company in Brooklyn, N.Y., that has created a violent first-person shooter game targeting conservatives," reports Newsmax.

"Called 'Tea Party Zombies Must Die,' the game enables users to bludgeon Bill O’Reilly with a crow bar, shoot Glenn Beck with a semi-automatic weapon, or stab former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin with a knife."

Kathleen Gilbert writes at LifeSiteNews:

A “pillar of strength” -- these were the words Etta Waterfield used to describe her mother-in-law, Jane Russell, who will be remembered by millions as a timeless beauty and talented actress of the silver screen.

But according to Waterfield, Jane’s true legacy lies in her deep devotion to the Bible as a born-again Christian, and her tenacity living out that faith as a pro-life advocate following a tragic botched abortion at the age of eighteen.

More evidence that Hollywood hates rebels.

Shut Up, They Explained: Once again it was the uber tolerant "liberal way or no way" on full broadminded display yesterday as Bill O'Reilly dropped by to see the girls at "The View."

Bill should have known better than to utter the following fact: "Muslims killed us on 9/11." Whoopi and Joy walked out, their faith having been offended. But then they came back.

No doubt Islamic terrorists all over the world have begun loving America again. Or maybe not.

In any case, here's another fact: Liberals are killing America. Exhibit No. 1: Barack Obama. 

For more, please read Ethel C. Fenig at American Thinker.

Art Imitating Politics: "The Sept. 23 season premiere plot of CBS's hit drama 'CSI: Crime Scene Investigation' involved guest star Justin Bieber attending 'right-wing' political events before being targeted as a suspect in bombings of a Las Vegas Police Department funeral," writes Matthew Boyle at The Daily Caller.

"Fans had assumed their Live 8 collaboration was their last hurrah, but Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Roger Waters have put their differences aside to perform on stage for charity once more," reports the UK Independent. "The musicians, who fell out in the early 1980s, performed at a fundraising event hosted by Jemima Khan to help Palestinian children."

According to the Independent, the "performance by the bass player and guitarist was for the Hoping Foundation (Hope and Optimism for Palestinians in the Next Generation), organised by Bella Freud."

As a fan of Pink Floyd, seeing Gilmour and Waters together again is terrific, and to do so for charity is equally appealing. 

However, this particular "charity" may be problematic. In June 2008, blogger Debbie Schlussel reported that the Hoping Foundation is a "front-group for HAMAS and other Islamic terrorist groups." Her reporting was picked up Muslims Against Sharia.

This tremendous and inspiring Krista Branch anthem features 2 Chron. 7:14 and challenges Americans to "Remember Who You Are!," which is central to the "New Resistance." 

Apparently, some "Mama Grizzlies" can sing. This music video captures much of the intensity, power, and content that is motivating a reawakening of the truly mainstream American spirit today.

Here she is on YouTube, and here's her website.

Hat tip: Tea Party Patriots/Facebook

Christian Toto writes at Human Events:

Sen. Barack Obama promised us "Hope and Change" during the 2008 presidential campaign.

A gaggle of celebrities from Tom Hanks to Spike Lee predicted more than that if voters pulled the lever for Obama. They said the senator would "change the world."

Voters assumed they meant for the better.

But after 16 months of the Obama Administration in action -- high unemployment, allies rebuffed, promises shattered, chaos in Afghanistan and mind-numbing deficits -- these very same celebrities owe us an apology.

And Oprah Winfrey’s mea culpa should come gift-wrapped and scented with fancy perfume. She used her reservoir of good will to stump for the smooth-talking senator.

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Tweny-two-year-old Joanna Marie Skillet dropped in to encourage friends at the Royal Academy of Music where she ended up singing a cappella in the corridor, bowling over management from IMA Productions, and emerging with a big record deal. Here's more from the Daily Mail.

"Porn destroys human lives and is destroying our nation," says Shelly Luben, founder of the Pink Cross Foundation, in town for a briefing at the U.S. Capitol.

Private choices have public consequences. Always have, always will. Some choices emancipate, others enslave.

This holds true for politicians, ministry leaders, entertainers, and the neighbor next door. To be a person is to externalize one's inner thought world, whether that world is one of light and truth or of darkness and destruction. 

