The Point

• "The Establishment's Palin Panic"
• "Korea's population crisis"
• "Letter to John Calvin"
• "Chinese baby girls sold for adoption"

What is this?

Referring to recent carbon-dating tests on bone fragments found under St. Paul's Basilica, the pope stated, "This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul."

What is this?

• "For 'Modern Gals,' Religion as Off-the-Rack Therapy"
• "Reverse discrimination ruling leaves confusion"
• "Evangelical concern for Jon and Kate"
• "Partnership rights in place for gay couples by end of year [in Ireland]"
• "Review of India's gay-sex laws"
• "The Woman in the Picture"
• "When Love Turns to Scandal"
• "Obama reaffirms support for gay-rights activism"
• "Pride Parades, Mark Sanford and 'Fear and Ignorance'"
• "Jackson, Sanford and weirdness"
• "How God Converted an Atheist"

What is this?

I haven't yet had the chance to see My Sister's Keeper, the new movie based on the bestselling book by Jodi Picoult, but I understand that it is an important film in the ongoing discussion of bioethics.

The film deals with the real issue known as "savior sibling." In the U.S. today it is legal to select an embryo so that it will be most compatible genetically to a sibling who may need medical attention. The first documented case in the U.S. was with Adam Nash in 2000.

Of course, there are not only ethical issues involved with using a child as a donor, but also the ethical issues involved in what happens to the many embryos who are not "selected." We euphemistically dodge those. We'll be featuring a great article on the subject in the next few days from Jennifer Lahl, the Director of the Center of Bioethics. In the meantime, I was reading a fascinating interview with author Jodi Picoult about how she came up with the storyline for the book. Here's what she has to say:

I came about the idea for this novel through the back door of a previous one, Second Glance. While researching eugenics for that book, I learned that the American Eugenics Society -- the one whose funding dried up in the 1930s when the Nazis began to explore racial [hygiene] too -- used to be housed in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. Guess who occupies the same space, today? The Human Genome Project… which many consider "today's eugenics". This was just too much of a coincidence for me, and I started to consider the way this massive, cutting edge science we're on the brink of exploding into was similar… and different from… the eugenics programs and sterilization laws in America in the 1930s. Once again, you've got science that is only as ethical as the people who are researching and implementing it -- and once again, in the wake of such intense scientific advancement, what's falling by the wayside are the emotions involved in the case by case scenarios. I heard about a couple in America that successfully conceived a sibling that was a bone marrow match for his older sister, a girl suffering from a rare form of leukemia. His cord blood cells were given to the sister, who is still (several years later) in remission. But I started to wonder… what if she ever, sadly, goes out of remission? Will the boy feel responsible? Will he wonder if the only reason he was born was because his sister was sick? When I started to look more deeply at the family dynamics and how stem cell research might cause an impact, I came up with the story of the Fitzgeralds.

You can read the rest of the interview here. A trailer for the film is below the jump.

What is this?

• "NKorea threatens US; world anticipates missile"
• "The Political Enclave That Dare Not Speak Its Name"
• "I'm Tired of Sex Scandals. Aren't You?"
• "Arab Activists Watch Iran and Wonder: 'Why Not Us?'"
• "Gay DNC Fundraiser Filled with Frustration: 'No One Is Happy Now'"
• "The boy who never grew up: Michael Jackson, 1958-2009"
• "Poverty of thought"

What is this?

The opera Perelandra, based on the second book in C. S. Lewis's space trilogy, will premiere this week at Oxford. If you get to go, have a great time, and try not to think of all of us over here who are green with envy.

(And Brits are in luck this week for other reasons as well.)

(Image courtesy of The Perelandra Project)

What is this?

• "Senate Backs Apology for Slavery"
• "Obama Closes Doors on Openness"
• "Jon & Kate + 8 Minus Sophie"

What is this?

