Happy Halloween!

I don't have a problem with Halloween, personally. When I was a kid, I loved to dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating. Tonight, I will hand out Tootsie-Roll Pops to the trick-or-treaters. I even carved a pumpkin this year. Why? Because it's fun, and jack-o-lanterns look cool.

I understand that some have reservations about Halloween. So, why not celebrate Reformation Day instead?

One more fun Halloween link: The Worst Halloween Costumes of All Time. You know, I think I actually remember some of these. And no, I did NOT dress up as any of them! (Via Daimnation.)

Update: Joshua Claybourn posts on the history of Halloween.

Update 2: Havdala at Doves and Pomegranates has a very interesting post about ancient Celtic culture and Halloween.

Telling the Truth about Radical Islam

Lt. Gen. Boykin got into trouble for doing it. Rod Dreher is in trouble for doing it. Now, the Vatican has done it as well. Look for the politically correct (both Christian and secular) to squeal and swoon. Wait for CAIR and other Islamist groups to whine and pitch a fit.

I'm glad to see people tell the truth about radical Islam. I'm sick of the touchy-feely appeasers* who try gloss over radicalism in the Islamic world and blame Islamist terrorism on everything and everyone but the Islamofascists. I'm sorry, but I don't want to reach out to the jihadists and "understand" them. I don't think it's very smart to be solicitous of those who want you enslaved or dead.

As for this, President Bush may be just doing what politicians do, but frankly, it's disappointing.

*For a textbook example, check out some of the comments to this post.

Mostly Good

(Via Lynn S.)

**snicker** **giggle**

You know, I really must read Scrappleface more often...

(Via Mark Shea.)

Only in it for the money?

Is Randall Terry the Jesse Jackson of social conservatism? If this Razormouth article is any indication, yes.

For further updates on Terri Schiavo...

...go to Thrown Back, the blog of Fr. Rob Johansen. Fr. Johansen is a Catholic priest who is in Florida right now helping to minister to Terri's family. There's a lot of interesting information and insights...just start at the top and scroll down. Here is his first post after arriving in Florida. In that post he describes the Schindlers, who are not the pathetic fanatics that the media would have you think they are. He also talks about how the 81-year-old priest who has been allowed to see Terri was threatened with arrest if he even attempted to give her the sacraments of her church. Appalling.

And as an aside, I want to talk about religious belief her for a bit. While I'm not Catholic, I admire the principled stand that the Catholic bloggers have taken on this issue. I'm happy to see that Protestants and Catholics are putting aside differences and praying together about this. I may upset some people when I say this, but when it comes to orthodox Christianity, I'm an ecumenist at heart. After all, don't we all have the most important things in common? Why not work together and pray together? I'm not trying to gloss over the differences. I'm just saying that I think it's a good thing when we quit arguing, put those differences aside for a while, and unite for a common cause.

That subject again...

In this post from a couple of days ago, I said I would not be posting on the Terri Schiavo case again for a while. Well, I guess you can define two days as "a while". It seems I have more to link and a little more to say.

First, the links:

• Andrea Harris has posted her opinion on this subject. She hits on some uncomfortable truths here:

  I think that all this brouhaha reveals that fear of 'tards is alive and well in the twenty-first century. "Ew gross, a 'tard! Kill it!" seems to be an almost atavistic reaction to the sight of a mental defective or the thought of becoming one.

  Something in our culture just drains the humanity out of people; how else to explain the fact that starving someone to death is considered to be kinder than just giving them an overdose of morphine, or putting a bullet in their heads. The real reason this method is preferred, of course, is that everyone can pretend that Terri Schiavo isn't being deliberately killed; they are simply "letting nature take its course." Nature -- that we have spent the last ten thousand years or so trying to thwart. Now we let it win one?

