Monthly Archives: February 2011

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 12

February 2, 2011 – 11:29 am
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President Reagan, Gerald Ford, and Bob Hope  10/17/81.
You got to check this clip out below of Ronald Reagan and Bob Hope. I will never forget getting to see Bob Hope’s performance in person at Cook Convention Center in 1982. He was originally scheduled to appear at Mud Island but it got rained out. My grandfather, Everette Hatcher Sr. (1903-1988) and I had a great time and we were sitting on about the 5 th row.
Today I wanted to take a look at this excellent article below by William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore. It takes a look at the across the board tax cuts that he put in during the early 1980’s and how they energized our economy.

Supply-Side Tax Cuts and the Truth about the Reagan Economic Record

by William A. Niskanen and Stephen Moore

Bob Dole’s proposal for a 15 percent income tax cut has reignited the long-standing debate about the economic impact of Reaganomics in the 1980s. This study assesses the Reagan supply-side policies by comparing the nation’s economic performance in the Reagan years (1981-89) with its performance in the immediately preceding Ford-Carter years (1974-81) and in the Bush-Clinton years that followed (1989-95).

On 8 of the 10 key economic variables examined, the American economy performed better during the Reagan years than during the pre- and post-Reagan years.

  • Real economic growth averaged 3.2 percent during the Reagan years versus 2.8 percent during the Ford-Carter years and 2.1 percent during the Bush-Clinton years.
  • Real median family income grew by $4,000 during the Reagan period after experiencing no growth in the pre-Reagan years; it experienced a loss of almost $1,500 in the post-Reagan years.
  • Interest rates, inflation, and unemployment fell faster under Reagan than they did immediately before or after his presidency.
  • The only economic variable that was worse in the Reagan period than in both the pre- and post-Reagan years was the savings rate, which fell rapidly in the 1980s. The productivity rate was higher in the pre-Reagan years but much lower in the post-Reagan years.

William A. Niskanen is chairman and Stephen Moore is director of fiscal policy studies at the Cato Institute.

More by William A. Niskanen

This study also exposes 12 fables of Reaganomics, such as that the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, the Reagan tax cuts caused the deficit to explode, and Bill Clinton’s economic record has been better than Reagan’s

Reagan at Bob Hope’s 80th birthday.

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, sits alongside President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan during a fundraising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Sen. Edward Kennedy's home in McLean, Va.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Caroline Kennedy, daughter of the late President John F. Kennedy, sits alongside President Reagan and first lady Nancy Reagan during a fundraising event for the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library at Sen. Edward Kennedy’s home in McLean, Va.
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President Reagan talking with Audrey Hepburn and Robert Wolders at a private dinner for the Prince of Wales at the White House. 5/2/81 .
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Little known facts about our presidents
  1. Herbert Clark Hoover (1874-1964) gave his White House servants strict orders to hide from him whenever he passed by. Those who failed to do so were at risk of being fired.g
  2. Lyndon Baines Johnson “LBJ”(1908-1973) affectionately called the many women he slept with his “harem.” He even had a buzzer system installed that rang inside the Oval Office so that Secret Service could warn him when his wife was coming.c
  3. James Buchanan is the only bachelor president. He was virtually inseparable from William R. King (1786-1853), a senator from Alabama, earning the pair the nickname “Miss Nancy and Aunt Fancy” and “Mr. Buchanan and his wife.”c
By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 11 (Cold War won by Reagan)

February 2, 2011 – 7:28 am

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

In his earliest movies, many of his roles emphasized Reagan’s physical prowess. This is a publicity photo of Ronald Reagan from Warner Brothers/First National Studios.
A :30 commercial for the Ronald Reagan Centennial Celebration.
I remember walking in Austria in 1981 with an elderly man who did not know English but when I told him I was from the USA, he responded, “Jimmy Carter is no good, but Reagan is strong and will stand up to Russia.” He did not say those words in English but another student that was with me was able to interpret at least those words.
Also on the same trip, I got to visit 4  Communist countries and while in Hungry, I heard one of the saddest stories I had ever heard. Our tour guide (who knew 6 languages) spoke to a gentleman who met all of us. This poor man said (in German) that he was married in 1944 to a lady from Hungary who wanted to live by her relatives. He left his homeland of Austria and moved to Hungary. He said that he regretted moving to what would later become a communist country. His relatives in Austria had done really well but he was stuck in a communist country that basically caused everyone to live in poverty.
One of the most treasured items on my office bookshelf is a dedication on a thin pamphlet, published in the Soviet Union in 1990, by one of the top authors of glasnost, political philosopher Igor Klyamkin. I became friends with him in the late 1980s. The dedication reads, in Russian, “To Leon Aron, who understands Ronald Reagan‘s role in our revolution.”