• "George Tiller, Abortion, and Moral Clarity"
• "The Mr. Potato Head Constitution" (via Wittingshire)
• "PBS Blesses Old Religious Shows, but Bans the New"
• "Have we given up on the two-parent family?"
• "Signature in the Cell by Stephen Meyer"
• "President Obama's Adams quote" (via The Corner)
• "Marilyn Monroe and the Cheapening of Women" (sexual themes)
• "Don't Worry, the Post-apocalyptic Costner Stuff Is Still a Few Months Away"

What is this?

• "Just Make Stuff Up"
• "Racist and Ridiculous" (profanity in comments; via La Shawn Barber)
• "The White House Fires a Watchdog"
• "The Limits of Control"
• "How Late-Night Comedy Slipped into the Same, Smug Routine" (via The Bleat)
• "Climate of hatred: Prominent scientist refused service due to skepticism" (via The Corner)

What is this?

Naysayers are predicting the end of Christianity in America, and since their pessimism is repeated incessantly, many people have come to believe it. Is their prediction true? World magazine editor Marvin Olasky says the predictions don't match reality. Find out why.

What is this?

That's right. The world's climate is changing, always has been -- just, this time, not in the direction predicted by the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner. As reported by the Telegraph, cooler, not warmer weather is causing crop shortages and higher prices around the globe. For instance,

In Canada and northern America summer planting of corn and soybeans has been way behind schedule, with the prospect of reduced yields and lower quality. Grain stocks are predicted to be down 15 per cent next year. US reserves of soya – used in animal feed and in many processed foods – are expected to fall to a 32-year low.

The situation is similar for China, Africa, and Europe.

So what's the culprit? Something that was identified 200 years ago when "the great astronomer William Herschel observed a correlation between wheat prices and sunspots. When the latter were few in number, he noted, the climate turned colder and drier, crop yields fell and wheat prices rose. In the past two years, sunspot activity has dropped to its lowest point for a century."

Hmmm. Looks like the science "was in," the debate over, two centuries ago. Had the Nobel been established back then, the Peace prize might have gone to an astronomer.

It is a sad irony that in our efforts to fix a problem that doesn't exist -- man-made global warming -- the food situation around the globe could very well be exacerbated as "the millions of acres of farmland [are] now being switched from food crops to biofuels" to reduce man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

(Image © Reuters)

What is this?

• "Study: Megachurch crowds tend to be younger"
• "Pastor's comments on Tiller 'unbiblical'"
• "The Virtual Public Square"
• "Why aren't women happy? Who knows?"
• "Green Beret Loses Race and Wins a Battle"

What is this?

On what would have been Anne Frank's 80th birthday, the Holocaust Memorial Museum will present the new play Anne & Emmett, "an imaginary conversation between Anne Frank and Emmett Till, teenage victims of anti-Semitism and racism, respectively."

The play would have premiered Wednesday, if not for the murder of a black Holocaust Museum security guard by an anti-Semitic, racist killer.

What is this?

We're in the middle of what always seems to me like the most patriotic of seasons. Memorial Day was just a few weekends ago, this Sunday is Flag Day, and just a few weeks after that, we'll be eating watermelon and watching fireworks on the Fourth of July. As a card-carrying Daughter of the American Revolution, I couldn't be happier. Bring on the flag bunting and red, white and blue jello parfaits.

Getting me in the mood for the season is a book I picked up at the library. God in the Foxhole details dozens of stories from the frontlines of American conflicts. Author Charles Sasser (a Navy and Army veteran) includes anecdotes from the Gulf Wars, Somalia, Vietnam, Korea, the two World Wars, the Civil War, the Alamo, the Revolutionary War, and even the French and Indian War and King Philip's War (both fought on American soil before we were independent of those tea-taxing Brits). 

Included among the stories of ordinary and even anonymous soldiers are the stories of some not-so-anonymous men and women, including Sen. John McCain, Clara Barton, and George Washington.

