Erick Erickson's Blog, page 55

An Invitation to Tune In on Good Friday

As regular readers know, I have a political talk show on WSB Radio out of Atlanta each weeknight from 6pm to 9pm. It's the nation's largest talk radio station and I figure if I have to work on Good Friday, I might as well use the platform well.

So each Good Friday night, we play the music a bit longer, actually play the words, and throw in some Johnny Cash. We talk about higher order topics, matters of faith, matters of good and evil, and personal stuff. It's the one show i dread doing each year and the one I feel most compelled to do.

You are invited to tune in tonight and, if you feel like it, join in.

The WSB signal is so strong, you may be able to pick it up in your car. It is out of Atlanta, but I know people in Texas, Louisiana, Missouri, and Virginia pick it up pretty well on the AM band. The signal comes from 750 AM and 95.5 FM. Online works well too. There's also an iPhone app and you can get the Erick Erickson Show podcast via iTunes.

You can listen live tonight on the WSB live stream starting at 6:00 p.m. ET tonight going until 9:00 p.m. You can call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread and this post will float up the site throughout the day.

Augusta National

I am not a member of Augusta National and I'm pretty terrible at golf, though getting better. I have a net in the back and relaxation involves beer and hitting golf balls.

Nonetheless, the left is absurdly irate that I or anyone else would dare say I have no problem with Augusta National being an exclusively male golf club. They're also laughing that I said "the Masters" on the radio, though I certainly meant the Club, not the tournament.

In any event, who cares?

There are all female colleges and there are all female gyms. The Junior League does not admit men either. Why should Augusta National be forced to admit women?

The left will surely drag Augusta National into its "War on Women" mythology. I hope, however, that yet again Augusta National keeps its head up.

There is nothing wrong with either men or women choosing to have their own clubs. But there is a sad, pathetic need by the left to turn every single thing in America — from a Happy Meal to the Masters and Augusta National — into a political issue.

Look! Caterpillars!

On Faith This Good Friday

There have been a number of times throughout my life that I have encountered God's blessings, his mercy, and his discipline.

When I was little, I sat in my grandmother's lap hearing stories of Daniel in the Lion's Den.

When I was a teenager, I could see God working in my life.

When I was in college, I could feel his call.

When I got married and and had kids and was told my wife would die (she did not), I could feel his peace.

I am convinced the Big Guy Upstairs is real, not that I'd ever doubted. There was no doubting in my mind that He was both very real and very involved — not an abstract or detached Creator. This pattern has repeated itself throughout my life, sometimes to my liking and sometimes definitely not to my liking. But still, it played out.

A few years ago, my wife decided to leave her job to stay home with our children. We could not make ends meet if she did it, so we prayed fervently about what to do. We decided God would provide. She left her job, our insurance, and our safety net. Within three days I received a pay raise for the first time in three years equal to my wife's salary. Within a week, CNN came calling. WIthin a year, WSB Radio needed someone to replace Herman Cain on the radio. None of this would have been possible had my wife not felt compelled to be a stay at home mom.

Some will look at all this and chalk it up to coincidence or luck or even my own skill. But I know I am not that lucky and I am not that skillful.

At this time of year we are confronted with the question of whether He is real. C. S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, "A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic-on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg-or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse."

We see the hostility of this world to Christ and must often remind ourselves that this world does hate Christ and those things of Christ and people of Christ. The Media Research Center brings word this morning about Queer Christ, the Christ who really is not for the people who really are not. I used that line on twitter and there has been an outpouring of condemnation.

I get that many want to wrap themselves up in Christ and feel the right wants a monopoly on Christ, but as much as those of us on the right need to do more to show we realize we don't have a monopoly on Christ, the left needs to understand that it has obligations too. Anything goes does not go with Christ. We are not to judge, but we are to apply the standards Christ and his Apostles set forth as we live our live. We are to know right from wrong and to recognize there really is a right and a wrong and a moral and an immoral and a good and an evil.

Christ is not political. He is righteous.

The funniest comment about my link to the MRC story on Queer Christ was from a kid on Facebook who said, "(I don't actually believe in your Jesus, but I do enjoy stuff like this as it proves none of you have learned anything from the Gospels." It is always humorous to see one who does not believe claiming we know nothing from the Gospels.

Christ is for everyone, but not everyone wants him as he truly is. They want their Christ. Everyone, all of us, fall into that trap. But some refuse to recognize it and get out of it. They want their sin and their Jesus.

Over the next three days we remember the three days that have had a bigger impact on the history of mankind than any other. You can deny that Christ was crucified, despite historic, secular sources that confirm the event. You can deny that Christ rose again from the dead.