This is inescapable and cannot be legislated away. And you can be sure that those who are stumbling as persons in the arena of their private lives will be weakened, if not failing, as persons in the arena of their public lives. 

More quickly than one might think, this can mean the difference between freedom and unfreedom, the difference between self-government and a boot on the throat. The destiny of nations begins at home.  

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Entertainment & Terror: A political satirist says "he fears joking about Islam could lead to his death": "I'm writing a line and I think, 'If this goes down badly, I'm writing my own death warrant there'."

When Obama and his homies got together (reportedly) in the Oval Office on "Day 1" to fix the Gulf Oil Disaster, one wonders: Did anybody happen to have the BP CEO's phone number? Or maybe run out and get it along with the pizza?

As I understand it, way out here outside of the Oval Office, Mr. Obama has not yet spoken directly to Mr. Tony Hayward of BP. 

Yeah, like they'd have anything to talk about.

Here's a link to BP's website: It has contact information on it. I found it on the internet.

It's day 51 of the crisis, America.

Obama is now talking tuff about kicking a--. And yet the oil still spreads. Maybe Congress should raise taxes. That's never been tried before. And keep those "Blame Bush" and "Racism!" cards close at hand.

Who is that guy in the White House? And why is he there? Holding seminars? Fundraising? Socializing? Reaching out to McCartney's studio?

It's Day 51, America. Make the dang phone call.

So-called "progressives" are "so good at weeding out racists in our midst, they feel obligated to share with us the words used," writes Bob Parks at Big Government. "However, should they be called out when they use racial slurs, they lose their minds."

Here on YouTube is Silverman, who "used a slur and was called on it."

Lawrence Meyers at Big Hollywood comments on a recent Pew survey which found that only 33% said Hollywood "was having a positive effect" on the "way things are going in the country."

Fifty-one percent said Hollywood "was having a negative effect."

Perhaps not entirely surprising, TV "viewership is sharply declining," Meyers writes, "and box office admissions have been flat to down for the past several years."

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

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

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

Hat tip: Big Hollywood

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

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

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

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

"Alec Baldwin, award winning actor and wannabe leftist political commentator, called on Congress to sink congressional health care legislation today, saying he would rather the federal government 'put a Major Oil Company Out of Business,' according to the headline of his column at the Huffington Post," writes Lachlan Markay at Newsbusters.

"Baldwin isn't the only liberal entertainer calling for the death of ObamaCare. Plans to tax so-called 'Cadillac' health care plans -- or the most expensive insurance plans -- have riled up some key Democratic supporters. The Teamsters Union and the AFL-CIO have protested, but now objections are also being raised by Hollywood's biggest unions."

A Review of a Reviewer: One wonders, on the basis of this article, if it's OK with famed film reviewer Roger Ebert to affirm that human beings possess "unalienable rights" because they are endowed as such by the Creator (see the Declaration of Independence).

Especially if such an affirmation is rooted in history, reason, and empirical data and answers the basic philosophic questions of life in ways far superior -- including ways far politically superior for those who think human freedom and dignity are good things -- to materialism, atheism, pantheism, existentialism, Hollywoodism, and various other kinds of secularist mysticisms (such as New Ageism) in vogue now and again.

I am no doubt among the millions of Americans who have enjoyed Ebert's film reviews. But on the question of the relation of Judeo-Christian thoughtforms to politics and government, I as a free-thinking human being suggest Ebert may be sincere but sincerely wrong.

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Hat tip: Big Hollywood

"I had a great conversation with Oprah today," Sarah Palin writes on her Facebook page. "We taped the show for Monday, Nov. 16th, and enjoyed it so much that we went way over on time."

Same Old Tired Lack of Class From Hollywood: O'Donnell "used numerous vulgarities on NBC's 'Late Night' just before she attacked Fox News's Glenn Beck," writes Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters.

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Rosie O'Donnell's Oppressive Coat

From "Law and Order": "You got it backwards, man. The horrible thing is the rape, not the bringing of a life into the world." Read this commentary at WorldNetDaily.

An explicit email published at Big Hollywood blasts HBO and cable star Larry David for "gross contempt" against Christ and Christians.

"Despite David Letterman's on air admission of sexual encounters with staffers being all the rage last week, CBS apparently has done everything in its power to eliminate the record of his Thursday evening mea culpa from the popular video website YouTube," writes Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters.

