Family Circle Prediction

The Cartoon: (go here to see it in color):

Dad, wearing reflective glasses and a cap, is carrying a bag of golf clubs over his shoulder.

Dolly is pointing to the bag. She says: "Why do you take so many clubs, Daddy? Do you lose those too?"

Explication:

Those aren't just golf clubs -- no, the bag also contains a rifle and a high-power scope. See, Daddy is a hitman, and he's going out on a job.

Prediction:

Per the NY Times article Discipline Takes a Break At the White House:

All over Washington, Republicans and Democrats alike are asking what cog got loose or, put another way, how did an administration that made an art form of singing from the hymnal suddenly lose its rhythm?
[...]
Another theory is that while the president is thinking about his second term, many of those in his cabinet are thinking about getting out - Mr. Powell first among them. That changes every political calculation; many suspect that the secretary of state, among others, is thinking about his legacy, and wants to clear the ledgers before he leaves.

So, Bil Keane is predicting that Mr. Powell will meet with an unfortunate accident if he tries to "clear the ledgers" by talking to the press.

8:30:28 AM

comment [] trackback []

A Name You Should Know

Glenstonecottage indicated in the comments that his eye was caught by this portion of a Toranto Star book review:

But not all creationists welcome ID, which concerns itself with hard science, not proving the literal truth of this or that Bible story. Those who do risk "contaminating" ID with their support. O'Leary points out that one prominent backer of ID think-tank The Discovery Institute is California multi-millionaire Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. — who'd previously supported efforts to replace American law with the Ten Commandments.

Glenstone suggested that Wo'C do an indepth investigation into Ahmanson. And so we will, not just because Glenstone is the boss of us, but because we've been interested in the Discovery Institute ever since we discovered that Tom Alberg, the father of Robert Alberg, the guy arrested for possession of ricin, was on its board.

Right now you're probably wondering, hey, whatever became of Robert "Ricin" Alberg? (Well, I know I am.)

Okay, shortly after his April arrest, we learned that he was turned in to the feds, not by his family (to whom he'd been sending emails mentioning that he had enough ricin to contaminate the water supply, and would like to die in prison) but by the seed company from whom he ordered 5 pounds of castor beans. They reported his order to the FBI back in November, but apparently there was some kind of internal communication problem and the FBI didn't get around to investigating him until April.

Alberg was scheduled for a preliminary hearing on April 16, and then he apparently dropped off the face of the earth. (Either there was nothing more to report, or his rich and powerful family managed to keep things hushed up.) But I have an exclusive!!! Yes, by consulting the court calendar of the Honorable Mary Alice Theiler, I have learned that Robert Alberg is out on bond, and is scheduled for a pretrial competency hearing on 4 June. We'll see if it makes the papers.

But back to Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr. -- a most fascinating man. He's a funder of right-wing causes to rival Richard Mellon Scaife, but not as well known. While I found some interesting (and scary) info about him at a variety of sources, the best piece is a (long) Jan. 2004 Salon article. The author didn't get to speak directly to Ahmanson, who has Tourette's Syndrome and shuns the press, but did talk to his wife.

Here are some interesting facts from that article, as well as other sources:

Ahmanson's father made millions in the banking industry. Junior was a "poor little rich boy" who was orphaned at age 18. He did the wandering soul-searcher stuff for a while, and eventually came under the influence of R.J. Rushdoony.

Rushdoony is the father of Christian Reconstructionism, a strange variant of Calvinism that stresses waging political struggle to put the earth, and in particular the U.S., under the control of biblical law. In his 30-some books, he advocated everything from the end of government-administered social welfare and public schools to the execution of homosexuals. For around 20 years, until Rushdoony's death in 2001, Ahmanson served on the board of his think tank, Chalcedon, granting it a total of $1 million. In exchange, Rushdoony acted as Ahmanson's spiritual advisor, imbuing him with a sense of order and a mission.

Here's more about Rushdoony from later in the article:

Rushdoony spelled out his philosophy in painstaking detail in his 1973 magnum opus, "Institutes of Biblical Law," which he self-consciously named after John Calvin's "Institutes of Christian Religion." In the 800-page tome, Rushdoony presents his vision for a new America in which the church subsumes the federal government and society is administered according to biblical law, or at least his interpretation of it. According to biblical law, he writes, segregation is a "basic principle," and slavery is permitted "because some people are by nature slaves and will always be so." Those who don't comply with Rushdoony's rules -- disobedient children, "pagans," adulterers, women who get abortions, repeat criminal offenders and, of course, homosexuals -- would be executed. Mrs. Ahmanson, who described Rushdoony as "quirky in some ways," qualified his extremism: "To impose the death penalty you need two witnesses. So the number of executions goes down pretty quickly."

