I have to admit it.

My fallen nature is greatly gratified by this story.

HT: Drudge

Obama ahead, Romney within striking distance... and who are those other guys?

Early polls on next year's presidential race reveal:

1. That President Obama is ahead, despite the economy;

2. That a generic Republican candidate is within striking distance- and runs better than any of the actual Republican candidates in the survey; and

3. That Mitt Romney is, at the moment, the only actual human being who makes it a horse race.

It should be noted, of course that Tim Pawlenty and Michelle Bachman are at this point basically unknown,. Pawlenty, at least, can be expected to do better as voters become more familiar with him.

Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, on the other hand, are going nowhere. Their problem is that voters already know who they are- and given who they are, that's an  insurmountable problem.

Calling Dr. Amen!

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway reports on a study purporting to show that Protestants who do not identify with the "born again" label (usually misapplied to refer to a conversion experience; biblically,the term refers to baptism- not ex opere operato, but as the carrier of the promise which saving faith believes) have brains less atrophied than those of Reformed Evangelicals, Catholics and unbelievers.

Interestingly, Mollie reports, Catholics and non-believers were not mentioned in media reports on this study, which focused on the brain shrinkage evident in "Evangelicals." What is especially interesting about that is that the greatest cerebral atrophy was found, not among "born again" Protestants, but among unbelievers.

No surprise in this omission, of course. Lots of unbelievers among those who write those news stories. On the other hand it's always open season on conservative Christians.

The brain region in question is the hippocampus, which stores and retrieves memories as well as helping to regulate emotions.

HT: Real Clear Religion

Obama killed JFK's dream. We need to dream it again.

The first and last man to walk on the moon, along with one of the heroes of the Apollo 13 mission, repeat a theme I've hit on this blog for quite a while: the folly of President Obama's scuttling of our manned space program.

Constellation needs to be revived. The economy needs the kind of boost Mercury and Gemini and Apollo gave it.  Our national divisions and faltering self-image need the healing and strengthening the moon landing provided. And our place in the world will not be enhanced by abandoning the moon, Mars, and everything other than low orbit to the Chinese and the Japanese and the Indians- and the American private sector, which simply lacks the resources governments have.

Our very national security need it.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Heh. Heh. Heh.

Conservative Jewish commentator Dennis Prager thinks that liberals shouldn't be making fun of Harold Camping.

After all, they have a great deal in common with him.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Are Britain (or Canada) really free countries?

Britain- like our neighbor to the north, Canada- fancies itself an upholder of democratic principles, but seems rather unclear on the concept at times.

Free speech is not exactly in fashion in Canada. And Britain has just upheld its ban on commentator Michael Savage entering the country because it doesn't like things that he's said.

I'm an admirer of both countries in many ways. Scotland and Ulster are the home of my ancestors, and I treasure both the time I've spent in Canada and my experiences with its polite, civilized and thoroughly admirable people. But when it comes to free speech, neither the UK nor Canada have a clue.

"Hate speech" is a concept very familiar in this country, too. There are many- especially on the Left- whose values with regard to freedom of speech differ as greatly from those of the Founders as they do on other matters. But at least so far, we in the States have managed to resist this incursion on our liberties. It is regrettable that our cousins in Canada and the UK have not been able to do so there.

John Milton said it very well: "Let [Truth] and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse in free and open encounter? She needs no policies, nor strantegems, nor licensings to make her victorious…. Give her but room."

HT: Drudge

Giuliani reported ready to enter GOP presidential race

According to longtime supporter Rep. Peter King (R-NY), former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is set to enter the 21012 Republican presidential sweepstakes.

King says that Giuliani- determined to win this time- will make the New Hampshire Primary his bid to strike a decisive blow against the man widely perceived to be the front-runner, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

Rudy is wise to bypass Iowa, where his socially liberal positions would not be well received. But even if he wins in New Hampshire, putting all of his eggs in one basket wouldn't be a smart strategy. He still has to muster the delegates necessary to get a majority at Tampa.

HT: Drudge

Camping follows William Miller's pathetic example: "Jesus came spiritually"

Having pronounced himself "flabbergasted" yesterday at the failure of Jesus to return in either 1994 or on May 21, 2011, Harold Camping couldn't leave well enough alone.

Following in the footsteps of William Miller and other false prophets of the past, he claims that Jesus did return on Saturday- but "spiritually." The new date for the "rapture" is his old date for the Final Judgment: September 21.

Guess what? Isn't gonna happen then, either.

