Craig Crawford’s 1600: Succession Strategy

articles 7/7

The Roe Effect
The right to abortion has diminished the number of Democratic voters.
by James Taranto

The Anticipated Attack
Don't blame Iraq for the bombings.
by Christopher Hitchens

The Voice Of Appeasement

National Review editorial
Courage Under Fire

War Footing
The attack in London is a stark reminder of what we must do to prevail.
by Frank J. Gaffney Jr.

The Circus Comes to Town
If Bush nominates the right candidate for the Supreme Court, Democrats could be in trouble, again.
by Hugh Hewitt

Second Thoughts on Kelo
A proper understanding of property rights suggests that the Kelo decision wasn't so bad after all.
by John Hinderaker

The Two Roads
Will President Bush try to move the court or broaden the Republican party?
by Fred Barnes

Supreme Court politics
by Robert Novak
While Kennedy's ploy presents a temporary problem, Bush's stance could be fatal.

George Allen
by George Will
The ideal Republican candidate can meld two Republican tendencies that are in tension -- social conservatism and libertarianism.

The Next Sandra Day
Harry Reid may be willing to give up Roe v. Wade to get a trial lawyer on the Supreme Court.
by Walter Olson

AP
Giuliani: Attacks Eerie Reminder of 9/11
LONDON - Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was yards away from one of the deadly explosions that struck London on Thursday, said the attacks were an "eerie reminder" of Sept. 11, 2001.

Gangstas Grow Up
Some of rap's fathers start taking responsibility.
by Martha Bayles

Circumcision may offer Africa AIDS hope
Procedure linked to much lower rate of new HIV infections

E-Vote Guidelines Need Work
A federal agency is publishing a new set of guidelines to address security concerns about electronic voting. But some experts say a preliminary version doesn't go far enough to ensure fair elections.
By Kim Zetter

AP
Man Lights Himself on Fire to Propose
GRANTS PASS, Ore. - To prove his love, a 38-year-old man set himself on fire before getting down on one knee and asking his girlfriend to marry him.

The Coming Boom
Big Pharma has made billions pumping up the male population. Now neuroscientists are turning their attention to women.

AP
Body of Steelers Fan Viewed in Recliner
PITTSBURGH - James Henry Smith was a zealous Pittsburgh Steelers fan in life, and even death could not keep him from his favorite spot: in a recliner, in front of a TV showing his beloved team in action.

articles 7/4

The Debt Threat: How Debt Is Destroying The Developing World
by Noreena Hertz
Rock the Vote - Chapter 1
Rock the Vote, Pt. 2

LA Times
With Live 8, Rock Changes the Way It Calls for Change
Bob Geldof and U2's Bono redirect activism from the streets into the corridors of power.

Religion News Service
Clarification: Graham Remark on Hillary Clinton Was Not an Endorsement

1776
by George Will
Using narrative history to refute historicism, McCullough's two themes in '1776' are that things could have turned out very differently, and that individuals of character can change the destinies of nations.

Richie Daley's party
by Robert Novak
Last week's long-range confrontation between Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley and Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin was much more than a personal tiff involving two formidable Illinois Democrats who obviously are not fond of each other.

NY Times Magazine
A Church-State Solution
By NOAH FELDMAN
At the heart of the culture wars is the failure of both sides to accept America's rules for religious expression in public life and public money in religious life. Maybe that's because those rules are wrong.

W. Post Magazine
Return of the Angry Man
He might have simply disappeared after the Scream ended his presidential hopes. But as head of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean is still going to go to New Hampshire. And South Carolina. And Oklahoma ...
By Sally Jenkins

CIA, Pentagon to Avoid Overlap
Agencies reach a new written agreement to try to prevent conflicts in spying, analysis activities.

Reversing the Bork Defeat
With a Republican Senate, President Bush has the chance to succeed where Reagan failed by getting a conservative constitutionalist confirmed to the Supreme Court.
by William Kristol

The Worst of Intentions
What Saddam's Iraq was up to.
by Daniel McKivergan

The Bork Precedent
What the defeat of Robert Bork's nomination has taught the Bush White House.
by Fred Barnes

Body of Evidence
A CNN anchor gets Iraq and al Qaeda wrong. But will the network issue a correction?
by Stephen F. Hayes

Rolling Rockefeller
The vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee once saw "a substantial connection between Saddam and al Qaeda." Not any more.
by Stephen F. Hayes

Columbia and the Academic Intifada
Efraim Karsh

Deadly Immunity
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal.

The Neoconservative Convergence
by Charles Krauthammer

Mao and Us
The book review China's communists don't want you to read.

CBS Evening News
Radio Transmitter Credit Cards
The next generation of credit cards include tiny chips that work by waving the card in front of a reader. There's also added security, since no one gets to see your card numbers, reports Brett Larson.

BBC
U2 Before Live 8

Now For Some Good News . . .
by Steve Chalke
Many have understood the gospel as "God's got a big stick and he's on your case." But what kind of message is that for the single parent struggling to bring up her child with inadequate resources? What kind of hope is that for the young teenager who has only known a life of abuse at the hands of those he should have been able to trust? What kind of liberation does that offer the lonely, the redundant, the homeless, the forgotten, the cheated, the vulnerable or the countless individuals, young and old, who suffer from an acute sense of failure or lack of self esteem? What kind of good news is that for humanity as a whole? What popularly passes for "the gospel" might provide a faith to die by, but offers little hope to live by. And most worryingly of all, it bears scant resemblance to the message of Jesus.

Paul's Gospel & Caesar's Empire
by Tom Wright
If Paul's answer to Caesar's empire is the empire of Jesus, what does that say about this new empire, living under the rule of its new lord? It implies a high and strong ecclesiology, in which the scattered and often muddled cells of women, men and children loyal to Jesus as Lord form colonial outposts of the empire that is to be: subversive little groups when seen from Caesar's point of view, but when seen Jewishly an advance foretaste of the time when the earth shall be filled with the glory of the God of Abraham and the nations will join Israel in singing God's praises.

How Sweet the Sound?
by Donald McCullough
If Grace Is So Amazing, Why Don't We Like It? Grace set to music is one thing, but what about grace itself? What about grace as an idea? Grace as an act? Grace as a force? We don't like it. It might be amazing, as the hymn insists, and it might be wonderful and marvelous and "a thought that changed the world" (as the band U2 sang on a recent album), and it might sometimes even be necessary, but when all the adjectives have worn themselves out with the hype and have called it a day, and we're left with nothing but the thing itself, then what? As I said, we don't like it.

The Emerging Church
What is the Emergent Church? The movement is spreading through different denominations and across the world. The author uses the life stories of Emergent’s leaders to paint a picture of this new expression of Evangelicalism.
by D. A. CARSON

Cool Kids Church
by ERIC LANDRY
Most of us here at Modern Reformation like the Emergent Church folks. Frankly, it’s a bit of a relief to have someone within Evangelicalism making the same points we’ve been trying to make for the past fourteen years. We also like their interest in liturgy, in church history (prior to 1972), and in engaging with Scripture in ways that take it beyond the “handbook for living” genre that so many of our own churches have adopted. And, truth be told, we were always the nerdy kids in the youth group, so now that the cool kids with their cool hair, tats, and body piercings are saying much the same thing we do we can’t help but look around with some appreciation.

But the appreciation is a nervous one. As much as we are warmed by their insightful criticism of Evangelicalism, we just can’t shake the sense that these children of the megachurch are taking their postmodern angst and marketing it to the urban jungles just like their chino-wearing, cool hair dads did in middle America. That, of course, leads us to wonder if Emergent will really offer anything substantially different than what they are critiquing.

After reading their books and blogs, conversing with them, and attending their conferences most of us just want to grab a beer and talk with these men and women. I think we would find that we have much in common and I would hope that our own like-minded efforts might serve to keep the Emergent folks from swinging the pendulum too far in an unhealthy direction. We’re grateful to New Testament scholar D.A. Carson for making the same point in his article, which we’ve adapted from his new book Becoming Conversant with Emergent. Carson’s article is a good overview of the Emergent movement’s concerns with a few pointed observations about evaluating the movement as it grows into maturity.

Shane Rosenthal, the executive producer of the White Horse Inn, had a chance to visit the Emergent conference that was held in San Diego this spring. His first-hand report also helps those who are curious about the movement get a better idea of its strengths and weaknesses. Turning to critique, Reformed theologian and editor in chief Michael Horton takes a hard look at the theology and practices that characterize the Emergent movement. We’ve also included a transcript of a discussion by younger Reformed and Lutheran pastors on how our own churches are responding to the concerns we hold in common with the Emergent movement. To make sure that we’re not dealing with caricatures we’ve included interviews with Brian McLaren and the late Stanley Grenz as well as extensive reviews of the seminal books in the movement.

Will the Emergent Church be anything other than another passing evangelical fad? We hope so. But in order to be such the movement will have to acknowledge how their history as an evangelical institution (as the Young leaders Network and Terra Nova Project, arms of the Leadership Network) continues to shape their present course. In order to be a real force for good within Evangelicalism the movement will have to go beyond Evangelicalism and appropriate a churchly tradition that gives it real depth, not just an ecclesiological field guide. Otherwise, their efforts at reform will be truncated, for Evangelicalism can’t be reformed. By its very nature the movement is shaped not by confession or doctrine but by personality, culture, and circumstance. And thus far, that seems to be what is shaping the efforts of the Emergent Church as well.