Oh, and Rushdoony also was for stoning witches, men who deflower affianced virgins, and those who taught false religion.

Ahmanson indicated to the Salon writer that he's grown away from some of Rushdoony's statements -- for instance, he believes not in stoning homosexuals, but in bringing them to repentence and life through Jesus -- but it seems he's still very much in tune with Rushdoony's basic right-wing, fundamentalist, world view.

Chalcedon, the group which Rushdoony headed (it's now led by a Rev. Mark Rushdoony, whom I assume is R.J's son) says in their credo that many people "routinely break the Ninth Commandment" and spread lies about their foundation. So, they offer some clarification. It seems that just because they they believe that the Bible should be the basis of of goverment, and "that the Christian state should enforce Biblical civil law" and "finally, because we believe that the responsibility of Christians is to exercise dominion in the earth for God's glory," some people say they are trying to take over an unbelieving world. They claim this isn't so -- they just believe in getting Christians into government so they can work to LIMIT it to its "Biblical role" (which is "to suppress external evil: murder, theft, rape, and so forth", not "to redistribute wealth, furnish medical care, or educate its citizens' children"), so that everyone is free to practice religion.

Chalcedon also believes that religious foundations and evangelistic organizations are part of "the church," and you can tithe to them as well as to your local congregation. Oh, and they're not racists, just because they believe that the "godly are called to exercise dominion in the earth" and some people (who would presumably include their founder) who also believe in "dominion" are racists. I hope that clears everything up.

So Ahmanson believes in Christian Reconstructionism, which holds that the state should stay out of people's affairs, that the Bible should be the basis of state governance, that homosexuality is wrong, and that kids should be home or religiously schooled, and that evolution is part of the "war on Geneisis." How has he used his money to promote his beliefs?

Here are a few examples:

* Since 2000, he has donated millions to the American Anglican Council (AAC). He is a long-time backer of the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), which operates out of the same Washington office as the AAC (his wife Roberta sits on their board). The AAC and the IRD were the prime instigators of the recent Episcopal Church division.

The Episcopal Church split is the best evidence yet that Ahmanson's plan to bring America closer to resembling Calvin's elitist "church of the elect," or what Rushdoony has called a "spiritual aristocracy," is working. The split is also the crowning achievement of Ahmanson's nearly 30-year career in the business of radically transforming the country.

* His money helped to make possible the 1994 GOP takeover of the California Assembly.

In 1992, Ahmanson banded together with four right-wing businessmen to back the campaigns of anti-gay, anti-abortion, pro-big business candidates; two years later, they scored their first major victory, propelling the GOP's takeover of the California Assembly. With $3 million funneled through seven pro-business, anti-abortion and Republican political action fronts, Ahmanson and company captured a startling 25 of the GOP's 39 legislative seats for their candidates.
Their push ushered two important movement cadres into power: Tom McClintock, a veteran activist and former director of economic and regulatory affairs of the Ahmanson-funded libertarian think tank Claremont Institute; and Ray Haynes, an unknown lawyer from another Ahmanson-funded group, the Western Center for Law and Justice.

* He helped to pass an anti-gay marriage law and to restrict affirmative action in California.

In 1999, Ahmanson helped to sharply restrict affirmative action in California with a $350,000 donation to Proposition 209; that same year he helped ban gay marriage with a donation of $210,000 -- 35 percent of all total funds -- to Proposition 22.

*Per a 1996 report, Ahmanson and his associates were brought together by a protegee of Focus on the Family's James Dobson. In 1994 these five men were responsible for almost 10% of all the money donated to the California Republican Party. In 1994, the men also supported a failed school-voucher initiative by providing over $450,000.

* His financial influence also helped propel the campaign to recall California Gov. Gray Davis.

In 2003, the two Ahmanson cadres became instrumental figures in propelling the campaign to recall Democratic Gov. Gray Davis. ... In March 2003, Haynes personally convinced a fellow arch-conservative, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, to bankroll the recall ballot qualification. After the recall qualified with the help of $1.7 million from Issa, McClintock entered the recall campaign, ultimately finishing third as the token cultural conservative. As in 1992, Ahmanson's camp provided the groundwork for McClintock's campaign: John Stoos, an avowed Reconstructionist associated with Chalcedon, served as his deputy campaign manager, and Ahmanson hosted some of the most prominent leaders in the Christian right for a fundraiser in Colorado in September that, according to the Los Angeles Times, raised $100.000.