"It appears the host of CBS's Late Show might have been at the heart of the decision."

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"US chat show king David Letterman has revealed that he had sexual relationships with female staff members on his show and faced an extortion bid over the liaisons," reports the U.K. Telegraph.

"Letterman said he had received a threat to either pay $2 million (£1.25 million) or risk the relationships being made public."

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"A new documentary detailing the history of the United States from the first colony in Virginia through the Civil War focuses on the beliefs of the nation’s founders and the written documents that grant each citizen freedom of religion and the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," reports Penny Starr at CNSNews.com.

"The film, Rediscovering God in America II: Our Heritage, is not a commentary on the Founding Fathers’ theology or lack thereof. It is an oral history using in the founders’ own words to describe how God played a role in America becoming a nation of religious liberty and tolerance."

Read the rest of "New Documentary Examines God's Place in America's Heritage, as Told by the Founding Fathers."

A fun project from the Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute. Here's the calendar. More here.

I can think of an additional woman extremely well-suited for such a calendar -- though, as most true conservatives are, she's quite radically human, free-thinking, and Declarational.

The one and only . . .

Who thinks the American people ought to jump in the Constitution, turn on the ignition, slap it in gear, step on the gas, and run over the out-of-control federal government?

Not once. But twice. Leave Declaration treadmarks all up and down the Mall, Pennsylvania Avenue, and the White House grounds.

If it worked for Rush Limbaugh against AlGore last night on the Leno show, maybe it'll work for the American people against the Washington establishment.

Starting now. Then in 2010. And then however long it takes thereafter to drive oppression from our midst.

See Jay and Rush talk.

See Rush run over Algore. Twice.

"It was worth it!" said Rush of the "Green Car Challenge."

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Just coming in from soccer and am looking forward to Rush Limbaugh's appearance tonight on the Jay Leno show.

Time: 10 p.m., eastern; 9 p.m., central

Place: NBC

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Brent Baker writes at Newsbusters: 

David Letterman, who still regularly ridicules former President George W. Bush -- and has even accused him of committing “war crimes” and lacking “humanity” -- didn't hide his affinity for Barack Obama during his Monday night Late Show interview of the President, while remaining unable to contain his disgust for Bush.

“I can't tell you how satisfying it is to watch you work,” a beaming Letterman gushed to Obama at the conclusion of the program.

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"Oprah Winfrey's reign as chat show queen may be coming to an end," says the UK Telegraph.

OK. But how about an alternative? 

Try this for a little broadcast rebellion: A humane, pro-liberty entertainment hour of guests, talk, etc., that understands the content and norms of Declaration freedom over against the closed-down liberal state oppression.

There might be one or two stories out there -- maybe even hundreds and thousands -- that interests the millions and millions of Americans who have had it with the Springeresque carnival and broadcast hegemony that passes for information and entertainment these days. (By the way, is that Springer thing even on anymore?)

Or is Hollywood too small-minded, too afraid, too weak for that kind of culture shock?

Hat tip: Big Hollywood

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In Charleston, S.C. Tell Rick Mosteller -- a friend who captains this outfit (Charleston Harbor Tours) -- that Rick sent you.

Wish we could be there. Alas.

For more info, check out this FB page.

Here's an email address: sales@charlestonharbortours.com.

From YouTube, Montel Williams offers advice:

Michele, slit your wrist. Go ahead. Why not? . . . Do us all a better thing. Move that knife up about two feet. Start right at the collar bone. . . .

Hat tip: Breitbart TV

Coming to the silver screen. As this AFP story suggests, lunch breaks have consequences.

"Legendary inventor, guitar player and recording artist Les Paul has died from complications from pneumonia," reports the Voice of America. "He was 94 years old." 

"Paul revolutionized the music scene with his solid-body electric guitar that he first built in the 1940s in his quest for a guitar with amplified sound. In 1952, Gibson Guitar company began production of the Les Paul guitar."

By the way, along with motorcycles, there will be guitars in Heaven.

"Political opponents have portrayed the US president in a new comic series named as a play on words with the popular horror franchise Resident Evil, reports the UK Telegraph.

Here's the page at Amazon.

On "The View" to discuss her new book Culture of Corruption, Michelle Malkin more than holds her own. Would love to see her on again.

