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President Bush is close to making his first nomination to the Supreme Court, and Washington was abuzz with speculation Tuesday about Judge Edith Clement of the U.S. Court of Appeals in New Orleans…. Known as a conservative and a strict constructionist in legal circles, Clement has eased fears among some abortion-rights advocates. She has stated that the Supreme Court “has clearly held that the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution includes the right to have an abortion” and that “the law is settled in that regard.”

Still, Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said that Clement’s record raises “seriously troubling” questions about her commitment to protecting personal freedom. “Unless she was able to put those concerns to rest in Senate hearings, pro-choice Americans would oppose her nomination,” Keenan said.

Her statements also are causing concern in anti-abortion circles. “We are looking to see in what context Judge Clement made those statements and do they give a window into her thinking on Roe and other decisions,” said Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the conservative Christian Defense Coalition.

I don’t know how well the Love Your Enemy command translates into politics. At least, not in the give-in-to-them-everytime-they-cry manner apparently preferred by the President.

Wasn’t a pro-life Supreme Court judge the one solid reason for conservatives to vote for the President this last go round? Anyway, this may simply be a smokescreen, so there’s not much point getting all hissy about it yet.

“Why can’t we go on our plane? Is it broken?”

No, it’s not broken. It’s just that the men who are in charge of fixing it say it’s broken.

“But why would they say that, if it’s not broken?”

They’re having a labor dispute. Basically, that means they want to get paid more money.

“Don’t they already get paid money to work?”

Yes, but they want more.

“Why do they need more money? Don’t they already get paid money? Don’t they know we want to go on our plane?”

Yes, they do, but they think being paid more money is more important than us getting on our plane.

“Oh….” (disapproving shake of the head)

Some time passes…. “When are we going to get on the plane?”

CH can’t imagine that it’s wrong:

There is a nasty rumor out there that Evangelicals love George Bush more than Jesus. I invite you to inspect my family’s checkbook and calendar. Two sure signs of where our heart is. You, Chrisitanity Today and Kyle Williams have entered into dangerous territory: judging not only the Christian Right’s heart and motives, but our call from the Lord. Jesus said it best,”Before you remove the speck in your neighbor’s eye, get the log out of your own.” Do a fraction for the cause of evangelism, discipleship, and changing hearts and minds, that the Lord has allowed us to do and God will tell you,”well done good and faithful servant.” Until you’ve done that much, don’t lecture me.

Again I’m left to wonder how people manage to confuse a collective institution – in this case the Christian Right – with the individual. The Christian Right is not my neighbor, indeed, I suspect that as a right-wing evangelical Christian, most people would consider me to be a part of it, and it has no eye.

I’m not sure which I find more strange. CH’s defense-by-backpatting or her overly defensive response to the outlandish idea that perhaps salvation does not come by electing Bushes to nominate Supreme Court justices.

One great problem faced by Christians attempting to address either the Iraqi War or the War on Method – which may yet morph into a pan-al Harb War on Islam – is that it is impossible to dictate societal actions by the tenets of an individual faith. A society has no soul, it cannot forgive nor will it one day face judgment for its actions.

It is clear from the Old Testament that God’s view of war is rather different than our own. What we see, justifiably, as a form of Hell can actually be the right and proper thing to do, if it is performed in obedience to a Divine command.

But what does God command? Not this war, apparently, as the Commander-in-Chief has made no claim of receiving Divine guidance of which I am aware. I think that a decision of this sort tends to fall in the area of a judgment call, theologically different from the decision to run or pass the ball on first-and-ten only in its expected effect on the lives of others.

I could, of course, be completely wrong.

Morgan skips over half measures – and one-quarter, one-third and three quarters measures, for that matter:

I’m waiting for someone to suggest “kill them all and let God sort them out.” If somoene hasn’t written it, I’m sure they’re thinking it….*sigh*

So, there’s no middle ground between doing nothing and hoping that being nice to the Muslims will moderate the behavior of their extremist elements and “kill[ing] them all”? This strikes me as bordering on silly.

Repatriating all non-citizen Muslims and forbidding future entry would be only one of a vast panoply of actions designed to significantly reduce the problem. The problem is that the current lack of a coherent response tends to increase the likelihood of the more extreme and more violent reaction that every decent individual hopes never to see.

If anyone is thinking it, it is because they do not have faith that the authorities will take responsible and reasonable action.