This is pretty much the same dodge that Miller, Camping's precedessor in prophetic futility, used after his repeated predictions of Christ's return all failed. As was the case with Camping, well-meaning but gullible folks quit their jobs and bankrupted themselves because they put their faith in a false prophet. Miller insisted that he had been correct, except the event happened invisibly, in heaven, or in some other way inaccessible to people without his personal Secret Bible Decoder Ring.

Scriptrue gives a different answer to the Campings and the Millers:

And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. (Deuteronomy 18:21-22 ESV)

Sadly, Fox has whacked The Chicago Code

It will be a long time before Chicago has a female police commissioner, and an even longer time before an African-American alderman is more powerful than the mayor. Alderman Gibbons to the contrary, Harold Washington was not Chicago's only black mayor (his successor, Eugene Sawyer, was also African-American). And The Outfit is definitely not Irish.  But The Chicago Code tried hard to capture the essense of my home town, and I respect the effort. At least there was no mention of Lake Forest as "Forest Lake," as happened recently on the other Chicago-based network drama, The Good Wife, when hubby's Republican opponent in the race for Cook County State's Attorney moved there in order to establish residence in the county.

Sadly, Fox has made the decision to pull the plug on The Code, just as Alderman Gibbons was before a grand jury and about to announce for mayor.

I'll miss what amounted to a weekly visit back home on Monday nights. And I'll miss the show. It wasn't perfect, but it deserved a far bigger audience than it got.

The series finale, "Mike Royko's Revenge," airs tonight. Regrettably, bus schedules will cause me to miss it.

ADDENDUM: Seems, on the whole, to have been a good episode that tied up the loose ends admirably. "Irish mob" godfather Killian was shot and killed by Gibbons' girlfriend/secretary (aw, c'mon!), undercover cop Liam is in from the cold (with his evidence against Gibbons)and re-united with his family, Killian's daughter turned state's evidence against the alderman out of a desire for revenge, Gibbons is in jail awaiting trial, and Commissioner Colvin met a nice man.

None of this, of course, would have precluded a second season. This was Illinois, after all- and Chicago, to boot. There would have always been Gibbons' trial, and even a guilty verdict wouldn't necessarily have ended his career.

Like I said, this was Chicago. In any case, I'll be able to catch the finale on line.

We tried to warn you, Mr. Camping

Harold Camping is "flabbergasted" that the Rapture didn't happen yesterday.

Others have had their lives and plans dealt some pretty heavy blows after contributing everything they had to spread a message they would have known ws a lie if they'd simply read their Bibles.

It's easy to laugh at this travesty. But just as was the case when Seventh Day Adventist founder William Miller wrongly predicted the end of the world over and over again in 1844, and when other false prophets down through the years have presumed to seek the knowledge which Christ said is reserved to the Father, there has been a heavy price that has been paid by the deceived- a price that is often no laughing matter.

ADDENDUM: A commenter has pointed out that technically Miller was a Baptist preacher. True enough. And he did not found the Seventh Day Adventist church.

He founded the Adventist movement itself.

T-Paw is in

A guide to the GOP field

Despite its historically inaccurate description of the party's origins- the Republicans might be the ideological heirs of the Jeffersonians, but their historical lineage must be traced at least loosely to the Federalist advocates of centralized government who were their opponents- this site offers a wonderful resource for familiarizing oneself with the candidates for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination. You can even compare to candidates side by side.

Enjoy.

Mitch Daniels is out

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a soft-spoken man with strong economic credentials whom many had seen as one of the more formidable opponents President Obama could have had next year, has become the latest Republican to opt out of the race.

Daniels may well have wanted to spare his wife, who divorced him and married another man before divorcing her second husband after four years and re-marrying Daniels, the embarrassment over the episode which no doubt would have been the inevitable consequence of a presidential race.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, businessman Donald Trump, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown, General David Petraeus, Florida Senator-Elect Marco Rubio, South Dakota Senator John Thune, businessman Do and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush have opted out of the race. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Alaska governor and 2008 vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin,  former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman,  former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Congressman Ron Paul, former Utah Governor and U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, businessman Herman Cain, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, gay rights activist Fred Karger, flight attandent Tom Miller, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, businessman Vern Wuensche,  and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham are either in the race, or reportedly still considering a run.

Graham, Romney, and Pawlenty are on my personal short list right now. I also want to know more about Huntsman, whom I think might be the strongest candidate- but about whom I have serious reservations.

You're still here, Harold.

From Drudge:

WORLD ENDS- FILM AT ELEVEN

In fairness, it's not really supposed to have been the end of the world. The advance work for the event was kind of sloppy in its wording. It was actually supposed to be an entirely ficticious and non-biblical event called the "rapture." But that didn't happen, either.

Most ficticious events don't.

