Conservative Musings

Pelosi's Book Not Exactly a Best Seller

As of yesterday, Nancy Pelosi's book (released on July 29th) was ranked somewhere in the 800's on amazon.com. As of the time of this post, it's at 1,457.

Remember the days of Al Franken saying Air America and his show was going to stomp Rush Limbaugh's show in the ratings?  LIberal books seem to follow the ratings of liberal radio......downhill.  Straight to the cellar.

-Colonel Steve

"Save the Males"

I heard part of the Kathleen Parker interview this morning on Bill Bennett's Morning in America radio show.  The interview is about her book Save the Males: Why Men Matter Why Women Should Care. 

Sounded very interesting, but of course I'm biased.  One interesting thing I heard from the interview was that Kathleen Parker considered herself a feminist until she had a baby that was a boy.  That changed everything (as having babies usually does).  A rather radical thought, considering that today's society is so anti-male.

What ever happened to that motto of the Rodney King era: "Why can't we get along?"  A great society would be one that truly values diversity, both in it's masculine and feminine shades.  But today's society says we've all got to be "equal", without differences.

What a loss.

-Colonel Steve

American Textbook Too Conservative

According to OneNewsNow, there is a textbook,  American Government (Houghton Mifflin) by James Q. Wilson and John J. Dilulio, Jr.that has been deemed too conservative for young minds to digest.  Oh horrors!  We certainly don't want to fill their minds with any thoughts that aren't steeped in liberalism. 

And what, could possibly be too conservative?  It appears that debating global warming is a no-no along with a differing view of "separation of church and state".  Critics think the book is altogether too conservative. 

I'm thankful for people such as the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Horne, from Arizona who is not going to remove it from his schools.

-Lady Colonel  

Amazon's eBook device

Lady Colonel has been discussing with me for awhile now on the subject of electronic books (eBooks).  She's been hoping the idea of eBooks would take off big time somewhere in the near future, for she really loves the idea.

The talk of late has been Amazon's move into this direction with it's Kindle product.  Right now, it's a hot seller.  Currently, it's out of stock with the estimated stocking date of December 17th.  Might be tough for a Christmas present.

Anyone had thoughts on eBooks in general?  Or the Kindle product?

-Colonel Steve

Conservatives Don't Read?

I'm a couple of days late responding to this news story about how liberals read more than conservatives.  That's because I had to try to remember all the books I've read so far this year.  Here is what I came up with:

1. Parenting book #1 (Sorry, name omitted for privacy!)
2. Parenting book #2
3. Parenting book #3
4. The Pursuit of God by A. W. Tozer
5. Reaching Muslims for Christ by William Saal
6. Cadmian's Choice by L.E. Modesitt
7. Eldest by Christopher Paolini
8. Through Wolf's Eyes by Jane Lindskold
9. The Dragon of Despair by Jane Lindskold
10. Wolf Captured by Jane Lindskold
11. Ship of Magic by Robin Hobb
12. Ship of Destiny by Robin Hobb
13. Mad Ship by Robin Hobb
14. Night Mare by Piers Anthony
15. Engaging the Enemy by Elizabeth Moon
16. Fearless by Jack Campbell

You can see the books I am currently reading on the right side of the blog.  I don't often update that list for fiction because I tend to read it very quickly!

These are the magazines and newspapers I subscribe to and read:

1. The Courier-Journal
2. The Southeast Outlook
3. Discipleship Journal
4. PCMagazine
5. Aerospace America

These are the news sites, news portals, and blogs I read daily:

1. Fox News
2. Drudge Report
3. Hugh Hewitt
4. Captain's Quarters
5. Conservative Musings (of course!)
6. LaShawn Barber's Corner
7. Little Green Footballs
8. Michelle Malkin
9. Power Line
10. SCSU Scholars
11. Sister Toldjah

Plus, I read at least one Psalm, one book of Proverbs, and one chapter of another book of the Bible almost every day.

Now, I admit that many of the books I read are not very substantive.  But the books are certainly balanced by the information I read from other sources. 

