The title of this post by Karen Swallow Prior caught my attention. Here’s the nub of her argument: So I wasn’t surprised to read in my local newspaper that a new shooting range in my area is attracting a significant portion of female clients. Locations around the country reflect similar patterns. A poll conducted by Gallup in October 2011 reported that 43 percent of women surveyed reported having a gun in their house, a record high since 1993, and 23 percent of women polled said they own a gun. Interestingly, in Texas, the fastest-growing group of concealed handgun owners in … Continue reading Packing Heat and Trusting Providence: Why I Own a Handgun: Being a pro-life woman means protecting my life, too.

Happy birthday, Clarence Jordan! This Sunday marks what would have been the 100th birthday of farmer and New Testament scholar Clarence Jordan (July 29, 1912 – October 29, 1969).  Clarence and his wife Florence, along with Martin and Mable England, co-founded Koinonia Farm in 1942.  Koinonia Farmwas a radical concept-an interracial intentional Christian community that set out to be a demonstration plot for the Kingdom of God.The farm continues to operate in the deep South and began during a time when it would have been unthinkable for white people and African Americans to sit down at a dinner table together.  … Continue reading Clarence Jordan Never Said, ‘Nothing can be done.’

From Russ Douthat’s New York Times column: To the extent that the H.H.S. mandate, the Cologne ruling and the Chick-fil-A controversy reflect a common logic rather than a shared confusion, then, it’s a logic that regards Western monotheism’s ideas about human sexuality — all that chastity, monogamy, male-female business — as similarly incompatible with basic modern freedoms. Like a belief that the gods want human sacrifice, these ideas are permissible if held in private. But they cannot be exercised in ways that might deny, say, employer-provided sterilizations to people who really don’t want kids. Nor can they be exercised to … Continue reading Defining Religious Liberty Down

From The Times of Israel, here’s the beginning and the ending: Thank you for that kind introduction, Mayor Barkat, and thank you all for that warm welcome. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to be in Israel again. To step foot into Israel is to step foot into a nation that began with an ancient promise made in this land. The Jewish people persisted through one of the most monstrous crimes in human history, and now this nation has come to take its place among the most impressive democracies on earth. Israel’s achievements are a wonder of the modern world. … Continue reading Full text of Mitt Romney’s address in Jerusalem: Republican presidential candidate delivers speech to prominent Israelis and donors under the auspices of The Jerusalem Foundation

From the always interesting Glenn Harlan Reynolds, who blogs at Instapundit: At any rate, we can hope that saving money, avoiding debt and treating friends and family with consideration are now edgy enough to become trendy. And there’s some signs that they are. On Facebook the other day, I posted a Wall Street Journal story about how much harder the economic situation is for today’s college grads as compared to their parents’ generation. I got this response from a 20-something friend, a female former model but no princess: “So the economy/government sucks and everyone is miserable, etc., etc. I am … Continue reading The New Sexy? Those shocking bourgeois values