The Point

Well, maybe you have, but I'd never heard it before the local country station played it the other day, in honor of Independence Day. Enjoy, and have a happy Fourth!

What is this?

• "NKorea fires missile; launch toward US feared"
• "Post Publisher Cancels Plans for Off-the-Record 'Salons'"
• "Facebook's Easy Virtue"

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?

• "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 second annual "Troopathon" is being celebrated today, in support of soldiers and their families. Visit Move America Forward's Troopathon site to find out what the event is all about. And don't miss the tributes being published on Big Hollywood, which has devoted the entire day to Troopathon. (Be aware that BH contains the occasional suggestive image and rough language.)

(Image © Troopathon)

What is this?

Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch reports that three missionaries in Yemen have been killed, possibly by a former Gitmo prisoner. If this has been reported by the mainstream media, I've missed it. In any case, such news throws a dark shadow over the president's plan to close Gitmo and release dangerous men back into the world.

What is this?

Glad we got that settled. Because as we all know, brigadier generals sit in front of soap operas eating bon-bons all day to get their titles.

What is this?

A recent post from Jill Stanek pointed me towards this piece by William Saletan on Dr. George Tiller. Saletan is trying to argue that pro-life arguments don't hold together -- but it's his own arguments that strike me as being on very shaky ground:

To me, Tiller was brave. His work makes me want to puke. But so does combat, the kind where guts are spilled and people choke on their own blood. I like to think I love my country and would fight for it. But I doubt I have the stomach to pull the trigger, much less put my life on the line. . . .

The people who do late-term abortions are the ones who don't flinch. They're like the veterans you sometimes see in war documentaries, quietly recounting what they faced and did. You think you're pro-choice. You think marching or phone-banking makes you an activist. You know nothing. There's you, and then there are the people who work in the clinics. And then there are the people who use the forceps. And then there are the people who use the forceps nobody else will use. At the end of the line, there's George Tiller.

He's right about one thing: The military does a dirty job, a job that needs to be done, but one that many of us know we're not strong or brave enough to do.

But the last time I checked, we hadn't declared war on the unborn.

At least, not officially.

(Image courtesy of Mark Mallett)

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?

A good example of both the speed of the news cycle, and the President's schizophrenic thinking on social issues: When I found and collected this article this morning, it was titled "AP source: Benefits for govt workers' gay partners." When I clicked on it just now to see if there were any updates, it was titled "Obama fends off criticism from gay supporters." The odd thing is, both headlines are true.

(Image © AFP)

What is this?

• "Iran: Election Aftermath and World Reaction"
• "America's 'Bermuda solution' angers Britain"
• "Obama Admin Hearts DOMA (For Now). Do Gays Still Heart Obama?"
• "Is My Marriage Gay?"
• "U.S. Births Hint at Bias for Boys in Some Asians"

What is this?

Liberal columnist and talk-show host Bonnie Erbe suggests that we "round up" purveyors of hate speech before they cause violence:

Not only have we had three hate crime murders within the last two weeks ([Stephen] Johns, as noted above, Dr. George Tiller a week ago last Sunday, and Pvt. William Andrew Long by an American-born Muslim convert outside a recruiting station just before that.)

Now we have this quote from the so-called Rev. Jeremiah Wright, who used to be President Obama's pastor. Hate comes from among all peoples and all religions. He said this about his lack of communication with Barack Obama since he's been elected president, according to the AP:

"Them Jews ain't going to let him talk to me. I told my baby daughter that he'll talk to me in five years when he's a lame duck, or in eight years when he's out of office," Wright told the Daily Press of Newport News following a Tuesday night sermon at the 95th annual Hampton University Ministers' Conference.

It's not enough to prosecute these murders as murders. They are hate-motivated crimes and each of these men had been under some sort of police surveillance prior to their actions. Isn't it time we started rounding up promoters of hate before they kill?

I've been as sickened and disturbed as anyone by the incidents Erbe describes, as you all know, but I wonder if she's thought this through. "Round them up" and then do . . . what? Put them in jail for thoughtcrime? I thought that sort of thing went against everything that the left held dear. (If you'd told me back during the presidential campaign, when we were all being told to pay no attention to the man behind the pulpit, that a prominent liberal journalist would soon advocate his arrest, I'd have done a spit-take all over my keyboard.)

We need to take steps against the encouragement of violence in our society; there's no question about that. But the steps Erbe advocates would lead us in a very dangerous direction.

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?

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?

