Illinois by 18!

Over Northwestern State. 13-0 and on to Cincinnati.

Daniel Pipes on money for Palestinians

Simply one of the very best assessments of this issue ever written.

Quote:

Nigel Roberts, the World Bank's director for the West Bank and Gaza, blows off past failures. Addressing himself to donors, he says, "Maybe your $1 billion a year hasn't produced much, but we think there's a case for doing even more in the next three or four years."

Mr. Roberts is saying, in effect: Yes, your money enabled Arafat's corruption, jihad ideology, and suicide factories, but those are yesterday's problems; now, let's hope the new leadership uses donations for better purposes. Please lavish more funds on it to enhance its prestige and power, then hope for the best.

This la-la-land thinking ignores two wee problems. One concerns the Palestinian Arabs' widespread intent to destroy Israel, as portrayed by the outpouring of grief for archterrorist Arafat at his funeral, the consistent results of opinion research, and the steady supply of would-be jihadists. The Palestinian Arabs' discovery of inner moderation has yet to commence, to put it mildly.

The other problem is blaming the past decade's violence and tyranny exclusively on Arafat, and erroneously assuming that, now freed of him, the Palestinian Arabs are eager to reform. Mahmoud Abbas, the new leader, has indeed called for ending terrorism against Israel, but he did so for transparently tactical reasons (it is the wrong thing to do now), not for strategic reasons (it is permanently to be given up), much less for moral ones (it is inherently evil).

Christians need to understand this very well. Americans need to understand this very well.

Michael Young swinging wood

From the Reason blog, Young beats the tar out of Shaid Alam. Quite lively.

Debate on "Democratic Revolution"

Interesting and lively debate between some great minds on democracy-as-cure.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 30, 1823: Charles G. Finney, the most effective evangelist America had ever seen, is licensed to preach.

December 30, 1852: Future U.S. President Rutherford B. Hayes marries "Lemonade "Lucy," so called because, as first lady, she forbade alcohol in the Executive Mansion. The Hayeses were both devout Methodists who began each day with prayer and organized Sunday evening worship services at the White House.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 29, 1809: William Gladstone, four-time British prime minister, is born in Liverpool, England. One scholar has called him "the epitome of all that the evangelicals and the English public asked for in their politicians" (see issue 53: William Wilberforce and the Century of Reform).

December 29, 1849: The carol "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear," by pastor Edmund H. Sears, appears for the first time in The Christian Register.

December 29, 1851: The first Y.M.C.A. in the United States is organized in Boston.

December 29, 1876: Hymnwriter Philip P. Bliss and his family fall to their deaths when a bridge collapses under the train they were riding. Bliss's compositions include "Man of Sorrows—What a Name!"; "Jesus Loves Even Me"; "Almost Persuaded"; the music to "It Is Well with My Soul"; and one hymn discovered in his trunk, which was on a different train that night: "I Will Sing of My Redeemer."

Where the Battle is Won or Lost

’If you will return, O Israel,’ says the Lord . . . —Jeremiah 4:1

Our battles are first won or lost in the secret places of our will in God’s presence, never in full view of the world. The Spirit of God seizes me and I am compelled to get alone with God and fight the battle before Him. Until I do this, I will lose every time. The battle may take one minute or one year, but that will depend on me, not God. However long it takes, I must wrestle with it alone before God, and I must resolve to go through the hell of renunciation or rejection before Him. Nothing has any power over someone who has fought the battle before God and won there.

I should never say, "I will wait until I get into difficult circumstances and then I’ll put God to the test." Trying to do that will not work. I must first get the issue settled between God and myself in the secret places of my soul, where no one else can interfere. Then I can go ahead, knowing with certainty that the battle is won. Lose it there, and calamity, disaster, and defeat before the world are as sure as the laws of God. The reason the battle is lost is that I fight it first in the external world. Get alone with God, do battle before Him, and settle the matter once and for all.

In dealing with other people, our stance should always be to drive them toward making a decision of their will. That is how surrendering to God begins. Not often, but every once in a while, God brings us to a major turning point—a great crossroads in our life. From that point we either go toward a more and more slow, lazy, and useless Christian life, or we become more and more on fire, giving our utmost for His highest—our best for His glory.

-- Oswald Chambers


I am, as of this moment, at such a crossroads. I ask God to work his will in me, utterly and completely, that I may do my best for His glory.

Verse today

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength. " -- Philippians 4:13



Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me.

- - Saint Patrick

And on this day...

I was born, 35 years ago, at 3:59 pm.

but other stuff happened too.

December 27, 1784: Francis Asbury is ordained superintendent of the Methodist Church in America. He later took the title "bishop," against the wishes of John Wesley.

December 27, 1899: American temperance leader Carry Nation wrecks her first saloon in Medicine Lodge, Kansas.

Theory as dual-directional triangle.  

Theory of Efficacy

Updated 2004:


Efficacy provides an Active Imperative (Implementation) to Community
Efficacy provides a Passive Imperative (Methodology) to Morality
Morality provides a Passive Justification to Community
Morality provides an Active Justification to Efficacy
Community provides a Passive Teleology to Morality
Community provides an Active Teleology to Efficacy


Thus creating the dual-directional triangle.

More on TDR

Still developing the concept TDR's as I wrote here.

Some notes:

Consumption regionally dependent upon

1) facility of distribution
a. security
b. infrastructure
c. politics

2) regional utility/benefit
a. education
b. revenue
c. community


Consumption product dependent upon:

1) consumer cost
a. per capita earnings
b. opportunity cost

2) consumer utility/benefit
a. complimentary technology
b. familiar technology
c. empirical efficacy

Lite Blogging

over the holidays for me. Will check in from time to time.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 17, 1912: Yale-educated Chicago native Bill Borden, heir to a fortune in real estate and milk production, boards a ship to China via Egypt. Converted to Christ as a young man, Borden had given his inheritance and his life to the cause of world evangelism. Only a month after arriving in Egypt, he contracted spinal meningitis and died. However, publication of his story prompted many young people to enter the mission field.

December 17, 1917: Bolsheviks confiscate all property of the Russian Orthodox Church and abolish religious instruction in the schools. Within two decades, at least 45,000 priests were reportedly martyred in the country.

December 18, 1707: Charles Wesley, who founded Methodism with his brother John, is born in England. A celebrated and prolific hymnwriter, his "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "Lo, He Comes" are widely sung this time of year (see issue 69: Charles and John Wesley).

December 18, 1835: Lyman Abbott, a Congregational clergyman who was a leading proponent of the social gospel, is born in Massachusetts. Prompted by his admiration of Henry Ward Beecher to enter the ministry, he succeeded Beecher as pastor at Brooklyn's Plymouth Congregational Church.

December 18, 1865: Slavery is abolished in the United States as the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. Many of the abolitionists who pushed for its passage were Christians seeking to make America more like the Kingdom of God.

December 18, 1957: English author Dorothy Sayers, a Christian apologist who was also the most popular mystery writer in England, dies.

Missile Defense Failed

Yep. Again.

Ruben Navarrette on Kerik

Hilarious summary piece today.

"The more you hear about Bernard Kerik's messy personal life, the more you begin to think the former New York Police commissioner should be cordoned off with little orange cones."

And that's just the first sentence!

Godawful Nonsense from the Nation

The Lionizing of Derrida Continues

The truly baffling Adam Shatz celebrates two inconsequential, Marxist, (though that is perhaps redundant) largely unreadable, and now dead anti-Israel philosophers. It boggles the mind.

The Shroud back on the table

A second image? CT has the debate.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 15, 1418: English pre-Reformer John Oldcastle is burned alive for his efforts to preserve and promote the cause of the Lollards (preachers who spread John Wycliffe's views). Shakespeare reportedly based his character Falstaff on Oldcastle.

December 15, 1900: Count Leo Tolstoy writes to the tsar asking him to end religious persecution in Russia.

