On the Radio: The Meaning of a Tornado

Scroll down to hear me join John Blok of Prime Time Florida for a look at a web only article from Christianity Today about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the vote to adopt a sexuality statement.

Astronomical Debt

Remember when the chief sin of Republicans was their dreaded "deficit spending"? Remember when Bill Clinton's chief accomplishment was balancing the budget?

The annual budget deficit under the Obama administration has tripled just from last year, to $1.6 trillion, and the national debt has ballooned to a tad under $12 trillion. In 10 years it will grow to $20 trillion. Even the mainstream media seem concerned.

One trillion is a number exceedingly difficult for mere mortals to grasp, which is what the Democrats are counting on. It is the number 1 followed by 12 zeroes (1,000,000,000,000). There are only an estimated 100 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy, so it would take 120 of our galaxies to match the current national debt, with one star for every dollar.

Who is going to pay for all this profligacy? You guessed it. We are, and our progeny for many generations. And remember, we haven't even "reformed" healthcare yet. That's expected to cost only an additionnal 1 followed by 12 zeroes.

Don't worry; only those who are making $250,000 or more will see a tax increase, right?

Podcast: Three Good Books for Kids

Stan Guthrie and John Wilson talk about reading with your children.

ELCA Assembly: Was God in Either Whirlwind?

Tornado touches convention center as Lutherans approve sexuality statement by the exact margin it needed to pass. Here's John Piper's response.

By Ted Olsen

Boca Raton News, RIP

I just got the news that the Boca Raton News, the paper where I got my start in journalism, is printing its last issue tomorrow. This is the third publication for which I've worked that has either shut down or experienced major financial problems. Journalism is a tough business to be in, but our society needs it as much as ever.

I had two stints at the BRN, which I'm sad to see go. One was as a part-timer maintaining the paper's "morgue," or clip file, while I attended Boca Raton High School. It was then that I met Jim Driscoll, the editor (and eventually had the privilege of taking his daughter Amy to the prom).

The second was after I graduated from the University of Florida in 1985 and joined the newspaper's staff briefly as a copy editor. What I most remember was going out to the parking lot with the weather radio (which had perennially poor reception) and trying to get the next day's forecast--how times have changed!

Then there was the time a hurricane was expected to come through (was it David?) and the staff was told that we had to be at our posts to report the news. All I could think of was how easily our parking lot flooded during normal south Florida rainstorms; I figured we would be swept away during a hurricane. Blessedly, the storm alighted elsewhere.

I was encouraged by so many outstanding people, among them: Grady Cooper, my professional, soft-spoken, and understanding boss who took me off horoscope duty; Skip Sheffield, who had an excellent band called the Sheffield Brothers; Dorothy Brown, who allowed me to rename the religion column; Vin Mannix, who brought bravado and fun to the sports department; Sandy Wesley, who was ever kind and helpful; Bill Tarrant and Kate McClare, who were outstanding reporters; Wayne Ezell, who listened to my impassioned complaints about the paper's coverage of abortion and then actually took action; and John Coley, a terrific photographer who allowed me to take pictures from the sideline of a Fort Lauderdale Strikers soccer game. Sadly, none of my pictures (taken by my trusty AE-1) were publishable, but I had a great time, anyway.

I learned many things at the News (which some detractors called the Snooze), one of which was the realization that newspapers were not my place of calling. But it was an excellent place to get started in journalism, and Boca Raton will be worse off for its absence.

Collins Resigns, Again

Francis Collins, new director of the National Institutes of Health, has stepped down from leading the BioLogos Foundation, launched just last spring to harmonize Christian faith with mainstream science, including evolution. Last year he resigned as director of the Human Genome Project.

Here's an excerpt from Sarah Pulliam's CT Politics Blog post:

"I want to reassure everyone I am here to lead the NIH as best I can, as a scientist," Collins said, noting concerns.

The author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief has been outspoken about his faith in the past.

''The NIH director needs to focus on science,'' Collins told the Associated Press on Monday. ''I have no religious agenda for the NIH.''

Why does Collins, an outstanding scientist, feel he has to reassure people? And how does this move harmonize with keeping together faith and science? Perhaps there was pressure for the former director of the Human Genome Project to do so, but I wasn't aware there was a religious test to hold any position in the Obama administration.

If this were the policy at the dawn of modern science, we would not have modern science, because many of the great early scientists were Christians.

Just Right Blinds

Quality window blinds provide a home not just with style and beauty, but also with energy efficiency. My friend Todd Zimmerman of Just Right Blinds and Shutters in Wheaton, Ill., is a careful and ethical professional. Just Right features the outstanding brands Hunter Douglas, Timber, and Comfortex. Todd will take the time to expertly respond to all of your window treatnment needs.

Feeding Hope Under a Rogue Regime

Christian outreach to North Koreans helps to keep millions from starving.