• "S.F.'s blast at Vatican was legal, court says"
• "Wilders Causes Another Row. Pre-Captivity Stockholm Syndrome"
• "Guantanamo Bay Detainee Brought to U.S. for Trial"
• "Palau (Who?) to Take in 17 Uighurs"
• "N. Korean Women Who Flee to China Suffer in Stateless Limbo"
• "Family of Slain Doctor Shutters Abortion Clinic"
• "Atheists keep faith with Barack Obama"
• "Sex without Intimacy: No Dating, No Relationships"
• "When Less Is More: Finding Inspiration in Severe Disability"
• "Box Office Busters from 'Godlywood'"
• "Creating tracts that look like money"

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?

• "Sarkozy: 'The Islamization of Europe is inevitable'" (via Five Feet of Fury)
• "Teen's tale of escape from Rwandan genocide to high school graduation in America"
• "Preacher Don't Publish"
• "Antiabortion Efforts Move to the State Level"
• "Court rejects challenge to 'don't ask, don't tell'"
• "'Do you really believe anything happens after you die?'"
• "Daddy Can't Come Home: He's in Jail"
• "Hollywood, Music, and the Death of Class" (contains vulgar terms and images)
• "Of God and Politics"

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?

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

(Image courtesy of CNN)

What is this?

The president claims that Iran has the right to develop a nuclear energy program. My question is why he and his supporters don't see the same need (and right) here in America. I agree with the IBD editorial that says, "We have legitimate energy aspirations as well, and one of them is reducing our dependence on imported oil from countries that do not have our interests at heart." Amen.

What is this?

• "Presidential Proclamation: LGBT Pride Month"
• "Obama Says U.S. Could Be Seen As a Muslim Country, Too" (via The Corner)
• "Starvation by Court Order"
• "Susan Boyle and the celebrity machine -- when will we learn?"
• "Brazil Finds More Wreckage from Jetliner Crash"

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?

• "Can a Black Man Stand for Truth?"
• "This Is Elevated Discourse?"
• "Speak Softly and Carry a Big Teleprompter"
• "Fairfax High's prom queen is a guy"
• "Playboy: In Like Flynt" (strong sexually violent themes, profanity)

What is this?

Gov. Sarah Palin draws an important, and largely overlooked, connection:

The stories of two very different lives with similar fates crossed through the media's hands yesterday — both equally important but one lacked the proper attention. The death of 67-year old George Tiller was unacceptable, but equally disgusting was another death that police believe was politically and religiously motivated as well.

William Long died yesterday. The 23-year old Army Recruiter was gunned down by a fanatic; another fellow soldier was wounded in the ambush. The soldiers had just completed their basic training and were talking to potential recruits, just as my son, Track, once did.

Whatever titles we give these murderers, both deserve our attention. Violence like that is no way to solve a political dispute nor a religious one. And the fanatics on all sides do great disservice when they confuse dissention with rage and death.

(Image © AP)

What is this?

Has anyone else noticed the blatant incongruity in President Obama’s positions when it comes to abortion and torture?

He believes it is fine for a woman to abort her unborn child for any reason and at anytime during the pregnancy. Even if the child initially survives an abortion attempt there should be no attempt to save that child and the doctors will not be held accountable. YET, he finds it totally unacceptable to use waterboarding on a terrorist who may know something about a possible attack on Americans, even if the information obtained could prevent that attack from happening and save many lives.

Irony #1: Abortion always causes the child to die while waterboarding never causes the terrorist to die.

Irony #2: Abortion tears the child’s body apart while waterboarding at most causes the terrorist to swallow water. Ronald Reagan said, “The abortionist who reassembles the arms and legs of a tiny baby to make sure all its parts have been torn from its mother's body can hardly doubt whether it is a human being.”

Irony #3: The government wants to go after those that have allowed waterboarding and have them prosecuted or disbarred while those that uphold abortion are given positions in President Obama’s administration.

Irony #4: President Obama calls waterboarding torture, abortion a choice.

Barack Obama condemns the use of torture but isn’t it time for him to recognize that abortion IS torture and condemn it as well?

Jesus said, “'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" (Matthew 25:40)

(Image courtesy of LifeSiteNews)

What is this?

• "Fighting for control of Somalia" (contains graphic images)
• "Another One Gets Off the Evangelical Bus: Thoughts on a De-Conversion"
• "U.S. student, 20, emerges as anti-abortion crusader"
• "Abortion debate changing" (via CitizenLink)
• "Hillary Clinton May Have Misled Congress on Brazil Botched Abortion Claims"
• "Surviving church as a single"

What is this?

