DennisMansfield.com

iQuestions.com Earthquake. The next Hulu.com?

I'm in a brief meeting with about 100 leaders. Michael Boerner (the founder) is giving an amazing presentation about what may well be the next Hulu.com (which is the NBC/Fox Internet partnership). Never heard of iQuestions?

You're not alone ...until now.

Check out my imbedded link to the right and see. It's the safe and trusted site for answers to the most difficult (and at times personally awkward) questions.

And guess what...like the TV...it came from Idaho (yeah, no kidding!) Media leaders: if you haven't seen/visited the iQuestions' folks you just might to cover them before the LA Times does or the NY Times. Michael Boerner is clearly one of my dearest friends. For me, it's a little like watching Steve Jobs start up Apple...and KNOWING that the product he would soon produce has nothing to with fruit. Den

A European liberal's cunundrum: How to handle Islamic Morrocans who hunt and kill gay men in Amsterdam. How did we get here?

It's  November 2040 and the US electorate is excited about the new, young legions of candidates who lovingly recall the success of Osama in 2008...What? Den, are you making fun of Barrack Obama's name?

No, I am not. So what gives?

Well...Mark Steyn's recent piece makes a compelling case for the reality of a much-changed America in 32 years. With Isalm being the fastest growing religion in the West, the impact of Mr. Steyn's comments take on an erie...and ugly feel to them...not against Muslims...but ugly, BECAUSE of Muslims. 

He writes well of our cultural suicide...brought about by our inability to call evil what it is: evil. When Islamic men from Morocco purposefully seek to hunt down and kill gays, as they hide within their religion...and may in fact be legally able to do so, something is so wrong and so evil that only a purposefully blind fool would argue anything other than that. There really is no conundrum. There is only a moral certainty that no human being should be killed because of his/her sexual orientation.

Steyn writes with a sardonic humor, possibly crafted by too many hours listening to the refrain: " Fools to the left of me, jokers to the right. Here I am, stuck in the middle with you."

Den

Here's a taste of Mr. Steyn's article ~ all of which may be foundat the bottom of this posting.

• I would argue that these incremental concessions to Islam are ultimately a bigger threat than terrorism. What matters is not what the lads in the Afghan cave—the "extremists"—believe, but what the non-extremists believe, what people who are for the most part law-abiding taxpayers of functioning democracies believe. For example, a recent poll found that 36 percent of Muslims between the ages of 16 and 24 believe that those who convert to another religion should be punished by death. That’s not 36 percent of young Muslims in Waziristan or Yemen or Sudan, but 36 percent of young Muslims in the United Kingdom. Forty percent of British Muslims would like to live under Sharia—in Britain. Twenty percent have sympathy for the July 7 Tube bombers. And, given that Islam is the principal source of population growth in every city down the spine of England from Manchester to Sheffield to Birmingham to London, and in every major Western European city, these statistics are not without significance for the future.

Don't Fear the Reaper, Bruce Dickinson...and gimme some more cow bell ~ one more time.

  If your day is going poorly and you need...well, you need "more Cow Bell"...then just visit this site and enjoy a virtual shower of Blue Oyster Cult love...and, of course, more Cow Bell.

I've got a fever, baby, and the only prescription is...indeed...more Cow Bell.

~ Bruce Dickinson

Thinning the herds? Saying goodbye to compassion...

Isn't it fitting that Sarah Palin's little baby boy, Trig, has Down's Syndrome...and many in America and Canada have taken to almost being sickened by him.

Could his condition be the last acceptable prejudice for certain people?

Read this from National Review Online and let me know your thoughts.

Den

The Last Acceptable Prejudice
An epidemic of Down Syndrome abortions.

