Every once and a while I’ll try to give an Ordinary Guy’s Review of Events – Hence the acronym – OGRE.

Now I have several tasty little treats for you today.

First off, I have this from Chrisitan.com – Christian news service.

With all the hubbub about President Bush’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Roberts, we have this little insight into why mainstreamers often think Christians are stupid. Its when we say really stupid things.

Citing part of Judge Roberts’ testimony in the recent hearings, the news service reported:

Roberts said: “There is nothing in my personal views, based on faith or other sources, that would prevent me from applying the precedents of the court faithfully.” He added that when it comes to judging, he looks to law books for guidance — not to the Bible or other religious sources.”‘”

Not exactly difficult to decipher. The statement says that when it comes to doing his job, which is interpreting the Constitution, he will do that, and that nothing in his personal or religious views would hinder him from doing that. No foolin’! I should hope not. I would hope that my mechanic would find nothing in his personal views or in his religious views which would prevent him from interpreting Chilton’s car manual when he works on my vehicle either. He DIDN’T say he wasn’t influenced by those things in his understanding of morality or right or wrong. That wasn’t the question. The US Constitution doesn’t determine what is right or wrong. God alone does that. The Supreme Court determines what is in concert with the Constitution. I would sincerely hope that NO Christian would think his views on Scripture or anything else would prevent him from his job – especially if his job is interpreting a legal document.

So – how does at least one dodo of a Christian leader respond? Here’s Rob Schenck of the National Clergy Council. He said: “I am very bothered by the statement that Judge Roberts made when he said that the Bible and his faith do not factor into his judgments on the court,”

This is why Christians are thought of as stupid. When we say stupid things – people think we’re stupid! Schenck DOESN’T quote Roberts correctly, address what Roberts actually said, or even make a good point. Three times stupid is REALLY stupid. Schenck heard him say the Bible and his faith do not factor into his judgments on the court. The Judge said neither the Bible nor his views would prevent him from doing his job. Worlds apart. But Schenk is too much of an idiolog to deal honestly. I don’t care HOW Biblical he thinks he is – he doesn’t even understand English and that’s a bad thing.

I don’t know if Roberts is a good guy for the post or not. I do know that Christians ought to make coherent, educated, rational statements. Especially in public.

On to page two – as Paul Harvey would say.

Reuters news service reported this morning that Dan (I’d) Rather (not, thank you) kept tearing up as he spoke at the “Fordham University School of Law in Manhattan Monday. He said that “in the intervening years,[since Watergate] politicians “of every persuasion” had gotten better at applying pressure on the conglomerates that own the broadcast networks. He called it a “new journalism order.”

“He said this pressure — along with the “dumbed-down, tarted-up” coverage, the advent of 24-hour cable competition and the chase for ratings and demographics — has taken its toll on the news business. “All of this creates a bigger atmosphere of fear in newsrooms,”’”

At the same event, HBO Documentary and Family president Sheila Nevins, noted that “that even in the documentary world, there’s a certain kind of intimidation brought to bear these days, particularly from the religious right. If you made a movie about (evolutionary biologist Charles) Darwin now, it would be revolutionary,” Nevins said. “If we did a documentary on Darwin, I’d get a thousand hate e-mails.”‘”

If Dan is looking to get sympathy for a news industry who panders to the lowest common denominators – he’s not going to get it from me. He can cry all he wants, but its the network news services who made Dan-o his millions, and then repeatedly lost the public’s confidence through bogus, biased, self-serving coverage. If you can’t take the Drudge, you’d better get out of the newsroom.

The funnier comment was the one from Sheila Nevins. Seems as a professional documentarist, she finds any negative reactions to her work as “intimidation.” Make no mistake, I’m not into brainless Christian hate mail. Wrong way to go. But she tipped her hand that she sells out and doesn’t do documentaries on Darwin because she doesn’t believe in her view strongly enough to take the hit. Sorry ‘bout that – but no sympathy here. Christians shouldn’t be surprised or hurt when the world rejects us, nor ought one who challenges our core beliefs think it strange if we respond negatively. We all need to grow up and learn to be adults and deal with it – eh?

Last but not least – this has got to go in my favorites bin.

This in from the Jet Propulsion Lab for Sept. 21, 2005

“That’s just one of the surprising discoveries that have resulted from the extended life of NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor, which this month began its ninth year in orbit around Mars. Boulders tumbling down a Martian slope left tracks that weren’t there two years ago. New impact craters formed since the 1970s suggest changes to age-estimating models. And for three Mars summers in a row, deposits of frozen carbon dioxide near Mars’ south pole have shrunk from the previous year’s size, suggesting a climate change in progress.”

Did you catch the last sentence? Global warming on Mars! What a hoot! Too many cars? Too much hair spray? Too many smoke stacks? No – NOT A ONE! Nada, zip, zilch, zero, nil nothin’. Maybe – just maybe now – global warming and cooling trends are NATURAL CYCLIC PHENOMENA. I don’t want to get too far out there mind you. I’m pretty certain all that hair spray from my super-coiffed youth is still to blame in some respect. But it does have to make you wonder – at least a little bit.

Adios Amigos. The OGRE is done for the day.