400-408 – Wesley J. Smith, bioethicist and senior fellow at the Discovery Institute (discovery.org), attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and blogger at Second Hand Smoke over at First Things (firstthings.com/blogs/secondhandsmoke), his latest book is The Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World, and is forthcoming A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy: The Human Cost of Animal Rights, is due out January 19, 2010.
• Wesley J. Smith (12/26/09) Anti-Humanism: Now Plants are the Most Ethical Life Form?
• Natalie Angier, NYT (12/21/09) Sorry, Vegans: Brussels Sprouts Like to Live, Too.
413-423 – Wesley J. Smith, continued.
• Jonah Goldberg (12/30/09) Avatar and the Faith Instinct: It’s the norm to speak glowingly of spirituality but derisively of traditional religion.
// In short, Avatar tells the tale of a disabled Marine, Jake Sully, who occupies the body of a ten-foot-tall alien so he can live among the mystical forest denizens of the moon world Pandora. Sully is sent in mufti, like a futuristic Lawrence of Arabia, to further the schemes of the evil corporate nature-rapists desperate to obtain the precious mineral “unobtainium” (no, really). Jake inevitably goes native, embraces the eco-faith of Pandora’s Na’Vi inhabitants and their tree goddess, the “all mother,” and rallies the Pandoran aborigines (not to mention the Pandoran ecosystem itself) against the evil forces of a thinly veiled 22nd-century combine of Blackwater and Halliburton.
The film has been subjected to a sustained assault from many on the right, most notably by Ross Douthat in the New York Times, as an “apologia for pantheism.” Douthat’s criticisms hit the mark, but the most relevant point was raised by John Podhoretz in The Weekly Standard. Cameron wrote Avatar, says Podhoretz, “not to be controversial, but quite the opposite: He was making something he thought would be most pleasing to the greatest number of people.”
What would have been controversial is if — somehow — Cameron had made a movie in which the good guys accepted Jesus Christ into their hearts.
Of course, that sounds outlandish and absurd, but that’s the point, isn’t it? We live in an age in which it’s the norm to speak glowingly of spirituality but derisively of traditional religion. If the Na’Vi were Roman Catholics, there would be boycotts and protests. Make the oversized Smurfs Rousseauian noble savages and everyone nods along, save for a few cranky right-wingers.
428-437 – David Horowitz, founder of the David Horowitz Freedom Center (horowitzfreedomcenter.org), and editor of Frontpage Magazine (frontpagemag.com, terrorismawareness.org, discoverthenetworks.org). We talk today about his touching new book about both losing and finding his daughter, Sarah, who died last year at the age of 44, it’s entitled A Cracking of the Heart.
• David Horowitz (12/25/09) What My Daughter Taught Me About Compassion: Sarah understood that changing the world meant starting with our relationship.
• Washington Times (11/25/09) David Horowitz honors his daughter's life.
• David Horowitz, Barack Obama’s Rules for Revolution – The Alinsky Model.
• David Horowitz (12/30/09) Who Will Be Responsible for the American Dead?
443-452 – David Horowitz
458-508 – Ron Rhodes, President of Reasoning from the Scriptures Ministries (ronrhodes.org), author of over 50 books, and when he’s not teaching at Dallas or Talbot, he’s teaching down at Veritas Evangelical Seminary in Murrieta. He was the Associate Editor of the Christian Research Journal and a regular on the Bible Answer Man for seven years (1988-1995).
512-523 – Ron Rhodes
528-538 – (1:17) PO clip 1 (12/29/09) Obama spoke Tuesday about further developments regarding Abdulmutallab. He says the father did pass along concerns to American intelligence, but it wasn’t distributed. Obama blames “the system we’ve had in place for years” for the failure, not his own Administration.
(:39) PO clip 2 (12/29/09) Obama says a systemic failure occurred on Christmas Day.
(4:29) Isaac Yeffet (Fox and Friends @ 12/29/09). Former head of Israel’s El Al Airlines talks about how they have successfully dealt with airline security for the past 30 years. Unlike us, they do “behavioral profiling” of suspicious passengers, whereas we try to stop the inanimate objects themselves, i.e., the guns, knives, and bomb-making materials. Interestingly, he’s against the full body scanning x-ray machines we’ve now got on order – it especially dishonors Muslim husbands who will be terribly insulted that someone saw his wife naked. Nor does he believe the bomber acted alone. He encourages us to stop the panic and fear we’re expressing because it expresses weakness. He talks about how silly it is to have a policy “you can’t get out of your seat for the last hour of the flight,” which simply tells the terrorists to detonate an hour and a half before they land.
544-554 – What amazing thing has God done in your life in 2009 that you’re thankful for?
(1:41) Tragedy/Miracle story. (Lester Holt reporting TODAY on NBC @ 12/30/09). Mom was delivering baby Christmas Eve, both went limp and then were revived.
(:06) Miracle story short.
• AP (12/30/09) Mother, baby revived after dying in labor.
• Fox News (12/30/09) 'Hand of God' Seen in Christmas Eve Revival of Mother, Baby.
558-608 – Wesley J. Smith (Reprise)
612-623 – Wesley J. Smith (Reprise)
628-638 – Ron Rhodes (Reprise)
644-652 – Ron Rhodes (Reprise)
• AP (12/29/09) Judge: Birth mom must give child to ex-partner. Calls: Did the judge make the right decision?
• Stratfor (12/30/09) Deciphering Disinformation.
• Stratfor (12/29/09) Another View of Iran. Editor’s Note: What follows is raw intelligence from an Iranian source. The accuracy of the message cannot be independently verified, but the source is informed and well-positioned. While the source clearly has a political perspective, STRATFOR believes the message may be of interest as an alternate interpretation from information emanating from reformist Web sites used by much of the media to frame their coverage of Iran. The following does not reflect STRATFOR’s view, but reflects interesting insights into Iran.
• Con Coughlin (12/30/09) Why the Mullahs Are Vulnerable: What began as anger over a stolen election has grown into a revolt against Iran's system of Islamic government. Mr. Coughlin is executive foreign editor of London's Daily Telegraph and the author of "Khomeini's Ghost: The Iranian Revolution and the Rise of Militant Islam" (Ecco, 2009).
[2:00] Let's check in now with the pros over at Applied Financial Planning, "The Money Guys" Robert Micone and Bill O'Connor at 866-SEEK-COUNSEL. (1) Bill, there's been a lot of talk about this tax free income in 2010. Spell that out for me. (2) Would I qualify for this? (3) What would that look like? (4) Go to KKLA.com to register for our KKLA Financial Summit on January 9th at the Crowne Plaza in Anaheim, and don’t forget to call The Money Guys for info on how you can get Tax Free income at 866-SEEK-COUNSEL and on the web at SeekCounsel.com.