Washington's story comes not from the Revolutionary War, but the French and Indian War, when he was a young colonel in the Redcoat army. During a battle to capture the French Fort Duquesne, Washington rallied an outnumbered Virginia regiment and left the battlefield unharmed--but with a coat full of bullet holes. Fifteen years later, in 1770, an Indian chief who, during that battle at Fort Duquesne, had assigned his best sharpshooters to fell the Redcoat who fought like an Indian caught up with Washington to tell his side of the story and to deliver a message:

...a power mightier far than we shielded you. Seeing you were under the special guardianship of the Great Spirit, we immediately ceased to fire at you. I am old and soon shall be gathered to the great council fire of my fathers in the land of shades; but ere I go, there is something bids me speak in the voice of prophecy. Listen! The Great Spirit protects that man [pointing at Washington] and guides his destinies. He will become the chief of nations, and a people yet unborn will hail him as the founder of a mighty empire. I am come to pay homage to the man who is the particular favorite of Heaven and who can never die in battle.

Indeed, the Father of Our Country died in his bed in 1799 at the age of 67 after a sudden illness.

What is this?

Check out Jim Tonkowich's review of A Crisis of Saints: The Call to Heroic Faith in an Unheroic World. The book's author, Fr. George Rutler, evidently has much to say about "saintliness" -- which Tonkowich defines as "the God-given ability to exercise heroic virtue in the face of cultural breakdown." If we want to heal our culture (and I suppose most of us Pointers and Pointificators do), then we must begin with the spiritual renewal of the Church. Rutler claims that "any crisis in culture is a crisis of saints, and no reform is radical enough unless it is a redemption from sin."

The final essay in the book deals with G. K. Chesterton, who was able to demonstrate his saintliness in, "of all places," the journalistic world. The difference between Chesterton and modern media types, according to Rutler, "is Chesterton's subordination of the self to truth. This is far more significant than the breath of knowledge" (though, goodness knows, Chesterton had that, too). 

In closing, Tonkowich offers these encouraging words from Rutler's book: "If there were giants in the land then, there can be giants now. It is, after all, the same land, and we are of the same human stock, and the times and issues are certainly no less important. And God is no less faithful to those who ask...."

What is this?

• "Is Pain a Moral Good?"
• "Yes I Can"
• "Stop, in the Name of Love"
• "Sonia Sotomayor and bootstraps"
• "Classic"
• "Clinton Invites Controversial Muslim Leader on Conference Call"
• "People Choose News that Fits Their Views"
• "Megan Fox: Another Nail in the 'Movie Star' Coffin" (some vulgarity in comments)

What is this?

We've talked about Obama worship before -- but I'm not sure I ever expected it to get quite this literal.

(H/T John Romano at Big Hollywood)

What is this?

A few weeks ago, I posted a short blog post about the pictures from the Hubble telescope, the wonders of the universe, and as LeeQuod puts it, "a small dig at the New Atheist types," i.e. the problem of materialism. An interesting discussion ensued. 

Under that post, Rolley recently answered a question posed by Ben W., who had raised the question of the Church's seeming indifference to the problem of slavery. Rolley discusses the problem of proof-texting versus principles, and I thought everyone might benefit from reading his comments.

(Image courtesy of Bible.ca)

What is this?

Both Chuck Colson and Joel Rosenberg have critiqued President Obama's recent speech in Cairo. Read here and here for their take on what the president should have said.

(Image courtesy of Joel Rosenberg's Weblog)

What is this?

Check out T. M. Moore's recent Crosfigell article "A Terror to the Devil" -- the story of how St. Columba's contemporaries viewed him (and a challenge to us to become like him). Here's an excerpt:

How did Columba get that way? He loved God and hated his own sin. He pored over the Word of God, giving special attention to the Law and the Gospels. He spent long hours praying and contemplating the unseen realm ... [and] he was a diligent student of Church history, knowing the debt he owed to the martyrs and theologians of the past.

(Image courtesy of Wikipedia)

What is this?

On the 65th anniversary of D-Day, one soldier tells his story.

(Image courtesy of CNN)

What is this?

No, not that kind of fun. Get your minds out of the gutter. Lileks has a quiz for husbands, found in a newspaper from 1933, on his website. Are you married guys good husbands by 1933 standards? Click here to find out! (And click "Next" at the bottom of the page for the second half.) Wives, your turn is coming!

