This and That

Thank You, Sir

That was one of my first thoughts last night upon learning that President Ford had died.

Kim Priestap wrote over at WizBangBlog:

But my recollections of Gerald Ford were correct: he was a good, kind man, who, as President Bush said, was president when our country needed him most.

I remember Watergate. I remember Nixon’s resignation. I remember Ford’s pardon. I remember Mayaguez. I remember the fall of South Vietnam. I remember the assassination attempts. I remember the election defeat.

So was Mr. Ford a good President? I honestly don’t know. But that doesn’t matter. I am grateful for the good he did do. God raised him up to the Presidency and used him there for His purposes.

It just seems right to thank the man, albeit belatedly.

And in that context, it seems only right to also thank Presidents Carter, Bush, Clinton, and Bush.

Thank you.

“Disappointed”

Bush disappointed by Libyan death ruling:

President Bush told Bulgarian President Georgi Purvanov on Thursday that he was disappointed with a Libyan court decision to reimpose the death sentences on Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor accused of infecting Libyan children with the HIV virus.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after Tuesday’s ruling that the United States was “very disappointed with the outcome” and urged the medical workers be freed and allowed to go home at the earliest possible date.

Ah, diplomacy. Gone are the days of outrage. And demands. And threats.

Maybe that’s good.

Or maybe it isn’t.

I wonder what caused Libya to reimpose the death penalty. Maybe next we’ll hear they have resumed sponsoring terrorism. Or resumed their WMD programs.

Maybe they knew disappointment would be the greatest sentiment they would provoke from the US.

Can You Care…

…enough to get beyond feelings of contempt (or even lust)?

Prostitute keeps working despite friends’ killings:

Lindsey, a 20-year-old prostitute in Ipswich, huddles into her furry red hood as she tells how she is still working to feed her huge drug habit, even amid fears of a serial killer on the loose.

…having been close friends with the first two women to be murdered — Gemma Adams, 25, and 19-year-old Tania Nicol.

The mother-of-one says that she has a 300-pound (446-euro, 590-dollar) per day crack cocaine and heroin habit….

“If that’s the only life you know, then that’s the easy way of life to get through drug habits,” she added.

“This is our way of earning money, is working the streets and selling ourselves,” Lindsey said, taking a pull from the can of lager in her hand.

Who will pray for Lindsey?

Unduly Provoked

The Neighbor Might Beat Cut You Up

The threat of terrorism in Indonesia is growing under a combination of anti-Western backlash and the coming of Christmas.

Open Doors’ Carl Moeller says despite the promise of stepped-up security, “Christians have been asked by their leadership there to keep their celebrations modest so that it doesn’t unduly provoke Muslim neighbors in Indonesia.”

Rev. Simon Timorason, head of Christian Communication Forum of Indonesia says radical Muslim groups have been monitoring the churches more intensely after the Idul Fitri (a major Islamic holiday). This might lead to more church closures.

Let’s Talk!

The Damned of Darfur

A half-million dead in Darfur; 2.5 million refugees – not counting the corpses lost in the sands or terrified survivors in hiding. Surely, the world will act?

No. The world talks.

What Comes After the Retreat

The Iraq Study Group report . . . is not a “fruit salad”, Mr Baker insists. It is a grand strategy. To my mind, the sort of grand strategy the British Foreign Office came up with in the late 1930s: keep negotiating . . . .
Above all, love God!