Watch the video.

Hat tip: Human Events

In this PJTV video, Alfonzo Rachel pursues the pursuit of happiness.

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The International Mozarteum Foundation says "more details" on the discovery of two new compositions for piano "would be made public during a presentation in Salzburg on 2 August," according to AP.  

Roger Carstens writes at Human Events:

Tonight at 10 PM Eastern Standard Time, NBC will debut its controversial show, “The Wanted.” 

The show can best be described as a “follow doc”: news cameras follow a former Navy SEAL, an investigative journalist, a former war crimes prosecutor, and a former Green Beret as they investigate and confront those accused of the most egregious crimes against humanity.

I am the Green Beret.

Read the entire column . . .

"Family patriarch Joe Jackson, who famously had a troubled relationship with his own children as he guided their careers, believes his bereaved grandchildren have the makings of showbiz domination just like his late son, Michael," reports the Sydney Morning Herald.

Related:
Chris Rock: Michael Jackson a *#!^!s Pedophile -- YouTube
Barack Obama and Michael Jackson: Certificates of Birth and Death

The UK Independent says these young Hollywood actors are "well educated . . . smart, clean-living and moral."

Slight hitch: "Squeaky Clean" role models include Jodie Foster, lesbian. Yawn.

Humane civilization, not to mention one's personal sanity, rests on several foundational elements, among them the liberating distinction between diversity and perversity.

Therein lies depth, interest, stability, nuance, and fulfillment, both onscreen and off.

But is Hollywood rebellious enough to try it?

Put that on a motorcycle.

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With ample doses of "French" peppering his act, the comedian declares, "I'm done with Michael," and compares the singer to O.J. Simpson. 

"Our mission statement," says FireDavidLetterman.com, is "David Letterman must be held accountable for his disgraceful statements." As part of this effort, the website is announcing a rally planned for 4:30 p.m. tomorrow (Tues.) at The Ed Sullivan Theater, 1697 Broadway, New York City.

Speaking of Ed Sullivan, he always presented himself in a dignified manner. His variety show had class and treated its audience with respect.

The same cannot be said of Mr. Letterman and the CBS "Late Show," as is indicated by the man's crude sex jokes attacking Sarah Palin and her family. Instead, the CBS star appears to operate in a different, less-enlightened moral universe from that of Ed Sullivan.

That's bad for entertainment, the Letterman audience, and David Letterman himself (not to mention his family). He might want to look in the mirror and ask a few heartfelt questions.

That is not meant as a putdown. It's something every human being with a conscience has to do from time to time. Otherwise you drift. Otherwise 30 years later you see a face in the mirror you no longer recognize.

This phenomenon is inclusive: It happens to entertainers, pastors, politicians, scientists, activists, artists, authors, and hard-charging ministry leaders.

Related:
Comedy Has Consequences: Still Open Season on Sarah Palin
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War

David Letterman's below-the-belt sex-joke shots at Palin and her family are cheap and demeaning and reflect rather poorly on him as an increasingly unfunny and uninteresting entertainer. 

But it also speaks volumes about the inherent inhumanity at the heart of materialistic secularist thought as it impacts popular culture. There is a way up from that, but it requires an embrace of that which secularists despise: The high view of the individual person reflected in the Declaration of Independence and based in the objective and factual reality of human beings as having been created in the image of a rational, personal, knowable, and verifable God.

Palin "wasted no time unloading both barrels at the hoary Letterman for his lurid jabs," writes J. Robert Smith at American Thinker. "The time has come for conservatives to start fighting back. Governor Palin is showing the way."

Related:
O'Reilly, Letterman, and the Culture War

Larry Thornberry writes at American Spectator:

Marion Mitchell Morrison, springing from humble beginnings in Winterset, Iowa, was known to millions of movie-viewers as John Wayne, and to his friends as "Duke."

He breathed his last at 5:23 P.M., June 11, 1979. Thirty years ago tomorrow.

In those years we haven't seen his like, and probably won't again. The cultural soil just isn't here to grow another giant like the Duke.

Thornberry recommends John Wayne: American, by Randy Roberts and James S. Olson, as the "gold standard" of "serious attempts to tell the Duke's story." 

More on "Remembering the Duke Again" . . .