• I've never heard of David Gelernter, but I like the way he thinks. Power Line quotes from a recent column of his in the dead-tree version of the Wall Street Journal. Some excerpts:
  

  Professor Gelernter advocates the cause of Terri Schiavo's parents. He asks: "[W]ho dares say you have no right to commune with your gravely ill child? To comfort your child? To pray for your child? Who dares say you have no right to hope that she will recover no matter what the doctors say? Who dares say you have no right to comfort, commune with and pray for her even if you have given up hope? Yes, the woman is mortally ill. Who dares say that her life is therefore worthless, to be cut off at her husband's whim?"

  
  

  "Thoughtful people have argued: Once you start footnoting innocent human life, you are in trouble. Innocent life must not be taken . . . unless (here come the footnotes) the subject is too small, sick, or depressed to complain. One footnote, people have argued, and the jig is up; in the long run the accumulating footnotes will strangle humane society like algae choking a pond."

  (Link via Amy Welborn.)

• William Luse links to some articles about where Terri stands now. He also links to an article about another Terry: Wesley J. Smith - Waking from the Dead:
  

  Terry Wallis recently woke up. For most of us, this would not be news. But for Terry it was a huge event: He had been unconscious for nineteen years due to injuries sustained in an auto accident. Indeed, upon awakening, he believed that Ronald Reagan was still President.

  Wallis’ recovery should give great pause to the bioethics movement and members of the medical intelligentsia, many of whom seem determined to read people like Terry out of the human family. In mainstream bioethics philosophy, being a human being is not itself sufficient to a claim of moral worth. What matters primarily is whether a “being” possesses sufficient consciousness or cognitive capacity to earn the label of “person.”

  
  

  Bioethicists have one version of how society should treat our most vulnerable brothers and sisters; the Wallis family has another. For nineteen years while Terry lay unconscious, they cherished him, visited him in the rehabilitation center where he resided, and even brought him home on special family occasions. In short, Terry wasn’t ever viewed as a burden, he wasn’t cast into the outer darkness of nonpersonhood, he wasn’t deemed killable, he wasn’t seen as being morally equivalent to the dead, but remained a beloved member of his family and society. Indeed, doctors say this special attention may have been a factor in his unexpected awakening.

Now, I have a few more things to say. What has Terri gained from this? A chance, that's what. A chance that she's never really had. Yes, she is still in the clutches of her husband and his lawyers, who don't want to give her one. But the war isn't over yet.

I think that the rejection of starving and dehydrating a helpless woman to death is a rejection of the moral decay, the disregard for human life, that has been going on for sometime in this country. The banning of PBAs is another rejection of this decay. It seems so obvious. It's -- hello? -- WRONG to starve and dehydrate someone to death. It's WRONG to partially deliver a baby, pierce his skull and suck his brains out. I just can't wrap my mind around the rationalizations made for these actions.

This rejection of forced starvation and PBAs actually gives me hope. Perhaps we are turning back from the brink. Many people have said the Schiavo case is significant because a line was being crossed. Once crossed, there may be no going back for our society. The fact that we didn't cross the line this time is a good sign. But what about next time?

Sometimes I lose hope. I often feel like evil always wins. But evil didn't win this time.

My Name in Hieroglyphs

Courtesy of this site:

(Via Bene Diction.)

Passion Update

Here's the latest:

AP: Gibson's 'Passion' to Debut Ash Wednesday

Mel Gibson's passion-stirring Biblical epic "The Passion of Christ" will open in the United States on Feb. 25 — Ash Wednesday on the Roman Catholic calendar.

Well, it's Ash Wednesday for us Lutherans, too. ;-) Seriously, I had a feeling this movie would open on Holy Week.

"The Passion of Christ" stars Jim Caviezel as Christ and Monica Bellucci as Mary Magdalene. The dialogue is in Latin, Hebrew and Aramaic with English subtitles.

I had heard that the name of the movie had been changed. And there has been some confusion as to whether there would be subtitles or not. Apparently it will, which I think is a wise decision.

A final post on this subject...

