What’s that old saying? Each generation will become weaker and wiser. Who said it?
The high-tech age has encouraged a sedentary lifestyle, which renders us physically weaker than generations before us. We’re weaker morally, I think, because we’ve mainstreamed permissiveness, sexual and otherwise.
Are we wiser? Under the definition “having knowledge or information as to facts, circumstances,” perhaps. Thanks to the microchip, we know (or can know) a little about everything. If we’re using the definition “having the power of discerning and judging properly as to what is true or right,” then a resounding no.
What’s sad is that America as a whole is losing touch with the meaning of biblical references (the patience of Job, the wisdom of Solomon, the return of the Prodigal Son, Judas’ kiss, doubting Thomas, etc.). On a related note, we’ve heard and read about how poorly young people do on historical literacy tests. A new study from the American Enterprise Institute reports more of the same.
Half the nation’s 17-year-olds can’t identify history references, such as pinpointing the decade in which the Civil War was fought, knowing the main theme of 1984 or what Senator Joseph McCarthy had been trying to do. (But, if they’re taught, they will learn. What do government schools teach these days? I don’t know.) From USA Today:
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I don't cover politics much anymore, but I still receive review copies of political books. I wrote a review of Wrong On Race: The Democratic Party's Buried Past, by Bruce Bartlett. You may find it useful.
“[V]irtually every significant racist in American political history was a Democrat.”
On December 5, 2002, Republican senator Trent Lott toasted 100-year-old Republican senator Strom Thurmond, a former segregationist, at a private birthday party, saying that if the rest of the country had voted for Thurmond for president as he had (Thurmond ran in 1948 as a Dixiecrat), “we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years.”
About a year and a half later, on the Senate floor (and on taxpayers’ time), Democrat Chris Dodd said that Democrat Robert Byrd (who said on cable TV a few years earlier that he’d seen a lot of “white niggers” in his time), a former segregationist and KKK recruiter, would have been “a great senator” during America’s founding, crafting of the Constitution, and the Civil War.
The backlash against Lott was fierce. He apologized and groveled on Black Entertainment Television (BET) but was eventually drummed out of his leadership post. The backlash against Dodd? Non-existent. He neither prostrated himself before the PC gods nor played the fool on BET.
This double standard was the result of a long distorted history of both parties. The Democrats, seen as the civil rights party, supported slavery, opposed civil rights legislation, instituted the “Black Codes,” and created the Jim Crow system. The Republican Party, in contrast, was founded in opposition to slavery, and supported post-Civil War and Civil Rights Movement-era legislation.
“All of the racism that we associate with [the southern] region of the country originated with and was enforced by elected Democrats,” writes Bruce Bartlett, a former domestic policy advisor to President Ronald Reagan and a Treasury official under President George H.W. Bush. In Wrong on Race: The Democratic Party’s Buried Past, Bartlett goes deep into the history of the Democratic Party and attempts to set the record straight.
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King Solomon tells us in Ecclesiastes that there is nothing new under the sun. All that has come before will come again. Whenever we think we’ve uncovered something new about ourselves or the world, all we need do is look to history to set us straight.
Ken Bazyn, editorial director of the Religious Book Club, offers an insightful look at history in The Seven Perennial Sins and Their Offspring. In this readable, yet intricate work, he gives us a literary, religious and philosophical perspective on the seven “perennial” or “root-sins”: pride, envy, anger, avarice (greed), lust, gluttony and sloth (apathy). While the very idea of sin has fallen out of fashion — as pointed out to me by a colleague who once remarked that “sin is a Western concept” — we see it in action every day.
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Warning: This review contains MAJOR spoilers.
J.K. Rowling’s epic tale about an orphan boy who discovers he’s a wizard at age 11 comes to an end in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The seventh and final book in the series sold a reported 11 million copies in the first 24 hours on sale, which broke the record for fastest-selling book. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince held the previous record at nine million.
The seven-book series has sold more than 325 million copies worldwide. The first five books have been made into top-grossing movies, and Rowling has been named one of the richest people in the world.
Not bad for a former divorced welfare mother who nursed cold cups of coffee in a café while writing the first book.
Read the rest at Townhall.com.