Technology Development Ratios

This something that may be strange to some but I am quite fascinated by – the idea of what technologies are most readily accessed into everyday use and why. The ‘why’ is dependent on so many things – region, infrastructure, security, complimentary technology, and educational level of the population – and the technology itself. The amount of time it takes for a new technology to go from Preferred (or luxury) technology to Common (or everyday) is quite interesting.

Microwave ovens exploded in the U.S. but took much longer to become common in Europe and are still a luxury in the Third World – but cell phones expanded rapidly throughout Africa and Bangladesh with speed comparable to the early U.S. consumption rate, and are now seen as a potential counter-agent to poverty.

The rate at which previously unknown technology goes Preferred-to-Common in a given region - I am calling a Technology Consumption Ratio, or TCR. Now, this might be measured by calculating the time it takes for a Technology to enter 75% of all homes, like a television, or perhaps the time it take for a technology to reduce to 25% of its original consumer cost, like a plasma screen television. Or some combination thereof – that is what the project should be to work out.

The reduction in the TCR that can be directly attributed to the utility of the technology itself I am calling the Technology Utility Factor, or TUF - and this would be hard to determine but if a formula was created it would dramatically effect market research across the boards, and allow for important, manageable 'benchmarks' for developmental assessments. Cell phones move much faster into consumption due to an obvious basic utility that surpasses that of a plasma screen television, etc. Quantify that in a measurable way, and you've got something.

And then, the ranking of a region's ability to create completely new technologies and incorporate them into their own or other regions would be the upper eschelon of the theory - the measurable technological 'friendliness' of a nation state or region - the Technological Development Ratio or a TDR whereby even major industrial-technological nations could thereby be compared along measurable, quantifiable factors, and perhaps even that Holy Grail of economics, predictions could be made.



So, anyway, I’m knocking this around. Comments appreciated.

On Christian Community

It is perhaps of necessity to be apart from a Christian (or religious) community, and yet claim membership within one, to write effectively on what it means. The ten or twenty extended families of Christians living and acting in close cooperation, knowing everything about everyone, looking first to the church for all serious personal relationships, friendships, partnerships, seeking to remain in standing first with those of the same beliefs ahead of any other unconnected contact – this is what I was born into and still value today. My greatest fear, and what should be the greatest fear of any believing Christian, is that I will awake one day to find I have led or am leading a selfish life – a life that benefits only myself. This is a great and worthy fear.

It is easy as well to look to family, sons and daughters, beloved spouse, or parents and think that simply because our absence would cause great pain on these, that we are then accomplished and need not worry over our role in the community at large. These roles are undeniably important, even primary. But they, all these cares, are still foremost ours and not another’s, and thus if all-consuming are also selfish, idolatrous, and will limit our spiritual efficacy.

Community is defined by most as a noun denoting a town, neighborhood, village, or ethnic area of a city. This is not incorrect, but is a restrictive of the term’s full meaning.

"Christianity," is a word itself a bit misused. Or, perhaps it is better to say that it is under-considered. So let us consider the word for a moment. Christian-ity. The ‘ity’ ending in many words holds within it a slight verbal quality, a slight gerund or ‘ing’ actional aspect. Commun-ity. Pol-ity. Unity. Such words carry with them – though we often forget it – an active aspect.

"Community" is particularly this way – being nearly a verbal noun in its truest sense. Community is communal action. The collective trend or goal or, as much more commonly used, the place of or the group of the collectively directed trend or goal, be it through culture, interest, or other parameters. The Greek community, the Polish community, the law enforcement community, the legal community, the intelligence community, and so on. In each of these there are shared goals, and importantly, actions, that help define the community. "Christianity" is best considered in this light.

Christianity is also a collective of goals; a vast group of active collective choices that each moment direct the whole in its movement through time. Christian-ity is then at any given moment the collective result of all of our choices to date. We are at this stage of our Christian-ity, our Christian-ing because we as thinking, believing, praying, failing, succeeding, striving, Christians chose to be right here. We are quite capable – in fact, we are obligated – to choose our direction every day.

It’s worth remembering that Paul was stopped leaving Rome and turned around, and hardly for his personal betterment, but for God’s purpose. So, let us picture that angel on the road, stopping us on the way out of town and asking us – all of us as a collective – where are we going? Are we on the way out of town? Are we going the right way? Would we agree to turn back?

From the People's Republic of Chicago

More corruption from Stroger

Sun-Times takes him to the woodshed. We await Prime Minister Daley's comments.

More Pentagon Idiocy

Wrong Message and Wrong Method

As the Trib explains - this is bureaucratic nonsense at its worst.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 14, 872: Pope Adrian (or Hadrian) II dies. Adrian twice refused the papacy (in 855 and 858) before reluctantly accepting in 867. Weak and vacillating, he sought support from, of all people, the antipope Anastasius.

December 14, 1363: French ecclesiastical statesman and writer Jean Gerson is born. Eager to end the Great Schism of 1378-1414, he was influential in calling the Council of Pisa and the Council of Constance (which eventually ended the dual papacy). In defense of the Council of Pisa, Gerson wrote a tract promoting counciliar theory—the idea that a council can supersede the pope.

December 14, 1591: Spanish poet John of the Cross, one of the greatest Christian mystics, dies. His "Dark Night of the Soul" is one of the era's best known religious poems, and his treatises have profoundly influenced both Catholic and Protestant thought.

December 14, 1853: Illinois Institute is begun by Wesleyan abolitionists. The school became Wheaton College after its president, Jonathan Blanchard, asked local landowner Warren Wheaton for a large property donation, offering to name the school after him and "save [his] heirs the expense of a good monument.

The Good News from Afghanistan

The Round-Up from the intrepid Arthur Chrenkoff. And in the WSJ.

It will blow you away what the MSM doesn't care about.

On Prayer

I have been thinking a great deal on prayer - its role and power and trying to be better about including prayer in by daily life. I have a tendency, I think, to pray in resignation. To pray for what is bothering me and then sort of say - "But not my will. Your will be done, Lord." But I don't remain in prayer and truly seek to understand what His will for me might be. I assume he will show me and that may be the case but there remains this sense that I am not praying in belief but rather as a way to give up trying to understand the problem. I think at times "giving up" is exactly what we are supposed to do, if our worrying is keeping God out of the equation. But not if our resignation also blocks God from our understanding.

In this light I read today's Oswald Chambers with great interest:

Intercessory Prayer
. . . men always ought to pray and not lose heart —Luke 18:1

You cannot truly intercede through prayer if you do not believe in the reality of redemption. Instead, you will simply be turning intercession into useless sympathy for others, which will serve only to increase the contentment they have for remaining out of touch with God. True intercession involves bringing the person, or the circumstance that seems to be crashing in on you, before God, until you are changed by His attitude toward that person or circumstance. Intercession means to "fill up . . . [with] what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ" ( Colossians 1:24 ), and this is precisely why there are so few intercessors. People describe intercession by saying, "It is putting yourself in someone else’s place." That is not true! Intercession is putting yourself in God’s place; it is having His mind and His perspective.

As an intercessor, be careful not to seek too much information from God regarding the situation you are praying about, because you may be overwhelmed. If you know too much, more than God has ordained for you to know, you can’t pray; the circumstances of the people become so overpowering that you are no longer able to get to the underlying truth.

Our work is to be in such close contact with God that we may have His mind about everything, but we shirk that responsibility by substituting doing for interceding. And yet intercession is the only thing that has no drawbacks, because it keeps our relationship completely open with God. What we must avoid in intercession is praying for someone to be simply "patched up." We must pray that person completely through into contact with the very life of God.

Think of the number of people God has brought across our path, only to see us drop them! When we pray on the basis of redemption, God creates something He can create in no other way than through intercessory prayer.

This both stresses the power of the prayer, and the responsiblity of the pray-er in undertaking this work. It's not an excercise in ritual - it's an active participation in the spiritual realm. It's raising one's hand in the classroom of believers. And make no mistake, you will be called on. Prayer is asking God to pay attention to our work, meaning he will grade it and might hand it back for revisions. This might produce fear in students of an unfair instructor, but we remember that we seek the notice of the most fair, most loving, most knowledgeable Instructor of all.

