Following the massacre by mostly Muslim terrorists in Beslan, Russia, that killed, at last count, 338 people, including at least 156 children, and wounded hundreds of others, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas wrote on September 8, 2004: Abdulrahman al-Rashed, general manager of Al-Arabiya television in Dubai, wrote in a London Arabic newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat, "Our terrorist sons are an end-product of our corrupted culture."Now it may be a bit extreme to suggest that all the world terrorists are Muslims. Yet the facts are disturbingly clear: most of world-class terrorism today appears in one form or another to be terrorism committed by Muslims, and all the reticence of Western governments and media officials to face this disturbing reality, as evidenced by their preference for words such as "militants" and "extremists" won't change the disturbing facts.
Under the headline "The Painful Truth: All the World Terrorists Are Muslims!," he wrote, "Most perpetrators of suicide operations in buses, schools and residential buildings around the world for the past 10 years have been Muslims." He also wrote that if Muslims want to change their image, they must "admit the scandalous facts,"rather than disparage critics or justify terrorists' behavior.
%20beheaded%20by%20Muslim%20Teslic.jpg)
Thomas suggests that "moderate" Islamic clerics should "defrock" and denounce other clerics who preach hate and the destruction of Christians, Jews, and all things Western, arguing that the appropriate place for "diversity" and "sensitivisity" training is not in the liberal Western countries but in those that harbor and train terrorists and export terrorism as a religious mandate and national policy. This may seem a trifle facile, of course, and much more needs to be said and done. But the voice of Abdulrahman al-Rashed is certainly one that needs to be heard at the table of nations.
Read more of Thomas' article here. For further reading, see below:
Serge Trifkovic, The Sword of the Prophet: History, Theology, Impact on the World (Regina Orthodox Press, 2002)
Dore Gold, Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism (Regnery Publishing, 2003)
Bernard Lewis, The Crisis of Islam: Holy War and Unholy Terror (Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2004)
Daniel Pipes, Militant Islam Reaches America (W.W. Norton & Company, 2003)
Robert Spencer, Inside Islam: A Guide for Catholics (Ascension Press, 2003)
One of my philosophy students, Eric Wallace, has resurrected the Lenoir-Rhyne College tradition of a discussion group among philosophy and theology students in the form of an interactive blog, the North Hall Society, named after the campus building (pictured above, now named Russell House) that traditionally housed the Religion and Philosophy Department. Such a society used to exist in the past under the name of Bonaventure Club, founded by the late Lutheran Bishop and former Professor of Theology at Lenoir-Rhyne College, the Rev. Michael C.D. McDaniel. 
St. Bonaventure was a good choice of names, it was thought, because he was both a philosopher and a theologian, and thus the club and discussion group named for him could comfortably accommodate both philosophy and theology students. Kudos to Eric (pictured left), then, for taking the initiative to start the North Hall Society. Visit the 
Today (Sept. 21, 2004) marks the 482nd anniversary of the publication of Martin Luther's German translation of the New Testament, which appeared on Sept. 21, 1522. Luther's subsequent translation of the Old Testament led to the appearance of the Luther Bible in 1534. A common assumption among Lutherans and other Protestants is that Luther (pictured right) was the Reformer, more than any other, who is to be credited with making the Bible available in the common language. Some may tip their hats to "pre-Reformation Protestants," such as John Wycliffe or John Huss; but nearly everyone seems to think we owe it to Luther, above anyone else, that we have the Bible today as an "open book" available to all. This assumption is so pervasive that it hardly bears repeating.
folio editions printed before 1477, nine from 1477 to 1522, and four in Low German, all prior to Luther's New Testament in 1522." (See for yourself: Click on the following link to the 
in putting forth the boastful claim of dragging the Bible from beneath the dusty benches of the schools. You forget that we have gained a knowledge of the Scriptures through the translations of others. You are very well aware, with all your blustering, that previously to your time there existed a host of scholars who, in biblical knowledge and philological attainments, were incomparably your superiors." [Alzog. III, 49, quoted in Patrick F. O'Hare, 
One of the best Catholic apologetics magazines is now online! 
