.
There will be a conference on the Church and Mission next January in Denmark, at the wonderful University of Aarhus (Oar-hoos).

What do you think of “virtual church“?

Barna’s new report on the faith of African Americans will be used for years to come.

Zaniest news item of the week: mayoral candidates square off in a sumo wrestling match. This would be really fun if the winner became mayor. (HT: JRB via Twitter) Some zany ideas for bloggers. Eugene’s made a zany retirement announcement — he’ll try again.

We need friends. We need controls on machines. We also need wise words for those who are pondering doing a PhD — and Carl Trueman provides those wise words. (HT: JT) We need posterity and Brooks ponders posterity’s significance. We need physical conditioning and health. We need fasting. Speaking of needing friends, Karen’s got a wonderful post at her new site (and read this one, too). And we need both Mr. and Mrs. Neff.

And we need posts like this one from Erika about Ann Goldingay.
And we need this book from Brett.
And we need blogs that do things like this — David Opderbeck interviews Jamie Smith.
And we need more creative prayer.

Colin Powell is a “third way” politician.

Is the new divide between pragmatists and militants? (Saletan on abortion debate.)

There is nothing quite like happening upon a field of sunflowers under a Tuscan sun.

Gates, Obama and Race

1. Stanley Fish: “Gates and Obama are not only friends; they are in the same position,
suspected of occupying a majestic residence under false pretenses. And
Obama is a double offender. Not only is he guilty of being Housed While
Black; he is the first in American history guilty of being P.W.B.,
President While Black.”
2. Jonathan Capehart: “The cure for this corrosive cancer won’t come through a government
program or the courts. It won’t come through documentaries like the
ones that Gates says he wants to do on the criminal justice system or
terrific movies such as “Crash,” the 2006 Oscar winner for best
picture. This is a matter of the heart, an intensely personal exercise
that demands we talk to each other — one on one, face to face. Perhaps
over a beer, as Obama, Sgt. James Crowley and Gates plan to do at the
White House. But this requires trust.
Can African Americans engage in the discussion without being
suspicious that whites will dismiss their painful experiences or
discount them as imagined or overreacting? Can whites participate
without fear that they’ll be called racist for expressing their
frustrations and concerns? And will each side listen to the other with
an open mind to try to understand where the other comes from? Do we as
a nation trust one another enough to have this complicated and
uncomfortable conversation openly and honestly? Sadly, for now, the
answer is no.”
3. We’re not done because we want to be fair and balanced. These two lefties are answered by a right winger, Mark Steyn? “A black president, a black governor, and a black mayor
all agree with a black Harvard professor that he was racially profiled
by a white-Latino-black police team, headed by a cop who teaches
courses in how to avoid racial profiling. The boundless elasticity of
such endemic racism suggests that the “post-racial America” will be
living with blowhard grievance-mongers like Professor Gates unto the
end of time.”

News items continued:

4. Which pill do you choose? Paul Krugman on the health care issues.
5. I’d like to see Krugman and Thomas Sowell have at it.
6. Summer salads … my favorite summer salad is a Lebanese cucumber, mint, tomato salad. There’s a name for it — anyone know?
6. Wonderful piece by George Weigel on the death of Leszek Kolakowski, a man with moral courage, intellectual ferocity, and a graceful pen (image above).
7. Solution to passwords?
8. Are you finding these problems in your local library (or is this guy a curmudgeon)?
9. Women, men and leaders.
10. Comet observation.

Sports:

Should Pete Rose be reinstated and (a second question) permitted in the Hall of Fame?

“But, Grandpa, don’t you think the Cubs will win the World Series?”

“Yes, I do,” Aksel. “And I promise you that it will happen during your lifetime!”