Update (7/31): When a religion reporter called Deathly Hallows “unambiguously Christian,” he was referring to the “Christian” concept of substitutionary sacrifice. I’m going to take a semi-educated guess and say that Christianity is unique in this regard: a sinless Savior who sacrifices himself to pay for the sins of others.
Is substitutionary sacrifice a major (or minor) feature of other religions? Discuss here.
America may be too good for its own good.
The qualities that draw people from all over the world – religious and political freedom, the rule of law, due process, a vibrant economy, and a high standard of living – are the same qualities bad eggs use against us.
There are an estimated 10 million illegal aliens in the United States. According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the net cost of illegal immigration is about $70 billion per year, which doesn’t include unemployment compensation for legal citizens who lost jobs to illegal aliens.
While men and women are dying in Iraq to “make the world safe for democracy,†illegal aliens flout the rule of law at home, freely crossing our borders with a miniscule chance of being caught and deported. If Al Qaeda wanted to smuggle in a nuclear weapon, America’s southern border is a very inviting place to start.
In the age of terrorism, the federal government still won’t enforce immigration law. We can only guess why: addiction to cheap labor, fear of being called racists, blackmail by Mexican president Vicente Fox. I’m only half-kidding about Fox, but it makes me wonder why the government refuses to enforce the law.
[Now former] Congressman J.D. Hayworth of Arizona wonders, too. In his new book, Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, And the War on Terror, he explains how America is complicit in illegal immigration, a fact that would-be terrorists (who he calls “Islamofascists”) use to their advantage. Excluding the notes and index, the book is a quick read at just under 200 pages with 11 chapters. Hayworth uses plain language, devoid of politically correct jargon. He offers persuasive arguments against the nation-destroying insanity that is allowing millions of illegal aliens to infiltrate, overburden, and ultimately destroy our way of life.
Hayworth points out the absurdity of our current policies and wonders why illegal aliens are fearful of getting caught when the chances of being deported are low:
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Chastity is a misunderstood virtue.
It is more than simply refraining from premarital sex. It’s an attitude, a way of life, and open rebellion against a debauched culture. Contrary to popular opinion, Christians don’t think sex is dirty or evil. Christians believe sex outside marriage is wrong.
The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On is part memoir and part how-to guide on giving up casual sex, embracing chastity, and experiencing “a life more hope-filled, more vibrant, and more real” by putting sex in its proper place. That kind of life, says author Dawn Eden, is the thrill of the chaste.
The thirty-something [now former] New York Daily News editor, blogger, and Christian convert has written a nakedly honest book for a specific audience: single women ready to admit that premarital sex is not making them happy or helping them find the husband they desperately seek.
In The Thrill of the Chaste, Eden contends that our casual sex culture encourages singles to view one another as commodities. Like many young single women, she was caught up in the hype that sex is the way to a man’s heart. Eden began to understand that premarital sex and its attendant baggage actually made it less likely that she’d get married. For example, to protect oneself from the eventual let-down of casual encounters, one must develop a toughness. In Eden’s case, she sabotaged relationships before she got dumped so she could remain in control.
“[T]he same armor that enabled me to tolerate casual sex made me less attractive to the kind of man I most desired.”
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I met actor Joseph C. Phillips last year when we shared a discussion panel with Shelby Steele (author of White Guilt: How Blacks and Whites Together Destroyed the Promise of the Civil Rights Era) on race relations. At one point during the Q&A, Phillips lost his temper with someone in the audience. He admonished the person for failing to acknowledge that America’s Founders, regardless of their faults, had the right ideas. Individual liberty, freedom of expression, due process, etc., are objectively good principles, even if the Founders hadn’t intended to apply these principles to blacks.
Phillips had committed the “sin” of publicly expressing gratitude for being an American, despite America’s history of slavery and subjugation. His new book, He Talk Like A White Boy, is a semi-autobiographical collection of essays about his love for this country and his respect for the “old school” values that make America strong. Recurring themes are family, faith, and freedom.
Best known for his roles as Lt. Martin Kendall on “The Cosby Show” and Justus Ward on the soap opera “General Hospital,” Phillips is a rarity in Hollywood. He writes candidly about growing up speaking proper English (”talking white”), being different from the mainstream, and having his “blackness” questioned.
The opening anecdote of the 232-page book sets the tone and reveals what eventually becomes a lifelong frustration. After he made a comment in his junior high school accelerated English class, another black student said, “He talk like a white boy!” What does that mean? Phillips thought. Instead of chastising the girl or dealing with the substance of the remark, the teacher merely corrected her grammar.