What you cannot deny is that what so many treat as fact and others scorn as cheap, recycled myth has shaped art, science, culture, literature, and government more profoundly than any other event.

I personally have a hard time believing that any myth would be so powerful and so lasting. Today we remember Christ's death. On Sunday, we remember He lives.

Good Friday 2012

And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.  And sitting down they watched him there;  And set up over his head his accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS.

. . . .

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.  And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?  Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias.  And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink.

The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.  Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost.  And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.

The Gospel of Matthew 27:35-37, 45-53

Katie Pavlich Takes on Fast and Furious

Our sister company Regnery Publishing (we're both owned by Eagle Publishing, Inc.) sent me a new book to read. I am really bad these days about not reading all the books I get in — sometimes up to a dozen a week from various publishers and authors. But this one caught my eye.

Katie Pavlich, Townhall's News Editor, has a book out entitled Fast And Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and Its Shameless Cover-Up.

I think the media has spent more time doctoring 911 calls in the Trayvon Martin matter than focusing on what has happened along the border with Mexico. There has been some coverage and it probably would not have come to light except for CBS News's initial reporting, but the scandal — and it is a scandal — has mostly flown under the radar.

In fact, the whole war on our Southern border, the kidnappings and killings spilling over into our country, etc. really have not made major, sustained national news.

Katie Pavlich's book, comes in at 194 pages of text, then copious end notes and indexing, provides all the background you need to know to understand what happened and what is and is not being done.

Here's the thing — a lot of conservative activists are focused on the scandal, but many have their facts jumbled, which makes it even harder to explain just how terrible a situation it is. Katie focuses on the facts, explains what happened, and has really produced a good primer on the subject for anyone in the press or activist community who wants to understand the extent of Operation Fast and Furious.

Click here now to order a copy of the book. If you are talking about this or want to understand the scandal, you need this book.

Is This A Subtle Bias At Reuters?

In a story about the White House in damage control mode over the President's rather stupid remarks on the Supreme Court, Reuters reports the following:

"What he did was make an unremarkable observation about 80 years of Supreme Court history," Carney told reporters during a White House briefing dominated by the topic.

and

The president, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, qualified the remark a day later by stressing he meant action by the Court on a matter of commerce, a legal distinction that cut little ice with his critics.

and

"Since the 1930s the Supreme Court has without exception deferred to Congress when it comes to Congress's authority to pass legislation to regulate matters of national economic importance such as health care, 80 years," Carney said.

What Reuters did not bother to report is that, in fact, the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a piece of legislation that passed with a bipartisan majority via the commerce clause just 17 years ago.

In referencing Carney's spin twice and the President's explanation, would it not have been worthwhile for the news organization to actually point out the undisputed fact that both Barack Obama and Jay Carney are wrong?

Heck, even NBC took time away from doctoring 911 tapes to point out that fact. You would think Reuters would actually, after three times broadcasting the White House spin, simply report an actual fact in contradiction to the spin.

By Jon Bruning's Own Logic, Is He Into Gay Marriage and Inappropriate Relationships With Kids?

What a miserable question to have to ask about Nebraska Attorney General and Republican Senate Candidate Jon Bruning — in effect is he, at best, a creepy pervert and at worst a monster. But before you pick up pitch forks and torches against me for asking the question, you need to understand that this is Jon Bruning's own tortured logic in the Nebraska Senate Republican Primary.

Jon Bruning, the Attorney General of Nebraska all but accused his primary opponent, Don Stenberg, of being a pedophile. Bruning did so in a Senate primary debate when the debate kept coming back to Jon Bruning still defending Barack Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder.

I wish I were making it up, but I am not. Even the Democrats in Nebraska had to jump in and point out that based on Jon Bruning's "evidence" about Don Stenberg, Jon Bruning is guilty of the same.

I warned each and every one of you that Jon Bruning had a reputation for being a hot head who would meltdown under the pressure of a campaign. As appalling as it is, he has done so. If he's resorting to suggesting his primary opponent is a pedophile to distract from inconvenient facts about his support of Eric Holder, to what new depths will the man sink in a general election? To what extent will he embarrass the GOP?

Two nights ago the Nebraska Republicans had a Senate primary debate. When Bruning was pressed on his support for Eric Holder, he deflected and lobbed a bombshell attack against State Treasurer Don Stenberg. He claimed that Stenberg inappropriately tried to follow his 14-year-old daughter on Twitter.

