The latest posting today of the National Debt shows it has topped $14 trillion for the first time.
The U.S. Treasury website today reported that as of last Friday, the last day of 2010, the National Debt stood at $14,025,215,218,708.52.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Father Robert Barron Prepares Powerful Telling of the Catholic Story
Second to Pope Benedict XVI, Chicago priest Father Robert Barron may be the Church's most effective living evangelist. He is completing a monumental documentary series on the rich tapestry that is the universal Church.
CATHOLICISM, Father Barron's global effort to present the true story of Christianity and the Catholic faith, has raised over $2.5 million and filmed in over 50 locations in more than 15 countries in the past two years. He is now focused on raising $500,000 to fund global marketing and distribution.
A preview follows of what will be one of the most important instruments for the 'New Evangelization.'
Requiem for a Patriot
By Patrick J. Buchanan
“Conservative Tycoon … Dies at 95,” said the New York Times headline on New Year’s Eve about the death of Roger Milliken.
Clearly, the headline writer did not know the man.
For Roger Milliken exemplified the finest in American free enterprise. He cared about his workers. He cared about his industry. He cared about his community. He cared about his country.
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| Roger Milliken, 1915-2010 |
“Conservative Tycoon … Dies at 95,” said the New York Times headline on New Year’s Eve about the death of Roger Milliken.
Clearly, the headline writer did not know the man.
For Roger Milliken exemplified the finest in American free enterprise. He cared about his workers. He cared about his industry. He cared about his community. He cared about his country.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Human Events Names Senator Demint 'The Conservative of the Year'
We cannot think of anyone more deserving of this recognition. Thank you, Senator DeMint!
By Erick Erickson
He did not start out a conservative fighter. He was no warrior when he first arrived on Capitol Hill in 1999. Jim DeMint had replaced Rep. Bob Inglis in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. Inglis had vacated the seat to run a losing race against Senator Ernest Hollins.
DeMint’s tenure started out like that of most freshmen congressmen — anonymous and committed to bringing home the bacon, much like Rep. Inglis who, when Senator DeMint moved up to the Senate, moved back into his old House seat until the tea party movement threw him out in 2010.
Something happened to DeMint though. In a National Journal article last month, Michael Hirsh fingered the fight over No Child Left Behind, which DeMint originally opposed, but then ultimately supported.
“I want to sincerely congratulate Senator DeMint on this award. Fully aware that Human Events cannot give the award to me every year, Human Events has made the only other choice they could make. Tough, courageous, rock-solid and unflinching, Jim DeMint charts the way for all of us in truly historic times.”
— Rush Limbaugh
Conservative of the Year, 2007
From Human Events
By Erick Erickson
He did not start out a conservative fighter. He was no warrior when he first arrived on Capitol Hill in 1999. Jim DeMint had replaced Rep. Bob Inglis in South Carolina’s 4th Congressional District. Inglis had vacated the seat to run a losing race against Senator Ernest Hollins.
DeMint’s tenure started out like that of most freshmen congressmen — anonymous and committed to bringing home the bacon, much like Rep. Inglis who, when Senator DeMint moved up to the Senate, moved back into his old House seat until the tea party movement threw him out in 2010.
Something happened to DeMint though. In a National Journal article last month, Michael Hirsh fingered the fight over No Child Left Behind, which DeMint originally opposed, but then ultimately supported.
The Alexandria Church Bombing: The Plot Thickens
From Gates of Vienna
By Baron Bodissey
On New Year’s Eve a car bomb exploded outside a Coptic church in Alexandria, Egypt. 21 people were killed, and more than 100 were injured. All of the dead were Christians, as were all but a few of the injured.
President Hosni Mubarak was quick to condemn the “attack against Muslims and Christians”, a characterization of the event that was echoed by President Obama. The sophistication and scope of the attack were downplayed, with the Egyptian government insisting that a lone suicide bomber was responsible, rather than a remotely-detonated car bomb. When the Pope condemned the attack, the imam of Al-Azhar University accused him of interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs.
Today brought two new developments: evidence that there was careful advanced co-ordination for the blast, and reports by witnesses that the security detachment guarding the church abruptly departed about an hour before the bomb exploded.
President Hosni Mubarak was quick to condemn the “attack against Muslims and Christians”, a characterization of the event that was echoed by President Obama. The sophistication and scope of the attack were downplayed, with the Egyptian government insisting that a lone suicide bomber was responsible, rather than a remotely-detonated car bomb. When the Pope condemned the attack, the imam of Al-Azhar University accused him of interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs.
Today brought two new developments: evidence that there was careful advanced co-ordination for the blast, and reports by witnesses that the security detachment guarding the church abruptly departed about an hour before the bomb exploded.
