Guns, God and Politics - hey, what else do we need?

I ran into anssemblage of reasonable commentary about guns and religion. Worth a look.
Also interestingly humorous, from the Vice President, Mr. Biden:  "We need more gun laws because we don’t have time to enforce the ones we have"

And, in the inevitable, a study of: To what political party did mass murderers belong over the last 10 years. For you purists: this is a secondary source, but contains a link to the primary source, a video.

Finally, I was blessed today with the Short Devotion's selection. First, it has one of my favorite optical illusions. I see it infrequently enough that when I see it it takes me a while to see the "other" image, although my first impression will, of course, hit me right away. That being the case, it always tells me, when I see it, what my underlying mood is despite how I might say I feel. This morning I felt yucky, but as I looked at:
the first thing I saw was the cute young woman. It took, as a matter of fact, considerable effort to find the old lady with a somewhat ugly nose and non-attractive countenance.

I then read the devotion on John 9:1-3. "that works of God might be displayed in Him" - a simple phrase of deep meaning and complex interpretation and application, to understate the obvious.

In God’s wisdom, he has decided to not divulge too much of where evil comes from or it’s origin (Deuteronomy 29:29). ...[P]eople ...  never forgive God for an event they feel he is to blame for (they focus on the one part of the picture and forget to see it for the beautiful young girl). But, we do know that all things work together for the good of those that love God (Romans 8:28). [ Here let me comment that 8:28 is the most commonly quoted, misquoted, misinterpreted and complicated verse about good and bad that we usually run into. I have written blogs about this. Don't think for a minute it is that easy!!!] Instead of focusing on the “disease”, we should be focusing on the cure that is Jesus.

Yeah, I have to admit it! Just like Paul Hoganmächer has said, not part of the disease but part of the cure, in our pain His grace is made perfect.