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Obama watch, part 12
You can judge for yourself Obama’s smoky voice here. I guess it’s time to dredge up the piece I wrote last summer about his speech on religion and politics, which differs little from what’s in his new book on the subject. If you’re interested, you might also want to take a look at his church’s website, these "precepts" and "covenantal statements", and this account of a visit to the church. This church takes its Afro-centrism seriously, but does qualify it in the following way: W.E.B. DuBois indicated that the problem in the 20th century was going to be the problem of the color line. He was absolutely correct. Our job as servants of God is to address that problem and eradicate it in the name of Him who came for the whole world by calling all men, women, boys and girls to Christ. I’m not quite sure how this squares with, for example, a "[p]ersonal commitment to embracement of the Black Value System," as the precepts call for; perhaps some enterprising reporter will ask Obama about it.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 1/16/2007 10:18 PM
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More on the Remarkable Economic Data
Here’s why our booming economy is rightly called the Bush economy.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments | 1/16/2007 10:22 PM
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Should Obama Quit Smoking?
Well, maybe he shouldn’t. Smoking may be the cause of his "magic voice." And being unable or deciding not to kick the habit is one way he can really distinguish himself from fashionable liberals.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [34] | 1/16/2007 10:00 PM
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Religion and the university
MOJ.s Rob Vischer has a nice review of what appears to be a nice book. Consider, for example, this snippet: [T]the Christian virtue of hospitality, according to Aurelie Hagstrom, a theology professor at Providence College, “reflects a radically different and compelling alternative to tolerance.” While tolerance is a “false sort of engagement” given its tendency “to trivialize what is most important to us,” hospitality demands “a personal, authentic encounter that is self-emptying and open even to those with whom we have deep philosophical, theological, and political disagreements.” Under this view, the university’s sponsoring religious community acts as host, and community members from other religious traditions are welcomed as guests. In today’s hyper-egalitarian campus environment, attaching the “guest” label to non-Christians will smack of paternalism, but the host-guest paradigm may be inescapable if the Christian story is to have a privileged role as a shaper of the institution and its mission. Read the whole thing.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments | 1/16/2007 7:36 PM
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Charles Murray on Education and the Importance of Having ’g’
Because I am either a chronic underachiever or because I simply do not have enough ’g,’ I have absolutely no interest in re-opening the can of worms that Charles Murray’s The Bell Curve opened in 1994. But being over-prudent has never been one of my setbacks either, so here it is. His Opinion Journal essay today and the promise of more to come in the next few days on the subject, is certainly worthy of serious consideration by those who think they have enough ’g’ to handle it. My sense (I won’t call it a view, having not studied the subject in any serious way) is that there is probably some merit to it. My experience working at my kids’ kindergarten for two years, seems to confirm my sense of the thing. This school is a very intense, almost one-to-one teaching experience. But no matter what you do with some kids, you get little back. It is hard to say why that is. It appears that some have nothing going on inside their minds--as if they were asleep mentally. One doesn’t know if that is because the kid is still immature or if the kid just hasn’t got it. Still others are so advanced that they pay you no mind at all because you and the idea of learning bores them. There are other kids who run circles around you and dazzle you with brilliance. Most are just work-a-day plodders like my kids and myself. To be sure, you can get better results with this individualized kind of teaching--but I’m not even so sure about that as I used to be. So much depends on the wisdom and the experience of the teacher. I used to have a history teacher in high school who had the reputation of being difficult. On the other hand, he told us that we could all get an "A" in his class if we really wanted it. I don’t think he really believed what he was saying in the strictest sense, but it was a noble lie. He said it with so much passion, anyway, that I believed him. And because I believed him, I did get an "A." I knew a few students who worked as hard (or harder) as I did and could still only get "Bs." But I suppose they might only have achieved a C or D if they hadn’t tried so hard to get the "A." Of course, the grades don’t really mean anything in the scheme of life, I know. But the lesson of learning to believe you are capable of more than you think you are is indispensable. That is almost always true. Perhaps the most we can hope for from education is that it do its level best to inspire each kid to give his best.
Posted by Julie Ponzi | Link to this Entry | Comments [10] | 1/16/2007 5:14 PM
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Here’s Where We Need the "Surge"
In Afghanistan, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of attacks on U.S. and allied forces by Taliban members who seek to reestablish their hold over the country. Currently there are only 24,000 U.S. troops in that country, where the Al-Qaeda presence is considerably stronger than it is in Iraq. Moreover, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are operating with the tacit assistance of the Pakistanis, who are tolerating insurgent sanctuaries within their borders.
Posted by John Moser | Link to this Entry | Comments [9] | 1/16/2007 12:45 PM
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Women without husbands
"For what experts say is probably the first time, more American women are living without a husband than with one, according to the NY Times analysis of census results." Mona Charen objects to some editorializing in the report, and notes the class implications of the marriage issue. This, while interesting, of course is not the end of the story. I just spoke to a young woman yesterday (a college grad, now working, circa 24 in age). She says she is worried because in two years of work she has not yet met a man that was sensible enough to marry; she assumed she would (because she did not meet one in college). Her practical remedy is this: she is attending two to three church services (different churches!) each week hoping to increase the odds of meeting someone more normal. The ones she has met through other venues have been a "little rough", as she put it. So far, she has had no luck. This is common, and in a couple of more years her worry will turn to panic. In over thirty years of observing young men and women on their dating habits--their ways of getting along with one another--things have only become more difficult, more complicated, more bizarre over the years. What will happen?
