Pennsylvanian in exile

Haiti Update

Another "success" of the Clinton Administration goes up in smoke as Aristide quits as leader and now Bush is sending in the Marines.

President Bush said he dispatched the troops as "the leading element" of an "international force to help bring order and stability to Haiti." The United Nations Security Council was meeting Sunday evening to authorize the deployment.

Aristide, the first democratically elected president of the impoverished nation, resigned Sunday morning under U.S. pressure amid an armed rebellion he was incapable of putting down. It had already engulfed Haiti in violent anarchy and threatened to worsen. The deteriorating conditions prompted U.S. officials to insist on Aristide's resignation more than nine years after U.S. forces restored him to power following a coup.

Shouldn't there be a "3 strikes" rule? After the 3rd time we send in troops to save your country, you're on your own. Bush strikes high on the unintentional comedy scale:

"The constitution of Haiti is working," said Bush. "There is an interim President, as per the constitution, in place."

We need to start taking bets as to what year the Marines come back to Haiti after this time.

How white are you?

The National Review has an article about the latest PC rage on campuses, whiteness studies. No, it's not a study of white people, it's a class designed to make us evil oppressor white folks feel guilty for being white. Courtesy of this site from Michigan State is the "Privilege Walk:"

Purpose: To provide participants with an opportunity to understand the intricacies of privilege.

Time: 1 ? hours

Materials: none needed (especially not a brain -ed)

Facilitator Notes:
This is a powerful exercise and should be thoroughly processed (bring the good pot, not the cheap stuff -ed)

1. Participants should be led to the exercise site silently, hand in
hand, in a line.
2. At the site, participants, can release their hands, but should be
instructed to stand shoulder to shoulder in a straight line without
speaking.
3. Participants should be instructed to listen carefully to each sentence,
and take the step required if the sentence applies to them. They
should be told there is a prize at the front of the site that everyone is
competing for.

Now it's time for the questions, with my answers.

1. If your ancestors were forced to come to the U.S.A. not by choice, take one step back. My ancestors came here rather than starve in Ireland or be killed for their religious beliefs in Prussia, but they still had a choice I guess. 0

2. If your primary ethnic identity is American, take one step forward. +1, I'm a good ole American.

3. If you were ever called names because of your race, class, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. And take that step back, I've been called names for these plus religion. I'm back where I started.

4. If there were people of color who worked in your household as servants, gardeners, etc., take one step forward. No servants, that's why my parents had children, to do the chores.

5. If you were ever ashamed or embarrassed of your clothes, house, car, etc. take one step back. One step back. -1

6. If your parents were professionals: doctors, lawyers, etc. take one step forward. Nope, blue collar union types, still -1

7. If you were raised in an area where there was prostitution, drug activity, etc., take one step back. Nope, small town fly over country/ Still -1

8. If you ever tried to change your appearance, mannerisms, or behavior to avoid being judged or ridiculed, take one step back. One step back, I tried to be preppy to fit in. Now I am -2

9. If you studied the culture of your ancestors in elementary school, take one step forward. One step forward, my mom's side has been here since 1732 and fought for the colonists in the Revolution. -1

10. If you went to school speaking a language other than English, take one step back. Nope, western PA accented English for me. -1

11. If there were more than 50 books in your house when you grew up, take one step forward. Now I'm back where we started, we had lots of books, my parents both liked to read and I inherited it and then some. 0

12. If you ever had to skip a meal or were hungry because there was not enough money to buy food when you were growing up, take one step back. Nope, but I was on food stamps and WIC as a child. 0

13. If you were taken to art galleries or plays by your parents, take one step forward. Alright, I'm in the plus side now! We went to some galleries in Pittsburgh and DC. +1

14. If one of your parents was unemployed or laid off, not by choice, take one step back. Back to zero, my steelworker dad was laid off several times. 0

15. If you attended private school or summer camp, take one step forward. Standing still on this one. 0

16. If your family ever had to move because they could not afford the rent, take one step back. Standing still, although they needed to hit up some family for rent money a few times. 0

17. If you were told that you were beautiful, smart, and capable by your parents, take one step forward. One step forward, I had loving parents, except when they were mad at me and said I was a moron :-) +1

18. If you were ever discouraged from academics or jobs because of race, class, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. Standing still, +1 still.

19. If you were encouraged to attend college by your parents, take one step forward. Alright, I'm +2 now, I'm cruising!

20. If you were raised in a single parent household, take one step back. Still in the plus column, my parents are still married to this day.

21. If your family owned the house where you grew up, take one step forward. Woo-hoo, I'm +3 now!

22. If you saw members of your race, ethnic group, gender, or sexual orientation portrayed on television in degrading roles, take one step back. Oops, I lose one here, as us evil white men have been shown doing some bad things. Especially my German side. Or the Catholics. +2

23. If you were ever offered a good job because of your association with a friend or family member, take one step forward. Get that step back, I've had this happen, but I turned it down. +3

24. If you were ever denied employment because of your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. Still +3

25. If you were paid less, treated unfairly because of race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. Still +3

26. If you were ever accused of cheating or lying because of your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. Still +3

27. If you ever inherited money or property, take one step forward. Another step forward, I inherited $500 once. +4

28. If you had to rely primarily on public transportation, take one step back. Darn, lose a step, I had to use public transit both in college and after I graduated. +3

29. If you were ever stopped or questioned by the police because of your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. Still +3

30. If you were ever afraid of violence because of your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. One step back, being a white boy in certain parts of DC could be scary. +2

31. If you were generally able to avoid places that were dangerous, take one step forward. Yes, I was smart. Back to +3

32. If you were ever uncomfortable about a joke related to your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation but felt unsafe to confront the situation, take one step back. Nope, pretty thick skinned. +3

33. If you were ever the victim of violence related to your race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation, take one step back. Nope, it was more related to my drunken behavior :-) +3

34. If your parents did not grow up in the United States, take one step back. My ancestors came over quite a while ago. +3

35. If your parents told you you could be anything you wanted to be, take one step forward. One step forward for me, I was told I could be anything from a lawyer to a bum, depending on my behavior at the time. +4

OK, so I am white. Now what do I do? Let's consult the MSU exercise again:

Processing:

Ask participants to remain in their positions and to look at their position at the site and the positions of the other participants.

Ask participants to consider who among them would probably win the prize.

Suggested questions for processing are:

1) What happened?
2) How did this exercise make you feel?
3) What were your thoughts as you did this exercise?
4) What have you learned from this experience?
5) What can you do with this information in the future?

There's not a damn thing I learned and can use from this exercise, I already know that libs want me to feel guilty for being a white, heterosexual male. You know what, I don't! My parents weren't rich, my dad got laid off a bunch of times, I was on food stamps and WIC for a while. I got into college, graduated, and worked some crappy jobs until I got hired by my current employer, for whom I have worked hard to get promotions and raises. I'm proud of that fact, and anyone who has a problem needs to get off their lazy keister and work at succeeding, not blaming me.

One more reason not to eat tofu...

....or any other soy product, per the NY Post:

Soybeans may contribute to male infertility, researchers say.
That's because soy contains the female hormone estrogen - and eating too much of it has been linked to poor-quality sperm, according to the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

"What many men do not realize is that soy is not just consumed by vegetarians, it is contained in a lot of everyday . . . foods," said Dr. Lorraine Anderson, who led the study.

"It is contained in foods such as pizzas . . . [and] some pre-packaged dinners."

Actually, all you hippie bong breaths and other libs can eat all the soy you want, that way you'll quit breeding and won't contaminate the gene pool any further.

Famous British anti-Catholic bigot dies

Jack Glass, a Baptist pastor from Scotland, has died of cancer. He was famous for being a tad extreme and for really hating the Catholic Church and anything else that didn't fit into his views.

Pastor Jack Glass, who has died aged 67, was the founder of the Zion Sovereign Grace Baptist Church in Glasgow and a pastor in the ranting, fire and brimstone tradition of John Knox.

Glass would go anywhere to anathematise the ungodly, and his targets included the Church of Scotland, Billy Connolly, religious satires, pornography, homosexuality and, of course, the Roman Catholic Church. Even Ian Paisley considered him an extremist.

Ian Paisley is an alleged minister in Northern Ireland who is a protestant Ulster Al Sharpton, using race and religion whipping up his followers into a frenzy, often with violence to follow. If Iam thinks you are an extremist, you are really out there.

Glass's finest moment was undoubtedly during the visit of Pope John Paul II to Scotland in 1982, when he led protests against the "Antichrist" from Rome, proclaiming that the Pope had "no right to set foot on a Protestant island" and that his visit "violated the British Bill of Rights". Glass stood as a candidate in the Glasgow Hillhead by-election on the issue.

When he heard of a proposal to fell some trees in Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, to clear a space for a papal platform, he suddenly developed a passionate interest in arboriculture and his supporters threatened to chain themselves to the trees. When it was rumoured that the Pope intended to visit the ecumenical community at Iona, he turned up one lunchtime in the abbey, mounted the pulpit, informed those present that they were "the lickspittle of the Antichrist", then departed to catch the ferry.

Charming fellow. Here are some other examples of his charm and tact:

When Leah Tutu, wife of Archbishop Desmond, opened the Macleod Centre on Iona, Glass bellowed from the crowd "Hang Mandela!"

Over a period of some 30 years, he picketed shows by the comedian Billy Connolly in protest at a sketch in which Connolly translated the Last Supper to the Saracen's Head pub in Glasgow's East End. "Connolly depicts Christ as wearing a jaggy bunnet and entering a pub, steamin' drunk," Glass fulminated. "We call upon every Christian who loves The Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to organise a protest outside the halls in Scotland where Connolly - the blasphemous buffoon - will be performing," adding that: "If the Forth was lava, I would throw him in."

"I don't hate anyone," Glass said recently. "I'm just trying to bring people to Christ. Glasgow has turned its back on God. Sadly, God will have to punish it."

Rest in Peace, hopefully a peace you were seemingly not able to find here on Earth.

The Teheran Times

I found an english version of the Teheran Times and thought it would be entertaining. I wasn't wrong, as this editorial about Iran's nuke program proves.