Related on film:
Fireproof: Reel Rebel Upsets Tinseltown Stereotypes
We Were Soldiers: Flesh, Blood, and Spirit in the Valley of Death
Evolution vs. the Aliens: Cosmic Irony Found in Earthy Comedy

Author of Liberty and Tyranny Mark Levin mocks the pretended objectivity and, ahem, reliable newsworthiness of the New York Times by famously calling it the "New York Slimes."

Michelle Malkin offers free-thinking people a new round of evidence for this well-earned moniker of money-monkey reportage.

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Press Watch: Hyping Hysteria vs. Knowing Truth
Corrupt, Slobbering Media Still in Love
Last Straw: Statist Media Tea Party Cognitive Dissonance

Ann Coulter writes:

Not even Dick Cheney can incite the blood-curdling rage of liberals at the sight of a sexy Evangelical Christian. Paula Jones, Katherine Harris, Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin and, most recently, Miss California, Carrie Prejean, have all come under a frenzy of attacks from liberals.
   
Christians are supposed to be fat, balding sweaty little men with bad complexions. It's liberals who are supposed to be the sexy ones. (I know that from watching "The West Wing" and all movies starring Julia Roberts.)
   
But sadly for liberals, in real life, the fat, balding sweaty little guy with the bad complexion is Perez Hilton and the smoking-hot babe is Carrie Prejean.

More . . .

Related
Seriously Hot: The Carrie Prejean Story
Shuster Asks, "Can I Vomit?"
Miss California on Liberty Live Radio
Centrist Miss California Told to Shut Up "About Your Faith"
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Wildmon: Carrie Prejean vs. Rick Warren
Rosie's Coat

From Brent Baker at Newsbusters:

To Bob Schieffer's astonishment, when he wrapped up his Sunday interview by asking former Vice President Dick Cheney where he comes down between Rush Limbaugh and Colin Powell who both say the Republican Party would be “better off” without the other, Cheney declared: “I'd go with Rush Limbaugh.”  

More on Schwimpdaddled Schieffer at Newsbusters.

Forensic pyschologist Dr. Helen takes a look.

Hat Tip: Big Hollywood

It seems that accurately locating the affirmations of Miss California Carrie Prejean at the philosophic center of the American experiment in liberty was a bit much for Jim Galloway at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. "Over the top," said Galloway.

Galloway describes himself as a "writer and editor with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for 30 years," and he writes a blog called "Political Insider." He was responding to a column in RedState titled Beauty and the Beast: The Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton, also published at Pro-Existence, here. 

Note also this strange comment from a fellow who thinks I'm a "foreigner" who "would do well to draw from the actual well of Our Founders’ writing." He suggests I leave the country. 

Well, I think I've done well by the commenter and perhaps even Mr. Galloway. As a Christian, Miss Prejean affirms the existence of a Creator, as does the Declaration of Independence, which expresses the basic worldview and mission statement of the Founders of the United States. Both positions relate the Creator to questions of public life, including government and politics.

Miss California, therefore, is operating within the same philosophic universe as that shared by our Founders. She occupies the middle ground, the "center," as it were.

Those such as Perez Hilton who reject the application of verifiable information from the Creator to public life, including politics, operate in a totally different philosophic universe. In both outbursts and outlook, they are the extremists. 

Miss California Carrie Prejean, who recently stood up for the moral fact of the superiority of the Creator's objective norms for human marriage over against the subjective inventions and impositions of the secular homosexual establishment, will appear on nationally syndicated radio today at 4-5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time.

Prejean will join hosts Mat Staver and Matt Barber on Liberty Live, a video broadcast that can be accessed online at American Family Radio and OneNewsNow.

Listeners who want to ask Miss California questions on air may call 866-963-2037.

It is worth noting that Prejean's comments in defense of marriage at the Miss USA pageant place her at the vital center of the American experiment in liberty under our true and knowable Creator. This affirmation of male and female in lifelong and liberating community under God has earned Miss Prejean the scorn of intolerant extremists such as Perez Hilton, whose pro-homosexualist, anti-Judeo-Christian worldview could never have yielded the "the blessings of liberty" that alarm tryants past, present, and future. 

