In the hours that followed the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus, the disciples were men whose hope had vanished. Their expectations, plans, dreams, and ambitions had all disappeared with Jesus as the stone rolled over the tomb. They were frightened, despondent, and discouraged.

“If you don’t deal with criminal behavior, then it will continue.”

That’s the lesson all right, as relayed by New Jersey Democratic Congressman Donald Payne, who, this week, acquired the standing to speak in such terms.

The scourge has once again descended upon us all, coating everything with a fine, gritty layer of yellow. My black Lab has magically turned into a yellow Lab. When the wind blows, a cloud of yellow almost blots out the sun. And the simple act of breathing is not so simple anymore.

China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. government bonds. But, instead of buying more of those bonds as our skyrocketing national debt leads to more bonds being issued, China has been selling some of its U.S. government bonds this year.

Democracy and majority rule give an aura of legitimacy to acts that would otherwise be deemed tyranny.

Think about it. How many decisions in our day-to-day lives would we like to be made through majority rule or the democratic process?

Mary called last evening. She calls often enough that, if I’m busy, I sometimes hand her off to Dave while I continue what I’m doing.

At the end of a bull fight comes the “el momento de la verdad,” meaning “the moment of truth,” denoting the point in the contest when the matador finishes the bull off. Ernest Hemingway introduced the phrase to American readers in 1932.

At dinner time on the last Friday in March, I parked next to an ambulance on the courthouse square in Newnan with my 7-year-old daughter, Kristen, in the back seat. This would be her first trip to Golden’s Cafeteria, soon to be a favorite since she loves pick-your-food restaurants that give a kid the power to choose.

There is a childhood friend who is very dear to me, our lives having been tangled together in one way or another like kudzu clinging to a chain-link fence.

Ronda Rich, the Southern author and columnist, recently wrote about small town newspapers. Her column reminded me of my early flirtation with a journalism career. I’ve always enjoyed reading the newspaper. Any newspaper from any city. Big or small. I especially appreciate the small town papers.

[Editor’s note: The community service mentioned below is this Friday, noon to 1:30 p.m., at the Peachtree City First United Methodist Church on Robinson Road near its intersection with Ga. Highway 54.]

March news flash: The Congressional Budget Office has forecast a U.S. budget deficit of $1.8 trillion for this year.

This economic crisis is too useful for Obama to want it to end. When Rahm Emanuel — and later Hillary Clinton — spoke of never letting a good crisis “go to waste,” many people were shocked. But now Obama seems to embody the corollary: that the crisis should continue until he has thoroughly milked it to reshape American politics, society and the economy.

You really can’t have “gay marriage,” you know, irrespective of what a court or a legislature may say.

You can have something some people call gay marriage because to them the idea sounds worthy and necessary, but to say a thing is other than it is, is to stand reality on its head, hoping to shake out its pockets.

When Meredith Willson wrote the wildly popular musical “The Music Man” half a century ago, Harold Hill proclaimed trouble had come to River City, Iowa, in the form of a pool hall, which he claimed would corrupt young people unless the local citizens bought the musical instruments he was selling and got their kids into a marching band. He promised that playing music would keep kids from “fritterin’ away their mealtime, suppertime, chore time, too” and going to the track to watch “some stuck-up jockey boy sittin’ on Dan Patch.”

[Editor’s note: The community service mentioned below is this Friday, noon to 1:30 p.m., at the Peachtree City First United Methodist Church on Robinson Road near its intersection with Ga. Highway 54.]

There was a time when the Church was one. There had been heresies, defections, and departures but, for the most part, for a thousand years there was the “one holy, catholic, and apostolic Church.”

If the mindset of many Americans so prevalent today had been present in 1776 there would have been no American Revolution.

The occasion was an anniversary party, one of those events where you dress a bit fancier than Sunday clothes but not as fancy as Saturday night shindig clothes.

The Georgia General Assembly adjourned the final day of the session on Friday night at 11:59 p.m. It was a hectic final week with several important pieces of legislation getting enacted, while several others were held over to next year. I wanted to give a brief overview about the final week of the session and follow up with a more comprehensive wrap-up in the weeks to come.

As recently as a week ago, an acquaintance came up to me, looking as though she was about to divulge a state secret.

The following is based on John 6:24 – 35, where Jesus said, “I am the bread of life.”

What do you want?

Michael Boylan is enjoying Facebook.

OK, that was never my status on what is arguably the nation’s (maybe even the world’s) top social networking site, but I do like Facebook. With the site closing in on 200 million members worldwide in a few days, there always seems to be something in the news about it. Some people say it is doomed to fail or that it is a stupid concept for narcissistic people to stroke their egos, while others focus on the business model and wonder how someone could hit on something so big.

I knew the letter would come someday. I had been leaving a task on the back burner and left it there much longer than I intended. Finally, after several years, the letter came. I was informed that I was under a deadline and, if I didn’t complete certain non-negotiable requirements, my life would unceremoniously be terminated. My academic life, that is.

GM, now renamed Government Motors, has a new CEO: President Barack Obama.

By replacing the head of the company and demanding a restructuring of its board in return for further financial TARP aid, Obama has taken upon himself the responsibility for the future of the company.

The mind boggles, and then again, maybe it doesn’t, having become what you might call boggle-proof over repeated assertions of federal government power to do this and do that, whatever you please, don’t bother asking.

Someone once said that, for every rookie you have on your starting team in the National Football League, you will lose a game. Somewhere, at some time during the season, a rookie will make a mistake that will cost you a game.

Most of our nation’s great problems, including our economic problems, have as their root decaying moral values.

Whether we have the stomach to own up to it or not, we have become an immoral people left with little more than the pretense of morality.

Birdwatchers respond graciously to stories like the one I wrote two weeks about our Carolina wrens. The short of it: A pair of wrens made a practice nest in the center of a one-time-Christmas wreath still next to our front door.

Oh, the games politicos play, sneaking through the back doors, throwing up smoke screens, searching for scapegoats.

The AIG bonuses are the most recent reminder of just how bad our government is skewed toward the special interests. They are so caught up in their ways, they cannot see the freight train of social justice heading straight toward them. Yes, Congress knew about the bonuses; yes, the lobbyists know how to distract those in power.

This past week proved to be another busy one for the House of Representatives. We are set to start our last week and the pace of bills and resolutions being considered is brisk. Last week we considered several important bills.