Four months ago, during a joint session with the British, German, and French foreign ministers, officials of the Islamic Republic of Iran agreed to observe all the regulations on the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

Following the session, Iran signed the additional protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which authorizes the IAEA to make snap inspections of its nuclear installations, and suspended its uranium enrichment program.

For their part, the three European countries agreed to help rid the Middle East of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), to help Iran acquire advanced nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes, and to enhance commercial exchanges with the Islamic Republic.

Although the NPT and the additional protocol permit signatories, including Iran, to enrich uranium and to assemble centrifuges for peaceful purposes, the Islamic Republic agreed to halt some of its nuclear activities at the agency’s request on the condition that Europe help the country acquire nuclear technology.

This diplomatic move was welcomed by European and Third World countries and thwarted the United States’ attempt to refer Iran’s nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council. Through the move, Iran put the ball in the court of the EU and the IAEA.

See, we're peaceful folks just trying to produce enough electricity to better torture our dissidents. There's nothing to see in our dossier, why don't read this magazine instead? How about that soccer game?

Later, on the threshold of the Islamic Republic’s seventh parliamentary election, the U.S. media disseminated a series of analyses and false reports claiming that Iran was assembling P-2 centrifuges.

In reality, U.S. administration officials’ efforts to make it appear that Iran’s nuclear activities pose a threat are nothing more than a sycophantic move meant to convince the Zionist lobby to support U.S. President George W. Bush’s reelection campaign.

Of course, the U.S. media, including influential papers like the Washington Post and New York Times and the television networks CNN and NBC, are controlled by Jewish investors who are part of the Zionist lobby. Obviously, reports that these media organizations are intentionally disseminating false information about independent countries are true.

Man, I HATE when the Zionist lobby gets together with their investors and newspapers and supports a US president that actually wants to fight terrorist regimes. I mean he called us part of the Axis of Evil and everthing. CNN is owned by the noted Jew Ted Turner, and GE, the owner of NBC, they are just a big jewish corporation too. How many GE refrigerators are there in the Middle East? So what if we don't have electricity?

Israel, in defiance of the international community, has brazenly prevented IAEA inspectors from visiting its Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert by refusing to sign the NPT and the additional protocol.

The Zionist regime, which possesses an arsenal of 250 nuclear warheads, also dumps nuclear waste in the Mediterranean Sea and buries nuclear waste in the Al-Naghb region close to Gaza. A regional environmental catastrophe looms on the horizon if nothing is done about this.

The IAEA should not apply double standards toward nuclear issues and should not allow itself to become a tool of the U.S., but rather should pressure the Zionist regime to destroy its nuclear arsenal and dismantle its nuclear program.

How are us Iranians supposed to invade and terrorize Israel when they can make us glow in the dark? Our Palestinian brothers in the West Bank will be harder to sneak into Israel if they are glowing from the radioactive waste being dumped in the West Bank. Plus, Islam is a religion of environmental concern in addition to being the religion of peace.

Also, the EU should live up to its commitments and prevent the U.S. from interfering in the IAEA Board’s decisions.

If the EU or the IAEA refuse to take any measures in this regard before the IAEA session in March, the Islamic Republic will certainly reconsider its commitments and will not fail to respond to Washington’s provocations.

Iranians’ want their country to become technologically advanced, and acquiring nuclear expertise and technology is part of the modernization process. No power can stop Iran’s steady march toward development.

Iran to the EU: roll over and play bitch so we can get our bombmaking swerve on. Plus, we have our "steady march toward development", we are planning on bringing our technology into the 90's, the 1390's.

Paleswinian Update

The following pictures were taken after the bombing of the bus in Jerusalem. They include a small boy giving the "V" for victory, a photo of the inside of the bombed bus, and candy being given out by the Al-Aqsa Martyr's brigade. Sickening, and proof of the need for the fence.

Religion of Peace Update



Jewish worshippers at the Western Wall were briefly evacuated from the site Friday, after hundreds of rioting Palestinians teens pelted police with stones from the Temple Mount at the culmination of Friday Muslim prayers.

Police in riot gear then rushed into the ancient compound, and dispersed the Palestinians with stun grenades.

Three policemen were lightly wounded by rocks during the violence, while four Palestinians were lightly hurt in the melee.

As a police helicopter hovered in the air, the crackle of stun grenades could be heard from the Old City throughout central Jerusalem on a balmy February afternoon.

Several large rocks were later discovered on the section of the Western Wall allocated for women's prayer. None of the worshippers were injured in the noontime violence, police said.

An hour later, calm was restored to the site.

The young man in the picture was running from the rocks. Islam is the religion of peace, and there is no incitement to violence being preached in their mosques.

There's no Double Standard

Imagine if a Republican Congressman said to a Mexican-American presidential aide "you're racist" "a bunch of white men" and when the aide pointed out he was of Mexican heritage the congressman said "you all look alike." The uproar would be tremendous, the Washington ComPost and NY Slimes would be in a tizzy. However, what if a Democrat said that? Well, no big deal, as Florida Congresswoman Corrine Brown showed.

U.S. Rep. Corrine Brown verbally attacked a top Bush administration official during a briefing on the Haiti crisis Wednesday, calling the President's policy on the beleaguered nation "racist" and his representatives "a bunch of white men."

Her outburst was directed at Assistant Secretary of State Roger Noriega during a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill. Noriega, a Mexican-American, is the State Department's top official for Latin America.

"I think it was an emotional response of her frustration with the administration," said David Simon, a spokesman for the Democrat from Jacksonville, Fla. He noted that Brown, who is black, is "very passionate about Haiti."

Passionate, I guess. Idiotic, definitely.

Brown sat directly across the table from Noriega and yelled into a microphone. Her comments sent a hush over the hourlong meeting, which was attended by about 30 people, including several members of Congress and Bush administration officials.

Noriega later told Brown: "As a Mexican-American, I deeply resent being called a racist and branded a white man," according to three participants.

Brown then told him "you all look alike to me," the participants said.

During the meeting, Brown criticized the administration's response to the escalating violence in Haiti, where rebels opposing President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's government have seized control of large parts of the country.

After her comments about white men, Noriega said he would "relay that to (Secretary of State) Colin Powell and (national security adviser) Condoleezza Rice the next time I run into them," participants said. Powell and Rice are black.

But she is a democrat, she CAN'T be racist. She's black too, just like Jesse isn't racist when he calls NYC "hymietown". She then Gorejacks (TM) the argument:

Brown has criticized the detention of Haitian migrants fleeing their country and the freezing of millions of dollars in aid over flawed 2000 legislative elections in the impoverished Caribbean nation. In a statement Wednesday, she made parallels to the disputed 2000 election in Florida.

"It simply mystifies me how President Bush, a president who was selected by the Supreme Court under more than questionable circumstances (in my district alone 27,000 votes were thrown out), is telling another country that their elections were not fair and that they are therefore undeserving of aid or international recognition," Brown said.

What the hell are we supposed to do with Haiti? I'd call it dirt-poor, but that is an insult to those that are dirt-poor. We have sent troops from 1915 to 1934, and in the early 90's under Clinton, at former Congressman Mike Barnes'(D-Leningrad) behest. The country has a history of bloodshed, rulers using goon squads to squash dissent, coups, revolutions; in short, it has shown to be utterly incapable of ruling itself in any sort of democracy, or even a monarchy.

Sorry Haiti, but we have bigger fish to fry over in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Florida we do have an interest in it though, as we do have a crime problem with Haitian immigrants, especially with organized insurance fraud rings, but the US has more important things to do than (once again) try to save Haitians from themselves.

Quizilla Rocks!

Quizilla is a cool site that has numerous quizzes where you can find out things such as:

Which Peanuts character are you?

What movie do you belong in?

Which book of the Bible are you?

Which personality disorder do you have?

Enjoy!

Catholic Colleges and the giant sucking sound....

...You hear is faith and reason being flushed, as evidenced by Judson Shaver of Marymount Manhattan College.

If Christians can learn to read the Gospels for what they are, we will discover an early Christian slander, rather than Jewish guilt. Such a reading of scripture would produce an entirely new script with the potential of producing true repentance and perhaps even the reconciliation promised by God. One can only imagine how powerful that film would be.

This is the sort of thing we pick on Episcopal "leaders" over at Christopher Johnson's great website, but there are some goofs on both sides of the Tiber.

Abusive Priests

Like many Catholics, tomorrow is a day of importance as the National Review Board releases their report on abusive priests in the last 50 years. The report will contain settlements paid, credible accusations by minors, and will probably be sickening. Eileen Flynn's op-ed in the NY Post has some good observations.

The hierarchy preaches a clear and uncompromising sexual morality, but failed miserably when it came to dealing with sexual misconduct in their own house. Why were Catholic bishops not horrified at the harm suffered by children at the hands of priests? Why did they let it continue - indeed, by using Church funds to buy the silence of victims, enable it to continue?

Were the bishops impossibly dense or incredibly arrogant? As Catholics ponder the National Review Board's data, this question will certainly surface. If the bishops who reassigned offender priests did it out of ignorance of what was going on, then the hierarchy will need to show how it has matured and can be counted on to act in a reasonable and responsible manner going forward. If, on the other hand, the bishops who reassigned abuser priests did it because they considered themselves above the law, then they need to give up their mitres and scepters and do penance.

The bishops who remain as leaders of the Catholic Church after the dust settles need to start engaging in straight talk about what ails the Church in the United States.

My opinion is that their are bishops who fall on both sides of that line. There was a time, a more optimistic and idealistic time, where pedophiles were thought to be cureable. Sadly, that is not the case. I believe that some Bishops acted out of this belief, that some treatment would help cure them.

Sadly, there are undoubtedly some bishops who acted out of arrogance. In watching the Dallas meeting 2 years ago, I was struck by the bishops that just didn't get it, like the one who said "I won't rat out my fellow priests" talking more like a member of a crime family and less like a man of God.

I don't know if Ms Flynn and I have similiar prescriptions to cure some of what ails the Church in the US, but I agree with her that some "straight talk" is needed.

