SOME EVANGELICALS WARY OF GOP FRONTRUNNER

Not since John F. Kennedy stumped for the White House in 1960 has the faith of a leading president candidate been questioned as Mitt Romney’s Mormonism. Many evangelicals say aloud that the Republican frontrunner is not an authentic Christian.

Indeed, if the former Massachusetts governor fails to win tomorrow’s Iowa caucus, it will be attributable in no small part to the unwillingness of the Hawkeye state’s evangelical community to bless him with their votes.

Well, Romney is not a Methodist, like former President George W. Bush, or Episcopalian, like former President George Herbert Walker Bush, or a member of Disciples of Christ, like late great President Ronald Reagan, but belongs to a faith that acknowledges the Lord in its very name – the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints.

“We consider Jesus Christ the son of God without parallel,” Romney told People magazine back in November. It seems to me that if anyone acknowledges that Jesus is Lord – as Romney has – he should be embraced by the evangelical community as a brother in Christ, rather than rejected.

LIGHT UNTO MY PATH

Minnie Louise Haskins was a professor at the London School of Economics. She taught there from the end of World War I to the near-end of World War II.

estingly, Haskins is best known not for her scholarship – as distinguished as it may have been – but for dabbling in poetry. Her most noteworthy work, particularly fitting for the start of the New Year, is one of the most quoted poems of the past century:

God Knows                                                                                                                                                                                                                       By Minnie Louise Haskins

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’

And he replied,
‘Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God
That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!’

So I went forth and finding the Hand of God
Trod gladly into the night
He led me towards the hills
And the breaking of day in the lone east.

So heart be still!
What need our human life to know
If God hath comprehension?

In all the dizzy strife of things
Both high and low,
God hideth his intention.”

God knows. His will
Is best. The stretch of years
Which wind ahead, so dim
To our imperfect vision,
Are clear to God. Our fears
Are premature; In Him,
All time hath full provision.

Then rest: until
God moves to lift the veil
From our impatient eyes,
When, as the sweeter features
Of Life’s stern face we hail,
Fair beyond all surmise
God’s thought around His creatures
Our mind shall fill.

Dr. Blackburn, a professor of biology and physiology at the University of California, San Francisco, last made national news back in 2004 when she was ousted from former President George W. Bush’s advisory Council on Bioethics.

Some 170 researchers signed an open letter to the Republican president protesting that Dr. Blackburn’s dismissal was politically motivated; insisting that she was kicked to the curb because her views on embryonic stem cell research did not comport with those of the Bush administration.

But while advocates of embryonic stem cell research tried to adapt Dr. Blackburn as their scientific poster gal, she really didn’t share their blind faith that embryonic stem cells were going to cure practically every disease known to humanity – from AIDS to Zellweger syndrome.

 “Scientists,” she remarked back in 2006, “need to be willing and available to inform public debate on stem cells. We need to ensure that accurate science is provided for the discussion. We mustn’t over-interpret what has been achieved to date. In truth, we don’t actually have enough information to choose a path forward.”

Unfortunately, advocates of embryonic stem cell research – which involve the usage and destruction of viable human embryos – play fast and loose with the science to advance their cause. They have routinely over-interpreted what embryonic stem cell research has achieved; they have overstated the efficacy of the morally-offensive research.

At the same time, the promise of adult stem cell research – which does not entail the destruction of human embryos – has been gross understated. Indeed, last time I checked, not one human patient has ever been cured of a disease by use of embryonic stem cells. Meanwhile, adult stem cells have been used to successfully treat thousands of patients.

That the scientific community continues to promote embryonic stem cell research over adult stem cell research seems illogical. That is, until you take into account the political motivation of scientists whose advocacy of embryonic stem cell research has less to do with sound science than with contempt for those who support the right to life for embryos.

Walker and Shipman are co-authors of The Ape in the Tree, which is marketed as a science book for the general public. It just won the American Anthropological Association’s W.W. Howells Book Award for 2009.

The two Penn State University are obviously convinced, though they do no come right out and say it, that Proconsul is the “missing link” evolutionists have been searching for since Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species 150 years ago.

The attributes of Proconsul have profound implications for the very definition of humanness,” asserts Shipman. “This book speaks not only of an ape in a tree but also of the ape in our family tree.”

Does it really?

The problem I have with Walker and Shipman, and with other adherents to the gospel of evolution, is that they can never satisfactorily explain why there are no living, breathing links between apes and humans.

Indeed, we see apes, which, according to evolutionary theory, predated humans in the history of the planet. And, of course, we see humans. But we don’t see any ape-men and women roaming around. We don’t see any Proconsuls.

That’s why I think it is perfectly reasonable that school children not only learn about the theory of evolution but also about intelligent design – which the anti-religious disparage as “creationism.”

I believe that a more persuasive case actually can be made for intelligent design – that God created man and woman – than for evolution – that homo sapiens are descendants of apes. And most Americans agree with me, according to a Gallup poll earlier this year, notwithstanding the pro-evolution indoctrination most of us have received since we were schoolchildren.

Yes, it is matter of faith to believe the Biblical story of creation. But it is no less a matter of faith to believe that yesterday’s monkeys somehow transmogrified into today’s human beings.