I thought he was just going to say Stenberg was guilty of dragging his family into the race as a way to dig up dirt. But no. Bruning said it was "weird" and "creepy" for a "62-year-old man" to follow a "14-year-old girl" on Twitter. Of course Don Stenberg doesn't manage his Twitter account and campaigns typically follow lots of people they don't know and even follow their opponents' families' twitter accounts. But Bruning, who I bet does not manage his own twitter account, claimed Stenberg's campaign tried to follow Bruning's daughter as evidence that Stenberg is a pedophile.

Yesterday, the Democrats highlighted that Bruning is following several teenage girls on Twitter. Oops. And there's still no evidence that Stenberg's campaign requested access to Bruning's daughter's locked account.

When someone tries to follow a locked account on Twitter, the owner of the locked account receives an email request to do so. Bruning's campaign has yet to come forward with that email. Even if it did, the campaign cannot show that Stenberg himself manages his own Twitter account.

Conservatives should avoid Jon Bruning like the plague. He didn't want to defend his outrageous support for Eric Holder so he made a wild, unsubstantiated attack against an honorable man. He's used to doing whatever is necessary to win elections. That's why he's been on both sides of nearly every issue and it's why he's smearing Stenberg today.

Oh, and by Jon Bruning's own logic, I presume he is a supporter of same sex marriage and gay rights. As you can see from this screenshot, in addition to following several teenage girls on Twitter, Jon Bruning also follows the NOH8 campaign on Twitter — the gay rights group advocating against Proposition 8 in California.

Morning Briefing for April 5, 2012

RedState Morning Briefing

April 5, 2012

Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.

1. Welcome Back, Baseball

2. Is This A Subtle Bias At Reuters?

3. By Jon Bruning's Own Logic, Is He Into Gay Marriage and Inappropriate Relationships With Kids?

4. Obama's Continuing Assault on the Law, History, and Facts

5. Does Harry Reid have the courage to boycott MSNBC over Lawrence O'Donnell's bigotry?

6. Mike Lee Wants to End the 'Monetary Morphine' at the Fed

7. Our Dangerous Dependence on Foreign Chocolate

———————————————————————-

1. Welcome Back, Baseball

At last, the long winter of our discontent is over. America's pastime has returned to its home fields. Last night, the World Champion Cardinals took on the revamped Miami Marlins in the United States opener. Today, the other 28 teams return to work. Although the game has changed to a huge extent since the days when fielders (including catchers) played barehanded and pitchers threw underhanded from 50 feet, and although the game has become almost as international in character as soccer, as fans file into stands today and tomorrow bedecked in their favorite team's gear, baseball remains an affirmation of the rebirth of spring and of our uniquely American sense of community and competition. And for fans of all 30 teams (except the Astros), it is a day of eternal hope.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Is This A Subtle Bias At Reuters?

In a story about the White House in damage control mode over the President's rather stupid remarks on the Supreme Court, Reuters reports the following:

"What he did was make an unremarkable observation about 80 years of Supreme Court history," Carney told reporters during a White House briefing dominated by the topic.

and

The president, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, qualified the remark a day later by stressing he meant action by the Court on a matter of commerce, a legal distinction that cut little ice with his critics.

and

"

Since the 1930s the Supreme Court has without exception deferred to Congress when it comes to Congress's authority to pass legislation to regulate matters of national economic importance such as health care, 80 years," Carney said.

What Reuters did not bother to report is that, in fact, the Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional a piece of legislation that passed with a bipartisan majority via the commerce clause just 17 years ago.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. By Jon Bruning's Own Logic, Is He Into Gay Marriage and Inappropriate Relationships With Kids?

What a miserable question to have to ask about Nebraska Attorney General and Republican Senate Candidate Jon Bruning — in effect is he, at best, a creepy pervert and at worst a monster. But before you pick up pitch forks and torches against me for asking the question, you need to understand that this is Jon Bruning's own tortured logic in the Nebraska Senate Republican Primary.

Jon Bruning, the Attorney General of Nebraska all but accused his primary opponent, Don Stenberg, of being a pedophile. Bruning did so in a Senate primary debate when the debate kept coming back to Jon Bruning still defending Barack Obama's Attorney General, Eric Holder.

I wish I were making it up, but I am not. Even the Democrats in Nebraska had to jump in and point out that based on Jon Bruning's "evidence" about Don Stenberg, Jon Bruning is guilty of the same.

I warned each and every one of you that Jon Bruning had a reputation for being a hot head who would meltdown under the pressure of a campaign. As appalling as it is, he has done so. If he's resorting to suggesting his primary opponent is a pedophile to distract from inconvenient facts about his support of Eric Holder, to what new depths will the man sink in a general election? To what extent will he embarrass the GOP?

Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. Obama's Continuing Assault on the Law, History, and Facts

In the wake of President Obama's moronic and widely-lampooned comments on judicial review yesterday, President Obama offered the following lame (and incorrect) walkback .

Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. Does Harry Reid have the courage to boycott MSNBC over Lawrence O'Donnell's bigotry?

It's a valid question, I think, given the way that Lawrence O'Donnell viciously and insultingly went after Mormonism last night on that network. Goodness knows that I have my problems with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. And I have no intention of converting to the LDS faith any time soon, or indeed at all. But to say "Mormonism was created by a guy in upstate New York in 1830 when he got caught having sex with the maid and explained to his wife that God told him to do it" in the pursuit of crude partisan purposes is an insult that splatters far beyond its designated target (in this case, Mitt Romney).

I understand that Harry Reid was a boxer, when younger. If the Senator takes this punch without hitting back, then those days are long gone for him, indeed.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Mike Lee Wants to End the 'Monetary Morphine' at the Fed

What's worse than Congress picking winners and losers and distorting the free-market with bailouts, stimulus, and tendentious interventions on behalf of specific industries? Unelected members of the Federal Reserve doing the same through monetary policy.

It is amazing to watch how many Republicans will speak with such conviction against Keynesian fiscal stimulus policies, yet they will fervently promote monetary stimulus policies by the unaccountable Federal Reserve. Their support for near-zero interest rates, quantitative easing, bailouts, and intervention in the housing sector has muddled our message against Obama's anti-free-market policies. Moreover, in this time of record commodity prices, pro-(monetary) stimulus Republicans preclude us from showing how government intervention on behalf of special interests distorts the markets, depletes savings, and devalues the currency – a winning political argument if there ever was one.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

7. Our Dangerous Dependence on Foreign Chocolate

America is addicted to chocolate. Foreign chocolate.

A majority of us consume chocolate each day. Although the U.S. produces only 6% of the world's cocoa, we consume more than 20%.

The threat is obvious. It's time for government to step in and promote alternatives.

Any day, President Obama will be barnstorming the country to tell us, "If we really want chocolate security and chocolate independence, we've got to start looking at how we use less cocoa and use sources that we can renew and that we can control, so we are not subject to the whims of what's happening in other countries."

Today, we are at the mercy of Africa, which produces over 75% of the world's cocoa. That's an unstable source, which means our chocolate dependency undermines national security.

Each of us probably began with that first innocent M&M but now it's an unsustainable $13-billion a year habit. The average American eats 11 pounds of chocolate per year. We gain weight from chocolate. Pimples get blamed on chocolate.

Fortunately, alternatives exist. With proper federal loans and subsidies these can relieve our cravings and wean us from our addiction to chocolate.

Please click here for the rest of the post.

Women at the Masters and Barack Obama's Exceptional Conformity #EERS

Tonight, where are the cries and screams about women at the Masters? And what of Barack Obama's conforming while using the word exceptionalism?

I'll break it all down for you from 6pm to 9pm ET.

Listen live right here and call in at 1-800-WSB-TALK.

Consider this an open thread.

Maybe Paul Ryan Should Have Called It a Trojan Condom Budget

Barack Obama spoke to the American press yesterday to demagogue Republicans, Paul Ryan's budget, cite Ronald Reagan as proof that raising taxes is okay, and damn with faint praise American exceptionalism.

The President called Paul Ryan's budget a "trojan horse." Given the President's predilection for forcing all Americans, through regulatory fiat, to adhere to his view of contraception, I suspect that had Paul Ryan preemptively called his budget a 'trojan condom," the President of the United States would be campaigning trying to make us all adhere to it.

One thing that really stuck out at me in his speech yesterday was his statement that his very life and career were made possible because of American exceptionalism. He's right. It's also what makes his public policy choices so maddening.

The President's policy choices reject the very American exceptionalism he himself claims to have benefited from. Our nation has had a unique spirit centered around the idea of the Puritan work ethic and the rugged individualism that sprang from that.

But Barack Obama wants to get rid of that exceptionalism and make us conform to the failed socialist policies of Europe. He says he wants to tax the rich because it will help the middle class. The only way taxing the rich helps the middle class is when the middle class is so dependent on government that it requires further wealth redistribution to maintain its government subsidy.

Government subsidy is not what American exceptionalism is all about. Government policy to redistribute wealth for middle class welfare subsidies is conforming to the rest of the world.

Conforming is not exceptional, it is a failure.

As an added bonus, it was more than a bit ironic to hear Barack Obama call Paul Ryan a social darwinist considering Barack Obama remains the only member of the Illinois State Senate to speak in favor of infanticide from the floor of the State Senate.