The Tories and George Bush

Boris Johnson in The Telegraph tells of the Tories and their queasiness towards George Bush as President. They have their qualms, but Boris makes this great point:

Bush has at least this merit: that he has cut taxes and had the guts to remove two murderous regimes. He will never be forgiven by those who at some level hate America, simply because she is the most powerful and exuberantly capitalist country on earth; and it does seem incredible that the war on "turr", as Dubya calls it, should have been fought with so little thought as to the aftermath.

And yet if Al Gore – or Kerry – had won the last election, the Taliban would surely still be cutting off people's hands. Saddam would still be monkeying around with the weapons inspectors – to heaven knows what end – and keeping his people in a sadistic tyranny that might have lasted another decade or more. You could also argue, and no doubt the venerated Steyn will do so, that Bush's radical action in Iraq has prompted a welcome softening of the other Middle Eastern hard cases, notably Libya and Syria, and perhaps Iran.

That is the best case for Bush; that, among other things, he liberated Iraq. It is good enough for me, although I admit it probably wouldn't have been good enough for Che.

Skanks in the City

Little Tiny Lies is thankful that Sex in the City is gone and his comments about how feminism failed women is right on also:

"Sex and the City" is gone, and millions of women with very poor taste in entertainment are moaning about the loss. Are they kidding?

I saw this show several times. To me, it appeared to be a show about a bunch of jaded, round-heeled New York skanks who thought the way to find love was to bang every man in Manhattan and stop when they landed, literally, on the right ones.

It's really sad, the way women fight over men these days. Thank the feminists. No man needs to get married any more. The feminists thought they were leveling the playing field by encouraging women to screw around, but the playing field can never be leveled, because men and women are different. The whole point of the game was to get women to drop their pants without commitment; when women started doing that as a matter of course, they didn't become equal to men. They surrendered to them.

It used to be that men had to be committed and persistent, and we had to at least appear that we cared about women. But women are competitive creatures, and when a few started buying the feminist message, a big portion of the rest panicked and decided they had to put out, too. Now it's like a contest to see who can drop her pants the fastest.

My friends and I that didn't marry until our 30's or late 20's, I think we would have been like our Dads and been married by 23 if feminism had never happened, at least the bad parts of feminism. Women got the shaft, as it were.

Victimhood

Anne Applebaum's op-ed in today's Washington Post is so good, I can't add to it. It's about the celebrated feminist Naomi Wolf accusing a scholar of touching her thigh 20 years ago and the "damage" it has caused. I'll just quote the conclusion to the article:

The larger implications are for the movement that used to be called "feminism." Twenty years of fame, money, success, happy marriage and the children she has described in her books -- and Naomi Wolf, one of my generation's leading feminists, is still obsessed with her own exaggerated victimhood? It's not an ideology I'd want younger women to follow.

Going after the scum

This article is about a state trooper that goes on line to catch pedophiles, catching them in chat rooms and setting up meetings later.

The real hits come when he poses as a preteen or young teenage girl, like he did on this particular day.

He logged on to a romance chat room with a screen name that obviously designated him as a young teen girl.

Within two minutes people were saying hello.

He chose to chat solely with the 19-year-old college student from a nearby state whom he had talked to previously.

"I like to concentrate on one person at a time so I can keep my story straight," he said.

For example, why is a 15-year-old girl on the Internet during the day? This one's home sick from school with a sore throat and runny nose.

He kept a pen and piece of paper handy to make sure his math added up.

"I need to know what year I was born and what grade I'm in if I'm pretending to be 15," he explained.

He usually works in a computer lab where there are few distractions when he's doing proactive investigations, because he needs to concentrate on the conversation.

Go get the bastards.

Hide the women and children

Oh no! Is it a plague of locusts? Boils? A hurricane? No, Wal-Mart's coming to town. Judging from the reaction of some of the folks in my county, you'd think the world was going to end.

Between 100 and 150 people came out to the meeting to voice their opinions. At first, the crowd seemed to lean toward banning Wal-Mart from the area.

“I'm willing to be the David that hits the Goliath in the eye on this one,” said Gainesville resident Callie Williams, who wore a shirt with “Boycott Wal-Mart” patched on it.

Many of the residents at the meeting had concerns either about environmental protection, because of the fact that the headwaters of Hogtown Creek and other wetlands are a part the projected site, or traffic problems that could be caused by the development.

“It's absolutely the worst site in Alachua County to put a Wal-Mart, which is exactly why Wal-Mart chose it,” said Rob Brinkman with the Hogtown Preservation Coalition.

Yup, Wal-Mart is out to spoil the environment, poison our kids, etc, etc. Hogtown Creek is nothing more than a drainage ditch which is practically dry half the year. I don't even LIKE Wal-Mart but the reaction of these "activists" is pretty funny.

In total, Wal-Mart representatives said 35 percent of the complex would be reserved for conservation to protect the environment contained within and surrounding the site. They said that only 0.45 of an acre of wetlands would be affected by the development.

But some residents were not satisfied with the plans.

“It's a significant environmental impact,” said Gainesville resident Ron Chandler. “You're just not getting it. . . . There is not technology enough to protect these habitats.”

"Significant environmental impact", give me a break. There is nothing at this intersection now but a gas station. Wal-Mart's plans will actually provide better protection for this puddle from run off that what is in place now. I actually hope Wal-Mart gets ticked enough to build the store just across the county line, so that Alachua County will miss out on the tax revenue so they can see how stupid they are to chase business away when we have a $5 million deficit.

Disarming the "F Bomb" from my arsenal

I'm challenging myself for Lent and giving up the "F word" for Lent. I need to clean up my language, especially now that my son is starting to talk, I don't need a 9 month old cursing like a sailor just yet.

Hyperbole about The Passion

Mark Shea had a piece about "intelligent" opposition to "THe Passion" and "stupid" opposition. The response of some Jewish "leaders" in NYC goes in the "stupid" column.

Meanwhile, several Jewish leaders yesterday protested "The Passion" outside a Times Square movie theater - with one calling it a "true Lethal Weapon."

Assemblyman Dov Hikind and two city councilmen said they fear the movie about the last hours of Jesus' life will increase anti-Semitism and the possibility of violence against Jews.

"Goebbels would be very proud of Mel Gibson," said Hikind (D-Brooklyn), referring to Adolf Hitler's notorious propaganda minister.

Councilman Simcha Felder (D-Brooklyn) said, "I feel this is Mel Gibson's true 'Lethal Weapon.' "

Hikind, who saw an advance screening of the film Monday night, said Jews were depicted with negative stereotypes, while the Roman ruler Pontius Pilate was portrayed as a sensitive man.

"I was horrified. I was numb after the film. It was beyond anything I could imagine," Hikind said outside of an AMC Empire 25 theater on 42nd Street, which starts showing the movie today.

Hikind said "essentially the entire film" depicts most Jews as an angry mob, with big noses and crooked teeth, calling for the crucifixion of Christ.

"Mel Gibson's version is beyond comprehension," Hikind added.

"I don't have any doubt this film will cause anti-Semitism."

Hikind, whose parents were concentration-camp survivors, asked people who see the film to open their hearts and minds and try to "understand the sensitivities" of the Jewish people.

"Over the years, the passion plays have encouraged and promoted hate, anti-Semitism and violence and that's exactly what this film is going to do. I think it's a free country, but I think people should not go see it," Felder said.

I'm really getting tired of this criticism of the film and the personal attacks on Gibson.

I miss my fastnachts

Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday, all names for the day before Ash Wednesday. If you live in Central PA, as I did for 4 years, Shrove Tuesday is about sugar-fat-cholesterol bombs called fastnachts.

A perfect food it surely is not.

The batter? Why, it's potato flour and sugar -- pure, delicious evil for those of you on the low-carb Atkins Diet.

For the rest of us keeping an eye on our arteries, the eggs, milk and deep-frying are troublesome, to say the least.

How about calories? Please.

There's not a nutrition label in sight at the many Lancaster County bakeries and doughnut shops cranking out fasnachts by the dozen today.

And it's a good thing.

"It would not be good,'' said Jim Chudnovsky, the general manager of Bird-in-Hand Bakery, laughing. "You're talking about everything anti-Atkins about this. There's a lot of carbohydrates and cholesterol.'' But you do not analyze fasnachts.

You eat them. And we are -- despite our strict diets, despite all the worrying we do about waistlines, despite our guilty consciences.

In the battle of tradition verses good health, tradition wins -- at least for today, Fasnacht Day.

I miss those things!

Thanks for saving us the trouble

In Virginia a death row inmate committed suicide which will save everyone some time and trouble, and prevent those annoying midnight phone calls to Rehnquist.

Jeffrey Remington and another inmate, Michael Lenz, were convicted of capital murder in 2000 for stabbing fellow inmate Brent Henry Parker 68 times at the Augusta Correctional Center.

Lenz, who also is on death row, testified that the slaying was religiously motivated. He said his religion worships Nordic gods, and he was "protecting the honor" of those gods by killing Parker.

Remington originally was convicted in Richmond in 1993 of abduction and sexual assault.

Good riddance.

The Usual Suspects

In NYC there was a sneak preview of "The Passion" and most of the viewers were deeply moved.

"I'd give it 10 stars. It's one of the best movies I've ever seen in my life," said Maritza Castro, 32, who had tears streaming down her face as she left a preview screening for church groups at the Magic Johnson Theater in Harlem.

"I knew from the Bible that he did take a beating. I didn't know how intense," she said.

"The movie just . . . made me feel like I was part of that crowd [at the crucifixion], like I was there . . . So much so that my chest is just caved in. It's awesome."

Tom Schoenherr, 48, an assistant dean at Fordham Law School, attended a screening sponsored by the American Bible Society at the Loews 84th Street Theater on the Upper West Side.

"Having read the story, to see a dramatic portrayal of it was just amazing," Schoenherr said.

He said he wept during scenes showing Mary's devotion to Jesus, but there were also times he had to avert his eyes from the often-bloody depiction of the last hours of Jesus' life.

"The story is about someone who was murdered in a horrific way. It's not a pretty thing. But it was an accurate portrayal and extremely effective," he said.

Peter Trautmann, 32, a campus minister from Manhattan, said the movie was "excellent, overwhelming."

