The Progress reports that Pat Lair is asking for a recount in his race against Wayland Smalley, in which Smalley won by just five votes.

It’s certainly his right to request the recount, but–believe it or not–Oklahoma has one of the best ballot systems in the country (optical scanners). I will be surprised if there is any change in the vote tally.

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.” Exodus 20:17 (ESV)

Matthew Henry’s Commentary:

VI. The tenth commandment strikes at the root: Thou shalt not covet, Exodus 20:17. The foregoing commands implicitly forbid all desire of doing that which will be an injury to our neighbour; this forbids all inordinate desire of having that which will be a gratification to ourselves. “O that such a man’s house were mine! Such a man’s wife mine! Such a man’s estate mine!” This is certainly the language of discontent at our own lot, and envy at our neighbour’s; and these are the sins principally forbidden here. St. Paul, when the grace of God caused the scales to fall from his eyes, perceived that this law, Thou shalt not covet, forbade all those irregular appetites and desires which are the first-born of the corrupt nature, the first risings of the sin that dwelleth in us, and the beginnings of all the sin that is committed by us: this is that lust which, he says, he had not known the evil of, if this commandment, when it came to his conscience in the power of it, had not shown it to him, Romans 7:7. God give us all to see our face in the glass of this law, and to lay our hearts under the government of it! [Emphasis Added]

At this moment, the Drudge Report has the famous flashing siren indicating breaking news. The headline:

MEL GIBSON ARRESTED FOR DUI

So far the only details are:

FOX NEWS has confirmed that actor Mel Gibson has been arrested in Los Angeles County for DUI… Bail was set at $5,000. He was pulled over on the Pacific Coast Highway and a Breathalyzer test was administered. The arrest report lists the time of arrest as 2:36AM and the time booked as 4:06AM… DEVELOPING…

And the assault from the Left will begin in 3, 2, 1….

So, what does this say about the Producer who brought The Passion of the Christ to the world? Does it mean The Passion was a lie? Does it mean that The Passion was a fraud? Does it mean that Gibson is just a charlatan who made millions off the Gospel? I think not.

What this arrrest proves is that man is fallen. In need of a Savior, even. Kind of like the whole point of The Passion.

There is an interesting response to these types of things. When a liberal does things, because they have no personal moral beliefs that they are violating, it is OK, usually barely mentioned in the news. It certainly won’t affect their future ability to work. When a Christian does something bad, he is condemned by the world and judged by the standard he professes, which is correct. The only caveat is that the standard by which hs is judged is universal. The liberals’ disrespect and unbelief in a standard does not exempt them from it.

And so, I am disappointed in Mel Gibson, I think all Christians will be, but we’ll see how it shakes out. First reports, especially when they concern someone who is so hated by so many, are often not the full story. But, our human failures and mistakes in no way demean the work of Christ at Calvary. They simply remind us of its necessity.

UPDATE: For the actual news story Drudge is linking to: http://www.tmz.com/2006/07/28/exclusive-mel-gibson-busted-for-dui/

It’s not unusual to encounter folks that are not in the know as far as the Hezbollah-Israel War goes. It’s around the world; it doesn’t really concern us; these people always fight. It can all end up as a disconcerting blur that leads us to concentrate on things at home and just leave things to the politicians and talking heads on TV.

If that is where you are, let me suggest you read this piece by Charles Krauthammer. He is an excellent analyst, and he clearly presents the real differences in the two sides of the current conflict. It won’t take five minutes to read, and it will be truly enlightening.

Here’s a relevant excerpt:

When the United States was attacked at Pearl Harbor, it did not respond with a parallel “proportionate” attack on a Japanese naval base. It launched a four-year campaign that killed millions of Japanese, reduced Tokyo, Hiroshima and Nagasaki to a cinder, and turned the Japanese home islands to rubble and ruin. Disproportionate? No. When one is wantonly attacked by an aggressor, one has every right — legal and moral — to carry the fight until the aggressor is disarmed and so disabled that it cannot threaten one’s security again. That’s what it took with Japan.

***

The perversity of today’s international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides.

OK, first off, I am not a fan of government cameras all over the place. It’s just a little too 1984 for me. However, a neighborhood association put some dummy cameras near a Tulsa park. A local man, familiar with video cameras, notices them and inquires. He then learns they are dummy cams put up with the approval of the Parks Dept. with the intent to deter some of the illicit behaviors in the park area. No harm; no foul. That’s where the story should have ended. However, KOTV does this report: http://www.kotv.com/news/?108201. I wonder how long the bad guys will avoid the “cameras” now.

The only possible reasonable answer I can come up with for this report is that they have replaced the dummy cams with real ones and are trying to lure the bad guys into a false sense that no one is watching.

Thomas Sowell has wriiten a bang-up piece on the notion of peace protests and cease-fires bringing peace. One great excerpt:

Few people even seem interested in the actual track record of so-called “peace” movements — that is, whether such movements actually produce peace or war.

Take the Middle East. People are calling for a cease-fire in the interests of peace. But there have been more cease-fires in the Middle East than anywhere else. If cease-fires actually promoted peace, the Middle East would be the most peaceful region on the face of the earth instead of the most violent.

Read the whole column!