I was talking with a friend about the political monkey house that is our time, and the subject moved to the condition of the church in all of this. First, some ball park data. About one quarter of the electorate self-identifies as evangelical, and I am talking here about the white, born-again types. Please note …
The Distinguished Charles Krauthammer
I must rise to differ with the distinguished Charles Krauthammer. You may have noticed that I have been remarkably silent about the government shutdown shenanigans. This is not because I have nothing to say — indeed, every day that passes without government, I feel that Great Society ache in my bones lightening. And the crick …
The Red Queen in Alice
So the House has now passed a bill that defunds Obamacare. The president is miffed, and certain Republican establishment honchos are apoplectic. These realists of the right say that this quixotic business has got to stop because “you can’t govern from one half of one third of government.” If all you have is the House, …
Making It Flow to the End
In the Syria saga, we are getting a good glimpse of how political decisions are made in a gargantuan democracy, and we are also getting quite a cash payout — worth a great deal to me at any rate — of Ron Paul’s apparently quixotic presidential runs. Let me state the conclusion first. I am …
A Three Car Funeral
Spotify just informed me that Vince Gill had listened to Merle Haggard’s “The Fightin’ Side of Me,” and so naturally, I did too. It had been, what? — thirty years? Maybe more than that. Apart from how Congress votes on Syria, and regardless of what Obama does after that, we are not really in a …
Syria in a Sentence
I want Congress to authorize something I don’t believe they need to authorize, and which I reserve the right to do anyway whether or not they authorize it, in order that I might defend the credibility of a red line I didn’t actually draw, so that I may take decisive action that will not in …
Syrian Just War, or Just War in Syria?
The Syria thing is such a mess that it appears to fit right in. And so let me say just a few things that might indicate why I might say something like that, and to help everyone feel right at home. It is the Middle East, after all. Traditional just war theory contains two fundamental …
Other Than That, Everything’s Normal
It has been a while since we have discussed national security issues. I walked away from the topic so that all parties concerned might have a chance to calm down. But Bradley Manning was just sentenced to thirty years plus, and his big announcement right afterwards was that he wanted to start the Chelsea hormone …
When There Is No Ham in the Ham Sandwich
Here is a post that illustrates, as few other things could, the need to read our political and historical narratives in a biblical way. In this post, the author, Jada Thacker, argues that the Constitution was not about limited government at all, and that Tea Partiers and their ilk (ilk is just a great word, …
The Fourth of July: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Genuine patriotism is not surprised or derailed by flaws, sins or wickedness in the object of our love. Sentimental patriotism, by contrast, treats love of country the same way a maudlin Hallmark card writer would treat, after three beers, love of mother. Mothers Day becomes a high, holy, and sacred thing — a sanctifying thing, …