What is this?

Christians, that is, who took part in the demonstrations 20 years ago.

What is this?

In twenty years, how much have things changed?

(Image © Charles Cole)

What is this?

• "Accommodations I"
• "That old devil race, &c."
• "The Gospel and the Gosselins"
• "As the Myths Abound, So Does Islamic Outreach"

What is this?

Having recently moved to a new area and gone through the "church shopping" process, I've had ample opportunity to observe some of the different styles of music in churches around my local area, from the staid to the ear-splitting. 

All of which makes me appreciate even more the lovely melodies and harmonies and the thought-provoking and soul-stirring lyrics on the Indelible Grace CDs.  The focus of Indelible Grace is on updating age-old hymns, many of which have fallen out of common use, for a modern audience.

Over at the 9Marks blog, Mike McKinley provided the lyrics for one of the hymns that Indelible Grace has recorded, one that, although written 112 years ago, seems particularly apropos to this time of economic uncertainty:

I do not ask to see the way
My feet will have to tread;
But only that my soul may feed
Upon the living Bread.
'Tis better far that I should walk
By faith close to His side;
I may not know the way I go,
But oh, I know my Guide.

Refrain
His love can never fail, His love can never fail,
My soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail.
My soul is satisfied to know His love can never fail.

And if my feet would go astray,
They cannot, for I know
That Jesus guides my falt'ring steps,
As joyfully I go.
And tho' I may not see His face,
My faith is strong and clear,
That in each hour of sore distress
My Savior will be near.

I will not fear, tho' darkness come
Abroad o'er all the land,
If I may only feel the touch
Of His own loving hand.
And tho' I tremble when I think
How weak I am, and frail,
My soul is satisfied to know
His love can never fail.

(Image © Indelible Grace)

What is this?

• "Ralph D. Winter dies at 84; Christian missionary was one of America's most influential evangelicals"
• "Referenda could undo same-sex unions in two states"
• "Liberated and Unhappy"
• "Why ask why?"
• "Al Pacino circles Kevorkian biopic"
• "The Worst Thing about Gay Marriage"
• "Some Industries Deserve Bankruptcy"

What is this?

So what do you do when you're 68, have suffered a recent stroke, and worry that any one of a number of your generals would like to assume your throne? Apparently, you throw some crockery against the wall and resume the Korean War.

That's what we appear to be dealing with in North Korea's "Dear Leader," Kim Jong Il. It's hard to take a man seriously who, in addition to starving huge numbers of his own people while he airlifts lobster and caviar, has enjoyed establishing 20 concentration camps for political dissenters. Also, Kim has taken a shine to making feature films and operas from his beloved father's writings. 

All this would be purely laughable except that Kim has the fifth largest standing army in the world and now nuclear capabilities. The capital of South Korea, Seoul, is very close to the North Korean border, making it at least possible for Kim to take down millions of people with him should he have a death wish of his own.

Christian worldview question: Is it ever appropriate to ask for God to remove a true tyrant from the scene?Well, while the "love your neighbor" ethic applies to everyone, not just saints, it also applies to all the individual souls whose unfortunate lot it is to be in the path of a human windstorm. Christian theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer finally accepted, after much spiritual wrestling, that having Hitler gone was the only way to save many other souls. 

Bonhoeffer doesn't strike me as merely utilitarian here. Kim needs to be stopped for his own soul's needs, too. He's obviously sick and needs to not have anymore innocent deaths on his record. Beyond anyone's concern for him is the plight of millions, on both sides of the 38th Parallel.

Whether Kim is hit by another stroke or by one of his generals, his removal from power seems necessary for the people of North Asia to have a sigh of relief. A crazy man with nukes and a large army may be one of history's oddities, but here we are. Let's pray that the Lord, who does work in mysterious ways, finds a peaceable way to remove Kim's finger from the nuclear button.

(Image courtesy of GettyImages)

What is this?