Top Ten Anti-Christian Events in 2010
Defend Christians.Org, a ministry of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, has just released its annual top ten list of anti-Christian acts in America for 2010. The surprising list is selected through an online poll of Christians and people of good will who are part of Defend Christians.Org.
"The poll results demonstrate a double standard is being applied against Christians and their faith, values and liberty," said Dr. Gary Cass, Chairman and CEO. "If these same types of actions were taken against other groups one would call it bigoted. We are exposing the shameful behavior of bashing Christ and biblical values for what it is, "Christophobia;" the irrational fear and hatred of Christ and His Word."
"Every year the list of attacks grows as godless secular values are inflaming the minds of many against Almighty God, Jesus Christ and Christianity. Most of the attacks are merely rhetorical. Increasingly they are becoming codified into policies that encroach on Christian's academic freedom and liberty of conscience. Freedom of speech is denied to Christians while they are slandered by radical organizations. In extreme cases the hatred boils over into violence," says Rev. Cass.
The 2010 Top Ten List include...
1. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act; a proposed federal bill that would force ministries, including churches, to hire people who oppose their beliefs or who live in open defiance of their values.
3. Julea Ward and Jennifer Keeton are two Christian students expelled from their respective Master's programs in counseling at two different universities because they wouldn't deny their faith and affirm the validity of the homosexual lifestyle.
5. Christians are denied their civil rights and falsely arrested for disorderly conduct at an annual Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan for peacefully sharing the gospel. This happened the previous year, too. The Christians were acquitted both times of all charges.
9. The Southern Poverty Law Center, a liberal ACLU-like organization, has continued to label many mainstream Christian organizations that promote traditional marriage as "hate groups" and "anti-gay" in lists that include violent racists groups.
For the complete list visit www.DefendChristians.org.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Margaret Thatcher on 'The Moral Foundations of Society'
Margaret Thatcher was born in 1925 and went on to earn a degree in chemistry from Somerville College, Oxford, as well as a master of arts degree from the University of Oxford. For some years she worked as a research chemist and then as a barrister, specializing in tax law. Elected to the House of Commons in 1953, she later held several ministerial appointments. She was elected leader of the Conservative Party and thus leader of the Opposition in 1975.
She became Britain’s first female prime minister in 1979 and served her nation in this historic role until her resignation in 1990. In 1992, she was elevated to the House of Lords to become Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven. The first volume of her memoirs, The Downing Street Years, was published in 1993 by HarperCollins.
In November 1994, Lady natcher delivered the concluding lecture in Hillsdale Center for Constructive Alternatives seminar, “God and Man: Perspectives on Christianity in the 20th Century” before an audience of 2,500 students, faculty, and guests. In an edited version of that lecture, she examines how the Judeo-Christian tradition has provided the moral foundations of America and other nations in the West and contrasts their experience with that of the former Soviet Union.
The Moral Foundations of the American Founding
History has taught us that freedom cannot long survive unless it is based on moral foundations. The American founding bears ample witness to this fact. America has become the most powerful nation in history, yet she uses her power not for territorial expansion but to perpetuate freedom and justice throughout the world.
For over two centuries, Americans have held fast to their belief in freedom for all men—a belief that springs from their spiritual heritage. John Adams, second president of the United States, wrote in 1789, “Our Constitution was designed only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.” That was an astonishing thing to say, but it was true.
What kind of people built America and thus prompted Adams to make such a statement? Sadly, too many people, especially young people, have a hard time answering that question. They know little of their own history (This is also true in Great Britain.) But America’s is a very distinguished history, nonetheless, and it has important lessons to teach us regarding the necessity of moral foundations.
John Winthrop, who led the Great Migration to America in the early 17th century and who helped found the Massachusetts Bay Colony, declared, “We shall be as a City upon a Hill.” On the voyage to the New World, he told the members of his company that they must rise to their responsibilities and learn to live as God intended men should live: in charity, love, and cooperation with one another. Most of the early founders affirmed the colonists were infused with the same spirit, and they tried to live in accord with a Biblical ethic. They felt they weren’t able to do so in Great Britain or elsewhere in Europe. Some of them were Protestant, and some were Catholic; it didn’t matter. What mattered was that they did not feel they had the liberty to worship freely and, therefore, to live freely, at home. With enormous courage, the first American colonists set out on a perilous journey to an unknown land—without government subsidies and not in order to amass fortunes but to fulfill their faith.
History has taught us that freedom cannot long survive unless it is based on moral foundations. The American founding bears ample witness to this fact. America has become the most powerful nation in history, yet she uses her power not for territorial expansion but to perpetuate freedom and justice throughout the world.
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