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<\/a><\/p>\nExcellent post by Allan<\/strong><\/a> on faith\u2019s challenge in a good society. And CAS<\/strong><\/a> looks at our society from the opposite angle.<\/p>\n Derek<\/strong><\/a> explores the socio-economic kingdom vision of Jesus. What Patrick<\/strong><\/a> says about Ireland is good for the USA.<\/p>\n Mike Glenn<\/strong><\/a> posts on the difference between tolerance and hospitality.<\/p>\n Brad Wright <\/strong><\/a>on computer technology. So true.<\/p>\n Get a good look at Bill Donahue\u2019s blog<\/strong><\/a> this week: a series of very good posts.<\/p>\n Elizabeth Esther<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cWhen did the secularist culture\u2013a culture that is largely antagonistic toward large families\u2013so effectively persuade the Christian community to hold the same perspective toward many children? At first, it was a stunning wake-up call for me to realize that while many Christians paid lip-service to the idea that children are blessings from God, their actions and their attitudes said otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n The single pastor issue: part one <\/strong><\/a>and part two<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Meanderings in the News<\/p>\n 1. Special Coffee, never tasted<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cKopi Luwak can sell for upward of $227 a pound. Its largest markets are in Japan and South Korea. The taste has been described as \u201cunique, mild, and smooth with a hint of dark chocolate and secondary notes of earth and musk.\u201d<\/p>\n 3. The inner secrets of your Google search<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cThe New York Times asked an expert in online search, Doug Pierce of\u00a0Blue Fountain Media<\/a> in New York, to study this question, as well as Penney\u2019s astoundingly strong search-term performance in recent months. What he found suggests that the digital age\u2019s most mundane act, the Google search, often represents layer upon layer of intrigue. And the intrigue starts in the sprawling, subterranean world of \u201cblack hat\u201d optimization, the dark art of raising the profile of a Web site with methods that Google considers tantamount to cheating.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. It was Valentine\u2019s Day this week\u2026 and so WaPo had a set of columnists define love<\/strong><\/a>. The whole \u201cnoun\u201d vs. \u201cverb\u201d thing is catchy but well-nigh useless.<\/p>\n 5. Charles Krauthamer<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cDemocracy is more than just elections. It requires a free press, the rule of law, the freedom to organize, the establishment of independent political parties, and the peaceful transfer of power. Therefore, the transition to democracy and initial elections must allow time for these institutions, most notably political parties, to establish themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n 7. Very good piece by Michael Novak on love<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cAs a result of this invention, we Westerners have come to think that the central fire of human happiness is romantic love, love forever and ever (love \u201chappily ever after\u201d). Imagination ends with the romantic couple walking hand in hand across the fields toward the sunlight. Many people spend their entire lives looking for such love, wanting to feel such love, wondering, when they are first attracted to another, ifthat\u2019s<\/em> what they\u2019re now feeling. Above all, most people love\u00a0being in love<\/em>, love the feeling of loving, love even the\u00a0mad passion<\/em> of being in love.\u201d<\/p>\n 8. Are e-books bankrupting brick and mortar?<\/strong><\/a> \u201cIt happened in the early 2000s when MP3 technology changed the way Americans listened to music, shuttering record store chains across the country. (Tower Records filed for bankruptcy in 2006). And it\u2019s happening again, as\u00a0Borders Group Inc. announced<\/a> it is filing for bankruptcy as early as Monday. The\u00a0rising popularity of e-books<\/a> and stiff competition from online retailers like Amazon spelled declining annual revenues for Borders.\u201d<\/p>\n 9. Dubliner Bono<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cJOHANNESBURG \u2013 \u00a0Rock star Bono said Tuesday that\u00a0technology<\/span><\/a> is key to solving Africa\u2019s problems and urged other stars to come forward and promote good causes. Following his Sunday\u2019s sold-out concert in Johannesburg that drew bigger crowds than the World Cup final, the\u00a0U2<\/a> frontman said social networking, coupled with improved access to information, could transform governance on the continent, that is beset by corruption and autocratic leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n 10. Mary Rogers<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cIf you are a woman living in Cairo, chances are you have been sexually harassed. It happens on the streets, on crowded buses, in the workplace, in schools, and even in a doctor\u2019s office. According to a 2008 survey of 1,010 women conducted by the Egyptian Center for Women\u2019s rights, 98 percent of foreign women and 83 percent of Egyptian women have been sexually harassed.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanderings in Sports<\/p>\n<\/a>Church numbers<\/strong><\/a> (HT: Geeding) Preacher Mike\u2019s pen<\/strong><\/a> was raptured \u2026<\/p>\n<\/a>2. Now that\u2019s an encouraging list<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cSome foods can trigger bad breath. If you\u2019re worried, limit consumption of foods like garlic, onions, curry, and fish. Acidic beverages like beer, wine, coffee and soda can also be a trigger. They all contain foul-odor-releasing compounds that get absorbed into your bloodstream. The odor is given off in your breath until all of the food is out of your body. Limit chocolate candy and sweets, as well. The sugar helps bacteria to reproduce in your mouth, leading to bad breath.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>6. Some Glenn Beck kookery and tomfoolery<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cWilliam Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard and a regular Fox News commentator, welcomes the\u00a0debate among conservatives<\/a> over the political revolution in Egypt. \u201cIt\u2019s a sign of health that a political and intellectual movement does not respond to a complicated set of developments with one voice,\u201d he wrote recently. \u201cBut hysteria is not a sign of health,\u201d he continued. \u201cWhen Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society. He\u2019s marginalizing himself, just as his predecessors did back in the early 1960s.\u201d In the conservative National Review, editor Rich Lowry called Kristol\u2019s comments \u201ca well-deserved shot at Glenn Beck\u2019s latest wild theorizing.\u201d<\/p>\n