Related:
Centrist Miss California Told to Shut Up "About Your Faith"
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Wildmon: Carrie Prejean vs. Rick Warren
Limbaugh vs. Obama

In short, "America's Pastor" needs to grow a backbone. A 21-year-old California blonde might be able to show him how. Here's Tim Wildmon's take. 

Related:
Centrist Miss California Told to Shut Up "About Your Faith"
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Limbaugh vs. Obama

Fortunately, in the highest, centrist tradition of American exceptionalism, Carrie Prejean responds to a calling higher than that afforded by "Miss CA USA" or by extremist anti-family, pro-homosexual activists such as Perez Hilton.  WND has the story.

Related:
BBC: On Murdering Miss California
Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Limbaugh vs. Obama

The following column is by Matt Barber, director of cultural affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action. Barber also co-hosts the nationally syndicated “Liberty Live” talk radio program on AFR Talk. Brackets and ellipsis below indicate an editorial effort to keep Pro-Existence a family-friendly source of comment and analysis, an increasingly challenging proposition, given the rise of anti-family forces of secuarism and intolerance in the land, exemplified of late by a judge with the Miss USA pageant. 

You may have heard. During Sunday’s Miss USA pageant openly “gay” activist and pageant judge Perez Hilton -- the self-styled “Queen of Media” -- ambushed Carrie Prejean -- the openly Christian Miss California -- with a politically loaded question on so-called “same-sex marriage.” Prejean’s candid answer -- as both Hilton and Miss USA organizer Donald Trump later admitted -- likely cost her the crown. 

From the moment she opened her mouth, Prejean has given liberals a clinic in class.  Hilton, on the other hand (a.k.a. Mario Armando Lavandeira), has provided the world a sneak peek into the soul of homosexual activism.  

This is one for the up-is-down-black-is-white hall of fame. The media’s fabricated flap over Prejean’s answer -- a public defense of legitimate marriage -- has a reasonable America scratching its collective noggin in stunned disbelief. Not because of the answer she gave Perez -- which was both well received by the pageant audience and overwhelmingly shared by about 70% of Americans -- but, rather, because of Hilton’s hate-filled, misogynistic response to her answer and the disgraceful, knee-jerk defense of that response by liberals in Hollywood, the media, and organized homosexuality. 

After Hilton asked the lovely and talented Miss California whether “every state” should legalize “same-sex marriage,” Prejean responded: “In my country, in my family . . . I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that's how I was raised and that's how I think it should be  -- between a man and a woman.”

Oh the humanity!

Evidently this was not the rooty-tooty-fresh-n’-fruity answer Hilton -- the creepy valley girl wannabe with a five o’clock shadow -- had hoped for. He promptly marked Prejean’s score card with a zero, plopped down in front of the television cameras and began blubbering away like a fussy little snot with a dirty diaper. 

Having already publicly called Prejean a “dumb b----,” he then yammered to a sympathetic Norah O’Donnell on MSNBC that not only was he refusing to apologize he was actually “thinking the C-word.” This, of course, one of the vilest things anyone can call a woman. Yet, rather than taking Hilton to task for the boy lover’s girl-hating poison, O’Donnell joined in on the bash-fest, criticizing Prejean for her traditional view.    

But Hilton wasn’t done yet. Ramping up his vicious attack on the Christian California bombshell, our lispy-wispy lil’ cupcake dove headlong into the annals of dirt-baggery lore. He defaced a photo of Prejean on his weblog scribbling . . . a crude depiction of [male anatomy].

How did Prejean react?

While talking to Matt Lauer on NBC’s Today Show she said, “I knew at that moment after I answered the question, I knew, I was not going to win because of my answer, because I had spoken from my heart, from my beliefs and for my God. . . . I wouldn't have answered it differently. The way I answered may have been offensive. With that question specifically, it's not about being politically correct. For me it was being biblically correct.”

On the Fox News Channel’s Hannity program, Prejean shared, “You know, I forgive him. I know that he's angry for whatever reason. I know there must be a bigger issue going on in his life.”

Like I said -- Class.  

Still, Perez Hilton -- Hollywood’s frothy-potty-mouthed little drama queen -- isn’t alone in his hatred for Prejean or the three-fourths of Americans who share her opposition to the novel and incongruous concept of “gay marriage.”   