“No, LaQueesha. Joseph speaks like a white boy!” The teacher had the entire class repeat the correct sentence. “[T]hat moment,” writes Phillips, “was not only the beginning of junior high school, it was the beginning of my life.”
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I reviewed blogger Dawn Eden’s fabulous book, The Thrill of the Chaste: Finding Fulfillment While Keeping Your Clothes On.
Check out “Rebelliously Chaste.”
As a chaste woman myself, her book resonated deeply and reminded me why I have trouble talking and writing about sexual abstinence without mentioning Christ.
The reasons for abstaining from sex until marriage are larger than avoiding pregnancy or disease. Abstinence should be elevated above mere self-control and delayed gratification. In order for chastity to be meaningful, one has to believe that he/she is being obedient to God, that the sexual act itself has a spiritual purpose ordained by God and intended for two people united in marriage.
Old-fashioned, I know. I should start a new blog called Retro Woman. 
If you’ve read the book, I’d love to read your mini reviews. What are your views about sexual abstinence until marriage in general?
No off-topic comments, please.
Update (4/4): Just in case anyone is thinking this, let me clear the air. I am not a virgin. Wish I was, but that’s spilled milk under the bridge. After I became a Christian, I decided to abstain until marriage (some Christians don’t), though I began to abstain before becoming a Christian. It’s strange to think that if I don’t get married, I’ll never again…anyway, it is only by God’s grace that I can remain chaste.
And broadcast it on a public blog.
Update: Check out another book reviewing blogger at Big Mo’s Book Reviews.
Jim Cannon, a blogging pal from way back, interviews a national guard soldier serving in Iraq.
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I’ve got it, alright. I’m such a geek.
One of my dreams was to review books for a living. That’s it. No movie or music reviews. Just book reviews. Nothing seemed as cool as receiving free books every week and reviewing them for a living.
Then reality hit. Reviewing books doesn’t pay the bills. But I do it anyway because I love reading and writing and telling people what I learned from reading the book. (See Writings for samples) [4:23 p.m.: The following sentence appeared in an earlier draft of this post. It disappeared, so I'm adding it again: "I don't even know if I'm doing it 'correctly.' I don't care. I just like reviewing."]
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Update (9/12): Instead of recoiling in disgust at the typo the editor and I missed, I’ll make a sport of it. See if you can spot the tiny typo in my otherwise OK book review of Juan Williams’s Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America — and What We Can Do About It.
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- A story in the Baltimore Sun about blogging — World wide gab — and a podcast link in the sidebar.
- Download (MP3) an interview with Stacy Harp (It was on a Friday and I was in a silly mood – the most unusual interview I’ve done in awhile).
I reviewed fellow conservative Joseph C. Phillips’s new book, He Talk Like A White Boy, for National Review Online. Check it out.
I’m pleased to announce that I have an incentive to return to regular column writing. Blogger and journalist Mark Tapscott, editorial page editor at the Washington Examiner, has put together a blogger “Board of Contributors” for the paper, and I’ve been asked to join. So long, procrastination blues!
There’s one contingency. Mark made me promise to write with the “usual fire and flair.” Not a problem. 
The Washington Examiner is a daily commuter paper distributed throughout the city and a few Maryland and Virginia suburbs. If you live in the city, you’ll know all about it. You’ll see sections of the paper scattered everywhere, especially on the Metro right after rush hour. Employees pass them out at Metro entrances. The tabloid size makes them more convenient than broadsheets. (PDF copy of print edition)
This is a great opportunity professionally. My biweekly column will appear in the D.C. and Baltimore print editions, as well as online. Not only do I get to tell a wider range of people what I think, but I’ll be paid to do it. Being published online is great, especially if you want to create buzz in the blogosphere, but there’s something thrilling about seeing your byline in “old-fashioned” print.
A big “Thank you!” to regular readers. Without this blog and your interest, such opportunities would not come my way.
If you’ve read Joseph’s book, give us your assessment. If something else is on your mind, discuss it here. I’m going offline for the weekend. Rest easy, everybody.
Addendum: The Calvinist Gadfly says:
This may sound strange but I am glad that La Shawn does not blog frequently on The Language Artist. I have too many blogs as it is to keep up.