(At least for a while anyway...)

You probably wonder why I kept harping on the Terri Schiavo situation. Well, if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know that I'm pro-life. But there are more personal reasons why I felt compelled to follow this case.

I've mentioned before that my older brother died of a brain tumor over six years ago. I've never went into much detail about it because it's still very painful for me to think about. I won't go into a lot of detail now, either. There was a lot more to my brother's situation than this. I just want to give you an idea of where I'm coming from.

Before my brother died, he spent most of his last days in sort of a semi-coma. He would react to you, respond to things you said, and he even spoke a couple of times. He was there, but yet there was a sort of fog separating him from full consciousness. I played a Beatles CD for him, and he actually blurted out, "Wow, they were good, weren't they?" I thought a miracle was happening, and then he slipped back into the fog. We had a feeding tube put in him, but he could not process the food. I think it may have been because that part of his brain was not working properly.

During this time, I prayed for his healing. I even offered up my own life to God in exchange for his. My mother and I held out hope even though things looked (and were) hopeless. Other member of my family saw how hopeless the situation was and dealt with it in different ways.

Was my brother a non-person when he was in this state? Absolutely not! He was no "vegetable". He was enveloped in a fog, but he was there. He was probably in worse shape than Terri Schiavo is, judging by the videos of her. (Actually, he was in much worse shape, because he was dying. She is not.) If I knew my brother had consciousness, how could I deny the same about Terri?

Golden Oldie

Way, way back in the early days of this blog, I posted a link to a really good article. Sadly, the link to the article no longer works, since Regeneration Quarterly went belly-up some time ago. Occasionally, I've gotten referrals from people searching for this article, and I've regretted that all I could offer was an excerpt and a dead link.

However, I recently discovered that this article has been republished elsewhere on the web -- in GodSpy: Read Mercer Schuchardt - The Cultural Victory of Hugh Hefner

So, if you were looking for this article, now you've found it. And if you haven't read it, then I highly recommend it.

More Good News on the Pro-Life Front

The Senate has passed the bill banning partial birth abortion. The bill will then go to President Bush who, unlike his predecessor, will sign it. (Clinton vetoed PBA bans twice when he was President.)

A couple of weeks ago, I was blogsurfing and found myself at some feminist blog. This blogger complained that the term "partial birth abortion" is misleading and is just an attempt to inflame people against the procedure. However, this blogger avoided saying what exactly a PBA entails.

Terri Schiavo Update

Governor Jeb Bush has signed the bill to allow Terri Schiavo's feeding tube to be reinserted. This is a huge step in the right direction, but it isn't over yet:

Meanwhile, Michael Schiavo's attorney, George Felos, vowed to sue anyone who reinserted the feeding tube, reports local television station WFTS.

While on this subject, Justene has posted at Dean's World about this case, and there is a good discussion going on in the comments. One of the commenters, Patterico, asked a neurologist friend of his to give his opinion about Terri Schiavo's condition after viewing the videos of her. What this neurologist has to say is very interesting.

Update: A couple more items on this subject:

• Amy Welborn drives home the point that life matters:
  

  The basic question, under all of these discussions is that concept of "quality of life," and that is the question that we absolutely must address as a society and as a people. This insidious, slippery concept has invaded and taken over Western thinking on human life. It's the center, deep down, of all of our discussions: When does an unborn human being attain the quality of life that then somehow magically bestows on them the right to life? Severely disabled and terminally ill people are devalued and told they needn't bother living anymore because of their quality of life...

  This, it seems to me, is our challenge - to replace the language of quality of life with another way of thinking and talking about these things that embraces the value of all human life from conception to natural death, that takes into account the reality of death, the purpose of suffering and our profound responsibility to one another.

  Of course, RTWT.

• Do you think Terri is completely without hope, and that she's just an empty shell? Well, people said the same thing about this woman, too. (Via Fructus Ventris.)

