Protected: How Apologetics Impacts Conversion: A Historical Case Study Parts 1-4
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Category: Government
Everything for my government class is here
Where Does ‘In God We Trust’ Come From? National Motto Appearing in Public Schools Across America
BY DANIEL AVERY ON 8/6/19 AT 10:27 AM EDT – for NewsWeek.com My cmnt: I must note that in times of great national distress our leaders have always, since the founding of the country and before, called upon Almighty God (or Providence) to protect us and “look with favor upon our undertakings.” In July, a new law took effect requiring South Dakota public schools to prominently display the phrase “In God We Trust” on school grounds starting in the 2019-2020 academic year. “A prominent location is a school entryway, cafeteria, or other common area where students are most likely to see the … Continue reading Where Does ‘In God We Trust’ Come From? National Motto Appearing in Public Schools Across America
Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations and FDR’s D-Day Prayer
Thanksgiving Proclamation [New York, 3 October 1789] By the President of the United States of America. a Proclamation. Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity … Continue reading Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamations and FDR’s D-Day Prayer
A Living Constitution
An interpretive history of the Constitution through ten lives. by Ilya Shapiro – Summer 2018 – for Claremont Review of Books How would you write an interpretive history of the U.S. Constitution? Not a story of the framing and how the founders’ political theories have survived (or not) the test of time, or a chronological exegesis of Supreme Court cases, or even a critique of American constitutionalism from a particular theoretical perspective. Those worthy projects have been done in many forms, but if you wanted to produce an accessible book that addressed the main ideas undergirding our constitutional order as they’ve … Continue reading A Living Constitution
Thomas Sowell’s Inconvenient Truths
Hard questions about discrimination, diversity, and civil rights. by William Voegeli – Summer 2018 – for Claremont Review of Books New York City’s vast public school system enrolls 1.1 million students, some 18,000 of whom attend nine “specialized” high schools, where the curriculum is particularly rigorous and admission is both widely sought and highly competitive. Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Tech are the oldest, largest, and most famous such institutions. Eight of these schools base admission decisions solely on applicants’ scores on the Specialized High School Admissions Test (SHSAT), developed by an education assessment company under contract to the New York … Continue reading Thomas Sowell’s Inconvenient Truths
Protected: A Brief Overview: The Moral Dimension of Rule of Law in the U. S. Constitution
Protected: Why Has the West Been So Successful?
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Biden pushes for ‘equity’ over ‘equality.’ Here’s the difference — and why it matters
By Bailey Aldridge – February 01, 2021 2:24 PM – for McClatchy News My cmnt: I post this because it shows the blindness of young Libs to the dangers of promoting “equity” over “equality”. It always ends badly for everyone except the favored few. The whole cry of communism since its inception has been the lie that they will MAKE everyone equal. What they have actually shown over 100 years of recent history is that the elites, like elite democratic leadership in America, live in the Hamptons while the masses live in the ghettos. The only equity they achieve is … Continue reading Biden pushes for ‘equity’ over ‘equality.’ Here’s the difference — and why it matters
How millennials became aggressively illiberal, censorious young adults
By George F. Will – Columnist The Washington Post | July 8, 2022 at 4:25 p.m. EDT Time was, conscientious parents fretted about “summer learning loss.” Now, when much of what schools do subtracts from understanding, summer could at least be a time for recuperation from educational malpractice — were summer not just another season of screen addictions for young people deformed by this digital age. In 2008, Americans were being inundated by journalism performing anticipatory sociology. “Techno-cheerleaders” — Mark Bauerlein’s term — predicted that millennials (born 1981-1996), the first generation suckled by their digital devices, would dazzle the world … Continue reading How millennials became aggressively illiberal, censorious young adults
The God Gap Helps Explain a ‘Seismic Shift’ in American Politics
The most important religious divide isn’t between right and left, but between left and left By David French – Jul 17, 2022 – the French Press My cmnt: Only an arrogant, indoctrinated marxist like B.O. could come up with a phrase like “coalition of the ascendant.” People have wondered whether Obama and his racist mentor-pastor Wright were really Christians. It’s not a matter of whether or not he CLAIMS to be a Christian, we see by his constant disdain for Christians worldwide and his endless empathy for murderous Muslims worldwide where his heart lies. But even that is not the … Continue reading The God Gap Helps Explain a ‘Seismic Shift’ in American Politics
An Open Letter to American Jews
by Ben Shapiro – Wednesday, April 28, 2010 – from my files Dear American Jews, I write to you as a charter member of the tribe. I’m not only Jewish, I’m religious. I’m married to an Israeli girl (she’ll receive her citizenship next year and she is a proud soon-to-be American). I go to synagogue regularly, keep kosher, keep the Sabbath. American Jews, I have one request of you: please pull your heads out of your posteriors. I mean that in all sincerity. Your continued support for Democrats and an Obama administration that is openly anti-Semitic is a disgrace. Your … Continue reading An Open Letter to American Jews