"I cried through much of it," he said. "It's a very accurate, powerful, visceral experience."

But wait, there was an Episcopalian priest in the house, let's get their opinion:

At a screening at the Regal Battery Park Theaters, the Rev. Earl Kooperkamp, 47, of St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Harlem, said, "It was way too Hollywood. The production was too violent and over the top."

The whole died-for-our-sins thing is just so, like ancient history. Since the Episcopal church doesn't believe in sin anymore, there is no need for Jesus to die, Mel should have focused on healing leper stuff. Besides an Episcopal priest, there were members of other democrat constituencies, like this school teacher in the house:

"It's average and not a quality film. I'm left wondering what was Mel Gibson's point," said Sam Smith, 24, a Manhattan teacher. "He tried to make it very deep, but I didn't see it."

I didn't see it. He was probably too busy coming up with his lesson plan for school featuring Heather's 2 mommies, How Christopher Columbus was evil, and that the Soviets should have won the Cold War.

Way past time to get medieval on this trash

As stated yesterday, the Express-Times running a series on pedophiles. Here is the latest candidate for prolonged medieval Braveheart style torture:

William Fenstermacher eased his pickup truck along Goodman Drive near Stabler Arena on Aug. 17, 1998. Up ahead, jogging on the Lehigh University campus, was the Saucon Valley High School girls cross country team.

Fenstermacher had no reason to be on the semi-secluded campus. He didn't work there.

Still, in a span of 30 minutes he passed the team six times. During his final pass, the girls were upset and scared, and their coach had noticed. Ed Kolosky saw Fenstermacher a few minutes later sitting in the capped pickup truck just off Mountain Drive. He yelled at Fenstermacher, who then sped away.

He returned a month later.

On Sept. 20, a Sunday, Kolosky saw Fenstermacher's blue truck twice, about 11 a.m. as the team practiced and again about 6 p.m.

Fenstermacher would return each of the next three soggy, warm days. Each time he'd slow down, watch the team and make several passes. Then he would park nearby and pass again.

Kolosky called the police.

What the girls and Kolosky didn't know then is that, when not working construction or building race cars, Fenstermacher was preparing his defense for a trial.

He'd been arrested in December 1997 on charges that he attacked a woman in Bethlehem in February of that year, tying her up with duct tape and raping her in her garage. It later took a jury a little more than three hours to convict Fenstermacher of this crime.

They also didn't know that Fenstermacher in 1996 was released from a Pennsylvania state prison after serving a 13-year sentence for attempted rape of a child. Fenstermacher pleaded guilty in that 1982 Montgomery County case. His victim was a 3-year-old.

Give me one good reason not to tie this guy to a tree in the woods, make him bleed, and let some starving badgers get him.

Which is it Ketchup King?

THe Ketchup King and his minions keep slighting Bush for his alleged skipping out of his guard duty. However, John Podhoretz recounts how much Kerry criticized the National Guard back then.

The group John Kerry and his associates were protesting was The National Guard Association, which had its 1970 convention in New York at the Americana Hotel (now the New York Sheraton) from Sept. 13 to Sept. 17. Kerry's group set up a picket line in front of the Americana, and staged a protest rally against the Guard on Sept. 17, 1970 at 5:30 pm.

Why would they do such a thing? Here's the sort of rhetoric Kerry and Co. used to gather anti-war forces in a mimeographed flyer:

"The National Guard Uses Your Tax Dollar:

"To support the military-industrial complex

"To honor war criminals - Westmoreland, Laird, Nixon, etc.

"To applaud campus murders by National Guard units

"To encourage armed attacks on minority communities"

The decision to stage this defamatory protest against the National Guard - which then comprised 409,412 Army Guard and 89,847 Air Guard personnel - was made in John Kerry's presence and with his full knowledge. Executive-committee minutes for Vietnam Veterans Against the War note that among the six "members attending" a meeting to plan the protest was "John Kerry-NE Rep."

If the National Guard was such a horrible organization, shouldn't they applaud George Bush if he indeed went AWOL? Make up your mind, you leftist idiots, because you can't make up lies about W going AWOL from such an elite group after you have spent time trashing that very group. By the way, it was National Guard jets that were scrambled first to try to prevent further terrorist attacks on 9/11. And as for the accusation of the Guard engaging in "armed attacks on minority communities", it was the guard that was called out to protect the "minority communities" from themselves.

In DC, Detroit, LA, Newark, it was minorities looting and burning minority neighborhoods. H Street in DC was torched, hurting only the blacks that owned businesses there. White owned Giants in DC were saved because they paid Marion Berry to make sure their stores didn't get torched.

This brother ain't in your band, Hanoi John

Fred Gardner in NY Post shares why although John F'n Kerry is a fellow Vietnam vet, he isn't getting his vote. Here are some samples:

He served in river-patrol craft, the Swift boats - as did I, briefly, in 1967. So I know first-hand how dangerous the missions were.

By most accounts he performed admirably - bravely.

Then he came home, denounced his service and spread tales of atrocities that never happened. In doing so, he smeared good men who deserved much better.

Now he's running for president, again claiming hero status.

Hero.

Protestor.

He stands for everything, which means that he stands for nothing.

He voted for the war in Iraq; now he's against it.

It seems he will be whatever he needs to be - to be elected.

Past mistakes can be valuable lesson - if one chooses to learn.

Those of us who went to Vietnam quickly discovered that you learn from the other guy's mistakes; that, or die - and someone will be learning from your mistakes.

I keep waiting to see what John Kerry learned, and it seems the only thing is how to get re-elected.

and this:

Does it matter to me that he is a Vietnam Veteran?

Not in the least, because he hasn't shown me that he has taken that experience and turned it into any meaningful commitment to the things that are important to the people of my state and, more importantly, our country.

And until John Kerry demonstrates that he has a positive vision for America's future, he won't have my vote. Vietnam veteran or not, he hasn't earned it.

There's one bandmember not happy with you Johnny boy.

One Less Goblin

The mighty Emperor Misha posted this earlier about a dumb ass that tried to carjack a truck of the tractor-trailer variety and ended up as roadkill. Warning, the pictures are pretty graphic. Looks like IHOP can add a new pancake special to complement the Rachel Corrie, named after the shrieking bitch who wasn't smart enough to get out of the way of Israeli bulldozers destroying terrorist housing.

Sickening

The Express Times is doing a series on sexual abuse of children, a series that makes me both want to retch and grab a gun. The first part was today. It featured some parts of an article they had earlier about a pedophile who wants to end the "oppression" of pedophiles, as they are just misunderstood. Yes, I cannot understand them, especially when they say things like this:

That was the case for Roy Faircloth, a Phillipsburg man who swore to the end that he and the girl he molested for four years had something mutual going on.

"I did not lure anyone," Faircloth wrote in a letter to The Express-Times. "Me and the victim grew feelings that should not have been."

The girl was 8 years old when the molestations began.

Pick your favorite medieval torture method to apply.

More about "The Passion"

I won't name the priest or the parish, although I will say it's not my regular parish but one I do attend on occasion. Anyway, this was his quote about "The Passion":

"I hope something good comes out of the film," adding he is planing to see the movie. "I am hopeful, but hesitant as well."

He has concerns about young people seeing the film. "From what we're hearing it's very graphic and violent. It's no picnic lunch."

It's no picnic lunch. Christianity is no picnic lunch, it's hard but the rewards are incredible. I am very thankful that this movie has been made, as it seems to separating the wheat from the chaff: those who view this as a depiction of agape, of the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus as the paschal lamb to atone for our sins, and those who see Jesus as the ultimate social worker, a peace corps volunteer using his carpentry skills and wish to forget about the sacrifice part.

Injustice for NY's bravest

The brave men and women of the NY Fire Department deal with danger, death, low pay, long hours and now are under attack by their brass.

ALL 10,842 city firefighters are about to feel the aftershocks of that infamous New Year's Eve brawl at a Staten Island firehouse.
In the wake of the fight, sources say Fire Department brass are planning an agency-wide sweep to determine if firefighters and fire officers are adhering to city residency rules.

The residency issue surfaced soon after firefighter Michael Silvestri slammed colleague Robert Walsh over the head with a metal chair at Tottenville's Engine 151, and investigators began scrutinizing every detail of Silvestri's life, including whether he lived in New Jersey while claiming a Staten Island address.

Firefighters can live either in the city or in six nearby suburbs - but only within New York state. Most city workers are restricted to the five boroughs.

Personally I think the residency rules are stupid. If a man or woman is willing to risk their lives to save ours, and can be there on time for work, who cares where they live? NYFD doesn't pay that well, and living in the boroughs or the NY burbs is expensive. I knew firefighters in the DC area who lived in PA and WV and commuted in so they could afford a house.

The Religion of Peace, or Time to get going with that fence

A homicide bomber struck in Jersualem, killing 8 and wounding more than 60. Ariel Sharon summed up the Paleswinians with this comment:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon dismissed Mofaz's analysis, saying the Palestinians don't need to look for reasons to kill Jews. "They've been doing it for years and haven't stopped for a single day," Sharon said.
One of the ministers said the timing of the attack was bad for the Palestinians, since it would detract from their arguments at The Hague, and that PA officials are probably "pulling their hair out" because of the timing.

Sharon responded that the Palestinians "do not pull their hair out" when Jews are killed.
Mofaz opened the cabinet meeting with a survey of the overall security situation. He said that despite the morning's attack, Israel has been able to foil numerous other suicide attempts, and added that the security fence has proven itself highly effective in reducing the number of successful terrorist attacks.

In case you were wondering what the chaos was like and how horrible it was on the bus:

"There was a tremendous explosion and then everything fell in on me – the windshield, pieces of the bus, blood, and human flesh,"

"There were pieces of human bodies all over the bus and all around the bus," said Jerusalem city councilman and opposition leader Nir Barkat, who was driving across the street at the time of the blast and helped treat the wounded.

"Would that the whole world could see the horrors that were in that bus," he said, his hands, trousers, and shoes covered in blood.
For an hour after the blast, the bodies of the dead lay on the ground as rescue workers picked through the wreckage. Bit by bit, fighting a biting-cold winter wind, the remains of the victims were collected in large white bags for identification and burial.

