Do they give Pulitzer prizes to bloggers? If they don’t, perhaps they should. My nominee for the 2008 award would be Eric Berger of the Houston Chronicle, the paper’s Sci Guy blogger. I’ve been following this storm online for days and nobody, not even the bigwigs at CNN, FOX News, USA TODAY, and the Weather Channel has done a better job of covering Hurricane Ike.

Mr. Berger’s home is southeast of Houston, in Clear Lake. If Ike was a bowling lane, Clear Lake would be located just behind the center pin. That storm was barreling towards Berger’s house, but he worked almost around the clock, covering this unfolding disater.

He wrote regular posts — at all hours of the day and night — and he held on-line discussions so that storm-panicked Houstonians could ask questions. Berger demonstrated a complete mastery of meteorology and the science behind the storms. He explained complex concepts in ways that people without science degrees would understand. And he provided important information calmly, authoritatively and with good humor while the winds whipped around him.

When Ike made landfall, Berger was blogging away, putting up posts throughout the day and into the night. He apparently didn’t sleep much (if at all), posting updates at 11:39 p.m. Friday and at 2:30 a.m., 7:25 a.m. and 8:18 a.m. Saturday morning. Posts continued throughout the morning and evening. I hope somebody nominates this guy for a Pulitzer. Not a blogging Pulitzer — they haven’t created one, yet. But perhaps for explanatory journalism.

I’d encourage you to take a look at Mr. Berger’s work over the past week. He’s one of those people who give blogging and newspapers a good name. And while you’re checking out Sci Guy, you might also enjoy taking a look at

Houston Belief, the Houston Chronicle’s (fairly) new and innovative religion website.

The U.S. government, President Bush says, does not torture people. Torturing people would violate the Geneva Convention and, perhaps, the Bill of Rights (“cruel and unusual punishment”) and, arguably, the teachings of W’s favorite philosopher — Jesus Christ (“love your enemies, etc., etc..)

However, if the federal government ever decides to start drawing and quartering undesirables, white Southern evangelicals won’t lose any sleep over it, a new poll suggests.
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The Washington Post has a sad, sad story, about a dad who gave up his life while attempting to rescue his son.

Click here for video.

It’s a macabre money maker: human corpses, sliced and diced and skinned and on display in Hot Springs, Arkansas and dozens of other cities and towns across America.
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By Frank Lockwood
(c) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
ST. PAUL, Minn. — John McCain’s selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as running mate has electrified many evangelical voters, especially those in the Pentecostal community, one of the fastest-growing religious movements in the world.

They see her as a trailblazer — not only as the first Republican woman on the ticket but also as the first person with Pentecostal roots to be a major party candidate.

“I’m proud of her and for her,” said Shonda Walters, a Pentecostal Sunday School teacher from Clarksville. “It seems like she’s worked very hard to get to the place where she is in her life.”

“This certainly has energized the Christian evangelical voting bloc,” said J. Lee Grady, editor of Charisma, a magazine that focuses on the Pentecostal movement.

Like many evangelicals, Pentecostals generally believe that the Bible is the infallible word of God. But Pentecostals place a special emphasis on the Holy Spirit, saying it gives Christians supernatural power to live a Christian life.
Pentecostals believe that the age of miracles did not end in the era of the Apostles but continues to this day.

Christians, they say, can speak in a heavenly language (called ‘tongues’ or glossolalia), can prophecy and can receive divine healing.

Pentecostals also believe that we live in the last days and that Jesus Christ could return to earth at any time.
Palin is a member of Wasilla Bible Church, a nondenominational church roughly 40 miles northeast of Anchorage, and the McCain campaign says Palin doesn’t claim the Pentecostal label. Instead, she describes herself as a “Bible-believing Christian.”

But she attended a Pentecostal congregation, Wasilla Assembly of God, for at least two decades, and she sometimes attends Juneau Christian Center, which is affiliated with the United States’ 2.9 million-member Assemblies of God.
Palin spoke at the graduation of the Wasilla Assembly of God’s school of ministry in June, and the church’s pastor, Ed Kalnins, says in a video posted on the congregation’s Web site, that Palin has “maintained a friendship” with her old place of worship.

Palin also has attended Church on the Rock, another Pentecostal-style congregation in Wasilla.
Darrin Rodgers, who oversees the Assemblies of God’s archives and research center, says Palin’s candidacy is “breaking new ground” for the Pentecostal movement.

“Many Assemblies of God members are very pleased to see someone they consider one of their own, someone they can identify with, having reached this level of public service,” he said.

Arkansas pastors also welcomed the news.

“I’m thrilled that she has been chosen, because of her conservative values. … She’s just a home-run pick for me,” said Evangel Temple pastor Don Hutchings of Fort Smith.

Palin’s candidacy is “great for our movement,” he said. “I know she will represent us as a person of high morals.”

Until now, the highest-ranking political figures with Pentecostal roots were former Secretary of the Interior James G. Watt and former Attorney General John Ashcroft. Both belonged to the Assemblies of God, and both saw their faith placed under a media microscope during the period they served.

In an interview, Watt said he has been “electrified” by Palin’s candidacy, but he predicts that her life will be grueling between now and Election Day.

“I started praying for her Friday morning, praying that she’ll be protected by the hand of God,” the former Reagan administration Cabinet member said.

“She needs protection, because there’ll be forces out to destroy her,” including the Democrats and the national press corps, Watt added.

The rest of this story is available by subscribing to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s print or electronic editions at www2.arkansasonline.com.

According to the Eagle Forum Alaska blog, vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is a little misinformed about the pledge of allegiance.

Palin was asked the following question by the Eagle Forum when she ran for governor in 2006:

“11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?”
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So much for media objectivity. Washington Post reporter Sally Quinn, the atheist who was picked to write an “On Faith” blog, says she’s hopping mad at the presumptive Republican presidential nominee because he picked Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

“My first reaction was shock. Then anger,” Quinn writes in her recent post. “John McCain chose a running mate simply because she is a woman and one who appealed to the Republican’s conservative evangelical base. Now, with news that Palin’s 17-year-old unmarried daughter is pregnant, McCain’s pick may not even find support among ‘family values” voters.’”

Quinn presumes to know a lot about ‘family values voters’ for someone who has spent little or no time at evangelical churches over the decades.

My hunch is that family values voters will rally behind Gov. Palin and her 17-year-old daughter. The folks making most of the snide, ugly, hateful comments will come from other quarters.

What do you all think? Will evangelicals shun the Palins because their daughter isn’t opting for an abortion? Or will most of them be supportive?