Our moral imagination is haunted by monsters–and the greatest aspect of this horror is the fact that so many monsters are real. Is the world ready to face the reality of Mao Zedong?

Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle has vetoed a bill that would have expanded that state’s medical conscience clause to allow medical professionals to “opt out” of participating in certain medical procedures such as removing a patient’s feeding tube or using technologies that involve the destruction of a human embryo.

Margaret Thatcher turns 80 today, and the world is reminded once again of her courage, strength of character, and statecraft. In London, a large birthday party is planned, and the Queen is expected to attend (an unusual recognition of Lady Thatcher’s stature).

As reported yesterday, Harriet Miers is member of Valley View Christian Church in Dallas, Texas. President Bush’s most recent nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court has attracted a great deal of media attention, and at least to major newspapers have published articles on her Christian faith.

President George W. Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers as the new associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court caught almost everyone by surprise. After all, Harriet Miers was — at least until yesterday — relatively unknown outside of the White House. Given the importance of this nomination, observers were left wondering what the President was signaling by his choice of Miers.

The Washington Post and other papers are reporting that the Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to use taxpayer money to reimburse churches and other religious groups for aid suppied in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
This is a horrible precedent that distorts Christian charity and wrongfully entangles churches and the government. With the tax-funded reimbursement will inevitably come government intrusion and all the rest. Christians should give the aid out of love and concern, without expectation of reimbursement. The reimbursement plan threatens to turn the Christian agencies into extensions of state action — mere service agencies functioning on behalf of the government.
Bravo to Bob Reccord, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board, who told The Washington Post: “Volunteer labor is just that: volunteer.  We would never ask the government to pay for it.” May others follow his lead.

From The San Francisco Chronicle: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, under growing pressure from his conservative supporters, promised Wednesday to veto the gay-marriage bill passed less than a day earlier by the Democrat-led Legislature.
The Legislature’s action trampled over Proposition 22, an initiative passed overwhelmingly in 2000 that banned same-sex marriage in California, said a spokeswoman for the governor.