Militant Christian Zionists?

Is it like a club? How do I join?

John Esposito, spoke last week at the U.N. (it was an Islamophobia conference, where all the diplomats that hate America and Israel sit together and condemn the fact that Americans and Israelis take exception to being indiscriminately murdered). Esposito told his rapt Jew-hating audience that Islamophobia was not caused by, say, 99 out of 100 acts of religious violence in the world today being perpetrated by militant Muslims. No, see, the fear of Islam is simply because of "militant Christian Zionists" in America.

Who is John Esposito? Oh, he's the founding director of Georgetown University's Saudi-funded Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.

You can't make this stuff up. And, yes, I do think we need a club.

Jenson's Bile

In an effort to be bipartisan on this site I have had both Ann Coulter and Molly Ivins linked on my side bar. The Molly Ivins link previously went to the Star-Telegram but I am looking for another link to her now. This op-ed is so disgusting and reminiscent of previous media lies that cost American lives in battle, that I have no interest in being linked to that paper any more. It's just too maliciously dishonest for me to stomach.

"The United States has lost the war in Iraq, and that's a good thing. I don't mean that the loss of American and Iraqi lives is to be celebrated. The death and destruction are numbingly tragic, and the suffering in Iraq is hard for most of us in the United States to comprehend. The tragedy is compounded because these deaths haven't protected Americans or brought freedom to Iraqis. They have come in the quest to extend the American empire in this "new American century." So, as a U.S. citizen, I welcome the U.S. defeat for a simple reason: It isn't the defeat of the United States -- its people or their ideals -- but of that empire. And it's essential that the American empire be defeated and dismantled."

- Robert Jensen, Dallas Star-Telegram. Also up on AndrewSullivan.com

My reply:

I will never again read or purchase your paper. That you gave a forum to such a dishonest advocate of cowardice I will never understand. The Jensons of the world - those but casually aware and fashionably aloof to the fact that the very liberal freedoms they claim to hold sacred are protected by good men and women who struggle courageously every day far from their loved ones - these are the worst, most fallen angels of our nature. Jenson's premise betrays the leadership of Kennedy and FDR and cowers in direct conflict with the journalistic integrity of Edward R. Murrow. I pity the students of such a vain, unintellectual professor so untethered to reality and objectivity that he would commit such self-absorbed bile to print, and I pity the residents of Dallas and fans of S-T that must obtain their read on the world from such a undiscerning and morally vacuous news source. Apologies to Ms. Ivins, but I will find her wit elsewhere.


I'm probably over reacting but this just completely incensed me.

Sun-Times on Middle East Peace

Rays of light? Perhaps. But this little bit just staggers me.

For his part, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took a notably softer stance immediately after Arafat's death, asking not for the impossible -- that nominal Arafat successor Mahmoud Abbas control the various terror factions vying for power in the post-Arafat world -- but merely that Abbas have the Palestinian Authority tone down the murderous rhetoric pouring from Palestinian mosques and schools. Abbas has, at least to a degree, complied.

This is just surreal - Israelis live in a world where their chief enemy can use "toning down" the hate speech and calls to murder Jews as a political bargaining chip? This is progress?

What was that conversation?

Sharon: "Okay, we need you to crack down on terrorism."
Abbas: "I can't do that - terrorism is popular with my constituents. We like to kill Jews."
Sharon: "Avanti. Okay. Well, why do you think that is?"
Abbas: "Oh, that is because for the past thirty years hating Jews has become a big part of the Palestinian national identity. We have bonded over this issue."
Sharon: "Avanti, and why do you think that is?"
Abbas: "Well, it's in all of our newspapers. That Jews are the reason for all bad things. Well, Jews and America. But we all know that America only supports Israel because of the Jews. So, you see there we are again."
Sharon: "Avanti. So why is this in all the papers?"
Abbas: "Well, papers want to make money and it is really the only topic of interest that papers are allowed to print."
Sharon: "Allowed to print?"
Abbas: "Of course! You think a Palestinian or Arab newspaper would be allowed to print something against its own government!? Ah ha hah! We are not one of those crazy western democracies, habibi, heh heh."
Sharon: "Well, why is hating Jews so central to everything? There are other things going on in the city - cultural events?"
Abbas: "Yes, well most of our cultural events deal with poetry and drama that calls us to resist the occupation and celebrate the heroicism of our martyrs who blow up Jewish children in school busses or an illegal settlement's classroom."
Sharon: "Well, um...okay what about educational events, secular educational events?"
Abbas: "Heh heh, we don't have a lot of secular education, habibi. And all of our childrens books teach our children that the Jews are to blame for everything. Our history is taught in this light."
Sharon: "But surely not every class! What about math, and science?"
Abbas: "If you see two Israeli tanks in Bethlehem at nine in the morning, and four more arrive at noon, and three more arrive in the afternoon, how many Israeli tanks will there be at 6pm?"
Sharon: "Oy, well, what about religious events and services?"
Abbas: "These are where the martyrs are recuited! These are festivals of anti-Semitism, where we can all come together and read the Quranic verses that tell us to kill Jews."
Sharon: "Okay, so is that the starting point? Is that where it starts - in rhetoric in the mosques and then to the cultural events and education and then to the news?"
Abbas: "Well many of the mosque sermons are televised."
Sharon: "Okay, so it often goes -"
Abbas: "Immediately from sermon to the people. It's quite effective really."
Sharon: "Right, so can't you just tell them to knock it off?"
Abbas: "Tell who? The clerics? No, I couldn't do that - they might preach a sermon against me."
Sharon: "But, okay, look, is it helpful?"
Abbas: "Helpful? Is what helpful?"
Sharon: "This rhetoric - the hating Jews stuff that you teach cradle to grave - you've been doing it for thirty years - is it in your interests?"
Abbas: "In whose interests?"
Sharon: "Your people's interests!!! Has this tactic of national bonding over hating Jews improved the conditions or freedoms of your people?"
Abbas: "Oh! Well, ..... no... I suppose... not really."
Sharon: "So perhaps in the interests of your people you could get the clerics and the papers to cut out the hate rhetoric and begin discussing ways to make peace?"
Abbas: "Cut out? How about we just cut back a little? We have very little else to talk about, you see?"
Sharon: "Okay, so I will announce that I am requesting that you tone down the hate rhetoric from the mosques and schools, and we can worry about the press, and the actual hating of Jews, and the actual murdering of Jews later, beseder?"
Abbas: "Fine, habibi, I will mention it to the clerics - but these people have a mind of their own, you know. It's all the've been taught from childhood, after all."
Sharon: "Avanti."



I'm thinking Monty Python certainly did something on this.

Abstinence-Only programs and science.

As Chicago Trib points out today - the drop in teen pregnancy of the last five years is a good thing - and it probably has something to do with teaching kids that not having sex is cool too - or at least in their self-interest.

But that doesn't mean overzealous advocates of abstinence get to make stuff up to help their argument. When you make stuff up that is then refuted, it makes it seem like the truth isn't good enough. Stick with the facts. It's quite good enough for your purposes.

Foxes in Iran's hen house

Military leaders an answer for the mullahs?

Two Iran experts speculate.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 13, 37: Nero, the Roman emperor who was the scourge of early Christians, is born. After his suicide in 68, many believed he would return, and "false Neros" appeared throughout the eastern provinces.

December 13, 304: Lucy, one of the earliest Christian saints to achieve popularity, dies. According to legend, she renounced marriage out of devotion to Christ, but a spurned suitor convinced Roman authorities to force her into a life of prostitution. When this was unsuccessful, they tried to burn her to death, but she wouldn't catch fire. Finally, she was killed by the sword. More realistically, she was probably one of several Christians killed in the Diocletian persecution. But within a century of her death, she had a remarkable following.

December 13, 1250: Frederick II, the messianic German Emperor (1212-1250) who fought repeatedly and heatedly with popes, dies suddenly of dysentery at age 55. He called himself "lord of the world"; others either praised him as "stupor mundi" (wonder of the world) or damned him as Antichrist (see issue 61: The End of the World).

December 13, 1294: After issuing a constitution giving popes the right to quit, Pope Celestine V shocks the world by resigning. An aged, nearly incoherent hermit when he was chosen to succeed Pope Nicholas IV, Celestine was desperately unsuited for the job and served only 15 weeks before Cardinal Gaetani, masquerading as a voice from heaven, convinced him to step down. Gaetani then became the infamous Pope Boniface VIII, and he imprisoned Celestine until the old man's death (see issue 70: Dante Alighieri).

December 13, 1545: The first session of the Counter- Reformation Council of Trent opens. Responding to the spread of Protestantism and the drastic need for moral and administrative reforms within the Roman Catholic church, it met on and off for 18 years. Ultimately the reforms were not comprehensive enough to satisfy the Protestants or even many Catholics, but it created a basis for a renewal of discipline and spiritual life within the church.

December 13, 1835: Phillips Brooks, Episcopal prelate and author of "O Little Town of Bethlehem," is born in Boston.

Blagojevich out in 06?

Roeser has the skinny - and it looks bad for Blago. A Q&A with a Dem.

"The first thing I'd do, if I were running against him, would be to go all over southern Illinois and say, 'If elected, I'll live in Springfield. I'll move my family into the mansion.'"

"But his eagerness to live at home has mass appeal."

"Not to Downstaters. His not living down here is a deliberate slap. It shows us this city boy thinks we're yokels. Wanting to be home is phony. Every day he's in Springfield he flies home every night. The reason is: He's got a state plane here so he can fly at the people's expense. The taxpayers pay for his mansion and his trips. His snubbing Springfield snubs all of southern Illinois. Take a look at his refusal to be on hand for a veterans dedication at Oak Ridge cemetery outside of Springfield. So the first plank in my program would be a message delivered directly to southern Illinois -- which is much better than you think: If elected governor, I will live in Springfield."

"Now get to his campaign war chest."

"It's a double-edged sword. His biggest political asset is the $12 million, and it's also his biggest liability. He ran as a reformer. This is the case I would make to the Democrats in the primary: He took $25,000 apiece from guys he immediately placed on the Health Facilities Planning Board. Where's the reform in that? Where's the reform in doing Tony Rezko's bidding? The owner of the Panda Restaurant group gives him big bucks, and his guy is named the head of DECA [Department of Commerce and Economic Affairs]. The governor says he won't take gambling money but, oh yes, he takes horse-racing money. And then there's the taxes he raised."

"You mean the fees?"

"Same thing: taxes, fees. He slapped business with 300 fee hikes. I'd campaign on that statewide. He's not been honest with the voters, has done unconscionable borrowing that puts the burden on our children and grandchildren. Then there's his own credibility. You just can't believe him and trust him to keep his word."

" But that goes for any politician."

"Really? Get this: Leaders of his own party, the speaker and the Senate president, had to get 50 -- that's five oh -- memos of understanding because they didn't trust him to keep his word. Nobody had to do that even with George Ryan. Or Jim Edgar or Jim Thompson. This was the first time in Illinois history where leaders of the same party as the governor had to do this."

"Anything more for southern Illinois?"

"You bet. He vetoed the bill the Legislature passed -- the Wilmette thing, giving a guy the right to defend himself and his family with a gun during a break-in at his house. Do you understand how important that is to southern Illinois? I couldn't believe he vetoed it. I'd make him spend all his $12 million on TV ads defending it -- and it still won't wash. Listen, you're old enough to remember Gene McCarthy."

"Old enough to know Gene McCarthy. I liked him too. "

"When he ran against LBJ in New Hampshire, no one gave him a chance. You like the governor? Don't get used to him because he'll be gone after the 2006 primary."

From your lips to God's ears.

Illinois schools Oregon 83-66

Another well-run triumph for Illini at United Center.

The Beinart Thesis

Peter Beinart's "A Fighting Faith" prescription piece for Democratic Party rebirth has now started making waves with those who most need to read it - the liberal elite opinionate.

The piece is a tour de force and illustrates quite well what the DNC can and should do if they want their candidates to be taken seriously by the majority of Americans.

Andrew Sullivan immediately pointed out the strengths of the piece.

Democrats need is a new commitment to fighting totalitarianism - of the Jihadist variety. They should keep their commitment to America's minorities, to universal healthcare, gay equality, and abortion rights. But they need to convince Americans that they are serious about this new war. Actually, they need first to convince themselves.

Josh Marshall responded with a thoughtful, independent critique.

The problem is not principally dovishness but rather --- as Peter notes --- that Democrats are by and large simply not sufficiently interested in national security policy, as such. This is at least as much a problem in the Democratic operative world as it is at the grassroots. As I’ve written before, lack of interest in national security policy leads to lack of knowledge. And lack of knowledge leads to tactical and mutable political decisions on national security - which is both bad on principle but also feeds public perceptions that Democrats aren’t serious about the issue and that they’re not trustworthy guardians of the national security in dangerous times.

I would argue that it is precisely those differences between today and fifty years ago which explain why we don’t need and really can’t afford to start to define ourselves by instituting any purges. To the extent that there is any analogy between Moveon and anything that happened half a century ago, the analogy should be to organized labor more generally. The ADA Democrats didn’t try to purge labor. They mounted a campaign within organized labor to get unions to separate themselves from illiberal forces. In any case, whatever disagreements I may have with them on policy - and particularly foreign policy - I think Moveon is part of the solution not part of the problem in restoring a center-left in American politics that embraces liberal values both at home and abroad. And this comes from someone who vociferously attacked Dems and liberals who opposed US military involvement in the Balkans and is, I’m sure, more of a foreign policy hawk than the majority of the people who read this site.

So, to summarize, the war on terror is not the Cold War. Tying the two together in too tight analogies leads to errors in judgment and prescribed policy.

A few other points.

I think Peter raises Kerry’s vote against the $87 billion Iraq supplemental to an ideological significance it simply won’t bear. This wasn’t a vote for isolationism or against democratization abroad. It clearly did hurt Kerry in the general but it was a mix of political calculation and even more than that - and something that couldn’t really be discussed in the campaign - it was an effort to exercise some control over a president who was well on his way to creating the disaster we’re now saddled with by placing restrictions and oversight of his conduct of the reconstruction. He didn’t really vote against that money in way Peter implies.

Iraq. I don’t think we can deal with the issue of Democrats, national security policy and the war on terror, without addressing Iraq front and center and recognizing justwhat a disaster our enterprise there has become. This isn’t a secondary issue.

I still feel Josh is wrong to consistently ignore or downplay the humanitarian aspects of removing Saddam and the fact that such a goal is in fact always worth military action in a way that most other wars in this world are not. It still strikes me as both morally and intellectually unsound to advocate non-intervention in the face of tyranny, selecting as your moral code either from secular humanism or Jeffersonian liberalism or virtually any honest hybrid thereof. Neither of these core philosphies of the Left would push for inaction. Kennedy sure woundn't. Either might allow it in the case of rising against a far superior force, but that too is doubtful, and a moot point anyway. But there's no doubt that the DNC could use a lot more Josh Marshalls

Then Leftchurch Archbishop Kevin Drum wrote this responding to Beinart. Closing with this:

Bottom line: I think the majority of liberals could probably be persuaded to take a harder line on the war on terror — although it's worth emphasizing that the liberal response is always going to be different from the conservative one, just as containment was a different response to the Cold War than outright war. But first someone has to make a compelling case that the danger is truly overwhelming. So far, no one on the left has really done that.

Andrew Sullivan then noted the stunningly naive sentiment of Drum's piece.

If Kevin Drum still needs to be persuaded that Jihadist terrorism is a real and continuing threat to the U.S., then he is essentially unpersuadable. I would have thought that 9/11 alone was enough. Alas, not. A nuke in a major city maybe? If that's what it will take to get the Democrats to take the threat seriously, you can't blame the American people for deciding not to wait.

