A young lawyer, just out of law school, was pleading his first case in South Carolina. A train had killed twenty-four pigs, and the young attorney was trying to impress the jury with the magnitude of the injury. "Yes, Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, twenty-four pigs. Imagine, twenty-four pigs. Twice the number there are in the jury box."

"We should have stayed and finished our mission," said Jose Francisco Casteneda, 29, a sergeant who served for Spain in Iraq.

"The great majority do not understand what we were doing there or what we went through," another sergeant, Torvisco, said. "I think it was worth it to bring peace to a country at war, as we had helped to do in Kosovo and Afghanistan. But I also know that I won't be able to convince a lot of people in this country of that."

Thanks for your service guys. There are still noble Spaniards.

NADAR NADIR. Ralph Nadar is suing the State of Texas. Nadar could not get enough signatures to get on the ballot in Texas. So, naturally, he has sued claiming the signature requirement is unconstitutional. This is what people do who spend other people's money. OK, Ralph, let's think this through. You cannot find enough people dumb enough to sign your petition, but you think it is worth suing to get on the ballot where no one will vote for you either.

I think I may file a brief supporting Nadar, however. Every vote for Nadar is a cereal vote that will not go for John Kerry.

THIS JUST IN!! The state has offered to settle the suit by giving Ralph a 1963 Corvair!

CREATION. "We [evangelicals] have tended to have a good doctrine of redemption, and a bad doctrine of creation. Of course we have paid lip-service to the truth that God is the Creator of all things, but we seem to have been blind to its implications. Our God has been too 'religious', as if his
main interests were worship services and prayer meetings attended by church members. Don't misunderstand me: God *does* take a delight in the prayers and praises of his people. But now we begin to see him also (as the Bible has always portrayed him) as the Creator, who is concerned for the secular world as well as the church, who loves all men and not Christians only, and who is interested in the whole of life and not merely in religion." From "Balanced Christianity" (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1975), p. 45.

It is hard, sometimes, to cling to the belief that God created the earth. Students at all levels are bombarded with evolution teaching. Much of it is inaccurate, but it often causes doubt. But the Bible is clear in teaching God created the earth. That is my point of initiation. I believe the Bible is God's inspired word. I then have to include creation in that belief.

It is not just Genesis 1-3 that is involved. The Bible is replete with references to God as creator. Words we attribute directly to him, through the prophets, proclaim him as creator. In Isaiah, God constantly refers to himself as the one who created the world and can also destroy it. Psalms is the same. The New Testament has references also. If we excise creation, we must go through the Bible with scissors, cutting in book after book.

That is the problem with the philosophy of some who say they believe in the Bible, but believe the creation story is mythological. God cannot claim throughout scripture to be the creator if the story is mythological.

So the first point for the Christian is this. Do you believe the Bible is true? If so, you must believe in creation.

CATCH UP TO KERRY. John Kerry asked his draft board for a deferment to study for a year in Paris. The draft board refused. Kerry enlisted in the Navy. Everyone I know who did that enlisted in the Navy to stay out of the Army and, hopefull, close action in Vietnam. Kerry the supposed war hero tried to duck military service but failed. Then, he went for a less dangerous alternative. Some hero.

POPE JOHN PAUL II ON ABORTION: "The church affirms the right to life to every innocent human being at the moment of its existence."

Katholic Kerry at a NARAL Pro-Choice America Dinner: "We need to honestly and confidently and candidly take this issue [abortion] out to the country, and we need to speak up and be proud of what we stand for."