By Tim Stafford in Pyongyang

A Prescription for Limited Health Care Reform

Polls consistently show that most Americans are happy with their own doctors and health care. And they should be. This country is home to the most advanced health care in the world, and it welcomes a steady stream of patients from other nations who live under government-run systems of the kind being pushed on us by President Obama.

Perhaps this explains why more and more people are rebelling against Barack Obama's proposed takeover of the the health care system (which the president now euphemistically calls "health insurance reform"). By the same logic, since most people are unhappy with Congress but pleased with their own representatives, perhaps we should do away with the House and Senate and replace them with a panel of unelected bureaucrats.

Obama and the rest of the Democrats say health insurance costs are too high and coverage is too low, and in this they are right. The current system, set up with the encouragement of the federal government decades ago, unnecessarily links employment and insurance, and removes the responsibility of the consumer to make choices. As a result, there is no check on prices, and people have no idea what their care really costs. If they lose their job, they lose their insurance and have to face the inflated costs of coverage alone.

Setting aside the fictitious, wildly inflated number of 47 million uninsured (which includes everyone from illegals to healthy young people who choose to do without), they propose to fix these problems of the health care system with a gargantuan, phased-in takeover, and people are getting nervous.

After all, if our elected leaders botched the relatively simple and inexpensive "Cars for Clunkers" program, why should we give them control of one-sixth of the American economy, particularly when lives are at stake? And many Americans don't like the idea of paying for abortions or illegal aliens, which would be permitted under the current trillion-dollar plan (that somehow will not increase our costs). It's like pounding a nail with a stick of dynamite: It might work, but I wouldn't want to get too close.

If the Democrats just for a minute can stop calling their worried fellow citizens Nazis, Klansmen, and racists for refusing to pay for this health care clunker, perhaps they can get down to actually fixing what needs fixing in the current system. At a minimum, they can read their own bill and pledge to apply to themselves and their families whatever reform is finally passed.

In the Penalty Box

Patrick Kane, the former No. 1 pick in the National Hockey League draft, is a fan favorite for the Chicago Blackhawks. In some ways the baby-faced Kane is the face of a franchise that is clearly on the rise. A talented goal-scorer, the 20-year-old Kane, who wears No. 88, has been known as a gentleman on and off the ice. Until now.

Press reports indicate that Kane and a 21-year-old cousin beat up a Buffalo, N.Y.-cab driver this weekend over a $13.80 fare. Buffalo is Patrick Kane's hometown. It seems the pair gave the 62-year-old man $15 and asked for their change. When he produced $1, they demanded their 20 cents. (Patrick Kane, mind you, earned over $3 million this past year.)

When the driver said he didn't have it, the pair began pummeling him, breaking his nose and glasses. Patrick Kane reportedly asked the driver, "Don't you know who I am?"

The Erie County sheriff's office says the Kanes were released on their own recognizance after pleading not guilty to charges of theft of services and criminal mischief and a felony charge of robbery in the second degree.

Now there has to be more to the story than this. Alcohol was likely involved, and it is possible that the driver knew exactly who Patrick Kane was and provoked him, though I doubt it. And in any event there is no justification for beating up a 62-year-old cab driver, even if provoked. Real gentlemen walk away.

For now the Blackhawks, who have endured one PR misstep after another this summer, say they are standing by their star player (who often requires protection on the ice from bigger, stronger teammates). Perhaps that is the thing to do until all the facts come out, but it doesn't look good. If the charges are true, they need to stop protecting Patrick Kane.

Gentlemen may be in short supply in the violent world of the NHL. But there is no excuse for this incident, which after all didn't occur on the ice but on the streets of Buffalo.

Sports fans may not require perfection from their icons, but we ought to have some standards. Here's hoping the moral repugnance of assault for 20 cents in loose change sparks the outrage it deserves. Otherwise we all deserve to sit in the penalty box.

UPDATE: As details continue to dribble out like a hockey puck along the boards, it's looking a little better for Patrick Kane, but just a little. The cabbie may have locked him and his cousin into the car until they paid their fare, and the supposed victim's attorney says he may not press charges. I hope they're not awaiting some kind of payoff.

So indeed the cab driver may have indeed provoked Kane, but it seems the response (beating him up, if that's what happened) was a stupid, nasty overreaction. Like the Blackhawks, I'm awaiting further details. It seems there are no heroes in this sordid mess.

A Modest Proposal: Truth, Grace, and Carrie Prejean

By Stan Guthrie

At first the narrative seemed straightforward, the moral clear.

AP: Proposed Health Insurance Would Allow Abortion Coverage

By Sarah Pulliam

Proposed health care legislation could allow a new government-sponsored insurance plan to fund abortions, the Associated Press reports.

They Say It's My Birthday

My friend, Pastor Chuck King, sent me the following link to celebrate my (August 1) birthday. Thanks, Chuck!