Not that many politicians are innocent when it comes to demagoguery and "saying whatever it takes to win". But I did find Hillary Clinton's remarks about OPEC particularly over the top.

"We’re going to go right at OPEC. They can no longer be a cartel, a monopoly that get together once every couple of months in some conference room in some plush place in the world, they decide how much oil they’re going to produce and what price they’re going to put it at."

Um, last I checked, counties can do anything they damn well please regarding the exporting of their natural resources. I also don't recall hearing about any sort of "World Constitution" that would regulate things like this.

Next thing you know, Hillary is going to call for the abolition of the law of supply and demand. Go ahead girl, knock yourself out.

I could write my own thoughts but why bother when someone has done such a superior job covering all the angles. I highly recommend checking out Joe Gandelman's blog post this morning at The Moderate Voice.

Senator Hillary Clinton got the Pennsylvania Democratic primary victory she needed so she could press the case that she should continue in the race because rival candidate Senator Barack Obama could not close the deal after vastly outspending her.

But her victory margin (a 10 percent margin, at this writing) most certainly means that the increasingly ugly battle for the Democratic party nomination will go well into June…and perhaps all the way to the convention. read more »

It appears that Pastor Roger Byrd of Jonesville, SC thinks so. I read this article today about a sign that Byrd placed in front of his church.

It reads: "Obama, Osama, hmm, are they brothers?"

Byrd then goes on to explain....actually, he goes on to lie about why he put the sign up.

Byrd said that the message wasn't meant to be racial or political.

"It's simply to cause people to realize and to see what possibly could happen if we were to get someone in there that does not believe in Jesus Christ," he said.

When asked if he believes that Barack Obama is Muslim, Byrd said, "I don't know. See it asks a question: Are they brothers? In other words, is he Muslim ? I don't know. He says he's not. I hope he's not. But I don't know. And it's just something to try to stir people's minds. It was never intended to hurt feelings or to offend anybody." read more »

A friend sent me a link to this fantastic story about a man in Brooklyn who befriended a mugger.

I think some people would want to use the term "heart-warming" but that is too cute and vastly underestimates the impact that a revolutionary act like this can have. Not only can we see the image of the divine on Julio Diaz because of his actions, but I think he was motivated for the same reason - he saw the image of the divine on this desperate mugger.

Even though Eric is finally free, this story doesn't seem to be over. Today Eric posted a new video on his website that he smuggled out of prison in Nicaragua. I'm guessing that there are going to be some unhappy officials in Nicaragua once they find out about this.

I am in the midst of reading Os Guinness's new book, The Case for Civility. I have had high expectations for this book and so far I am not disappointed. In my mind, Guinness is the foremost expert of this topic, which is too often misunderstood. He makes this point in the first chapter.

"This short essay is a proposal for restoring civility in America, as one model for fostering civility around the world and helping to make the world safe for diversity. But civility must truly be restored. Is it not to be confused with niceness and mere etiquette or dismissed and squeamishness about differences. It is a tough, robust, substantive concept that is a republican virtue, critical to both democracy and civil society, and a manner of conduct that will be decisive for the future of the American republic." read more »

I am excited to announce the official formation of my new consulting firm, Good Will Hinton Consulting, a turnkey consultancy for culture creating projects.

Ever since I started blogging, I have had increasing requests and opportunities to apply my skills at using online tools to facilitate community and conversation. Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to work on many great projects on the side including being part of the founding team of Paste Magazine, web consulting for Innocence Atlanta, and fund-raising consulting for FRINGE.

This past Tuesday I resigned my full-time job with CoStar as a commercial real estate consultant to form this business to work with people, organizations, and companies that are doing works of significance. This could include non-profit organizations wanting to better understand how to do fund-raising with a younger generation, for-profit corporations wanting to better understand how to use capitalism for good in their communities, politicians wanting to harness the power of the Web, or artists needing a business-minded person to assist them.

The consulting services I am providing include the following:

• Strategic planning/Brainstorming/Visioneering
• Web 2.0/Blogging (including website creation, content creation, SEO, copywriting, podcasting/vidcasting)
• Online marketing
• Networking (access to my community of culture changer and influencers)
• Fund-raising/Donor Development

I greatly appreciate the prayers and support of all of my readers here.

For more information, contact me here.

Here is Part 2 of the conversation between Glenn Lucke and Michael Lindsay. Part 1 can be found here.