Thanks for the shout-out, Alan! Your post makes me feel a little less guilty about neglecting the business blog. 
Update (6/3): I just saw X-Men: The Last Stand. In a word…awesome. If you’ve seen it, review it here. No spoilers, please.
Update II (3/27): From the Townhall.com review of An Army of Davids:
Reynolds provides a wide range of examples how new technologies empower individuals, from helping amateur musicians distribute their online music to the masses without record companies to allowing private citizens to respond to terrorist attacks and disasters better and more efficiently than the government.
New technologies can and are used for nefarious purposes, too. An Army of Davids covers such abuses as terrorists engaging in cyber warfare and the possibility that nanotechnology, (“manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levelâ€), a topic Reynolds blogs about frequently, could be used as “disease†agents or that nanobots could “hide out in people’s brains.†(hat tip to Michael Crichton!). The positive aspect of nanotechnology is its potential to repair cells damaged by radiation or destroy cancer cells or deliver oxygen to the brain to protect from drowning. The possibilities – and abuses – are endless.
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I’m out the door and will be on the Treo for most of the day. While I’m gone, turn your attention to these book reviews:
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I reviewed a blood pressure-raising book for Townhall.com called Whatever It Takes: Illegal Immigration, Border Security, And the War on Terror.
Congressman J.D. Hayworth, a Republican from Arizona who once voted against immigration legislation, decided to write a book that exposes the dangers we face from lax immigration enforcement. Legal, law-abiding citizens are at risk, and the government turns a blind eye. Read the review.
Speaking of blind government, American patriots are doing what our federal government refuses to do: deter border jumping. Beginning in April, 6,500 volunteers will guard and patrol the Mexican and Canadian borders. These are volunteers of the Minuteman Project, a subject I’ve written about a lot. I was so glad to learn that some people are doing instead of just talking. (I forgot to mention that I met Jim Gilchrist, co-founder of the Minuteman Project, at CPAC.)
Contrary to popular opinion, the Minuteman volunteers are not “rednecks” or “white supremacists” threatening Mexicans trying to cross the border. They peacefully stand watch at the border, breaking no laws. Just the sight of them seems to deter would-be illegal aliens. In fact, it’s so simple, even a government can do it.
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I don’t think it’ll happen, but Dick Morris has high hopes for Dr. Rice. Would Americans elect a woman for president of the United States? If the two candidates were women, they obviously would. But I doubt Republicans or Democrats would nominate a woman. I think a black man would stand a better chance at gaining the White House than any woman.
What do you think?
A Biased List of Related Sites:
December 5, 2005: Did you surf here from Google? Visit my new blog, Fantasy Fiction for Christians.
Friday, November 18, 2005: Have you seen The Goblet of Fire? Tell us what you think!
Update IV (11/1): Continue discussing Harry Potter theories here.
Update III (10/28): More evidence for my Dumbledore-was-already-dead theory: As Draco prepares to kill his headmaster at the end of Book 6, Dumbledore tries to convince Draco that he can protect him and his family from Voldemort if he refused to carry out the Dark Lord’s mission. Draco doesn’t believe him, but Dumbledore says, “He cannot kill you if you’re already dead.” (Book 6, p. 591)
This has a double meaning: 1) It implies that Dumbledore must have faked people’s deaths before to protect them from Voldemort (Regulus Black?); and 2) Major hint from JKR: Snape didn’t kill Dumbledore because he was “already dead.”
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Update (10/27): STOP! This post contains spoilers of Book 6, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
Townhall.com has published my article/review, Harry Potter and the Charmed Christians. (The typo in “HogwartsProfessor.com” will be fixed.) I didn’t know it would be up so soon (last night), so I’ll spend the next hour or so this morning filling this post with my theories about the series, and links to articles and other resources.
If you’re a Christian and object to reading Harry Potter, please refrain from commenting. This thread is for Christians and non-Christians who have read the books. If you’re compelled to preach and just can’t hold it in, please e-mail me.
I’ll briefly discuss some of my views on Book 6. They could fill this whole blog, but I’ll try to contain them. Those who haven’t read the series, including Book 6, or haven’t seen the movies will have no idea what I’m talking about. The post is written mainly to fans, so I won’t go into detail explaining certain things.
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