Random

* North Korea admits to having nukes, and rejects calls to come back to the multi-party talks. I, for one, am not at all surprised. Had Iraq been an easy military victory followed by a quick and relatively quiet turnover to a new government, things would be very different. But as it stands now, Iran and North Korea know they have a limited window of a few years while we are stuck in Iraq to pursue a nuclear deterrent. I hope and pray the Bush administration will find a way to bring North Korea back to the table, but I remain doubtful - I don't think anyone in our leadership structure for the past 15 years has had a sufficient understanding of the crazies in charge over there.

* I saw on the Today show this morning a man - with his wife and 11 children - who has for the last 2 years been actively seeking to be sent to Iraq. He wasn't already in the military, mind you, and was actually rejected by the active-duty Army because of the number of children he has (no on-base housing could meet their needs). He managed to find a way into the Reserves, all so he could be sent to Iraq. While I respect his desire to serve his country, I still think he needs a swift kick in the butt. As you were; he needs multiple kicks to the posterior.

* And a few links I have found interesting over the last week or two, some of which I would write a post about if I had time:

Pontificator responds to a snarky critique

Minor Clergy tackles political idolatry and the GI Joe hostage crisis

Doug presents a lengthy but well-written letter on the Theotokos. (I admit I haven't read all of it, yet. I did say "lengthy", didn't I?)

Steve holds forth several posts on liturgy & technology, the 2 most interesting to me are here and here. I certainly don't agree with all that Steve says, but he has some good thoughts.

Aaron at Radical Congruency talks about people leaving the church for various reasons. I have a hard time with some of what he says - should the departure of a person who disagrees with the church's theology really be a spur to questioning and possibly reshaping that belief?

And finally, Clifton has been on a roll lately - go check out the last few weeks for some good stuff. And thankfully his daughter is doing much better after some tense moments with RSV. Praise God!