GL: In Chapter 1, Presidents and Politics, you write that Bill Clinton and Al Gore are Southern Baptist evangelicals. They beat incumbent President George H. W. Bush in 1992, but you also state that 63% of evangelicals voted for the mainline Episcopalian Bush against these two Southern Baptists. read more »

My good friend Glenn Lucke sent me this excellent interview that he has conducted over the past few months with noted sociologist Michael Lindsay (for the record, Glenn recently attained his Ph.D in Sociology from University of Virginia while working with James Davison Hunter; Glenn is also wicked smart). I read Michael's book back in the fall and while I wasn't blown away, the depth of research in the book is very impressive.

Below is Glenn's introduction along with the first half of the interview. I will post the second half of the interview tomorrow. I welcome all comments especially those from readers of Glenn's blog, Common Grounds Online.

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Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University, recently published Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined America’s Elite. The endorsements for this book demonstrate that historians and sociologists of American religion are taking Lindsay and his work seriously.

For this project, Lindsay interviewed 360 evangelical elites in business, politics, academia and entertainment/media. While his labors in this regard are impressive (it is difficult to get access to many of these leaders), and have garnered most of the publicity that I’ve seen, a greater strength of the book in my estimation is the vast amount of history, sociology and political science scholarship that Lindsay read and synthesized. The breadth and depth of Lindsay’s work commend it to specialists. read more »

One of my friends emailed me this article today saying it worthy of Good Will Hinton. I wish I had written it. I certainly agree.

Paul Kengor, a Grove City professor who's penned religious portraits of Ronald Reagan and President Bush, recently released a third biography, God and Hillary Clinton. In a recent radio interview, Kengor detailed Clinton's Methodist upbringing, her public professions of faith, and her prayer life and involvement in Bible studies. The talk-show host, Robert Mangino, responded in a way that epitomizes many evangelicals' reaction to Hillary: "I know it sounds judgmental, but I just can't believe she's a Christian. I think all of her talk of faith is pure politics." read more »

I am stunned by some of the things I am reading today in The New York Times. First there was the falsehoods about rising inflation. Now this regarding rising house foreclosures:

Bank of America, which is in the process of acquiring Countrywide Financial and has potentially huge exposure, has circulated a proposal to create a new federal agency that would buy vast quantities of delinquent mortgages at a deep discount and replace them with fixed-rate federally guaranteed loans.

Hmmm....let's consider this proposal. Bank of America has decided to make a tremendously risky move by acquiring Countrywide Financial. And instead of shouldering the risk themselves, they are asking that the American taxpayers (you and I) take on the risk instead. read more »

I'm reading this article in the New York Times about various economic pressures such as the continued housing slump and concerns over inflation when I came to this paragraph:

The latest inflation report appears to corroborate a broader trend of higher prices across the economy. Last week, the Labor Department reported elevated readings for consumer prices. The consumer price index was up 4.3 percent last month from a year ago, up from a 4.1 percent increase in December. read more »

Today the International Herald Tribune reported on gasoline price increases:

Gasoline prices, which for months lagged the big run-up in the price of oil, are suddenly rising quickly, with some experts fearing they could hit $4 a gallon by spring. Diesel is hitting new records daily and oil closed at an all-time high on Tuesday of $100.88 a barrel.

The increases could not come at a worse time for the economy. With growth slowing, high energy prices that were once easily absorbed by consumers are now more likely to act as a drag on household budgets, leaving people with less money to spend elsewhere. These costs could exacerbate the nation's economic woes, piling a fresh energy shock on top of the turmoil in credit and housing. read more »

The author Os Guinness is one of my heroes and has greatly influenced my thoughts on politics and religion. In his new book, The Case for Civility: And Why Our Future Depends On It, Os get at the root of much of what I dislike about the Religious Right.

As one who believes that the call of Jesus is to a path of suffering that shuts the door to every form of victim-playing, I am angered by organizers of the Religious Right who play the victim card and appeal openly to Christian resentment. . . .

Do they not know that those who portray themselves as victims come to perceive themselves as victims and then to paralyze themselves as victims? . . . read more »

From ABC News:

While campaigning in Wisconsin today, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told a crowd, gathered at the University of Wisconsin, at Eau Claire, "I may be killing my political career, but I know this -- if we don't start thinking in terms of solving some of America's problems, we're killing all of your careers."

During a press conference immediately following the rally, Huckabee was asked to clarify his remarks. read more »