By Gary Bauer and Daniel Allott

(Exerpt 1) Amid partisan wrangling over legislative solutions to the economic crisis, there was a rare moment of unanimity on Capitol Hill recently concerning the need to alleviate a much different, but equally serious, crisis. Passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress in late September and signed into law by President Bush on October 10, the Prenatally and Postnatally Diagnosed Conditions Awareness Act provides expectant mothers whose unborn children receive a diagnosis of Down Syndrome or other genetic condition with up-to-date information about the nature of the condition and connection with support services. Co-sponsored by Senators Sam Brownback (R., Kan.) and Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.), the legislation also provides for the creation of a national registry of families willing to adopt children with pre- or post-natally diagnosed conditions. (Exerpt 2) Part of the reason why prenatal disability discrimination has thrived resides in a medical establishment with a decidedly pro-abortion prejudice against babies with disabilities. Parents informed that their unborn child will be born with a disability are often given only the negative aspects of raising a child with a disability. In September, Dr. Andre Lalonde, executive vice president of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC), fretted to the Globe and Daily Mail newspapers that Sarah Palin’s decision not to abort “could have detrimental effects on women and their families.” Palin’s decision, Lalonde explained, “may inadvertently influence other women who may lack the necessary emotional and financial support to do the same. The worry is that this will have an implication for abortion issues in Canada.” Read the whole piece here.

In the middle of the perfect financial storm...

Chuck Colson was on www.BreakPoint.org and gave this comment:

Den

People I’ve talked to in recent days are wringing their hands over the financial crisis. People are really afraid. It’s time for Christians to offer them hope. Stay tuned to BreakPoint.

A Sign of Hope: The Witness of Faith in Tough Times

Like many of you, I don’t look forward to turning on the financial news these days. These are very troubling times. If you’re anywhere near my age, or about to send your kids to college, you can’t be happy when you see your retirement plans or college funds seemingly going up in smoke.

But as I got on my knees in my library yesterday morning in my devotional time, God really convicted me—in a way that was unmistakably from Him. As I started through my laundry list of thanking God for the blessings He’d given me; praying for my family and for my own, personal concerns, God stopped me short. I felt convicted this was no way to start my prayer time. No, I needed to start by offering myself to God, to be fully used by Him.

It was as if God told me that my priorities were wrong. He told me I shouldn’t be praying for myself. That my job was to carry out the responsibilities He’s given me. And if I did that, He’d take care of my needs.  God raised me up, I realized, to speak to His Church. And that’s what I should be about doing. Encouragement in tough times.   

Not two hours later, I arrived for an appointment at the hospital to get the results of a biopsy (which, happily, turned out well).

When I arrived at the reception desk, I was greeted by a nurse—a lovely woman—who had an enormous smile on her face. A fellow believer, she told me she had been waiting at the desk to meet me. As we talked, I asked her how she was handling things. She said her husband had been heavily invested in real estate. When the housing market melted down, they lost everything they had: their home, cars, retirement, everything. And she—she appeared to be her forties—had to go back to work to support the family.

When she finished, she looked at me with a radiant smile and said, “It’s been tough, but I have no fear. The Lord has a plan for me. I am totally at peace.”

I was nearly speechless. This was no chance meeting. Here, right before my eyes, was living confirmation of what God convicted me of hours earlier.  All I could do was thank her for telling me, and then pray with her for a moment. Scripture tells us we often meet angels unawares.

But I couldn’t help but be encouraged. Nobody who encounters this woman’s trust in God would ever deny the power of faith. While many are walking around wringing their hands, she is living with “unutterable and exalted joy.” That kind of faith changes a person, convinces the skeptic, and provides a stunning witness to God’s love in Christ—even in tough times.

That’s the kind of faith God calls us to. Complete and utter trust in Him. It’s easy to be a believer when everything is going well. The real test is when things fall apart.

I know how hard it is to have nothing: I remember the days of the Great Depression. I’ve been in prison. But in the end, and especially in times like this, I know that in Christ, I can be content in all things.

Sure, it hurts to see your life’s savings or your job threatened. It’s part and parcel of being human in a fallen world. But this is a time when Christians must be different and show it to the world. Maybe that’s what God intends to do with this crisis. Maybe He’ll use it to banish the “health and wealth gospel” and let the world see how the genuine faith of God’s people shines all the brighter in the darkness. 

I pray that you might hear God’s word as I did yesterday morning. Be not afraid! And then live with the kind of faith that that nurse in the hospital showed me.

__________________________

He  was onne of the meanest, toughest people in Nixon's White House.

He went to prison and had an epiphany thrust on him. For those who understand...it was a Saul to Paul time. For those who don't understand...he changed.

What he has to say is more meaningful today than anything he did in the White House.

Den

Couric + Palin interview? How about Pacino + Deniro interview?