Any way you look at it, it's not a good day for Harold Camping. And I'll bet nobody is signed up to bring the donuts at Family Radio's office Monday morning, either.

In honor of Harold Camping

Just in case he's looking for something to amuse him tomorrow morning, as he ponders his unraptured condition.

Premillenial dispensationalists of all kinds are equal-opportunity targets, however.



HT: The Reverend Charles Lehmann and the Reverend Jeffrey Ries

A question worth asking

Is it just me, or does the church whose logo is at the right need to rethink its name?

Speaking of churches that worship the world, articles like this pose an important question: when outfits like the ELCA and the PCUSA abandon the Great Tradition and the consistent teachings of both Testaments by equating sodomy with holy matrimony, can they still, properly speaking, be called churches?

Noted theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg- the favorite of the man who taught systematics at Wartburg Seminary when I was there, Dr. Duane Priebe- answers that question in the negative.

Friendly skies, maybe. Smart? Not so much.

United Airlines has removed an ad at Ground Zero that read, "You're going to like where we land."

Obviously somebody didn't have his coffee some morning before going to work.

HT: Drudge

Discouraged by the shape our world is in?

Depressed by the knowledge that the return of Christ will be delayed indefinitely beyond this coming Saturday?

The hope offered by false prophet Harold Camping may be illusory, but the hope offered by genuine prophet and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer is not.

Our real hope, of course, is the knowledge that on a date and at a time known only to the Father, Jesus will return to right all wrongs and make all things new.  But even as the world cries out for deliverance, Christ's Body is already in its midst, doing Christ's work.

HT: Real Clear Religion

Another miraculous sign of the End Times

Tim LaHaye has written something sensible on the subject.

In fact, there seems to be an epidemic of people who usually get this stuff wrong getting Harold Camping right.

Common sense is anything but a common virtue among those so fascinated by the End Times that they fail to realize that Jesus had a reason for discouraging curiosity on the subject. But every once in a while, it turns up in especially gratifying places.

HT: Real Clear Religion

"Birthers" and lemmings

Predictably, "Birther" whack jobs continue to spout paranoid conspiracy theories even in the face of the President's release of his birth certificate. And just as predictably, the Obama campaign is taking advantage of that fact to make all conservatives and Republicans look like fools.

In case you missed the point (as plenty of right-wing extremists did) this is a satire, not a real news story. Reading it all the way through ought to provide several hints, nicht wahr?

Scratch a Birther (or other wingnut), and you'll come up with lemming DNA.

Oh. And he's not a Muslim, either.

HT: Drudge

Barack Obama, the Boston Herald and the First Amendment

Richard Nixon was accused- with some justification- of paranoia where his political opponents were concerned. He had an actual enemies list, for crying out loud.

Ronald Reagan was accused of wrong-headedness on everything from arms control to fiscal policy.

George W. Bush was accused of being responsible for everything from introducing a neo-conservative snake into the Garden of Eden to the Fall of Rome to arranging in advance for the Japanese typhoon.

But I have a feeling we'll wait a long time before hearing equal indignation from the liberal media over the Obama administration denying access to the Boston Herald, which is what passes for a conservative paper in that politically benighted city. The paper's sin: too prominent a display of a guest op-ed piece by Mitt Romney, the front-runner to oppose Mr. Obama in next year's presidential election.

Except, of course, from the Boston Herald.

The decision by the exceptionally thin-skinned White House press office brings to mind the Obama administration's unprecidented war against Fox News a while back (Nixon didn't like the media, but even his administration's distain for CBS never reached the levels of the Obama administration's targeted animus toward specific media outlets.

A 1985 survey of newspaper reporters by David Shaw of the liberal Los Angeles Times revealed that 55 percent of American newspaper journalists described themselves as "liberal" (12% "very liberal," and 43% only "somewhat liberal").

The media's self-reported voting history tells an even more exaggerated story of liberal bias. The following chart tells a rather interesting tale:

Other surveys of journalists tell the same story. 1980 seems to have been something of an aberration; 51% of journalists voted for Jimmy Carter, 24% voted for John Anderson, and a whopping 25% voted for Ronald Reagan. The Reagan "magic" continued among journalists four years later, when Walter Mondale received "only" 58% of their vote, compared to a breathtaking 26% for Reagan. But in 1988, Democrat Michael Dukakis received 76.1 percent. In 1992, 89% voted for Bill Clinton.

52% of journalists reported voting for John Kerry in 2004. 19% said that they voted for George W. Bush. 21% refused to answer.

33% identified themselves as Democrats. 10% self-identified as Republicans.