And then Jonah Goldberg dragged Kevin Drum into the street and beat the Political Animal over the head with Drum's own prosaic and politically infantile absurdities.

If Drum needs another argument to be persuaded about the threat, he is flatly unpersuadable. Indeed, if Beinart could surf back on the space-time continuum, he could have used Drum's response as an example of exactly his complaint: that the Democrats don't care enough about fighting Islamic totalitarianism.

But that's not even the annoying part. For the last two years, the main thrust of criticism from Democrats has been that Bush hasn't been doing enough to fight Islamic terrorism. Drum was a big fan of Richard Clarke's book. Well, Clarke's book was a criticism from the right. Bush didn't do enough. The whole "wrong war, in the wrong place, at the wrong time" mantra was shorthand for the argument that Iraq was a distraction from the real threat of Islamic totalitarianism.

Goldberg continues:

... So let me get this straight. The last two years of bleating and beating we've gotten from liberals — all the how-dare-yous and the Iraq's-a-distraction stuff — all of that was just a pose? You guys don't think any of it's a big deal after all? It was all just a way to smack George Bush around? How sad. How frick'n dishonest. And why is Drum so comfortable constantly saying he's not even going to address the "humanitarian" argument for fighting the war on terror? Since when are liberals so comfortable putting humanitarian issues in a box and hiding them away on a top shelf?

...Isolationist Republicans didn't back FDR because FDR was nice to them (neither did the isolationist Democrats Drum pretends didn't exist). They did it because the threat was obvious. National Review and The Weekly Standard — hardly nonpartisan institutions — supported Clinton's war in Yugoslavia (and according to the standards used to justify that war, Iraq was a no-brainer). Think about it. If you think Islamic totalitarianism is a real problem, an existential threat, you write articles like Beinart's. You don't say, "Y'know, I could really get behind this twilight struggle if only the Republicans were nicer to Democrats." You don't bend over backward for fear of seeming like you're "taking sides." Or at least you don't if you love your country more than you love your party (or more than you hate George Bush). Meanwhile, how can you blame some Republicans for thinking Democrats aren't worth reaching out to if at this point they still need to hear more War On Terror 101 arguments?

Which is sort of the whole point - if Dems won't engage and be engaged and teach their next generation to be engaged on the national security issue of the next generation of Americans, they. will. not. be. elected. Period. Fact. Law. Maxim. Not locally, not state-level, not nationally.

This transformation actually works in reverse - as the national party becomes more arch-leftist - meaning, so says I - more secular, more critical of American hegemony, more unwilling to see America as a positive force of change in the world - it will be harder and harder for even local and state dems to associate themselves with the national party.

(Excursus: Right now - the ONLY reason Dems get elected in Illinois is organized labor. From teachers to factories, it's the only bastion of Democratic power in the Midwest. And it's slipping. Gore won Illinois at 63%; Kerry at 55%. Union members are church-going, gun-owning, military veteran, middle-class, middle-income voters who actually do NOT want abortion and gay marriage to be their defining issues, and do actually think freeing other people from tyranny is noble and heroic. No one in the DNC gives a damn about what Midwestern Dems care about. They are treated like poor, dumb privates in a political war machine that doesn't even care what their values might be. And yes, these 'good soldiers' are more and more aware of it.)


Beinart has responded to Drum with a new piece.

And Drum responded to Beinhart with a few comments.


It's been quite a week, and it's quite an impressive dialogue; one that involved some of the brightest minds on the Left about what liberalism is going to mean in the next century. One which its every reader -liberal or conserative - would benefit from.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 11, 1518: Swiss Reformer Ulrich Zwingli becomes "people's priest" at the Old Minster Church in Zurich, a position he held for the remaining 13 years of his life. After nearly dying from the plague, he began his reforming program almost immediately, persuading the city council to judge religious issues by Scripture alone.

December 11, 1640: English Puritans introduced a petition with 15,000 signatures to Parliament, seeking to abolish the church episcopacy, "with all its dependencies, roots and branches." The House of Commons accepted what has become known as the "Roots and Branch Petition," but the House of Lords (many of whom were bishops) rejected it, and the episcopal organization of the Church of England remained.

December 11, 1792: Jacob Mohr, author of the poem "Silent Night," is born.

December 11, 1918: Russian author Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, an Orthodox believer whose works include One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago, is born. His books are credited by many scholars with "helping to bring down the last empire on earth" (see issue 65: The Ten Most Influential Christians of the Twentieth Century).

December 11, 1984: The Reagan White House displays a nativity scene for the first time since courts ordered its removal in 1973.

December 12

December 12, 1189: King Richard I "the Lion Hearted" leaves England on the Third Crusade to retake Jerusalem, which had fallen to Muslim general Salah al-Din in 1187.

December 12, 1582: Spanish General Fernando Alvarez de Toledo (also known as the Duke of Alva) dies. The duke had been sent, along with 10,000 troops, by King Philip II of Spain to quell the Reformation in Holland. The duke's "Council of Blood" was responsible for some 18,000 deaths.

December 12, 1667: The Council of Moscow deposes Russian Orthodox Patriarch Nikon. A "man of great ability and sincerity but of autocratic temper," according to one historian, his calls for liturgical reform grew into a fight over the relationship between church and state. Though deposed at the council, banished, and imprisoned for 14 years, his liturgical reforms were sanctioned. In 1681, he was recalled to Moscow by the new tsar, but he died on the way. He was buried with patriarchal honors and all decrees against him were revoked.

December 12, 1712: The colony of South Carolina requires "all persons whatsoever" to attend church each Sunday and refrain from skilled labor and travel. Violators of the "Sunday Law" could be fined 10 shillings or locked in the stocks for two hours.

NY Sun on Columbia Investigation

The Sun pulls back the curtain on Columbia's "investigation" into rampant anti-Israel teaching at the Middle East studies department.

A less charitable view - and no doubt a more accurate one - is that Mr. Bollinger has, at the most important crisis of his tenure at Columbia, truckled to his employees in the faculty, permitting them, in effect, to investigate themselves. One can speculate about why he has chosen this course. No doubt he is aware that the president of a university can lose a faculty, meaning lose its confidence and lose any effective authority in his office. Perhaps he is seeking to avoid this fate and hold onto his job.

None of the investigating members have any interest in finding any wrong doing - and most are allied with those being investigated.

Campus-Watch has virtually every article, pro-or-con, on the subject.