Doubting Rationalist: an interview with Phillip E. Johnson
“Intelligent Design” Proponent Phillip Johnson and How He Came to Be by Michael Powell Washington Post Staff WriterSunday, May 15, 2005; D01 BERKELEY, Calif. “The Washington Post is not one of my biggest fans, you know that.” Hello? The Washington Post reporter has just walked out of a spray of Pacific-borne rain into the living room of a modest bungalow west of downtown. There’s a shag rug, an inspirational painting or two and Phillip Johnson, dressed in tan slacks and a sweater and sitting on a couch. He pulls a dog-eared copy of a Post editorial out of his shirt … Continue reading Doubting Rationalist: an interview with Phillip E. Johnson
Bleak Nation
Our colonial past was not beautiful, but it was also not more destructive than many other pasts. by Allen C. Guelzo – Spring 2022 – for the Claremont Review of Books My cmnt: Allen Guelzo reviews a book here by Alan Taylor who takes a Leftist, slanted view of the American founding and founders. Guelzo shows how an “eminent” scholar and historian like Taylor can pick and choose when writing a history according to his preconceived notions of where he wants to end up and what he wants to convey to his readers. In other words history can be written, even … Continue reading Bleak Nation
Father of His Country
George Washington’s American nationalism. by Carson Holloway – Spring 2022 – the Claremont Review of Books After Donald Trump described himself as a nationalist in 2018, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin replied that nationalism is not only “contrary to the principles of a multiethnic, multiracial democracy” but also “antithetical to America’s founding creed.” On this question, however, the preeminent founder, George Washington, had more in common with Trump’s position than Rubin’s. Though Washington never used the term “nationalism,” the nation—its identity, interests, and honor—was central to his statesmanship. National Interest The most famous expression of Washington’s nationalism can be found in his … Continue reading Father of His Country
Pursuing Happiness
Tracing the radically different conceptions of human flourishing that have been in contention over the past half-millennium can help us acquire self-knowledge. by Diana Schaub – Spring 2022 – for the Claremont Review of Books We have an inalienable right to pursue happiness, but are we any good at it? Do we ever achieve happiness, or does the mode of our pursuit push away its satisfaction? Do we substitute busyness for contentment? In agreement with Alexis de Tocqueville’s description of Americans as “restless in the midst of their well-being,” Benjamin and Jenna Silber Storey offer a philosophical genealogy of our unquiet … Continue reading Pursuing Happiness
The French Revolution Doesn’t Hold A Candle To America’s War Of Independence
July’s tale of two revolutions highlights America’s superior system of government and, most importantly, its relationship with God. BY: CARINA BENTON – JULY 15, 2022 – for The Federalist An intriguing fallout from the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the constitutionally baseless Roe V. Wade decision can be found across the Atlantic, where efforts are now underway to enshrine in the French Constitution the so-called right to kill one’s own pre-born baby. Evidently some plumes have been ruffled. French President Emmanuel Macron, whose own people have such a poor opinion of his performance that his party hemorrhaged 63 seats in the recent legislative elections, went as far as … Continue reading The French Revolution Doesn’t Hold A Candle To America’s War Of Independence
Protected: Government 101 – Outline
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Government 101 – Syllabus
Laying the foundation Philosophy – Religion – Worldview – Apologetics – History – The Enlightenment – Building on that foundation Government – Economics – Science – The result of that foundation The American Revolution The French Revolution America – The Constitution The Bill of Rights – Ripping up the foundation The Culture Wars Secular Humanism Communism Biblical Higher Criticism Darwinism Scientism Modernism Postmodernism Radical Environmentalism Feminism Gender Theory Liberation Theology Critical Race Theory Covid-19 politics The End of Freedom? Bibliography How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture – Francis Schaeffer Worldviews in Conflict … Continue reading Government 101 – Syllabus
The Irish Aren’t Red-headed Mexicans
May 16, 2018 by Ann Coulter – her website In an interview with NPR last Friday, Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly described the illegal aliens pouring across our border in the most gentle manner imaginable. He said that illegal aliens aren’t “bad people,” but also “not people that would easily assimilate into the United States into our modern society.” They are, he continued, mostly rural, poor, unskilled and illiterate. “They don’t speak English,” Kelly said. “Obviously, that’s a big thing.” Kelly violated the civic religion of treating every non-American as better than an American — a potential valedictorian, Medal … Continue reading The Irish Aren’t Red-headed Mexicans
Who Benefits From Immigration? Not You!
January 30, 2019 by Ann Coulter – her website Assiduous readers of my columns know that I have frequently made the point that America’s immigration policies benefit only three groups of people: 1) rich Americans with a lot of employees, 2) the immigrants themselves, and 3) their grandmothers back in Chiapas. The money illegal immigrants send out of the country doesn’t come from their low wages. It comes from the taxpayers, who are required to subsidize immigrants so that investment bankers can have cheap nannies. Yes, it is a problem that they couldn’t possibly live on what I pay them, … Continue reading Who Benefits From Immigration? Not You!
