The Devil's Details - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
The Devil’s Details
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MIND THE PRINCE
Re: George Neumayr’s The Exorcism of Europe:

I recently started a Bible Study called “Living Free: Praying God’s Word.” The first thing the author points out is that a stronghold is a lie. The lie is that anything is bigger, stronger, or mightier than God. We really are sheeple and need to be instructed like little children what to believe and not believe and renew, transform our thinking on not only the personal nature of the God that loves us but also the personal agenda of the Devil who hates us. I don’t want to spend much time on the latter. Evil is obvious enough. What I want to know is the former. And I have to come to Him as a little child if I want to know Him. That’s the rub and the super glue sticky wicket to the proudly “wise” of the world. Thank God for repentance or we’d all be sunk.
Laurey Boyd

Don’t laugh. George Neumayr has nailed it when he writes that Europe has gone over to the dark side. And it’s not just the Satanic cults; they are for amateurs and exhibitionists. No, the real story is that the European elite has moved beyond secular humanism and now embraces, either consciously or unconsciously, what the late Malachi Martin called a Luciferian philosophy. This is a belief system that recognizes the spirit world, even if it’s only in a vague way, and is premised on advancing materialism, human license, and “sophistication.” Darwin, Freud, Marx, Hitler are noted Luciferian prophets, but there are masses of others.

European thought is an alliance between rebellious man and Satan against the Creator. That the Catholic Church is so weak in this struggle is sign of how deep this poison has seeped into Europe’s soul.

America cannot be smug about this. Just look at the decadence of Hollywood & entertainment, our universities, the public schools, the Democratic Party, many mainline churches, and other institutions. The middle class is holding on — for now — but can our next generation or the one after it? The devil plays for keeps, boys, and so should we.
Peter Skurkiss
Stow, Ohio

Thanks for the Biblical, traditional, and correct presentation on a case regarding the work of Satan. For those who don’t believe in him personally, they should just look at the trails of bodies and blood through history. The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” includes a stanza:

“Rode a tank,
Wore a general’s rank,
When the blitzkrieg rolled,
And the bodies stank,”

I have no doubt that the Enemy of our Souls had a wild time during World War II. He is quite busy in Iraq, or at least his minions are.
SPC Snuffy Smith

Europe is correct to be very wary of religion. Given that Christianity is so weak in Europe and that Islam is threatening Europe’s future, it is logical that Europe would put religion in a small, tightly constrained box. What choice do they have? Christianity is not going to make a come back in Europe and Islam, the one religion in Europe that could have huge growth, threatens Europe’s fundamental freedoms. There is no point in having freedom of religion if that eventually costs you all of your freedoms (including freedom of religion).

Regarding faith in God, it is important to remember that faith in God is a faith. It is not science. God is not taught as a science anywhere in the world. You cannot expect people to share your faith. If they do, great. If they don’t, there really is no scientific argument that will persuade them that there is a god or that anybody knows anything about that god.

I think there are many good things about religion and that it obviously fills a need that people have. I would even say the world is probably better off because religion exists (though Islam is making me have second thoughts). The problem with religion is that it is completely faith-based and there are a bunch of different faiths. Most people just cannot relate to a faith based approach to life, especially if the rest of your life is dominated by the scientific method.

I think the passing of religion is inevitable and is going to cause big problems for mankind.
Steve

PICKING W
Re: The Prowler’s The Miers Card:

I want to thank you for your thoughtful position and have turned to you as my primary source of conservative though. I am sick to death of Kristol, Frum, Krauthammer, and the herd of so-called conservative opinion makers. I’ve stopped reading their stuff. Their braying at my embattled President is akin to the constant media drum beat vilifying our efforts in Iraq and has only one purpose — to hurt President Bush. Bottom line: if I have to choose between trusting President Bush and trusting the conservative opinion makers, I’ll pick W every time.
Doug Brooks
Orlando, Florida

The Prowler says “the overall discourse of the debate” over Harriet Miers “has not been particularly helpful.”

On the contrary, it has been extremely helpful in focusing attention precisely where it should be placed — on the role of the judiciary and constitutional law in this country. It seems to me that the Prowler is diverting attention from these important issues.

The Prowler says “Ms. Miers deserves fair consideration. This White House deserves fair consideration.” But the Prowler did not tell us that the conservatives and (former) Bush supporters who fought and bled to put him in office deserve fair consideration.

The Prowler is behaving like those who urge us to wait and see what comes out of the committee hearings. But the White House is certainly not taking a wait and see approach. It’s out there twisting arms and intimidating conservative opponents, trying to gin up a bandwagon effect before it’s too late. Why should the rest of us have to shut up and wait?
John Gorentz
Battle Creek, Michigan

Thank you for providing fine leadership regarding the Miers nomination issue. I agree that Ms. Miers and the President deserve fair consideration and respect. Let’s all take a deep breath and wait for the hearings before making judgments. This seems only fair to me.
Kathleen Korber
Waynesville, North Carolina

TRAINWRECK ON TRACK
Re: Michael F. Cannon’s Offset Opportunities:

Michael Cannon makes excellent points in his essay advocating postponement or repeal of the Medicare drug benefit. I agree with him wholeheartedly, but would add a few more issues to bolster the argument.

1) The design of the program is inherently flawed, difficult to understand — I would predict impossible to understand for most seniors, and will undoubtedly cost more to administer than originally anticipated. Theoretically, the involvement of the private sector and offering seniors a choice are “good” things and, in that respect, the design seems to be modeled after the excellent Federal Employee benefit program that our elected representatives and government employees enjoy. However, the multiple options, differing formularies, and wide range of prices for the Medicare drug benefit will have to be unraveled by senior citizens, who, let’s face it, are not all at a point in their lives when complex decisions come easily, and who also won’t have the advantage of attending seminars and benefit fairs as our Federal employees do.

