Miscellany for the week so far, I can’t believe it’s Wednesday and I’m just putting one of these up. Scot McKnight: Adultery, Jesus and the Church Mere Orthodoxy: On Authenticity and Self-Deception by Matthew Lee Anderson Newser: Sarah Palin is Winning by Michael Wolff The Point: Too blunt an instrument by Karen Williams Principles and Powers: Dems Are Hunting Bulls To Extinction by David C.

From The Washington Post By Simon Johnson and James KwakThe next couple of months will be crucial in determining the shape of the financial system for decades to come. And so far, the signs are not encouraging.The Obama administration is trying to refocus our attention on regulation, beginning with the president’s speech in New York two weeks ago. The financial system, after all, brought us a near-catastrophic crisis that turned a mild recession into a painfully severe one.

Betsy has an excellent article on the benefits (or lack thereof) of bringing the Olympics to Chicago. And, while one does find the President’s role in soliciting the IOC somewhat unpresidential, shouldn’t the bigger question be one of cost/benefit?

Why is Rangel Still Here? :  Glenn Beck launched an attack against the Obama administration’s “green jobs” director Van Jones in the last week of August. By Labor Day, Jones was FOX-kill. Compare that to the results achieved by The New York Times and The Washington Post, both of which have called for New York Rep. Charles Rangel to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. The newspapers began urging Rangel to step aside back in 2008; it’s now close to 2010 and Rangel hasn’t budged.

With the fusing of political parties everywhere into one hideous amorphous mass (a process that’s reaching its apogee in Europe, where party names have long si nce ceased to provide anything but the merest hint as to that party’s alleged values), the choice facing the electorate increasingly appears to be that between big and bigger government, high and higher taxes, and little or no accountability. The traditional dividing lines have softened and blurred, leading to the rise of the independents and their king-making capacity.

By Ben Stein , American Spectator, July 24, 2009 Obama fits right in with Uncle Joe Stalin ( http://patriotpost.us/ ) Why is President Barack Obama in such a hurry to get his socialized medicine bill passed? Because he and his cunning circle realize some basic truths: The American people in their unimaginable kindness and trust voted for a pig in a poke in 2008. They wanted so much to believe Barack Obama was somehow better and different from other ultra-leftists that they simply took him on faith.

THE FACEBOOK ASSASSIN ! ( Rev. Manning video )ATLAH ^| 9/29/09 | James D. Manning Posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 6:48:38 AM by sushimanThe Hon. James David Manning says “please don’t harm or kill Barack Hussein Obama.”Refhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2351429/posts*****

Naive, Egotistical and Dangerous … And the Democrats told us that Europe would just love Barack Hussein Obama when he was elected everything would be different. It certainly is, isn’t it. Last evening Jack Kelly of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette told Greta Van Susteren that French President Sarkozy was furious at Obama over his Iran speech and his misguided and naive global nuclear disarmament agenda, all the while knowing that Iran had a second s ecret nuclear facility .

Over at NewsMax, which is hardly the place to go for rational political argument I will admit, John L. Perry advocates a military coup to overthrow the President of the United States: There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic. America isn’t the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn’t mean it wont.

Bette Midler Warns Glenn Beck Could Set Off a Rwanda-Like Civil War in U.S.Newsbusters ^| September 30, 2009 | Jeff Poor Posted on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 7:55:02 AM by Rufus2007It’s just what the primetime cable news lineup needed – another hour-long program tilted toward left-of-center politics with character assassination on conservatives.CNN Headline News debuted its “The Joy Behar Show” on Sept. 29, which included appearances by lefty comedian Jeanane Garofalo, CNN’s Jack Cafferty and actress Bette Midler.