The girls got an early Christmas present yesterday — tickets to a big concert at the Spectrum II CoreStates Center First Union Center Wachovia Center big arena where the Sixers and Flyers play. For the chauffeur (me), that meant several hours in coffee shops and diners, which was good because I had a lot of offline reading to catch up on. The problem was that one of the books I’ve been reading is Bob Larson’s In the Name of Satan:... Read more
I have long argued that perpetual offendedness leads to stupidity. This stupidity is not innate. It is willful, voluntary and chosen. But it’s also extreme. Those who have become addicted to indignation wind up divorced from reality, interacting with it only sporadically when in search of some new pretext onto which they can project the pre-existing umbrage that has become their character, their identity and their reason for being. And when one only rarely interacts with reality — and even... Read more
This was a very good speech. President Barack Obama, Osawatomie, Kan., Dec. 6, 2011 This is the defining issue of our time. This is a make-or-break moment for the middle class, and for all those who are fighting to get into the middle class. Because what’s at stake is whether this will be a country where working people can earn enough to raise a family, build a modest savings, own a home, secure their retirement. Now, in the midst of this... Read more
Dear Rachel Held Evans, I have noted with righteous worry and sanctified dismay your disrespect for one of our cherished Christian institutions. I refer, of course, to your recent criticisms of the Pious Online Open Letter. I had hoped that you would come to see the error of your ways so that I would not be forced to write this, but I see from this post, and then this one, that you have not repented. And so it grieves me... Read more
Tribulation Force, pp. 440-443 When we last saw our heroes they were in a dire predicament. Traffic leading up to their exit of the tollway was at a standstill and it seemed they would have to exit onto Route 53 and then backtrack for miles. Oh, and also Washington, D.C., has been destroyed. Still stuck in traffic, they desperately try to find a local news station: “Put in on ‘scan,'” Chloe suggested. Finally the radio found an EBS station and... Read more
“American politics made easy.” Washington state Sen. Joseph Zarelli provides a one-sentence explanation of how it all works. In Rick Perry’s newest ad, he announces that he’s “not ashamed to talk about my faith.” The Texas governor professes his devotion to the God of Abraham, Isaac and … and … oops. Michele Bachmann is a wimpy appeaser of North Korea — she hasn’t yet suggested any plans to close down America’s non-existent embassy in Pyongyang. Gingrich: Put Poor Kids to... Read more
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. — James 1:27 (NIV) The above passage, I think, provides the key to understanding American evangelical Christianity. For American evangelicals, the emphasis is all on that final phrase — “keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” This is a paramount concern for evangelicals, and one of the main... Read more
2 Corinthians 8:8-15 I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. And in this matter I am giving my advice: it is appropriate for you who began last year not only to do something... Read more
Chuck Colson’s latest column — “Killing Your Neighbor’s Cow — Income Inequality” is not the work of an honest man. If it were, then the only way to make any sense of it would be as a confession — as Chuck Colson calling himself a soak-the-rich socialist firmly in the grasp of the deadly sin of envy. That’s not what Colson says, at first glance. At first glance it seems he’s just accusing a bunch of other people of being... Read more
Nick Hanauer: “Raise Taxes on Rich to Reward True Job Creators“ I’m a very rich person. As an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, I’ve started or helped get off the ground dozens of companies in industries including manufacturing, retail, medical services, the Internet and software. I founded the Internet media company aQuantive Inc., which was acquired by Microsoft Corp. in 2007 for $6.4 billion. I was also the first non-family investor in Amazon.com Inc. Even so, I’ve never been a “job... Read more
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