Fighting Reason Tooth and Claw: Contra JT Eberhard on Abortion

Last updated on: September 5, 2012 at 6:21 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

Atheist blogger JT Eberhard recently joined the Patheos stable, and as a Director of Content at Patheos I welcome him happily and hope (and know) that he will that Patheos is an excellent place to share his thoughts. Our intention has always been to host the whole conversation on matters of religion and spirituality, and to make that conversation better. Sometimes improving the conversation means finding common ground, and sometimes it means clarifying distinctions. After I posted ‘I Am a... Read more

Dora the Explorer Humor

Last updated on: September 1, 2012 at 12:01 am By Timothy Dalrymple

With one daughter about to turn 4, and another about to turn 1, I’ve seen every single episode of Dora the Explorer (well, I haven’t seen the new gymnastics episode yet, although I gather from the commercials she actually does rhythmic gymnastics, which is slightly bizarre) many times over and I expect to see them many more times before my time in cartoon purgatory is over. At least my eldest has started watching Kung Fu Panda, which is hilarious, although... Read more

Five Observations from Romney’s Convention Speech

Last updated on: August 31, 2012 at 5:39 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

A hearty congratulations to everyone involved in the Romney campaign for the smashing success of the convention finale, and an equally hearty congratulations to all of those outside the campaign — like my friends at Evangelicals for Mitt — who believed that this was the man for our time. They persevered through much, soldiered on, and last night they were triumphant. And congratulations most of all to Mitt Romney. It was a long, hard slog. He and Ann really had... Read more

Barack Obama, the Empty Stool

Last updated on: August 31, 2012 at 11:07 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

Clint Eastwood's metaphor was correct: the Barack Obama that was promised in 2008 never made an appearance. And now it's time to give the seat to someone else. Read more

Romney at the RNC: From the Audacity of Hype to the Tenacity of Hope

Last updated on: August 30, 2012 at 9:11 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

Everyone is asking what Governor Romney should say when he addresses the Republican National Convention tonight in Tampa. It’s going to be an important moment in which Romney can cut past the clutter and the cacophony of the election season and speak directly to the American electorate. It’s especially important for the challenger, who has fewer opportunities to speak at length to a national audience. I received the following email from Mitt, and the note he wants to sound tonight... Read more

Which Candidates Are More Generous – and Why it Matters

Last updated on: August 30, 2012 at 3:05 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

Editor’s Note: The following is a guest post from my friend Josh Good of the Values and Capitalism initiative at AEI. * Last night in Tampa, Ann Romney made a provocative statement about her husband’s success at Bain Capital, and about her family’s quiet pattern of giving: [Mitt’s decision to] work harder and press on … [has] given us the deep satisfaction of being able to help others in ways that we could never have imagined. Mitt doesn’t like to talk about... Read more

Sikh Ye First

Last updated on: August 30, 2012 at 2:27 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

It was a thoughtful gesture to invite Ishwar Singh, president of the Sikh Society of Central Florida, to deliver an invocation at the Republican National Convention. The shooting at the temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, was brutal and horrific. We still don’t know a great deal about the motivations of the shooter, except that he was a white supremacist bigot who apparently hated non-Aryans. Did he believe the Sikhs were Muslims, as some assumed? Not necessarily. My guess would be... Read more

Does Romney’s Mormon Faith – or Obama’s Muslim Faith – Really Matter?

Last updated on: August 29, 2012 at 4:19 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

JUST KIDDING. I know that President Obama is not Muslim. I think. I mean, he attended a UCC church for 20 years, which is far too big a price to pay just to hide your true Islamic beliefs! Right? That’s like being waterboarded every Sunday for twenty years straight. (To all my United Churches of Christ readers: I’m just kidding again. I think.) Geez, people, lighten up. Where is the love? Well, our friends at Odyssey Networks have deployed video... Read more

Is Rape Rape?

Last updated on: August 29, 2012 at 1:08 pm By Timothy Dalrymple

It’s a remarkable but unsurprising thing that a relatively unknown Congressman from Missouri’s “legitimate rape” comments have gotten so much more media attention than the Vice President of the United States mimicking urban African-American language and suggesting that the leaders of the other party want to “put y’all back in chains.” It’s remarkable because Joe Biden is much more consequential than Todd Akin, and because Akin’s comments properly understood suggest a silly misunderstanding of the reproductive process while Biden was... Read more

Melissa Ohden, Abortion Survivor, Speaks Against Obama

Last updated on: August 29, 2012 at 1:27 am By Timothy Dalrymple

An ad showing in Missouri from the Susan B. Anthony list featuring Melissa Ohden, abortion survivor. Some of you will love it, some of you will hate it: What do you think? I’ve always found this to be the most disturbing part of Obama’s record. Read more