• "Atheists: No God, no reason, just whining"
• "Coal Dust and Foot-Washing"
• "Bringing Up Baby in the Big House"
• "Let Them Eat Arugula"
• "'Me So Holy' App Too Much for Apple"
• "My Personal Credit Crisis"

What is this?

An interesting feature of President Obama's commencement speech at Notre Dame yesterday (transcript here, video here):

The president spoke of the need "to reconcile our ever-shrinking world with its ever-growing diversity -- diversity of thought, diversity of culture, and diversity of belief . . . [to] find a way to live together as one human family." On some subjects, he spoke as though this need to cooperate -- to find "common ground," as he said elsewhere in the speech -- were the highest goal:

The soldier and the lawyer may both love this country with equal passion, and yet reach very different conclusions on the specific steps needed to protect us from harm. The gay activist and the evangelical pastor may both deplore the ravages of HIV/AIDS, but find themselves unable to bridge the cultural divide that might unite their efforts. Those who speak out against stem cell research may be rooted in an admirable conviction about the sacredness of life, but so are the parents of a child with juvenile diabetes who are convinced that their son's or daughter's hardships can be relieved.

But on other subjects, he spoke as if the highest goal were for right to win and wrong to be defeated:

After all, I stand here today, as President and as an African American, on the 55th anniversary of the day that the Supreme Court handed down the decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Now, Brown was of course the first major step in dismantling the "separate but equal" doctrine, but it would take a number of years and a nationwide movement to fully realize the dream of civil rights for all of God's children. There were freedom rides and lunch counters and Billy clubs, and there was also a Civil Rights Commission appointed by President Eisenhower. It was the 12 resolutions recommended by this commission that would ultimately become law in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Under which category does abortion fall? In the president's mind, it appeared to fall under the first: "When we open up our hearts and our minds to those who may not think precisely like we do or believe precisely what we believe -- that's when we discover at least the possibility of common ground. . . . That's when we begin to say, 'Maybe we won't agree on abortion, but we can still agree that this heart-wrenching decision for any woman is not made casually, it has both moral and spiritual dimensions.'" This isn't how he spoke about the freedom rides and the lunch counters and the Billy clubs.

Considering that, at this moment, the tide of popular opinion -- perhaps even the tide of history -- appears to be shifting against Obama and his view of abortion, he may want to rethink that position.

(Image © Nancy Stone for the Chicago Tribune)

What is this?

The words above are the last words spoken in the shattering film The Stoning of Soraya M. Zahra (Shohreh Aghdashloo), the aunt of the young woman who has just been murdered by family and friends, has succeeded in making sure that the crime will not be hidden. Unable to protect her beloved niece, Zahra nevertheless ends the film with this triumph over the evil that destroyed Soraya (Mozhan Marnò).

The story, based on a real case that took place in the 1980s, is told simply and straightforwardly. French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjam (Jim Caviezel) is stranded in a small Iraqi village when his car breaks down. Seeing the tape recorder poking out of his bag, Zahra persuades him to come to her home while his car is being fixed, and tells him what happened to her niece just the day before.

Via one extended flashback, we see Soraya's husband, Ali, plotting with other men of the village, including the mullah, to get rid of his "inconvenient wife" so he can marry a 14-year-old girl and move to the city. Ordered to work for a widower and his son who need help, Soraya is then accused of sleeping with her employer, and he is pressured into confessing the adultery that never happened.

The conspiracy ends where the title promised it would: with the gentle wife and mother bound, buried up to the waist in a pit, and bombarded with stones by her father, husband, sons, and neighbors. The stoning of Soraya is graphic, bloody, and painfully slow, and explains the film's R rating. (I had hoped against hope they would rush through that part. They didn't.) 

What is this?

• "Christians in Gaza Make Their Appeal to the Pope"
• "The best critique yet of Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons'..."
• "Going Up"
• "Same-sex marriage pits blacks against gays in test of liberal 'tolerance'"

What is this?

