Gene Lewis Perry

If life were like fairy tales, I'd have been devoured by trolls already.

Oklahoma going blue?

I promise not to dwell too much on poll results, and they are fairly meaningless this early in the campaign. But it’s interesting to note that a Survey USA poll has John Edwards beating Giuliani, Thompson, and Romney in Oklahoma (though Thompson is within the margin of error).

crossing the lines

I’ve spent a couple of posts criticizing one-sided or needlessly inflammatory portrayals of a Christian viewpoint, so I want to point out this post showing what a more nuanced perpective might look like. Gary Stern, religion reporter for the Westchester Journal News, has been blogging from the Religion Newswriters Association convention. He summarized a presentation [...]

no Christian candidate

In an editorial in today’s Daily, innocuously titled ‘Democratic hopefuls offer conflicting rhetoric,’ Matthew Felty asks, “Why is a religion that stands up for its core beliefs ‘intolerant?’” Unfortunately, Matthew spends the rest of the article demonstrating the answer. He writes: A Christian voter cannot cast his or her vote for a candidate who supports [...]

Is it too late to sell the whole place to Disney?

Because Florida apparently doesn’t get enough attention from Presidential candidates already, despite being a heavily contested swing state in the last two elections, the state legislature moved its primaries up to January 29. This created a problem for the Democratic National Committee. It has always been an inviolable principle that Iowa and New Hampshire host [...]

where are the grown-ups?

Last night, Bill Clinton said on the Daily Show that one of the biggest problems in Washington DC today is that most Congressmen are perpetually sleep-deprived, due to the hectic fundraising and constant travel between DC and their home district required for a modern politician.I believe him. There has to be some way to explain [...]

hello neglected blog

Joan Walsh has an excellent review in Salon of a new Matt Bai book about the Democratic Party. It’s worth reading whether or not you’re interested in the book. Walsh’s analysis of recent political history is spot on. Especially welcome is her refutation of the old “Democrats lose because they lack ideas” canard. Leaving aside [...]

this day in history

Dick Cheney on why America shouldn’t invade Iraq

one step forward

The Associated Press reports: A man convicted of killing a police officer won a reprieve a day before his scheduled execution, after his lawyers argued that several witnesses had recanted or changed their testimony. The state Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday granted a stay of execution of up to 90 days to Troy [...]

tough on crime

I don’t know if it is an intrinsic moral wrong for a government to take life. I don’t know if justice requires that murderers be killed. Those debates are endless and largely fruitless. But I do know that the death penalty will never work, because of this: A Georgia man is scheduled to be executed [...]

thoughts on the Dems

By popular request (ok, it was only Tiara, but by the standards of this blog that is popular), here are my thoughts on the Democratic primary race. My early favorite was Edwards. I voted for him in the 2004 primaries, and he continues to take the lead with ambitious, detailed policy proposals that, if implemented, [...]

riddle me this

Take a look at this quote and try to guess where it comes from: Doing the Lord’s work is a thread that’s run through our politics since the very beginning. And it puts the lie to the notion that the separation of church and state in America — a principle we all must uphold and [...]

everyone likes cake

Ezra Klein on France: The French like not working incessantly. They are consciously sacrificing a bit of economic growth in order to devote more time to leisure. It’s a perfectly legitimate choice for a society to make. But it’s never represented that way in domestic punditry, as we exclusively evaluate policy decisions based on their [...]

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