* He not only donated large sums to get George W. Bush elected, he also financed the career of the guy who became Bush's "faith-based" policy guru: Marvin Olasky.

One of Ahmanson's most significant investments has been in the career of a man Mrs. Ahmanson describes as his "dear friend," Marvin Olasky, the most influential propagandist of the Christian right in the last decade. A former Jew turned Marxist who counts Rushdoony's Reconstructionism among his influences, Olasky spent most of the 1980s as an obscure journalism professor at the University of Texas in Austin. His first book, "Turning Point: A Christian Worldview Declaration," was published by Ahmanson's privately held philanthropic entity, the Fieldstead Institute, and was co-authored by Fieldstead's director, Herbert Schlossberg. Though theological scholars ignored the book, it found its way into Washington's conservative circles, and by 1989 Olasky was offered the well-paying Bradley scholarship at the Heritage Foundation.

In 1992, Olasky wrote The Tragedy of American Compassion ("an argument for transferring government social welfare programs to the church"). Ahmanson is cited as an example of how spirituality can cure poverty (apparently not that it personally brought Ahmonson out of the gutter, but he told Olasky that he saw it happen to other people). Due to Tragedy, in 1993 Karl Rove invited Olasky to meet with an evangelical running for governor . . . and the rest is history.

And when President Bush signed an executive order to create a White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in January 2001, Olasky was standing by his side, beaming with pride as he watched the new president sign his ideas into government policy.

* Ahmanson is a major financer (he has reportedly donated more than $1.5 million) of the Discovery Institute's "Intelligent Design" group.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State calls Discovery "the most effective and politically savvy group pushing a religious agenda in America's public school science classes."

* Both Ahmanson and his wife are on the board of the Claremont Institute ("The mission of the Claremont Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their rightful, preeminent authority in our national life"). Ahmanson was it's largest individual contributer. The Claremont Institute actively campaigned for the removal of President Clinton.

There's a lot more, including this article from The Observer, and this profile by Church & State ("In the January/February 1997 issue of Religion & Liberty, published by the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, he argued that the Bible opposes minimum wage laws"). But I think this is in-depth enough for today. I hope Glenstonecottage agrees.

5:44:28 AM

comment [] trackback []

When Neocons Breed

It seems that fatherhood is imminent for John Podhoretz, the guy who wrote last week that Al Gore is Insane ("I mean that based on his behavior, conduct, mien and tone over the past two days, there is every reason to believe that Albert Gore Jr., desperately needs help. I think he needs medication, and I think that if he is already on medication, his doctors need to adjust it or change it entirely").

Here's part (the free part) of John's Weekly Standard column about his delicate condition:

MY WIFE is due to give birth any day now to our first child (thank you, and yes, we are registered) and I would like to take this occasion to make a request of all fathers: Please don't give me any more advice about the first year of the baby's life.
I'm already so terrified by the counsel I've gotten that I have asked the obstetrician to give me an epidural so I won't have to think about all the daunting things I've been told about what comes after. Though, come to think of it, an epidural won't help, since it doesn't deaden the feeling in the brain, which is where the warnings have lodged themselves.

John, it doesn't sound like you're in any state of mind to be judging the sanity of other people.

I've been told--again and again and again--that I won't get any sleep for months. I've been told that the baby won't stop crying and I won't know what to do about it. I've been told I will find every moment the baby draws breath will expand the well of my existential worries (Is she breathing? Is she unhappy?) near the breaking point.

John should know better than to listen to fatherhood advice from James Lileks.

I've been told that I will feel helpless because I won't be the primary caregiver or feeder, that hormones might transform my beloved wife into anything from a hateful harridan to a raging psychotic, and that there's nothing I can do about any of it except live through it.

Um, not to question John's brilliant political analysis, but could it be that his worries about his wife's possible hormonal psychosis might be coloring his analysis of Al Gore's speech?

I've been told to go to restaurants and movies and the theater and every other entertainment venue now before it's too late, because once there's a baby, we ...
Sorry, the rest of this article is available only to subscribers.

Well, we can guess the rest of that paragraph: " ... because once there's a baby, we will never be able to leave the house again and our brains will turn to mush, and we will have to stay home and write soppy parenthood pieces for conservative outlets." But hey, this might be a great new niche for John, and I'm sure that Lileks and Meghan will welcom him into their guild.

In any case, we wish Baby Girl Podhoretz all the best -- and looking at the paternal line, the kid is probably going to need it.