wyclif

Drawing on a trove of private papers from Hillary Clinton’s best friend, the legendary Watergate journalist Carl Bernstein is to publish a hard-hitting and intimate portrait of the 2008 presidential candidate, which will reveal a number of “discrepancies” in her official story.

Bernstein, who was played by Dustin Hoffman in the film All the President’s Men, has spent eight years researching the unauthorised 640-page biography, A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“Bernstein reaches conclusions that stand in opposition to what Senator Clinton has said in the past and has written in the past,” said Paul Bogaards, a spokesman for Knopf, which publishes the book on June 19.

With the thoroughness for which he is famous, Bernstein spoke to more than 200 of Clinton’s friends, colleagues and adversaries. He stops short of accusing the New York senator of blatantly lying about her past, but has unearthed examples of where she has played fast and loose with the facts about her “personal and political life”, according to Knopf.

The book could revive the explosive charge, made earlier this year by David Geffen, a former Clinton donor and Hollywood mogul, that “the Clintons lie with such ease, it’s troubling”.

Clinton remains the frontrun-ner for the Democratic presidential nomination, but Barack Obama, who is keeping pace with her fundraising juggernaut, is closing the gap in the polls.

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A picture is here and the full press release reads as follows:

Noted theologian and author Dr. Robert E. Webber died…[Saurday] in his home in Sawyer, Michigan, after an eight-month struggle with pancreatic cancer. He was 73 years old. Dr. Webber was born in Congo of missionary parents, and was raised in the Philadelphia area. He earned the Th.D. from Concordia Theological Seminary. From 1968 to 2000 he served as Professor of Theology at Wheaton College, and was named Professor Emeritus upon his retirement in 2000. He was appointed William R. and Geraldine D. Myers Professor of Ministry and Director of the M.A. in Worship and Spirituality at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary in the fall of 2000. Bob Webber founded The Institute for Worship Studies (now the Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies) in 1998. The Institute for Worship Studies is a Masters and Doctorate level graduate school focused on the study of the theological, Biblical, historical, sociological and missiological foundations of Christian worship. The school is hosted by Grace Episcopal Church of Orange Park, Florida and combines distance learning with one-week on-campus intensive courses involving students, faculty and alumni from around the globe. IWS Provost and President-Elect Dr. James R. Hart commented, “Bob Webber significantly influenced many in our generation with the understanding that worship is the key to the renewal of the church. We mourn the loss of our friend and mentor, but rejoice with him in worshiping the risen Christ.” Webber was noted for his numerous writings and workshops in worship and worship renewal. His books include such titles as Evangelicals on the Canterbury Trail, Worship Is a Verb, Worship Old and New, Ancient-Future Faith, Ancient-Future Time, Ancient-Future Evangelism, Journey to Jesus, The Younger Evangelicals, and The Divine Embrace. He served as editor of the seven-volume The Complete Library of Christian Worship (Hendrickson, 1993) and was a regular columnist in Worship Leader magazine. Webber leaves behind a wife, Joanne, four children, John (Isabel), Alexandra (Jack), Stefany (Tom), and Jeremy (Susie), seven grandchildren, and a rich legacy of friends, colleagues and students. Memorial services will be held at Northern Seminary (please call for date, time and location) and at Grace Episcopal Church in Orange Park, FL on Friday, June 15 at 7 PM, during the June session of the Institute for Worship Studies. In lieu of flowers the family has requested that donations be made to the Robert E. Webber Endowment Fund at the Institute for Worship Studies, 151 Kingsley Ave., Orange Park, FL 32073, or the Robert E. Webber Center for an Ancient Evangelical Future, c/o Northern Seminary, 660 E. Butterfield Rd., Lombard, IL 60148. Grace and peace, Jim Hart

Doug Sweeney, a police officer, watched his credit card balance grow to $13,000, thinking he would never be able to pay it off. Renée Santiago had $40,000 in student loans. Susan Hancock owed $14,000 in credit card debt and could not point to anything in her home to show for it.

“I saw it going up,” Ms. Hancock said, “but I was numb. I thought, that’s just the way of life.”

When the debt got to be too much for them, instead of going to family members or financial professionals for help, they did what many Americans are doing: they turned to their church.

“You need a little help with motivation,” said Mr. Sweeney, 47, who blamed years of impulsive spending for his debt. Recently, he joined two dozen others at Southeast Christian Church for Week 9 of a 13-week debt-reduction program called Financial Peace University. Since joining the group, he had disposed of his credit cards.

“A big part of it is that it has a faith component,” he said. “God wants you to be good stewards of your money. The money’s all his.”

As Americans have run up nonmortgage debt of more than $2.4 trillion, churches and Christian radio stations are supplementing their spiritual counseling with financial counseling, often using programs developed by other Christian organizations and marketed in church circles or over the Internet. They offer a mix of basic budget planning, household cost-cutting and debt management, bolstered by Scripture and with tithing as a goal.

“We want to be relevant and to scratch people where they itch,” said Dave Stone, the senior pastor at Southeast, a nondenominational church that draws 18,000 worshipers each weekend. “For a church not to provide some service for people who are suffocating from too much debt would be burying our head in the sand.” Economists have recognized that the behavior of consumers often ignores their rational best interests. People overestimate their ability to repay loans, or spend more using credit cards than they would with cash. Church-based debt programs provide rules to force changes in spending and saving, then use Scripture to motivate people.

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The Federal Communications Commission wants Congress to address violence on TV. The FCC report sees a need to protect young viewers. How did the commission reach its conclusions and what are the specifics of its proposal?

Listen to it all from NPR.

Interesting stuff.
(via “christian-anglican” via wyclif.net in Google Reader)

Say a prayer for the Hancock family tonight. Cleveland, Miss. native and St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Josh Hancock with killed early Sunday morning in a car accident:

Police said the 29-year-old Hancock was alone in his 2007 Ford Explorer when he struck the rear of a tow truck at 12:35 a.m. The truck was in the left lane assisting another vehicle that was involved in a prior accident, officer Pete Mutter said.

Hancock was pronounced dead at the scene. The driver of the tow truck, whose name was not released by police, was in the truck at the time of the crash but was not injured.

Hancock, born in Cleveland, Miss., attended high school at Vestavia Hills in Vestavia, Ala. and was Alabama’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 1996 before going on to play at Auburn.

He is the brother of former Ole Miss baseball standout Jon Jon Hancock and current Tupelo High senior Katie Hancock, an All-State girls basketball player.

I wish Lenovo would produce a “ruggedized” ThinkPad…something based on, say, the Z61t.  It would be nice to have a laptop to take into the field during land survey to close the occasional traverse.

Is anyone else fatigued by the continued references in the MSM to “data addiction”?

Note to Lev Grossman: it’s Gmail, not G-Mail.