Today on Kresta - May 27, 2010

Talking about the "things that matter most" on May 27

4:00 – William F. Buckley Jr.: The Maker of a Movement
The polysyllabic vocabulary, the wit, the charm, the sailing adventures, the spy novels—all of these have become part of the William F. Buckley Jr. legend. But to consider only Buckley’s charisma and ceaseless energy is to miss that above all he was committed to advancing ideas. We talk with noted conservative historian Lee Edwards, who knew Bill Buckley for more than forty years, and has now delivered a much-needed intellectual biography of the man has been called “arguably the most important public intellectual in the United States in the past half century.”

4:20 – Can the Bishops Fix the Health Care Bill?
When the health-care bill passed, the bishops' reaction was twofold: disappointment at federal funding for abortion, while universal care was applauded. For some, including Deal Hudson, the sound of the bishops' clapping was far too loud given the immense tragedy of our federal tax dollars being committed to support abortion under the guise of "women's health services." Those who cheered the loudest, however, were not the bishops but the Catholic leadership -- from Congress, health care, journalists, and activist groups -- who denied the very presence of the abortion funding about which the bishops expressed their disappointment. Now the bishops are getting behind another bill intended to "fix" the current version by stripping out its abortion funding -- an effort considered unnecessary by those like Sr. Carol Keehan, president of the Catholic Health Association, who stand by the claim that no funding for abortion exists in the bill. Will the Bishops be able to fix the health care bill? Deal Hudson is here to discuss it.

4:40 – Fighting for Faith, Family and Virtue at the UN
As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, the principal focus of her interventions in the public arena is the protection and promotion of the dignity of the person, and she is thereby consciously drawing particular attention to principles which are not negotiable. One of the most important places to defend those principles is at the United Nations. Austin Ruse has been doing it for years, and is here to discuss the most pressing issues facing the family at the UN.

5:00 – The Closing of the Muslim Mind: How Intellectual Suicide Created the Modern Islamist
People are shocked and frightened by the behavior coming out the Islamic world—not only because it is violent, but also because it is seemingly inexplicable. While there are many answers to the question of “what went wrong” in the Muslim world, no one has decisively answered why it went wrong. Until now. In his eye-opening new book, foreign policy expert Robert R. Reilly uncovers the root of our contemporary crisis: a pivotal struggle waged within the Muslim world nearly a millennium ago. In a heated battle over the role of reason, the side of irrationality won. The deformed theology that resulted, Reilly reveals, produced the spiritual pathology of Islamism, and a deeply dysfunctional culture. Bob is here to look at The Closing of the Muslim Mind.

5:40 – Catholic Radio Now Blankets Washington, D.C.
Two Texans are funding the Washington, D.C. area's first Catholic radio station, which went on the air earlier this month. WMET 1160 AM, a former multicultural station with transmitter in Gaithersburg, Md., was purchased in February for $4 million. The station will be operated by the Guadalupe Radio Network of Midland, Texas, and will provide 24-hour Catholic programming in English. Guadalupe Radio VP Toya Hall is here to tell the story.