"People were screaming 'mommy' and 'daddy.' There were body parts everywhere, including some hands and feet scattered outside the bus," medic Reuven Pohl said.
"You could see the debris rising up from the nearby Scottish Church, and then within seconds the smell of explosives came waffling up in the air," recalled eyewitness David Hazan.

Since October 2000, Jerusalem has endured 20 suicide attacks that killed 180 and wounded 1,444 so how can anyone other haters of Israel and lovers of the murderous displaced Arabs criticize the need for a fence?

Abortion is bad for a woman's health

I hate to break it to the "abortion is a health care issue" crowd but a new study shows that women who have an abortion are 2 times more likely to die within 2 years then those women who deliver their babies to term.

Women who have an abortion are nearly twice as likely to die within two years compared to women who deliver their babies, with the causes ranging from accidents to suicide.

That higher mortality rate lasts for nearly a decade after an abortion.

That's the conclusion of a new study by a non-profit organization that is critical of abortion because the group says it is detrimental to women's health. The study appears in the most recent issue of the Southern Medical Journal.

In an analysis of 173,000 low-income California women, deaths from suicides, accidents and natural causes were all significantly higher among those who'd had an abortion, compared to women who delivered their babies.

But wait a minute, it's supposed to be just another medical procedure that girls don't even need their parents' permission, unlike something SERIOUS like a tonsillectomy, which requires parental permission and notification.

There should be more screening of women about the possible psychological reactions to having an abortion and telling them the fact that the risk of death is higher for having an abortion than giving birth," says David Reardon, lead author of the study.

Reardon is director of the Elliot Institute, of Springfield, Ill. The institute is recognized by pro-life groups as a resource, he says.

A spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood would not comment on the study. However, the group's Web site details numerous studies that contradict Reardon's findings. Planned Parenthood spokeswoman Colleen McCabe says her organization has no comment on the Reardon study.

However, the Planned Parenthood Web site notes the results of 35 studies that show most women don't experience psychological problems after an abortion. Rather, the studies report that women often feel relief after an abortion, that 98 percent of women have no regrets about having an abortion, that teenagers who chose to have abortions rather than carry a pregnancy to term were more likely to graduate from high school on time and had no greater psychological problems than the teens who carried their pregnancies to term.

OF course Planned Parenthood will object to anything that tries to show that the sacrament abortion is a bad thing. Heaven forbid that someone show that the underage girls who get abortions at Planned Parenthood might be in danger, the girls that Planned Parenthood won't help by bringing the police in when the girls are victims of statuatory rape. This study and others show the fallacy of the Planned Parenthood position that abortion does no lasting harm and helps their self esteem and other psycho-babble. Here are the findings:

In the two years following the procedures, the death rate for the women who had an abortion was nearly double that of the women who delivered a baby. Deaths due to violent causes, including suicide, were slightly more than twice that for women who had abortions, while deaths from non-violent causes, such as illness, were one-and-a-half times more likely.

"The risk of death from suicide and accidents is highest within a year of abortion," Reardon says. "There appears to be more risk-taking and self-destructive behavior following an abortion."

Among violent causes of death, women who had abortions were two-and-a-half times more likely to commit suicide, one-and-a-half times more likely to die from homicide, and nearly two times more likely to die in accidents than women who had given birth. Non-violent death rates were also higher: Women who'd had abortions were twice as likely to die of AIDS or complications from mental illness, and nearly three times more likely to die of circulatory diseases, the study found.

Reardon says his data and other studies show that abortion has a negative "psycho-social" impact on women that may contribute to their early deaths.

"There is the theory that women who have abortions are already 'flawed,'" Reardon says. "But we found that the relative risk of death went up after psychiatric controlling."

Dr. Patricia Sulak, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Texas A&M University, says it's well-known that abortion can have physical and emotional consequences.

"It is obvious that ending a pregnancy can have physical as well as emotional ramifications in some women," she says. "What studies like this have tried to do, as far as I can ascertain, is detail and quantify the extent of some of these problems.?

"Women need to understand that if they have an unintended pregnancy, difficult decisions have to be made regarding that pregnancy. They are not easy, and can have consequences," she adds.

If Planned Parenthood and the NARAL want to argue for the legality of abortion, I can respect that. I disagree, but I can respect that. What I cannot respect is the outright dishonesty and the denial of the damage abortion does to women.

New website



Vietnam Veterans against John Kerry is a great site and gives the truth about Hanoi John. It is being added to the blogroll, these are some samples:

Soon after Kerry, as a Navy Lieutenant (junior grade) commanding a Swift boat in Vietnam, was awarded the Silver Star, he used an obscure Navy regulation to leave Vietnam and his crew before completing his tour of duty.

After returning home, he quit the Navy early and changed the color of his politics to become a leader of VVAW. Kerry wasted no time organizing opposition in the United States against the efforts of his former buddies still ducking communist bullets back in Vietnam.

In other words, Kerry and his VVAW advocated the communist line to withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam first and then negotiate with Hanoi over the release of prisoners. Had the nine points of the "People's Peace Treaty" favored by Kerry been accepted by American negotiators, the United States would have totally lost all leverage to get the communists to release any POWs captured during the war years.

John McCain has attacked this group so that gives them some legitimacy to me.

More about Iran

Even the Washington Post has it doubts about Iran. That's saying something.

AT THE INSISTENCE of European governments, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board issued a pass to Iran in November on its violations of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including its secret acquisition of equipment for enriching uranium. The board declined to recognize that Iran's purpose was to produce nuclear weapons, and instead it congratulated Iran on its promises to freeze the uranium program and accept stepped-up inspections. In a reluctant concession to the United States, the Europeans agreed to a statement that "further serious Iranian failures" would lead the board to consider all actions permitted by its statute, including the referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions. The board and its European members must now face up to that language -- because the promises Iran made to the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany have proved to be nearly empty.

Iran didn't keep its promises? Perish the thought. The either very naive or terrorist coddling EU shows once again that it can't be trusted with handling despots. What is Europe planning on doing about this? Not much.

So far the European response has been a studied public silence, combined with quiet -- and apparently fruitless -- diplomatic scrambling. The French and German governments undoubtedly prefer to extract more promises from Tehran -- worthless as those may be -- rather than cooperate with a more forceful approach by the Bush administration. But the administration, which deferred to the European strategy last fall, now must be more insistent.

Pretty dead on with the comments about the Axis of Weasel. The next part surprises me as the ComPost seems to be OK about the Iraqi invasion:

Thanks in part to the intervention in Iraq, the United States has begun to convince would-be nuclear powers that the risks to their security of pursuing such a program are greater than the potential benefit of a bomb. Were the West to stand by as Iran openly builds centrifuges and violates its commitments to the IAEA, that progress would be undermined

Maybe if we are going to pull out of Iraq we can just hop next door to Iraq and go Mullah hunting.

Nukes in the Middle East

For all of the whining about not finding any WMD's in Iraq, we need to be more concerned about what's next door, as Iran is going nuclear despite its promises to the contrary.

U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program have uncovered sophisticated uranium enrichment equipment, renewing doubts about the Iranian government's pledge that its intentions are peaceful and transparent, diplomatic officials said yesterday.

The discovery of several completed gas centrifuges, coupled with last week's find of blueprints for a previously unknown Iranian enrichment project, will be part of a critical International Atomic Energy Agency report expected to detail Iran's recent nuclear shortcomings, according to diplomats and government experts.

The lengthy IAEA report, due to be released in coming days, will provide "evidence that the Iranians' dossier was neither complete nor correct," said a Vienna-based diplomat familiar with the U.N. watchdog's work. He said the list of IAEA descriptions will reveal "serious discrepancies."

The mad mullahs having nukes is a scary idea, not just for what the Iranians might do with the weapons, but for who they may sell them to. And just where are they getting the technology?

New test results show the presence in Iran of at least two distinct types of highly enriched uranium. One is believed to have originated in Pakistan. The existence of the other, whose origin remains unknown, suggests that Iran secretly imported material from a still-unidentified country -- or ran a concealed enrichment program that has not come to light.

Pakistan, aren't they supposed to be our allies? Our friends in the world of The Religion of Peace? Maybe we should help the Iranians get acquainted with nuclear weapons, by giving them a front row seat to a demonstration of some of our weapons.

These failings of the Clinton-gutted intelligence community are one more reason that the idea of a Kerry presidency is dangerous for the safety and security of the US.

Kennedy Envy

There is a funny column in today's NY Post showing how Kerry wants to be a Kennedy and how he tries to hang with Teddy. An excerpt:

Ted inherited a compound on the water in very upscale Hyannisport. Kerry's wife owns a mansion on the water in even more affluent Nantucket. Ted skies in Aspen, which is nice. Kerry skies in Sun Valley, which is nicer.

Ted buys a house on Marlborough Street in the fashionable Back Bay of Boston. Kerry's wife buys a house for him on Louisburg Square at the top of Beacon Hill. Same neighborhood, different league.

Kennedy and Kerry. It's like a novel about social striving by F. Scott Fitzgerald, with Ted Kennedy in the role of Tom Buchanan, and John Kerry as Jay Gatsby. Except that Gatsby made his own money, he didn't marry it.

Another "Great Gatsby" parallel: Ted Kennedy as Daisy, the bad driver who kills a woman.

Enlightened Europe, home of tolerance

Yep, those in EU land will tolerate all sorts of hatred and anti-Semitism, Jewish leaders are saying "enough".

Jewish leaders appealed to the European Union on Thursday to take a lead in stamping out anti-Semitism, warning that official indifference was leading to a revival of the continent's historic "monster."

"Jewish communities in Europe live in fear," said Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, an author and winner of the 1986 Nobel Peace prize. "How is it that the reverberations of the 20th century still spread into the 21st century? Haven't we learned anything?"

Wiesel was addressing government, religious and community leaders attending an unprecedented seminar organized by the EU in response to concerns about a returning of anti-Semitism.

Europe has learned, they have learned that as long as they SAY that they care, that everyone will feel all warm and fuzzy. That is the hallmark of the left: do nothing, but say a lot of nice platitudes.