So we found particularly pertinent the assessment of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, that the U.S. mission in Afghanistan is “likely to result in failure” if our current troop levels are not increased within a year.

If President Obama heeds Gen. McChrystal’s assessment, if the Pentagon orders more troops to Afghanistan to mount the “comprehensive counterinsurgency campaign” the general advises, there is a distinct possibility that our young man will be dispatched to Kabul.

There already are thousands of Navy personnel on the ground in Afghanistan, putting their lives on the line for their country. Indeed, just a fortnight ago, a Navy Corpsman just one year older than our son was killed by a bomb blast while supporting U.S. Marines in southern Afghanistan.

Yet, even though a U.S. military “surge” in Afghanistan could very well mean that our only child will be deployed to Afghanistan for six to 12 months, during which he almost certainly would find himself in harm’s way, we nonetheless agree with Gen. McCrystal’s sober analysis and we support his call for a counterinsurgency campaign.

My wife and I do not like to think about the dangers that could lie ahead for our young man in Afghanistan. But, at the same time, we think of the nearly 850 young men and women serving our nation’s military who have died in Afghanistan since Operation Enduring Freedom began in 2001.

If the Taliban manage to regain control of Kabul, if Afghanistan once again becomes a safe haven for Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, then the young American heroes who’ve died in Afghanistan over the past eight years will have done so in vain.

Our son swore an oath before God to support and defend his country against all enemies – even at the risk of his very life. We, his parents, continue to pray for him and for our men and women in uniform.

That has to be the explanation for her outlandish remarks yesterday likening present opposition to President Obama’s plan to makeover the nation’s health care system to anti-homosexual rhetoric in San Francisco in the late 1970s.

The 1970s rhetoric was “very frightening,” she said, “and it created a climate in which violence took place.” She was alluding to the 1978 murder of openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk by a colleague on the city’s Board of Supervisors.

Well, maybe Milk’s murder was driven by homophobia (although, late San Francisco Mayor George Moscone, who was not homosexual, was also gunned down along with Milk). But it’s downright demagogic of the House Speaker to insinuate that opposition to Mr. Obama’s proposed health care scheme is driven by hatred of the president.

Indeed, in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, more Americans said they oppose Obamacare than support it, 48-46 percent. Even worse for the President, Americans by 54-41 percent say the more they hear about his health care reform, the less they like it.

Are those 48 percent of Americans who oppose Obamacare all haters? Are the 54 percent who like proposed health care reform all the less the more they hear about it all Obamaphobes? Has the current debate over health care created a climate in which an assassination attempt upon the President is a distinct possibility, as Speaker Pelosi irresponsibly suggested?

No, no and no.

When a President – Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative – proposes a reform as large and historic in proportion as that which Mr. Obama proposes with health care, he has to anticipate strong and spirited opposition.

That’s what George W. Bush encountered four years ago when he attempted to restructure Social Security. That’s what Bill Clinton experienced 16 years ago when he proposed to overhaul the health care system. That’s what Ronald Reagan endured when he undertook tax reform 28 years ago.

Presidents Bush, Clinton and Reagan faced no less opposition to their proposed reforms than has President Obama. Yet, none of their supporters went so far as to suggest – as Speaker Pelosi has in the current health care debate – that reform opponents created a climate in which violence would take place.

In response to Schaeffer’s murder, California enacted a law preventing the state’s DMV from releasing private addresses.

Megan Kanka, a seven-year-old New Jersey girl, was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a 33-year-old neighbor who lured her to his house by promising to show her a puppy. The child killer turned out to be a repeat violent sex offender.

In the wake of little Megan’s murder, New Jersey passed “Megan’s Law,” which required local law enforcement authorities to inform parents when sexual predators move into their neighborhood.

Erin Andrews, a 31-year-old reporter for ESPN, was surreptitiously videotaped while she was naked in her hotel room. The illicit video was posted on the Internet and has been viewed by millions of online voyeurs since July.

Miss Andrews appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show this past Friday to talk about the ordeal from which she is still suffering. Teary eyed, the young woman recalled the first time she saw the video online. “I opened up the computer,” she said, “I could feel my heart pounding.”

All but one state – Iowa – has a statute on its books addressing unlawful videotaping, according to the National Center for Victims of Crime. The punishments vary from state to state, from nominal fines to several years behind bars.

The laws are well-intended but do not go nearly far enough to protect innocent targets like Miss Andrews. She was not only the unsuspecting prey of a Peeping Tom with a video camera, but also the victim of Internet rape.

Indeed, her predator first violated her by videotaping her naked in her hotel room as she combed her hair in the mirror and as she ironed a pair of trousers. Then he further violated her by posting the perverted video online. And he continues to violate her every time the video of the sports reporter is downloaded by an online voyeur.

Miss Andrews has suffered just as surely as a victim of a violent sexual crime. New laws should be passed – call them “Erin’s Law” – that punishes Internet rape just as severely as physical rape.

On that hallowed ground, we offered prayers in memory of the more than 2,600 innocent souls who perished in the towers on that great and terrible day in this nation’s history.

Today, we mark another 9/11 anniversary. And I find myself disappointed. Because I expected far more progress in the rebuilding of the World Trade Center than has occurred since I visited the site five years ago.

Indeed, I went on Google maps this week for the latest satellite image of the 16-acre site. It hardly looks any different than it did in 2004.

And that’s not just my impression. Back in May, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver told an audience at a Downtown-Lower Manhattan Association breakfast, “That we are where we are after this much time is an embarrassment to our city, our state, and the nation.”

And just this week, World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein, whose company, Silverstein Properties, is supposed to redevelop the site, said that progress is at a standstill because of lack of cooperation from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the public agency that owns the World Trade Center site.

The Port Authority sees things differently. It says that Silverstein Properties is asking the public to take on the financial risk in redevelopment of the World Trade Center that the company is unwilling to take on itself.

Meanwhile, the new World Trade Center – which promises five new skyscrapers and a national September 11 Memorial and Museum drawing upon the talents of such world-renowned architects as Santiago Calatrava, David Childs, Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Fumihiko Maki, and Richard Rogers – remains pretty much a massive hole in the ground.

And, at the rate things are going (or, rather, not going) in lower Manhattan, not one of those five new skyscrapers by any of those architects will be completed by the tenth anniversary of the September 11 terror attacks two years from now..

That is a disgrace to the memory of the September 11 victims.

The California Teachers Association – and the state lawmakers beholden to the powerful public teachers union – has long opposed the exit exam. They insist that it is wrong to withhold diplomas California’s high school seniors simply because they fail to pass the exam.

They also oppose school vouchers, which would enable the parents of students attending the worst public schools to enroll their children in private or parochial schools, where their childrten would have a considerable better chance of passing the high school exit exam.

This past summer, California’s Democrat-controlled Assembly proposed a four-year moratorium on the exit exam, supposedly to save the fiscally-challenged state money. Suspending the exam “makes good sense in a budget crisis and as good educational policy,” argued Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

SAMPLE QUESTION

The cost of an afternoon movie ticket last year was $4.00. This year an afternoon movie ticket costs $5.00. What is the percent increase of the ticket from last year to this year?

 

A  10%

B  20%

C  25%

D  40%

Speaker Bass also cited a “disturbing” study from a Stanford University researcher, which found, she said, that the exit exam “has had a dramatic negative effect on the graduation rate of girls and on students of color.”

Well, excuse me. As the father of a “student of color,” I don’t see how a test that measures a high school senior’s proficiency in mathematics and English-language arts is negative in any way – except, that is, if that senior is unable to pass the test.

SAMPLE QUESTION

 Read this sentence from the article

 Help yourself to a daily vitamin and mineral supplement, and help yourself to improved health and longevity.

 What does this sentence mean?

 A  Helping other means encouraging them to take vitamins and minerals.

B  A large helping of vitamins and minerals is necessary for good health.

C  Taking vitamins and minerals is one way that people may help themselves.

D  Taking vitamins and minerals regularly will have a positive effect on a person’s health.

 And California’s exit exam hardly is a one-shot deal. High school students are given eight – count ’em eight – opportunities to pass the exam, beginning in the tenth grade.

In fact, 65 percent of California tenth graders manage to pass the exam. Not because they are young geniuses, but because the English portion of the exam tests on the tenth grade level and requires a 60 percent passing score, while the math portion is on an eight grade level and requires a mere 55 percent passing score.

Students that cannot pass California’s high school exit exam after eight attempts do not deserve a diploma, no matter their gender, no matter their race. That the state teachers union and its friends in the state Assembly are trying to get rid of the exam condemns “girls” and “students of color” to the soft bigotry of low expectations.

While Mr. Obama  received a friendly hearing, his remarks  provided little comfort to the one in ten Ohio workers who are without jobs on this Labor Day. They couldn’t care less about a manufacturing czar. And a government takeover of the nation’s health care system is hardly what they are looking for right now.

What they want are jobs. And what they want to hear from the President is what his administration is going to do for them to get them off the unemployment rolls and into new jobs.

Indeed, to revive the hurting home building and real estate industries, the federal government continues to offer an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers. To resuscitate the ailing auto industry, the federal government offered new car buyers a credit of up to $4,500 through the “cash for clunkers” program.

So why not stimulate hiring by offering employers a temporary tax credit of, say, $5,000 to $10,000 for every new worker they hire between now and next Labor Day? Call it the “Wampum for Workers” program.

In his weekly radio address, in advance of Labor Day address, Mr. Obama said, “We’re putting Americans back to work again.” He cited “tens of thousands of recovery projects” throughout the country that are underway, “repairing our nation’s roads, bridges, ports and waterways; renovating schools; and developing renewable energy.”

Well, that’s fine for those who rely of public works projects for gainful employment. But for the other 90 to 95 percent of the American labor force, the federally-subsidized public works jobs are of no help to them.

That’s why “Wampum for Workers” makes far more sense. It would encourage hiring not just in public works, but also in such leading employment sectors as computers, software and related services, restaurants and hospitality, banks, insurers and other financial services, department stores and general merchandise, health care, telecommunications, and travel and tourism.