The Carnival of the Capitalists #2

The latest Carnival of the Capitalists is at Jay Solo's. Show your support for free enterprise and go check it out!

Terri Schiavo Roundup

These are just a few posts from around the blogosphere regarding the Schiavo situation:

• Times Against Humanity has two very good questions:
  Will Gov. Bush Do What He Can to Save Terri?
  Has Gov. Bush Wimped Out?
• Brothers Judd Blog looks at how the "the law is an ass" in the Schiavo case. There is a paragraph in the post that nicely sums things up and shows why Michael Schiavo's motivations are extremely suspect.
• Chris Regan at JYB wonders if we need a "do not kill" list and points out how, typically, the mainstream media has been ignoring various important facts about this case.
• Ben Domenech has a beautifully written post on this subject. He looks at how personhood is defined and why this case is important:
  

  The case of Terri Schiavo is not the first, nor the last - but it may be the clearest indication that the "robbery of life" is a problem we will ultimately have to face. And it is those of us in this society who believe that every life is sacred - who believe there is no such thing as an insignificant person - who will have to face it.

• HokiePundit urges us to pray for a miracle.
• Before going on hiatus, Maripat at Right We Are urges us to write to Governor Bush.
• Pete Vere at Envoy Encore posts about how Catholics and Protestants are putting aside theological differences and uniting for a common cause.
• William Luse and Mark Shea are keeping up with the latest developments.

Update (10/19/03):

• Bene Diction links to this excellent piece in Christianity Today: Janet L. Folger - Speaking Out: Why I Believe in Divorce
  

  Starvation and dehydration is so brutal, so agonizing, we wouldn't do it to the most hardened criminal on death row. In fact, if you did it to a dog, you'd go to jail for cruelty. But for a disabled woman, that's another matter. When Terri made her wedding vow, "till death do us part," I'm pretty sure this is not what she had in mind.

  So let's review our choices:

  Starve a dog: Go to jail. Do not pass "go;" Do not collect $200.

  Starve a disabled woman: Collect $1.3 million, a new car, a new boat, and a new family.



• Pete Vere at Envoy Encore is at the scene and has been posting continuous updates.

Update 2 (10/20/03): Some hope for Terri...keep praying, folks! Here's a WorldNetDaily article about this development. (Via Envoy Encore.)

Update 3 (10/21/03): Wonderful news -- the Florida House has passed a bill which will allow Terri to be put back on her feeding tube. The Florida Senate is supposed to vote on it later today. The President of the Florida Senate, Jim King, was at first reportedly resistant to bringing up the bill. He seems to have since had a change of heart:

"If we are to err — because time is of the essence — for goodness sake let us err on the side of caution," said King, a Republican.

Boortz on Terri Schiavo

Apparently, Neal Boortz has been commenting on this case on his radio show. I haven't heard what he's said, so I don't know for sure his position on this. He is a pro-choice libertarian, so I'm pretty skeptical about his view on this, especially after reading the following from his Nuze site today:

This issue came up yesterday when we were discussing the tragedy of Terri Schiavo in Florida. Terri's feeding tubes have now been removed and she will die within two weeks. This after 13 years in a comatose state following brain damage caused by a heart attack.

If you've been following the Schiavo story you will know that this has been a battle royal between Terri Schiavo's husband and her parents. Her husband, Michael, went to court asserting that his wife had expressed to him a desire never to be kept alive in this manner. Her parents disagree.

OK .. this isn't really about the Schiavo matter, that's just how this particular topic began. Here's your question. To whom do you owe your primary allegiance, your spouse or your parents? My contention is that once you are married you owe your primary duty, allegiance, devotion and love to your spouse, not to your parents. Your spouse's feelings and desires come first, your child is second, your parents are third. Belinda can't go along with this.

(Belinda is his call-screener.)

What is Boortz saying here? Is he saying that Terri has a "duty" to die because her husband wants her to? I know he said that this wasn't really about the Schiavo matter, but he seems to be relating this to Terri's situation.

