Peggy Noonan on the message of citizens to their elected officials at the health care townhall meetings: They hired a man to represent them in Washington. They give him a big office, a huge staff and the power to tell people what to do. They give him a car and a driver, sometimes a security detail, and a special pin showing he’s a congressman. And all they ask in return is that he see to their interests and not terrify them too much. Really, that’s all people ask. Expectations are very low. What the protesters are saying is, “You are terrifying us.” What has been most unsettling is not the … [Read more...] about You Are Terrifying Us
Archives for 2009
John Piper’s Suggested Premarital Questions
John Piper puts together a good (and fairly exhaustive) list of conversational topics and questions for those considering marrying one another. The questions are organized under the topical sub-heads of theology, worship and devotion, husband and wife, children, lifestyle, entertainment, conflict, work, friends, and health and sickness. … [Read more...] about John Piper’s Suggested Premarital Questions
Obama’s Universal Health Care Goals
Sometimes you have to follow a politician's career a bit to get an idea of where they want to go. The one-minute video below is from a speech on June 30, 2003 from Illinois State Senator Barack Obama to the Illinois AFL-CIO. In it, he clearly affirms that his long-term goal is a single-payer, universal health care system but that "we may not get there immediately. First, we have to take back the White House, and we've got to take back the Senate, and we've got to take back the House." Hmm. He now has all three. So why is it that with a filabuster-proof majority in the Senate, and a strong … [Read more...] about Obama’s Universal Health Care Goals
College Students, Expectations & Performance
The recent story of Trina Thompson filing a lawsuit against Monroe College for lack of career placement support prompted me to reflect on my own interactions with college students. I try to watch for the occasional disparity between a student's self-estimation and their true level of giftedness or skill. Paul writes in Romans 12:3, "For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment." I've noticed that some of my strongest students (academically) are often the most mindful of their … [Read more...] about College Students, Expectations & Performance
Alumnus Sues College Over Inability To Secure Job
Over vacation with my family recently I poked around a book entitled Generation Me: Why Today's Young Americans Are More Confident, Assertive, Entitled--and More Miserable Than Ever Before by Dr. Jean Twenge. As a college professor, I want to be aware of the cultural ethos of the so-called "Gen Y" (aka, Millennials). The book definitely contains insightful commentary, with some scholarly material that's tougher sledding for the uninitiated (and hence soporific on a vacation). Twenge notes that Gen Y (what she calls "Generation Me") tends to put themselves first and to have high expectations … [Read more...] about Alumnus Sues College Over Inability To Secure Job
Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts
There is no doubt that Dr. Robert George, Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and founder of the American Principles Project, is one of the most articulate spokesmen in our day on the issue of same-sex marriage. Today he penned an outstanding WSJ article on the possibility of the Supreme Court weighing in on Proposition 8 (which restored the historic definition of marriage in CA as the union of husband and wife). Excerpt: Lawyers challenging traditional marriage laws liken their cause to Loving v. Virginia (which invalidated laws against interracial marriages), insinuating … [Read more...] about Gay Marriage, Democracy, and the Courts