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [32] | 1/16/2007 11:13 AM
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Double the Minimum Wage for Illegal Aliens?
That’s the modest proposal of Free Frank Warner. Frank wants NLT reaction to his ingenious argument--one he thinks everyone should like. Give him some. Frank is a national greatness liberal, and Senator Lieberman should certainly hire him.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [12] | 1/16/2007 9:11 AM
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Generation Next
I’m working my way through this Pew survey report about young people today. So far (in my reading), the "bad" is that one-third of them have tatoos, they’re focused on fame and fortune, and 20% are atheistic or religiously unaffiliated, while the good is they tend to favor privatization of social security. Right now, they’re more Democrat than Republican, though that could change (we hope). An interesting observation for those dissatisfied with George Bush’s America is that, across the board, people are pretty doggone happy: more than 80% in every age group report their quality of life as excellent or good, and over 80% say they’re very or pretty happy. But nevertheless, "the country" is going in the wrong direction. By what measure?
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [11] | 1/15/2007 10:56 PM
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Buckley vs. the Surge
THE NATIONAL REVIEW editor sees no evidence that it will address the real reason for insurgent effectiveness and the real threat of Iran. And the president didn’t explain why withdrawal from Iraq would be a disaster. I don’t agree, and I certainly think we should let the president make the call for now. But Buckley’s opinion deserves our respectful consideration.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 1/15/2007 9:12 PM
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American fascists?
Is this what Chris Hedges means? Is this kind of outreach to broken and needy people the prelude to theocracy? Update: Are the kids described in this article brownshirts-in-training?
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [6] | 1/15/2007 10:48 AM
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While we’re at it...
As long as we’re reflecting on civic education, I’d be interested in the answers our gentle readers have to offer to Peter Levine’s post, both in general and considering the questions he poses at the end. If you read it, you’ll see why I’m particularly interested. I’ll share my own thoughts later, for reasons that should also be obvious.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 1/15/2007 10:29 AM
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Presidential Academy
This is related to Joe’s post below. Not only do I (and we) teach King in all the ways you would expect, but we also use his Dream speech (with the Declaration and the Gettysburg Address) as the core document around which our Presidential Academy revolves.
Posted by Peter Schramm | Link to this Entry | Comments [5] | 1/15/2007 10:01 AM
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Federal holidays and civic education
For a number of reasons, this article is disheartening. Note, for example, what’s now being blamed for our students’ lack of civic knowledge, as if that began with the Bush Administration.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments | 1/15/2007 9:42 AM
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Duty, Country, and THE QUEEN
Here’s a perceptive review of THE QUEEN, surely the best political film of the year. Queen Elizabeth and Prime Minister Tony Blair actually make each other better and discover what they share in common, despite their great differences in style, class background, and political opinion. And their shared political responsibility fends off the challenge of the popular but empty "humanitarian" compassion
of and for the celebrity Diana.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [2] | 1/14/2007 9:39 PM
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Congress Addresses a Fake Crisis with Fake Urgency
Yuval Levin reports on the mixture of demagoguery, tragedy, and farce that is the debate in Congress over funding research with embryonic stem cells.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments | 1/14/2007 8:37 PM
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Good News That Nobody Takes Credit For
The economy turns out to be in "surprisingly" strong shape, and it’s probably going to get even stronger. Let’s hope divided government doesn’t screw it up.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [3] | 1/14/2007 8:27 PM
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Jimmy Carter again
Here’s a detailed and nuanced account of Emory University historian Kenneth Stein’s differences with Jimmy Carter. Stein cites chapter and verse regarding his disagreement with Carter’s version of a meeting with Hafez Assad they both attended, arguing that Carter’s version is intended to place Israel in a less favorable light. But he also has some nice things to say about Carter.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments | 1/14/2007 3:17 PM
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More American fascism
Today’s Atlanta paper has a rather prominent package of articles on the book I noted here. We also learn about this LAT review, where the reviewer criticizes Hedges for, in essence, calling for an abridgement of First Amendment freedoms of religion and speech to deal with those he describes as incipient fascists. The better response, the reviewer argues, is political. He’s right, of course. What Hedges can’t concede, and sell any books, is how marginal genuine theocrats are among conservative Christians. He can make his case only by willfully misunderstanding the language of dominion. Another point, and I’m done. Hedges taxes conservative Christians with reaching out to broken people and manipulating them. First of all, would he not have them reach out to broken people (which, according to at least one version of the Christian tradition is everyone)? And isn’t it arguably authentically Christian to tell those broken people that their redemption ultimately can’t be found in this world? Even if we take his understanding of brokenness (mostly economic and psychological, all apparently explicable in material terms), would he not have churches reach out to them, offering a variety of different kinds of support (not only spiritual, but also material)? If churches didn’t mix the spiritual with the material, they’d be no different from the secular welfare and therapeutic bureaucracies, and hence ultimately dispensable. But perhaps that’s what someone who thinks the First Amendment can be readily jettisoned in the face of a very speculative threat wants.
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg | Link to this Entry | Comments [5] | 1/14/2007 2:53 PM
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Luttwak’s Neo-Machiavellian Strategic Vision
Our goal should no longer be to bring regime change in the direction of freedom and democracy in the Middle East. All we need or can do is manage the regional civil war between the Shiites and the Sunnis by strategically supporting both sides. Remember that Ed’s track record on predictions is at best uneven. I leave this for you to discuss.
Posted by Peter Lawler | Link to this Entry | Comments [1] | 1/14/2007 11:35 AM
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