By Selwyn Duke
Whenever criticizing grammar
and punctuation, you run the risk of being labeled punctilious. Worse still, since even many good writers involved
in Internet journalism disgorge the odd typo, there’s the chance you will come
to be regarded as an expert on the glass-house real estate market. Yet there’s no doubt that the much lamented
decline in journalism is about style as well as substance. And, just occasionally, you encounter an
example of it that demands some attention.
By Bruce Walker
Turner Movie Classics on February
27th showed its viewers My Son John, a 1952 film which Robert
Osborne advised his audience had been deliberately put out of circulation since
soon after it was released. In his introduction to the film, Osborne
acknowledges that the film’s stars and producers were first rate. The
cast included Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, and Robert Walker. Osborne also
makes it clear that the film is an embarrassment to the film industry, full of
childish anti-Communism and the foolish paranoia of America in the 1950s.
By Bruce Walker
As a Republican victory in 2010
becomes increasingly likely, conservatives need to understand that the fight to
keep the Republican Party really stand for something is not new. In the
last eighty years, except for Reagan and Goldwater, every Republican
presidential nominee has been what we today would call a RINO. Does that
statement sound extreme? Consider the history.
Modern
education theory is simply a rationalization that is used to avoid dealing with
our real problems
By Selwyn Duke
We’ve all heard about that
proverbial portly dieter, the person who puts no-cal sweetener in his coffee
and then uses it to wash down a piece of chocolate cake. It’s an eye-rolling
image, but it speaks to a frailty of man’s nature. That is, while we occupy an
I’m OK-you’re OK culture, we still generally know that our problems are
problems, not just “lifestyles.” We also generally find the feeling that we’re
doing nothing about them, nothing to better ourselves, depressing; it causes
emotional pain. Yet, what happens when we lack the discipline to endure the pain,
emotional and/or physical, associated with effecting a true remedy? This is
when we use cake-and-coffee coping mechanisms so that we can enjoy the illusion
we’re doing something without actually doing anything.
This phenomenon partially
explains many of today’s innovations in education. For example, consider the
problem of tolerance for poor language skills. Professor Walter Williams
addressed this in a recent piece, writing:
Read the rest here.
A commentator wonders why pro-choice men aren’t as numerous or as
vocal as their pro-life counterparts. But the answer is so simple that
only a pro-choice pundit could miss it.
By Selwyn Duke
Sometimes you just have to be thankful for your enemies. Case in point:
The maelstrom surrounding the pro-life Super Bowl ad starring Florida
Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. I’m sure the spot would have been very
effective in and of itself, but the discussion its opponents have
sparked is something money just can’t buy. Thanks to them, we’re again
talking about abortion. And every time we do, pro-lifers win converts.
This has caused much consternation within the abortion lobby, and a good example is pundit Hugh Ryan at The Daily Beast. In a column
titled “The Problem With [sic] Pro-Choice Men,” he notes that men are
abandoning the pro-abortion position and that those who do support the
cause are seldom too vocal about it. They just cannot match the passion
of a Mel Gibson, Ben Stein, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Stephen Baldwin or
Kirk Cameron, he laments.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
Many of us have heard about Geert Wilders, the Dutch parliamentarian
currently on trial in Holland because he criticized Islam. It’s
shocking to many that you could be charged with a hate crime for
expressing an opinion, but such prosecutions are not unheard of in the
Western world beyond American shores. After all, most nations have
nothing tantamount to our First Amendment. But could such a thing
happen in the land of the (mostly) free as well?
If a “human relations” task force in California has its way, the
answer will be yes. Its victims are two Lancaster, Calif., city
officials: Mayor R. Rex Parris and Councilman Sherry Marquez. Their
sins? Parris told a group of Christian ministers, “We are growing
Christian community — and don't let anybody shy away from that.” And
Marquez posted quotations on her Facebook page from Muslim leaders
encouraging adherents to win the world for Islam along with excerpts
from the Bible that encourage Christians to defend themselves.
Read the rest here.
Were the Crusades really expansionist ventures by an imperialist Europe? Or were they something else entirely?
By Selwyn Duke
The year is 732 A.D., and Europe is under assault. Islam, born a
mere 110 years earlier, is already in its adolescence, and the Muslim
Moors are on the march.
Growing in leaps and bounds, the Caliphate, as the Islamic realm is
known, has thus far subdued much of Christendom, conquering the old
Christian lands of the Mideast and North Africa in short order. Syria
and Iraq fell in 636; Palestine in 638; and Egypt, which was not even
an Arab land, fell in 642. North Africa, also not Arab, was under
Muslim control by 709. Then came the year 711 and the Moors’ invasion
of Europe, as they crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered
Visigothic Iberia (now Spain and Portugal). And the new continent
brought new successes to Islam. Conquering the Iberian Peninsula by
718, the Muslims crossed the Pyrenees Mountains into Gaul (now France)
and worked their way northward. And now, in 732, they are approaching
Tours, a mere 126 miles from Paris.
The Moorish leader, Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi, is supremely confident of
success. He is in the vanguard of the first Muslim crusade, and his
civilization has enjoyed rapidity and scope of conquest heretofore
unseen in world history. He is at the head of an enormous army, replete
with heavy cavalry, and views the Europeans as mere barbarians. In
contrast, the barbarians facing him are all on foot, a tremendous
disadvantage. The only thing the Frankish and Burgundian European
forces have going for them is their leader, Charles of Herstal,
grandfather of Charlemagne. He is a brilliant military tactician who,
after losing his very first battle, is enjoying an unbroken 16-year
streak of victories.
Read the rest here.
By Selwyn Duke
Many years ago, I was told a
story by a woman I knew whose son had been diagnosed with “A.D.D.” She said that she finally had to take from
her boy a book a therapist had given him about how an A.D.D. child acts. The problem?
Her son was reading it and then imitating the behavior of the child in
it!
Then I remember when someone I
know well told me about her 13-year-old’s reaction to being confronted about
his misbehavior. He said something to
the effect of, “Well, mom, you know, I’m at that age.” But how did he know he was at “that age”?
By Selwyn Duke
Scott Brown may be the Massachusetts
man of the moment, but it sure didn’t take him long to commit his first gaffe. The
scene was the podium at his Senate-campaign victory speech, where, flanked by
his two scantily clad daughters, he proclaimed to the
world that they were “available.” No, Bill Clinton was not in attendance.
At this point one could
probably make a crack about politics’ frequent association with prostitution,
which, as Eliot Spitzer proved, is sometimes more than a figurative nexus. But
the truth is that Brown’s statement — a poor effort at humor — shocked many,
including commentator Glenn Beck, who blasted
the senator-elect on his radio show.
Read the rest here.
It’s Christmas Eve and Jimmy has just been tucked
snugly in bed. The anxiety for the day
to come has him plum tuckered out. As he
drifts off to sleep, the last vision that passed across his mind is a
photographic memory of the crayon written letter he sent to Santa:
Dear Santa,
It’s me
Jimmy. I have been a very good boy this
year and I got all A’s on my report card.
All I want for Christmas is a pony; a brown pony with white spots is
what I really want but any pony will do if you can’t find one with spots.
Thanks,
Jimmy
