Be Kind to Animals

When I was young, I read in the Bible that "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." This shaped how I looked at animals and how I treated them.

This morning I read an article by Lisa Fabrizio (I always look for her articles) about caring for animals in which Senator Byrd quotes the same verse, probably in reference to the terrible dog fighting rings that have surfaced in the news, recently.

Anyway, the article went on to compare this view of animal rights to our views of human rights. Why shouldn't an unborn child have the same rights as my wife's cats? To quote Lisa Fabrizio,

"While the passion of the venerable senator is worthy of admiration, one also wishes that he and his party would apply the same sentiments to God's most supreme creatures; human beings, and more specifically, to their babies."

You can start all over, again

One mistake after another; my life was falling apart. As I tried to pick up the broken pieces that were left I only made things worse. As I watched the immutable passage of time sweep me from one disaster to another I could only look behind me and try my best to salvage what was left.

I was looking at a wasteland, in my path I had left destruction. Failed hopes and missed chances were all I could see. The worst part was that the steady march of time pushed me on, past those things, so I could only look back on them; I could fix nothing. As time went on, I only destroyed more of my life. As I tried to solve one problem I would see more of them pass me by. Things were crumbling all around and moving past me in defiance of my will to live a better life. The only thing that changed as I looked behind me was that I was destroying more and more things every day.

Then He put His hand on my shoulder and tried to turn me around. He said, "Stop looking back there, turn around, look in front of you."

But I wouldn't. I was afraid. I found only the smallest comfort in my suffering, but at least I knew what to expect there, I had no idea what lay ahead of me.

But He persisted. "Turn around, it's going to be alright. I promise." I didn't want to admit that I was scared, but I knew that Jesus already knew how I felt. I didn't want to change, I didn't want to do anything different, but I finally grew tired of what I was seeing.

I turned around to see what lay before me. In front of me, everything was fine. It was not a wasteland, it was perfect.

"You can start all over, again," He said, "Just as if nothing ever happened."

There was a tenderness in his voice that went beyond any love I had ever known. I tried to look behind me, but he wouldn't let me.

"It's over," He said, as he led me onward, "It's over. You can start from here. Your life is not a wreck, it's perfect, just look ahead of you."

"But, Lord," I pleaded, "I am only going to mess it up again. Look at what I did before!"

"Then I will help you. I won't let you destroy the rest of your life. We are going to walk together the rest of the way. I have plans for you."

It was the best day of my life.

Earmark Reform?

The Senate just passed a bill which is intended to make our representatives in Washington more honest by forcing them to disclose all earmarks to the public. It sounded good to me, at first, but some people have been skeptical.

Including Porkbusters, I think the Porkbusters group is great and on their website they list the claims of the skeptics, which include the following:

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC)

“There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors in the new ethics bill...Senator Reid has given himself and a few committee chairmen the authority to determine whether congressional earmarks have been properly disclosed to the public...[t]his bill allows the fox to guard the henhouse and makes a joke of ethics reform.”

Sounds scary. If he is telling the truth, it puts too much power in the hands of one person who can allow earmarks a certain amount of invisibility. That's not good. However, it might be a step in the right direction. That's good; we'll have to keep an eye on this.

It's not a good enough bill to make me sleep better at night when I think about Washington wasting money.

Helpful words about the bridge incident

My good friend Brian posted some wonderful words about the bridge incident in Minnesota. I know people in that area and I don't know if they are OK. I hope they are.

By now you've probably heard all about the accident, but in case you haven't, keep in mind that no one is suspecting terrorism and that this was simply an accident. We'll keep them in our prayers.