What if Terri's husband wants her to go ahead and die already so he can marry the woman he's been shacking up with and having kids with for years? What if she's not vegetative and she can interact with other people, although she cannot speak? I'm sorry, but I cannot go along with Boortz and his belief that what the spouse says goes in all situations. Especially a spouse whose motives are as suspect as Michael Schiavo's.

Florida's Shame

I am ashamed to be a Floridian today. Terri Schiavo's family's last-ditch effort to save her from death by starvation has failed. Her feeding tube has been removed. Unless a miracle happens, she will die an agonizing death.

Take a look at these videos. Does that look like someone in a vegetative state to you?

(First link via Cam Edwards. Video link via De Fidei Oboedientia.)

Let's get something else straight...

Why is it that, if someone was once fat, but then they lose weight and have kept the weight off for years, they still keep getting referred to as "fat" by whoever has a problem with them?

What brings this particular rant on? Reading about the umpteenth "Rush is a hypocrite" rant by someone gloating over Rush Limbaugh's recent confession of being addicted to prescription pain-killers. These rants almost invariable include the "fat" insult. The truth is, Rush hasn't been fat in years. In fact, he's probably slimmer than a lot of his detractors.

What is it about being fat that makes it this unforgivable sin? Apparently, the "sin" of being fat is so hideous and awful that even if someone has been thin for years, they still get the "fat" insult thrown at them.

In case you missed my point, I'll write it in all caps so you can understand: RUSH IS NOT FAT AND HE HASN'T BEEN FAT IN YEARS! Got it? Are we clear? Good!

Last Chance for Terri

Terri Schiavo will be starved to death starting tomorrow if the last-ditch effort to save her isn't successful:

...Should a divorce be granted, Terri's husband, Michael, would lose his standing as her guardian, and his demand that his wife be deprived of food and water would no longer have any legal force.

The source said that in view of the fact that Terri's husband is living with another woman, has already sired one child by her and is expecting another child, the lawsuit could charge him with adultery and cite that as justification for a divorce decree.

Terri's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, filed a federal lawsuit Aug. 30 against Schiavo; his attorney, right-to-die advocate George Felos; and two of the nursing facilities where Mrs. Schiavo had been previously kept. The lawsuit alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Terri's civil rights under the First, Fifth and 14th Amendments.

Terri is not a vegetable. If she's such an "inconvenience" to her husband, why doesn't he just divorce her so that her family can take care of her? Why is he so determined to see her dead?

(First seen on Catholic Pundits.)

For more on this case: Terri's Fight.

Update: You know, I was wondering about where Governor Jeb Bush is on this. I know he filed an Amicus Brief, but I was wondering if he could do something to put a stop to this. William Luse has a post about the Terri Schiavo situation and links to two articles that completely contradict each other as to whether Gov. Bush can do anything to stop Terri from being murdered.

Update 2: Amy Welborn has more on this sad situation.

Slouching

I recently read about some men complaining that their prospects for marrying are dwindling because it's hard to find a decent woman who is untainted by feminism. One suggestion was to start marrying foreign-born women, or women who have been isolated from the larger culture.

One could also make a similar complaint about men. It looks like the number of men who are untainted by exposure to pr0n is dwindling as well. It seems these pr0n-tainted men have very twisted expectations about women and sex. It looks like they'd make lousy husbands, if someone were stupid unfortunate enough to marry them.

Thanks a lot, sexual revolution! Thanks for freeing everyone from those repressive things known as "morals" and "ethics". Everything is so much better now. [/sarcasm]

Who was it that said, "If God doesn't destroy us, He owes Sodom and Gomorrah an apology"?

I try so hard...

...but I'm a mere pretender:

(Via Jay Solo.)

Carnival of the Capitalists #1

The Carnival of Capitalists has made its debut at BusinessPundit. Check it out!