• "Friends, Foes of Same-Sex Marriage Monitor District's Legislative Moves"
• "That Familiar Ring"
• "Princess Like Me: Questions Raised by Disney's 'Princess and the Frog'"
• "Presidential prayers"
• "Going Dutch? No Thanks"
• "DENIED: Biogtry of the Obamatrons"

What is this?

I've long been fascinated with Vincent Van Gogh -- his life, his work, his art, his faith. One historian is now claiming that evidence shows that Van Gogh never cut off his own ear, but instead lost it in a sword fight to his friend, renowned artist Paul Gauguin, and then decided to cover for him. It's an interesting twist.

What is this?

• "Swine flu and a calm, reasonable, rational Church"
• "God Talk"
• "Hare-Brained Kansas Planned Parenthood Employee Covers Up Rape"
• "Scottish Report on Gay and Lesbian Parenting"
• "Outrage over primary school's plan for disabled dress-up"
• "Children's book features lesbian mums and sperm donors" (sexually explicit language)

What is this?

Not long after finishing my post on Jonathan Edwards and the Presbyterians, in which I chided Christian leaders who mislead their flocks, I picked up my May issue of Touchstone magazine and read this piece by S. M. Hutchens (for the editors). While it's titled "The War on Error: The Business of Confronting Heresy," it might just as easily have been titled: "What to say to people who claim you're rude (and unChristian) to criticize their views."

What we ought to remember, Hutchens writes, is how desperately rude Jesus Himself was when he confronted heresy. Ditto the church fathers. "It is hard to go far in their writings without finding them bluntly identifying their opponents as heretics, perverts, madmen, liars, and tools of the devil," Hutchens writes. But these days, "polite Christian society will have none of that: It is the sort of thing one expects only of the unwashed fundamentalist. ...What sort of person, after all, would call apparently well-intentioned and perfectly respectable people, often very important, very religious people, snakes or hypocrites, or compare them to dirty tableware?"

Well, obviously, the kind of people who write for The Point!

What is this?

John Wesley, one of the great revivalists and founder of the Methodist movement, on the danger of revival:

I fear, wherever riches have increased . . . the essence of religion, the mind that was in Christ, has decreased in the same proportion.  Therefore, I do not see how it is possible, in the nature of things, for any revival of true religion to continue long.  For religion must necessarily produce both industry and frugality; and these cannot but produce riches.  But as riches increase, so will pride, anger, and love of the world in all its branches.  How then is it possible that Methodism, that is, the religion of the heart, though it flourishes now as a green bay tree, should continue in this state?  For the Methodists in every place grow diligent and frugal; consequently they increase in goods.  Hence, they proportionably increase in pride, in the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life.  So, although the form of religion remains, the spirit is swiftly vanishing away.  Is there no way to prevent this? this continual declension of pure religion?  We ought not to forbid people to be diligent and frugal; we must exhort all Christians, to gain all they can, and to save all they can:  this is, in effect, to grow rich!  What way then, I ask again, can we take that our money may not sink us to the nethermost hell?  There is one way, and there is no other under heaven.  If those who gain all they can, and save all they can, will likewise give all they can, then the more they gain, the more they will grow in grace, and the more treasure they will lay up in heaven.

(Image courtesy of Project Canterbury)

What is this?

A year or so ago, the Women's Studies program at my university sponsored a bulletin board in praise of Margaret Sanger. I wanted to gag, because every poster hailed Sanger as some great female liberator.  Obviously, none of the students who created those posters had ever bothered to move beyond the propaganda and actually read what Sanger wrote, especially her views on eugenics. This article sheds light on Sanger's destructive philosophy -- and shows just how little our current Secretary of State knows about a woman she is in "awe" of.   

(Image © AP)

What is this?

• "Declining Notre Dame: A Letter from Mary Ann Glendon" (via Mere Comments)
• "How Iowa Happened"  
• "The Celebration of Life and the Culture of Death" 
• "Say Yes. What Are You Waiting For?"
• "Cardinal Backs Pregnant Women Support Act"  
• "Congress, Carbon, and the Poor: Why Wealthier Is Healthier"  
• "Comedian's Daughter Bites Back on Malaria"  

What is this?

