Feedback

There are a number of interesting emails on our Feedback page, including a bit of a pro/con debate over John Calvin's theology. Check them out and feel free to add your own thoughts.

RLC

More on the Canaanites

In my post on the Canaanite genocide I posited as one possible reply to the problem of how to reconcile God's Old Testament command to extirpate everything that breathes with the Christian belief in His goodness, mercy, and love that perhaps we simply don't know enough about the details of the matter. According to this reply, if we knew more about the situation prevailing in Canaan during the time the command was given maybe the whole passage would be less puzzling.

Bill writes to link us to a site that offers an intriguing possibility along these lines. Those of you with a theological bent should check it out.

RLC

Don't Jump Yet

Here's news that might coax those Republicans about to jump off window ledges to hold off a little longer. It comes in the form of a recent Rasmussen poll that may be a portent that the tide is turning against the current platitudinous hope and change policies of the current administration. I don't want to assign too much significance to polls, especially polls this far out from the next national election, but this one may indicate that the nation is beginning to come out of the collective hypnotic trance it's been under since last summer and starting to listen to people who actually know what they're talking about. Here's a summary of Rasmussen's findings:

Voters now trust Republicans more than Democrats on six out of 10 key issues, including the top issue of the economy.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% now trust the GOP more to handle economic issues, while 39% trust Democrats more.

This is the first time in over two years of polling that the GOP has held the advantage on this issue. Voters not affiliated with either party now trust the GOP more to handle economic issues by a two-to-one margin.

Republicans also now hold a six-point lead on the issue of government ethics and corruption, the second most important issue to all voters and the top issue among unaffiliated voters. That shows a large shift from May, when Democrats held an 11-point lead on the issue.

For the eighth straight month, Republicans lead on national security. The GOP now holds a 51% to 36% lead on the issue, up from a seven-point lead in May. They also lead on the war in Iraq 45% to 37%, after leading by just two points in May and trailing the Democrats in April.

[C]onfidence that the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror is at its highest level since February.

Republicans lead the Democrats on immigration for the third straight month, pulling ahead to a 35% to 29% advantage on the issue.

On taxes, the GOP leads the Democrats for the fifth straight month, 44% to 39%. In May and April, Republicans held six-point leads on the issue.

Democrats continue to hold the lead on the issues of health care, Social Security and education. While Democrats have a 10-point advantage on health care, that's down from the 18-point lead the party had a month ago.

Democrats lead by six points on Social Security, down from nine points in May. The parties were tied on the issue in April.

Polls are volatile and could change literally overnight, but still, there's hope. It's not that I think the Republicans are so great. After all, they're the ones whose profligate spending was the pin hole in the dam that lead to the Obama deluge. It's just that it's clear that the Democrats are on a spending bender and that Obama is trying his hardest to bring as much of the country as possible under government control as soon as possible, so if this headlong sprint toward Euro-socialism is going to be stopped it'll have to be Republicans (Lord help us) who'll have to do it. This poll gives us reason to think it may still be possible.

Now climb down from that ledge.

RLC

Te Adoramus

Evan Thomas is an editor at Newsweek which, we hear, now holds solemn daily devotionals for its editorial staff given to the worship of our president, about whom Thomas speaks here like the Romans once spoke about their emperors:

It's great fun to giggle at how these journalists have abandoned all personal pride and professional objectivity in their headlong rush to ingratiate themselves with this administration, but we shouldn't. It's really quite pathetic to watch grown adults prostrating themselves at the feet of another human being to seek his blessing and favor. One gets the feeling that if President Obama told either Evan Thomas or Chris Matthews, who is himself quick to assent to Thomas' apotheosis of the community organizer from Chicago, to commit hari kiri, they'd trip over each other in their scurry to be the first to obey the great man's wishes.

Thanks to Hot Air for the clip.

RLC