Ted Olson is suing to overturn the Prop. 8 ruling in California (along with former Bush v. Gore opponent David Boles) . . .

. . . and Ted Rall wants President Obama to resign.

There are days when I feel exactly like Alice.

(Image courtesy of Project Gutenberg)

What is this?

• "Bibles Destroyed in Afghanistan . . . by U.S. Military"
• "Happy Like God"

What is this?

What do you think about the former vice-president taking on President Obama over the war on terror? This IBD article gives a clear edge to Cheney because he has a more mature grasp of both the pre- and post-9/11 world. Do you agree or disagree?

(Image courtesy of the AP and the BBC)

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?

This Memorial Day, columnist Diane Evans reminds us of the point of the holiday: "Take time from whatever you're doing to remember those who went before you, without whom you wouldn't have the opportunities you have today." And she suggests some good reading to help us do just that.

Have a blessed Memorial Day, and make sure to take time to remember.

What is this?

I'll be the first to acknowledge that the Republican party needs to make some changes, but I don't think this is the way to go about it. (Note: sexual themes.)

(Image © Comedy Central)

What is this?

We've all become familiar with the concept of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard), though it usually comes up with issues like nuclear waste, garbage dumps, power lines, or new prisons. But now for the ultimate in NIMBY: It's time to find a new home for Guantanamo Bay detainees!

Representative Frank Wolf (R-Virginia), who represents many of the Northern Virginia suburbs where some 17 detainees might be relocated, is having none of it. This is a no-brainer position for any politician who wants to be popular in his district. Few enjoy the prospect of having someone who fought U.S. troops landing literally in their backyard in tony Fairfax.

But whatever happened to "love your neighbor," some may ask. Well, it's true that Jesus preached a gospel that demanded love beyond one's immediate circle of family and friends. However, he also said that we were to "love our neighbor as ourselves." Many in Frank Wolf's Congressional District, including Christians, might well discern that self-preservation is part of Jesus's admonition.

You aren't much good to anyone else if you're hacked to pieces by someone who hates your country.  

What is this?

Relax, it's just an analogy -- the kind that could only have been dreamed up by Mark Steyn.

Alarmed by her erratic public performance, the speaker’s fellow San Francisco Democrat Dianne Feinstein attempted to put an end to Nancy’s self-torture session. “I don’t want to make an apology for anybody,” said Senator Feinstein, “but in 2002, it wasn’t 2006, ’07, ’08, or ’09. It was right after 9/11, and there were in fact discussions about a second wave of attacks.”

Indeed. In effect, the senator is saying waterboarding was acceptable in 2002, but not by 2009. The waterboarding didn’t change, but the country did. It was no longer America’s war but Bush’s war. And it was no longer a bipartisan interrogation technique that enjoyed the explicit approval of both parties’ leaderships, but a grubby Bush-Cheney-Rummy war crime.

Dianne Feinstein has provided the least worst explanation for her colleague’s behavior. The alternative — that Speaker Pelosi is a contemptible opportunist hack playing the cheapest but most destructive kind of politics with key elements of national security — is, of course, unthinkable. Senator Feinstein says airily that no reasonable person would hold dear Nancy to account for what she supported all those years ago. But it’s okay to hold Cheney or some no-name Justice Department backroom boy to account?

Well, sure. It’s the Miss USA standard of political integrity: Carrie Prejean and Barack Obama have the same publicly stated views on gay marriage. But the politically correct enforcers know that Barack doesn’t mean it, so that’s okay, whereas Carrie does, so that’s a hate crime. In the torture debate, Pelosi is Obama and Dick Cheney is Carrie Prejean. Dick means it, because to him this is an issue of national security. Nancy doesn’t, because to her it’s about the shifting breezes of political viability.

(Image courtesy of the Rockford Register Star)

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?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi keeps insisting that even though she and her aides and associates were briefed on CIA interrogation techniques, she wasn't fully aware of what was going on. Most uninformative briefings those must have been.

This raises the question: What else hasn't the Speaker been told?

(Image © Lauren Victoria Burke for the AP)

What is this?

I was extremely thankful to read that President Obama has reversed course and now opposes releasing any more photos of detainees being interrogated. He has wisely noted that releasing these photos would flame anti-American sentiment and endanger our troops. According to the president, “The publication of these photos would not add any additional benefit to our understanding of what was carried out in the past by small number of individuals."

I wish the ACLU got this. Thank goodness, the president does. 

