Archives

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

• This Saturday from 1-2pm, I'll be out at the new Tustin Lifeway Bookstore (link) on El Camino Real in the Market Place near Tustin Ranch and I5, to sign copies of my book Shattered.  Love to see you there!


400-408 – Ann Coulter, author of Demonic: How the Liberal Mob Is Endangering America (Amazon) (anncoulter.com), contrasts the French and American Revolutions and why it matters today.

From the Amazon description of Demonic –  // Coulter traces the history of the liberal mob to the French Revolution and Robespierre's revolutionaries (delineating a clear distinction from America's founding fathers), who simply proclaimed that they were exercising the "general will" before slaughtering their fellow citizens "for the good of mankind." 

Similarly, as Coulter demonstrates, liberal mobs, from student radicals to white-trash racists to anti-war and pro-ObamaCare fanatics today, have consistently used violence to implement their idea of the "general will." 

This is not the American tradition; it is the tradition of Stalin, of Hitler, of the guillotine—and the tradition of the American Left. 

As the heirs of the French Revolution, Democrats have a history that consists of pandering to mobs, time and again, while Republicans, heirs to the American Revolution, have regularly stood for peaceable order.//

413-423 – Ann CoulterWhat our founders feared about democracy.  

428-438 – Ann CoulterWhy the spiritual thrust behind your title?  What is the antidote to the socialist disease?  

443-452 – Ann Coulter, America is ripe for the return of mob violence, fueled by the overt, obvious, and ongoing failure of liberalism simply because as Thatcher said, "the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."  The biggest "flash mob" in history has been the Progressive left, from Wilson through Obama, who have broken in and stolen the wealth of our future generations.  How can we control the temptation to drift into an ever-larger social welfare state?  How do we successfully thwart the pillaging of the public-sector government unions?

458-508 – [READ] •• Dennis Prager (NRO, 8/16/2011) Still the Only Solution to the World's Problems: The Decalogue is as relevant today as it was 3,000 years ago.

512-523 – Quick overview of how I prep my shows (NRO, WSJ, NYT, LAT, etc.), and a redux of the "it all comes down to Locke or Rousseau" riff.

528-539 – [READ] • Michael Barone (WSJ, 8/16/2011) The Fall of the Midwest Economic Model.  In 1970, the future seemed to belong to Michigan's example of big companies and big unions. Not anymore.

544-554 – [READ] • Rich Lowry (NRO, 8/16/2011) Let the Perry Hatred Begin: Perry should work to belie the image of Texas.

[READ] • Victor Davis Hanson (NRO, 8/16/2011) Obama's Paradoxes: The Left's greatest dream is becoming its worst nightmare.

558-608 – Dr. Bradley Wright, author of the Christianity Today cover story this month, and of his new book Upside: Surprising Good News About the State of our World (Amazon).  He blogs here.

• Bradley Wright (Christianity Today, 8/05/2011) Americans Like Evangelicals After All:  What they really think about evangelicals, and why we worry about it.

• Patton Dodd (Patheos, 8/4/2011) Worried about the state of the world? Sociologist Bradley Wright says you're probably concerned about the wrong things.

612-623 – Dr. Bradley Wright,

628-639 – Dr. Bradley Wright,

644-654 – Dr. Bradley Wright,

• William McGurn (WSJ, 816/2011) Religion and the Cult of Tolerance: Freedom of religion isn't just about thought and speech.

• Andrew Stiles (NRO, 8/16/2011) Obama's Stimulus Dilemma: His favorite policy isn't popular.

// A recent article in the New York Times paints an almost comical portrait of this ongoing dilemma within the administration:

There is little support for [a stimulus-focused] approach inside the administration. A series of departures has left few economists among Mr. Obama's senior advisers. Several of his political advisers are skeptical about the merits of stimulus spending, and they are certain about the politics: voters do not like it. //

• Bret Stephens (WSJ, 8/16/2011) Lesson From Europe (Take 2):  No, social democracy doesn't 'work.'

// • As of June 2011, Eurostat reports that the unemployment rate in the euro zone was 9.9%. For the under-25s, it was 20.3%. In Spain, youth unemployment stands at 45.7%, which tops even the Greek rate of 38.5%. Then there's this remarkable detail: Among Europeans aged 18-34, no fewer than 46%—51 million people in all—live with their parents.

• In 2009, 37.4% of European children were born outside of marriage. That's more than twice the 1990 rate of 17.4%. The number of children per woman for the EU is 1.56, catastrophically below the replacement rate of 2.1. Roughly half of all Europeans belong in the "dependency" category on account of their youth or old age. Just 64% of the working-age population actually works. //