April 2008 Archives

I was just going through my moleskin looking for a quote I wrote down from the Westminster Confession the last time I took a class with my doctrine of God professor (he always puts the same section on the test) and I found that quote by Leon Wieseltier I liked it in 2004 and I still like it today because it says so much with so few words.

What do you think of it? I think it reminds me of the Christian life (yeah, I know he's a Jew :-) -- we suffer and then we understand.

There's a $10,000 reward for its safe return:

A reward has been offered for a giant inflatable pig which floated into the Californian desert during a concert by ex-Pink Floyd star Roger Waters.

Organisers of the Coachella Festival have put up a $10,000 (£5,090) bounty, plus tickets for life, for its return.

The pig, which is the width of two buses, has a checked ballot box for US presidential hopeful Barack Obama painted on its underbelly.

Waters said "that's my pig" as it drifted away during Sunday's gig.

The animal's flanks bear the slogans "fear builds walls" and "don't be led to the slaughter", with a cartoon of Uncle Sam holding two meat cleavers.

I saw this story and thought of the poor lefities who fear gun owners having a handgun (like Obama) who think they will shoot and ask questions later. Here's a guy who used his gun wisely, if he didn't have a gun, this might have ended differently:

Being a lousy shot might well have saved Marshall Hugo Grant's life.

After Grant fired three times Monday from the doorway of the King IGA grocery store, manager Marino Hernandez made a split-second decision not to fire back.

"I was afraid he was going to keep shooting, but I already had in mind that he wasn't a good shooter," Hernandez said Tuesday.

Grant, 73, appeared Tuesday morning before Judge Nancy Perez, who ordered him held without bond while he undergoes a psychiatric examination.

Grant was a daily customer who'd never been a problem, said Hernandez, who manages the large supermarket at 1000 36th St.

On Monday afternoon, Grant and Hernandez argued after he tried to enter the store through the exit.

"I said, 'You know what? Take your business elsewhere,'" Hernandez said.

Grant then drew a handgun. Assistant manager Roberto Espinal, behind a side counter, drew his gun. When Grant turned that way, Hernandez pulled his gun.

OK, I don't buy that Obama didn't know what his pastor was so outrageous. If he is outrageous at the Press Club event and in the sermons that have been available on the Internet chances are he must have been as outrageous when Obama attended services. Even Wright hinted that Obama agreed with what he said:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Tuesday he was outraged by the latest divisive comments from his former pastor and rejected the notion that he secretly agrees with him.

Obama is seeking to tamp down the growing fury over Rev. Jeremiah Wright and his incendiary remarks that threaten to undermine his campaign at a tough time. The Illinois senator is coming off a loss in Pennsylvania to rival Hillary Rodham Clinton and trying to win over white working-class voters in Indiana and North Carolina in next Tuesday's primaries.

"I am outraged by the comments that were made and saddened by the spectacle that we saw yesterday," Obama told reporters at a news conference.

After weeks of staying out of the public eye while critics lambasted his sermons, Wright made three public appearances in four days to defend himself. The former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago has been combative, providing colorful commentary and feeding the story Obama had hoped was dying down.

On Monday, Wright criticized the U.S. government as imperialist and stood by his suggestion that the United States invented the HIV virus as a means of genocide against minorities. "Based on this Tuskegee experiment and based on what has happened to Africans in this country, I believe our government is capable of doing anything," he said.

And perhaps even worse for Obama, Wright suggested that the church congregant secretly concurs.

"If Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected," Wright said. "Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls."

Obama stated flatly that he doesn't share the views of the man who officiated at his wedding, baptized his two daughters and been his pastor for 20 years. The title of Obama's second book, "The Audacity of Hope," came from a Wright sermon.

"What became clear to me is that he was presenting a world view that contradicts who I am and what I stand for," Obama said. "And what I think particularly angered me was his suggestion somehow that my previous denunciation of his remarks were somehow political posturing. Anybody who knows me and anybody who knows what I'm about knows that I am about trying to bridge gaps and I see the commonality in all people."

So, do you think Wright will start collating attendance records and sermon notes and give them to the press? :-)

BTW, I've been wondering if the Clintons made a donation to Wright's church recently. Maybe a million dollar donation? Hmmm...you know for a certain house in the white suburbs? (hint, hint, hint :-)

She is a Hillary supporter and arranged the press club event that featured Wright. Hmmmm...Seems a little fishy to me:

So, do you think that Barbara ReyThe Rev. Jeremiah Wright couldn't have done more damage to Barack Obama's campaign if he had tried. And you have to wonder if that's just what one friend of Wright wanted.

Shortly before he rose to deliver his rambling, angry, sarcastic remarks at the National Press Club Monday, Wright sat next to, and chatted with, Barbara Reynolds.

A former editorial board member at USA Today, she runs something called Reynolds News Services and teaches ministry at the Howard University School of Divinity. (She is an ordained minister).

It also turns out that Reynolds - introduced Monday as a member of the National Press Club "who organized" the event - is an enthusiastic Hillary Clinton supporter.

On a blog linked to her Web site- www.reynoldsnews.com- Reynolds said in a February post: "My vote for Hillary in the Maryland primary was my way of saying thank you" to Clinton and her husband for the successes of Bill Clinton's presidency.

The same post criticized Obama's "Audacity of Hope" theme: "Hope by definition is not based on facts," wrote Reynolds. It is an emotional expectation. Things hoped for may or may not come. But help based on experience trumps hope every time."