Dinesh D’Souza answers:

If you really look at the motivations of contemporary atheists, you’ll find that they don’t even really reject Christian theology. It’s not as if the atheist objects to the resurrection or the parting of the sea; rather, it is Christian morality to which atheists object, particularly Christian moral prohibitions in the area of sex. The atheist looks at all of Christianity’s “thou shalt nots”—homosexuality is bad; divorce is bad; adultery is bad; premarital sex is bad—and then looks at his own life and says, “If these things are really bad, then I’m a bad guy. But I’m not a bad guy; I’m a great guy. I must thus reinterpret or (preferably) abolish all of these accusatory teachings that are putting me in a bad light.”

In this Lenten season – when we’re supposed to reflect on how we fall short and what we may do to be better people – it is very appropriate, I think, to bring up this observation. You see, the hardest thing anyone can do – the thing non-believers balk at – is the admission of what a bunch of rotters we are. I mean, really, we’re creeps most of the time – but people don’t want to admit to this creepiness, preferring to note that there are worse people and, hey, I’m a pretty nice guy and I don’t think I’m a bad person, yadda, yadda, yadda…meanwhile, said self-satisfied individual spreads gossip, gets angry at those around him who fail as if he never fails, is envious of someone who got the better job, eats to his heart’s content without a thought – while eating – to those who have none, etc, etc, etc.

What people like to do is to tell themselves – and others – that the lousy things they do are not lousy, or are at least excusable. It is easier for us to give ourselves a “Get out of Hell Free” card rather than confront our errors, repent of them and seek to make amends. And for people holding such self-issued cards, the worst thing which can happen is for someone to come along and try to spoil the illusion…such as a devout Christian, Jew, Moslem or what have you pointing out that, really, repentance is absolutely necessary. And thus the battle – not over whether Christ is the Son of the Living God, but over whether cheating on your wife is really all that bad a thing to do.

And now, have at it.

How to stop the worst of the Obama train wreck is something we conservatives need to figure out – Bill Kristol notes this oncoming day of reckoning:

…Obama’s aim is not merely to “revive this economy, but to build a new foundation for lasting prosperity.” Obama outlined much of this new foundation in the most unabashedly liberal and big-government speech a president has delivered to Congress since Lyndon Baines Johnson. Obama intends to use his big three issues — energy, health care and education — to transform the role of the federal government as fundamentally as did the New Deal and the Great Society.

All of those GOPers and conservatives who hopped on the Obama bandwagon in 2008 had better take note – your moderate, sensible guy who will govern from the center is an out-and-out social democrat who intends to make America as socialist as he can. And he’s going to do it because he believes it is the best thing to do – we’ve got a charismatic, popular, media-savvy uber-liberal who wants to remake America. The question for us conservatives: do we wish to fight this?

One would think that the answer is obvious – we’ll fight. But, its not. It is in the nature of things that Fallen man’s normal preference is for servility. Turned away from the one thing we should kneel before, we choose to kneel, instead, before anyone who appears able to take life’s burdens from our shoulders. It is hard to stand as a man or woman, dependent only upon God and willing to take life’s challenges as they come. Anything can be explained away or rationalized – because we prefer to be excused.

The people, as such, will not come to their senses – the reason there are leaders is because leaders are needed. There are tens of millions of Americans who are looking on with dismay as Obama proceeds to destroy that which made America great…but they won’t do anything about it unless people step out in front and lead. And when such leaders do emerge, it isn’t for us to sit back and allow them to take the load – those who are unwilling to lead but who also fully understand must accept their responsibility for helping the leadership to advance the cause, not issue childish dissents because someone isn’t doing 100% of what one would prefer.

America stands on the brink – on one hand we have Obama, heir to Wilson, FDR and LBJ, who is leading us to a point where a majority of Americans will be dependent upon government for their living. It will be a poor and nasty living, to be sure, but fear will keep dependent people in line; fear of losing the little they have. On the other hand stand the heirs of Washington, Lincoln and Reagan – dismayed, confused, wracked with doubt…but yet those who must defend what patriots have died to create and sustain: a nation of free men and women who look to God, family and self, not to government, for help with the burdens of life. How we conservatives behave over the next two or three years will tell the tale.

And a timely warning, too:

Canadians packed St. Basil’s Church in Toronto on Monday evening to hear Archbishop Charles Chaput speak about how Catholics should live out their faith in the public square. He warned that in the U.S., Catholics need to act on their faith and be on guard against “a spirit of adulation bordering on servility” that exists towards the Obama administration.

