Blogworthies LXXVI

Because The Blog from the Core simply can't cover everything.

Noteworthy entries @ Conservatives Anonymous, Michelle Malkin, JustOneMinute, Post-Darwinist, open book, Dr. Sanity, Flos Carmeli, Off the Record, Power Line, HerbEly, Lex Communis, Jumping to Conclusions, bardseyeview, Bonfire of the Vanities, The Corner, Lead and Gold, Pontifications, and Dr. Helen.

Why the United States is Losing the War on Terror @ Conservatives Anonymous:

1. The fringe — It is easy enough to dismiss the far-left as a nonfactor. Nonetheless, the stories that the majority of the American public can see through look considerably more opaque to the people of Europe and the Middle East who are disposed to see us as imperialists or worse....

Letters to the GOP @ Michelle Malkin:

Reader reaction to the GOP cave-in on ANWR has been overwhelming. I'm reprinting just a small sample of letters that came in this morning from conservatives fed-up with Republican "leadership." ....

Nick Kristof, Deeper And Deeper @ JustOneMinute:

Goaded by Jack Shafer last week, Nick Kristof finally tackled the subject of his May 6 2003 column, which has been criticized for misrepresenting facets of the Wilson trip to Niger.

I delivered a broadside; Mickey Kaus parsed the Kristovian Komments, and added this insight: ....

Significant, but no surprise: Legacy media circulation slips again @ Post-Darwinist:

Yes, it slips again:

Average weekday circulation at U.S. newspapers fell 2.6 percent during the six month-period ending in September in the latest sign of trouble in the newspaper business, an industry group reported Monday.

Sunday circulation also fell 3.1 percent at newspapers reporting to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, according to an analysis of the data by the Newspaper Association of America.

We are also told,

Circulation has been steadily declining at newspapers for several years as readers look to other media such as cable TV and the Internet for news. Tougher rules on telemarketing have also hurt newspapers' ability to sign up new readers.

Like many bloggers, I honestly pity the plight of the big urban daily, just as I honestly pity the plight of yangchuanosaurus. It doesn't follow that I feel we need one in my neighbourhood....

Vows @ open book (ellipsis in original):

Finally.

I read this book about a month ago, and have been meaning to blog on it since — but doing so would require the kind of thought that is hard for me to come by these days. However — here we are, chapter 3 of the novel wrapped up for the day, baby a-napping on the couch next to me (he was asleep when I put him down, then immediately woke up. I ordered him, "Go night-night!" and after a few minutes, without a cry, he did...), birds going crazy at the feeder outside the window — the last time they did this was Saturday, and we know what happened Saturday night — and leaves pouring down from the trees in the wind. So, let's give it a shot....

A Political Narrative — With Cartoons! @ Dr. Sanity:

Once upon a time a very ordinary couple lived very quietly while working for a very very secret agency in the US government. Their one wish in life was to continue to live their lives quietly and remain undisturbed by the media or politics; just doing their important work the best way they knew how.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party, after losing two national elections, was hopelessly adrift and out of any ideas as to how to cope with the world, which was becoming decidedly complicated and difficult. Most of their passion was directed at hating the President and his party for making them, literally, losers.

One day, while searching desperately for an agenda they could wholeheartedly support, the Democrats received a subtle, yet heartfelt call from the quiet, secret couple, who instinctively seemed to understand their dilemma, and wanted to come to the aid of their party....

Confronted by Grace @ Flos Carmeli:

Sometimes the light of grace makes present some very hard truths that I know I try hard to steer around. The great iceberg of the truth is the ever-present menace to my Titanic of pride....

Laywoman issues statement on bishops' response to rioting in France @ Off the Record:

Sue Brown, a homeschooling mother of eight, kicked the dishwasher closed with one foot while she reached down to tie her three-year-old son's shoe.

As she pushed the hair out of her eyes, she exclaimed, "While, as the French bishops put it, 'recent urbanization, difficulties for young people in finding employment, and the instability of family life' are all certainly reasons behind the present unrest in the slums of Paris, Christians should examine the roots of those circumstances, and address the needs of the spirit.

"It strikes me," she stated, wielding an expert dishcloth across a sticky table and interrupting her conversation with this reporter to spell the word "onomatopoeia" to an unseen scholar in the dining room, "that unanswered wonder, a sense of spiritual alienation, and a need for repentance might be just as valid reasons for unrest, and more within the purview of the prelates in question...."

Three years of the Condor @ Power Line:

Last week before the dam began to break on the subject of the CIA war on the Bush administration, I contacted the CIA public information officer who fields media questions regarding Joe Wilson. I asked him why the Agency hadn't required Wilson to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding his trip to Niger. He hesitated for a few seconds, then responded: "I don't know." At his suggestion, I followed up with my questions by e-mail:

(1) Why wasn't Wilson's February 2002 trip to Niger made subject to a confidentiality agreement?

(2) Did the Agency contemplate that Wilson would publicly discuss the trip at will upon his return?

(3) Did the agency anticipate that if he did so, it would attract attention to the employment of his wife by the agency?