For example, Wayne Besen, a prominent leader in the homosexual activist community, unbelievably went on Fox News’ O’Reilly Factor to defend Hilton. He picked up Hilton’s anti-Christian torch, incredibly charging that it was Prejean, not Hilton, whose millennia-old recognition of biblical marriage “was divisive.” Besen then added insult to injury and revealed his true rainbow colors by tagging the 70% of Americans who oppose “gay marriage” as “bigots.” 

This whole hateful affair provides the perfect metaphor for the current divide between defenders of traditional sexual morality and the extremist “queer” activist movement. As Congress debates the constructive repeal of both the Fourteenth Amendment guarantee of “equal protection under the law” and the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and freedom of religion through passage of discriminatory and wholly unnecessary “hate crimes” legislation, this little episode once again reminds us that the self-described champions of “tolerance” and “diversity” are the most intolerant and hateful among us. 

How soon we forget. Just hearken back a few months to the passage of California’s Proposition 8, which restored the definition of natural marriage to the Golden State. There we all played witness to “gay” activist calls for church burnings, Mormon Temple vandalism, death threats against Prop 8 supporters and quasi-riotous assaults against peaceful Christian marriage supporters. 

So, insofar as liberals continue to dig their own hole by defending Hilton and piling on Prejean, I submit they’re doing the other 70% of us a favor. In their biting anger, they’ve cast aside the sublime mask of “tolerance,” revealing an ugly, desperate and most intolerant countenance below.   

For that, I say thank you. For your treatment of Carrie Prejean, I say shame on you.

Related:
Beauty and the Beast: Resisting the Reactionary Extremism of Perez Hilton
Miss California: "God Was Testing My Faith"
Open Lesbian, CNN Anchor, Defends Miss America Judge
Anderson Cooper and the Crisis of Journalism

Openly homosexual blogger and Miss USA judge Perez Hilton has called pageant contestant Carrie Prejean the "C-word," defaced a photo of the young lady, and admits to giving her a score of zero, reports WND.

And this from an individual giving public face to those who wrap themselves as victims in banners of "love" and "tolerance." But it is nothing of the sort, of course, as is clearly seen in the emotional outburst of this "judge" who took upon himself also the roles of jury and executioner. Such hubris.  

Mr. Hilton apparently hates the reply Prejean gave to his question concerning homosexual "marriage." As Prejean told Sean Hannity last night on TV, she chooses being "Biblically correct" over being politically correct and concludes therefore that marriage ought to be between a man and a woman.

Her view has the advantage of expressing a life lived in community with our true Creator, which is a better foundation for growth and humanness than is reducing ourselves -- as a consistent naturalistic secularism requires -- to bundles of particles organized by chance inside bodies that have no meaning in an impersonal universe.  The resulting breakdown of the distinction between male and female is an expression not of progress into love but of regress into meaninglessness.

Her courageous stance places Prejean at the center of political and ethical discourse as framed by the Declaration of Independence, which articulates the Founding vision and mission statement of the United States.

She is occupying the same ontic and philosophical universe set forth by our Founding Fathers. The real extremists are those who reject that Founding vision and indeed reject the world as it objectively exists in its externality as a creation of our Maker who endows humanity with unalienable rights.  

The reactionary behavior of Hilton and his association with the Miss USA pageant indicate just how radically extreme and ugly certain intolerant elites have become after rejecting that humane and liberating worldview which gave rise to the American experiment in the first place. They war against nature and nature's God, against human nature and human nature's God.

This war is real. Instead of human rights rooted in a knowable, verifiable, and loving Creator who has a moral character, we have instead aggressive power groups imposing a false, subjective, and hurtful agenda upon a patient and forbearing nation. 

Love of God and man, of neighbor and community, calls for a humane resistance for freedom, the individual, and wholeness. Fortunately, we are beginning to see signs of free-thinking individuals rising up to throw off the chains of pretended absolutes masked and marketed as progress, toleration, and positive change.

A 21-year-old held her ground the other night and holds it still. She lost a pageant. But she won a crown. 

See also:
Miss California: "God Was Testing My Faith"

Her affirmation of the Creator's objective, verifiable, public, and liberating norm for married life in reply to a homosexual "marriage" question from judge Perez Hilton helped make Carrie Prejean the "most famous runner-up in Miss USA history."

But what was that blonde girl thinking?

