Making Life Work

By: Ronald L. Dart     I happen to be reading right now the second volume of Churchill’s history of the Second World War, titled, "Their Finest Hour," and I am left with the depressing sense that this is far from our finest hour. I had previously read "The Last Lion," William Manchester’s fine biography of Churchill, but as I read the man’s own words, his wartime memos and actions, I have a growing appreciation for his leadership. And for the importance of communication in time of war.

 

    Churchill had a political opposition in Parliament, but when the bombs started falling they formed a national unity government in which the participants laid aside party politics for the sake of the nation. As I read, my raw admiration for the British people...

By: Ronald L. Dart

    In reading one of the big three news magazines this week, I came on a point and counterpoint presentation between Bob Barr and Charles Krauthammer on the NSA eavesdropping issue so much in the news. Bob Barr made the case that what the president did was wrong. Krauthammer made the case that it was necessary.

    What was of special interest to me was that Barr argued cogently and solely on the basis of the legal issues. Whether he is right or not would have to be settled in court. But Krauthammer made his case on specific examples of what has been done and...

By: Ronald L. Dart

September 10, 2005 Email of the day (in response to Sept. 9)

If nothing else, I find that the absence of the realization, in less than a year, God (Nature) has shown us 2 things. Whether there is absolutely no warning, as in the Tsunami in desperately-poor S E Asia, or their is technological sophistication of warning, as in New Orleans, USA, it will not matter. God is exhibiting his true power. Whether man has 3-5 days/weeks of warning, or whether he has hours.... man is shown to be inept, unable to handle his environment, his fellow man, and it is irrespective of the measure he takes -- Jon Garnant.

September 9, 2005

If I have George Will figured out, he and the retired Bill Safire, are libertarian conservatives....

By: Ronald L. Dart

"A group of Christian ministries and congregations have joined forces to provide direct relief to areas not being served by the larger faith-based and governmental organizations. Calling their efforts "Project Good Samaritan" they are using local people in the affected areas who are known and trusted to identify legitimate needs and deliver supplemental aid directly to those in need. This aid is taking the form of purchased necessities and in the form of donated labor and work projects.
Information on "Project Good Samaritan" can be found at http://www.ntevangelism.org/."

By: Ronald L. Dart

"Christian scholarship is the church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close... we would be sunk if there were not for Christian scholarship. Praise be to everyone who works to consolidate the reputation of Christian scholarship, which helps to restrain the New Testament, this confounded book, which would, one, two, three, run us all down if it got loose."

Søren Kierkegaard, Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, ed. Charles E. Moore (Farmington, PA: Plough, 2002), p.201.

By: Ronald L. Dart

    This is the title of a very useful editorial from US News this week. Dr. Bernadine Healy discusses the events regarding the 13 year old girl suffering from cancer who was taken away from her parents.

    "When entering the complex world of cancer treatment, beware of "I am God" doctors who, however well meaning, are saying do it my way or you die. Stop right there, and find someone else to care for you. That might have prevented the hell that has broken out in Corpus Christi, Texas, because the now 13-year-old cancer-stricken Katie Wernecke and her parents refused doctor’s orders."     Later: "The agency and the doctor had good intentions. The parents, maybe themselves a handful, had solid information. But...

By: Ronald L. Dart  

    Should it be closed down? Should we care? I have a problem with the growing chorus calling for shutting down the Terrorist detention facility there. So far, I have heard none of the political types suggest what we should do with these very dangerous men. I don’t see how we can possibly let them go. And I worry a lot about second guessing the very able men who are managing this situation.     It is legitimate for senators and congressmen to ask the defense department any questions they want. There is no need for them to ask the questions on the front page of a newspaper. Why do they do that? Politicians are publicity hounds, but when they do this, they aren’t considering the consequences of doing it in time of war.    ...

By: Ronald L. Dart  

This isn’t a Republican vs Democrat thing; it’s about senior Democrats who are so over-invested in their hatred of a passing administration that they’ve signed on to the nuttiest slurs of the lunatic fringe. It would be heartening to think that Durbin will himself now be subjected to some serious torture. Not real torture, of course; I don’t mean using Pol Pot techniques and playing the Celine Dion Christmas album really loud to him. But he should at least be made a little uncomfortable over what he’s done -- in a time of war, make an inflammatory libel against his country’s military that has no value whatsoever except to America’s enemies. Shame on him, and shame on those fellow senators and Democrats who by their refusal to...