What did Igor mean?

As the Soviet regime was disintegrating, Reagan was the most popular foreign leader in the U.S.S.R., followed by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Partly, of course, this was a tribute to Reagan’s uncanny sense ofrealpolitik: He gave Moscow a cold shoulder when the Soviet regime was at its reactionary worst (post-Afghanistan, 1981-85) and his Strategic Defensive Initiative, derisively described as “Star Wars” by Reagan’s detractors, was a direct challenge to a Soviet leadership that knew it could not technologically match it. SDI undoubtedly contributed to the “new political thinking” in Soviet foreign policy. Yet, Reagan sensed also thatMikhail Gorbachev was a genuine reformer and that a fundamental difference in the regime was underway. Reagan responded by traveling to the Soviet Union in May 1988.

But there was more to it. Far more. Like all great modern revolutions, the Russian revolution from 1987-91 was first and foremost a moral revolution, concerned with human dignity and liberty as its central component. Its mantra was tak dal’she zhit’ nel’zya. “That’s it. We cannot live like this any longer.” This was repeated by theperestroika trio of Gorbachev, Eduard Shevardnadze and Alexander Yakovlev, as well as leading glasnostauthors and millions of rank-and-file men and women. At its essence, this was about the rejection of the moral core of the “old regime” — and Reagan had a magnificent, unerring moral instinct. His clarity of vision and his rhetoric exposed the moral disfigurement of Soviet totalitarianism. This was a charge for which the regime had no answer.

We know of the whispered admiration within the Soviet Union for Reagan’s “empire of evil” speech to the British Parliament in 1983. The dissident and “refusenik” Anatoly Shcharansky, who at the time was imprisoned in the gulag, recalled in his memoirs how the news was spread by Morse code knocks on the walls.

Similarly, Reagan’s famous declaration at the Berlin Wall’s Brandenburg Gate — “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” — was a moral statement because it exposed the key sin of the Soviet regime that no amount of tanks could camouflage: the indignity of holding entire peoples in a cage.

Like all truly great political leaders, at critical moments Ronald Reagan was guided by and openly articulated a profoundly moral judgment of right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and slavery that resonated with tens of millions people in America and abroad. More than anything else, I think, it was this judgment that defined Reagan’s “role” in Russia’s latest revolution of which Igor wrote — and made it so effective.

Leon Aron is resident scholar and director of Russian studies at the American Enterprise Institute. His new book about ideas and ideals that inspired and shaped the 1987-1991 Russian revolution will be published in the fall.

Ronald Reagan tells Soviet jokes told by Soviets themselves.


President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

His role as halfback George Gipp in the movie Knute Rockne, All American gave Reagan a movie nickname that would last a lifetime.
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Little known facts about our presidents:

John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s (1917-1963) famous inaugural line “Ask not what you your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country” echoes similar directives made by many others, including Cicero, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and President Warren G. Harding, who told the 1916 Republican convention: “We must have a citizenship less concerned about what the government can do for it, and more anxious about what it can do for the nation.”k

  1. Martin Van Buren was the first to be a United States citizen. All previous presidents were born British subjects.g
  2. Six presidents were named James: Madison, Monroe, Polk, Buchanan, Garfield, and Carter.k
By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

Will Senator Pryor be re-elected or not? Part 1

February 2, 2011 – 6:46 am

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Roland Martin appears on Rick’s List with Rick Sanchez and the Best Political Team on television (Candy Crowley, John King, Jeffery Toobin, Ed Rollins, Gloria Borger and Victoria Toensing) to discuss day two of the Elena Kagan Supreme Court confirmation hearings. During the analysis, Senator Graham and Elena Kagan had an interesting exchange over the confirmation hearings of former nominee Miguel Estrada.

