Just another example of why we should never, ever give up on those who don’t believe – after all, God never does:

British intellectual A.N. Wilson, by his own admission, was a member for many years of the company of smug mockers of religion that dominates Britain’s chattering classes.

Not any more.

Writing in Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, Wilson recounts why he has abandoned the trendy atheism of which he was formerly a prominent apostle.

Raised a Christian, Wilson’s faith weakened as he matured and collapsed completely by the time he was in his 30s.

And by the 1990s, he had authored a book, titled Jesus: A Life, that denied the divinity of Jesus and the miraculous aspects of his birth, life and death.

“Why did I, along with so many others, become so dismissive of Christianity?” Wilson writes in his Daily Mail article, Religion of hatred: Why we should no longer be cowed by the chattering classes ruling Britain who sneer at Christianity.

“Like most educated people in Britain and Northern Europe (I was born in 1950), I have grown up in a culture that is overwhelmingly secular and anti-religious. The universities, broadcasters and media generally are not merely non-religious, they are positively anti.

“To my shame, I believe it was this that made me lose faith and heart in my youth. It felt so uncool to be religious. With the mentality of a child in the playground, I felt at some visceral level that being religious was unsexy, like having spots or wearing specs.

“This playground attitude accounts for much of the attitude towards Christianity that you pick up, say, from the alternative comedians, and the casual light blasphemy of jokes on TV or radio.

It is very hard to cut through the morass of lies and nonsense which has been erected for the purpose of keeping people away from God. But the trick can be done – God is always calling to us, and if anyone who does not try to live by God’s will decides, even for a moment, to be still and listen, the call will become irresistible. I know that some of my “born again” brothers and sisters have it that a radical change was made, but I think that most of us who turn our lives over to God will state that it was a slow, at times halting, process. For me, it has taken years just to get to the point where I really consider myself a Christian, though one with a very long way to go before I’m worthy to stand with the least of Christ’s servants (this isn’t false humility – once one does turn towards God, one of the more stunning discoveries is just what a creep one has been…the atheists and agnostics don’t comprehend this; neither the fact of their creepiness nor the liberation which comes with understanding what one is, and what one is leaving behind). While the acceptance of Christ was the work of a moment, the act of becoming like Christ is a much longer process.

My fellow believers can speak for themselves here, but one of the things I’ve noted since turning towards God is that I have less and less attachment to – or, indeed, tolerance for – popular culture. I’m no longer even remotely interested in the nauseating parade of pop-culture glitz and glam. I understand there is a show called “American Idol” where people attempt to sing their way to fame while subjecting themselves to various forms of public humiliation…I’ve never sat and watched the show: the whole concept is a horror to me. Meanwhile, when a pop-culture event becomes so large that literally everyone has to hear about it – such as the case a year or two ago of Britney Spears’ meltdown – I’m moved to pity for the poor people involved. The people who get caught up in such social meat grinders could have had such wonderful lives and done so much good…but now they’re just the fodder for incorrigible gossipers.

And all of that is just the noise – the screaming shout of “look at me!” which distracts the human mind from family, home, Church…and faith. How can a pastor who is only a so/so speaker compete with the titillation of, say, some bottom-feeding celebrity show dredging up the worst behavior possible? How can a devoted wife attract the attention of her husband while he’s wrapped up in the day to day affairs of some Hollywood freak show? What chance has a troubled child to get parental attention form parents who spend their time discussing the vagaries of celebrity divorce and scandal?

But it can be got around, as Mr. Wilson has shown. There must have been, God be praised, some quiet corner where he could think undisturbed and where the example of real Christians could be pondered in opposition to the shallow anti-Christianity of modern pop culture. Our greatest hope, as believers, will have to be in our ability to convince people to shut off the TV, and listen to the call of God.

More and more I’m convinced that we shouldn’t describe Obama as the smartest man in the room but, more accurately, as not being the sharpest knife in the drawer:

On his recently concluded first visit to Mexico as president, a week after telling Europeans that his country had been at times arrogant, President Barack Obama blamed his own country for providing 90% of Mexico’s recovered crime guns.

