We’ve put together a survey with the goal of learning how we can improve Virtue Magazine, especially when it comes to what type of articles our readers want to see more of in our mag.

It’s a short survey, and will only take a minute or two to fill out. You can find a link to the survey page on the right hand toolbar under “More Information,” or you can just click here.

Another brand new issue of Virtue Magazine will be coming out this Saturday, featuring a number of articles definitely worth checking out!

Among the highlights:

President Without A Party by Samuel Ashwood
A look at John Tyler, one of the most obscure presidents in United States history.

Unwanted: Jayde by Theresa Moss
A 16-year old discovers she is six-weeks’ pregnant with twins, and aborts them both. But what happens when one of the twins survives the abortion?

Remembering Mayberry and Looking Beyond The Headlines by Derek Wallace
A look back at The Andy Griffith Show and actor Don Knotts; and a book review of Charles Colson’s Burden of Truth: Defending Truth in an Age of Unbelief.

In addition, Alessandra Kroger and Noah Stansbury engage in a friendly point/counterpoint with each other over the question: were the Articles of Confederation originally passed by the Continental Congress in 1777 flawed? Was the U.S. Constitution the right answer?

Also in this issue: Samuel Ashwood continues his series on World War II, and Derek Wallace continues his series, Gunning for the Presidency!

Our next issue of Virtue Magazine will be coming out this Saturday, and it contains a number of articles you definitely don’t want to miss!

Origins of the Civil War: Secession by Samuel Ashwood

“He Went Down With A Pencil In His Hand” by Derek Wallace

A look at the life and impact of Dr. Henry Morris, who was one of the foremost Christian apologists and Biblical creationists of our day, and who died Feb. 25th.

WIN 1,000,000 DOLLARS CASH NOW! by Theresa Moss

“The cost? Only one cheap lottery ticket and one happy life…Or so it seems.”

We Hold These Truths to be Self Evident by Sarah Meholick

Ms. Meholick tells politicians that they perhaps need to sit back into the classroom and read a few pages out of our history books.

And of course, much much more including the first of a two-part series examining the critical 1996 Republican presidential primary, an article on the Olympics, and an article about a new town in Florida that will be subject—literally—to the Catholic Church.

So stay tuned and make sure you check out Virtue Mag next week! In addition, you might also be interested in checking out Agent Tim’s most recent post, where he talks about an upcoming project he and several other bloggers are launching soon.

It was one year ago today (January 10th) that the first ever issue of Virtue Magazine was launched. We decided not to do anything marking this occasion in the current issue of the magazine, but—at the risk of making it sound like we’re tooting our own horns—I thought it was worth a mention on the blog.

For anyone interested, you can check out our very first issue and other issues in our archives section.

The idea of doing a magazine began in an informal chat session for students taking an online Constitutional Law class last year. While the idea was batted around for a while, I don’t know if many people really thought the project would ever truly get off the ground. But thanks to the hard work and efforts of a number of people—including Alessandra Kroger, the person we selected as our editor—the project did get off the ground, and is still chugging along today.

The past year has certainly gone by quickly, and it’s amazing to think that we’ve done 25 issues already. A lot has changed since then—we originally didn’t have a blog, the site design was quite a bit different then what it is today, and the Virtue staff has changed considerably: of all the participants who have come and gone through the past year, only about half a dozen or so who are still with us today have been involved in the Virtue project since the beginning.

We would like to thank everyone for all the work they’ve done to help us, and thank our readers for actually reading us! We hope that we continue to improve our writing and content over the next year, and we hope that, in some small way, we will be able to help make a difference in the world today.

This article was originally supposed to appear in issue 25 of Virtue Magazine, but due to other commitments and magazine deadlines, it didn’t run. Instead of waiting another two weeks, we have decided to post it here at VirtueBlog. Feel free to post your thoughts on both the movie King Kong and Taylor Gage’s review of it!

“Kong” Runs Rings around the Originals

Rating: PG-13 (for frightening adventure violence and some disturbing images.)
Length: 3 hours 7 minutes
Company: Universal
Starring: Jack Black, Naomi Watts, Andy Serkis, and Adrien Brody
Review Rating: ****1/2
Box Office: $464,522,000 (World Wide)

“The beast looked upon the face of beauty. Beauty stayed his hand, and from that moment he was as one dead.”