Max Brantley on the Arkansas Times Blog (Feb 1, 2011) rightly noted:

An Obama White House official has described as a “cold war” the situation in the Senate, where the judicial confirmation process seems to have been slowed down to an unprecedented degree by Republican opposition. No doubt. But it’s worth noting that Arkansas has two vacancies on the federal bench for which the president has yet to make a nomination.

Where did this “cold war” start? I contend that it started back during the Bush years when Mark Pryor and his Democratic buddies were holding up judges like Miguel Estrada for no good reason.

Paul Greenberg in the editorial “Dept. of Hypocrisy: Mark Pryor’s Selective Outrage,”  (May 3, 2010) pointed out that Pryor was angry that Republicans were holding up the  President’s picks for the federal bench. ”There’s just no place for this in the Senate,” he huffs. “There’s no place just to play partisan political games with these judicial appointments.” Greenberg went on to show how hypocritical this was of Pryor.

I wish the Republicans would not play politics like this and I do not condone it at all. However, to call Pryor and Lincoln hypocrites concerning the Miguel Estrada matter is correct too. Both Pryor and Lincoln claimed that Estrada would not answer questions they needed answered, but in March of 2003 all 100 senators were sent a letter from the Bush White House inviting any senator who had doubts about Estrada’s views to send him written questions.

“He would answer the questions forthrightly, appropriately, and in a manner consistent with the traditional practice and obligations of judicial nominees, as he has before,” wrote White House counsel Alberto Gonzales. Did the White House receive any responses from Pryor and Lincoln? The answer is no.
Later both Lincoln and Pryor released statements saying that Estrada had not been willing to answer their questions. In fact, Pryor said, “I am deeply disturbed with the number of unanswered questions that remain about Mr. Miguel Estrada and am troubled by his unwillingness to answer questions posed to him.”

I agree that partisan politics should end, but I also must point out that both Lincoln and Pryor are being hypocritical.  Working with liberals like New York’s Chuck Schumer does not bode well for Pryor’s re-election.

By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 10 (John McCain on Reagan)

February 1, 2011 – 11:15 pm

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President Reagan, center, and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., left, meet with members of Congress at the White House on Jan. 26, 1988.

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Heroes like John McCain made it possible for us to win the cold war. Reagan gives one of his finest speeches concerning the cold war in 1964.

I remember watching the news every night in the late 1960’s about the Vietnam war and praying for the safety of my uncle who was deployed. Reagan had some strong feelings about fighting communism and he eventually was able to a have a big part in bringing down communism in Russia and the eastern block. Now we have a world that only has 5 communist countries left. Much better than the world that Reagan came to know in 1981 when he took office.

When I was a prisoner of war, the Vietnamese went to great lengths to restrict the news from home to the statements and activities of prominent opponents to the war. They wanted us to believe that America had forgotten us. They never mentioned Ronald Reagan to us, or played his speeches over the camp loudspeakers. No matter. We knew about him. New additions to our ranks told us how the governor and Mrs. Reagan were committed to our liberation and our cause.

When we came home, we were eager to meet the Reagans to thank them for their concern. But more than gratitude drew us to them. We were drawn to them because they were among the few prominent Americans who did not subscribe to the then-fashionable notion that America had entered her inevitable decline.

We came home to a country that had lost a war and the best sense of itself; a country beset by social and economic problems. Assassinations, riots, scandals, contempt for political, religious and educational institutions gave the appearance that we had become a dysfunctional society. Patriotism was sneered at, the military scorned. And the world anticipated the collapse of our global influence. The great, robust, confident Republic that had given its name to the last century seemed exhausted.

Ronald Reagan believed differently. He possessed an unshakable faith in America’s greatness, past and future, that proved more durable than the prevailing political sentiments of the time. And his confidence was a tonic to men who had come home eager to put the war behind us and for the country to do likewise.