Yes, Virginia, Immigration Is Turning The Country Blue
November 15, 2017 by Ann Coulter – her website Hey, Republicans! Did you enjoy Election Night last week? Get ready for a lot more nights like that as immigration turns every last corner of the country blue. When Ed Gillespie lost in Virginia, liberals crowed about how they’re winning the war of ideas. The country has thoroughly, emphatically rejected Trumpism! Republicans, being idiots, played along, arguing only about whether Gillespie’s problem was that he didn’t embrace Trump enough or embraced him too much. Gillespie’s campaign was fine. No cleverer arguments, community outreach or perfectly timed mailings would have changed the … Continue reading Yes, Virginia, Immigration Is Turning The Country Blue
Immigration Hawks Frightened By 99-pound Blonde
June 3, 2015 by Ann Coulter – her website Third World immigration advocates Frank Sharry, Ali Noorani and Marc Andreessen aren’t shy about rushing to the press with pabulum quotes about how wonderful immigration is, but they don’t want to debate me, even to lie about all those benefits. They don’t want you to think about immigration at all. Although you will miss the lush analytical context of the full case made in my smash new book, Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole, here are some more startling facts from my book … Continue reading Immigration Hawks Frightened By 99-pound Blonde
Every Pro-immigration Claim Is A Lie
July 15, 2015 by Ann Coulter – her website In the wake of Kate Steinle’s murder at the hands of an illegal immigrant, mass immigration advocates have begun a campaign of lies in defense of their cheap labor. “Studies show,” they say, that immigrants commit LESS crime than the native population. Inasmuch as the vast majority of post-1970 immigrants — legal immigrants — are poor, non-white and come from countries with far worse crime rates than our own, that’s at least counterintuitive. The main evidence cited in support of the claim that immigrants commit less crime than Americans is a … Continue reading Every Pro-immigration Claim Is A Lie
The Problem Isn’t Just Illegal Immigration, It’s Legal Immigration, Too
April 24, 2013 by Ann Coulter – her website The people of Boston are no longer being terrorized by the Marathon bombers, but amnesty supporters sure are. On CNN’s “State of the Union” last weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham’s response to the Boston Marathon bombers being worthless immigrants who hate America — one of whom the FBI cleared even after being tipped off to him by Russia — was to announce: “The fact that we could not track him has to be fixed.” Track him? How about not admitting him as an immigrant? As if it’s a defense, we’re told Tamerlan … Continue reading The Problem Isn’t Just Illegal Immigration, It’s Legal Immigration, Too
What Does Postmodernism Really Amount To?
Even its practitioners don’t know. by John M. Ellis – Spring 2022 – for The Claremont Review of Books My cmnt: See my essay on postmoderism here. If you want to know what postmodernism is, or just what the word means, you don’t get much help from either its advocates or interpreters. Most words that label theories bear some relation to their content: words like “evolution” or “Communism” give you at least the beginning of an understanding of what they are about. But words, like “modernism,” that refer only to an unspecified time have the drawback not only of omitting any … Continue reading What Does Postmodernism Really Amount To?
My essay on postmodernism
A very brief but helpful explanation of pre, extant, post and post-post modernism. In the pre-modern era the intellectual community existed in the Christian milieu and its presuppositions started with ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’; its moral underpinnings were the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. Some would say the modern era began with Isaac Newton, a devout Christian, and the publishing of his monumental work Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687), commonly known as the Principia. Philosophers like Immanuel Kant were convinced from reading this work that Newton had laid the foundations for a Deistic … Continue reading My essay on postmodernism
The 1619 Lesson
If the young are taught the terrible falsehood that “racism is and always was the dominant ideology,” then the American experiment will hang by the thinnest thread, and we will have no Lincolns to save it. by Daniel J. Mahoney – Spring 2022 – Claremont Review of Books A self-respecting people must be a self-critical people, open to introspection and ready to repent of real sin. But self-criticism is not the same as self-loathing. Reckless and willful distortion of the historical record betokens not integrity, but ingratitude toward those who have left the American people a noble civic and moral inheritance. … Continue reading The 1619 Lesson
Here’s What Your Child’s School Should Be Teaching About American History And Government
BY: JOY PULLMANN – JUNE 27, 2022 – for The Federalist The United States’s education institutions were almost entirely formed for the major purposes of developing good citizens and, usually, faithful Christians. It is no secret that today most of America’s education institutions do the opposite. The result is an existential threat to the nation as its enemies work to destroy the most prosperous, most equal, and most free civilization in world history. In a refreshingly positive, intellectually sound, and action-minded response to this national crisis, a group of top-notch scholars releases today a recommended curriculum blueprint for the K-12 study … Continue reading Here’s What Your Child’s School Should Be Teaching About American History And Government
The Truth about “Inherit the Wind”
by Carol Iannone – February 1997 – for First Things My cmnt: Darwinism is quite simply philosophical materialism dressed up as Science Let’s set the stage In the middle of the hot summer of 1925, the famous “Monkey Trial” took place in Dayton, Tennessee, a small town of about eighteen hundred people in the Cumberland Valley. A young teacher named John Scopes stood accused of violating the Butler Act, a measure passed earlier that year to restrict the teaching of evolution in state-funded schools. The defense featured the famous attorney Clarence Darrow, and the prosecution starred the celebrated orator, populist, … Continue reading The Truth about “Inherit the Wind”
Lord Buckbeak 