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Thanks for the great discussion about my last post on Darfur and Michael Vick. I want to start with a great and honest comment from one reader:

...humans are not "of greater worth" than animals. Humans *are* animals, and we are not the "best" animal either. That is purely a rather arrogant Judeo-Christian concept that is not shared by a great many people of other faiths in the world.

What this reader writes is an accurate description of what many people believe - whether they admit it or not. Charity reminded me of something I'd forgotten:

During the Katrina disaster and it's aftermath, I had a number of co-workers [more] worried about what happened to the animals than to the people who suffered. Maybe it is just because at the time I was a new Mom (though I doubt it). To me the human tragedy overshadowed the animals. I will never get out of my mind the picture of a woman standing on an overpass crying/screaming while dead bodies floated along the flooded streets in front of her.

I know several people who adopted pets from New Orleans. I'm thrilled that they did. They actually did something tangible to lessen Katrina's horror. They are doing more than I did.

But we will reach a frighteningly dangerous place in this world if we fail to believe human lives are more important than animal lives. If we really get to that point we will not have elevated animals to the level of man. We will have reduced the level of man to that of the animals. And that will not be good for us or for them.

Federal prosecutors have gotten disgraced NFL star Michael Vick to set aside $928,000 for the care and placement of the 54 pit bulls rescued from his horrendous dogfighting operation. That is quite a lot of money by every standard - more than $17,000 per dog.

We live in a ghastly rich country. Michael Vick has (or had) a lot of money. It is humane to care for those animals. No arguments here.

But if it is true that dogs deserve to be treated well - to be cared for and loved - then shouldn't it also be true that people suffering from genocide in Darfur deserve even better care?

Isn't it true that human beings are of greater worth than animals? I don't say this, as some have, as justification for hurting animals or destroying our environment. Quite the opposite actually - I believe our responsibility to God's creation is extraordinarily high. That goes for the environment and it goes for our pets and it goes to how we treat the chickens and cows and pigs that eventually end up on our plates.

But don't we have to ask ourselves whether our priorities are a bit whacked if we find ourselves more interested in caring for dogs than in caring for suffering people?

How is this for a stunning, amazing, earth-shattering study:

Harry Potter, James Patterson and Oprah Winfrey’s book club aside, Americans — particularly young Americans — appear to be reading less for fun, and as that happens, their reading test scores are declining. At the same time, performance in other academic disciplines like math and science is dipping for students whose access to books is limited, and employers are rating workers deficient in basic writing skills.

Stop the presses. The more children read the better that do in tests that they have to read. This is genius. I wonder how much the study cost.

Interestingly, that article, from the New York Times, bears a striking resemblance to this article from The Onion:

According to a groundbreaking new study by the Department of Labor, working—the physical act of engaging in a productive job-related activity—may greatly increase the amount of work accomplished during the workday, especially when compared with the more common practices of wasting time and not working.

"Our findings are astounding: By simply sitting down and doing work, employees can dramatically increase their output of goods and services," said Deputy Undersecretary of Labor Charlotte Ponticelli, who authored the report. "In fact, 'working' may revolutionize the way people work.

Of course The Onion is a work of satire. And The New York Times...

The financial news continues to stink quite a bit:

Wall Street suffered its second big drop in a week Wednesday, with investors worried about spreading fallout from the credit crisis at banks and about a dollar that just keeps getting weaker. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 360 points -- just about matching its pullback of last Thursday.

All of this makes me think again about my Yertle the Turtle theory of economic collapse...

I fear that our economy has Yertle-like tendencies - we are built atop so many other countries, so many grand assumptions about continued ravenous consumption of more and more and more stuff, and worldwide greed to match ours that sometimes I just wait for Mack to raise his head for our economy and wealth to go, "Plunk! in the pond!"

There is something about those awful California fires and our government's response and President Bush's response that is bugging me. I've isolated the problem. It is two words long. New Orleans.

Our government's response to the fires has been basically in line with what citizens should expect. It was swift, it was thorough and it promises to continue as the painful and trying rebuilding moves forward. It is in line with how the government responded in 9/11's aftermath in New York.

I'm glad he went out there. I'm glad he consoled some people. The pictures are very nice.

That is what continues to trouble me about New Orleans and Katrina. Not only was our government's failure historically horrific, it continues to this day.

Read what noted history professor Douglas Brinkley wrote on Katrina's 2nd anniversary:

Over the past two years since Hurricane Katrina, I've seen waves of hardworking volunteers from nonprofits, faith-based groups and college campuses descend on New Orleans, full of compassion and hope.

They arrive in the city's Ninth Ward to painstakingly gut houses one by one. Their jaws drop as they wander around afflicted zones, gazing at the towering mounds of debris and uprooted infrastructure.

After weeks of grueling labor, they realize that they are running in place, toiling in a surreal vacuum.