European Commission President Romano Prodi assured Jewish leaders that "the Europe of today is the not the Europe of the 1930s and 1940s."

But he added, "We must never forget what happened then. Anti-Semitic acts must be dealt with severely and the rights of our minorities must be safeguarded."

Conceding that anti-Semitism, spreading among disaffected Arab minorities in Europe and fueled by the Mideast conflict, presented a "new challenge," Prodi said the EU would act on calls to toughen penalties for anti-Jewish crimes and improve teaching of young Europeans about the legacy of centuries of persecution on their continent.

"We must use all the instruments available to deal with anti-Semitism of this sort, ranging from police and judicial action to education and social measures," he said.

Recent attacks against Jews and their properties in Europe _ including fire-bombing of synagogues and schools or desecration of graves _ have been linked to the intensification of violence in the Middle East. Youths from the large Arab immigrant communities in France, Belgium and other European countries have blamed for many of the incidents.

Indeed "the Europe of today is not the Europe of the 1930's and 1940's". Today Europe has been filled with Muslim immigrants, adherents to The Religion of Peace, who come from their native lands with a hate for Israel and for Jews.

In a statement submitted to the seminar, the Simon Wiesenthal Center complained EU aid to the Palestinian Authority is used to fund terrorists and anti-Semitic Arab media.

"The European Union makes its taxpayers complicit in financing anti-Semitic terrorism," said Shimon Samuels, international liaison director of Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights organization.

The EU insists its payments _ which reached 570 million (US720 million) for 2002-2003 _ are needed to prevent economic collapse of the Palestinian Authority and are closely monitored to prevent any diversion to terrorists.

Sure it is being monitored. Right, I almost believe them. The PA is now bankrupt yet the bombings continue, where did the money go? The EU has coddled Saddam, why should Arafat be any different?

Michael Medved on "The Passion"

In the Jerusalem Post Michael Medved, the noted film critic and an observant Jew, has a very good op-ed piece about "The "Passion" and Jewish reaction to the movie. Read it yourself, but here is one part of it that is definitely on-target:

By what right do Boteach and his many outspoken allies in the Jewish community demand that Mel Gibson and his innumerable supporters among Protestant and Catholic clergy should reject their own religious tradition to accept a Jewish version of the death of their savior?

After many centuries of Christian persecution of Jews, we have finally won the unquestioned right to reject the Gospel claims and yet live in peace with our gentile neighbors. But this precious right to deny the accuracy of New Testament texts does not somehow empower us to insist that our Christian fellow citizens must join us in that denial.

For reasons that defy rational explanation, Boteach insists upon picking an ugly public fight with believing Christians who view their own sacred books in the same way the rabbi views the Torah – as the inerrant word of God.
To characterize elements of the Gospels as "fabrications" and "cheap frauds," as Boteach does in one of his columns, hardly helps the cause of Jewish-Christian cooperation.

A candidate we can support

Michael Cooper for President, the best candidate out there, or at least the one that cracks me up the most (intentionally). I am proud to add him to my blogroll. A sample of his genius is his report, The Top Ten Most Terror Friendly Cities in America. Drink alert in effect!

Move over Martha, this is the REAL domestic goddess



Rachael Ray, host of "30 Minute Meals" on the Food Network and the only cooking show I even think about watching other than Emeril. Rachael is talented, funny, and easy on the eyes. This article in the AJC tells of her appeal and the crowds she draws at book signings.

Veggie Vouchers

In the UK, the Health Secretary is going to give out vouchers to get folks to eat their greens and yellows and oranges, and MP Boris Johnson in the Telegraph pokes fun at this quintessentially liberal idea.

That is why the Health Secretary, John Reid, this week announced his sensational plan for Veggie Vouchers. Yes, under reforms to the 63-year-old Welfare Food Scheme, 800,000 people will be given special vouchers by the social services, which they will be able to redeem at groceries and supermarkets for vegetables and fruit.

You may think it hard, at first sight, to see what is wrong with this scheme. It is just giving a cash value, for the first time, to the old wartime system of subsidising milk for the poorest and neediest. As Churchill said at the time: "There is no finer investment for society than putting milk into babies." The logic was that hard-up families might be driven to economise on the baby milk, and this was the state's way of making sure that they did not.

So far so good. As with many liberal ideas, it starts with a seemingly good premise.

This is how the fatness epidemic spreads. You go to the fridge; you take out that Onken biopot yogurt, with the little barley grains to make it seem somehow more dietetic; you eat, and you repeat. The cause of the fatness epidemic is not society, or poverty, or government failure. It is millions of fatties deciding after lunch that they might just have room for an extra large Kit Kat.

And the more ministers use the language of "epidemics" and "cures" and "action", the more deranged the whole argument will become, the more the fatties will think of themselves as victims, and the further we will drift from any concept of personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility? Heaven forbid we have any concept pf personal responsibility, that is why we have the nanny state to do everything except wipe our arse. Simply put, people are overweight, myself included, because we eat too damn much. I don't even eat that much junk, I go overboard with helpings and portion sizes.

Look at this scheme for what it is: the substitution of the discretion of the Secretary of State for Health for the discretion of 800,000 sentient Britons in respect of what they may eat. As I write, health officials are drawing up a huge list of acceptable fruit and veg, for which the taxpayer will pay ?142 million per year. Frozen peas are out. Kumquats are in, as are Chinese gooseberries, and indeed fresh raspberries from Waitrose. Potatoes are on the borderline.

"It's mainly meant to be apples and pears and oranges," said a health spokesman yesterday. Yeah, I said: well suppose I'm one of the 800,000 on means-tested benefit, and I go down with my ?5.60 John Reid Veggie Voucher, and I decide to buy some apples.

Then my eye falls on a chunky Kit Kat, and man oh man I know it's wrong, but I use the voucher to buy six chunky Kit Kats and a few apples to make me feel better. Who is going to stop the poor corner shop owner from collaborating in my weakness, and accepting a voucher for Kit Kats, when it should be entirely for apples? What if I just can't fight my lust for Jammy Dodgers, and the shopkeeper, on very tight margins, turns a blind eye?

"We hope that the safeguards will be in place," says the health department. Right, folks: we all know what that means. If this scheme is to have any chance of working, it will necessitate voucher control. Stand by for the fruit police, baby.

And who is going to pay for these Veggie Voucher Inspectors? You and me, in our council tax, no doubt. Once again, a piece of central government legislation looks set to push up the cost of local government.

Not an inch will be removed from the subcutaneous spare tyre of society as a result of this demented scheme. Not an ounce of blubber will be lost. But Labour will persist in its belief that it is the duty of government to second-guess the most basic decisions of human beings, complete with fruit police and veggie inspectors funded by us all.

Fruit police and veggie inspectors, a liberal's wet dream. What is that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions?

Double Jeopardy

Despite the Constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, it is alive and well, especially if you are a New York City police officer.

Brooklyn federal prosecutors have launched a civil-rights probe into the case of a white cop who fatally shot an unarmed black teen on a housing project rooftop.
In a one-line statement yesterday, U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said her office had begun "a thorough review of the evidence" in the Jan. 24 shooting of Timothy Stansbury, 19, at the Louis Armstrong Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant.

On Tuesday, a grand jury declined to indict the officer, Richard Neri, 35, and sources told The Post it happened because he was the best witness for himself.

In his 70-minute appearance before the grand jury last Wednesday, Neri convinced panel members he was telling the truth and Stansbury's shooting was accidental, the sources said.

The state acquitted him, so now the Feds get their bite of the apple. The Federal civil rights laws were created to help get the sheethead terrorists in the South that were able to kill blacks with impunity due to all-white juries refusing to convict them. Now it seems to be used for political purposes to "right the wrongs" and undo decisions legally rendered by a jury of one's peers, a clear abuse of the statute.

Neri's lawyer, Stuart London, said he was confident that after examining the facts, Mauskopf would conclude that civil-rights charges don't apply.

"You need intentional conduct and this is clearly an accident," he said.

Neri told grand jurors he fired accidentally when Stansbury suddenly opened a rooftop door, sending the officer's partner, Jason Hallik, flying backward.

The 23 grand jurors took 35 minutes to decide against an indictment Tuesday on charges of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter.

The grand jurors heard testimony from an NYPD training officer who said Neri had followed procedures and was not reckless, law-enforcement sources said. But that wasn't the deciding factor, the sources said.

It was the officer's own words.

"There was empathy for the officer's position," one source said. "They understood why his gun was out - that he was afraid, that there were problems in the area."

We have an officer following his training, who saw his partner get knocked to the ground and the officer shot the person he thought was a perpetrator. Unfortunately it was a person being in the wrong place at the wrong time, but this was not an officer looking to execute somebody. He was in a situation with few options, unfortunately it ended with someone losing their life. There is no easy answer, but some people are lookingto make some hay out of this:

At a news conference outside Brooklyn Supreme Court, members of Stansbury's family accused Neri of lying.

"That wasn't no accident," said his father, Timothy Stansbury Sr. "Officer Neri, you need to come and tell the truth about what happened."

"It was one shot to his chest that killed him, and I want justice," said his mother, Phyllis Clayburne, in tears.

At a news conference outside City Hall, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) insisted a federal probe was warranted, citing an early comment by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly that there appeared to be "no justification" for the shooting.

What scares me is the reckless prosecution of some of these feds. Abner Louima was tortured by a police officer who was duly prosecuted and sentenced for the crime, yet the feds wanted more heads to hang on their wall and kept after the innocent officers through numerous mistrials, even though the convicted ex cop Justin Volpe confessed to his part. I don't want one of NY's finest to be the subject of a witchhunt due to a tragic accident.

Clarification for my Jewish readers

I hope my blasting Abraham Fox of the ADL has not offended anybody. I can't comprehend what the experiences of the Holocaust were like. I know my grandfather helped liberate some camps when he was in 3rd armored Spearhead in WWII and he refused to talk about what he saw. I don't know what it's like to be hated or threatened due to my ethnicity or my religion. Irish Catholics, except in Belfast, are usually pretty safe these days.