There she was . . . publicly proclaiming foundational moral truth about marriage. So tyrannical.

There she was . . . taking a social stand that places her at the philosophical center of the American experiment in liberty and unalienable rights under God. So extreme.

There she was . . . daring to resist mass-marketed peer pressure and the unbending demands of tolerance. So rebellious.  

In all fairness, let us ask: Who does the uppity individual Miss Prejean think she is, brazenly resisting the secularist status quo?

And for all we know she's pro-life. That would fit the profile. Speaking of profiles, that "Right-Wing Extremism" report from the Department of Homeland Security, headed up by Janet Napolitano, couldn't have been more timely. 

Who now can doubt that the American people need to be educated and prepared to allow the federal government to deal with blonde bombshells, free-thinking individuals, constitutionalists, and other potential terrorists at large in the forward-looking land of change?

It's no accident: Only last week we had those Tea Parties. And now this pageant. Who knows what might be coming down the pike?

Yes, there is much to consider in the defense of America. Meanwhile, here's an exclusive interview with Carrie Prejean at FoxNews.com. 

The jazz standard "Cry Me a River" is Susan Boyle's "first-ever record release," reports the UK Mirror.

The ballad, originally written for Ella Fitzgerald, was first released in 1955 and famously performed by Julie London.

The Susan Boyle version was recorded 10 years ago. What are the chances of our hearing a live performance in the near future, say, from a stage in England? 

See also:
It Takes a Village Singer: Susan Boyle, the Anti-Obama?
Britain's Got Talent: Listen to This Stunning, Stunning Performance

No artifice, no teleprompter, no Grecian columns.

William Tate comments on the Scot singer and YouTube sensation from nowhere, which may be a good place to be.

Here she is, straight from Glasgow: "My name is Susan Boyle. I'm nearly 48 . . ."

Previously, on Pro-Existence: Britain's Got Talent.

Forty-seven-year-old contestant Susan Boyle delivers an amazing, uplifting performance of "I Dreamed a Dream" (from Les Miserables) before judges Simon Cowell, Piers Morgan, and Amanda Holden, not to mention a theater full of erstwhile snickering, eye-rolling audience members. 

Hollywood Hawaii-style hangs ten for Obama:

Perhaps a film made in Hawaii will put the idea to rest that Obama was not born in the United States. For some skeptics showing a birth certificate might not have been enough. Now some University students are about to produce a film about Obama's birth.

After this investigative effort, how about a documentary on how an unseen-by-public-eyes $10 birth certificate turned into a near-abouts $800,000 pumpkin for 3 law firms?

In any case, someone might well ask: What, really, is the big deal? The U.S. has been operating without a Constitution for some time now, so what's the problem with not producing a little ol' birth certificate?

Yep. CNN.

Brother Steve pushes the envelope: 

The violence, vulgarity, and anti-family fare produced in excess in Hollywood contributes to social decay and the higher rates of youth suicide and teen pregnancy, actor and media personality Stephen Baldwin told CNSNews.com. He added that pro-family films sell well and more conservatives should move into the industry to control the content and produce the types of films that many American families desire. 
 
“Hollywood and the Academy has an agenda every year,” Baldwin told CNSNews.com at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C. “Okay -- the fact that they churn out more content that is gratuitously violent and sexual and vulgar when in fact more family programming -- animated films and things like that -- make more money, there’s your agenda problem right there. . . .

How to make it better?

“I’m not saying that Hollywood or people that create content in Hollywood should not be allowed to do it,” said Baldwin. “I’m saying that the people who want more conservative content out there need to get into positions where they can create that.”

A little Screwtape here, a little fireman there, and before long you might create a humane alternative to the current fare. A renaissance is long overdue. 

Here's a video interview with Baldwin. 

Hat tip: Big Hollywood.

From Broadwayworld.com:

The production is the biggest hit ever to play at The Mercury Theater, having entertained over 25,000 theatergoers during its Chicago run. THE SCREWTAPE LETTERS, which originally opened in October, has since extended on multiple occasions from its original six-week run and will continue an open run due to overwhelming popularity. The play also enjoyed sold-out runs in New York and Washington, D.C.

Bravo!

Somebody had fun at CPAC.

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."

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.

 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."

"Shadowlands" opens February 6 at Theatre Coppell.