Debates. I thought jfk did much better than I expected -- Bush worse. The big loser, in my opinion, was Jim Leher. His questions alternated between "Let's talk about your mistakes, Mr. President." and "Senator, would you like to talk about the President's mistakes."

Glad to see Sudan get some notice - not happy about either response.

Klaatu Barada Nikto. Driving in to work this morning, before 6 a.m as usual, I saw a huge silver craft, all lit up hovering over DC (perhaps the Foggy Bottom area). I quickly saw it was a blimp, but it was kind of unnerving, it had no markings (MetLife, Goodyear, etc.).

Good News/Bad News. Béisbol may be coming back to DC.

On the other hand, my beloved A's have lost 14 of their last 22 games and are now tied for first with the Angels.

More. I agree with this -- let's call the new DC team the Grays.

At 60, he swam to Alcatraz handcuffed. While towing a half-ton boat.

Jack LaLane turns 90 this weekend -- his is a wonderful story. Growing up in the Oakland area, we used to hear about his exploits and swap Jack-jokes.

I'm looking forward to his 100th birthday.

BTW, my mother, who is considerably younger (although my baby sister just turned 39), plays 18 holes of golf twice a week, walking, not riding, and carries her clubs.

Upset? I like Winsome Sears (R) in an upset over incumbent Bobby Scott (D) in Virginia's third district. This is not likely to happen, I admit -- think USA v. Russia in Olympic Hockey, circa 1980. Yet, I believe in miracles. And Sears has done something similar before. Scott has been around forever -- I remember talking about him with a friend in college over 20 years ago.

Yet, she could do it...

Reports on the Scott-Sears debate here

On the other hand, I have no idea who will win the contest in Virginia's 2nd after Ed Shrock's surprise resignation.

L'église, c'est moi. The continuing adventures of former Bp. Spong: Roland Williams is an "empty man," with "no courage, no backbone and no ability to lead." In short, a "miserable failure."

Of course, Spong is the measure of all things and we all fall short.

Time for Prof. Volokh to put his money where his mouth is... (and this is an easy one). According to the AP, the Republicans are disseminating a mailing arguing that Liberals want to ban the Bible. (via CT Weblog)

Yesterday, Eugene wrote "when Republicans say outrageous things, it seems to me that we Republicans ought to condemn them, to try to redeem the movement's good name. "

I expect he will.

Sunset Beach




Here's a picture of Sunset Beach, O'ahu in the late afternoon, August 29, 2004. As you can see, it's flat, nearly glassy. No surf means no surfers, so it was not crowded; also, somewhat cloudy -- nevertheless, a glorious afternoon.

Swaggert's Six Commandments. UCLA Law Prof. Eugene Volokh rightly notes Jimmy Swaggert is beyond the bounds of humanity with his announcement that he would kill any gay man who looked at Swaggert with lust and then lie to God about it. Swaggert is best known for flouting the commandment against adultery and now looks to, in order, read out of existence the commandments against murder, lying, and honoring God. [Update: Volokh has more here.]

However, Volokh then argues that all Christians have a responsibility to declaim the words of Swaggert, which have given rise to a concern about "guilt by association." Prof. Volokh, being a true gentleman and scholar (and I do not use these words lightly, Eugene has always been scrupulously fair), posts a lengthy articulate e-mail and responds.

I believe the division between Volokh and his correspondents is really more over the nature of being a Christian.* For Volokh, anyone who proclaims themself to be a "Christian" should be taken at face value. Yet, there are many out there who call themselves "Christian," who believe and support the most abhorrent practices known to humanity. Currently, John Kerry is a self-professed Catholic, yet believes that there should be no prohibition on the murder of infants in the womb or those infants who have a part of their body still clinging to their mother. Recently, speaking of the Catholic Church, there has been a crisis with respect to ministers who have been engaged in horrendous acts of child molestation. Reading a book a couple of months ago, I learned that a "Christian" minister was an active participant in the acts of genocide in Rwanda ten years ago. [see related]

Within my own denomination, the Episcopal Church, we have had bishops and ministers who have denied the resurrection and/or Divinity of Jesus. We have a crisis because of the elevation to bishop status a man who is living in an active sexual relationship outside the bounds of matrimony. Further aggravating the crisis is the unilateral decision of a number of ministers to authorize the blessing of same-sex relationships, despite clear denominational teachings and prohibitions against this practice.

So my question, I guess, is what are Christians to do? Should we set up an index? An office to engage in, oh, inquisitorial practices?

Making things even more difficult for the establishment of an index is the fact that Christianity is not really a unitary system: it is a religion manifest in a multitude of denominations. I have little reluctance to critique those within my own denomination (and be critiqued by them). I will do the same to those with whom I have a relationship (even if a cyber-relationship). I will critique those within Christian churches which are related to mine and with which I feel a close kinship. For those farther removed, such as a Jerry Falwell, I am more reticent.