Because of the complexity, many seniors or their families will first of all make poor choices. Second, many will fail to understand if their benefits are being correctly administered resulting in high volumes of inquiries and administrative processes. This will add to the cost of delivering the program and, ultimately, will likely lead to at least some of the private carriers opting out of the program at some point in the future. This scenario has already been played out in the departure of some of the early Medicare HMOs which left seniors scrambling to find new coverage.

2) The program has been the model of miserable execution. The most important part of the Medicare website which will allegedly help seniors make their decision was still not up the last time I checked two days after the promised delivery date.

Contrary to expectations, seniors are not being inundated with meaningful materials from the private carriers to help them understand the program offerings they can select from.

I have been devouring every scrap of information I can ferret out about the program because I have three seniors — ages 89, 85 and 67 — to match up with the right program. My background includes over 20 years in the health insurance industry and executive positions overseeing employee benefit administration and legal affairs. I have networked with colleagues with as much or more experience in health care benefits, program design and implementation, as well as Medicare intermediary experience. We are all to a person frustrated by the needless complexity, infuriated that Congress would foist such a morass on our senior citizens and appalled at the potential cost to taxpayers for such an inferior product. I for one hope there is a special place in a very warm portion of the netherworld reserved for the person who conceived the infamous “doughnut hole.”

Republicans who want to retain their seats in 2006 had best heed Michael Cannon’s advice. The American people will forgive a mistake, if it’s corrected in time; but I predict that they will not forget or forgive the architects of the trainwreck that is about to happen with Medicare Part D.
Barbara Broeker
St. Louis, Missouri

PC AND NO
Re: Sean Higgins’s Democrats at a Loss:

The Democrats are the party of PC and NO. They have not had an original idea since the ’60s and any party that has Teddy “the swimmer” Kennedy and Bill “Dropped Drawers” Clinton as their leaders are a total joke.
Elaine Kyle

UNDER MAGAZINE COVER
Re: Jay D. Homnick’s Blonde Faith:

Didn’t the Wilsons pose for a photo shoot for some big time magazine layout? Just what kind of covert agent would ever do that? And exactly HOW does identifying someone constitute a “smear”? Besides, I thought Ms. Plame “came in from the cold” after the Aldrich Ames mess. God save us from the “mainstream media.”
Al Markel
San Francisco, California

I WANT MY CAR TV
Re: Wlady Pleszczynski’s Luck of the Non-Irish and the “Pigskin Pillories” letters in Reader Mail’s Those Trojan Horses:

I watched the tail end of the USC-Notre Dame game, and my main reactions were anger and disgust. Not because USC won or Notre Dame lost. Nor would my reactions have been different if Notre Dame won or USC lost. I was angry and disgusted because the network coverage ran over the beginning of the NASCAR UAW-GM Quality 500 in Charlotte, North Carolina. To each his own sporting event.
Robert Nowall
Cape Coral, Florida

Whatever Irish Luck the Astros had Monday deserted them. With two outs, and being down to their last pitch I watched helplessly as the Cardinals set the table for a Pujols-three run homer. If only this kind of dramatic luck would find the Bush White House.
Jerome Koch

All the evidence Freud would ever have needed to diagnose Boston College’s incurable case of football envy was provided in Francis Hannon’s letter about Wlady Pleszczynski’s article on the ND/USC game. More than a decade after the game, the proudest moment in BC’s thin football tradition remains the fact that they once knocked off ND in an important game. That says it all. BC will always be ND’s little brother, and letters like this keep on proving it.

As we say in ND Nation before meeting BC: Go Catholics — beat Jesuits!
David Thomas Murphy

RATHER’S POOR COMPANY
Re: Shawn Macomber’s The Fourth Wall:

Kudos to Mr. Macomber for properly skewering Ms. Amanpour’s attempt to rewrite history on the tribal rivalry that has long existed in Iraq. Her effort ensures her election to the Dan Rather Hall of Shame for Biased Reporting. And kudos, too, to Mike Boettcher for telling the truth when his anchor was trying to nudge him into falsehoods about the election.
Michael R. Vaughan
Madison, Wisconsin

The MSM wasn’t the only group upset by the apparent embrace of a constitutional government by the Iraqi population. Not surprisingly, the Democrats had little positive to say (No! Really?) about this monumental development. Chris Dodd was still talking about WMDs on Imus this morning. It makes you wish they’d both ride off into the sunset on a pair of jackasses. Oh, wait, which is which? But perhaps most disturbing (but no less surprising) was the reaction of Kofi Annan. He was catatonically dour and downright depressed. All he could see was civil war and strife. Yep, things get pretty darn bleak when your oil for food kickbacks are no more. And this clown and his fellow travelers at the UN want to control the Internet? Some days you just wonder if things can possibly get any worse. Well, at least Kofi didn’t get the Nobel Prize, yet.
A. DiPentima

DIRTY HARRY
Re: David Haddon’s Child-on-Child Crime, the “Row Over Rowling” letters in Reader Mail’s The New Inclusiveness and the “Defending Hogwarts” letters in Reader Mail’s Flat Truths:

Given the level of peevishness and personal attack, I’m inclined to think David Haddon may be right about the Harry Potter books. It never fails to amaze me. Every article critical of the ethos of these books is followed a frontal assault from the Hogwart Hooligans.
Mike Lopke
Boise, Idaho

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