Our country has a long and honorable history. A lost war or any other calamity should not destroy our confidence or weaken our purpose. We were a good country before Vietnam, and we are a good country after Vietnam. In all of history, you cannot find a better one. Of that, Ronald Reagan was supremely confident, and he became president to prove it.

His was a faith that shouted at tyrants to “tear down this wall.” Such faith, such patriotism requires a great deal of love to profess. And I will always revere him for it.

When walls were all I had for a world, I learned about a man whose love of freedom gave me hope in a desolate place. His faith honored us, as it honored all Americans, as it honored all freedom-loving people. Let us honor his memory by holding his faith as our own, and let us, too, tear down walls to freedom. That is what Americans do when they believe in themselves.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the 2008 Republican presidential nominee.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Ronald Reagan in Law and Order.
Facts about presidents
 

  1. “Teddy Bears” were so named when Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (1858-1919) refused to shoot a small bear cub one day. The incident was reported in the news, which inspired a toy manufacture to come out with the cute stuffed animals.a
  2. George Washington never lived in the White House. The capital was actually located in Philadelphia and other cities when Washington was president. He is also the only president who didn’t represent a political party.b
By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (3)

Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 9 (Sarah Palin on Reagan)

February 1, 2011 – 3:20 pm

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Ronald Reagan and Diana Lynn in Bedtime for Bonzo
A portion of Sarah Palin’s remarks at an RNC Rally, October 23, 2010. Palin talks about Reagan legacy.
I had the privilege of coming of age during the era of Ronald Reagan. I like to think of him as America’s lifeguard. As a teenager, Ronald Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard on the Rock River, which ran through his hometown of Dixon, Ill. The day he was inaugurated in 1981, a local radio announcer famously declared, “The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President.”

The image of the lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the freedom-loving people of the world. He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.

Reagan showed us that despite a deep recession, there could still be morning in America. He could speak to the economic troubles facing ordinary Americans because he understood what it was like to live through a Great Depression where families scraped to get by. And yet, he saw us recover from our Great Depression, and under his leadership we experienced the greatest peacetime economic boom in our history. He could speak to our fears that our years as a superpower were over, because he understood what it was like to see America at war and really fear that we might lose. And yet, he saw us win two world wars, and under his leadership we won the Cold War without firing a single shot. Reagan’s belief in American greatness was rooted in historic fact, not blind optimism. He was a sunny optimist because he knew that our best days are yet to come.

Today, when we hear the worry in the voices of Americans wondering where the jobs will be for our children and grandchildren and wondering if the world will be safe and prosperous in the years to come, we should remember Reagan’s faith in our inherent heroism and greatness. When we see people around the globe looking to the White House for leadership, we should remember Reagan’s steel spine. He understood America’s purpose in this world and what we need to do to secure liberty. As Margaret Thatcher said of him, “He sought to mend America’s wounded spirit, to restore the strength of the free world, and to free the slaves of communism.” He sought those things and he succeeded.

This year, as we celebrate the centennial of Reagan’s birth, let’s remember the lifeguard from the Rock River who rescued us with his optimism and common sense. We need more lifeguards like him.

Sarah Palin was the governor of Alaska and the Republican vice presidential nominee in 2008.

84 presidential elections ad for Ronald Reagan campaign.

President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

Ann Sheridan and Ronald Reagan in a scene from the 1941 movie Kings Row.

  • The only president to be unanimously elected was George Washington (1732-1799). He also refused to accept his presidential salary, which was $25,000 a year.b
  • Grover Cleveland was the only president in history to hold the job of a hangman. He was once the sheriff of Erie County, New York, and twice had to spring the trap at a hanging.k
  • The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything; therefore, there is no period after his middle initial.j

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    By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

    Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 8 (Edwin Meese on Reagan)

    February 1, 2011 – 12:37 pm

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    President Reagan and Vice President Bush pose in the Oval Office with the administration’s Cabinet in February 1981. Pictured from left, front row: Alexander Haig, Reagan, Bush, Caspar Weinberger. Back row, from left: Raymond Donovan, Donald Regan, Terrel Bell, David Stockman, Andrew Lewis, Samuel Pierce Jr., William French Smith, James Watt, Jeane Kirkpatrick, counselor Edwin Meese, James Edwards, Malcolm Baldrige, William Brock, Richard Schweiker, John Block and William Casey.

