OrthodoxNet.com Blog

Townhall.com | Paul Weyrich | May. 12, 2008

It remains to be seen if conservatism can regain the initiative which was lost in the past few years. When there is a vacuum liberals always are prepared to rush in. When President Reagan took office the majority of Americans believed that government was the problem. Today, I am sorry to report, the majority of Americans are convinced that government is the solution. It isn’t, of course, but by time the public again is convinced that government is the problem it may well be too late. Conservatives gave up some of their principles in order to retain power. The public has lost confidence in the conservative movement. Continue Reading »

American Thinker | Mike Austin | May. 11, 2008

Another sophisticate has spoken out, and bravely. “I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s not as bright.”

So said Stephen King. He is a writer of horror I hear, though I have never read his books. I do hope that his written prose is more literate than that evinced by his speech. Continue Reading »

Center for Science and Culture

Over 700 scientists since 2001 have stood against the establishment and proclaimed: “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” The list is growing and includes scientists from the US National Academy of Sciences, Russian, Hungarian and Czech National Academies, as well as from universities such as Yale, Princeton, Stanford, MIT, UC Berkeley, UCLA, and others. Continue Reading »

Evolution versus Creation
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Townhall.com | Phyllis Schlafly | May. 5, 2008

Ben Stein is known to many as an actor on Comedy Central. But the funniest part about his recent movie “Expelled” is not any clever lines spoken by Stein but the hysterical way liberals are trying to discourage people from seeing it.

Stein’s critics fail to effectively refute anything in “Expelled”; they just use epithets to ridicule it and hope they can make it go away. However, it won’t go away; even Scientific American, which labeled the movie “shameful,” concedes that it cannot be ignored. Continue Reading »

OrthodoxEurope.org | Bishop Hilarion | May. 5, 2008

Europe is witnessing a significant re-shaping of its religious map. In some countries, where not long ago an atheist ideology was officially imposed on the entire population, and where churches were heavily persecuted, we are now witnessing an unprecedented religious revival. In other countries, however, we see a clear decline in religious practice. Secularism is gaining momentum in nations which not long ago identified themselves as Christian, while the growth of Islam is also quite noticeable. Continue Reading »

American Thinker | AWR Hawkins | May. 8, 2008

In an election year such as this, the responsible voter must assess the “glorious” ends of the Left’s various offers of a life without edges: an existence free of the normal dangers, struggles, and consequences of life.

For example, when the candidates on the Left tout universal healthcare as an end, the voting public should recognize that the means to that end will be higher taxes with less medical choices for all patients, as well lower pay and less treatment options for doctors. Continue Reading »

Evolution versus Creation
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RealClearPolitics | Robert Tracinski | May. 8, 2008

In recent weeks, Congress has been furiously backtracking on ethanol, with Democrats considering legislation that would freeze ethanol subsidies and mandates at their current level, while Republicans are talking about rolling back the whole system. The buzzword on Capitol Hill is that government supports for ethanol in gasoline have led to “unintended consequences”: a cruel tradeoff of food for fuel that has contributed to a global increase in food prices.

This recognition of the so-called Law of Unintended Consequences–coming from the mouths of everyone from Republican Representative Jeff Flake to Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer–might seem like a good thing, like an overdue expression of skepticism about the wisdom of government intervention in a free economy. The problem is that “unintended consequences” are being invoked in this case by people who have never before expressed such skepticism about the power of government–and who are not likely to do so again. Continue Reading »

FrontPageMag | Steven Milloy | May. 7, 2008

Can global warming’s vested interests close the deal on greenhouse gas regulation before the public wises up to their scam?

A new study indicates alarmist concern and a need to explain away the lack of actual global warming. Researchers belonging to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, reported in Nature (May 1) that after adjusting their climate model to reflect actual sea surface temperatures of the last 50 years, “global surface temperature may not increase over the next decade, as natural climate variations … temporarily offset the projected anthropogenic warming.” Continue Reading »

(ed. Jacobse) The debate behind the debate is this: is the world logo-centric or not? That brings us into the realm of word, speech, and narrative. It’s a fascinating area, and I was pleased to see Tom Wolfe (whom I consider to be a superb cultural commentator) is addressing it.

Uncommon Knowledge on National Review Online

The Word According to Tom Wolfe: Chapter 3 of 5
Darwin, Marx, Freud, (E.O.) Wilson? Tom Wolfe says the common thread there is the power of the word — of ideas that change human history in large and obvious ways.

Read Sorry But Your Soul Just Died (referenced in the interview).

