OrthodoxNet.com Blog

FrontPageMag | Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson | July 2, 2009

Who won the Cold War? That’s a no-brainer. The United States prevailed while the Soviet Union collapsed, and the People’s Republic of China dumped Marxism; capitalism (free markets and private property) triumphed over socialism (centrally planned markets and state-owned property); an ethos of individual rights proved to be more resilient and healthy than collectivist ideology; relatively small, democratic government clearly was demonstrated to help a society prosper far more effectively than elitist Big Government.

How ironic, then, that voices in Russia and China are mocking our current Big Government policies. Those whose countries took the tragic, impoverishing detour through Big Government hell now react with scorn and derision as we Americans charge headlong down that same path. What an amazing spectacle it must be for them to see the victor of the Cold War borrow many pages from the losers’ playbook. more »

AFR - The Illumined Heart | Kevin Allen | Jun 26, 2009

The previous podcast on this subject with Chris Banescu stimulated comments about whether we covered the bases on this issue fully or dispassionately enough. In this conversation, Fr John Whiteford, (ROCOR) priest and frequent conservative commentator and blogger, and Dr. Amir Azarvan, (ROCOR) layman, political science lecturer, and self-described “social democrat,” talk about poverty, the welfare state, whether alms-giving is spiritually effective if government mandated, and the best way to live out the Orthodox Christian life in the world.

Orthodox Christianity and Capitalism Revisited - 6/26/09

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

more »

American Thinker | Selwyn Duke | July 1, 2009

It has been interesting watching the response to the Honduran military’s recent ousting its nation’s president, Manuel Zelaya. Barack Obama called the action “not legal” and Hillary Clinton said that the arrest of Zelaya should be condemned. Most interesting, perhaps, is that taking this position places them shoulder to shoulder with Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega and Venezuelan’s roaring mouse, Hugo Chavez, who is threatening military action against Honduras. Now, some would say this is an eclectic group - others would say, not so much - regardless, what has gotten them so upset? more »

CNSNews | Patrick J. Buchanan | June 30, 2009

“You have no notion of the intrigue that goes on in this blessed world of science,” wrote Thomas Huxley. “Science is, I fear, no purer than any other region of human activity; though it should be.”

As “Darwin’s bulldog,” Huxley would himself engage in intrigue, deceit and intellectual property theft to make his master’s theory gospel truth in Great Britain. more »

more »

FrontPageMag | Dennis Prager | June 30, 2009

How many politically incorrect movies has Hollywood made in the last generation? How many films, for instance, have depicted communist evil? Given that Communism murdered more than 100 million innocents — in peacetime! — and enslaved about 1 billion more, one would think that Hollywood would have made a fair number of movies depicting the horrors of communism. But aside from “Dr. Zhivago” and “The Killing Fields,” I cannot think of any. There are, of course, innumerable films depicting Nazi evil — as well there should be — but it takes no courage to make films depicting Nazis as evil. more »

more »

Wall Street Journal | Mary Anastasia O’Grady | June 29, 2009
Fidel Castro and Hillary Clinton object.

Hugo Chávez’s coalition-building efforts suffered a setback yesterday when the Honduran military sent its president packing for abusing the nation’s constitution.

It seems that President Mel Zelaya miscalculated when he tried to emulate the success of his good friend Hugo in reshaping the Honduran Constitution to his liking.

But Honduras is not out of the Venezuelan woods yet. Yesterday the Central American country was being pressured to restore the authoritarian Mr. Zelaya by the likes of Fidel Castro, Daniel Ortega, Hillary Clinton and, of course, Hugo himself. The Organization of American States, having ignored Mr. Zelaya’s abuses, also wants him back in power. It will be a miracle if Honduran patriots can hold their ground. more »

American Thinker | James Lewis | June 26, 2009

I’ve been trying to grasp for a truth that is so obvious that all of us know it. But it’s not a polite truth, so we don’t talk about it. Yet I think it’s important to say it out loud, because it is a truth that haunts our national discourse.

As a nation we are under the thumb of idiots. Not just indoctrinated, or wrong-thinking, or power-hungry, or manipulative, or even malevolent people. No, I mean real lowbrows, people who constantly fall for really stupid ideas. more »

FrontPageMag | Floyd and Mary Beth Brown | June 26, 2009

Imagine waiting for a year to have cancer surgery while the malignancy spreads – and then be told, “Sorry. You waited too long. Go home and die.” It happens in Britain and Canada because they have socialized medicine.