The Katie Couric/Sarah Palin interview grows more tiresome with every new re-view.

I mean really....stop it, please.

Couric's TV 2-shots seem always to have her grimacing (artfully, I suppose). Or the b-roll shows her body awkwardly angled away from Palin...(Kinda like: "Get me the heck out of this blind date!") Sarah Palin was "taken to the movies", but boy did that little Katie leave her eating popcorn kernels, alone....

What a mis-casting, from the get-go.

Given that, I decided to hit the movies myself and see if there were any other co-star mis-casting in a current movie that could lead me out of the blues and purge my feelings against the widow-woman, Katie. No, not really, but I found some terrific co-casting.

I found it in A Righteous Kill.....and then I found somethig even better! I found the key(s) to unlock the painful mystery of the Curic-Palin pain-fest:

Robert Deniro and Al Pacino.

What?

Yeah, listen up.....they should have been interviewed by "Katie the Knife". Cause, they're the only ones who can get away with saying the "F-word" and not make it sound like they're swearing....(keep reading for the "script")

36 years later: McGovern-Biden?

Not sure if you remember my posting that Senator Obama's incredibly poor decision to choose Senator Joe Biden could ultimately come to be seen as the equivalent of Senator George McGovern's equally incredibly poor choice of Senator Thomas Eagleton, as his running mate in 1972. What, no McGovern-Eagleton '72 buttons and signs?

Probably because there are none - at least none that can be found. Eagleton was replaced by Kennedy-esque R. Sargent Shriver, just weeks after the Democrat Convention. By the way...they lost.

So, read the following piece from DC that was circulated all across the US just minutes ago. Gary Bauer's reach is amazing....he's skeptical that it could/would happen. I am not.

Remember, www.Dennismansfield.com was the first blog in America that connected the Palin-TR comparisons.

Den

Bye, Bye Biden?

I’ve been getting a lot of messages lately about the rumor that Obama will drop Biden from the ticket next month and replace him with Hillary in an “October surprise” intended to offset the gains Senator McCain has made with his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate. I am skeptical about Hillary being on the ballot in November.

• It would undermine Obama yet again on the key issue of experience and decisive leadership. We choose presidents to make tough decisions. You can’t vote “present” or change your mind on major decisions, like who should be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office.
• It would severely undermine Obama’s “change” mantra if a Clinton were on the ballot. Hillary is not forward-looking change, but a look to the past. Obama would be running for Bill Clinton’s third term.
• Obama rarely admits he’s wrong or has made a mistake, and I don’t think he is capable of admitting that the selection of Biden – rather than Hillary – was the wrong choice. And what would that ultimately say about his candidacy if he has to admit that he is not strong enough to win without her?
• Hillary comes with a lot of baggage, not the least of which is Bill, who recently said that Hillary wasn’t interested in being Obama’s running mate. I doubt those hard feelings have softened much since Obama so publicly dissed her by not even considering her for vice president.
• It could actually backfire, further energizing conservatives to vote and turning Independents against Obama, many of whom never really liked Hillary. During the primaries, many polls consistently showed that Hillary was very unpopular with Independent voters.
• Lastly, Hillary might not even accept. If Obama gets that desperate, there would still be a good chance he might lose anyway. It would be easier for Hillary to run in four years with the theme “I told you so” if she is not part of the losing ticket this time around.

Of course, with the Clintons, you “never say never,” and Biden is certainly doing his best to make the idea more attractive every day. From calling Obama campaign commercials “terrible” to taking contradictory stands on clean coal, Biden is living up to his reputation for having “foot-in-mouth” disease.

By the way, if John McCain had said, as Joe Biden recently did, that President Roosevelt went on the TV after the market crash in 1929, we’d be getting non-stop stories about the onset of senility and how unfit he is. (Roosevelt wasn’t president in 1929 and the television was still in the experimental stage.)

BSU Christian Week - Separation of Church and State? How 'bout a separation of God and fate?

Between Heaven and Hell

A Reader’s Theater

Presented by

The Ex-Inmate Theater

Today, Sept. 24^th  7:00-9:00 p.m.

BSU Special Events Center

On November 22, 1963 J.F. Kennedy was killed.  It was also the day C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley died.  Come listen to some of the greatest voices of the last century discuss questions we have all considered in the darkest recesses of our minds.

