My latest B&C blog:
September news in review, the White House leak flap and more:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/books/features/weblog/031006.html

-My B&C blog archive

TIMELINE EXTRA
Trimmed from my news in review:

-Howard Kurtz on rapid-fire news controversies of the end of the month

-Bush officials reported to illegally leak name of CIA operative

-Athens behind schedule in preparations for next year's Olympics

-Milwaukee reviews school voucher program

- Patriot Act expanded

- Record number of West Nile cases

-Judge calls government’s Do-Not-Call registry unconstitutional

-Pre-9/11 hints of attacks disclosed by prisoner

-Churches sued for calling selves Catholic

-Latin Grammys heavy on glitz

-Measles making a comeback

-Gates grants to battle malaria

-Poverty rose in 2002, report says

-President Taft said to have been sleepy

-Soccer game between anarchists and communists halted by authorities

-Medicinal function of "comfort food" studied

-Minor earthquake registers

-WUSA folds as women's World Cup opens

-Quayle bust unveiled in Capitol rotunda

-Previous Timeline Extra

Follow-up to my obituary roundup: the still-reverberating words of the silenced Johnny Cash

Man in Black
by Johnny Cash (1932-2003)

Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there's a reason for the things that I have on.

I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he's a victim of the times.

I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you'd think He's talking straight to you and me.

Well, we're doin' mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin' cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we're reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought 'a be a Man In Black.

I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin' for the lives that could have been
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.

And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen' that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen' that we all were on their side.

Well, there's things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin' everywhere you go,
But 'til we start to make a move to make a few things right
You'll never see me wear a suit of white.

Ah, I'd love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything's OK,
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
'Till things are brighter, I'm the Man in Black.

(c) 1971, House of Cash, Inc. link