Two full years after the hurricane, the Big Easy is barely limping along, unable to make truly meaningful reconstruction progress. The most important issues concerning the city's long-term survival are still up in the air. Why is no Herculean clean-up effort underway? Why hasn't President Bush named a high-profile czar such as Colin Powell or James Baker to oversee the ongoing disaster? Where is the U.S. government's participation in the rebuilding?

And why are volunteers practically the only ones working to reconstruct homes in communities that may never again have sewage service, garbage collection or electricity?

Eventually, the volunteers' altruism turns to bewilderment and finally to outrage. They've been hoodwinked. The stalled recovery can't be blamed on bureaucratic inertia or red tape alone. Many volunteers come to understand what I've concluded is the heartless reality: The Bush administration actually wants these neighborhoods below sea level to die on the vine.

I don't want to believe that it is all about money and race but the Bush administration is making it harder and harder to come to any other conclusion. This administration's days are numbered. There is little it can do. History will judge this administration one of the worst ever. It is simply a matter of its position. There are, however, things that can be done. Showing up in San Diego was terrific Mr. President but how about going back to that city in Louisiana.... you know, this one you were looking at while it flooded:

For all the talk about taxes and budgets and Supreme Court justices and gay marriage, here is something that Christians should be uniquely qualified to address - a ridiculously over-stressed nation. Forty-eight percent of Americans say they're more stressed now...

A new study reports: One in five pregnancies worldwide ends in an abortion, amounting to a significant fall compared with the mid-nineties, but nearly half these terminations still take place in unsafe conditions, a study says. In 2003, the latest...

The polar bears speak:...

I've finally found a decent explanation for why it will be 90 here today and why it is 85 in Buffalo. Here it is....

There is a provocative new article in an Italian magazine speculating that Pope John Paul II was actually euthanized - at least according to the definition of euthanasia used by the Catholic church: In a provocative article, an Italian medical...

Thank you Andrew Sullivan for finding this. Can someone come up with a good haiku for high cows? Winner will get a $15 iTunes gift certificate....

There will be no OJ posts in this blog. None (apart from this one). I can't stand to think about it - about any of it. I remember back in the "summer of OJ" I had a colleague who watched...

When did hypocrisy become the greatest of all vices? I obviously overstate but to look at the news is to see joyous revelry at revelations of hypocrisy - Larry Craig, Al Gore's flying around in private jets, John Edwards driving...

Did the South Korean government go too far in negotiating for the release of the hostages? Talk about a hard case. Everyone should be celebrating the release of those men and women. How truly, truly wonderful. At the same time,...

Michael Vick this morning: "We all make mistakes. I made a mistake for using bad judgement and making bad decisions," Vick said. "Dogfighting is a terrible thing and I didn't reject it. ... Through this situation I found Jesus and...

Today Michael Vick will face justice for his abominable actions. Abominable isn't even the right word. Horrifying isn't right. Nothing seems good enough to describe what he did. God gave us dominion over creation but that means he gave us...

As fall - the most wonderful time of the year - approaches things will heat up. I'll be blogging a lot more. Because fall will mean a rapid upturn in political coverage that means I'll be blogging more on politics...

Whenever there is a disaster it is Christian relief and development organizations that are among the first on the ground. This is a fact too often lost in "sexier" conversations about politics or theology. But in Peru and in Southeast...

Following up on yesterday's post on Kia Vaughn's lawsuit against Don Imus, I received this wonderful email from our friend Thinker who has found a perfect and profound quote from Richard Rohr: "The psychological age has found a surprising and...

There is a Christian nation. It just isn't America. It is the global nation of those who follow Jesus. It is hard for me to think that way but I think it is the right way to look at the...

I got a chance to screen the 20/20 piece on Billy Graham and the presidents and it really is a must-watch. More than any other article or TV program of late, it tells the story of faith and politics in...

Yesterday in Iowa Rudy Giuliani kept up with his practice of not talking about his religious practice: "My religious affiliation, my religious practices and the degree to which I am a good or not so good Catholic, I prefer to...

It is easy to look back of 21 centuries of Christendom and figure its rise was inevitable. The fashionable arguments of suppressed gospels, altered Gospels, corruption, conspiracy, and the like are well known to most moderns. But what is easy...

Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama were once the most collegial of colleagues today's NYT reports. Now? They don't talk save for trying to look friendly when the camera is trained on them. A big deal? Anything unusual? Of...

When the bridge went down on Wednesday night, the fears for massive loss of life were great. I talked to a reporter friend on the scene and she said that the sense was it might be pretty bad. Now comes...

Thanks to Jillian for the link to this article about 50% of Americans thinking we found WMDs in Iraq. The article is a year old but is still a jaw-dropper - a much more powerful example of how little we...

Several months ago I posted a story about a man in Hawaii who was giving away houses and suggested he be nominated for an award for his kindness. I haven't paid nearly enough attention to finding such stories. I came...

I am haunted by the beauty of Lindsay Lohan's booking photo. I'm not sure I've ever seen a booking photo that is truly art - though, I suppose, each one is art in its own way. Hers is art. It...