 

A Free Event

Sponsored By:

CampusROAR

Idaho's citizens may have a Texas-size prison problem...

(This next week marks the completion of two full years of operation for a business I founded that provides housing and treatment for ex-addicts, who most often are also ex-inmates. My blog posting today is not an official statement by our company. Instead it's just a personal reflection and possible recommendation by me.)

During these last two years the issue of staffed, safe and sober houses came to the forefront of Idahoan's concerns, as it should have. The aftercare treatment of ex-addicts (who, in MANY cases, are ex-inmates) was examined in a series of television/radio news stories and newspaper articles....almost ad nauseum to some folks, I'd bet. Sides were unfortunately chosen by default on an issue that is really ALL of our concern: prisoners being released back into society; afterall over 97% of all prisoners will be returned to society...it's just a matter of when and where. Eventually, this past year some short term mini-solutions were entered into by all sides; long term big-scale solutions, as well as litigation, remain in limbo at this writing.

 

However, Governor Butch Otter's Administration has shown itself to be one of the most forward thinking admins in America on this issue. He and his staff are commited to ensuring that Idahoans DO NOT bear the huge burden of billions of dollars for new prisons. He's to be commended for that. As Director Reinke has stated repeatedly: "We cannot build our way out of this problem." The Director is absolutely right.

Then, we have the Idaho House. The Speaker of the House, Rep Denney, often works side by side with the Governor's administration at pursuing visionary, out-of-the-box, non building-related spending solutions to overcrowding. The Pro-Tem of the Senate, Sen. Geddes, echoes that same concern.

 

So where's the problem? Why are we shipping inmates to states like Texas? Do we HAVE to do that? (Here's where the Progressive Conservative perspective kicks in...). My call is that a radical solution MUST come from the public opinion among Idahoans. We know that public opinion drives public policy...and we know that many, many Idaho Legislators live and breathe by the the subsequent shock-therapy that accompanies an awakend Idaho electorate.

 

If Idaho citizens want to lead the US in a forward thinking public policy to limit or eliminate overcrowding in prisons, then it is fully within our capabilities to do so.

My prison after-care model is only one attempt at solving this probelm. There may be many others that are, in fact, a better method. If so, then let's get on with it! The key is that no sons or daughters of Idaho should be sent to other states for "warehousing"...and in some cases, death. (See story below by Andrea Jackson).

 

With 1 out of every 100 Americans in jail or prison right now and by some estimates, 1 out of every 30+ adult Idahoans incarcerated,....we all have both a stake in the solution and, most probably, a family member or friend who is/was behind bars.

That's what I've learned in these past two years.

 

So, what's your pleasure, Idaho?

Den

------------------------

Families feel loss as out-of-state prison population grows

By Andrea Jackson
Times-News writer

Pam Drashner visited her husband every weekend in prison, until she was turned away one day because he wasn't there. He had been quietly transferred from Boise to a private prison in Sayre, Okla.

She never saw him again.

In July, she went to the Post Office to pick up his ashes, mailed home in a box. He died of a traumatic brain injury in Oklahoma, allegedly assaulted by another inmate.

David Drashner was one of hundreds of male inmates Idaho authorities have sent to private prisons in other states. About 10 percent of Idaho's inmates are now out-of-state.

So where'd the Tina Fey glasses go?

Ok, so let's pretend you are one of the MOST up-an-coming LIBERAL Hollywood-ettes. You've starred on TV for years with SNL...you've gotten HUGE acknowledgments from your industry peers AND at the zenith of your stardom.....

Someone comes on the cultural radar who looks like you.....and then the speed of her ID recognition  passes your like a rocket ship racing a Pinto, with a nice paint job.

What do you do?

Think about it....people stop you and ask for your autograph...until you write down "Tina Fey"...and they were waiting for "Sarah Palin" to be inscribed...

How utterly ghastly would that be to your ego, to realize that an entire country now says..."You look like the GOP Vice President Nominee"....instead of what you were hoping for?

If you are Tina Fey...and you're at the Emmy Awards...apparently you take off your glasses....

How interesting to watch how Tina Fey doesn't even look like Tina Fey these days.

Den