A Proper End to a Bad Episode
Go here to read that Doug Wead, former friend of President Bush, has apologized for releasing tapes he made years ago where then Governor Bush was discussing how he would approach personal questions about his past in seeking the presidency. This has been a particularly sad episode, because Mr. Wead is an evangelical Christian and apparently a minister who, nevertheless, secretly recorded conversations and then released them without permission. I cannot for the life of me think of a reason that could have been used for a Christian to justify this behavior, and I am pleased that it is being disowned by Mr. Wead himself. Now, will the media cover this as they have covered the release?

Bloggers in Need of Protection
I would encourage anyone who might look here to follow this link to a site dedicated to protecting those whose blogging has endangered their freedom or their lives. Currently two Iranian bloggers are facing long prison terms, and public pressure may be the only weapon (outside of prayer) that might free them. Committee to Protect Bloggers

Rain, Traffic, and Strange Justice
I was driving in to my office today from a breakfast appointment when I discovered I was no longer driving. It seems all roads from our suburban paradise to the BIG CITY where most people work had water, mud, or a lack of driveable pavement due to the recent storms that have inundated our area. So, everyone within a 50 mile radius had descended on the one road that goes right by our church and my office. Nearly 30 minutes to go less than two miles is almost a record here.

While sitting on the road, I heard Laura Ingraham (www.lauraingraham.com) on her morning show discussing a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court--a 6-2 ruling against California's prison administrators and their system of segregating prisoners racially due to gang violence among those in custody. My thoughts were,

1. Who sued to bring this case to court--an Aryan Brotherhood member who was concerned that he couldn't bunk with a Crip?
2. While segregation as a societal practice is evil, doesn't the protection of those incarcerated also count for something?
3. Don't certain civil rights get curtailed when one is a felon and in jail?
4. Do the six justices who voted against this policy believe they are making people safer (one of government's responsibilities), or is this actually an evil plot to increase the number of deaths in prison?

If there were some clear pattern of abuse of prisoners by guards based on race, or if the claim were that segregated populations were being treated differently, this would be a different matter. But to remove the ability of the prison officials charged with maintaining a safe and orderly environment to separate groups based on a real danger seems, in my view, to be the unhinging of reason from social policy.

I'm staking my claim on a little bit o' turf here in the blogosphere--what I wind up doing with it might take some time to figure out, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained."