“Let every thing that hath breath praise the lord. Praise ye the Lord.” — Proverbs 150:6

In addition to this blog, I keep an online journal. Most of the time, I keep the personal stuff over there, and keep the not-so-personal stuff over here, but I just had to share this tonight.

On the fifth Sunday of each month (those that have fifth Sundays, that is), our tiny little church has a “Fifth Sunday Sing.” We invite a couple of groups to come and sing, and we just have a wonderful time praising God.

Both groups tonight were very, very good, but one of them (the Wilson Family) played some Bluegrass Gospel, and I can’t even begin to say how wonderful the music was tonight. I’m still high from it, and I just wanted to say: PRAISE THE LORD!
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Via La Shawn:

Phil Dillon and his family could use your prayers.

Really, if you’ve been reading anything at all this election season, you can skip this post. I’m just rehashing things that I’ve already said. Worse, I’m just rehashing things that I’ve already rehashed that others have said, including (among many others) Bill Whittle and La Shawn Barber.

Here’s the summary: Vote Bush!

Also: La Shawn has other Bush endorsements.
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South Charleston mayor Richie Robb is very likely my least favorite West Virginia politician of all time. Considering the bile that rises in my throat EVERY TIME former WV Governor Gaston Caperton opens his mouth, that’s saying something.

If you haven’t heard, Robb is one of the West Virginia Republican Party’s appointees for elector. If Bush wins, Robb has said he won’t put in his vote for President Bush’s re-election. Since the original statement (which I heard a while back), Robb has backed down slightly, saying “I don’t know if I’ll cast a vote for Bush.” He says he won’t cast a vote for Kerry against the wishes of the state, but he may not vote for Kerry.

The reasons I’ve heard for Robb’s position are varied. Some claim that it’s because he’s angry at the Swift Boat Veterans, but that opinion doesn’t seem to be the prevalent one around here. I’ve also heard that he’s “whining” because Monty Warner, Republican candidate for Governor, has signs scattered around the state that read “Monty Warner – Governor // George Bush – President”. As Robb was, apparently, appointed because he received a certain number of votes in the Republican Primary, I’ve heard that he’s upset that his former opponent (Warner) is showing up with his name on a sign for the candidate that he’ll be asked to support. That may or may not be true, but that’s one rumor.

Technically, I think it’s legal for an elector to put his vote wherever he wants, but it strikes me as extremely unethical. Robb’s refusal to vote for Bush would undoubtedly hurt him in his home city, and there have been mentions, on the talk radio station, of boycotting South Charleston businesses in protest. I’m not sure how effective that would be in punishing Robb, but it’s been suggested.

While I like the electoral system, this particular issue has me ready to call for reform that, at the very least, requires an elector to vote according to his state’s preferences, with each state having the option of splitting its electoral votes to match the percentage of the votes. If Robb decides not to vote for Bush, that is, to me, an effective disenfranchisement of West Virginia voters. I find it disgraceful, and I hope that the WV Republican Party would take the first opportunity to remove his appointment before the Electoral College meets.

One of the hardest lessons to truly get sometimes is that we, as Christians, are to love our enemies. It’s one thing to kill a person in self defense or in a war (See La Shawn Barber’s post “Onward, Christian Soldiers” for an interesting look at the Biblical stance on war), but to wish death on a sick old man isn’t particularly Christian. My joke over in the comments of this post at Vodkapundit wasn’t a particularly Christian one:

You’re all being horrible. You’re just sitting there wishing for this poor man to die.

See, me, I thought that we should help the peace process along and give Arafat the respect he deserves by offering to send a well-known doctor to give him a quick once-over. Doctor Kevorkian is probably free, don’t you think?

Arafat’s proven himself time and again to be a dangerous supporter of terrorist activities (or, at the very least, he’s proven himself an inept leader who couldn’t stop his people from performing terrorist activities), but I feel it’s inappropriate for me to have made a joke like that, and I apologize.

Update: On a completely unrelated topic, ScrappleFace is pure genius. I especially enjoyed this post: “Electoral College Added to Michael Moore Speaking Tour“. Excerpt:

A spokesman for the provost’s office said Mr. Moore will receive his traditional honorarium of $35,000, much of which covers the cost of insurance and freight incurred in getting the filmmaker to the college.