Now imagine a federal bureaucrat possessing the power to choose your doctor, tell doctors what treatments they can prescribe and which tests they can run. They decide at what age you are no longer eligible to undergo dialysis or receive an organ transplant or a CAT scan, even treatments as simple as antibiotics. more »

American Thinker | James Lewis | June 24, 2009

The White House is now occupied by a little president who just isn’t there when he is called upon to take a clear, moral stand. For such sheer gutless flabbiness and evasion, you have to look back to the dismal Jimmy Carter years. If Tehran seems quieter today, it’s because the civilian demonstrators have been identified and are being beaten and tortured and maybe killed in Evin Prison. Don’t believe for a moment that the sadistic regime has changed, just because you don’t see people bleeding on the streets. They are bleeding all right. It’s just out of public view. more »

FrontPageMag | Dennis Prager | June 24, 2009

Last week, a brief moment in time captured much that has gone wrong with post-’60s liberalism and feminism.

Brig. Gen. Michael Walsh of the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers was testifying at a hearing before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. At one point during his responses to questions posed by the Committee Chair, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, the senator interrupted the general to admonish him about using the word “ma’am” when addressing her:

“You know, do me a favor,” Boxer said in an annoyed tone of voice. “Could you say ’senator’ instead of ‘ma’am?’ It’s just a thing; I worked so hard to get that title, so I’d appreciate it. Yes, thank you.” more »

American Thinker | June 21, 2009

Is the right responsible for inspiring murder, such as that of late-term abortionist George Tiller by Kansas native Scott Roeder? Some certainly seem to think so. For instance, the Friday before last Bill O’Reilly had as a guest on his show Joan Walsh, the editor of leftist news site Salon.com. She appeared because she had criticized O’Reilly for engaging in what she called a “jihad” against Tiller. Her thesis is that O’Reilly and, presumably, the rest of us who are passionately pro-life are culpable in Tiller’s death. more »

The radical leftist lunatics at PETA never fail to amaze us with their idiocy!
AP | June 18, 2009

Norfolk-based group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he’s bedeviled by a fly in the White House. PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

“We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals,” PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. “We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals.” more »

OrthodoxyToday | Jonathan Price | June 2009

Environmental activists want us to change our lifestyle to save the planet. We must drive less, fly less, eat less meat, and take fewer baths. Green political parties and activist groups such as Greenpeace design policies to stimulate green choices, and to tax polluting ones. Bookshops are full of cheerful little guides which tell us how to reduce our carbon footprints by growing our own vegetables, using shampoo but not conditioner, and going on one long holiday instead of several sort ones.

Yet amidst all this detailed advice, these green knights remain silent on two of the most important ecological catastrophes: the explosive growth in singles, and divorce. In other words, the decline of the bourgeois family both as cultural ideal and reality. more »

City Journal | Roger Scruton | Spring 2009
We must rescue art from the modern intoxication with ugliness.

At any time between 1750 and 1930, if you had asked an educated person to describe the goal of poetry, art, or music, “beauty” would have been the answer. And if you had asked what the point of that was, you would have learned that beauty is a value, as important in its way as truth and goodness, and indeed hardly distinguishable from them.

Philosophers of the Enlightenment saw beauty as a way in which lasting moral and spiritual values acquire sensuous form. And no Romantic painter, musician, or writer would have denied that beauty was the final purpose of his art. more »

ECNMA | Blog Editor | June 11, 2009

Our OrthodoxNet Blog has won the 2009 Eastern Christian New Media Awards for Best Group Blog. We rejoice knowing that all the hard work, passion, and dedication that has gone in maintaining and managing this blog has been appreciated and supported. A warm and heartfelt Thank You to all our readers who voted and recognized these efforts. - Blog Editor

Watch your thoughts, they become words.
Watch your words, they become actions.
Watch your actions, they become habits.
Watch your habits, they become your character.
Watch your character, it becomes your destiny. more »

ChrisBanescu.com | Chris Banescu | June 14, 2009

From my years of experience working for different companies and teaching various graduate business courses, I developed three rules that management must practice in order to achieve long-term profitability and success. Follow these rules and a business can remain healthy and prosper. Ignore them and failure is virtually guaranteed in the long term. more »

Human Events | Dr. Arthur Robinson | June 8, 2009

We are all familiar with various kinds of batteries — batteries that power all sorts of devices such as cell phones, toys, motor starters, and even some automobiles. Electrical energy is easy to make by several methods, but it is difficult to store. This is the reason that most devices that use electricity are stationary, so that they can be connected through the electrical power grid directly to electricity generating plants. Portable batteries and electrical generators are bulky and expensive.

Most of us are not aware, however, that our electrical power plants themselves are also batteries in a sense — huge installations that cost very large amounts of energy to construct. This construction energy comes in various forms, but all of it is fungible — that is to say is inter-convertible with electrical energy when estimating its value and availability. more »