Toyota is doing some creative - and rather impressive - advertising.

Perfect love, we know, casteth out fear. But so do several other things - ignorance, alcohol, passion, presumption, and stupidity. It is very desirable that we should all advance to that perfection of love in which we shall fear no longer; but it is very undesirable, until we have reached that stage, that we should allow any inferior agent to cast out fear.

-C.S. Lewis

As part of my quest to take my entire computing life online and free myself completely from local apps, I recently switched to an online accounting register to keep track of my finances. Clearcheckbook.com looked the nicest and felt the fastest and most intuitive out of the top Google results. Check it out.

Deploring the insanity of gender quotas. (HT: Instapundit)

Some thoughts on evangelism from The Evangelical Outpost.

VOM, India:

• On April 22, Pastor Jayasheelan and eight other believers were beaten by more than 90 people at a prayer meeting in Rajankunte Village. After surrounding the house, the mob shouted slogans and threatened to burn it down if the Christians did not meet them outside. After Pastor Jayasheelan and the others came out of the house, they were beaten and kicked while the police looked on. The pastor was struck on his head, back and hip. The other believers were also injured. They were later jailed in the Central Jail and released after two days. The believers befriended the other prisoners while they were in jail and shared the gospel. Some of the 20 prisoners received Christ.
• On April 29, Pastor Walter Masih was attacked by Hindu extremists while returning home after Sunday worship. Two young men asked the pastor if he could tell them about Jesus and while the pastor was sharing with them, a group of more than 15 young men started beating Pastor Walter with sticks. This happened in front of Pastor Walter's 7-year-old daughter. While he was being beaten, Pastor Walter prayed loudly for the extremists and this further infuriated them.

Surprise, surprise: Oprah supports Obama.

For my own part I hate and distrust reactions not only in religion but in everything. Luther surely spoke very good sense when he compared humanity to a drunkard who, after falling of his horse on the right, falls off it next time on the left...

A thing does not vanish - it is not even discredited - because someone has spoken of it with exaggeration. It remains exactly where it was. The only difference is that if it has recently been exaggerated, we must now take special care not to overlook it; for that is the side on which the drunk man is now most likely to fall off.

- C. S. Lewis

Some positive thoughts on Ron Paul from the Democrat side:

If I were watching a debate between Obama and Ron Paul, my stomach would not be churning inside me. I would not be nervously cheering on one of the candidates and booing the other, as if the last and only hope for our country was that one of them would "win" the debate. Rather, I would actually be listening to the debate and making up my mind.

(Instapundit)

Only in America could you put together a roundup on fluorescent bulbs:

• Instapundit wants to change a billion.
• LVMI thinks they're ugly.
• Some technical details from a Tennessee blog.

Pretty boring, I agree.

I may get some thoughts posted soon on the recent GOP Debate, but for now, here's a piece on Ron Paul from Reason.

EDIT: Paul won the MSNBC post-debate poll; perhaps his showing wasn't so bad after all.

The pacifism debate continues.

The inevitable implosion of the Islamic worldview?

(HT: Instapundit)

The Evangelical Outpost comments, with some welcome sanity, on the new Milblog restrictions:

Instead of criticizing the addition of common sense restrictions, my fellow conservative bloggers should be asking why this change wasn't implemented years ago. How many times do we have to read about the enemy being an "adaptive, cunning, and learning adversary ... unlike most previous experiences" before we figure out where the terrorists are getting their information from? The question that should be asked is how many soldiers lives had to be lost do to poor OPSEC before the generals realized they needed to tell milbloggers to "button your lip!"

Glenn Reynolds on the subtleties of barelinking.

Step aside Gideon, there's another guru in town.

Predictably, Gene Redlin is disgusted.

WORLD comments on the decline of the book review.

I'm trying to do my part!

VOM, Turkey:

The Protestant Church in Smyrna is requesting Christians to pray for the families of the three believers killed on April 18, 2007, in Malatya, Turkey. According to a press release, the church urged Christians to pray that someday the perpetrators of the gruesome murders would receive Christ and for God to use the testimonies of the martyred brothers to draw others in the knowledge of Him.

The harsh realities of military chaplaincy. This is the work that killed Oswald Chambers.

A new blog that just appeared on the radar. Looks good.

The Evangelical Outpost on the global war against baby girls.

VOM, Indonesia:

More than 40 Christian leaders were arrested after a video recording of them praying for Muslims was leaked to Islamic organizations. Muslims claim the Christians blasphemed the Koran by placing it on the floor and praying for millions of people that had been deceived by it. The Islamic organizations consider the video's content abusive and have released the video to the media. Among the imprisoned were parents of young children. According to sources in Indonesia, some imprisoned women and the elderly have been released. The Voice of the Martyrs is working to assist families. Pray for those in prison and their families. Ask God to give them boldness and wisdom as they face these difficult challenges.

It seems incongruous to take a video you consider blasphemous to your faith and release it to the media. Does this action not blatantly reveal the true motive behind this attack?

Disastrous disaster relief:

Federal disaster relief denies people the opportunity to live cheaply in exchange for living dangerously. That opportunity is particularly valuable to the poor.

To put this another way, federal disaster relief essentially forces people — most of them poor people --- to buy insurance they'd rather not have. The premiums are hidden in their housing prices, but they are none the less real...

Poor people, more than most, value cheap housing. A policy of disaster relief makes cheap housing hard to find. Therefore a policy of disaster relief is likely to impose a particular burden on the poor. If you want to help poor people, eliminating federal disaster relief is a good place to start.

(Instapundit)

This is truly disgusting. (WMB)

The unraveling continues.