Personally, I have long regarded Swaggert as beyond the bounds of Christianity (although, not beyond the bounds of Christ -- Swaggert may still be reached by Jesus). I see him as being like that former Gore supporter and self-proclaimed minister who is involved with that "godhatesfags" movement.

While not set up as judges (Mt. 7:1), we were left a clear text for determining sheep and wolves:

"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who
says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' "

Mt. 7:15-23 (NIV)

I believe Jimmy Swaggert is a false prophet -- look at the fruit of his belief system and his practice: he has completely eliminated four of the eternal ten commandments. This is bad fruit.

Now, on the contrary, if you want to see what real Christianity is, read this essay just posted on the Christianity Today website about a student who encountered Christ in a dying homosexual activist and his cats.


One last thing, Prof. Volokh observes: "Christianity is a belief system -- not just an involuntary status such as race or ethnicity, but a consciously chosen belief system that is based on certain writings and certain traditions." I have Calvinist friends who would strongly deny this -- they would argue that they did not choose Christ, He chose them. For them, it is every bit as deep an involuntary status as race or ethnicity.

-----------
*If I remember correctly, the words used in the New Testament to refer to "Christians" literally means a slave of Christ and was used by those outside the faith, not the adherents themselves.

ACLU requests restraint on press is the title of an article in today's Omaha World-Herald. The first sentence of the story sums it up:

In a stark turnabout from its free-speech advocacy, the ACLU urged a judge
Monday to prevent the Omaha World-Herald from publishing the name of the
Plattsmouth, Neb., man who sued the city over a Ten Commandments monument.

Read the whole thing.

The Rather Forgeries are, of course, not forgeries.

I have it on good authority that CBS is in possession of the original Killian memos and that, if you examine them properly under UV light, you will find, on the back, the map to the legendary lost treasure of the Templar Knights.

There is no truth to the rumor, however, that the Rather Forgeries were kept in a pumpkin on a farm in Maryland.

Update: Dan Rather responds: "Ah, but the strawberries! That's, that's where I had them. They laughed at me and made jokes, but I proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, and with, with geometric logic, that, that a duplicate key to the wardroom icebox did exist. . ."

Back in a couple of weeks.

Here's my beloved on the beach at Lanikai last Friday:

See you in September. Work has been even more demanding lately -- I'm working a lot of extra hours. Add to the mix that we're doing construction on our house (word this morning is that we're going to have to wait 1-2 weeks for the severed phone line to be replaced) and I doubt I'll be stopping by much.

After Labor day things look better.

After the Sunset. The whole family went down for the visitation on Wednesday night and met up with three in from Louisiana who were downtown for the procession. I regret missing the procession -- my wife's cousin and his friends were very impressed. They said they could see the details on the jets as they flew by.

We got in line a little before 9 pm -- it was hot, but the sun was setting. We wound our way through a snaking line and after about three hours we were told we were about two hours away. In the old Soviet Union, this is what people did to get toilet paper. How the world has changed -- because of this man.

Joe fell asleep in the stroller, but Em seemed to rev up -- did someone give her some coffee? Sarah was wonderful -- always cheerful and upbeat (except for one moment when she discovered she'd lost one of her magic beans -- we had the whole line [okay, not the whole line, but several hundred people looking for it -- no luck). After awhile -- around midnight -- staffers appeared and started handing out copies of a congressional resolution on President Reagan -- very nice, but I was more impressed that they were there so late at night.

About a half hour later, Joy discovered they were handing out coffee -- she was in heaven.

We talked about his final address to us -- the letter announcing he had Alzheimer's and how, even then, he was both gracious and full of hope:

In closing, let me thank you, the American people, for giving me the great honor of allowing me to serve as your president. When the Lord calls me home, whenever that day may be, I will leave with the greatest love for this country of ours and eternal optimism for its future.

I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.

A little later, we saw Mark, a friend from church and a staffer for Sen. Rick Santorum -- it was nice to see a friendly face, but (repeating myself), I was very impressed that he was there so late at night to help people out.

Many were there handing out water. Those in line were chatting, reading, talking on cell phones; my wife called a good friend in Seattle at midnight. The heat never broke -- before we had to shut off the phones we called weather -- the temperature was 81 (after midnight), high humidity, no breeze.

Finally, we made it through security -- two different checkpoints. Everyone was very friendly (except for the people in the main screening tent -- not sure what was wrong there).

We still had a longer wait on the West porch of the Capitol Building -- beautiful views. I remember a pre-9/11 world when I actually used to run a lap around here in the mornings before work -- very early, I used to observe Newt's Mustang convertible parked on the East side. It was the first time my three youngest had been up there.

The line would move swiftly, but come to a complete standstill every now and then. One of the officers explained that at the changing of the guard every half-hour the viewing was halted. He said it took about 7 minutes.

Soon we were nearing the entrance and I pointed out that this was where the President stood when he was first sworn in -- the first president to face America, instead of facing Europe.

