The mental munchies

I'll go for weeks without finding anything that perks my palate. Then yesterday I noshed on a veritable feast of spicy fare. Here are a few to challenge your chops.

• A young earth. Frank Pastore provides a great apologetic for "young earth" Christians (those who hold to a plain reading of the Genesis) in the face of ridicule and condescension from the likes of Matt Damon in his column, "Sarah Palin, Matt Damon, Dinosaurs and “Divine Deception” (here).
• Cal Thomas in flip-flops. Recently, Cal Thomas hammered pastors for taking a constitutional stand by participating in Pulpit Freedom Sunday (here). His point: Pastors have no business discussing things political from the pulpit. Today, he turns his peen to the Democratic for not heeding the Catholic church in its biblical opposition of abortion (here). It's a great article...and the very reason why pastors must speak about things political from the pulpit. You can't have it both ways, Mr. Thomas.
• God and art. I blogged about it below, but if you read the post and didn't read the link, I'd encourage you to travel to it (here). It's a good look at the testimony excellence in what we do can have in the world around us, and whether or not we are willing to get better at what we do.
• "We are a Republic!" That quote is mine. It's usually said with a building volume, launching spittle with the expulsion of "-BLIC!" Imagine my surprise when I stumbled upon a piece in Pravda, Russia's e-zine of communist propaganda, highlighting the historical ignorance in our own nation for calling the American political system a "democracy" (here...don't let the title spook you). The Pravda pieces normally pound and pummel every facet of that which is America, and sadly they're most often written by Americans. This one has a name to it with an obvious eastern European ring.

In light of this fiscal cataclysm in which we find ourselves, has anybody thought about how ripe the time for some intelligent and savvy international figure to step into the world's spotlight and set things right? Toss in a bit of spiritual eloquence and -- poof -- you've got...