Setting the energy agenda:

Goals for energy and climate . . .

. . . and getting off our addiction to foreign oil.

Gore challenges McCain and Obama

on the future of energy and climate

and look at this piece from Thomas Friedman

on the Danish, who are "Energy Independent!"

Tak skal du have !!!

Obama's support for . . . .

Federal funding of faith-based programs:

Here is an article from The Jewish Week, discussing some jitteriness over Obama's recent statements on this mattter. All one need do is read the statements carefully, and you can see what they mean. The quote below is from the article itself.

Obama laid out principles he said would avoid crossing any constitutional lines.

“If you get a federal grant, you can’t use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can’t discriminate against them — or against the people you hire — on the basis of their religion,” he said.

He added that “federal dollars that go directly to churches, temples and mosques can only be used on secular programs.”

I believe Obama gets this issue right from seemingly opposite perspectives - one, he recognizes the need for government to meet its responsibilities to help those in need by providing adequate funding for essential services that are already provided by government agencies; and two, by recognizing that religious organizations play a meaningful role rendering similar services, at times in places that government agencies may not fully reach. To qualify, religious agency programs simply have to meet the requirements quoted above.

On this July 4th, my thoughts turn to . . .

. . . . the WAM

Today's suggested reading comes from page one of section D of the Post and Courier.

It is a full rendition of the Declaration of Independence, which we should take to heart every day, though we actually celebrate it once a year on the 4th of July.

It brings to me a strange sensation, and familiarity, as I read it. Because it brings to mind the joyous spirit and the sense of conviction with which we have built the New West Ashley Minyan.

I will print below just two key sections, but you may read the whole Declaration by clicking on this link - Dan Conover 7-4-08

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.