This from Barbara Kralis of the Jesus Through Mary Foundation:
Over the last couple of decades, bureaucrats in academic accrediting institutions have been hard at work endeavoring to make life harder for college and university professors. Or so it seems. On the face of it, all their new demands appear so innocuous: they simply want to make academic institutions more "accountable" by seeing that they deliver on their claims to educate. How? By means of "measurable outcomes." In other words, if a college claims to educate all of its students in basic algebra, then graduating seniors of that institution should be able to demonstrate basic proficiency in algebra. A measurable outcome. Nice and neat.
Mr. Mel Gibson
A young mother, a good friend, recently wrote to me expressing some concerns about her daughter and her education. The mother comes from a good evangelical Protestant family, in fact a missionary family in the Far East. But she has drifted away from the Christian moorings of her childhood and no more claims the identity of Christian, at least, as she says, "in a traditional sense." Here is part of our exchange, based on one earlier correspondence:
The Mother: 
putting others first and of being hopeful and cheerful so as to be a bright light in the face of gloom and despair.
pointless existence that renders all of one's decisions absurd. (b) 
altogether, so that there is no God, no miracles, nothing but impersonal evolution, a brief life full of unfulfillable aspirations, and then the eternal sleep of death; and (4) nihilism, which draws the brutally honest conclusion that if life has no divinely-imposed meaning to be humanly discovered, it is absurd and meaningless, and the only question really worth asking is why we bother to go on living (Albert Camus (pictured right): why do we not commit suicide). But of course that's hardly the message you want for J.
If our beliefs are really those of naturalism or nihilism, wouldn't a more honest response be to tell the little girl: Listen, young lady. You think you have something to cry about? Let me give you something to really cry about: your life is absolutely pointless. Whether you are run over by an eighteen wheeler in the next hour or two, or whether you live to a ripe old age to see your grandchildren, you life will soon be forgotten after you rot in your grave. Um ... That doesn't quite seem like what I'd like to tell a little girl who's just hurt herself. But doesn't this suggest the absurdity of the secularized, naturalistic, nihilistic answer? What is the answer that will provide sustenance, then? Perhaps the one that Chesterton called "demanding." But for that to make sense, one will have to overcome a great deal of the brainwashing of contemporary culture.
there was a meeting for the parents in the Montessori program and we had a chance to hear quite a bit from her teacher about what she was doing with the kids in the classroom and how they learn independence and responsibility, how they get to exercise choice within a fairly focused structure, etc., and it was very encouraging. Last night was the first PTA meeting and I was struck by what a strong family-oriented community it was, all working to improve the quality of their children's education and how well they seemed to communicate with - and work with - the teachers and administrators. Both our good friends, M. and C. were there, and we realized we were tapping into a really strong, loving community. It's such a relief. Another little observation: most of the parents of these elementary age kids were "old" like us. Interesting. I'm sure there are some younger parents in the school, but I was surprised by how many were, shall we say, "mature". It made me feel like we're not so weird after all and also contibutes to a sense of solidity. I think it is a somewhat unique school ( we visited 7 and it was the only one we really liked), and I'm so pleased to have found it. We'll see how things evolve... I'm sure the challenges will get tougher as she gets older.
Jean-Paul Sartre (pictured right) writes:
Aragorn (pictured left), ranger and heir to the throne of Gondor in J.R.R. Tolkien's celebrated epic, Lord of the Rings, was born in the 2931st year of the Third Age (for details read Tolkien's Silmarillion). That puts him, surprisingly perhaps, around his 86th or 87th year during the events of the Fellowship of the Ring.
Matt Yoder was back in town and he was chillin' with Matt that evening. Good ol' Matt.
one has reached his 86th or 87th year, what does the passing of yet another year in earth time betoken, besides the obvious? Will we celebrate birthdays in the Undying Lands of the West, if , like Tolkien's Elrond (pictured right) we are immortal? What do you think?