What I am trying to point out is that as someone who is extremely sympathetic to Judaism, someone who has Jewish friends and studies Judaism and looks forward to attending Temple services sometime, I grow weary of those, such as Mr. Fox, who are constantly going around yelling "anti-semitism" at every opportunity. It's the same wearniess I get when I hear Jesse Jackson drone on about how racist this country is and how guilty I should feel about it. Do we have some problems? Of course we do. Are we one of the best places in the world to live, regardless of creed, race, or ethnicity? Yes we are.

Mr Fox, give me and others credit or at least wait until we have let anti-Semitism rear its ugly head before you tilt at this windmill. You have chosen to portray those who disagree with parts of Vatican II as a bunch of racists who think Jews are Christ killers, at least that is the message I received from your keynote address. For many of us, we miss the beauty of the Latin Mass, just as some Jews think that temple services should only be conducted in Hebrew. Just as some Jews adhere to varying degrees of keeping kosher, there are Catholics who have varying views of the reforms of Vatican II. Some older Catholics still refrain from eating meat on Fridays or only take communion in one form, not both body and blood. Some folks love guitars and drums at Mass, to me give me an organ. I am getting slightly off topic, so let me end by saying that please stop generalizing Gentiles as folks just waiting to charge out of the movie and start a modern Kristallnacht, because that is not going to happen.

The EU, fighting anti-semitism (just kidding)

This article and the vile comments to it sure show how tolerant those wonderul Europeans are.

The European Commission Friday played down a claim by the US ambassador to the EU that anti-Semitism in Europe is reaching levels not seen since the 1930s.

But the European Union executive underlined its concern about the issue by pointing out that next week it is holding a Brussels conference with Jewish groups aimed at finding ways of tackling anti-Semitism.

Chief Commission spokesman Reijo Kemppinen said that Brussels "has never looked at the issue from the point of view of comparing it to the past or trying to find an exact date or decade from the past".

He was responding to assertions by US ambassador Rockwell Schnabel that hatred of Jews in Europe was now rivalling levels last seen when the Nazis were persecuting Jews all over the continent in the run-up to World War II.

In a speech Thursday night at the opening of the Transatlantic Institute, an initiative of the American Jewish Committee to foster EU-US ties, Schnabel said anti-Semitism is "getting to a point where it is as bad as it was in the 30s".

Kemppinen said the EU took seriously the fact that "there are a lot of xenophobic phenomena in Europe".

"Whether they are on the increase or not is more difficult to say," he added. Nevertheless the Commission was responding to people's concerns by putting on the anti-Semitism conference next Thursday, he said.

Can't be, Abraham Fox of the ADL sang Jacques Chirac's praises about his efforts of fighting anti-Semitism. After all, "The Passion" isn't showing over there.

The high-powered seminar, which is attracting leaders from European governments, the EU executive and the global Jewish community, was announced by Brussels after a contentious opinion poll in November sparked Israeli fury.

The poll commissioned by the EU executive suggested Europeans see Israel as the biggest threat to world peace, leading to two influential Jewish leaders to denounce Brussels for fuelling anti-Semitism in Europe.

That claim infuriated Commission chief Romano Prodi and nearly led to the scrapping of next week's seminar.

Relations between the EU and some in the Jewish community have been strained by the bloc's alleged favouritism of the Palestinians in the Middle East conflict.

But in his own speech at the Transatlantic Institute event, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana said the EU was neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Israel but wanted a just solution to the Middle East conflict.

That's right, the EU just wants Israel to lay down and let the Palestinians keep blowing them up. These are the same folks who make up the International Court of the Hague, who are trying to convict Israel of a crime for daring to build a wall to keep out those who would kill the women and children of Israel.

The ADL loses credibility

Chicken Little, aka Abraham Foxman, the National Director of the Anti Defamation League (ADL) shows some real stupidity this week in his never ending search for anti-Semitism where it doesn't exist. For starters, he has been relentless in his criticism of Mel Gibson's movie "The Passion."

First, I'm not impressed. I'm waiting to see it on February 25, because his word is not his word. That one scene will not change the film. The film, from our perspective, unambiguously from beginning to end blames it on the blood-thirsty vengeful Jews and absolves the peace, loving, kind, warm, sensitive Pontius Pilate and the Romans.

We are being told that, theologically, the whole world is guilty in the suffering of Jesus, for he died for all of us. I'm not asking for very much, and people say to me "So, what do you want?" I don't think he'll change the film; I don't think the film is changeable. He's entitled to his film.

I'm asking for a postscript, because Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor and I saw the film two weeks ago at a mega-church, and at the end of the film, five thousand people sat in stunned, pained silence, only punctuated by some sobbing and wailing for the pain and the anguish of the suffering, and ending up in prayer.

News Flash: Jesus died a painful death. The son of God, God made flesh, died in one of the more horrible methods of execution ever devised by man. He died for our sins: mine, yours, my friends, everyone's. Mel Gibson has made a movie showing just how much God loved us, by how willingly he let his son be tortured and executed.

Mr Fox took a break from blasting the anti-Semitism of us Christians who want to see "The Passion" and Mel Gibson for making the movie, though. He took time from his busy schedule of harassing Mel Gibson to
commend Jacques Chirac for his "efforts" to fight French anti-Semitism.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) commended President Jacques Chirac for the French government's efforts to protect France's Jewish community and its actions to combat the increased anti-Semitism that has spread in France in the past few years.

"We appreciate your public statements condemning anti-Semitism and those by key ministers in your government," said Barbara B. Balser, ADL National Chair and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director in a letter to President Chirac. "The Jewish community of France continues to feel vulnerable, and anti-Semitic sentiment in France remains at crisis proportions.

"As we recognize the significant measures undertaken by your Government, we urge that these efforts be maintained to ensure that the Jewish community may be protected, and beyond this, to intensify long-range programs in schools and other key institutions combating discrimination."

France gets commended even though synagogues are firebombed and Jewish cemetaries are vandalized and Chirac tries to remove any vestige of faith from public life, such as wearing scarves, yarmulkes, Star of Davids, crosses. Outside of the Middle East there may be no country more dangerous for Jews than France. Yet Chirac gets a pat on the back, and Gibson gets blasted for what "might happen" here in the US due to a movie that is based on historical events. Gibson being to the right of Fox's politics makes me wonder about some of the motivation.

I had very little respect for Fox before any of this, and have even less now. Lest anyone think I am some knuckle-dragging anti-Semitic traditional Catholic, I support Jewish causes, read the Jerusalem Post, and hope to soon visit a synagogue for the first time. While in college an Orthodox Jewish friend of mine introduced me to Judaism and I learned quite a bit. I just get tired of Fox and others, be they feminists, black leaders, or other oppressed who are so quick to look for oppression even when it does not exist.

The Great Pennsylvania Beer War

In the 1700's there was the Whiskey Rebellion in Western PA, as distillers didn't want to pay the high taxes. Now there is a beer war on the horizon.

Legislators might have started a beer war with a last-minute budget amendment that expanded a small brewer's tax credit to the state's biggest brewer, D.G. Yuengling & Sons Inc.

Now, Miller Brewing Co. is readying a lawsuit to strike down the tax credit for brewery equipment purchases, rather than allow their major in-state competition -- Yuengling, Latrobe and Pittsburgh Brewing companies -- to get it.

Francis X. O'Brien, a lawyer for a coalition of small regional breweries, such as Harrisburg-based Troeg's Brewing Co. and Appalachian Brewing Co., said the breweries fear that the lawsuit would hurt their ability to expand.

"When the 800-pound gorillas start to battle, it's the poor ants on the floor of the jungle that get crushed first," O'Brien said.

He said that if the tax credit is the victim of this controversy, the taps of the state's thriving microbrewery industry could slow or dry up.

That could empty the steins of local beer-lovers of the regionally brewed wheat beers, stouts, black-and-tans and seasonal ales.

I have a fridge stocked with Yuengling right now, and I love the varieties of the microbrews offered in PA, as opposed to watered down flavorless mass produced beer like Miller, or garbage that gives me headaches like Bud. I'm a bit hypocritical on the subject, being a free trade person, but I am supporting the little guys on this.

This beer war, pitting the state's 50 smallest brewers against its three largest, with Miller's potential lawsuit threatening all, began Dec. 20.

A section of the budget tax bill was supposed to reauthorize the 16-year-old tax credit, and limit it to small brewers, those who made less than 300,000 barrels per year.

After midnight, hours before the budget was passed that section was quietly changed, with no notice to anyone but two of the three beneficiaries: Yuengling and Pittsburgh Brewing, which brews Iron City.

That capped a week of lobbying by fiscally strapped Pittsburgh Brewing and state Senate Democrats, to raise the tax credit's yearly production cap to cover the 600,000-plus annual barrels Pittsburgh Brewing produces.

To ensure that Yuengling and Latrobe, which brews Rolling Rock, also got the tax credit, Senate Republican leaders raised the yearly barrel limit to 1.5 million. That just covers Yuengling, the 5th biggest American brewer, at 1.4 million barrels a year, and Latrobe at 1.2 million annual barrels.

The credit allows companies to subtract the cost of new equipment purchases, such barrels, vats and trucks, from their state tax bill.

Yuengling Executive Vice President David Casinelli, who was asked for his opinion, said he supported the small brewers tax credit, but told Senate Republicans, "Personally, I said, I don't see why, with manufacturing jobs fleeing this state, they would want to cap it at all, but we didn't initiate any contact on this or ask for it."

I guess I am not hypocritical, as this is more about tax breaks than it is tarrifs and protection for industries. PA is just giving tax breaks to its homegrown companies, which I can support. Anything that can help keep jobs or produce more jobs in PA is a good thing, as the state is hurting. Miller Brewing isn't amused or empathetic, though.

Last week, Miller Brewing asked the three big brewers to forgo the credit, and appealed to all brewers to lobby lawmakers to restore the old tax-credit terms, which excluded Yuengling, Latrobe and Pittsburgh.

Miller sources say that if Yuengling, Latrobe and Pittsburgh Brewing do not agree to those terms by Feb. 27, Miller and other large brewers would file a lawsuit to have the tax credit declared unconstitutional because it violates the Interstate Commerce Act.