The public lecture by Archbishop Chaput took place on the campus of the University of Toronto at St. Basil’s Church and was attended by an overflow crowd of more than 700 people.

After giving a sketch of the basic principles in his New York Times Bestseller “Render Unto Caesar,” the archbishop offered his insights on the need for an honest assessment of the situation of the Church in the public square.

“I like clarity, and there’s a reason why,” began the archbishop. “I think modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice. Human beings owe each other respect and appropriate courtesy. But we also owe each other the truth — which means candor.”

The Denver prelate then provided his critique of President Obama.

“President Obama is a man of intelligence and some remarkable gifts. He has a great ability to inspire, as we saw from his very popular visit to Canada just this past week. But whatever his strengths, there’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change. Of course, that can change. Some things really do change when a person reaches the White House. Power ennobles some men. It diminishes others. Bad policy ideas can be improved. Good policy ideas can find a way to flourish. But as Catholics, we at least need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the political facts we start with.”

The Archbishop is being a very good Christian when he says that the adulation of Obama is “bordering” on servility. My concern is that it has, at least for some, gone way beyond that. I never thought I’d see such miserable slaves in my life as I see in some of the people who nearly worship Obama, as if he were other than a snappily dressed, well spoken product of Chicago’s hopelessly corrupt Democratic machine. He’s just a man, and not that great a man, into the bargain. Morally he might be splendid (I cannot peer into his soul, of course), but in his public actions, he’s not done anything which warrants anything more than mild approval of the fact that he hasn’t screwed up royally at this point.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and Catholics will go to Mass and have an ashen cross traced on their foreheads – with the words, “Remember, man; dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return”. I urge the Obamaniacs, Catholic or not, to attend Mass today…you really need to get a grip on the reality of the situation.

Geesh:

Fox News was the ratings leader during prime time and total day during February 2009 — its 86th month on top. FNC averaged more Total Viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined in prime time and total day.

FNC had nine out of the top 10 programs in cable news last month in Total Viewers. The O’Reilly Factor was #1 for the 99th consecutive month, and was up 33% in Total Viewers compared to February 2008. The other top programs included Hannity (up 38%), Glenn Beck (the 5pmET hour was up 100%), The FOX Report with Shepard Smith (up 30%) and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (up 24%).

But our liberals says that the American people have finally woken up from their BusHitler-inspired stupor and now realize that Fox News is part of the GOP Noise Machine, right?

Discuss such things as how many times Obama lies, exaggerates or otherwise tries to pull the wool over our eyes.

UPDATE: Well, he’ll stop those nasty, mean, EVIL corporate bosses…I’m thrilled at the courage!

UPDATE II: Anyone else creeped out about the way Democrats cheer Obama’s fire and brimstone rhetoric about corporate bosses? I mean, the corporate bosses are Americans, aren’t they? And humans, right? And what about Nancy and Joe behind Obama and their portion of responsibility?

UPDATE III: Obama credits government with all the good we’ve ever done…so, Barry, mind ‘splainin’ why our currency has lost 99% of its value since government started interfering in the economy?

Interesting:

A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden’s family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.

The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens’ Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund. Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors and also invested about $2.7 million of their own money in the fund, according to a lawyer for Paradigm. Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the vice president’s son, Hunter, and Joe Biden’s brother, James.

The fund has offered to turn over the $2.7 million investment it received from Mr. Stanford’s firm in 2007 to a court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s civil fraud case involving Mr. Stanford, according to Paradigm’s attorney, Marc X. LoPresti. The fund terminated its relationship with Mr. Stanford’s companies after the SEC filed civil charges against them last week, Mr. LoPresti said.

Just part of the nexus of money, influence and power in Washington, DC and the larger financial world – nothing much to write home about, unless VP Biden turns out to be directly involved, but it does show that by picking Biden, Obama was not at all bringing us real change we can believe in.

It grows, its on Facebook; and it is happening in Tennessee, Houston, Washington DC, St Louis, San Diego, Atlanta, Orlando and Kansas City.

This looks to be growing like wildfire and given the way that Obama is doing everything he can to kill the economy entirely, I can’t see any end to it this side of 2012.

UPDATE: 54% say “no” to bail outs, says Rasmussen.

I did get that one entry up for today, but we buried Dolores yesterday and brought my father home from the hospital, so I was a bit busy. We thank you all for your prayers and kind words over the past week and your patience with the spotty blogging. Henceforward, I should be more productive.

Meanwhile, here’s an open thread for you guys to have at it over all the news of the day.

