The President, writing in his best-selling book The Audacity of Hope, made the following remarks on his experience in the Senate minority. As John McCormack points out, he sounds just like a Republican complaining about the stimulus package: "Genuine bipartisanship assumes an honest process of give-and-take, and that the quality of the compromise is measured by how well it serves some agreed-upon goal, whether better schools or lower deficits. This in turn assumes that the majority will be constrained — by an exacting press corps and ultimately an informed electorate — to negotiate in good … [Read more...] about Obama: Sometimes ‘Bipartisanship’ Means Steamrolling the Minority
Culture
Roland Burris Should Immediately Resign
Perhaps no one cares -- Illinois Governor Blagojevich is out of office and perhaps on his way to jail. But the quick-seating of Rolland Burris struck me as odd, and the recent admission by Burris that he sought to raise campaign funds for Blagojevich at the request of the governor’s brother while he was seeking the appointment to the vacated Senate seat totally unsurprising. On January 7 he testified under oath that he had contact with only one Blagojevich associate; now he admits that he in fact spoke with six different associates. But of course we are to believe that this new testimony is … [Read more...] about Roland Burris Should Immediately Resign
Invitation to the Pain of Learning
Mortimer J. Adler, author of the classic resource How to Read a Book, delivers a hard-hitting message on the unavoidable pain to be endured on the path of learning: Not only must we honestly announce that pain and work are the irremovable and irreducible accompaniments of genuine learning, not only must we leave entertainment to the entertainers and make education a task and not a game, but we must have no fears about what is "over the public's head." Whoever passes by what is over his head condemns his head to its present low altitude; for nothing can elevate a mind except what is over its … [Read more...] about Invitation to the Pain of Learning
Closing The Deal – Christians and Negotiation
The topic of negotiation is a thorny one for everyone, perhaps especially for many Christians. We rightly feel the weight of the royal law which bids us to love our neighbor as ourselves (James 2:8). Against the grain of our natural selfishness, we must strive to see that others have interests, just like we do. We must appropriately regard their legitimacy, and seek to create solutions that bless others, even as we invariably pursue our own interests (Phil. 2:3-4). Boundless just published a short article I wrote on this subject. Here's the opening: It killed me to finally sell our … [Read more...] about Closing The Deal – Christians and Negotiation
Economic “Stimulus” Tug-Of-War
I've been trying to understand why Congress is rushing to (once again) spend an incredible amount of money when the public support for such an approach is diminishing day-by-day. Scott Rasmussen, whose Rasmussen Reports is one of the most accurate poling outfits, sums it up: "it's basically a tug-of-war between a president with high job approval ratings and a public’s generic skepticism about government spending."So while 48% of the nation’s voters say more government spending is generally bad for the economy, and 57% of voters see tax cuts as good for the economy, and 45% of voters would … [Read more...] about Economic “Stimulus” Tug-Of-War
Worliness – C.J. Mahaney
This sounds like an excellent book for addressing how the gospel is to permeate our lives--from our entertainment choices to our clothing styles. Too often these discussions are viewed with suspicions of underlying legalism, whereas the opposite error (selfish, immature, worldliness) is at least as common in our day. John Piper writes in the foreword: "C.J. Mahaney and his gang, as always, are in the business of applying the gospel. What does it look like when the blood of Christ governs the television and the Internet and the IPod and the checkbook and the neckline? Most people have never … [Read more...] about Worliness – C.J. Mahaney