Two seperate polls revealed that the media's bias in favor of Obama over John McCain was so obvious that vast majorities of the public recognized that journalists as a group wanted Obama to defeat John McCain in 2008.

And those things being the case, one has to ask the same question with regard to the print media which the administration's vendetta against Fox News in the face of the overwhelmingly pro-Obama, left-wing bias of CNN, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, and ABC raised with regard to TV news: even if it be granted that right-wing bias is operating in one particular case, why make an issue of single conservative drop in the liberal ocean ?

After all, it's not as if it were even anything close to "equal time!"

HT: Drudge and Media Research Center

The social conservative case for Mitch Daniels in 2012

Now that Mike Huckabee is out of the race (and my fingers remain crossed that Sarah Palin won't get into it), social conservatives have a tough choice among the remaining candidates. Two Mormons (one with a history of supporting civil unions, and the other having authored the prototype for the Obamacare mandate), a serial adulterer, and a former cap-and-trader with all the charisma of a wet noodle do not constitute a field setting anybody's heart on fire on the social Right.

He's making a point of stressing economics rather than social issues, but still, maybe the soft-spoken guy who took his wife back and has arguably achieved the most compelling record of any putative social conservative in the race is worth a look.

"Wide is the gate, and broad is the way"

Conservative Presbyterian (OPC) Darryl Hart meditates on the rift between the theologies of Reinhold Niehbur and Karl Barth, while sadly acknowledging the apparent decision of the Presbyterian Church in the USA to follow the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America out of the Great Tradition and off the path of biblical Christianity by "unsinning" homosexuality.

It's worth reflecting once more on the words of Wolfhart Pannenberg:

If a church were to let itself be pushed to the point where it ceased to treat homosexual activity as a departure from the biblical norm, and recognized homosexual unions as a personal partnership of love equivalent to marriage, such a church would stand no longer on biblical ground but against the unequivocal witness of Scripture. A church that took this step would cease to be the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church.

I guess sometimes giving in to the culture is just easier.

HT: Real Clear Religion

The age of miracles is not past!

Possibly the best argument that Harold Camping's goofy predictions of the "rapture" (an imaginary event based on a misreading of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ) next Saturday and the Final Judgment on September 21 might have something to it is an event which, if it isn't a sign of the end foretold in Scripture, might as well be.

The United Nations Organization has done something morally coherent where the matter of human rights is concerned. It has kicked Syria off the panel overseeing the matter on the sensible ground that foxes ought not to be assigned guard duty over the hen coop.

Are any of the miraculous signs in Revelation or in Matthew more contrary to nature?

HT: Real Clear Religion

Somebody please explain the Gospel to Franklin Graham

The Reverend Franklin Graham, Billy's son and putative heir, says that for him "the definition of a Christian is whether we have given our life to Christ.”

No, it's not. At least not if one believes Christ and the Apostle Paul. The biblical "definition of a Christian," as Rev. Graham puts it, is whether- by God's grace, rather than by our own decision- we put our trust in Jesus having given His life for us. "Evangelicals" generally seem to have trouble with that distinction. Not only do they tend to make conversion our action rather than the monergistic  work of the Holy Spirit through the Word, but they have a strong tendency to preach justification by faith and works even while giving lip service to justification by faith alone.

I would refer them for clarification on both points to the Pauline Epistles.

I am not going to get into the question of whether or not President Obama is an authentic Christian. While Reverend Graham questions the genuineness of the president's faith, , I myself can't read Mr. Obama's heart- or anyone else's. In fact, I have trouble enough with my own.

Certainly Mr. Obama's past denominational affiliation with the United Church of Christ, a group which is marginally Christian in any real historic sense (UCC clergy, for example, are not required to believe in the doctrine of the Trinity), is nevertheless sufficient to provisionally safeguard him from the absurd and (as far as I can see) baseless and in fact malicious charges that he's somehow a Muslim. Mr. Obama's position on abortion and other issues are as dubious from the point of view of the Faith as the position of many of my fellow Missouri Synod Lutherans on matters of social justice. But in neither case do I presume to judge what only God has any business judging.

But I think that if Franklin Graham is going to make his living as a preacher of the Gospel, somebody ought to explain the Gospel to him- along with its proper and biblical distinction from the Law. It isn't about anything we do, as Paul was at great pains to point out; it's about what Jesus has done. And while realizing what Jesus has done on our behalf and putting our trust in it has unavoidable consequences for the way we live (the Council of Trent and mainline Protestantism to the contrary),  the two- as St. Paul rather pointedly argues in the Epistle to the Galatians- are very different things.

HT: Real Clear Religion

Presidential developments

Saying that all the indicators said "yes," but that his heart says "no," former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has taken himself out of the 2012 presidential race. Faced with losing his TV show, Donald Trump has done the same.

