“Shi’ite Islam, the dominant form of Islam in Iran, also allows for ‘temporary wives.’ This is a provision for men to gain female companionship on a short-term basis. In a temporary marriage, or mut’a, the couple signs a marriage agreement that is ordinary in every respect except that it carries a time limit. One tradition …
Let’s Do the Lurch
“. . . it is hard not to see a dance floor as a paddock for musical philistines” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, pp. 383).
Some More Wishful Thinking
“PC watchdogs, both Muslim and non-Muslim, have virtually ruled out any dissent from the idea that Islam is peaceful, benign, and tolerant to a degree that will present no problem whatsoever for Western societies. They depict Islam as akin to Judaism and Christianity and, like them, liable to be ‘hijacked’ (through no fault of its …
Now There’s a Thought
“The abiding weaknesses of country music are two: love of sentimental cliché, rooted in its turn-of-the-century link with Tin Pan Alley, and fear of polyrhythm, rooted in white racism” (Martha Bayles, Hole in our Soul, pp. 380).
A Busy-Pants Foreign Policy
In his fourth chapter, Gelernter addresses the rise and development of the American religion in the course of our war for independence. “The American Creed [liberty, equality, democracy] combined with American Zionism [residue of postmillennialism] yielded a full-blown American belief system. These beliefs would be refined further; they would eventually supersede Puritanism and become the …
Like West Virginia Needs Coal
As just about everyone knows by now, Sen. Larry Craig was arrested in a public lavatory in June at the Minneapolis airport, and subsequently pled guilty to a misdemeanor — for disorderly conduct. The news just hit the fan yesterday, and our Boise paper, The Idaho Statesman, ran with a story on it. In his …
What’s the Point?
“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 125 “An high look, and a proud heart, and the plowing of the wicked is sin” (Prov. 21:4). God evaluates all our business with the intent we have for that business in mind. In other words, He does not isolate …
The Order of Revelation Matters
“According to this idea, the violent verses of the ninth sura, including the Verse of the Sword (9:5), abrogate the peaceful verses, because they were revealed later in Muhammad’s prophetic career: In fact, most Muslim authorities agree that the ninth sura was the very last section of the Qur’an to be revealed” (Robert Spencer, The …
Rap as Ultimate European Whiteness
“As we’ve seen, obscenity is the preferred weapon of those willing to do anything to get a rise out of the public. The faces are black, but the strategy is European: Seek out a submerged, antisocial custom that is considered marginal even by its participants, drag it kicking and screaming to the surface, and celebrate …
Which Means That No One Thinks It is Serious Yet
“The West cannot wage ‘war on terror’ while maintaining its dependence on Arab oil, appeasing Islamist aggression around the world, turning a blind eye to the Islamic destruction of peoples who are animists, Hindus and Christians, and allowing mass immigration of Muslims into its own lands. It risks being the star actor of a Greek …