Released on December 14th, 2005, Peter Jackson’s latest epic, King Kong, has it all: a ferocious gorilla, blonde beauty, and dazzling special effects. After directing the magnificent Lord of the Rings trilogy, Jackson achieved worldwide fame for his remarkable work. Thankfully, this third version of King Kong takes itself seriously and avoids the campiness of the 1976 version and the absurdity of the 1933 original.

The movie opens with Carl Denham (Jack Black), an eccentric movie director, desperately trying to sell his latest idea to film executives. In an effort to save his career, Denham races to set sail from New York City to film his movie before the executives can retract his commission. After his lead actress quits, he quickly searches for another to fill her slot, and finds the beautiful but jobless Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts). An uneventful trip ends in a tumultuous docking at their exotic destination: an uncharted island untouched by civilization. However, a tribe of vicious natives soon abduct Ann Darrow so that they may sacrifice her to Kong. Leading a search party into the depths of the wild island, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), Ann’s love interest, and the other men discover prehistoric creatures, which look like they were lifted from Jurassic Park.

From there, the film maintains a breakneck pace as King Kong enters the plot. Amazingly, the giant gorilla’s completely CGI figure looks very realistic. Instead of a returning to the gorilla suit used in the 1976 version, Andy Serkis provided Kong’s movements through the same motion capture techniques used to create his Gollum character in the Lord of the Rings. While most of the computer graphics are well done, a couple scenes, such as the brontosaurus chase, appear rather unrealistic; however, most of the other visuals are top notch.

While Peter Jackson’s films remain notable for their special effects, King Kong also contains several remarkable performances by lesser known actors. While Jack Black is better known for his roles in comedies, like Shallow Hal and School of Rock, he acts the part of Denham with enthusiasm and wit. Naomi Watts, famous for her role as Rachel Keller in The Ring, tenderly endears her character to both Kong and movie viewers. Finally, Oscar-winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist, The Village) delivers yet another remarkable performance as Carl Denham’s screenwriter.

Throughout his remake of King Kong, Peter Jackson treats his viewers to a truly compelling, yet very lengthy story. Surprisingly, screenwriters Phillipa Boyens, Fran Walsh, and Peter Jackson put their characters into dilemmas, causing them to make moral decisions which bring greater depth to the characters. Certainly Jackson could have fixed King Kong’s few flaws, but the film remains one of 2005’s best films.
—Taylor Gage

This week’s issue of Virtue Magazine (due to be published on Saturday), features articles on a variety of different topics and issues!

The big news story lately has of course been the President Bush/NSA spying scandal, and Alessandra Kroger has written an article addressing the scandal and the question of whether the President’s actions were constitutional or not.

Kelly Miller has written a lengthy and insightful article about recent court decisions that have infringed upon parents’ rights to teach their own children.

Lita Harman examines the flaws in our current tax system and proposes a better way of doing things (hint: think flat!)

Derek Wallace takes a look at the lost art of being a man, and also examines what he refers to as “Hollywood’s descent into depravity.”

Samuel Ashwood examines the book “1984” and our current situation today, and begins his new series discussing World War 2.

Plus, Theresa Moss on wanting more money; politicians on the budget deficit; and more! Don’t forget to check everything out when the new issue of Virtue hits newstands Saturday (in a manner of speaking).

We would like to wish all our readers a blessed and happy Christmas, filled with joy and peace. And while obviously family and friends and gifts and food play a big part of this holiday, we hope that none of us lose sight of what we are truly celebrating Christmas for!

Luke 2:8-11:

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

Merry Christmas everyone!

If all goes according to plan, this Saturday we will be publishing Issue No. 24 of Virtue Magazine, so make sure you check it out when you have time! Saturday happens to be Christmas Eve Day, so it is appropiate that much of our content in this Christmas issue deals with heavier topics that both directly and indirectly involve religion.

New staff writer Sarah M. examines the disturbing war on Christmas being waged by anti-Christian movements, while Theresa Moss takes a look at recent trends in television advertising.

Bradley B. and Travis H. both take a look at the recent court ruling that teaching intelligent design in public schools is “unconstitutional,” and examine the issue of creation and evolution itself.