    My pastor in the 1970’s and early 80’s was  Adrian Rogers of Bellevue Baptist Church and he had a personal friendship that developed with Ed Meese.  Evidently that came from Rogers’ visits to the White House to meet with President Reagan.
    An interview with Ed Meese at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation on April 22, 2009.
    For over 30 years, it was my privilege to serve under Ronald Reagan: as legal affairs secretary and chief of staff when he was governor of California; as counselor to the president and attorney general; as a founding trustee of the Reagan Presidential Library; and as co-chairman of the Board of Governors of the Reagan Ranch project. He was my leader, my mentor and my friend. And he provided remarkable leadership to the nation.

    When Ronald Reagan became president in January 1981, our nation faced unprecedented challenges. We were in the midst of the worst economic crisis since theGreat Depression, marked by high unemployment, soaring inflation, enormous interest rates and a serious energy shortage. Our defense capability had deteriorated, and we were in a highly vulnerable position as the Soviet Unionexpanded its aggression worldwide. Many pundits proclaimed that our best days were behind us, that capitalism had peaked, and socialism was the wave of the future.

    In eight years, Reagan provided the leadership that culminated in a remarkable record of accomplishment. He initiated a series of policies that led to the longest period of peacetime economic growth in our history. He rebuilt our national defense capability, assured the success of the all-volunteer force, and provided the finest military forces our country had ever seen. At the same time, he restored our position of world leadership and initiated a crusade for freedom that offered hope to captive nations and oppressed peoples. Finally, by personal demeanor and encouraging communication, he revived the spirit of the American people.

    Reagan was a man of contrasting attributes. He was self confident without being arrogant. He portrayed a genuine humility without timidity or weakness. He used his quick wit and legendary sense of humor to illustrate a point, to diffuse tension, to counter an opponent, or often, merely to entertain. Friends and strangers alike treasured the opportunity to be with him, hear his views or listen to his well-told stories.

    Much of his strength as a leader came from his vision. He understood the principles of America’s founding, our history and the basic philosophy of liberty, limited government and free enterprise. These values became the basis for dealing with such problems as economic recovery, welfare reform, tax policy and the energy shortage.

    His vision also led to long-range innovations. Perhaps the most important was his concept of a Strategic Defense Initiative, including a missile defense that would protect nations from nuclear attack, rather than merely retaliating after such an attack had occurred.

    As with any period, Ronald Reagan’s two terms included disappointments, mistakes within his administration and the inability to achieve all that he wished to accomplish. However, most historians rate his two terms as a remarkable period of success and hold him up as the example against which subsequent presidents are measured. He stands today as one of the greatest presidents in U.S. history.

    Edwin Meese III is the Ronald Reagan Distinguished Fellow in Public Policy and Chairman of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

    Ronald Reagan on the issue of age.


    President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

     

    Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman appear together in a scene from the 1940 Warner Brothers film 

  • The “S” in Harry S Truman doesn’t stand for anything; therefore, there is no period after his middle initial.j
  • Lincoln Logs are named after Abraham Lincoln and the log cabin where he was born. John Lloyd Wright, son of famous architect Francis Lloyd Wright, invented them.k
  • Thomas Jefferson and John Adams once traveled to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace. While there, they took a knife to one of Shakespeare’s chairs so they could take home some wood chips as souvenirs.i
  • James Madison and Thomas Jefferson were once arrested together for taking a carriage ride in the countryside of Vermont on a Sunday, which violated the laws of that state.i
  • Andrew Johnson is the only tailor ever to be president. As president, he would typically stop by a tailor shop to say hello. He would wear

    • By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

    Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 7

    February 1, 2011 – 11:22 am

    Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 7

    President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

    Actors Jane Wyman and her husband, Ronald Reagan, hold their daughter Maureen in 1941.  Maureen Reagan died before her father, at the age of 60. Reagan and Wyman divorced in 1949.

    1980 Republican National Convention Pt 4 In this part of the speech, Reagan talks about the defense failings of Carter administration and gives some his views on defense.