Meanwhile, President Obama's diminutive "bump" from the killing of Osama bin Laden has vanished, and Gallup has his favorable rating dropping back to 46%.

HT: Drudge

Not even Jim Hendry can shake my faith

A musical reminder of the truth expounded here:

Two Ohio middle-schoolers suspended for farting on school bus

Seems the bus driver had created a no-wind situation for everybody.

One of the kids thinks the whole thing is a gas. The other one thinks it stinks.

Usually, isn't it regarded as a good thing when a student passes?

HT: Drudge

It isn't just Harold Camping that Harold Camping is embarrassing

Anybody tempted to doubt the damage Family Radio's Harold Camping and those who believe this failed prophet's apparently defective Secret Bible Decoder Ring (Camping predicted the end of the world in 1994, and was obviously wrong- thereby disqualifying himself from further credence according to the test of Deuteronomy 18:21-22) need only read this.

On May 22, when Camping and his followers are confronted by the fact that they remain unraptured, they won't be the only ones held up to public humiliation. So will all Christians. And so will Jesus.

I wonder what part of "no one knows the day or the hour" he doesn't understand. For that matter, given his Christian Reformed background, I wonder how Camping misses the point that the "rapture" and the related concept of an earthly millenial reign of Christ prior to the Final Judgement are utterly unbiblical in the first place. The "millenium" of Revelation 20 is the Age of the Church; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 describes the return of Christ for the Final Judgement.

Rumsfeld: Read 'em and weep, Bush haters

Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld argues compellingly that the Wikileaks disclosures and other formerly classified vindicate Dubyah's policies in the War on Terror.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Is public education "slavery" too, Senator?

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Cydonia) is even nuttier than I thought:



HT: Drudge

A movie that could change your life- and don't be put off by the cliche'

Somewhere in the boxes in my spare bedroom is a VHS of the first part of the film the Swedes have made of Bo Giertz's wonderful novel The Hammer of God. If I had to pick a book other than the Bible that has meant the most to me in my life, it would be this one.

It's about three young pastors in the same Swedish parish over the course of a century who manage to screw up big time (boy, can I ever identify!). Each time, God's grace comes to the rescue, and teaches them to look to "Jesus Only-" and to point their parishioners to the same place.

They've finished the movie now. I have to get it. And in the doubtful event that I ever serve another parish, it will be the subject of many an adult class there.

Pirate Christian Radio takes on heretic Rob Bell

"Emergent?" I think not. More Wartburgian deja vu all over again!

Newt is running

Newt Gingrich has thrown his hat into the presidential ring.

"Mr. Newt" is smart; he has better credentials as an "idea man" than any other candidate in either party. But based on his behavior when he was Speaker of the House, I'd say his political instincts are questionable. "Movement" conservatives may well get behind Gingrich as one of the more substantial and cerebral of the Republican candidates. But I have a hard time seeing him as viable. His marital history will be an albatross around his neck, for one thing. So will the ethics charges against him when he was Speaker. And I just have a very, very hard time seeing someone as pedantic as "Mr. Newt" as an effective opponent for Barack Obama.

None of the Republican candidates have exactly captured my imagination at this point. I continue to think that the nominee will probably be Mitt Romney; the Republicans, after all, almost always nominate "the next in line." And he just might turn out to be the least flawed of all the possibilities.

Another sigh.

Another sign of the times

The other day I passed two kids- each somewhere on the young side of ten- playing in their front yard.

One had a huge toy broadsword; the other had two sticks. They were engaged in mortal combat.

As I passed by, they stopped fighting and started arguing about whether or not the one with the sticks had been killed. "I used my shield," he asserted. "No," the other replied. "You don't get a shield until Level 5."

And then it hit me. These kids were outside, enjoying the fresh air and getting their exercise by pretending to be inside, playing a video game.

Sigh.

ADDENDUM: Actually, Daniel Hinton of CTS, Fort Wayne tells me that it's a new fad: a kind of live-action Dungeons and Dragons. Interesting- and perhaps a trifle less discouraging.

Makes me homesick for Dubuque...

The Bible and the ELCA. Or the Bible and the average American Cafeteria Christian.

HT: Pastor William Cwilla and St. Doris Volker

Wehnrer: Obama will be the easiest incumbent to beat since Carter

Peter Wehner of Commentary magazine sees President Obama as the easiest incumbent to beat since 1980.

Meanwhile, a new Wall Street Journal/Washington Post poll quantifies Mr. Obama's bounce in the polls after the killing of Osama bin Laden. He's up by three percent.

