Blog - Page 218 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Real Nick Saban Has a Real Wife and It Makes a Real Difference

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 5th, 2008|Categories: College Football|

No coach in all of America gets the attention these days that Nick Saban, the head coach at The University of Alabama, gets in the media. (Readers know I went to Alabama for two years and remain a shameless die-hard Tide fan!)

Saban’s uncompromising commitment to excellence in every phase of the football program is beginning to yield success for the Crimson Tide. The veteran head coach has achieved resounding success on the college level with three different programs. He has justly earned a reputation as an outstanding tactician, leader, organizer and motivator. Those qualities have sparked impressive turnarounds at every stop in his college career. (The one exception, critics will cite, was his two-year stint with the professional Miami Dolphins, where he had a sub-par winning percentage.) Coach Saban’s teams have often overcome adversity to achieve victory and like him or not he is a brilliant coach.

Saban can be abrasive, angry and sometimes cute. He is never dull. He […]

Planned Parenthood and Politics

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 5th, 2008|Categories: Abortion|

President John Adams was right when he said, "Facts are stubborn things, and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."

The facts about abortion, and the relationship between easily accessed abortions and politics, are patently plain. There is no debate about these facts. Let no pro-life Christian be deceived about them either. A 2007 Wall Street Journal report noted that Planned Parenthood received over $1 billion in revenues. Read that figure again. This means Planned Parenthood is big, really big. How much of this revenue came from tax-payer monies? Answer: $336 million, or almost 34%.

Planned Parenthood is putting an estimated $10 million into candidates for political office this year. Obviously not a penny will go to an anti-abortion candidate so we know where the money […]

America's Blessings and Africa's Trials

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 5th, 2008|Categories: Current Affairs|

I have, like some of you I am sure, been listening to the various promises of the political parties and candidates over the past two weeks. This week it is the Republican Party’s turn to take the stage and tell us why we should vote for McCain–Palin on November 4. While all of this has been going on our nation has also faced another great storm that hit our southern coast Sunday–Monday. The truth of the matter is obvious—we face trials for sure but we are the most prosperous nation on the planet and may well be the most self-indulgent and self-centered as well. (Most European nations excepted, but then they do not enjoy our wealth either!)

This all came home to me as I listened to all the talk about our gloomy economy over the past two weeks. How many of us realize that we are not in a recession, that our unemployment numbers are the envy of most Western nations, and that even the storms that hit our coast are nothing like the trials of the life-and-death many in the […]

Sarah Palin Hits a Grand Slam

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 4th, 2008|Categories: Politics|

The mainstream media (MSN) in the United States clearly has a high opinion of itself. Again and again they have expressed this view by telling us that they should have been directly involved in vetting Sarah Palin for the vice-presidency. Plainly they are not happy. But nothing, and I mean nothing, in either the history of this process, or the Constitution, requires the media to approve who a candidate chooses to run with them for the vice presidency. The candidate for president gets to make this choice, regardless of what we think. It is then for the voters, not the MSM, to decide if the candidate made a good choice or a bad one. Now the person chosen by Senator John McCain has presented a bit of her life to us, along with her political views. It will be our choice as to which ticket we now will elect on November 4.

The near unanimous opinion, even of McCain’s harshest critics, was […]

How the Left and Right Connect

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:32-05:00September 3rd, 2008|Categories: Current Affairs|

Sometimes the radical ends of a spectrum touch one another much like a circle will get you closer to the same point on the edge of the circle if you keeping going around it. Take as an example, Communism and Fascism. One comes from the left and the other from the right but in the end they are very much alike. So it is with conspiracy theories from the left and right as well. And often it happens in popular and political culture as we’ve seen the past five days.

The response to Sarah Palin’s nomination for the GOP ticket from the far left and the far right is remarkably similar. On the left we hear about how she should stay home and raise her children. She is told that her family responsibility disqualifies her from holding high office. On the far right we hear the same thing, especially from Christians who seem to live closer to "The Little House on the […]

A Lovely Tribute to the USA

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:33-05:00September 3rd, 2008|Categories: America and Americanism|

Political conventions always seek to impress you with which party is more faithful to America and our idealism than the other. Much of what is said and shown is very partisan, for obvious reasons. Now and then a really great video appears and captures something of the great spirit of our nation quite well. Such was the case on Tuesday evening in St. Paul at the RNC.

A video presentation that runs for only 2:23 minutes was shown. It was narrated by the one of my favorite actors, Robert Duvall. I only saw this on the Web, not on television.You can see the You Tube version by clicking the previous hyperlink. I think you will find it inspiring.

What Should We Make of Sarah Palin?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:33-05:00September 3rd, 2008|Categories: Politics|

I read a significant number of blogs and magazines, both in regular print editions and online. I read publications from the political left and the political right, and things in between. I try to major on reading as much biographical material on the candidates as I can find and then study their decision making skills and personal character. Experience, as it is presently being argued, is not all it is cracked up to be for me. What experience did Abe Lincoln have? For that matter how do you get foreign policy experience? Not by sitting on a senate committee. Any freshmen student of history ought to see this argument for what it is, from the left or the right. Obama could become a great president, regardless of his lack of experience. And Saran Palin could become a great vice-president regardless of the same. This "experience" debate goes no where with me. (And the gossip stuff is just totally useless. I am grateful that Senator […]

An Evening with Steve Brown

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:33-05:00September 2nd, 2008|Categories: ACT 3|

Governor Mitch Daniels Gets It

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:33-05:00September 2nd, 2008|Categories: Politics|

Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana is an evangelical Christian who also understands the role of politics and the church quite well. In an online Christianity Today piece put up today (September 2) the governor praised John McCain’s vice presidential pick Sarah Palin by saying:

"I had hoped to see a woman on the ticket of our party for a long, long time," he said. "I think now that it’s happened, the woman that we’ve waited for is ideal."

Christianity Today: We just found out that Sarah Palin’s daughter is pregnant. Will that have an impact on voters?

Governor Daniels: I don’t know. They’re handling a difficult and all too common dilemma that millions of American families face. It’s just another mark of authenticity of this family and the way they’re handling the young couple in question, I think, is the right way. I hope that people will personally give them a little room for privacy. But since it’s public, I think they’ve done the right thing.

Christianity Today: Do you […]

Barack Obama's Financial Goals

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:21:33-05:00September 2nd, 2008|Categories: Politics|

I have in my hands a book titled Obamanomics: How Bottom Up Economic Prosperity Will Replace Trickle-Down Economics (Seven Stories Press: New York, 2008), by John R. Talbott. Talbott is an impressive man, having been an investment banker for Goldman Sachs and the visiting scholar at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. He has appeared on CNN, Fox, CNBC and CBS as a commentator and has written five previous books.

Talbott argues that Obama has shown us that he understands divisions among races, religions and political views and how these divisions have prevented us from coming together as a people. Talbott has studied Obama’s speeches and campaign policy statements and believes that he understands a government that acts according to truly democratic principles. These include lobby reform, fixing our healthcare system, slowing global warming, preventing unnecessary wars and improving education.

But what will this do for the economy? Talbott argues, and as a real opponent of industry and business, that Obama’s […]