--Red

Two Americas

This past Friday, the Wall Street Journal published a review of the book Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism, by Arthur C. Brooks.  The review was written by Wilfred M. McClay, a teacher of humanities and history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

What's surprising about the book and the review is that both author and reviewer are liberals.  Both folks, through two different paths, come to the conclusion that the most caring among us tend to be conservatives rather than liberals.  Mr. McClay came to his conclusion from many examples he's seen in his life.  Of the author, McClay writes that "Brooks speaks here (in his book) with the authority of a liberal who has been mugged by the data."  Brooks' own emperical research led him to the conclusion that, yes, conservatives were actually more caring than he ever imagined.

The book itself looks like one I just might add to my next shopping list.

-Colonel Steve

America Alone

I've been listening all week to Mark Steyn's radio interviews on his new book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It.  I've been intrigued by what I've heard...intrigued enough to order it today (with a few other things to get it up and over Amazon's free shipping requirement).

It's currently at Number 6 on Amazon's best seller list.  It's dropped a little since Hugh has looked, but his point is well taken that it's up there without the marketing budget of a Bob Woodward.

-Colonel Steve

Homearama of Louisville

Today I visited this year's Louisville area Homearama.  This year I made a bee-line over to the home discussed earlier in this Courier-Journal article.

Local artist Michelle Noe has done a fantastic job of painting one of the bedrooms in a set of murals from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  As seen in the picture on the left, she has done up the closet in the room as the wardrobe.  The room and the closet were so well done I was tempted to enter the closet for a rendevous with Aslan.

Michelle was there today and my wife and I had a chance to discuss the fun she had painting this particular room.  She talked about reading the book "way back" in fourth grade, then seeing the movie much more recently.  Then, taking bunchs of photos from the movie and taping them to the wall, she would then paint these key scenes.

Check out her art work out at www.michellenoe.com. If you're in the Louisville area, stop by and visit home #12 at this year's homearama.  The home itself is still up for sale, but trust me, it's way out of my price range!

-Colonel Steve

Da Vinci Code Issues

The upcoming movie from the book The Da Vinci Code has developed a lot of conversation among the Christian community.  Pastors are running sermon series about the story itself.  I've included on our right sidebar a link to Pastor Mark D. Roberts blogging series.

These series are centering on:
    a) what we as Christians need to know, and
    b) what facts we can present to non-Christians to counter the fiction in the story.

For those who do not count themselves in the Christian community, please remember that this story is just that - a story.  Fiction. 

"But of course we know it's fiction, so what are you worried about?".  I'm worried based on some of what Mark D. Roberts has seen.  From some of his posts:

"But," you might want to respond, "it's just fiction! It's a novel, for God's sake. It's going to be a fictional movie. Why get so worked up about fiction? Why refute fiction as if it were fact? Why get so worried about apparently factual elements of a fictional story?"                     

I can't tell you how much I wish every reader of The Da Vinci Code, and every viewer of the upcoming film, had this perspective. If everybody who was exposed to Dan Brown's story concluded, "Well, that was a great ride, but his stuff on Jesus was a lot of hooey!" then I could start blogging on something else, rather than exercising myself on this topic for the next several weeks. But, I'm sad to say, millions upon millions of readers and viewers of The Da Vinci Code will not reject its treatment of Jesus and early Christianity as wildly creative fiction. In fact, they will believe that Dan Brown has revealed the truth about Jesus. And they'll believe this passionately.

I know because of the e-mail I have received in response to my online article Was Jesus Married? A Careful Look at the Real Evidence, and the published version of this piece that forms an appendix to my book, Jesus Revealed. I've received dozens of notes from people who not only reject my view that the evidence doesn't support the hypothesis of Jesus having been married, but also are just plain angry with me. They have found the "evidence" of The Da Vinci Code to be so persuasive, and they are so attached to the idea that Jesus is married, that my rather sober treatment of the historical evidence carries no weight whatsoever. The folks who have written to me didn't take Dan Brown's view of Jesus as clever fiction, but as hardcore fact.

It's sad to me that some can take a fictional book and believe that it is fact.  More importantly, believing the facts in this book pulls people away from the true Jesus found in the Gospels.  Sadly, it will have eternal consequences.

-Colonel Steve

The Da Vinci Code

Mark D Roberts is running a series on the movie based on the book The Da Vinci Code.  He has started with a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) of what many Christians have asked about the movie. 

Keep an eye out for the rest of the series.

-Colonel Steve