That does put him above 50% for the first time in a while. But don't count on it to last.

Personally, I'm not quite as optimistic about the GOP's chances of beating Mr. Obama. I don't see a Ronald Reagan in the field of potential challengers right now, though I'm looking hard at Mitch Daniels.

Of course, I didn't see a Ronald Reagan in the field when Ronald Reagan was running, either. He was a pleasant surprise.

HT: Real Clear Politics,
Drudge

Islamic chutzpah

Pakistan/s government, military and intelligence community are either unbelievably incompetent for allowing Osama bin Laden to live as a neighbor to the country's military academy, or at least as complicit in sheltering that mass murderer as the Taliban was in Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11.

Yet that country, which receives billions in aid from the United States annually, has the unmitigated chutzpah to see our bringing bin Laden to justice as a violation of its national sovereignty.

I understand that a certain amount of kow-towing to domestic Islamofascisism is necessary for the Pakistani government's self-preservation. I also understand the strategic importance of our relationship with the Pakistanis.  But this is going much too far. Barring an apology, an adequate explanation, and an appropriate amount of professed mortification on the part of our Pakistani "friends" for the residence of the author of 9/11 not only on its soil but right under the government's nose, it's time to cut off our aid to Pakistan.

Given the circumstances, this is simply not the way friends act, however embarrassed they may be at having been caught either not knowing what was going on in their own back yard or stabbing us in the back by keeping us in the dark about bin Laden's presence.

HT: Drudge

Killing OBL won't get Obama re-elected

Despite the best efforts of a largely partisan media, the bounce President Obama got from the killing of Osama bin Laden isn't going to last. Even as he takes his victory lap for the Obama killing, the polls rate public confidence in the president's handling of the overwhelming issue of the hour- the economy- lower than at any previous time in his presidency.

While the odds still (barely) favor his re-election next year, Barack Obama remains eminently beatable- provided the Republicans avoid an ideological orgy and stop making it so easy for the Democrats (of all people!) to portray the GOP as a party of extremists.

To achieve this, Republicans will have to come up with solutions, not merely criticisms. One of those solutions will have to be how to replace the increasingly rare and decreasingly adequate employer-provided health insurance which has generally provided adequate access to health care for most Americans, especially in catastrophic emergencies,  with an adequate and realistic substitute. And Republicans will have to come to grips with the fact that, in the modern world, there are a much larger number of things than there were in 1789 which only the government (cash-strapped though it may be) can accomplish for Americans that Americans simply cannot realistically accomplish for themselves.

HT: Real Clear Politics

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of America's first manned space flight

Somehow I negelected to mention that yesteday was the 50th anniversary of the flight of astronaut Alan B. Shepard- the first American in space, who missed being the first human being in space by only 23 days.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagaran beat Shepard to that title, and somehow John H. Glenn's orbital flight less that a year later completely overshadowed the mission of Friendship 7. But Shepherd- who retired as a rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, and served as head of NASA's astronaut corps from November of 1963 through August of 1974. Unlike either Gagarin or Glenn, Shepherd- as commander of the Apollo 14 mission- walked on the moon, the fifth human being to do so. Earlier, after being diagnosed with Ménière's disease, Shepherd had been disqualified from his assignment as commander of the first Gemini mission, being replaced by the second American in space, Gus Grissom.

After undergoing a newly-developed corrective surgery for his disability, Shepherd was restored to flight status in May of 1969. Originally assigned to the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, Shepherd felt that he needed more time to train, and as a result commanded fellow astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Stuart Roosa on the successful Apollo 14 mission instead. As pilot of Antares, the lunar module for the mission, Shepard achieved the most accurate landing of any in the entire Apollo program, later achieving the distinction of being  the first human being to play golf on the moon.

Shepard died of leukemia on July 21, 1998, the 29th anniversary of his moon walk.

Give me a break!

POTUS said today  that deciding to take out bin Laden was "the hardest decision I've had to make as Commander-in-Chief."

The flies promptly started to buzz.

First, if a president had the intelligence break Obama had and had failed to act on it, and that fact had become public knowledge, he would have had as much chance of being re-elected as Richard Nixon would have if he had made his "I am not a crook" speech during his first term, and in drag, with Ed Muskie instead of George McGovern as his opponent.

Secondly, if the slam-dunk attempt had been made, and had somehow failed, he still would have suffered minimal damage, if any. I find it hard to believee that this was the first attempt to get bin Laden made by the current administration. Bush suffered little political damage from the near-miss at Tora Bora. Admittedly it was before 9/11, but Clinton suffered no damage from his half-hearted, lob-a-cruise-missile-at-where-he-used-to-be attempt to take OBL out.

