Red Sky In Fullerton

As the Station fire rages 30 miles to the north of this spot in north Orange County, St. John's folk are praying for family, colleagues, and friends in Altadena, Pasadena, and Sierra Madre.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Will That Be 1000 Dog Years Or People Years?

London Telegraph:

Now a group of atheists in the US have come up with a tongue-in-cheek solution, offering to take in the cats and dogs of "saved" believers in return for a small fee.

Home Again

Three beautiful eulogies for Sen. Kennedy today, by sons Ted, Patrick, and (in a different sense) Barack. The President's critics should note that he spoke gracefully and without a TelePrompTer. The theme of suffering lay at the heart of his remarks:

Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others — the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed -- the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children’s health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act –all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy’s life’s work was not to champion those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow.

Was Obama referring just to our societal sins or to Kennedy's as well? Melissa Lafsky had the honesty if the poor taste to write about the catalyst of Kennedy's self-empowerment. Weren't all those great initiatives worth one accidental drowning, she suggests? It still surprises me that he got the chance to try. Mark Steyn describes the British way of atonement for disgraced politicians:

Six years before Chappaquiddick, in the wake of Britain’s comparatively very minor “Profumo scandal,” the eponymous John Profumo, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for War, resigned from the House of Commons and the Queen’s Privy Council, and disappeared amid the tenements of the East End to do good works washing dishes and helping with children’s playgroups, in anonymity, for the last 40 years of his life. With the exception of one newspaper article to mark the centenary of his charitable mission, he never uttered another word in public again.

While in British politics, redemption is generally much harder to come by, plenty of Americans have gotten the Profumo treatment. Richard Nixon of course comes to mind. One may wonder whether Kennedy could have roared back so effectively as a conservative, Vietnam- and Iraq-supporting, tax-cutting, anti-illegal immigration lion of the Senate. But Americans can be equal opportunity Puritans. Kennedy's former liberal Senate colleague John Edwards, despite his lessor transgressions, would at this point in his career probably have trouble getting Profumo's children's playgroup gig.

In the end, politics, like life, is all about the story, and Ted Kennedy's was irresistible. The college-cheating, adulterous son survives the violent deaths of three seemingly worthier brothers. His family's influence and Americans' sadness over his family's serial tragedies enable him to survive his worst crisis. He grows into a loving father, uncle, and patriarch and is transfigured by the love of a good woman from Louisiana. That he writes 300 bills liberal commentators and biographers love doesn't hurt. His greatest gift to us may be that he so obviously enjoyed the life God gave him and showed how to earn the devotion of those closest to him, who, after all, knew him best. Anyway, aren't we supposed to party whenever the Prodigal returns? We each are he often enough.

Means Are Ends

Matthew Yglesias, self-described progressive, isn't progressive on political procedure as he not only justifies the likely move by the Massachusetts legislature to alter the plan for replacing Sen. Kennedy but ridicules those who say it's hypocritical. Up is down, black is white, war is peace.

Over Her Dead Body

Hagiography run amok: Arguing that Mary Jo Kopechne's death was the catalyst for Sen. Kennedy's success, Melissa Lafsky speculates in the "Huffington Post":

Who knows -- maybe she'd feel it was worth it.

Actually, we probably do know. Like most people, Kopechne would've wanted to spend her life on her potentiality, not someone else's. Hard to believe HP ran Lafsky's distasteful article.

Dear Abbey

The Beatles' famous crosswalk on Abbey Road in London. Visit the 24-hour webcam here.

Yorba Linda Sky

7:20 p.m. PDT Friday

Another Nixon-Era Scandal?

The moon rock that Neil Armstrong and his fellow Apollo 11 astronauts gave the Dutch turns out to be a piece of petrified wood. I'm assuming from the article that the possibility we discovered petrified wood on the moon has been ruled out.

Prayer (And Policy Change) Opportunities

CBS radio's Cami McCormick has been injured in Afghanistan. August is the bloodiest month for U.S. service personnel since the war began eight years ago.

Before Sept. 11, no President would've dared mount a war to unseat the Taliban, notwithstanding their oppressive policies, especially toward women. After the attacks, which the regime enabled, defeating them became a vital national interest. As recently as 2008, Barack Obama could portray Afghanistan as the good (or at least the better) war, arguing persuasively that President Bush's obsession with Iraq had prevented him from finishing the job against the Taliban.

Have politics and the perils of best intentions now drawn Obama into the same treacherous straits that wrecked the British and Soviets? The question for the U.S. must be whether there's a way to protect ourselves and our friends from terrorist attacks mounted in Afghanistan without being drawn any deeper into a war that looks as though it could rage for another eight years.

Love Songs: "Love, Love, Love" (2008)

As Tall As Lions. "Love's not a grave, it won't decay on you/Too many days I was afraid of love." Amen!

Hat tip to St. John's colleague Janice Hellie-Dennis (always good to know what the young people are listening to!)