Which means, of course, they are fleeing anything which might wind up on Obama’s tax increase chopping block:

Wall Street has turned the clock back to 1997. Investors unable to extinguish their worries about a recession that has no end in sight dumped stocks again Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 251 points to its lowest close since May 7, 1997, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index logged its lowest finish since April 11, 1997. It’s as if the decade’s dot-com surge, collapse and subsequent recovery never occurred.

The Dow is just over 100 points from 7,000. Both indexes have lost about half their value since hitting record highs in October 2007.

“People left and right are throwing in the towel,” said Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services.

Here’s a thought, liberals: Justice.

Its a nifty word, which you might want to familiarize yourselves with, as it is key to the success of any democratically governed republic. You have to be just – as the kooks you support shout, “no justice, no peace”…but they don’t understand what it really means. But, indeed, “no justice, no peace”…and, of course, “no justice, no economic recovery”.

It is unjust to single out a part of your population as either the cause of your problems, or whom you must hit hard to make your life better. We are all people, and all of us are Fallen, and all of us bear our aliquot portion of blame for what has gone wrong and, of course, have our personal responsibility to see that things improve. To say that “The Rich” benefited under Bush and must now pay under Obama merely means that you are going to unjustly blame some people for things you had a hand in screwing up.

We need to do things – we need to defend ourselves, maintain and improve our common property, succor the poor and helpless…lots of things need to be done. But to go on a boondoggle of new spending which is entirely designed to pay off political supporters of Obama and his Democrats and demand an allegedly wicked “The Rich” foot the bill is unjust – and, as you can see from our collapsing stock market, counter-productive. You think you know what the deficit will be for fiscal year 2009? You haven’t a clue, because as the stock market loses value, incomes around the economy drops and thus down goes taxable income…you liberals are massively increasing spending and cutting income off right at the knees at the very moment you need to maximize it.

“Stupid” doesn’t even begin to describe this course of action you’ve chosen.

You need to pony up, liberals – stop thinking of yourselves as superior beings who bear no share of what went wrong. You were there, too – you can ignore it all you want, but your Frank and Dodd and Biden and Obama were all there, right at the top of the heap, helping to make the decisions which screwed the economic pooch in the United States. We have to change – and real change, not the fake change your man Obama is engineering.

We need to retrench – cut spending down to the most life and death vital things and cut taxes and regulations on business development which hinder the creation of new wealth. We’ve lost probably trillions in national wealth over the past year, and the only way we’re going to get out of it is to make it back, again. But this time, with wisdom – not with a phony baloney credit system built on air, but on our making, mining and growing things.

Or, you can put your faith in Obama and hope against hope that, some how, spending money we don’t have will make us rich. Your choice – and if you choose as I think you will, we conservatives will reap the electoral benefit in 2010 and 2012.

From Pajamas Media:

Is the GOP dead? Well, that’s what you would conclude from pundits on MSNBC or writing for the New York Times, but not if you have been following grassroots and online activists burning up blogs and conference calls since the November election. The newly elected GOP chairman, Michael Steele, has given fellow Republicans a challenge: it is time to beat the Democrats in the online world.

Since taking the helm of the Republican National Committee at the end of January, Chairman Steele has been popping up in new and old media taking issue with the stimulus bill and the Obama administration’s tax troubled appointees. But behind the scenes he has been partnering with Saul Anuzis, former Michigan GOP chair and former opponent in the race for RNC chairman, to invigorate the GOP online activists.

Last Friday, the RNC held the GOP Tech Summit at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., which brought together bloggers, politicos, and activists to discuss ideas ranging from social networking to online fundraising. The forum was also broadcast online so that those who were interested from all over the country could view and submit their comments. Attendees even got a surprise visit from Chairman Steele and Newt Gingrich. Followers of the discussion were then given action items and deadlines on proposals to be given to Chairman Steele. GOP Tech Summit on the RNC website has now over 2,000 ongoing contributors who are busy discussing lessons learned and strategy.

One thing I did immediately note upon signing up at SarahPAC is that she’s clearly going to do the Obama thing as regards New Media – and that, in and of itself, delighted me. We can beat these clowns on the left, and at their own game. And doing so would be oh, so sweet.

As for me, I’ve been rumbling from the get-go in the Obama Error – even in my congratulatory post, I fired me first warning shots. And now, its just more and more fun as Obama exhibits the reasons why we opposed him – from his manifest inexperience to his socialistic policies, Obama is being all we expected, and I’ve never seen the conservative base this fired up.