PriestsforLife.org | May 7, 2008

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American Thinker | Marc Sheppard | May. 5, 2008

Mounting evidence of lower temperature trends despite rising atmospheric CO2 levels is becoming a real problem for the greenhouse gas crowd. And reports that the cooling appears to follow a period of dormant solar activity aren’t likely to ease their anxieties. Continue Reading »

Townhall | Dennis Prager | May. 6, 2008

It is with no pleasure that I put in writing what I have long believed: Though many individual liberals have only goodwill toward black Americans, the liberal world since the late 1960s (i.e., after the major civil rights legislation of the mid-1960s) has done incalculable damage to black America and to race relations in this country. Whether out of guilt or because of its own racist views (i.e., the unspoken but regularly implied belief in the inferiority of African-Americans), the left-of-center’s general attitude toward black Americans has been that they cannot be judged by the same standards as others.

From lowering standards of admission to universities to blaming the high number of black men in prison for violent crimes on white racism to decades of cultivating black victimhood and the subsequent Wright-like rage against America, liberals and their party, the Democrats, have immeasurably hurt African-Americans and America. Continue Reading »

American Thinker | Andrew Walden | May. 3, 2008

Speaking at the White House, Pope Benedict XVI April 16 embraced America’s “quest for freedom….” Benedict explained: “Freedom is not only a gift, but also a summons to personal responsibility. Americans know this from experience - almost every town in this country has its monuments honoring those who sacrificed their lives in defense of freedom, both at home and abroad.”

Today, as in the Civil War, Logos is on the side of freedom. And in spite of the secular media effort to obfuscate, Benedict’s message couldn’t be clearer: Logos rises to defend against the secular call for submission to the Chaos unleashed by Islam. Continue Reading »

Human Events | Benjamin Wiker | May. 5, 2008

As David Berlinski recently noted, “the thesis that there is a connection between Darwin and Hitler is widely considered a profanation.” But striking an indignant pose — feathers in full ruffle — is not an answer to such a serious charge, especially when the words of both Darwin and Hitler speak otherwise.

Those defending Darwin cannot have read his Descent of Man, wherein he applies the principles of natural selection to human beings — a thing he prudently avoided in his earlier Origin of Species. In the Descent, the eugenic and racial inferences are clearly and startlingly drawn by Darwin himself. Continue Reading »

American Thinker | Jude Acosta | May. 3, 2008

God bless America. I mean that with all sincerity. We are a nation of hopefuls and always have been. We march on Washington. We cure diseases that have wracked humanity for eons. We break records and run faster-than-four-minute miles. We split atoms and conquer space. We manifest our destinies and defy the presence of gorges, rivers, and mountains that threaten to block our collective will. Continue Reading »

ScrippsNews | Deroy Murdock | May. 1, 2008

Australia, the land where sinks drain the other way, has alerted Americans that we see Earth’s climate upside down: We’re not warming. We’re cooling.

“Disconcerting as it may be to true believers in global warming, the average temperature on Earth has remained steady or slowly declined during the past decade, despite the continued increase in the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, and now the global temperature is falling precipitously.” Dr. Phil Chapman wrote in The Australian on April 23. “All those urging action to curb global warming need to take off the blinkers and give some thought to what we should do if we are facing global cooling instead.” Continue Reading »

NRO | Roy Spencer | May. 1, 2008

There seems to be an unwritten assumption among environmentalists — and among the media — that any influence humans have on nature is, by definition, bad. I even see it in scientific papers written by climate researchers. For instance, if we can measure some minute amount of a trace gas in the atmosphere at the South Pole, well removed from its human source, we are astonished at the far-reaching effects of mankind’s “pollution.”

But if nature was left undisturbed, would it be any happier and more peaceful? Would the carnivores stop eating those poor, defenseless herbivores, as well as each other? Would fish and other kinds of sea life stop infringing on the rights of others by feasting on them? Would there be no more droughts, hurricanes, floods, heat waves, tornadoes, or glaciers flowing toward the sea? Continue Reading »

Compassionate Warmonger | David Bueche | May. 2, 2008

Driving across town the other day I saw a bumper sticker bearing what’s become a common refrain: “Dissent is the Highest Form of Patriotism!”

I sped up to catch a glimpse of this patriot - a twenty-something dude in jeans and a black t-shirt sporting the obligatory goatee and super-sized sideburns. Given the choice between him and his Prius or Paul Revere thundering through the New England countryside - I prefer the guy on the horse. Continue Reading »