"He is not Tiger Woods"

While chiefly about the Secretary of State's invaluable, uh, experience, in such matters, this article is so full of ironies one doesn't know where to begin.

So, I'll begin, and end, where the piece ends with the quote in my title from an aide defending Rep. Weiner's behavior.

No, he's not Tiger Woods, he doesn't golf.

"He wasn't going out with little boys."

The lofty New York City moral standard as articulated by Rep. Charlie Rangel in defense of beleaguered fellow Democrat Anthony Weiner.

Rep. Barney Frank  (D-Mass.) was unavailable for comment.

Just My Imagination

It appears the e-mail dump will fail to reveal or confirm the "Sarah Palin" of the liberal imagination.  So what do they do?  Why, they imagine something else.  You know, another, a different Sarah Palin.  From POLITICO:

The emails from her governorship, released Friday, brought back the memory of a long-lost Palin: the popular, charismatic, competent woman of the people. This was the vice presidential candidate John McCain’s team thought they were getting, before her darker tendencies — defensiveness, thin skin, grudge-keeping — hardened into tics.

Hereby saving themselves, and John McCain, whom they might want to use again, from the necessity of apologizing, the Left moves on.  Pretty convenient, ain't it?

What He Said

Michael Walsh at NRO's "The Corner" on Weinergate and "The Face of the Modern Left."  Enjoy!

The King James English

As you probably already know (I've made mention before), this year marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Version of the Bible. If you have a few minutes, please read this article by Barton Swaim about the significance of that translation. The piece is not so much about recounting the history of the process, as it is about revealing the intentions of the translators.

Before commenting on the article itself, let me recommend to you the magazine, Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, where it's published. My now 2-3-year subscription came as a gift from a good friend and, I must say, the journal keeps getting better and better. Check it out.

Anyway, back to the article. As Swaim points out, among the intentions of the translators was both capturing and preserving what he calls a "religious language":

One of the principal reasons the King James Bible has achieved such astonishing durability is that its diction captures the gravity and splendor one feels God’s words deserve. The Scriptures are old, and the feeling that they should sound old is a natural and proper one. Partly, of course, the KJV sounds old because it is old. But there’s more to it than that. The King James Bible was never what we would call a “modern” translation; even in 1611 it sounded antiquated. The ancient feel of its language was, in fact, largely deliberate.

I don't know about you, but it strikes me that in our no doubt well-meaning attempts to make the Scriptures relevant--Oh how I despise that word--we may have lost something transcendentally important.  God forbid.

America Shrugged

There's a nice little exchange over at The American Spectator about how and whether conservatives, particularly Christian conservatives, should embrace the philosophy of Ayn Rand.  First, Mark Tooley reports and warns about how the Left is trying to use this new "Randian Moment" against us.  Hal G.P. Colebatch answers the challenge quite well, I'd say.  Readers of this blog will remember that I've made a similar quasi-defense of Rand's work myself. (Here and here.)

Suffice it to say that the same Jesus who charged us with demonstrating concern and care for the "least of these", warned us also about conflating the things of "Caesar" with the things of "God".  An altruism that is a product of government coercion is no altruism at all.

Anyway, let the Left say and do what it will about this.  Most Americans will neither hear, nor care if they do, about this manufactured controversy.

As Long as Your Eyes are Dry...

Keep'em that way for Rep. Anthony Weiner, DEMOCRAT-NY.

BTW, expect absolutely nothing to come of this.  Did I mention he is a Democrat?