Electoral eccentricity

An interesting piece in the Washington Times paints a fascinating picture of the possible outcomes of the presidential election should an electoral tie exist -- which apparently isn't that far out.

Imagine this: President Barack Obama with Sarah Palin ending up as his vice president (all because Lieberman and Cheney's tie breaker in the Senate).

Sound impossible? It's not. There are at least a half-dozen plausible ways the election can end in a tie, and at least one very plausible possibility - giving each candidate the states in which they now lead in the polls, only New Hampshire - which went Republican in 2000 and Democratic in 2004, each time by just 1.5 percent - needs to swap to the Republican column to wind up with a 269-269 tie.

That's just one of the scenarios possible with our current system. There "doomsday" thinkers out there who predict constitutional wrangling will put us in a state of paralysis.

The Times is right to bring up the presidential race between Adams and Jefferson, in which Aaron Burr betrayed Jefferson and collected an equal number of electoral votes for himself, deadlocking the electoral college and later congress for dozens of votes in a row. Adams and the Federalists, who were far behind both Burr and Jefferson, finally threw their weight behind Jefferson at the behest of Alexander Hamilton. While Burr did later challenge Hamilton to a dual, it happened a few provocations down the road.

Some people will do anything to get elected

This is an email forward I received from a political friend. I think this is the right method of overcoming the Palin advantage. It looks great on him!

Al Qaeda hacked (again)

It seems the average American citizen has found a way to do battle with the mighty Al Qaeda. The terror group had promised to issue another "anniversary video" on Sept. 11. They didn't, thanks to hackers who were all over them, preventing the video release:

The US-based intelligence group IntelCenter had speculated the video would be a message from Osama or Zawahiri with a recording of the last will and testament of Mohammed Atta, one of the leaders of the 9/11 attackers.

Sources close to US intelligence said, “Hackers knocked out Al Qaeda’s online means of communication, thus preventing them from posting anything to commemorate the anniversary.”

Western intelligence suspects two hackers who have targeted Islamicist sites before were responsible: Aaron Weisburd from Internet Haganah and Rusty Shackleford from the web group My Pet Jawa.

Both have been active in ongoing Internet battles between Islamicist hackers and their opponents.

Nicely done! Someone should get a medal for this. Apparently this has been going on for a while.

This is not the first time hackers have dented the plans of the world’s deadliest terror network. In 2004, a hacker group called TeAmZ USA had knocked out the websites of Abu Musal al-Zarqawi, late head of the Al Qaeda in Iraq, for showing tapes of Westerners being beheaded. The hackers left the image of a gun-toting penguin on the website...Last year, Washington released the anniversary tape two days before Al Qaeda did. Says Raman, “This was probably to deliberately show the US had hacked the password to Al Qaeda’s website.”

Genesis and the Word

There have been a number of times in the past where the issue of the creation account has come up in reformed circles. Most, from what I can gather, don't really have a problem with taking the text at face-value with regard to the meaning of "day" and such (I'm one of them). However, the more people press me on the issue, the more I find myself pushing back and trying to refocus on something that gets completely lost: the gospel of Genesis.

I believe it is very important that we don't forget to preach the gospel from this crucial book. I am very much thankful that my pastor has taken on this task. I had a discussion once with him to express my frustration that the book is not often preached from a reformed, redemptive-historical perspective. In other words, if the only way we read Genesis is as a historical account (which I believe is appropriate), we would stop being Reformed in our reading of scripture -- we would not be exegetical if that is where we stopped in our "preaching."

Let me use a little logic:

Premise 1:
"In the beginning was the Word..."
i.e. Christ and the gospel are present in the beginning.

Premise 2:
"All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness."
i.e. All of scripture has meaning and implications for our life and walk and what we understand concerning God and his attributes.

Premise 3:
Genesis is a part of scripture (last time I checked)

Conclusion:
Christ and the gospel must be preached from the book of Genesis.

Since no campaign can say this without getting in trouble,

...but I think it is insightful:

Despite the fact that Hitler brought "change," promoted clean, energy-efficient mass transit by making the trains run on time, supported abortion for the non-master races, vastly expanded the power of the national government and was uniformly adored by college students and their professors, I gather that liberals don't like Hitler because they're constantly comparing him to Bush.

-- Ann Coulter (in her latest column)

Matrimony:

"The act of marrying, or the state of being married; legal union of a man and a woman for life, as husband and wife; wedlock; matrimony."
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary.

That's as detailed a definition as I could find of this enlightened concept. However, it's worth mentioning that two months from now, I will have just entered this state. Is it like evolving? Maybe it's a form of transcendence? After all, scripture uses such mysterious language to describe it: "the two shall become one flesh." Kind of freaky -- as a child, you may have envisioned something akin to Siamese twins when you heard this read (but you can be sure I didn't)!

The important thing is that I'm going to suddenly be a better person, right? After all, if the two of us are going to balance each other out why wouldn't that create a more perfect person in each of us?

Yeah, think again -- before every pastor in the country starts commenting, offering me premarital counseling.

The truth is, I am well aware that some things are not going to change; some sins will not just shrivel and die -- it may feel like they are harder to conquer when it comes right down to it. If, for example, I'm am prone to snap at my siblings, what's going to protect my wife, with whom I intend to spend the rest of my earthly life?

It's a sobering prospect. However, we serve a gracious God. If He can supply the humility I need to daily lay down my life, I am not ashamed to be confident and to relish the thought of what the future can hold.