Month: January 2006

More on the war against "Big Soda" here. We’re here! We’re fat! So sue someone!

A who’s who for Hamas.

Time for a Hasselhoff fix.

From the editor of Christianity Today:

"’Bastion of the Christian Right‘? Okay, I’ll admit I share a lot of values with James Dobson, Jerry Falwell, and Ralph Reed. I also share key faith commitments with them. But Christianity Today has carefully maintained an independent journalistic voice and avoided entanglement with the political coalitions of the Christian Right. Amazingly, we count the so-called Evangelical Left as equally a part of our constituency. We have published sympathetic profiles of Jim Wallis and Tony Campolo and periodically given a platform to Ron Sider. Our editorial page has critiqued the Christian Right for pursuing too narrow an agenda of social issues. We have celebrated evangelical engagement with human rights. I could go on, but won’t."

While I’m at it, here’s another leading evangelical opposing torture: Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

How much damage are the Republicans doing to America’s fiscal health? Brian Riedl thinks the CBO is under-estimating the destruction. According to his latest report – from that left-wing outfit called the Heritage Foundation – "federal spending and the annual deficit are set to explode." Please don’t tell me the Democracts would be worse. Not even Ted Kennedy could throw other people’s money around like this crew.

They’re after Coke; and after your Lucky Charms. I think they’re cuckoo for cocoa-puffs.

Ann Coulter thinks she’s funnier than ever. Given the vile rhetoric now directed at judges by the far right, I can’t say I’m surprised.

A very poignant column. The image of Charles Krauthammer hurling himself into rough sports as a kid is heart-breaking. He has endured so much over the years with so little complaint, treating his own terrible disability almost as if it weren’t there, and conquering the arena of public discourse like a prize intellectual athlete. Apparently, this tenacity and self-deprecation runs in the family. I’m not surprised.

Oprah’s panicking; Davos is atwitter. Time for the web to provide real information.

Yesterday, I mentioned the cover-story in the February edition of the evangelical magazine, Christianity Today. It’s called "Why Torture Is Always Wrong." Money quote from a bastion of the Christian right:

"It is past time for evangelical Christians to remind our government and our society of perennial moral values, which also happen to be international and domestic laws. As Christians, we care about moral values, and we vote on the basis of such values. We care deeply about human-rights violations around the world. Now it is time to raise our voice and say an unequivocal no to torture, a practice that has no place in our society and violates our most cherished moral convictions."

I’m impressed by the author’s refusal to look away from the grotesque abuses enabled and condoned by this administration. It’s past time for the religious right to take on this torture-approving president, who declares himself above national and international law. And surely it’s time for the torture-backers, like National Review, the Weekly Standard, and the Wall Street Journal, to attack these quisling liberals who do not recognize that we are "morally compelled" to torture people.