A Washington Times article, written by Julia Duin, excellently explains the problem of Islam as an actor in international politics. With countries such as Iran playing an important role in the relations between world leaders, it is important to understand why Muslims, of any sort, have never apologized for the Armenian genocide. Even in his recent trip to Turkey, President Obama never referred to the acts against the Christian Armenians as "genocide." Any clarity and understanding we can glean from this tragedy will assist us in identifying future consequences of Western/Islamic relations.

The Turks of the Committee of Union and Progress, or the “Young Turks” as they were known in the West, decided that the best way to save the Muslim Turkish nation was to reduce the Christian population, which happened to be mostly Armenians. Subsequently, all Christian Armenians were driven out of the Ottoman capital at the end of swords and bayonets. The cause of death for most Armenians was murder, starvation, and exhaustion in concentration camps. 

So, I ask the question: Why have Muslims, especially those that make up the 99.8% of the Turkish population, never apologized for a genocide against Christian Armenians?

As Duin points out, Muslims have no concept of national repentance. Georgetown professor John Voll explains that Muslims don't believe in original sin, because God didn't curse Adam and Eve; rather he just expelled them from the garden of Eden. 

Additionally, Muslims do not believe in apologizing for things that happened in the past. Even if Muslims did have this sentiment, the current Kamalist Turkey is a separate political entity from the Ottoman Empire which perpetrated the genocide--though I doubt the descendants of a nation murdered by extremist Muslims feel better about this trivial legal distinction.

Friday, April 24, was Armenia's Genocide Remembrance Day. Let us join them in prayer for the lives lost and the families left behind in the name of Islamic political power.

What is this?

Well, we should have seen this coming, of course: the British now have a choice to make, whether to let their government allow human "embryo banks" to be used for more than procreation efforts. That means having those nice little humans around for....spare parts. Read more here.

I think we really need to start bringing these kinds of absurdities to light more often, because we seem to be living in an age where most people think this kind of "progress" is inevitable. Why? Because so many people don't care, and those who keep pushing this mad agenda are determined folk.

But that kind of thinking would have prevented Wilberforce from working to end the slave trade. So instead of nibbling around the margins on these topics, how about let's start drawing some real lines in the sand and holding our elected leaders accountable? If you support anything like using embryos for spare parts, no more re-election for you. All that many politicians really respect is power. If they think they can get away with a controversial vote to cultivate a biotech donor, they'll oftentimes do it. 

So it's up to us to let them know what fates await their careers if they go there. Write your leaders and encourate your friends to do the same if this monstrous effort blows across the Atlantic to our shores.

(Image © EPA) 

What is this?

While I'm skeptical that the swine flu will ever reach truly pandemic proportions, it's still a good time to stop and brush up on Christian emergency preparedness. I dusted off my volume of Eusebius' History of the Church, and give you excerpts here from the time of the reign of Maximin, who ruled between 286 and 305 AD. 

Notice that when pestilence and famine come, Christians do not a) run, nor b) hoard. Instead, they stay and tend the sick and dying. They also give of what they have. I know that if such times ever come to us, there will be a cloud of witnesses cheering for us to act with such self-sacrifice.

Hundreds were dying in the cities, still more in the country villages, so that the rural registers which once contained so many names now suffered almost complete obliteration; for at one stroke food shortage and epidemic disease destroyed nearly all the inhabitants. ... Some people, shrunken like ghosts and at death's door, tottered and slipped about in all directions till, unable to stand, they fell to the ground; and as they lay face down in the middle of the streets, they implored passers-by to hand them a tiny scrap of bread, and with their life at its last gasp they called out that they were hungry--anything else than this anguished cry was beyond their strength. ...No less terrible was the pestilence which consumed every household, particularly those which were so well off for food that famine could not wipe them out. Men of great wealth, rulers, governors and numberless officials, left by the famine to the epidemic disease as if on purpose, met a sudden and very swift end. Lamentations filled the air on every side, and in all the lanes, squares and streets there was nothing to be seen except processions of mourners with the usual flute-playing and beating of breasts.