Ed Asner: Stalinist

Via Boycott Hollywood comes this article: WND: "Ed Asner: 'Hannity's next ... just like we went after Limbaugh'". Asner's remarks about Hannity may have been tongue-in-cheek. But if someone is an admirer of Joseph Stalin and thinks Stalin is "misunderstood", I have to wonder if he really wishes he could send those conservative talk show hosts to the gulag.

Update: The guy who originally wrote the WND piece has partially retracted it.

No Cheeks Left to Turn

Kevin McGehee at blogoSFERICS links to this provocative opinion piece by an Episcopal priest:

David Epps: Sometimes it's all right not to turn the other cheek

Go read the whole thing...I'll wait...

Okay, now I know what some of you are going to say. You're going to say, "The priest was wrong...he didn't show grace...what about [insert Bible verse here]."

Think about this...if this pastor would have turned the other cheek in this instance, the jerk in the elevator would have went his merry way, with his smug smile on his face, believing he really showed that priest. His mind would have remained closed; he would have remained comfortable in his prejudices.

But the smug guy was humbled when this priest stood up to him. Obviously, he felt ashamed. Perhaps his shame caused him to reconsider his prejudices. If he realizes that he's wrong, then maybe this new insight will make his heart more open to God and Christianity.

Maybe this confrontation was just the kind of ministry the smug guy in the elevator needed.

Bali: One Year Later

A survivor of the Bali attack takes on the root-causers:

Jake Ryan: Guilt lies only with the killers

To the terrorists who killed these two and 200 others last October 12, it doesn't matter what any of us looked like, before or after. Or who we were. They didn't care. They killed Indonesians, Australians, English, Germans, Koreans, Danish, French, Americans, New Zealanders, Japanese, Italians, Dutch – people from 20 countries. They worked hard to make sure they killed as many random people as possible. The van that blew up at the Sari Club had its back seats taken out so they could screw four filing cabinets full of explosives to the floor. The attack was planned for months.

And I keep hearing that it was our fault. That we caused it.

People who think this crime was caused by anyone other than the terrorists are kidding themselves. People who blame the West and blame Australia and blame John Howard should blame the cowards who actually detonated the bombs, and the bastards who financed them. It isn't difficult to work out.

(First seen on NZPundit.)

Moldy Oldies

I can't believe John Kerry is recycling this old political joke in one of his speeches. A similar version of this was going around when Clinton was President. And I think variations of it pre-date Clinton.

The finger-waggers are right...

I've decided not to read the Bible anymore. There's so much sex and violence, I just don't think it's appropriate material for anyone. Can you believe some people encourage their children to read the Bible? For shame!

And look at this...nudity! In a chapel! I'm scandalized!

Okay, I'll quit being sarcastic and point you to this post about Christian liberty by Jared at Thinklings.

California Recall Election

My prediction: Californians, get used to having Arnold Schwarzenegger as your governor. If I were a Californian, I'd be voting for McClintock, since he's the true conservative in this race and since he actually may know something about running a state. I understand why a lot of conservatives support Schwarzenegger -- they see him as being electable and they believe a liberal Republican is better than a liberal Democrat. But McClintock would have had a decent chance had Schwarzenegger not "muscled" his way into the race. I also understand the arguments of those who say that conservatives are selling out their principles in supporting Schwarzenegger. I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Are your goals better realized by supporting the guy who agrees with only part of your agenda, but who can win? Or is it better to support the guy who probably won't win, but who is much more in line with your beliefs? And is it productive to split the vote between the two so that the guy who totally opposes your beliefs wins?

I have to admit that it's kind of amusing to see the same people who told us Clinton's behavior didn't matter turn around and make a big deal out of Arnold's alleged groping. On the other hand, some of those who rightfully condemned Clinton's behavior are now saying that it doesn't matter if Arnold is a groper. I'm not saying that the situations are the same. It's just that they are similar enough to make me think there's quite a bit of hypocrisy on both sides.