Time to wake Joe up -- he did not want to wake up. Joy pushed the stroller while I tried to get Joe to stand up (and wake up). Emmie went with her Mom; Sarah went with Sarah (from La.). Jared and Tyler (from La.) carried the stroller up the stairs to the Rotunda and we all climbed the stairs...

Then we were there, in the chambers. There was the flag draped over the box that held the shell of the Man. I would like to tell you of how I wept and prayed and cherished my memories of Reagan and observed the majesty of the event and all that happened, but I was a parent wanting to ensure my son understood these things. How well I succeeded? Time will tell.

We lingered as long as possible -- in the back -- and left too soon.

Farewell.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

* * *

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Photo source: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate 1st Class Arlo K. Abrahamson.
Text from Walt Whitman's O Captain! My Captain!

Some Dunce! The following passage is from William Greider's Secrets of the Temple (a book about the Federal Reserve). You may recall (Reagan critic) Greider ran an embarassing "expose" of David Stockman, President Ronald W. Reagan's director of OMB, in the Atlantic magazine. Please pay attention to the final paragraph in particular.

Ronald Reagan, ironically, had a surer grasp of the subject [monetary policy] than any of his senior political advisers -- ironic because, in most realms of government policy, Reagan was a passive executive, with a weak grasp of details. He often left both the particulars and the strategic choices to his circle of advisers. They worked out a consensus among themselves, then brought the decision to him for ratification. When it came to money, however, Reagan knew what he wanted and expressed it forcefully.
"Most of the major players in the White House -- Baker, Meese, Mike Deaver -- don't know much about monetary policy," one of their colleagues explained. "The President probably has the most developed understanding of any of them."
David Stockman elaborated the point:

The President has two metaphors he uses when he talks about monetary policy. One is "zooming the money supply," which meant money was too easy. "Pulling the string" meant it was too tight. The President doesn't have a lot of things right in his head. He is kind of selective about what facts he takes in, but one thing he really believes in deeply is anti-inflation. He used the same cliche over and over: "Inflation is like radioactivity. Once it starts, it spread and grows."

Ronald Reagan was a monetarist himself. That label had never been publically applied to him in all his years as a candidate (perhaps because most political reporters were oblivious to the distinction), but Reagan's campaign bromides clearly reflected his monetarist perspective. Inflation originated with the "printing press" money at the Federal Reserve, he said, and in order to brake inflation, the government must halt its excessive production of money.

This was the one thing that the President knows in detail [Stockman said]. He could take a piece of paper and draw a line tracing the money-supply growth all the way back to the sixties. He had one thing that he knew and he always made the same point about the Federal Reserve. The money supply "zoomed" in every election year -- flooding the economy with money," he said -- and then, after the election, the Fed "pulled the string" and the economy went into recession.

--Greider Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country (1987) at 329.

[BTW, the title of this post refers to Clark Clifford calling President Reagan an "amiable dunce." I am recalling Winston Churchill's address to the Canadian Parliament (December 30, 1941) where he noted some in France who said if England fought on, she would have "her neck wrung like a chicken" in three weeks. Churchill observed "Some chicken! Some neck!" Hear Churchill here in real audio.]

More Here is more on the Clifford quote from this site:

Only once in his long career did he step out of character, and that was when he referred to President Ronald Reagan as an "amiable dunce." The remark was made at a private dinner party but, unknown to Clifford, a tape recording had been made so that the hostess, who was ill with the flu and unable to come to her own party, could hear what was expected to be some sparkling conversation. Excerpts from that tape were published out of context.

Clifford explained his remark this way: "In the fall of 1982, President Reagan said he would cut taxes by $750 billion, substantially increase defense expenditures and balance the budget in the 1984 fiscal year. Those were public promises. I made a comment that if he would accomplish that feat, he'd be a national hero. If, on the other hand, it did not work out after such a specific and encouraging promise and commitment, I thought the American people would regard him as an amiable dunce."

Given the opportunity some time later to retract his remark, however, Clifford declined to do so.

We will be there. Right now, I'm figuring we will be in line for about 12 hours, so we're planning on taking a night shift so as to be out of the sun. This wasn't any president, however, this was Ronald Reagan.

Venus Rising. If you haven't heard already, tomorrow will be the "the transit of Venus." Venus will cross the face of the sun, the first since 1882, alas, not visible in the most western portion of the US.

Information here.

From the Movies

From Back to the Future (1985), to be exact:

[Dr. Emmet Brown is doubting Marty McFly's story about that he is from the future]

Dr. Emmett Brown: Then tell me, "future boy", who is president in the United States in 1985?
Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?
[chuckles in disbelief]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Who's Vice President? Jerry Lewis?
Marty McFly: What?
Dr. Emmett Brown: I suppose Jane Wyman is the first lady. And Jack Benny is secretary of the treasury. I've had enough practical jokes for one evening. Good night, future boy.

From the Internet Movie Database