    Welfare’s purpose should be to eliminate, as far as possible, the need for its own existence.
    Ronald Reagan


    When you can’t make them see the light, make them feel the heat.
    Ronald Reagan

    While I take inspiration from the past, like most Americans, I live for the future.
    Ronald Reagan

    Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
    Ronald Reagan

    Without God, democracy will not and cannot long endure.
    Ronald Reagan

    You can tell a lot about a fellow’s character by his way of eating jellybeans.
    Ronald Reagan

    Reagan tells a joke on Democrats

    President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

    Ronald Reagan and his first wife, Jane Wyman, attend a traditional Hollywood world premiere Dec. 23, 1945, in Los Angeles. Wyman was an Academy Award winner for her performance as a deaf rape victim in Johnny Belinda and star of the long-running TV series Falcon Crest. Wyman died Sept. 10, 2007, at 93.



    By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

    Brummett: Watch out for “shouting demonstration from zealous religious believers..” Part 2

    February 1, 2011 – 8:08 am

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    Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist, discusses atheism. Pt 3

    In my last post which was about Ronald Reagan, I mentioned that I was jealous of Jeremy Hutchinson because he got to meet Reagan. Now I must admit that I am jealous of my sister Vicki Parks because she got to have dinner with Ravi Zacharias when he was visiting Memphis to speak at Bellevue Baptist several years ago. I think Ravi Zacharias is the best the evangelical community has to offer since Francis Schaeffer.

    In the first post on this subject I quoted from Brummett’s article “Athiesm’s Big Night in Little Rock,” (The Morning News, April 27, 2007), John Brummett stated: I’d asked Skip Rutherford, dean of the Clinton School, if he expected trouble — a shouting demonstration from zealous religious believers, perhaps. “Could be,” he said.
    The atheist scientist Richard Dawkins was the speaker that night in Little Rock and he had a haughty attitude towards Christians because he felt they did not want to recognize science. Kerby Anderson answered this concern in his commentary “Answering the New Atheists.” He observed:

    The New Atheists believe that science and Christianity are in conflict with one another. They trust science and the scientific method, and therefore reject religion in general and Christianity in particular.

    Sam Harris says, “The conflict between religion and science is unavoidable. The success of science often comes at the expense of religious dogma; the maintenance of religious dogma always comes at the expense of science.”{25}

    Richard Dawkins believes religion is anti-intellectual. He says: “I am hostile to fundamentalist religion because it actively debauches the scientific enterprise . . . . It subverts science and saps the intellect.”{26}

    Are science and Christianity at odds with one another? Certainly there have been times in the past when that has been the case. But to only focus on those conflicts is to miss the larger point that modern science grew out of a Christian world view. In a previous radio program based upon the book Origin Science by Dr. Norman Geisler and me, I explain Christianity’s contribution to the rise of modern science.{27}

    Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow also point out in their book that most scientific pioneers were theists. This includes such notable as Nicolas Copernicus, Robert Boyle, Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal, Johannes Kepler, Louis Pasteur, Francis Bacon, and Max Planck. Many of these men actually pursued science because of their belief in the Christian God.

    Alister McGrath challenges this idea that science and religion are in conflict with one another. He says, “Once upon a time, back in the second half of the nineteenth century, it was certainly possible to believe that science and religion were permanently at war. . . . This is now seen as a hopelessly outmoded historical stereotype that scholarship has totally discredited.”{28}

    The New Atheists believe they have an answer to this argument. Christopher Hitchens discounts the religious convictions of their scientific pioneers. He argues that belief in God was the only option for a scientist at the time.{29} But if religious believers get no credit for the positive contributions to science (e.g., developing modern science) because “everyone was religious,” then why should their negative actions (e.g., atrocities done in the name of religion) discredit them? It is a double standard. The argument actually ignores how a biblical worldview shaped the scientific enterprise.{30}

    The arguments of the New Atheists may sound convincing, but once you strip away the hyperbole and false charges, there isn’t much left.

    If you would like to know how to answer the arguments of the New Atheists, I suggest you visit the Probe Web page at www.probe.org/radio and also consider getting a copy of the book by Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow. You will be able to answer the objections of atheists and be better equipped to defend your faith.

