The Conservative Reader

We have been taking months to schedule a move to our permanent internet domain. We delayed the work to ensure that we didn’t create an unnecessary outage during time leading up to the election last year. Now that the excitement is past and the dirty work and belly-aching is behind us, this looks like a good time to make the transition.

So, effective today, we are now located at “http://theconservativereader.com“. If you have us bookmarked, you will want to change the bookmark to this new location. We will maintain redirecting capabilities from the old site to the new one so that your links don’t break right away, but don’t count on that being there forever.

If you are an rss or email subscriber, fear not. You should continue to receive your regular updates without interruption. It’s possible you might [...]

J. Michael McKoy, formally of 98.3 WOW-FM, has found a new home in Des Moines. He is on PRAISE-940 AM KPSZ, a Christian radio station from 2 PM to 4 PM. The promo piece at the radio station web site calls the show “Mac’s World” as it was previously at the old station, and speaks of Mac’s experience in Des Moines business and broadcasting… and adds “… or how to talk and walk on a daily basis with your Father God.” To be expected.

It will be interesting to see how he does in this new venue. I suspect he will do well, although if there is a stronger faith angle to the programming, his relevance in political circles may diminish… or not. Addressing faith matters is hardly new for him, as he has kept faith as a fresh aspect of his show while in the secular world, including a regular show with his pastor each Friday (will that continue?).

Meanwhile, he is [...]

Yes, we’ve been out of pocket for a few weeks now. After returning from family matters, work (yes, I have a real job) was a bit overwhelming for many reasons. At any rate, we hope that the new year will provide us both more opportutnity to share daily thoughts and to begin expanding the focus of The Conservative Reader to more principled discussions.

Tonight and tomorrow many of us will be visiting our local churches to share in celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Our family will be worshiping this evening.

Three things to share today.

The First Amendment

Thank God for the freedom in our society, as declared by the wisdom of the founders of our country, to worship freely as we see fit, or not to worship at all. I’m sure that some of the motivation behind this right comes from the surprising amount of diversity and infighting among different groups (denominations) who all profess to worship the same Christ, and the history of violence of government against those who do not worship the government’s official “church”. And yet I’m also confident that the generation that established our Bill of Rights also perceived the need to protect any who chose to worship other than the norm, including Jewish, Islam, Native American religions, Oriental religions, or none at all.

This is a precious freedom, and one of a handful that if we ever [...]

I sit here this evening watching a lovefest between 60 Minutes correspondent Leslie Stahl and Barney Frank. This is, in my opinion, not what I would consider to be an objective portrayal of Rep. Frank. For starters, Ms. Stahl not once, but twice, suggested he’s the smartest man in Congress. That really doesn’t say much for the rest of Congress, unless she’s suggesting he’s a savant.

Rep. Frank is the presiding chairman of the House Committee on Banking and Finance. He’s been a member of this committee for years and can be credited with stopping legislation in committee to limit the power and authority of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2004, 2005 and 2006, as reported in a series of articles in the Wall Street Journal in late October. It was later disclosed that he was having a close relationship with one of the executives at Fannie Mae, but this was [...]

Let’s start, with a premise:

Every Republican president candidate since 1964 has had their level of success or failure, respectively, tied directly to the degree of voter perception that they have or have not turned their back on conservatism.

Consider the history of the thing… and it all flows one way:

• Nixon billed himself a conservative, and successfully, even though in most respects he was a California Moderate, and came down more or less where John McCain was in the most recent election; to the left of George W Bush. Yet, Nixon had an electoral landslide in both elections. (Admittedly, the Democrats he ran against were a laughable lot, which didn’t hurt him.)
• Bush 41 figured if he bent over forward enough, the left would [...]

Well, I’m finally back in town. I apologize for the hiatus, but it was unavoidable.

And here’s what I come back to: J Michael McKoy at 98.3 WOW-FM was fired this week.

I don’t even know what to say.

For those of you not so familiar with the air waves in Central Iowa, this station is the place we get to hear Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Bob and Tom (unfortunately), Michael Savage (a bit extreme to me), Bill Handel’s Handel On The Law, Kim Komando, and Dennis Miller (past my bed-time).

And then there’s Mac’s World, a little piece of local conservative sunshine in the midst of mostly syndicated conservative content.

McKoy has been [...]

BitHead provides an excellent featured piece on this important day. Please read it… you’ll be glad you did.

This is a day that brings together the best of who we are as a secular nation, and the best of who we are as servants of God.

Though we struggle in our thought of independence to the extent that many outwardly disdain acknowledgment of God, as a whole (and to a greater extent historically) we still find ourselves taking the time to recognize that we have a good life here in the United States. That Providence (if we see it as such) has delivered us to the most blessed time of human intellect, engineering and liberty, is undeniable in my opinion.

Which leads us to explaining this: Thanksgiving doesn’t really mean much if you don’t know WHO should be thanked for [...]

Britt Hume a couple nights ago:

A traditional Thanksgiving meal between two elementary schools in Claremont, California, has parents in an uproar over costumes.
The kindergarteners have long celebrated the holiday by dressing up as pilgrims and Native Americans and taking turns visiting the other school to share in a holiday feast, but parents this year are divided over what the costumes represent and whether they should be allowed at all.

Michelle Raheja, whose daughter is a kindergarten student, wrote to her teacher, “It’s demeaning. I’m sure you can appreciate the inappropriateness of asking children to dress up like slaves (and kind slave masters), or Jews (and friendly Nazis) or members of any other racial minority group who has struggled in our nation’s history… There is nothing [...]

We are thinking heavily here about how to present a systematic approach to understanding what we call “Conservatism”. Just this week, a fellow Iowa blogger Albert Bregar penned his thoughts at Red County Polk County and Iowa Defense Alliance.
Albert provides an excellent start with a view to how many of us think about defining the way conservatives see the world today (okay, such a view would include “Ronald Reagan came back for more”). We will certainly start looking around blogdom and start collecting a list of such statements as “Smaller Government” and build them into a resource.

But in stating the conservative view of today’s world, we do limit ourselves to more of a statement of “how does conservative thinking apply to today’s issues”. What I hope we may eventually find is more of a basis for conservative thought. It’s great to say [...]