From the UK Guardian:

Plans by an alliance of rightwing extremists and football hooligans to exact “revenge” on Muslims after last week’s bomb attacks are being monitored by police. The Guardian has learned that extremists are keen to cause widespread fear and injury with attacks on mosques and high-profile “anti-Muslim” events in the capital.

Football hooligans communicating over the internet have spoken of the need to put aside partisan support for teams and unite against Muslims. Hooligans from West Ham, Millwall, Crystal Palace and Arsenal are among those seeking to establish common cause.

What is the difference betweeen “revenge” and revenge? Or an “anti-Muslim” event and one that is merely anti-Muslim? Anyhow, it’s good to know that the British police will be working hard to prevent reprisals against those committing mass murder. One wouldn’t want people overreacting to mass murder, after all.

Thomas Sowell writes:

Those of us who believe in the two-party system regard voting for a third party as throwing away your vote. However, we could use two new parties to replace the Democrats and Republicans.

It’s hard to argue with either statement. The first is obviously true. So, in my opinion, is the second.

John Podhoretz writes on NRO:

Here’s my very short take on the matter, after decades as a baseball fanatic. Anybody who cares one whit about this sport any longer is a sap — a lovable sap, a sentimental sap, maybe. But a sap. Look at the facts. The records of the last decade were all drug-induced. The man who was supposedly the greatest player in the history of the game is now mysteriously injured forever — probably because he can’t get out of bed in terror of that grand jury indictment coming down the pike that will accuse him straightforwardly of being a cheater. And not even a pleasant cheater either. Meanwhile, now that nobody’s taking the drugs any longer the league rankings and ratings have gone totally screwy, and basically, the biggest star in the majors is a 75 year-old loudmouth and one-time convicted felon who paid in excess of $200 million for a team that can barely tie its shoelaces without whining and kvetching and losing. Yeeech. Baseball stinks. So let A-Rod play for the Dominican Republic. At least in Latin American countries, the sport still means something. Here, it means … skyboxes.

Even thirty years ago, boxing was one of the three dominant sports, with the heavyweight champ being one of the two or three most famous people on earth. Now boxing is less popular than poker on television. Baseball is going that way too — not for any of those old-timey reasons, like it’s slow or good athletes are going into basketball or people like the violence of football. It’s going south because a sport that seemed nearly impossible to fix turns out to have been fixed one person at a time, and that kind of corruption eats away at the essence of what it means to be a fan.

NFL football is, without a doubt, the greatest sport in the world. I am a little concerned about FIFA soccer, as while the international competitions are as stirring as ever, the falsely-named Champions League – are there really three Premiership champions? – has significantly reduced the importance of league championships while forcing the top teams to play far too many games.

The football season, with all its inherent violence, is meant to be an endurance contest. A season of the beautiful game should not be.

… is simply awesome. After a life free of cavities, the dentist warned me last year that I had developed some decay on a few teeth in back. I spent a little over an hour watching Caddyshack on the ceiling TV while the dental team drilled away, and thanks to the topical Novocaine or whatever it was, the only problem was trying not to crack up while Ty Webb was stabbing Lacy Underall with the acupuncture needle.

(By the way, Lacy was really, really hot in a poor man’s Morgan Fairchild way. What happened to her? She was much prettier than any of the Brat Pack girls, and it’s not like any of them could act, either.)

The other great thing is that the fillings are white and you can’t see them even if you are looking for them, so there’s none of that mouth full of black holes thing going on. The bad news, however, is that the dentist decided that since it went so well, we might as well take care of three teeth that were borderline last time this afternoon.

Once more into the breach, dear friends….

Thus spake the Virgin Queen:

In fact, of all the popular writers I’m currently reading I would have to say that only Neal Stephenson routinely comes up with plots that are original and engaging and surprising

Which wouldn’t hurt a bit, were it not combined with this recent post:

I absolve myself of all responsibility for my lack of posting lately, as it is entirely Vox’s fault. I’ve been reading The War in Heaven at breakneck speed in between lab duties and I will be posting a book review soon.

On second thought, it probably doesn’t apply to me at all, considering that “popular” is not an adjective often applied to me wearing my writer’s hat. But in any case, I have no problem admitting that Neal Stephenson is a much more interesting and accomplished novelist than I am.

Dan Brown, on the other hand, has merely sold more books….