Articles:
The Bollinger CommitteeDecember 10, 2004 - New York Sun
Council Member Calls for Independent InvestigationDecember 10, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia Send Wrong MessageDecember 9, 2004 - New York Daily News
Committee To Address MEALAC ControversyDecember 9, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Less Than Reassuring Words at Columbia UniversityDecember 9, 2004 - Forward
Columbia taps lawyer to probe anti-SemitismDecember 9, 2004 - New York Daily News
'Inadequate' Grievance Policies CitedDecember 9, 2004 - New York Sun
Students Speak Up to Defend MEALACDecember 8, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Abrams Is Tapped For Investigation At Columbia U.December 8, 2004 - New York Sun
A New Free Speech Movement, Starting With AlumniDecember 8, 2004 - New York Sun
Convening of Ad Hoc Faculty CommitteeDecember 8, 2004
Columbia to Review anti-Semitism ChargesDecember 8, 2004 - Jerusalem Post
Failure's not an optionDecember 5, 2004 - New York Daily News
Media Watchdog Threatens To Sue ProfessorDecember 3, 2004 - Forward
At Columbia, the Ivory Tower is Under SiegeDecember 3, 2004 - Yale Daily News
Sexton Takes On Issues of Tenure, Academic FreedomDecember 3, 2004 - New York Sun
Slandered for Opposing Israel, Don't Let Them Silence Dissent at Columbia!December 3, 2004 - Socialist Worker Online
Columbia University's Hysterical ProfessorDecember 1, 2004 - FrontPageMagazine.com
Ivory Tower AngstDecember 2004 - New Voices
Five Questions for Joseph MassadNovember 30, 2004 - History News Network
I Am a Victim of PropagandaNovember 29, 2004 - History News Network
Columbia Vows Swift Action on Anti-Israel ProfessorsNovember 26, 2004 - Haaretz
Information: The Cure For "Poison Ivy"November 24, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
The Columbia University Scandal: Where Are Our 'Friends' ?November 24, 2004 - Jewish Press
Students to Protest Inquiry of FacultyNovember 23, 2004 - New York Sun
Students rip Columbia 'Zionists'November 23, 2004 - New York Daily News
Professor Fearful of AttackNovember 22, 2004 - New York Sun
Mideast views hard to discernNovember 22, 2004 - Washington Square News
It's time to bring some intellectual diversity to America's colleges and universitiesNovember 22, 2004 - Wall Street Journal
Registration Unmoved By Unbecoming FilmNovember 22, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Climate of hate rocks Columbia UniversityNovember 21, 2004 - New York Daily News
Academic Freedom Must Be PreservedNovember 19, 2004 - Jewish Week
The Bollinger WhitewashNovember 19, 2004 - New York Sun
Jewish Studies Classes Attract Diverse GroupNovember 19, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Was first term just a warm-up?November 19, 2004 - Times Higher Education Supplement
A ‘documentary' plays dirtyNovember 18, 2004 - Washington Square News
Columbia Prepared to Protect Students from Anti-Israel BiasNovember 17, 2004 - New York Sun
In Defense of The David ProjectNovember 16, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
In the Name of Academic FreedomNovember 16, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Harassment of Jewish Students on Campus on the Rise Since 9/11, U.S. Aide AssertsNovember 15, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia Probe Eyed By CouncilNovember 12, 2004 - New York Sun
NYU reflects on Columbia bias probeNovember 11, 2004 - Washington Square News
Bias in the classroomNovember 11, 2004 - Washington Square News
Bollinger must fulfill his promise to investigate.November 8, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Classroom freedom is for teachers and studentsNovember 8, 2004 - Newsday
Unnecessary verbal force: Columbia professor's anti-Israeli remarks cross lineNovember 5, 2004 - Indiana Daily Student
"Columbia Unbecoming" in the clear light of dayNovember 5, 2004 - Electronic Intifada
Anti-Zionism rages at ColumbiaNovember 5, 2004 - Chicago Maroon
Columbia University Launches Probe Into Bias ClaimsNovember 5, 2004 - Forward
Statement in Response to the Intimidation of Columbia UniversityNovember 4, 2004 - Columbia University
'Witch-Hunt' Laid to 'Pro-Israel Groups'November 4, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia's Anti-Semitism ProblemNovember 4, 2004 - Harvard Crimson
MEALAC Movie Premiers for 400November 4, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
MEALAC Profs: It's Time to TalkNovember 3, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Rebutting a "Misguided Political Project"November 3, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Committee Investigating Bias May Have Known About IntoleranceNovember 2, 2004 - New York Sun
Middle East Studies in the U.S.Fall 2004 - AMIT
Columbia to check anti-Israel bias chargeOctober 31, 2004 - Jerusalem Post
Columbia professor faces probe on anti-Israel remarksOctober 31, 2004 - Ha'aretz
Controversial Film Roils ColumbiaOctober 29, 2004 - Jewish Week
Jewish Students Accuse Columbia University of BiasOctober 29, 2004 - Forward
Bias Festered 'For Years,' Professor SaysOctober 29, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia to Check Reports of Anti-Jewish HarassmentOctober 29, 2004 - New York Times
Columbia to investigate charges of anti-Jewish intimidation by Arab professorsOctober 29, 2004 - Israel Insider
A Marketplace of Ideas?October 29, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Bollinger to Probe Bias on CampusOctober 28, 2004 - New York Sun
University to Investigate Claims of BiasOctober 28, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Call Columbia a poisoned IvyOctober 28, 2004 - New York Daily News
Depths of bigotry at ColumbiaOctober 28, 2004 - New York Daily News
Statement from Lee C. Bollinger on the David Project FilmOctober 27, 2004 - Columbia University
Film Accuses MEALAC Professors of Anti-SemitismOctober 27, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
U.S. Lawmaker Urges Columbia U. to Fire Critic of IsraelOctober 27, 2004 - Chronicle of Higher Education
Pro-Israeli groups pressure Columbia UniversityOctober 26, 2004 - Daily Star (Lebanon)
Anti-Israel Professor Is DefendedOctober 26, 2004 - New York Sun
Bollinger's BlindnessOctober 22, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia Abuzz Over Underground FilmOctober 20, 2004 - New York Sun
Khalidi Criticizes U.S. for 'Denying History' in Iraq WarOctober 20, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Mayo builds on $25 million gift from sheikhOctober 19, 2004 - Star Tribune
Politisierte US-Orientalisten im Clinch: Thinktanks gegen UniversitätenSeptember 27, 2004 - Der Standard
Columbia's FunderAugust 27, 2004 - New York Sun
A La AlaaAugust 18, 2004 - Arutz 7
Columbia Takes What Harvard ShunsAugust 5, 2004 - New York Sun
What the UAE BoughtAugust 5, 2004 - New York Sun
Harvard's ExampleAugust 3, 2004 - New York Sun
Harvard Returns $2.5-Million Gift to Persian Gulf Leader After a Year's CriticismJuly 29, 2004 - Chronicle of Higher Education
Campaign against Harvard gift ends in victory for Tennessee girlJuly 29, 2004 - JTA
The NY Times Slithers Through Its Own MuckJuly 16, 2004 - American Daily
Academia gone awryJuly 15, 2004 - Jerusalem Post
Arafat minion as professorJuly 9, 2004 - Washington Times
Government Attacks on Area Specialists Called Disservice to U.S. Middle East PolicyJune 29, 2004 - UCLA International Institute
Columbia Plans A Professorship In Israel StudiesJune 1, 2004 - New York Sun
More from Wahabi-on-HudsonJune 2004 - Mideastoutpost.com
University celebrity returns, promotes bookMay 21, 2004 - Chicago Maroon
Faculty hold the key to improving Israel's image on campusMay 19, 2004 - JTA
Manhattanville ProjectMay 14, 2004 - Columbia Alumni Listserv
Free to Say What?May 13, 2004 - New York Sun
The Knowledge That Doesn't Equal PowerMay 13, 2004 - Washington Post
Q&A with Lee BollingerMay 7, 2004 - New York Daily News
Columbia's testMay 7, 2004 - New York Daily News
Tenured ExtremismMay 4, 2004 - New York Sun
De Genova Incident, Letter From House Spark Academic Freedom CommitteeMay 3, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Columbia: Weak Link in the War on TerrorMay 3, 2004 - campusreportonline.net
Rebalancing the Middle EastApril 30, 2004 - Israel Insider
Tainted Money For ColumbiaApril 23, 2004 - Jewish Week
Casting Mideast Violence in Another LightApril 20, 2004 - New York Times
Columbia Considers Limits on Political Expression at UniversityApril 19, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia Probing Mideast StudiesApril 16, 2004 - Jewish Week
Columbia U. Investigating Bias and Intimidation in Middle East studiesApril 16, 2004 - Campus Watch.org
The Saudi Fifth Column On Our Nation's CampusesApril 5, 2004 - FrontPage Magazine
Columbia Lists Said DonorsMarch 29, 2004 - New York Sun
CU Releases List of Said Chair DonorsMarch 26, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Outrage of the DayMarch 26, 2004 - LittleGreenFootballs.com
Columbia U. Releases Edward Said Chair Donors: Names Arab GovernmentMarch 19, 2004 - Campus Watch.org
Academic reflects on US foreign policyMarch 19, 2004 - Daily Star (Lebanon)
Defining 'Jihad' More Complex Than Checking Webster'sMarch 14, 2004 - Washington Post
Patriot gamesMarch 13, 2004 - Ha'aretz
Groups Back Bill To Monitor UniversitiesMarch 12, 2004 - Forward
Middle East studies seen as against American interestsMarch 11, 2004 - Jordan Times
Said Remembered as Scholar, Role ModelMarch 4, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
The Ideology PoliceFebruary 25, 2004 - Village Voice
Higher Education Act Stresses Importance of Area StudiesFebruary 18, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Return of campus McCarthyismFebruary 16, 2004 - Berkshire Eagle
CU Professors Mull the Future of Iraq GovernmentFebruary 12, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
The Clash Over Middle East StudiesFebruary 6, 2004 - Chronicle of Higher Education
One Semester Later, Khalidi Stays Focused on AcademicsFebruary 6, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Columbia U's Newest Anti-ZionistFebruary 3, 2004 - New York Sun
The Making of QuagmiresFebruary 3, 2004 - Columbia Spectator
Middle East studies programs get tax-payer dollars, now they may get congressional scrutinyFebruary 2004 - Jewish Voice and Opinion
Columbia Failed To Report Saudi GiftJanuary 30, 2004 - New York Sun
Columbia Embraces Another Anti-Israel ProfessorJanuary 30, 2004 - American Thinker
H.R.3077: The Dean's DeceptionJanuary 21, 2004 - MartinKramer.org
Middle East Studies Under Scrutiny in U.S.January 13, 2004 - Washington Post
Dr. Rashid and Mr. KhalidiJanuary 5, 2004 - MartinKramer.org
Israel Is Accused of Anti-SemitismDecember 30, 2003 - New York Sun
Peeling Columbia's Middle East MaskDecember 14, 2003 - Jewish Internet Association
We Aren't the WorldDecember 11, 2003 - In These Times
Local Colleges Oppose Panel on Middle EastDecember 10, 2003 - New York Sun
Columnist's Criticism of MEALAC Is InappropriateDecember 7, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Imperialism InsteadDecember 4, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