Email Spamming Lowlifes!

A few minutes ago, I just got a bunch of email messages "from" one of my email addresses (not my blog address, but my one of my ISP addresses) that bounced back as being undeliverable. The only thing is, I never sent the messages, and the email was some sort of spam advertising cable box unscramblers. I get spam on the same address occasionally, so I know it's on some spam lists. Apparently, there is someone out there spoofing my address to send out spam. I can't tell you how angry this makes me!

Well, I can get some revenge on these clowns. Supposedly, linking to this site will cause spambots to load up lots and lots of invalid email addresses. Serves them right! (Link via Sasha Castel.)

Blog World Announcements

Here are a few blog-related items I'd like to pass along:

• In my previous post, Haleh of BLOG-IRAN has brought that site to my attention. I have put a link to them on my sidebar. Please check them out.
• Jay Solo has brought the Carnival of the Capitalists to my attention. This new carnival will debut next week and will focus on posts about business, economics and similar subjects.
• And finally, I have been remiss in mentioning the Chief Wiggles' campaign to give toys to Iraqi children. Well, I'm mentioning it now, along with a new website for the campaign, Operation Give. Thanks to Dean and Michele for getting Operation Give online. I'm putting a button with a link on the sidebar. Now, go check it out!

Computers for Luddites

Wooden computers? Nah, just a very amusing parody site...

(Via Mark Shea.)

Left and Right Christians

Bene Diction links to this post on Connexions regarding the aforementioned David Limbaugh book. Richard Hall pooh-poohs the premise behind the book and then says the following:

So let me just offer one little reminder. "The Right" do not have a monopoly on Christianity. They are not the only ones taking their Bibles seriously. They are not the only ones on their knees in prayer. They are not the only ones with a passion for the gospel. Guess what? Some of us are committed disciples of Jesus and we've reached different conclusions about what that means. Get used to it.

Fair enough. Hall is right...I mean...correct about that. However, as a conservative, I would appreciate it if my fellow Christians on the left side of the political spectrum would give me the same courtesy. I mean, one of Richard's commenters actually trotted out this hoary old slogan: "The Christian Right is neither." I take that to mean that, since I'm a conservative, I can't be a Christian. Doesn't this slogan mirror the attitude that Richard is denouncing in his post? Or is it okay if the same attitude is expressed by a liberal?

As an aside here, let me address the topic of David Limbaugh's book Persecution. I haven't read the book and I have no current plans to read it right now. (Nothing against it -- I just don't have the time.) Some have said that what's presented in the book isn't real persecution. And I agree -- being ridiculed and harassed isn't comparable with being enslaved, killed and tortured. But you have to wonder if harassment might turn into true persecution somewhere down the road. I mean, in societies where Christians are persecuted, I'm sure it started off with little things...some harassment here, some inconveniences there. I think it's good to be vigilant and to not be too complacent.

Let's get something straight...

Some people hear the name "Limbaugh" and immediately their knees start jerking so hard you worry that they might dislocate something.

The writer of this book is David Limbaugh. Not Rush*. DAVID! That's spelled D-A-V-I-D. Got it? Good!

(I'm not in a good mood today... can you tell?)

*And yes, David Limbaugh is Rush's brother, which I guess is enough to make him automatically eee-vil to some people.

Putting the "lame" in "Plame"...

Joyful Christian asks, "Are bloggers required to blog about everything?" His answer is "No" and mine is, "of course not"! Apparently, some think there is some requirement for conservative (particularly Christian conservative) bloggers to say something about this whole Plame thing.

My incisive commentary is...**yawn**

More seriously, I don't understand all the ins and outs of this whole brouhaha yet. I haven't even had time to read much about it. I'm waiting for all the facts to come out. So far, it looks like much ado about nothing, but I could be wrong. If I am, and if somebody broke the law, punish them.

That's all.