    Ravi Zacharias, Christian apologist, discusses atheism. Pt 4

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    By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Francis Schaeffer, Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)

    Ronald Wilson Reagan Part 6 (John Boehner on Reagan)

    February 1, 2011 – 6:53 am
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    Former first lady Nancy Reagan shakes hands with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada in the Capitol Rotunda on on June 3, 2009. Rep. John Boehner stands next to her.
    A tribute to one of the greatest American Presidents, Ronald Reagan
    I have a son named Wilson Daniel Hatcher and he is named after two of the most respected men I have ever read about : Daniel from the Old Testament and Ronald Wilson Reagan. I have studied that book of Daniel for years and have come to respect that author who was a saint who worked in two pagan governments but he never compromised. My favorite record was the album “No Compromise” by Keith Green and on the cover was a picture from the Book of Daniel.One of the thrills of my life was getting to hear President Reagan speak in the beginning of November of 1984 at the State House Convention Center in Little Rock.  Immediately after that program I was standing outside on Markham with my girlfriend Jill Sawyer (now wife of 25 years) and we were alone on a corner and President was driven by and he waved at us and we waved back.

    My former pastor from Memphis, Adrian Rogers, got the opportunity to visit with President Ronald Reagan on several occasions and my St Senator Jeremy Hutchinson got to meet him too. I am very jealous.

    What would President Reagan think about all the commotion surrounding his 100th birthday? Well, first he’d probably send his regrets for being unable to attend.

    Washington is not a place where cheerfulness tends to stand up over time, but for Ronald Reagan, it did. He was always quick with a smile or a self-deprecating joke. Reagan didn’t view his affable nature as a respite from the daunting challenges the nation faced on his watch. Instead, he saw optimism as an essential component of his ability to lead the country. It helped him connect with the people he served and the leaders he served with — including both Democrats and Republicans. This is one reason why today’s elected leaders aspire to Reagan’s example, and must accept being measured against him.

    For me, Reagan’s presidency was, from its very first moments, a call to arms. Just after taking the oath of office, Reagan stood in the center of our nation’s capital city and declared, “Government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.” Those words struck a chord with small-town, small-business people like me who were fed up with intrusive government and indecisive leadership. The promise of a smaller, less costly and more accountable government was renewed. Pro-growth policies to cut taxes and reduce the size and scope of government were set in motion.

    President Reagan’s commitment to economic and human freedom resonated at home and abroad. He formed a partnership with Margaret Thatcher, echoed the free world’s awe for Pope John Paul II and encouraged Lech Walesa and other freedom fighters. Unafraid to call the Soviet Union the “evil empire” that it was, he took the fight against communism to the foot of the Berlin Wall. He rejected the moral relativism of his day that was blind to the distinction between tyranny and freedom, seeing America as a city on a hill, set apart by a God who intended us to be free. In so many ways, Reagan did not succumb to the times — he shaped them.

    There’s one other thing President Reagan would surely be thinking today: that none of this would be possible without the love of his life, Nancy. I was honored to stand at the former first lady’s side two years ago during the unveiling of a statue of President Reagan in the Rotunda of the United States Capitol. That 7-foot likeness contains timbers from the Berlin Wall and bears one of the Great Communicator’s great lines: “America’s best days are yet to come. Our proudest moments are yet to be. Our most glorious achievements are just ahead.”

    Ronald Reagan’s legacy is intact, and I’m confident it will be for a long while. If you study the man and his times, you’ll see the rhythm of life as described by Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players. … And one man in his time plays many parts.”

    Ronald Reagan played his parts brilliantly, and we are right to pause today for another well-deserved standing ovation.

    John Boehner is the current speaker of the House of Representatives.

    Reagan tells Soviet jokes that are told by Soviets themselves.


    President Ronald Reagan’s 100th birthday anniversary

    Nancy Davis (her stage name) starred with husband Ronald Reagan in Hellcats of the Navy. She was in three films after the couple wed; Hellcats was their only film together.


    By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Adrian Rogers, Ronald Reagan | Comments (0)