In a "multicultural" world, it's not politically correct to actually stand up for your own culture - unless of course you're a 3rd world country, or perhaps Muslim. The ascendency of the West fell out of fashion long ago, and it's tough to find many who would actually defend a "Christian" culture. However, in the January Issue of "Books & Culture" Leah Seppanen Anderson reviews Christopher Caldwell's book: "Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West" and takes a different view. In her review she points out a fascinating assessment of Europe's immigration problem - according to Caldwell. As she states: ... read more

I wanted to thank everyone for all the thoughts, prayers, and well-wishes following my dad's passing Saturday in North Carolina. As many of our friends knew, he'd been ill for a long time. In fact, the running joke in our family is that "Cooke's don't die." My grandmother - his mom - was 98 years old when she died, and in spite of multiple heart attacks, two open heart surgeries, a hip replacement and two strokes, he refused to give up. Apparently his training as a Golden Gloves boxing champion, a Marine during WWII, and a career as a pastor taught him a lot about fighting. But we did get the call that he was really ... read more

The website HR Management reports that productivity could be linked to those who are "up with the lark", while those who define themselves as "evening people" are likely to be less proactive in the workplace. The report continues: "The research, which surveyed 367 student participants, found a correlation between their self-reported 'morningn ... read more

In A Faith & Culture Devotional, Lael Arrington writes that, "When Princess Diana died suddenly and violently, the outpouring of grief dumfounded the royal family but confirmed People magazine editor Richard Stoley's set of rules for a successful cover." Those rules are: ... read more

In a report that's no surprise, Broadcasting and Cable reports that for the first time, the amount of time youth (ages 8-18) spent watching "regularly-scheduled TV" dropped by 25 minutes, from 2004 to 2009 - according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The story goes on: "But traditional TV remains the major screen for most young people. According to the study, 59% of media time is still devoted to live TV programming, with the rest a mix of time-shifted TV, plus DVDs, online, and mobile. TV remains the dominant medium at ... read more

The Associated Press reports that the Crystal Cathredal, founded by Robert H. Schuller Sr. is pulling its signature TV program "Hour of Power" from a significant number of stations and is taking other measures to offset a nearly $8 million drop in revenue. "The Crystal Cathedral's "Hour of Power," which has aired for 40 years, will continue to appear on cable networks such as Lifetime and TBN, and on broadcast TV in markets including California, Colorado, Florida and Ohio," said John Charles, director of development and public relations. The report continues: ... read more

The generally accepted view that the Fox News Network only appeals to conservative Republicans appears to be a myth, according to The Los Angeles Times. The (not conservative) L.A. paper reports that at least one third of the Fox News audience are actually Democrats, who "denounce Fox News at work and parties and then go home to secretly watch the channel." It was reported that during the Massachusetts senate race, Fox News drew about ... read more

One of the great things about past Sundance Film Festivals was trading and re-selling movie tickets. You generally purchase "packages" of tickets - sometimes way in advance - so once you arrive and learn more about individual films, it's quite normal to trade some of your tickets for other films, or sell them at face value to friends or other participants. Apparently however, this year, they have a new policy that strictly outlaws selling our tickets to other moviegoers - even at face value. In fact, we have been warned more than once ... read more

Politically Correct Alert: To comply with Colorado's indoor smoking ban, courts won't let actors smoke onstage. As a result, as reported in the LA Times, plays where smoking is integral to the plot or character development will not be performed any more in that state. Laws that restrict smoking in public places are a good thing - but when does common sense come into play? This is the nightmare of the modern, bureaucratic, regulated society. We now live in a culture where ... read more

As an owner of a small business myself, I've been somewhat disappointed in how anti-business President Obama seems to be. We already knew he lacked experience in private business and never owned one, but I've been really surprised at how disinterested he is in the private sector - considering how important it is to lift the country out of the economic problems we're facing. After all, the real jobs that provide long term solutions are created by American business, particularly small businesses. But now, ... read more

At Cooke Pictures, we have so many clients who are brilliant speakers and thinkers, and many of them are writers as well. I found this fascinating (if not humbling) list from publisher Steven Piersanti, and thought you'd find it interesting. If you're considering a book project, here's the "10 Awful Truths" you need to know: ... read more

I'm seeing a disturbing trend in the world of science to muffle dissenting ideas from the public debate. Thanks to the online revelation of emails that resulted in "Climategate," we've seen just how far global warming proponents were willing to go to stifle dissenting debate and discussion from peer reviewed journals and conferences. A year or two ago we saw the documentary film "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" released on the subject of how major university professors are systemically disciplined or silenced when they stray from Darwinian orthodoxy. Now, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that ... read more

I sat on a plane today next to an older women who was nice, but negative about everything. She was convinced our flight would be late, complained about her short turn-around at the connecting airport, knew she'd miss her flight, wasn't happy with the meal, the plane was too old, and on and on and on. ... read more

For all of you (like me) who write books that don't make the best-seller lists you might be encouraged by a piece in "The Weekly Standard" by Barton Swaim. Trying to come to terms with his place in the literary food chain, he wrote something that really resonated with me, and actually made me feel a little better about my minor contribution to the world of books: ... read more

David Galernter, writing in The Weekly Standard about the new Darwin biography by Tim Berra, puts forth a compelling case about the cultural presence that is Charles Darwin. I interviewed David a few years ago at Yale for a documentary on the life of William Tyndale, who translated the Bible into English. At the end of the article he writes something that I think on this anniversary is worth thinking about: ... read more

Exploring how to connect to a new generation is critical. We need to stay ahead of how people communicate with your organization. But it's a good reminder that direct mail (snail mail) is still the primary way businesses, non-profits, churches, and ministries communicate with their customers and donors. As this article in the Wall Street Journal points out, we shouldn't be too quick to dump our direct mail campaigns. Of course look for email or social media connections. Always be experimenting and tracking trends. But make sure your ... read more

After studying 8,800 people for an average of six years, Australian researchers have discovered that those who watch TV for more than 4 hours per day are 46% more likely to die of any cause and 80% more likely to cardiovascular disease than people who spend less than two hours a day watching TV. The study is interesting because it's not about ... read more

A new study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals that 95% of news stories with fresh information came from "old media" and the vast majority of that from newspapers. For all the buzz that social media generates, it's not time to say goodbye to traditional media yet. The study showed that about two-third's of original stories came from newspapers, 28% came from TV, and 7% from radio. Digital-only outlets accounted for a measly ... read more

With the vast amount of information stored online, I often wonder if we're killing our creativity by taking the easier route of "mashing up" other people's work. Jaron Lanier, an early online creator thinks that "all we can do now is mine the past like salvagers picking over a garbage dump." Recently, I talked with a film professor at NYU who mentioned how surprised he was that film students today don't fret over finding original shots and shooting styles as much as copy great shots from other films. On a recent student film shoot, he lamented that ... read more