Isn’t that a powerfully comforting concept articulated in the classic Ash Wednesday Collect that God hates nothing that He has made?  And doesn’t it have wide-ranging implications for our attitude towards the world?

Bolivia’s new draft constitution would allow its tribes to enact communal justice; that is, punishments ruled by tribal elders or, more commonly, by the people themselves. The penalties could not be appealed through the court system. Indeed, any appeal would be too late, since communal punishment tends to be instantaneous. They include beating, hanging, burning, and burying alive.What this means, in effect, that the nation state, with its rule of law, is allowing itself to be trumped by tribalism, and a reversion to bloody revenge codes (as is already happening in Africa) is sure to follow. The rule of law–with its legal system, police forces, and fair trials–is a huge advance over tribal justice. To devolve back into that is multiculturalism gone insane.(P.S.: Read Romans 12 and Romans 13 together, to see how the Bible has influenced the rise of lawful governments over against personal and communal revenge.)

Rush Limbaugh will join Ann Coulter on the Democratic bandwagon if John McCain gets the Republican nomination.  That’s right. As McCain’s nomination gets ever more likely, Rush will agitate for the Democrats .That ALONE is nearly reason enough to vote for McCain, the spectacle of Ann and Rush championing Hillary Clinton! All of the ire against Ann Coulter would no longer go against Republicans but against Democrats. The Democrats would finally get the talk radio presence they crave, and it’s the Rush Limbaugh Show.

So far, by current count, Romney has emerged from Super Tuesday with Massachusetts and Utah, with Huckabee taking much of the South and McCain taking just about everything else.  (The results from the Western states, including California, the big prize, aren’t in yet, so maybe Romney may do better once all the votes are counted.)But consider the possibility:  What if the Republican nomination does become a two-man race, and the two men are McCain and Huckabee?   Since Huckabee is more conservative than McCain on the issues that McCain is despised for and since Huckabee does not have the baggage of personal animosity that McCain does, do you think movement conservatives would rally to him as their last chance to stop McCain?  Somehow I don’t think so. . . .