(Image © Shawna Shepherd for CNN)

What is this?

Years ago in a religious studies class, a professor of mine--no prude, he--told us a startling remark by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner to keep us on our toes.  My professor referenced an early interview Hefner gave after he launched Playboy, in which the pajama-clad Casanova said airily, "Incest is the last boundary we need to cross."

So much for harmless soft porn, eh?

Well, as Hefner has been busy crowning the 50th Playboy Playmate, his famous publication is legitimizing at least conversation on such taboo subjects. Shia LeBeouf, a rising young actor, said in a recent interview that he found his mother so sexually attractive that if she wasn't his mother, he'd want to be with her that way.

While breaking through the last remaining cultural and ethical barricades makes some young Hollywood members feel liberated, there's a reason such barricades are up, of course. For one thing, they separate us from the animals. But, like Phil Donahue and others, Hef no doubt sees us as merely human animals, with no soul to protect and value in ourselves or others.

(Image © AP)

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?

• "In Pakistan, 'Great Rage, Great Fear'"
• "Sending of Explicit Photos Can Land Teens in Legal Fix"
• "Maine and N.H. Move to Expand Gay Rights"
• "Lila calls Memphis Planned Parenthood's bluff"
• "Obama Offers D.C. Voucher Compromise"

What is this?

• "BREAKING: White House Overrides FBI and DHS on Gitmo Release"
• "Why Are Christian Movies So Bad?" 
• "Heroic Hollywood: American Exceptionalism and the Hollywood Hero"  
• "Newsweek: Bias? It's Your Eyes That Lie, Young Jedi"  
• "Johnny's dogs"  
• "Recovering sinners"  

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?

North Korea Freedom Week began yesterday. If you're in the Washington, D.C., area, there are many activities -- prayer vigils, rallies, film screenings, information sessions, and more -- in which you can participate. If not, you can still help spread the word about human rights violations in North Korea, and pray for the oppressed. You can also read this op-ed about why President Obama should make human rights issues a priority when dealing with the North Korean government.

Later this week I'll review the Korean film The Crossing, described by the Wall Street Journal as "a 'Schindler's List' for North Korea." Special thanks to Dr. Katy Oh Hassig for the information about North Korea Freedom Week and also for lending me her copy of the film.

(Image © North Korea Freedom Coalition)

What is this?

• "Happy Earth Day"
• "Same-Sex Marriage and Religious Liberty Issues in Connecticut" (via The Corner)
• "The Crappiest Generation" (mild profanity/vulgarity)
• "In time of victory, why is the left so angry?"

What is this?

Holding the microphone close to her little mouth, Kaitlyn stares confidently out into the audience, and begins the first few lines of her favorite song, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me ..."

About a year ago, on her way to an audition for America's Got Talent, then 4-year-old Kaitlyn Maher told her father, "Daddy, I want to see the sparkles come down." Gently, Reuben told his young daughter that it would be nice if she would make it all the way to the Top 10, but that if it didn't happen it would be okay.

"Daddy, I'm going to ask Jesus," Kaitlyn responded, bowing her head to ask Jesus to let her see the confetti fall at the night the winners of the show are announced, but adding that if it wasn't His will, she didn't want it.

What is this?

• "De-Baptism Gains a Following in Britain"
• "National Bully Day"  
• "Teens locked up for life without a second chance" 
• "Bush-era interrogation memo: No torture without 'severe pain' intent"  
• "Obama derangement syndrome" 
• "Genius locus: Autism and extraordinary ability"  

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?

• "Taleban 'kill love affair couple'"
• "Sebelius lowballed donations from abortion doctor" (via The Corner)
• "Federal agency warns of radicals on right" (via The Corner) 
• "Security Risk?!" 
• "About That Obama Iraq Visit" 
• "The Latest Insanity at Notre Dame" 
• "A Racial Shift in Drug-Crime Prisoners" 

What is this?

• "Young Iranian Christians Held in Notorious Prison without Charge"
• "Every Who Down in Whoville"  
• "Q&A: Rick Warren" 
• "'Our Father'"  
• "A Resilient Christianity"  
• "This I Believe"  
• "The New Blacklist" (sexual content and profanity) 
• "Are Gay Activists Too Wedded to the Cause?"  
• "Ex-POW McCain Returns to 'Hanoi Hilton' Prison"  
• "Kicking at the darkness" 

What is this?

Captain Richard Phillips is free. Thanks be to God. (H/T Some Have Hats)

What is this?