The Book of Mormon

In the past year, I've recognized like never before why the Book of Mormon is so relevant to our times. It is basically a spiritual account of the history of a Christian people and how they came to be destroyed. Besides being an important testament of Jesus Christ and his atonement, it provides an eloquent explication of the ways in which a free people can destroy themselves, many of which are apparent in our modern world and range between exterior enemies to subversion from within. Ultimately, however, it came down to Sodom and Gomorrah. It is a panorama of the various attacks on faith that we see around us today. Fortunately, America has responded to creeping immorality by supporting more conservative leaders, but most likely because of the threat of terrorism.

The passivity toward such "enlightened" trends as gay marriage, abortion, pornography and materialism has not been overcome. Some of the lessons of the Book may be considered liberal, such as the need for equality and helping the needy, but the way to achieve them is not. What counts most is that such changes come from the bottom up, not the top down. You can't change people's hearts by edict.

How dare you challenge my patriotism?

Like this:

Think about it. If you think Islamic totalitarianism is a real problem, an existential threat, you write articles like Beinart's. You don't say, "Y'know, I could really get behind this twilight struggle if only the Republicans were nicer to Democrats." You don't bend over backward for fear of seeming like you're "taking sides." Or at least you don't if you love your country more than you love your party (or more than you hate George Bush).

As I read Goldberg's piece with selections from Kevin Drum, I kept thinking, "For people who claim to be such intellectuals, how do liberals reach such absurd conclusions as Drum does?"

Demand for more proof seems to be another refuge of a scoundrel, maybe next to last.

Fair's Fair

Shouldn't the U.S., which contributes 20 percent of the U.N. budget, be entitled to a cut on the billions skimmed during the Oil for Food program? It it's able to bring in hauls like that without telling us, maybe it doesn't need our contributions after all.

News flash! Liberal wishful thinking doesn't work.

Is anyone really surprised that, in Mark Steyn's words: "An Englishman's home is not his castle, but his dungeon" when it is illegal for him to defend it.

I'm with O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly told a Jewish voter who's offended by Christmas to get over it. Of course, he said it in a blunt way, but then Michael Medved, who is an Orthodox Jew, probably would have as well. O'Reilly accused the caller of insulting the majority. Prompting this response from a commenter at Hit And Run:

Jews getting upset over the Christian roots of Christmas reminds me of Christians getting upset over the pagan roots of Halloween. It misses the point. Just treat Christmas like a secular holiday -- after all, popular culture's been doing that for half a century.

Good point. What's the point of griping that the rest of the world doesn't revolve around you? This is just the self-pitying, whining kind of silliness that makes political correctness both disgusting and pointless. We can thank our courts for buying into the stigmatization nonsense that has given every minority a sense of narcissism and entitlement that society can't and shouldn't deliver.

Yes, people should be sensitive, but out of kindness and tolerance, not because they're afraid of being called bigots or threatened with lawsuits. You can't legislate tolerance. Trying to do so ends up legislating intolerance.

Overeducated

I've been nursing a theory for some time that there are certain fields in which any schooling beyond a bachelor's degree, in some cases a high school diploma, is too much. Journalism is the first area that made me think this, since reporting is probably better learned by experience and good writing is something that can't really be taught.
The second field is education.

Mirabile dictu! Someone agrees with me.

I think that boredom is only part of the problem. Another part is that PhD candidates are pressured to come up with some new approach after reviewing past research. They don't value what has really worked in the past, only was is new. Historians have the same problem--their field is already pretty trampled, and they're expected to chart a new path through it. If there is anything about education that seems demostrable, it is that repetition works. How many musicians have learned their instruments without practice, practice, practice? Yet current educational theory argues that the worst thing a teacher can do is bore the kids or be bored himself. There's a reason they call it schoolWORK.

Sounds like Mormonism!

"Natalism" that is. We not only procreate, we proselyte. One of the pet peeves on non-LDS-members in Utah is the large families of LDS members. Some seem to think there ought to be a law against it, but demographics are not on their side.

Benny Hill lives!

Of course, if I'm wrong, and this is a real woman with a serious sign, she's pathetic.