Such was the reward for Maximin's loud boasts and the cities resolutions against us, while the fruits of the Christians' limitless enthusiasm and devotion became evident to all the heathen. Alone in the midst of this terrible calamity they proved by visible deeds their sympathy and humanity. All day long some continued without rest to tend the dying and bury them--the number was immense, and there was no one to see to them; others rounded up the huge number who had been reduced to scarecrows all over the city and distributed loaves to them all, so that their praises were sung on every side, and all men glorified the God of the Christians and owned that they alone were pious and truly religious; did not their actions speak for themselves? (p. 366-367).

What is this?

We've all been treated recently to photos of our president smiling broadly and making cooing noises toward dictators like Hugo Chavez.  Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an Obama supporter, is disturbed by this seeming show of affection for modern-day Hitlers, if for no other reason than that it is "disheartening" for those living under tyranny to see the leader of the free world cozying up to despots and terrorists.  Read his article here and tell us what you think. 

(Image © AP)

What is this?

• "Why Is Hollywood Silent on Roxana Saberi?"
• "Shame Is Fleeting" 
• "Generation Me" 
• "A Hundred Anxious Days" 
• "Searching for the Spirit" 
• "Raising Katie" 
• "Haydn Go Seek"

What is this?

I was going to write about this post on the anniversary of Charles Darwin's death. And then I realized I had absolutely no idea what the author was talking about. Anyone want to translate?

(Image courtesy of MySanAntonio)

What is this?

• "Sebelius Wins Committee Approval as HHS Secretary"
• "Dan Brown to publish long-awaited new novel, The Lost Symbol"
• "Books That Explore Race in U.S. Lead Arts Pulitzers"
• "Expulsion threatened over prayer for sick teacher"

What is this?

I wondered when something like this was coming. Didn't take long.

I respect Palin's decision not to "make it all go away." She describes her doubts about whether she had the fortitude and patience to cope with a child with Down syndrome, and, with the force of a mother's fierce love, the special blessing that Trig has brought to her life. She speaks as someone who is confident that she made the correct choice.

For her. In fact, the overwhelming majority of couples choose to terminate pregnancies when prenatal testing shows severe abnormalities. In cases of Down syndrome, the abortion rate is as high as 90 percent. 

For the crowd listening to her at last week's dinner, Palin's disclosure served the comfortable role of moral reinforcement: She wavered in her faith, was tempted to sin, regained her strength and emerged better for it. 

As for those us less certain that we know, or are equipped to instruct others, when life begins and when it is permissible to terminate a pregnancy, Palin's speech offered a different lesson: Abortion is a personal issue and a personal choice. The government has no business taking that difficult decision away from those who must live with the consequences.

Alas for Ruth Marcus, the Post unwittingly undermined her argument by running the picture above with her article. When the choice is between a living, breathing, beautiful baby and, well, a pile of bloody little body parts, it becomes more difficult to view both choices as morally equivalent.

What is this?

I was stunned speechless when our president recently stood before European leaders and called us folks back home arrogant, dismissive and derisive -- thereby adding to Europe's already considerable contempt for America. That's why I appreciate this writer's reaction. My question is why more Americans aren't upset by our president's condemnatory remarks.

What is this?

• "The Church must stop trivialising Easter"
• "Women protesters against 'marital rape' law spat on and stoned in Kabul" 
• "Want to watch something really interesting?" 
• "'Britain's Got Talent' breakout Susan Boyle: Why we watch . . . and weep" 
• "How to Raise Our I.Q." 

What is this?

• "Planned Parenthood Matters"
• "UCSF team closer to creating safe embryonic-like stem cells" 
• "Demographic winter heralds same-sex marriage spring" 
• "Conscience vs. Conscience" 
• "A Mother's Day Request from the Sisters of Life" (via The Corner) 

What is this?