The surprises continue in the ongoing saga of the Rev. Terry Fox. The former Immanuel Baptist Church pastor and social conservative firebrand announced Sunday his intention to form a new church at Wild West World — of course, where else? — as long as the congregation understands that he will often be out of town.
Got that? For all the well wishes on both sides, Fox’s move looks like a direct challenge to Immanuel, since he reportedly would take part of that church’s flock with him. It’s also coming just days after Fox suggested he wants to be involved in the culture wars and might never serve as a pastor again.
You can’t blame people for scratching their heads and wondering what’s going on.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Did you see Mike Wallace’s "60 Minutes" interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? I missed it but thought the CBS News report on the interview was interesting. Wallace tried without much success to get Ahmadinejad to discuss Iran’s support of Hezbollah, his opposition to Israel (does he really want Israel wiped off the map?) and his country’s reported support for the insurgency in Iraq. Ahmadinejad came across in the news coverage similar to how he reportedly did in the 18-page letter he sent to President Bush earlier this year: rambling, and not someone who should have a nuclear bomb.
Did he seem that way to those of you who watched the interview?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Our cartoon caption contest was once on a regular every-other-week schedule, but has become a bit more sporadic over the last few months. Reader response has dropped off a bit too. Are those two things related? For the first year or two we were getting well over a hundred entries each time. Now its down to between 40 and 50. I’d be interested in bloggers’ suggestions as to how we could improve it. Should we go to more national topics? Pocketbook issues have provoked higher turnout in the past, somewhat predictably. Are local issues just not doing it for you? Or should we just stick a fork in it? Should the cartoon caption contest go away like the Wranglers are about to do?
At any rate, here’s the current winning caption from Brad Allen of Wichita. Click on the above image to enlarge. Some other noteworthy entries: Roger Neugent of Haysville submitted "Hey Wilbur, I hear you are being replaced as mascot by ‘Limpy’ the Lame Duck!" Several readers sent in jokes about giving a forwarding address, among them: Jim Cummings of Wichita and Dawn Lane of Goddard. Barry Leabo of Clearwater sent "Hey, Mister, could you jot down the directions to Springdale, Arkansas?" Bruce Cole of Wichita had this caption: "Here, take this ball with you when you go. I got all 9 of your fans to sign it." Richard Julius of Peck sent "What’s it gonna be…hit and run or cut and run?" From Jim Holler of Bentley came "Could you have the grounds crew sign this for me? At least I know they’re not leaving!" John Reisch of Wichita said "I need you to cross off your name." Reflecting our town’s love for WSU baseball, Ted Ayres of Wichita sent in "Are you sure you can get Coach Stephenson’s autograph?" From Wayne Binn of Wichita: "What does my father mean by ‘and the horse you rode in on???’" Finally, Larry England of Medicine Lodge took a little swipe at Arkansas’ backwards image with "Dad said I need to get the team’s autographs while they still remember how to read and write."
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As we argue in our editorial on today’s Opinion page that if America is going to solve its immigration mess, boosting border enforcement isn’t enough. The spigot also needs to be turned off at the source — U.S. jobs.
On that front, it was good to see U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren bring charges against a Wichita business for allegedly hiring illegal aliens from Mexico — and not just knowingly hiring them, but helping them get fake identification.
In the absence of meaningful immigration reform, it’s good to see the feds cracking down on employers. That’s a crucial piece of the solution.
But businesses also need a better, foolproof way of instantly verifying employee identity and legal status, or they can simply continue to plead ignorance.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
One of the best pieces I’ve seen in recent days on the new normal in the wake of the foiled liquid bomb plot in London is this scary and thought-provoking article in Slate by William Saletan, who points out that we now live in a liquid world where lines vanish: "Nothing is solid for sure anymore, not even bombs. Between terrorist cells, there are often no threads. No dismantling is final."
Facing bombs that are growing almost impossible to detect, and terrorists who are sophisticated and adaptable, the Western world will have to expect a certain level of casualties — a perfect defense isn’t available.
And we must adapt: "In a liquid world, you can’t seal off evil. All you can do is fight liquid with liquid. You have to absorb the tragedy, flowing around and through it. You need the strength of a river, not a rock. You need resilience. You can’t be untouchable, but you can be undefeated."
Posted by Randy Scholfield
In a commentary headlined "Sam Brownback at your deathbed" on the conservative Townhall.com site, Jacob Sullum takes issue with what he sees as the Brownback proposal to "insert the federal government into deeply personal end-of-life decisions, prohibiting doctors from helping terminally ill patients choose the time and manner of their deaths." Like Kansas’ senior senator, Sullum dislikes Oregon’s decade-old assisted suicide law. But Brownback’s Assisted Suicide Prevention Act "would push doctors into a gray zone beyond the law," Sullum argues, resulting in "more lies, not fewer suicides." Oregon’s law, he says, is also "the sort of state policy experiment our Constitution requires the federal government to allow" — a point too often ignored by conservatives otherwise sympathetic to states’ rights.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