According to a report by the independent FactCheck.org this afternoon, that’s incorrect. By a, uh, long shot.

The president’s assertion, also cited by Mexican President Felipe Calderon during their joint news conference in Mexico City, and the reported inaccuracy seems likely to fuel the eternal American gun-control debate, especially as it relates to the U.S. role in Mexico’s deadly drug world.

Which, of course, is why the left has created the talking point – they want an excuse for gun control and as Mexico spirals further out of control, gun control could be imposed as a national-security issue (“we have to ban these guns to protect Americans living on the border from being killed by Mexican gangs armed with US weapons”, or some such nonsense). The problem is not really the talking point – as far as lefty lies goes, this is just regular stuff – the problem comes in when we have a President of the United States who lacks enough wit to have a BS-detector strong enough to realize that some lies are so enormously stupid that only a lefty will believe them. In other words, all Obama did was allow the corrupt and incompetent Mexican government lay the blame for violence on us, while making himself look like a fool to any American with the sense God gave little, white mice (which, of course, excludes liberals, for the most part).

We’ve got Jimmy Carter on dimwit steroids here, boys and girls…

And the sad thing is that they agreed:

Georgetown University’s decision to comply with a White House request to cover up the “IHS” monogram representing Jesus’ name at President Obama’s speech on Wednesday is drawing fire from the Cardinal Newman Society and Georgetown students, who are charging the university with “sacrificing” its “Catholic and Jesuit identity.”

Reports surfaced today from attendees at President Obama’s speech on the economy that the White House asked Georgetown University to cover up several emblems, including an IHS monogram above the president’s head during his speech at the Jesuit university.

Although President Obama focused his speech on his administration’s plans to spur economic growth, some in attendance noticed that the IHS monogram—an early 3rd century abbreviation for the name of Jesus—was covered up for the speech.

…Julie Green Bataille, associate vice president for communications at the university, told CNSNews.com that the covering up of Jesus’ name was prompted by “logistical arrangements for yesterday’s event.” …

She said the “signage and symbols” were covered up because “the pipe and drape wasn’t high enough by itself to fully cover the IHS and cross” and that it seemed more “respectful to have them covered” so that viewers wouldn’t see them “out of context.”

Patrick Reilly, the President of the Cardinal Newman Society, reacted to the report by telling CNA that Georgetown’s decision is another “outrageous example of a Catholic university sacrificing principle for prestige.”

He wondered what the White House will request next month at Notre Dame’s commencement and said, “Christians simply cannot hide our faith in a drawer to satisfy an American president who shows no respect for Catholic identity or values.”

Obama would be “out of context” if a Christian symbol was visible while he was making a speech? If Christian symbols are inappropriate, then why did Obama agree to speak at an allegedly Catholic college? And why did the college agree to such an absurd request? First Notre Dame, now Georgetown – its getting a little embarrassing to be a Catholic these days! But, in the end, the gates of hell will not prevail against it, so all is well.

The liberal fear is of Christ and his Body – and that, dear friends, is our greatest strength. As long as we rely on God and the liberals rely on political correctness, there’s no chance we’ll lose.

This just reeks of rightwing extremism:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

We report, you decide:

More than a dozen defense contractors with business before U.S. Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), a member of the powerful House Appropriations defense subcommittee, have donated thousands of dollars to Moran’s younger brother Brian, a candidate for governor of Virginia.

Brian Moran filed a campaign finance report this week that shows he collected $80,000 during the first three months of 2009 from 18 contractors that have been longtime backers of the congressman. Seven of the firms are awaiting approval of Moran-backed earmarks totaling $14.5 million.

Where there is smoke, there is fire? Or nothing worth troubling our little heads over?

Liberal Democrat, socialist Dictator – naturally, they get along:

U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday greeted and shook hands with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez during an impromptu meeting with the anti-U.S. leader at the Summit of the Americas.

Photographs released by the Venezuelan government showed Chavez, a fierce foe of former President George W. Bush, smiling and clasping hands with Obama at the start of the summit of Latin American and Caribbean leaders in Trinidad.

I’ve seen the pictures – Obama might as well be greeting an old friend. Or, perhaps, he’s just greeting someone he wants to model himself on?

Call me disgusted…

They are either stupid, or just so deep in hubris that they don’t realize how bad this sort of thing will be for them – from NRO’s The Corner:

Hillary said this week that the administration might extend Temporary Protected Status to Haitian illegal aliens, an estimated 30,000 of whom are somewhere in the deportation pipeline (and many more haven’t been identified at all). Despite the claim of temporary-ness, this would be, like all past grants of such status, for all practical purposes, permanent. I’m sure with Florida’s unemployment rate at almost 10 percent, that’ll go over really well.

I’m one of the 5.7 people who backed the Bush-McCain immigration reform effort. I want a guest-worker program and a path to citizenship for illegals who are long-term residents of the United States. But I wouldn’t touch anything which can even be remotely cast as amnesty with a 10 foot pole right now. I’ll start pushing for a guest-worker program a couple years after we’ve secured the borders, because that is what the American people – by an overwhelming majority – wants. With Obama set to revive some sort of Bush-McCain immigration reform and now Hillary holding out the prospect of amnesty for Haitian illegals, the Democrats are walking down a path which will allow the GOP to paint them – justifiably – as unserious about American national and economic security.

Have at it Dems – and hey, while you’re at it, revive the “assault weapons” ban, ok?

It will be a long, dark four years for the Culture of Life – Obama seems determined to promote abortion and the larger culture of death relentlessly. But there still remains the light of Truth, and those who adhere to it:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking at anti-abortion group’s dinner, criticized President Barack Obama for supporting abortion rights and challenged the idea that unplanned pregnancies are a nuisance that can be solved by abortion.

Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, spoke to an overflow crowd organizers said numbered 3,000 at the Vanderburgh County Right to Life banquet Thursday night.

Some in the crowd wore white “Palin 2012” T-shirts. Earlier, GOP National Chairman Michael Steele described her as one of the party’s standard bearers, though he said it was too early to judge what her standing would be in three years.

Palin said the challenges she faced during her pregnancy with her son Trig, who was born with Down syndrome, gave her an opportunity to live out her anti-abortion beliefs. She said she prayed often during her pregnancy, especially after tests revealed that her son would be born with the condition.

“The moment he was born, I knew that moment my prayers had been answered,” Palin said. “Trig is a miracle. He is the best thing that ever happened to me and I want other women to have that opportunity.”

She challenged the notion that children must be born perfect and that unplanned pregnancies are inconvenient and can be ended by abortion. “I know for sure my son is perfect just as he is, made in the image of God,” she said.

She asked the crowd to keep working for the “culture of life” in America.

“Life is ordained, life is precious,” she said.

No matter how the supporters of abortion try to twist it, the plain facts are that abortion is both the enemy of hope, and a final solution to a temporary condition. There is not nor can there ever be a justification for an elective abortion – to seek the death of an unborn innocent is monstrous in itself, but even in purely practical terms it is a complete waste.

The loss to humanity is incalcuable each time an abortion is performed – we’ll never know the great gifts the aborted, in God’s wisdom, would have showered upon us. And not just the Einsteins we lost, but even just that kind person who would have given us a helping hand. Imagine if we randomly shot 10,000 people a week – think about what we’d lose…the doctors, teachers, ministers, mothers, fathers, friends…all cruelly ripped away from us for no reason at all. That is what abortion does.

If you believe this, you might be a rightwing extremist:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. – 10th Amendment to the United States constitution

Ok, so there was a general upsurge in good manners yesterday – but I do want to clarify a few things.

Any obscenities rougher than “damn” and “hell” will result in banning. I used to swear like a sailor, dear people, but I find it rather offensive these days…and if its making a sailor blush, then its too much.

I’ll weed out “off topic” comments only so many times before we ban the offender.

Special note to “fr00tn00b”: You’ve been warned.

Special note to ” fmrmarine”: The serenity prayer. Also, we had a Marine honor guard at Dad’s funeral – thought you’d like to know.