Two links worth checking out in memory of what happend on September 11th, 2001, are
"Big Dawg" was our family cat for over 14 years. He was probably at least two years old when we got him. He was probably part Mancoon, and was the largest domestic cat we've ever seen. He was given his name by son, Jonathan Blosser, in part because of "Big Dawg's" size. One day a UPS truck showed up at our door, and when the delivery man turned around and saw "Big Dawg," he practically dropped his package. He said he thought it was a Puma! Big Dawg was an exceptionally good-natured cat. An outdoor cat, he adjusted well to every move we made, and while Amy and I were in England, he stayed with her parents without ever leaving their open yard. When he was younger, he was once hit by a car and suffered several bad fractures. After a trip to the vet, I fed him liquid food with a turkey baster for three months until his jaw healed enough for him to eat solid food again. Once a friendly neighbor tried to adopt him and domesticate him as an indoor cat. But two weeks later he made his escape and returned home. He was clearly disgusted with all the wussy ribbons they tried tying around his head. Big Dawg was a tom cat's tom cat. He dominated his turf. Once when a black lab came loping brazenly into our yard, Big Dawg sprang from the deck onto the black lab's neck, dug in, and hung on until the terrified lab beat a hasty retreat. Big Dawg became a Godfatherly protector of Igor, a black kitten we adopted last spring. They became fast friends in recent months. 
Last Thursday (Sept. 9th, the feast day of St. Peter Claver) Big Dawg failed to show up for dinner. I found him lying peacefully alongside the stone garden wall in the grass under the shade of a Crape Myrtle. There was no sign of foul play. He may have died simply of a heart attack. He showed no signs of ill health in the days leading up to his death. He was getting old, and the spring had gone out of his step, but he could still hold his own when it came to defending his turf. No cat in its right mind would want to tangle with B-i-g D-a-w-g ... I can't help thinking that St. Francis, animal lover that he was, must have arranged a place in heaven for beloved pets. How could God have refused him? Big Dawg, beloved, faithful, loyal guardian of the Blosser family: requiescat in pace (rest in peace).
One of my students forwarded an email to me today from a student who stated that after a life-long sojourn as a Christian, he had come to reject the Christian faith. The original email officially announcing his apostasy was sent to a list of Christian friends and, predictably, appears to have created a small tempest in a teapot. In any case, since the apostate was also a former student of mine, and one with whom I continue to enjoy good ongoing conversations from time-to-time, I responded to his announcement as follows:
The causes of things we do are rarely the reasons we give for the things we do. The reasons are interesting to play around with, of course. We could line up our logical syllogisms one against the other and, I suppose, have some fun. But as Blaise Pascal (pictured left) abundantly knew, the human heart does not run on syllogisms. "The heard has its reasons," he wrote, "of which reason knows nothing."
considered, then made a commitment [Oh, yes! -- shades of Billy Graham (pictured right) and the "Hour of Decision"!] to reject the Christian faith.
But it would certainly be reason enough for me not to want to turn my back on the possibilies I might have overlooked somehow -- especially with those biblical warnings about how some maddening spiritual blindness could have been cast
In an open letter to Sen. John Kerry, Oliver North (pictured left, testifying before the Senate in Washington, D.C., in 1987) writes:
... The trouble you're having, John, isn't about your medals or coming home early or getting lost -- or even Richard Nixon. The issue is what you did to us when you came home, John.
"Every time I go down to Washington [D.C.], it's a changed city," writes Peggy Noonan. "It's actually different from the more sleepy little town I knew in 1984. It is so much more sophisticated and cosmopolitan. The women dress so much better -- to my disappointment. One of the things that made Washington so distinctive was that it was refreshingly dowdy. It was like seeing the sort of women who dress up in [church] in England. That's how Washington women looked. I just loved that lovely dowdiness. Now they're chic and hip and rock." [Crisis magazine (Sept. 2004), p. 38. Visit 
Sam Torode, Bethany Torode, and J. Budziszewski have authored a book, 
and the troubled role of Tom Monaghan's micromanagement through the Ave Maria Foundation, his philanthropic organization).
"Do not allow yourselves to be deceived by the cunning statements of those who persistently claim to wish to be with the Church, to love the Church, to fight so that people do not leave Her...But judge them by their works. If they despise the shepherds of the Church and even the Pope, if they attempt all means of evading their authority in order to elude their directives and judgments..., then about which Church do these men mean to speak? Certainly not about that established on the foundations of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the cornerstone (Eph. 2:20)." [Pope St. Pius X: Allocution of May 10, 1909]
Get the story from 
After going on the diet I noticed how much energy I had in the hour following lunch now that I wasn't trying to shrug off a blood sugar low like those who ate carbs during lunch. Further, you'll need the protein to build the muscle to compete."
worked for Jimmy, who proudly displays pictures of himself "before" (above right) and "after" (left and below, right) the Atkins effect in a blog post entitled, "