Agitation #3

Abraham Lincoln once asked, "How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg?"
The answer: "Four; calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg."
For some reason that came to mind today as President Bush assured the nation that the National Security Agency does not spy on Americans. This on the same day that USA Today writes about a massive database of Americans' phone calls. Hm ... how many legs does that dog have?
You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Or is it, rather, the truth is out there?

Agitation #2

“Justice is not an ancient custom, a human convention, a value, but a transcendent demand, freighted with divine concern. It is not only a relationship between man and man, it is an act involving God, a divine need. Justice is His line, righteousness His plummet (Isa. 28:17). It is not one of His ways, but in all His ways. Its validity is not only universal, but also eternal, independent of will and experience.”

– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
Now that wouldn't have anything to do with this would it?

How Much Would You Save
Under the Plan?

Income, in 2005 dollars	Average tax saving
$10,000-20,000	$2
$20,000-30,000	9
$30,000-40,000	16
$40,000-50,000	46
$50,000-75,000	110
$75,000-100,000	403
$100,000-200,000	1,388
$200,000-500,000	4,499
$500,000-1 million	5,562
More than $1 million	41,977

From this morning's Washington Post.

Agitation #1

One jihad is as good as any other, as this divine tragedy suggests. Where have all the flowers gone, indeed. As Bonhoeffer said, "The follwers of Christ have been called to peace ... and to that end they renounce all violence. ... They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce hatred and wrong. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate."