Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt gave a speech this weekend in which he recommended that Americans stock canned tuna and powdered milk in anticipation of an outbreak of avian flu.

From “The Riddleblog” comes this unsurprising but dismaying story of the ignorance of doctrine among pastors. Riddleblog reports that Shane Rosenthal went to the National Pastor's Convention in San Diego. He interviewed a number of attending pastors. Here are the results. What follows is a direct quote from Riddleblog.

When Shane asked, "are you familiar with the doctrine of imputation?"
33% were "familiar," 67% said they were "unfamiliar."

When Shane asked "is justification by works, faith and works combined, or faith alone?"
0% (thankfully) responded "by works." 25% responded "by faith and by works," while 75% responded "by faith alone."

When Shane asked "Is justification a one time declaration or a life long process?"
49% said that justification is a process, 31% said a declaration, while 14% indicated that is was both. 6% were not sure.

When Shane asked, "What are we saved from?
43% said "ourselves." 24% said from "sin and death" while 17% said (correctly) that we are saved from eternal judgment or the wrath of God. Another large group were not sure about the question and some admitted to have never even given this subject any thought.

The blog is by Kim Riddlebarger of the White Horse Inn.

These are basic doctrines of the Protestant faith and doctrines that formed the backbone of the Reformation. It is bad enough that most laymen cannot answer these questions, but, for pastors, it is unconscionable.

From "The Right to Ridicule" by Ronald Dworkin:

"So in a democracy no one, however powerful or impotent, can have a right not to be insulted or offended."

Even Muslims.

Americans are not "evolving". This will cause some dismay in the educational and scientific communty, and give Richard Dawkins indigestion.

A Zogby International poll shows 69 percent of Americans believe public school teachers should present the evidence both for and against Darwinian evolution.

The poll also showed that only 21 percent think biology teachers should teach only Darwin's theory of evolution and the scientific evidence that supports it.

It is not just one group of Americans, either, in case you thought the survey only addressed Bible Belt Fundamentalists. In fact, a majority of Americans in every sub-group were at least twice as likely to prefer this approach to the current science education strategy of presenting only Darwinism. For example, 88 percent of Americans 18-29 years old were in support of teaching both, as were 73 percent of Republicans, 74 percent of independent voters, 69 percent of African-Americans, 70 percent of 35-54 year-olds (Yea team!)and even 60 percent of Democrats.

Nonetheless, our schools continue to ignore public opinion and push their agenda. The silent majority should begin to shout.

Even within the scientific community, there are questions on evolutionary theory. More than 500 scientists with doctorates signed a statement expressing skepticism about Darwin's theory of evolution. The statement includes an endorsement by members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Russian Academy of Sciences.

I'm sorry blogging has been light. I have been working around the clock, including 18 hours on Thursday, due to an evening board meeting. Also, most of the computers at work now block blogs. I may be able to get some remote blogging done. I am working on it.

Meanwhile, I have hooked up the new computer. It is a Dell. I love the new flat panel monitor. I got it all to work, including the Internet, which I get through cable. I did not get the router to work, yet, though.

I had to go buy a new printer today. The old one was not compatible. I bought one with fax capability and a port to connect to the digital camera. I think it will be nice.

I have some posts written and will try to post them asap. Thanks for your patience.

The port controversy (ships, not wine), while appearing to cause discomfort for the President, is providing discomfort to a presidential candidate who is married to a former president. As usual, they were playing both sides of the fence and are dealing with the consequences of inconsistency. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has criticized the President over the issue. She either did not know, or did not think we would find out, that hubby was involved in the deal.

Bill Clinton evidently advised Dubai on the deal when he was traveling to Pakistan. He also tried to get the UAE to hire his former press secretary, Joe Lockhart, as a spokesman for Dubai Ports World. According to Robert Novak, other Democrats aligned with the Clintons also lobbied for DPW. Clinton owes Dubai a favor. It contributed to Clinton’s library in Arkansas (no jokes please, we already did all those). It also paid him big fees to come and speak there.

Novak, in a column posted yesterday, makes a great point. How will Bill’s dealings impact Hillary in her campaign for president? The answer is, no one knows until it happens, because no one, including Bill, knows what Bill will do, and no one but Bill knows what he has done that has not been discovered yet.

The possibilities are endless.

As a "Take It Or Leave It" exclusive, my correspondents in Washington have obtained tapes from the NSA of Hillary talking to Bill long distance in Pakistan about the problem. Here is the transcript.

Hillary: Bill! Why didn't you tell me you had lobbied Dubai on this deal?

Bill: Hillary, I swear I did not have relations with that country.

Hillary: You are going to ruin everything. How can we be president again if you screw things up? You do want to be in the White House again, don't you? After all, we still have a lot of their furniture.

Bill: The White House is kind of stuffy, but I did want to be in the Senate Wives Club.

Hillary: What did you say?

Bill: I'm sorry, you're breaking up. Phone service here is cut off by the protestors. It's President Bush's fault. (static noises)

This should make you comfortable at night. Sayed Rahmatullah Hashemi, former ambassador-at-large for the Taliban, is now studying at Yale on a U.S. student visa.