I watched a Yale history professor pontificate on POTUS's "courage" in making this decision last night on PBS, invoking Jimmy Carter's silly attempt to rescue the hostages in Iran. Carter suffered the political damage he did, not because the attempt failed, but because it should never have been made. It was based on a Rube Goldberg abortion of a plan that had so little realistic possibility of success that Secretary of State Cyrus Vance resigned before the attempt was even made, in protest over the fact that Carter was foolish enough to give the OK. Carter deservedly took the lumps he took because that silly and ill-conceived mission summed up the incompetence and futility of his entire administration. It encapsulated the entire  presidency of a man whose stewardship of the nation's destiny was so well illustrated by that famous photo of the President of the United States and leader of the free world dauntlessly wielding a paddle in the defense of his boat against the onslaught of an attack bunny.

Courage? Give me a break. Obama had no option than to authorize this operation. And he had the chance purely because it was on his watch that the intelligence break that revealed bin Laden's location happened.

If, on the other hand, President Obama had attempted to take out bin Laden on the basis of the information he had, and it had somehow failed, the American people would still have given him credit for trying. It would not have forgiven him for failing to do so.

That said, Mr. Obama was, in fact, the president when the intelligence break happened. He was, in fact, the president who gave the order. He was, in fact, the president under whom we finally got bin Laden, and he deserves due credit for that fact.

But let's not push it.

Lib talk show hosts calls for Navy SEALS to "drop in on George W. Bush"

Memo to David Corn: More evidence that the hate-mongering, malice and violent rhetoric in our body politic are predominently a phenomenon of the Left, rather than the Right: Liberal talk show host Mike Malloy asked during his talk show Monday night when the Navy SEALS were going to drop in on George W. Bush.

One more example of the kind of over-the-top rhetoric which is the norm on the Left, but found primarily on fringes of the Right.

HT: Drudge

A splendid response to the question of how Christians should react to the death of Osama bin Laden

As usual, Rev. William Cwirla hits the nail right on the head.

We all need to repent of any tendency to rejoice at what we assume to be bin Laden's damnation. On the other hand, we have no business whatsoever doing anything but rejoice that justice has been done.
Pr. Cwirla magnificently refutes both the un-Christian tendency on the Right to give in to our fallen desire for vengence on one hand, and the sappy and equally un-Christian tendency among those on the Left to confuse the Two Kingdoms by suggesting that there is anything less merciful and proper than for those whom God has given the office of the sword to refrain from wielding it out of a desure to be "nice."

One of the differences between Christianity and Islam on one hand, and Christianity and brain death on the other.

Film at eleven

The Washington Post reports that a resident of my former suburb of the nation's capital- Springfield, Virginia- has the perfect headline for the paper on May 22:

WORLD ENDS; TRAFFIC BACKED UP FOR HOURS

Oh, wait. No, it's merely  is it merely he "rapture-" a entirely  unbiblical concept common among "Evangelcals," and based on a misinterpretation of 1 Thessalonians 14:13-18- which actually describes the resurrection of the dead Christ's coming at the Final Judgment rather than a removal of believers from a world which will go its merry way to hell in a handbasket 

The confusion is understandable, since much of the publicity for the coming non-event refers to it as "Judgment Day-" a term which does not describe the mistaken notion of the "rapture."In any event, a more biblical understanding of the whole subject of the "End Times" than one finds among the millenialists can be found here, by the way.

But since Jesus tells us that "no one knows the day or the hour" of his coming, of two things we can be sure: first, that Judgment Day (and hence, the "rapture" referred to by Paul) will not be taking place on May 21, and secondly, like William Miller and all the other presumptuous predictors of what Jesus says cannot be predicted in the past, the Family Radio crowd will have a far-fetched but ready made explaination of that fact on May 22.

Or not. After all, if the true believers in Christ are all taken to heaven on May 21, what excuse will these people have for still being around on May 22?

Harold Camping, the man responsible for this prediction, also predicted that the end of the world would take place in 1994. His secret decoder ring is unlikely to be more accurate this time. And after all, Deuteronomy 18:22 remains as valid as it ever was:

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously. Do not be afraid of him.

I'm glad they're on our side!

The Rev. Dr. Gregory Jackson reports that he overheard one little girl saying that "baby seals killed bin Laden."

"People of Earth..."

I neglected to mention that Rep. Ron Paul (R-Utopia Planitia) announced his candidacy for the 2012 Republican nomination last week. Oh, joy.

Time for Donald Trump to speak out again and demand the long form of Paul's birth certificate, proving that he is in fact a native-born citizen of Planet Earth.