The Treatment of the Middle East at Columbia UniversityWinter 2003 - Columbia / Barnard Hillel E-Bulletin
In Memoriam: Edward W. Said (1935-2003), Honorary Fellow of MESADecember 2003 - MESA Bulletin
Khalidi observations misinterpretedNovember 25, 2003 - Chicago Maroon
Secrets, Donors and the Edward Said ChairNovember 19, 2003 - FrontPage Magazine
Khalidi discussion mistakenNovember 14, 2003 - Chicago Maroon
Osama University?November 6, 2003 - Salon.com
The Unpatriotic U: ColumbiaNovember 4, 2003 - FrontPage Magazine
Khalidi's move to Columbia raises diversity questionsNovember 3, 2003 - Chicago Maroon
Scholarship, Policy, Debate and Conflict:Why We Study the Middle East and Why It MattersNovember 2003 - Middle East Studies Association
Professor Provokes Israeli OutrageOctober 27, 2003 - New York Sun
Tour of U.S. Schools Reveals Why Zionism Is Flunking on CampusOctober 24, 2003 - Forward
The Language LessonOctober 23, 2003 - Slate
Orientalism is alive and well ­ in IraqOctober 20, 2003 - Daily Star (Lebanon)
University scrambles to replace KhalidiOctober 20, 2003 - Chicago Maroon
Forget reds under the bed, there's Arabs in the atticOctober 17, 2003 - The Times Higher Education Supplement
Khalidi's Hiring, Columbia's BiasOctober 3, 2003 - FrontPage Magazine
Edward Said (1935-2003)October 2, 2003 - National Association of Scholars (NAS)
"The Majesty That He Was": Columbia Colleagues Remember Edward SaidOctober 2, 2003 - DanielPipes.org
Edward Said and Fouad Ajami: exile and the empireOctober 2, 2003 - Daily Star (Lebanon)
Edward Said jammed our view of Arab worldOctober 1, 2003 - New York Daily News
Reconsidering SaidSeptember 30, 2003 - American Prospect
OrientalismSeptember 29, 2003 - Wall Street Journal
A Mixed LegacySeptember 29, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Edward SaidSeptember 29, 2003 - National Review
Edward Said leaves important legacySeptember 26, 2003 - Christian Science Monitor
Wherefore Columbia?September 25, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Fall Arabic Sections Fill Up Quickly; Profs. AddedSeptember 23, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
365 Days of Campus WatchSeptember 18, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Saving Mideast StudiesSeptember 18, 2003 - New York Post
Calling the shots on the Middle EastSeptember 13, 2003 - Daily Star (Lebanon)
Concealment Continues at ColumbiaSeptember 8, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Rashid Khalidi's Appointment at Columbia UniversityAugust 29, 2003 - MSNBC
Anti-Israel U.August 25, 2003 - New York Post
Hauser Helped Fund Professor of HateJuly 23, 2003 - New York Sun
Columbia Professor Endorses Terrorism - ParodyJuly 23, 2003 - IsraPundit.com
A "Nuanced" Look at Middle Eastern StudiesJuly 1, 2003 - FrontPage Magazine
Edward Said, Malcolm Kerr, and Honors at AUBJune 26, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
[Middle East Studies:] Wasted MoneyJune 24, 2003 - New York Post
Congress Probes Middle Eastern StudiesJune 23, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Hearing Both Sides of Title VIJune 23, 2003 - National Review
A New Challenge for Jewish College StudentsJune 23, 2003 - Emunah Magazine
A Saudi Education, Right Here at HomeJune 19, 2003 - National Review
Witnesses Debate Questions of Bias in International Studies ProgramsJune 19, 2003 - Committee on Education and the Workforce
Testimony of Stanley Kurtz before the House Subcommittee on Select Education for Hearings on International Education and Questions of BiasJune 19, 2003
Studying Title VIJune 16, 2003 - National Review
Interview with Hamid DabashiJune 12, 2003 - AsiaSource
American Association of University Professors: Lobby for the LeftJune 4, 2003 - FrontPage Magazine
Academic StandardsJune 4, 2003 - National Review
Dare Call It TreasonJune 2, 2003 - The Nation
The New McCarthyism?May 21, 2003 - National Review Online
The War is Over and We Have LostMay 14, 2003 - National Review Online
Anti-Jewish, Anti-American Speaks at University of WashingtonMay 13, 2003 - ChronWatch.com
The Arabist PredicamentSummer 2003 - Azure
Is the MEALAC Department Balanced?April 28, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
The Burning FlamesApril 24, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
A Specter Haunts ColumbiaApril 23, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
An Iraqi [Cultural] TragedyApril 22, 2003 - New York Post
Orientalism Symposium Attracts AcademicsApril 21, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Profs square off over Iraq warApril 18, 2003 - Yale Daily News
Edward Said and Twelve Disciples at Post-Orientalist PassoverApril 16, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Columbia University Celebrates Edward SaidApril 16, 2003 - MSNBC: Scarborough Country
Columbia Celebrates Edward SaidApril 15, 2003 - National Review
Columbia University Conservatives on the Edward Said "Jubilee"April 15, 2003 - Columbia College Conservative Club
Columbia Prof Plumbs the Shiite MindApril 14, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Between the Narrow PointsApril 14, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Policing the academyApril 10, 2003 - Al-Ahram Weekly
Liberate the UniversitiesApril 7, 2003 - National Review
Teach-in RemarksApril 3, 2003 - Middle East Institute [Columbia University]
Glasnost in MESAApril 2, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Columbia vs. AmericaApril 1, 2003 - New York Post
Goldilocks Warrior at PennMarch 31, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Teach-In, Turn On, Walk OutMarch 28, 2003 - National Review
Mazrui Listed as 'Extremist'March 28, 2003 - Cornell Daily Sun
Professors Condemn War in Iraq At Teach-inMarch 27, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Teach-in, Iraq, etc.March 27, 2003 - Middle East Institute [Columbia University]
Muslim Panelists Confront Rushdie's WorkMarch 25, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Professorial Pundits Place Iraq BetsMarch 24, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Professor's Response to Criticism Is InappropriateMarch 24, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Suddenly, a Seller's Market for Arabic StudiesMarch 19, 2003 - New York times
Columbia U's Radical Middle East FacultyMarch 18, 2003 - FrontPage Magazine
CU Faculty To Speak on Iraq War at Teach-inMarch 14, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Middle East CertitudeMarch 10, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
MEALAC Department Has Been Blatantly DefamedMarch 10, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Columbia's Troubles Bubble Up Through the BubblyMarch 6, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Middle East Studies Sees Rise in Student InterestMarch 5, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
We Must Always Remain CriticalFebruary 26, 2003 - Stanford Review
Revamp Mideast StudiesFebruary 25, 2003 - Harvard Crimson
Prof's slip is showing - so's his anti-SemitismFebruary 19, 2003 - New York Daily News
The Myth of Anti-Military BiasFebruary 13, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Former Education Chief Endorses War on IraqFebruary 13, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
U.S. Mideast Academics Fight Charges of BiasFebruary 12, 2003 - Reuters
SaidianaFebruary 11, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Columbia Wins Back a Mideast HistorianFebruary 7, 2003 - Chronicle of Higher Education
Bir Zeit-on-HudsonFebruary 5, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Columbia's Provost response to the Palestinian film festival controversyFebruary 3, 2003
Mapping A ControversyJanuary 31, 2003 - Jewish Week
Khalidi accepts chair offer from ColumbiaJanuary 31, 2003 - Chicago Maroon
College split over fellowshipJanuary 31, 2003 - The Guardian
Rashid ReduxJanuary 29, 2003 - MartinKramer.org
Department of DishonestyJanuary 27, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Khalidi to Accept Said Chair After Long DelayJanuary 23, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Conservatives Criticize Columbia University's Sponsorship of Militant Palestinian Film FestivalJanuary 22, 2003 - Columbia College Conservative Club
Nightmares of A UniversityJanuary 22, 2003 - PRWeb
Dreams of a DebateJanuary 21, 2003 - Columbia Spectator
Middle Eastern Studies: What Went Wrong?December 16, 2002 - Policywatch
Defending the Idea of the University in Troubled TimesDecember 9, 2002
Working for the MullahsNovember 19, 2002 - National Review Online
Offer of Said Chair To Khalidi Draws FireNovember 14, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
Reporting on Professors' Views Fails to Address ControversyNovember 14, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
History, Political Science Professors Discuss IraqNovember 7, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
Khalidi Is Offered Chair at ColumbiaNovember 5, 2002 - New York Sun
The Columbia Club of Middle Eastern StudiesNovember 5, 2002 - MartinKramer.org
Professor Exaggerated What Occurred in ClassroomOctober 30, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
Readers Respond to Article on Middle East Forum's Web SiteOctober 28, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
Middle East Forum's Web Site Lists CU ProfessorsOctober 21, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
A Surge of Anti-Semitism or McCarthyism?October 4, 2002 - Chronicle of Higher Education
Academia watchdog Web site not McCarthyistSeptember 30, 2002 - Washington Square News
Campus Watch: Interview with Prof. Joseph MassadSeptember 27, 2002 - Electronic Intifada
Web Discussion on Hamid DabashiAugust 7, 2002 - Columbia University student website
Arabic PanicSummer 2002 - Middle East Quarterly
Exchange between Joseph Massad and Turi MuntheApril 22, 2002 - The Nation
Students Organize Sit-In To Support PalestiniansApril 18, 2002 - Columbia Spectator
Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab WorldSpring 2002 - Public Culture
Detained: The Power of the State to Terrorize ImmigrantsFebruary 26, 2002 - Barnard Forum at Columbia University
My country, always wrongDecember 20, 2001 - Jerusalem Post
Terrorism? What Terrorism?!November 15, 2001 - Wall Street Journal
Letter to the Editor in defense of Edward SaidSeptember 10, 2000 - Columbia Spectator
Truth and Narrative: The Untimely Thoughts of 'Ayn al-Qudat al-HamadhaniSeptember 2000 - Medium Aevum
Review of: Political Islam and the New World DisorderSummer 1999 - The Middle East Journal
An Intifada of Our Very OwnFall 1997 - Academic Questions
Review of: Orientalism - Image of the Prophet Muhammad in the WestAutumn 1997 - The Middle East Journal
Review of: Orientalism - Islam and Romantic OrientalismAutumn 1997 - The Middle East Journal
Conceiving the masculine: Gender and Palestinian nationalismSummer 1995 - The Middle East Journal
Middle Eastern Studies: What Went Wrong?Winter 1995-96 - Academic Questions
Return or Permanent Exile? Palestinian Refugees and the Ends of OsloThe Arabic Hour
Review of: Jewish Fundamentalism in IsraelMIT-EJMES
Student comments about Joseph Massad

