Monday, February 20, 2012 @ 1:50pm

Self-Immolation in Death Obsessed Societies

The BBC and the New York Times have both reported on yet another alarming trend in the Arab world: people dousing themselves with gasoline and setting themselves on fire in suicidal protest.

Last year, more than 100 Tunisians ignited themselves. This year in Morocco, five university graduates went up in flames to denounce high unemployment. Similar incidents also occurred in Jordan and Bahrain. This horrific fad began in 2010 when a fruit vendor launched the Tunisian revolution by burning himself to death.

Unfortunately, President Obama praised this gesture as heroic in a speech to the UN, unwittingly encouraging countless imitators. The self-immolation craze illustrates a death obsession widespread in Muslim societies. Islamists proudly declare that "we love death more than you love life"-all the more reason for the West to cherish life even more.

Thursday, February 16, 2012 @ 1:38pm

Gruesome Remains of Communist Materialism

North Korea announced that the embalmed body of recently deceased dictator Kim Jong-il would go on permanent display next to the similarly preserved remains of his father and predecessor, Kim Il-sung.

The government imported a team of Russian experts, in charge of preserving Lenin's 90-year-old corpse, to supervise efforts to keep the flesh and skin of Kim Jong-il from natural decay. Many Communist regimes show the same gruesome fixation on embalming and displaying dead leaders-including Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, Mao and many more. This contrasts with ancient Jewish law, which prohibits preserving and flaunting a body after death.

The Biblical worldview emphasizes immortality of the soul, so there's no point maintaining what's become an empty vessel. For Communist materialists, that corpse is all that's left-hence, ghoulish obsessions with fleshly remains.

Thursday, February 16, 2012 @ 11:11am

Does America Need a Video Game Czar?

At a time of trillion-dollar budget deficits, why do we need a new "Video Game Czar" in the White House? That Czar-or, Czarina, more precisely-is Constance Steinkuehler, a professor from University of Wisconsin whose appointment as "Senior Policy Analyst at the White House Office of Science and Technology" constitutes, in the admiring words of USA Today, "one of the most unconventional White House hires in recent memory." She's supposed to use her presidential appointment to promote development of "big, save the world" video games, but since this particular industry seems to succeed admirably without federal supervision, it's hard to understand why taxpayers must fund an expensive new office to take charge of game development by the private sector. Instead of trimming millions of unnecessary jobs from government payrolls, Barack Obama is determined to add more, alas.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 12:10pm

The Day After Thanksgiving: Should Guilt Follow Gratitude?

The legislature in Washington State is considering a new holiday to celebrate the legacy of Northwest Indian Tribes. The proposed schedule would place "Native American Heritage Day" on the Friday after Thanksgiving, when most public schools and government offices are already closed. According to the draft legislation, the commemoration would serve to remind people how "the Native American population was disrupted and nearly destroyed through European colonization" and the tribes suffered the impact of "genocide, slavery, and political and cultural repression." In other words, the legislature wants to follow the Thanksgiving message of gratitude with a new holiday that sends a message of guilt. That notion insults Indians as much as white settlers-suggesting that the only "Native American Heritage" worth celebrating involves suffering at the hands of others, not achievements by the tribes themselves.

Thursday, February 9, 2012 @ 11:57am

Obama administration: Shamefully anti-choice

The Obama administration's insistence that Catholic hospitals and clinics must provide contraceptive services, including sterilization and morning-after pills, to all employees at no charge, not only violates religious liberty but also proves that the secular left isn't really pro-choice at all.

None of the religious institutions now required to pay for these controversial services ever tried to deny their employees a "right to choose"-they just declined to use money donated by fervent believers to underwrite choices which violate traditional teachings. Like the parallel dispute about the Susan G. Komen breast cancer foundation, it's not the pro-life side that wants to restrict choice-religious charities just want freedom of conscience to choose those medical procedures they will finance with donations they've received.

The Obama administration insists on taking away that freedom-the ultimate anti-choice position.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 @ 2:08pm

A Dubious Connection and a Dumb Conservative Strategy

Prominent conservatives led by Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin like to describe Barack Obama as a "Saul Alinsky radical," thereby linking the president to a Chicago community organizer and leftwing theorist of the 1950s and '60's. White House defenders reject the label, insisting Obama was only ten when Alinsky died and that his later work as a community organizer focused on practical help for the poor, not sweeping social transformation.

Regardless of the president's possible affinity for Alinsky's philosophy, it's dumb politics to obsess on a forgotten activist few Americans could pick from a police lineup. To discredit the president through possible Alinsky associations you'd first have to explain who Alinsky was. Instead of wasting time describing an agitator's bad ideas from last generation, conservatives should concentrate on exposing President Obama's bad policies from last year.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012 @ 2:07pm

Taxpayer Money and Red Wine Fraud

A prominent medical professor at the University of Connecticut stands accused of fraudulent research on the purported health benefits of drinking red wine. Dr. Dipak K. Das published more than 500 articles promoting his ideas but now a 60,000 page federal report finds 145 instances of falsification of data and outright fabrication.

To make matters worse, Dr. Das took $890,000 from the federal government to pursue this phony research-a prime example of the corrupting influence of wasteful federal spending. This sum doesn't even include the cost of 60,000 pages to expose his lies. Why should the taxpayer, instead of some winemakers association, have ever financed dubious investigations on the glories of Merlot and Cabernet in the first place? Washington bureaucrats don't need wine-promoting fraud in order to spend public money like drunken sailors.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 @ 1:47pm

Fairness versus opportunity

In a video message to campaign workers, President Obama promised an economy that "works for everyone, not just a wealthy few." He also warned that his opponents sought to move "toward less opportunity and less fairness." Apparently, calls for "fairness" will be the hallmark of his re-election bid, as if someone else led the country during the last three years of dysfunction.

Actually, the claim that fairness and opportunity go together is deeply misleading: history shows that governmental activism to manage the economy and redistribute wealth reduces opportunity rather than increasing it. An opportunity society means that each family wins rewards according to its own ability and hard work, so the results won't be equal-and may not look fair. But any other system guaranteeing similar benefits regardless of effort or productivity is, inevitably, even less just.