Random Friday stuff: Paterno/Mohler, Perry/Cain,

Paterno is out, his final chapter, an ugly one, being written for him. It didn't have to end this way.

Al Mohler steps up to say more elegantly what I said earlier, and plainer: Pick up the phone. Call the cops.

But the problem for Southern Baptists is more complicated. The PSU crimes are years in the past. What happens today when SBC churches or clergy are accused or involved in crimes a decade or more in the past? Ask Christa Brown. I don't have a simple, plain solution.

And does Al Mohler have a copy of This Little Light in his reknown library?
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We are a nation of political pundits. Here's my punditry:

Rick Perry, continuing to be the incredible shrinking candidate, wants to be Commander in Chief, not Debater in Chief. Sorry, demonstrate competence in simple things before being given the presidency. His latest gaffe makes him more likeable but less electable.

Hummon, bro, 9-9-9 cannot be the answer to every question posed to you. I'm afraid Cain has reached his high water mark even if you excise the sexual harrassment talk of the past two weeks.

Huntsman, Santorum, Bachmann...you are all just taking up valuable time that the other candidates, ones who actually have a chance of winning, might use. Declare victory and depart.
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Love One Another? College Football. Jammie Days.

They will know us by our love for one another: Here in Georgia two Christian schools played football last Friday. Loganville Christian Academy was ahead of Northside Christian Academy 33-0 in the first half when one of the players on the losing team ripped off the helmet of his opponent and began bashing him over the head with it. Criminal charges could be filed. The game was stopped at that point and the head basher’s team forfeited to the head bashee’s team. Reminds me of church softball leagues. Tsk. Tsk.

Alas, who to vote for? The wonderful family man, the Mormon, the submissive evangelical wife, the libertarian with his nose perpetually out-of-joint, the thrice married ex-SBCer, the fiery former pizza magnate who would excise mosques, the drawling Texan who knows how to corral the evangelical vote, the three-fourths Italian one-fourth Irish Pennsylvania Catholic, or the other Mormon who attended Lutheran school whose wife was raised Episcopalian, whose kids went to Catholic school who adopted a girl from India who has a Hindu tradition. We will let the crowd shake down on its own.

Georgia lost to Boise State. It wasn’t close. I’d feel sorry for head coach Marc Richt who is under some pressure but I don’t believe I am obligated to feel sorry for anyone making $3 million a year. I don’t even feel sorry for the beleaguered defensive coach who still makes about as much as the college president.

NASA has an astronaut shortage. Plodder will be happy to recommend some of my calvinist ministerial colleagues who already have experience in deep space.

Kids have pajama days at school? What's next - underwear days?

Rick Perry playing evangelicals with prayer rally?

Rick Perry may run for president. I may vote for him if he does. He would be preferable to many of the GOP candidates and infinitely preferable to the present occupant of the White House.

But my radar is up on politicians who start marshalling the evangelical Christian vote and I'm getting a pretty strong reading on Perry. Not that other politicians aren't capable of the same but I just hate to get the feeling that evangelical Christians are just another voting bloc to be wooed, cajoled, and romanced into one politician's camp.

I started getting fwd:fwd:fwd emails last week about Perry's big prayer meeting - evangelical notables pumping 'our kind of guy' and all that. I'm all for prayer. I'm perfectly willing to grant the benefit of the doubt to him. I'm not questioning his sincerity in the prayer meetin'. Maybe it just looks like the governor has started to strum the evangelical strings as a prelude to declaring his candidacy.

There are critics. Some far more harsh than anyone quoted in this article: Perry's upcoming prayer event draws sharp criticism

So, this is merely Plodder pondering on the Perry prayer pow wow. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Perry, if he had thought of it, would have called for a mass prayer meeting back when Obamacare was passed, or when the Congress was furiously spending our grandchildren's trillions rather than when it's time to fish or cut bait on running for president in 2012.

Maybe the funny feeling I'm getting over this is too much sun, sugar, and cholesterol.

Hope so...