(4) Why did the Agency select Wilson for the mission to Niger to check out such an important and sensitive matter given his lack of experience in intelligence or investigation?

(5) Was the Agency aware when it selected him for the mission of his hostility to the Bush administration?

The CIA officer responded:

Given the ongoing legal process, I don't have anything for you in response to your questions about Ambassador Wilson....

No More Blank-Check Wars @ HerbEly:

Leslie H. Gelb and Anne-Marie Slaughter don't say it in their WaPo Op Ed piece, but the problems with "blank check" wars are 1) that no one can tell if they are being fought for a just cause; and 2) that our political process for deciding to go to war founders on structural ambiguities in our constitutional version of the just war criteria of legitimate authority....

Mainstream Protestant Decline. @ Lex Communis:

Loose Cannon posts on an evergreen issue for the theological left - the Catholic "priest shortage" and the ostensible need to expand the pool of potential priests. This trope inevitably involves a liberal panacea — ordination of women, ordination of gays, ordination of married people — by a liberal.

I am always amazed by the lack of curiousity shown by nearly everyone involved in these suggestions. Aren't they at all curious to see if their proposal would work?

The data suggests that these "reforms" are exactly the thing that a church should avoid if it wants to thrive. It is inarguable that mainstream Protestant denominations began to hemorrhage members in the 1970s, when they began to adopt the popular culture via accepting divorce, contraception, women priests and, in some cases, active homosexual clergy, and that this trend hasn't abated....

How to demonize a judge in twelve steps @ Jumping to Conclusions:

With the nomination of Judge Sam Alito to the Supreme Court, I thought it might be a good idea to dust off this list, to help out some of the groups opposing his nomination....

Iago and Alito @ bardseyeview:

This week, President Bush nominated Judge Alito, the son of an Italian immigrant to America, to the U.S. Supreme Court. Yesterday, an anonymous memo began circulating around Washington DC accusing Judge Alito of failing to prosecute a mafia case to conviction in 1988, when he was a New Jersey prosecutor. It turns out that this net-based memo retained some attached computer code, called "metadata," which identified not only its origin but even the user-names of two of its writers. The document's origin was the Democratic National Committee. The user names were "prendergastc," probably Chris Prendergast, and AdlerD, probably Devorah Adler, both DNC workers. Ms. Adler is part of upper DNC management....

Grace, Devotions, Indulgences etc. @ Bonfire of the Vanities (emphasis in original):

.... We often talk about grace, either not being clear about what grace is, or we talk about graces, different sorts of grace, different means or characteristics of grace — and lose sight of the big picture.

So a few key ideas:

Although we talk about different sorts of grace, essentially grace is one reality, which we experience in a variety of ways. What is grace? Grace is a sharing in God's own life; St. Thomas Aquinas said, profoundly, "Grace is God's eternal love, acting in time." ....

De Facto Parents @ The Corner:

The notion that the fundamental purpose of marriage is to encourage mothers and fathers to stay together for the sake of their children is being powerfully eroded by the movement for same-sex marriage. You can see the connection in this article, "Court Redefines Parenthood," The Seattle Times.

In this case, a lesbian couple conceived a child through sperm donation from a friend. The non-birth mother member of the female couple did not adopt the child, but acted as the stay-at-home mother while the other woman worked. When the couple broke up, the non-birth mother was denied access to the child by the birth mother. She sued and has now been recognized as the de facto second parent by the court. In the meantime, the birth mother married the child's biological father. Yet he is still not recognized as the child's legal father. The other parent is the de facto second mother. So the two biological parents are now married and living together, yet the legal parents are separated and at odds.

In itself, this scenario is profoundly destructive of marriage....

Plame/Wilson @ Lead and Gold:

Fitzmas turned out to be less decisive than most hoped. I wonder what the next phase holds?...

Should One Remain an Episcopalian? — A Personal Testimony @ Pontifications (emphasis in original):

.... Should we, or should we not, remain in the Episcopal Church (ECUSA)? That is a question that I have faced for some years. I finally decided I could not remain in eucharistic fellowship with an apostate ECUSA. As a result, I have joined the Anglican Mission in America. This was a serious decision, and I believe I must explain why I took this step.

To summarize, I believe it is an ethical issue, that is, an issue of obedience to God and his revealed will. Above all, God has revealed himself in Scripture, and that was the basis of my decision. Further, the revelation in Scripture is reinforced by the tradition of the Church, the Prayer Book, and the Anglican understanding of the Church and the Episcopate. When all of these came together as one, I came to believe that I must be obedient and leave the Episcopal Church....

Who Stole Psychology? @ Dr. Helen:

I read recently that 93% of all psychologists are left leaning; that explains alot about my profession. I wish that in the 1980's when I started studying psychology that I had been given the list of rules and regulations outlining the political views I was being signed up for, without my consent. But at that time, I wasn't aware of the "rules" — maybe they were different then, or maybe I just didn't get the memo. If I had, I would have just walked away....

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sat. 11/12/05 10:31:57 AM
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