Illinois over Georgetown

Illini cruise to 74-59.

FOX Sports: The victory put Illinois (8-0) two-thirds of the way to holding a No. 1 ranking for consecutive weeks for the first time in school history. The Illini lost their first game the previous two times they gained the top spot. This time, they've held their own with a 78-59 win over Chicago State on Monday and Thursday's win over Georgetown, with a game against Oregon in Chicago on Saturday still to come.

Dude, check it out.

Chicago Trib editorial today.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 10, 1520: German reformer Martin Luther publicly burns Pope Leo X's bull "Exsurge Domine," which had demanded that Luther recant his heresies—including justification by faith alone.

December 10, 1561: German theologian Caspar Schwenkfeld, a reformer who fell out of favor with the "mainstream" Reformation movement because of his Christology (he believed Christ's humanity was deified), dies.

December 10, 1824: Scottish writer and poet George MacDonald, whose fairy tales and mythopoetic novels inspired C.S. Lewis, is born.

Today's Verse

Is one of my favorite passages in the OT.

Thursday, December 9, 2004

-- Joshua 1:9 --

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."

It harkens to a NT passage: 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

"Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be of courage; be strong. Do everything in love."

An excellent example of that current of truth running though all the books of the Bible - two writers separated by a thousand years expressing the same deeply felt sentiment and the same trust in the same God.

Trib gets is right on Barghouti

in editorial today - and this is the whole point:

Barghouti's supporters sometimes compare him to former South African President Nelson Mandela, who spent years in prison under the apartheid regime. But Barghouti is no Mandela. He's a promising politician who turned thug. Despite his claims of being a political prisoner and mounting pressure to release him, Barghouti belongs in jail. He may be popular among some Palestinians, but his popularity is the kind that Arafat courted, the kind that makes real negotiations and compromise impossible. His popularity is a promise of more violence.

Now, lest we forget, Abbas is linked to Holocaust denial, but wading in the Palestinian morass of atavistic hatred, he's a step in the right direction.

On this day...

in Christian History:


December 9, 1608: English poet John Milton is born in London. Though most famous for his epic Paradise Lost, he also penned an exposition of Christian doctrine, a plan for Christian education, and various political writings.

December 9, 1840: Unable to go to China, David Livingstone sets sail from London as a missionary to southern Africa (see issue 56: David Livingstone).

December 9, 1843: The first Christmas cards—actually more like postcards—are created and sold for a shilling.

Immaculate Conception at 150

I'm sorry, but I'm just compelled to point this out here. I have a great deal of admiration for Catholic faith and teaching and history, but this never ceases to leave me a bit dumbquizzled.

Do we understand that the concept of Immaculate Conception is NOT about Mary conceiving Jesus through the Holy Spirit?

Do we understand that this is connected to Pope Pius IX - the pope who also oversaw the formalized dogma of papal infalibility at the Vatican Council of 1869-1870 - decreed that Mary was herself conceived without sin? Not Jesus. Mary.

Do we understand that this dogma declaration was made in 1854 - only 150 years ago - and has not one verse of Scriptual support?

We understand all that?

Okay then; today's celebrations.