Samuel Ashwood wraps up his series examining World War I, and Casey Coolidge ponders the differences between freedom and equality.

Issue No. 24 will also feature a book review or two, a possible movie review of King Kong, a look at what Santa Claus must think about the “war on Christmas,” and more!

Group Updates:

A Sidetracked Focus is new new group blog designed for Christian Blble study for teen and others. Please havea look!
(Founding members include: Spunky Jr., Tim Sweetman, Mission 3:6Teen and Coie Igarashi)

Virtue Mag is up!

Square Talk Radio should be doing its gun control show soon.

Personal Blog Round-up:

Agent Tim posted about the HITMAN shows. grin

D3 is gone up the the mountains somewhere.

The Kings Highway brings us a great post called “Liberals’ opinion on the War in Iraq”

*Hint: They flip-flopped)

Mission36Teen has a great post on Trusting the Lord.

Pete is out of pocket, but he endorses Alito for SCOTUS.

With stories like this (Hat Tip: PersecutionBlog) who can believe that Mohomandism is a peaceful religion?

ROFL! ReliablePolitics lists some terribly funny warning lables. Have a look.

SecDef played paintball the other day!

Smarthomeschool posts about HITMAN as well as a cool blogger program that lets you see which links your visitors click on! Sounds really cool…

Yikes! Sold Out warns us of incoming lawyers, for bloggers. Have a look.

SpunkyJunior takes on Xanga (Watch out Kristin, some Xanga crazy lawyer might sue you…) /end of bad joke grin

David Ketter is taking a break from blogging for a time.

The Rebelution brings us the story of post prime time Katrina survivors.

AP News Headlines:

Bush nominates conservative for Supreme Court

“Judge Alito is unquestionably qualified to serve on our nation’s highest court. And on the bench, he has displayed a judicial philosophy marked by judicial restraint and respect for the limited role of the judiciary to interpret the law and not legislate from the bench.” – Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

“Unlike (Miers) nomination, which was derailed Thursday by Bush’s conservative allies, Alito faces vocal opposition from Democrats.”

“The nomination of Judge Alito requires an especially long, hard look by the Senate because of what happened last week to Harriet Miers. Conservative activists forced Miers to withdraw from consideration for this same Supreme Court seat because she was not radical enough for them. Now the Senate needs to find out if the man replacing Miers is too radical for the American people.” – Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

Samuel Alito’s conservative views
earned him nickname ‘Scalito’

Alito has endorsed abortion restrictions

However we must remember that…
A new justice will not make the difference on Roe v. Wade in the court’s present configuration. Besides the moderate O’Connor, five of the eight other justices have endorsed a woman’s right to the procedure.
As an appeals court judge, Alito was required to follow Supreme Court precedent, which he did.
In 2000, for example, Alito was among the judges who ruled that a New Jersey law banning late-term abortions was unconstitutional, following high court precedent.

Just one more pro-life justice can’t overturn Roe v. Wade. We need one or two more to flip that.

Mr. Alito’s Speech following his nomination

Reaction to Alito nomination

Bloggers Reaction:

Powerlineblog:
Alito is a solid choice. Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid have already come out against him; another good sign

We’re about to get the fight over Constitutional principles that conservatives have looked forward to for years.

Hugh Hewitt: (no link due to questionable ad)
“Judge Alito is a great nominee, and as a result a great political battle lies ahead.”

Michelle Malkin

“This is a nominee the Right can get behind.”

Sen. Bill Frist on Fox News (via Jason Smith): “If the Democrats are looking for a fight, we’ll be up for the fight. We won’t back down… We’re gonna get an up or down vote on the Senate floor and if the Democrats want a fight, they’ll get one.”

ConfirmThem.com:

“For my own part, I’d also like to thank President Bush. He’s given us a nominee worth fighting for. Before the Miers nomination, one of our bloggers (I believe it was feddie), asked the President to “cowboy up.” He has. And it’s time for us to do the same.”

As well as…

“Dems — filibuster this!”

The Confirm Alito Coalition is up @ GOP Bloggers

Travis’ Comments:
YIPPEE!
This is the kind of justice the U.S. conservative movment has been dreaming of!
Now, let’s get him confirmed!

Square Talk Radio’s comments on Miers downfall should be up today. Look for a new show soon. Also, Virtue Mag is sure to have an article.