Pray and Lock & Load

Ken Pagano, the pastor at New Bethel Church, prepared to try a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun at a shooting range. “God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” he said. So was slavery, but never mind.




Does the pastor know that the translation of his last name from the Italian means pagan? Doubt it.


Ken Pagano, the pastor of the New Bethel Church here, is passionate about gun rights. He shoots regularly at the local firing range, and his sermon two weeks ago was on “God, Guns, Gospel and Geometry.” And on Saturday night, he is inviting his congregation of 150 and others to wear or carry their firearms into the sanctuary to “celebrate our rights as Americans!” as a promotional flier for the “open carry celebration” puts it.

“God and guns were part of the foundation of this country,” Mr. Pagano, 49, said Wednesday in the small brick Assembly of God church, where a large wooden cross hung over the altar and two American flags jutted from side walls. “I don’t see any contradiction in this. Not every Christian denomination is pacifist.”

Enough said.

Republicans Look for a Reliever in Kentucky

Senator Jim Bunning has a focus on economic issues, but his demeanor sometimes draws more attention than his positions.

“When you’ve dealt with Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra and Stan Musial,” he said, “the people I’m dealing with now are kind of down the scale.”




One of the entrenched narratives in American politics is the case of the guy who refuses to quit, even though a lot of people on his own team want him gone.

While the Democrats are preoccupied with Senator Roland W. Burris and his ties to a tainted Illinois governor, the Republicans are trying to rid themselves of Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, the former baseball star who clearly has little use for some colleagues and party leaders, and who keeps exhibiting what one senator calls “behavior issues.”

I remember hearing that he was considered the stupidest Senator.

Key Republicans are gently (or not gently enough) trying to dissuade Mr. Bunning from seeking re-election in 2010 out of concern that his paltry fund-raising, declining approval ratings and irascible conduct have made him something between vulnerable and unelectable.

But in recent weeks, Mr. Bunning has shown no sign of stepping aside and delivered a string of incendiary pronouncements that have fed an impression that he is, to go with a baseball metaphor, a bit of a screwball.

If not stupid, weird, for sure.

In 2006, Time magazine named him one of the five worst senators in the country.

Well, there are four others, so he can take some solace for that.

First results are in ...

Corriere de la Sera, Italian newspaper (MIlan) has this headline:

Obama in Indiana, McCain in Kentucky

O, wait; this is further elucidation: Le primissime previsioni con exit poll sono state diffuse da Fox News. Il repubblicano sarebbe in testa in Ohio, con il 51% dei voti, contro il 47% del senatore democratico. Che invece guiderebbe la corsa in Virginia, con il 58% dei voti contro il 39%..

Fox News? Fair and balanced? It shows 2.352% of precints reporting in Indiana, 2.316% in Kentucky. A mite early, methinks.