handful of things to read

• Republicanism in decline - by the hero of today, Tony Snow

  When Democrats gibber about Republicans' writhing in a culture of corruption, they're on to something -- but not what they think. The Republican Party in Washington is in trouble not because it's overrun by crooks, but because it's packed with cowards -- and has degenerated into a caricature of the party that swept to power 11 years ago promising to take on the federal bureaucracy and liberate the creative genius of American society.

• Don't Bend The Wire
• Machen's Judicial Philosophy

If we want to restore respect for human laws, we shall have to get rid of this notion that judges and juries exist only for the utilitarian purpose of the protection of society, and shall have to restore the notion that they exist for the purposes of justice.

• for a few days I've been wanting to write a summary, response, and hip-hip-hooray for Carl Trueman's Review of Is the Reformation Over? I've decided to go quicker: whoo-hoo! go read this!
• Of Diapers and the Pleasure of God: A Christian View of Parenting
  
• Dr. Greg L. Bahnsen: ten years after
It's been ten years???

Dr. Bahnsen's life was like a large rock splashing in a quiet mill pond. Although the splash was over only too quickly, the rippling waves of good will wrought by him living his life and ministry, shall continue to make their way toward the hopeful shore.
[snip]
"while he was one of the keenest minds in the world of Christian apologetics, he had a gentle heart and always stressed love in 'the battle.' His Legacy is in the spirit of the Bereans."
[snip]
Dr. Bahnsen was among a special breed of men whose very heartbeat seemed destined to motivate and inspire others. I am not myself of that gracious calling, but I know that sort of leadership when I see it, and can't help but to cleave to and reverence it.