Is God in the whirlwind? And are there lessons in the gales?

Down here on the Gulf Coast, we sometimes mark time by reference to particular storms, especially hurricanes. “Was that before or after Betsy (1965)?” people would ask each other in ordinary conversation when I was growing up in New Orleans. Or “Did that building fall in Betsy, or was it Camille (1969)?”

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All the talk in politics early this week was about a U.S. Senate candidate from Missouri who suggested that women’s bodies somehow would reject pregnancies that might otherwise occur from “legitimate” rapes, whatever that means. But aside from the politics and the pseudo-science surrounding his statement, a deeper issue should present itself to thoughtful people. The issue is the way we look at, and treat, the women who by law are faced with a choice of whether to abort their children.

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Sometimes a writer doesn't know what to write about. For understandable reasons right now, everybody else in my business seems to be writing about politics - for instance, about how vice presidential choice Paul Ryan is a bow-hunter, how he draws on bipartisan ideas to reform and save Medicare, and how he will or will not attract, or scare off, the votes of senior citizens. But there's more to life than politics, even when a new and fascinating/controversial figure like Ryan, with his traditional values combined with policy boldness, enters the national spotlight.

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As I write this on August 7, crowds still seem heavier than normal at the Chick-fil-A restaurant across the street from my office. Six days after the scheduled rally to patronize the restaurant chain, in response to bullying comments against it, Americans still seem to be enthusiastic about showing support for free speech and/or traditional marriage.

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When a Colorado judge on Friday issued an injunction protecting at least one company from a new mandate to provide insurance coverage for sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs (sometimes mislabeled the “contraception mandate”), he was doing no more than upholding the vision of James Madison, the “Father of the Constitution.”

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