CONTEMPLATING CHRIST. C. H. Spurgeon: Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound.After dealing all night and morning with a band director from another town who tried to have our band disqualified from their first trip to state in school history, I need to spend the lunch hour contemplating Christ to restore my equilibrium. It is hard to believe an adult would want to inflict such grief on 230 kids. May God have mercy on his soul.

PATHETICALLY OBVIOUS. Hamas now wants to talk peace. Could this have anything to do with the loss of several leaders and the destruction of their property by the Israelis? It is their standard ploy, made famous by the old fox Arafat. Plead for peace when you're getting killed and break the agreement the minute the Israelis let up. I don't know which is more annoying, that they do this, or that they get away with it.

ANOTHER BUSH TRIUMPH. International sources have pledged over $33 billion to the rebuilding of Iraq. This is far more than expected. It puts a real crimp in the complaints of the dems. It also further illumines the falsity of dem claims that the Bush administration lacks foreign policy finess.

DR. DEATH II. "I also believe that there may be extreme situations, and in the future increasingly common situations, where physician-assisted suicides may not only be permissible, but encouraged." Dr. Ronald Cranford, University of Minnesota Bioethics Department.

Compare Pope John Paul II: "the omission of nutrition and hydration intended to cause a patient's death must be rejected".

Have we moved from the right to die to the duty to die?

SPOTTED. I am blaming any bad thinking today on sunspots. There is a massive storm on the sun, the size of jupiter, and it is sending scientific sounding stuff our way today. Scientists say it may break up cell phone communications or satellite signals. It may also cause dispensationalists to believe it is a sign of the end or at least of the rapture which is the beginning of their end. It may cause people to think they were right about Y2K, but it was just delayed. And, if anyone calls you and you don't want to talk, just make hissing noises and say "I'm sorry the sunspot is interrupting your call". What? You're breaking up.

SHARP GUY THAT BEN. Ben Shapiro is a sharp, very young man. His column on the Schiavo matter and death in general is insightful. His point is that liberals value death more than life, and their policies are driven by the ideal. Read it here.

COULTERISM. "Liberals hate America, they hate flag-wavers, they hate abortion-opponents, they hate all religions except Islam, post 9/11. Even Islamic terrorists don’t hate America like Liberals do. They don’t have the energy. If they had that much energy, they’d have indoor plumbing by now."

And you thought I was blunt.