Family Radio will be really, really embarrassed on May 22!

But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. -- Matthew 24:36

But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. --Mark 13:32

It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. --Acts 1:7

And if you say in your heart, 'How may we know the word that the LORD has not spoken?' When a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him. --Deuteronomy 18:21-22

Family Radio used to be a fairly benign, garden variety Christian radio station of the "evangelical" persuasion. In the early '90's, Family Radio personality Howard Camping decided- on the basis of the same kind of absurd, arcane eisegesis characteristic of those "evangelicals" who think the Bible is full of secret codes that tell about future events (God apparently being the Author of confusion after all!) that Judgement Day would come in 1994.

Not only did he promote the notion on his radio program, but he actually wrote a book about it. Lo and behold, the world was still around on January 1, 1995. Mr. Camping suffered the same fate as all of those all through the ages who have ignored the clear words of Jesus on the subject and presumed to claim knowledge of what only the Father knows. But the folks at Family Radio haven't learned.

Jesus said quite clearly in the passages above that no one but the Father knows the day or the hour of Judgment Day. I tried to engage a man carrying a Family Radio-sponsored sign advertising the 21st of this month as the day in conversation about these verses. He refused to discuss the matter with me. No wonder; the explaination of the matter on the Family Radio website is absolutely inane.

William Miller, the founder of the Seventh Day Adventists, confidently preached a specific date for the end of the world on several different occasions, each time coming up with an ingenious rationalization for why the world hadn't ended as predicted. Over and over again, fevered enthusiasts have disregarded Christ's words about the unknowability of the day and the hour, only to look very foolish when Jesus didn't return.

Meanwhile, there are vans driving around the Des Moines area advertising the end of the world on May 21st. Apparently people are getting quite exercised about it. I wonder what their explanation will be on May 22, when Jesus hasn't come yet.

And whenever He does come, of one thing we can be sure: it will not be on May 21, 2011. As He Himself said, no man knows the day or the hour.

Not even people with a secret decoder ring.

Duerson did have CTE

The detailed autopsy requested in his suicide note by former Bears star Dave Duerson, who shot  himself in the chest Feb. 17 in order to preserve his brain for study, reveals that he did, indeed, have the injury-induced syndrome which has claimed the lives of at least 20 other former NFL players.

Former Blackhawks Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert also were found at autopsy to have suffered from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

The disorder- linked to repeated concussions- is a form of dementia which results in personality changes, memory loss, and depression.

Martin Luther taught that suicides- whom he said were often victims of a "mugging" by the devil through depression rather than rebels against God's providence- might not necessarily be damned. Surely if there was ever a noble suicide, it was Duerson's, who gave his life in order to help his fellow athletes.

May God have mercy on him, and on all who suffer from CTE.

Bin Laden arrives in hell

Once again, life imitates Tom Clancy.

The most recent book by the guy who wrote about a terrorist using an airplane as a weapon (crashing it into the Capitol, admittedly, rather than the World Trade Center or the Pentagon) well before 9-11 features the capture by JSOC troops of the Emir- the guy responsible for 9-11 in the Clancy universe, and an obvious stand-in for Osama bin Laden.

Yesterday the JSOC boys, apparently acting on a tip from Pakistani sources, located and killed bin Laden. They even secured his body so that there can be no doubt as to his identity. Justice has been served at last.

It is tempting to point out the symmetry of bin Ladin being killed under the administration of a president of the same party whose trashing of our intelligence capabilities made 9-l1 possible in the first place. Or to point out the irony of the fact that it's that president's party (though notably not Mr. Obama himself) who has been urging for so long that we cut and run in Afghanistan, and let the bin Ladens of the future breed undisturbed. Or how close we came to getting bin Laden at Tora Bora, in the days following the beginning of the Afghan war. Or the number of times the order Mr. Obama gave that led to bin Laden's death has been given before.
Or that Mr. Obama's suggestion that in directing DCI Paneta to make bin Laden's death or capture the CIA's number one priority he was somehow changed the priorities the agency had under Dubyah is hard to credit.

Or that it's about time that the Administration that Couldn't Shoot Straight finally shot something other than its own foot.

But whether he can justly take credit for it or not, the fact is that we got bin Laden on Barack Obama's watch. He will get credit for it; that's the way the game works. And as inane as the crowing about the fact that it was under Obama rather than Bush that we got bin Laden may be, we'll just have to put up with it.

So congratulations, Mr. President. Those of us who are your political critics will just have to suck it up. And Americans of all political persuasions can rejoice that th evil man responsible for the deaths of so many innocents has been brought to the bar of what, ironically, was the first code name given to the war in Afghanistan: Infinite Justice.