In 1986, Miller Brewing sued the state, alleging that an earlier version of this tax credit, which had no annual production limit, violated the Interstate Commerce provision of the U.S. Constitution.

After the state's lawyers quietly told lawmakers the tax credit would not withstand a legal challenge, Miller Brewing and legislators agreed in 1988 to limit the tax credit to brewers who produced less than 300,000 barrels per year.

That ended the lawsuit and preserved the tax credit until this year.

In the last decade, the program has allowed 28 breweries to buy $3.6 million in new equipment, with funds that they would otherwise have paid to the state in taxes.

But these revenues were replaced by folks having jobs at these breweries and paying state income taxes, sales taxes, and property taxes by being able to stay in PA and work, live, and spend their money. Miller is a behemoth who spends more on the Rusty Wallace race car than the operating budget of some small microbrewers. Kudos to the legislators for (so far) telling Miller to pound sand. I may be wrong, but I do not know of any Miller breweries in PA.

Brief Kerry comment

"The motto of the state of Wisconsin is 'forward,' and I want to thank the people of the state of Wisconsin for moving this cause and this campaign forward tonight," he said.

That is rather funny considering there is nothing about the Kerry platform that indicates moving forward, it all appears to be a step back to the glorious days of the Carter presidency: high taxes and a weak foreign policy. It is not moving "forward" to cede sovereignty over to the Useless Nations.

How to win the war on terror

Courtesy of LGF is the great site News on Terror which exposes many of the PC lies about The Peaceful Religion and also tells of how the west can win the war on terror. I highly recommend it.

Detroit loses 2 of its finest

2 young police officers in Detroit were killed at a traffic stop turned bad.

Detroit Police Officer Jennifer Fettig craved the action of the city streets, a far cry from her northern Michigan roots in Petoskey. Her partner, Matthew Bowens, proudly returned to Lincoln Park High School to show off his badge when he joined Detroit's force in December 2000.

The two officers lost their lives early Monday when a gunman opened fire on them during a traffic stop in southwest Detroit.

"It's just an unbearable loss that I don't know how we are going to handle it," said Lt. John Morell of the 4th (Fort-Green) Precinct where both officers worked the midnight shift. "The wound is still very raw, and you can see it in all the officers' faces. We're a family here, and we're hurting."

A 23-year-old Detroit man, Eric L. Marshall, is in police custody in connection with the slayings. He allegedly made some admissions as to his involvement, said Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings.

"This is probably one of the saddest days I've had as a police officer," Bully-Cummings said.

Sad indeed. Unfortunately Detroit does not have a death penalty, as the piece of garbage who killed these fine officers will live to a ripe old age. The story shows how cold blooded Marshall is.

In Monday's shooting, officers Bowens and Fettig stopped a 1989 dark-blue GMC Sierra pickup truck on Gilbert, north of Michigan Avenue, around 2 a.m. The reason for the stop remained unclear Monday evening.

One of the officers approached the truck and got a driver's license belonging to Marshall and returned to the police cruiser.

Both were seated in the cruiser when Marshall allegedly approached the passenger's side and opened fire with a .40-caliber handgun, said Police Cmdr. Craig Schwartz. The bullets struck Fettig twice -- at least once in the head. The gunman fled.

Bowens radioed in "Officer down," and got out of the car to help his partner. At some point, Marshall returned to the scene and shot Bowens nine times, Schwartz said.

The emphasis was mine. God bless the souls of these brave officers, and comfort those who loved them and worked with them. May the justice system bring the defendant to a swift trial and proper conviction.

Thanks Aaron

I see where Aaron the liberal slayer has been kind enough to link me in his blogroll, so I return the favor. Go there to see his new game, blogopoly!

Desmond Tutu: idiot

Desmond Tutu, a man I once admired until he became a total tool of the left, gives an interview to CNN blasting the Iraqi war. The article is mostly a waste of time, so I'll be brief:

The world is a less safe place than before, the church leader said.

"How wonderful if politicians could bring themselves to admit they are only fallible human creatures, and not God, and thus by definition can make mistakes," Tutu said in a speech in London on Monday.

"Weak and insecure people hardly ever say, 'Sorry.' It is large-hearted and courageous people who are not diminished by saying, 'I made a mistake.'

President Bush and Mr Blair would recover considerable credibility and respect if they were able to say, 'Yes, we made a mistake,'" he said.

Since the war there is no evidence of Iraqi citizens be gassed with poisonous gases, thrown off of buildings, or fed feet first into plastic shredders. That alone is reason enough for the war, plus we will find the weapons, although many were dumped into the rivers, which isn't being reported.

As usual, Emperor Misha I says it even better.

A good father vs. the publik skoolz

In Illinois, a father kept his 2 children home from school rather than have them wait for the buses in -10 degree weather. His older daughter received detention, but HE is volunteering to serve the detention.

A Lovington father is scheduled for four hours of school detention for keeping his high school age daughter home from school for one day due to extreme cold weather.

"My daughter is not going to be punished for what I did. I kept the children home," Rick Hatton, 48, told IllinoisLeader.com. "The principal told me, "Well, Mr. Hatton I tell you what, you are more than welcome to serve detention for her.'

Kudos to the dad, and a brick thrown through the window to the principal to let the cold air in. I am from south of Erie, and am familiar with this kind of weather. When it gets too cold, there should be enough concern for the children's safety to cancel school rather than risk hypothermia.

On the morning of Friday January 30, Hatton said he decided it was too cold for his children to go to school that day. But the Lovington High School Handbook does not list "parental concern for a child's safety" as one of six excused absences in their handbook.

The high school administration says that below zero temperatures are not a valid reason for missing a day of school. "A bus goes by there every day," Superintendent Ralph K. Reed told IllinoisLeader.com. "She could have gotten on it," and agrees with the high school principles that the absence was not unavoidable.

When his daughters returned to school the next day, Hatton wrote the Lovington School Board an excuse saying he kept his children home from school "because the air temperature was 10 below 0 that morning. Other schools had closed and news reports of the dangers of extreme cold weather and my own experiences led me to this decision.

If children's safety was a concern of the schools, the schools wouldn't be gladiator academies. I want to see this idiotic, arrogant SOB of a superintendant wait for a bus with -10 temps and a brutal wind chill factor.

On the other hand, Lovington High School Principal Kevin Van Meter said the Hatton's 16 year old daughter's absence was unexcused, and punished her with five days detention. He based the punishment on a provision in the Lovington High School Handbook which states, "The student will be considered truant for all unexcused absences. The student will make up all time for unexcused absences unless the administrator deems the absence to be unavoidable."

Hatton, a parent the school administration holds in high regard as an ?exemplary? parent, says his daughters would have disobeyed him if they had gone to school that day, making the absence "unavoidable."

After all, the kids need to get their daily dose of liberal indoctrination and dumbing down, the dems need new voters to replace ones that die or suddenly get some intelligence.

"State law grants schools in loco parentis," Superintendent Reed said on Friday. Loco parentis is Latin for "in place of a parent." In loco parentis, the rights and duties of a parent are assumed by a person or persons.

Hatton is scheduled to serve his detention at the Lovington High School on the first Wednesday in March from 12 to 4 PM.

That is a major problem of the schools, arrogant asses like Reed assuming the place of a parent, or more accurately that they have more power than the parents. I am very supportive of Mr. Hatton taking his stand. Here is some contact info for the school:

webpage: www.lovington.k12.il.us.
superintendant email: rreed@lovington.k12.il.us
Principal email: VanMeterK@lovington.k12.il.us
Phone: 217/873-4316
snail mail: 445 E. Church St. Lovington, IL 61937

The schizophrenia of the Dems and war

In today's NY Times David Brooks has a very good op-ed about the Dems as wartime presidents. Specifically, how they went from a party that was trusted to run a war to a party given a "no-confidence vote".

Between 1940 and 1968, the American people trusted the Democratic Party in times of war. But Vietnam shattered that trust. So if we're going to talk about Vietnam during this campaign, as I guess we are, let's not talk about how many days George Bush served in the National Guard, or how many rows John Kerry sat from Jane Fonda at a protest rally. Let's talk about the meaning of the Vietnam War, and what lessons each party has drawn from that disaster.

The Democrats Americans trusted, from Harry Truman to John Kennedy, lived in the shadow of World War II. They'd learned the lessons of Munich and appeasement. They saw America engaged in a titanic struggle against tyranny and believed in using military means for idealistic ends. They also had immense confidence in themselves and in their ability to use power to spread freedom.

Their confidence took them into Vietnam and into the quagmire. There were two conflicting lessons that could be drawn from that experience. Scoop Jackson Democrats saw Vietnam as a bungled battle in what was nonetheless a noble anti-Communist war. Most of these people ended up as Republicans.

Or at least Democrats that would vote for Republicans. I would argue against Harry Truman being listed in that group for his bungling of Korea and not unleashing the full fury of the US war machine, but he did have the guts to make the call about dropping the bomb on Japan. While I disagree with many of FDR's social programs, he was a good wartime president. These were the dems that many of my family voted for.

But most Democrats ? and John Kerry was very much a part of this group ? saw Vietnam as a refutation of the cold war mentality. These liberals saw the bungling and the lies as symptoms of a deep sickness in the military-industrial complex. So we got movies like "Dr. Strangelove" and "M*A*S*H," which treated military life as insane.

These Democrats saw Vietnam as an indictment of a Manichaean good vs. evil worldview, of an overweening arrogance that led hawks into parts of the world they didn't understand. Most of all, they saw it as an indictment of American nationalism, the belief that America was culturally superior and should venture around the globe defeating tyranny.

Hence Democratic foreign policy in the 1970's was isolationist at worst, modest at best. Democrats eschewed flag-waving and moralistic language about the Soviets. Jimmy Carter talked about root causes like hunger and poverty. For many liberals, as Charles Krauthammer recently said, "cold warrior" was an epithet.

It was no coincidence that during this period that the US embassy in Iran was captured, that the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, or that certain countries in Latin America were becoming communist. We were lucky that no strong terrorists were organized enough to attack us back then. We were a joke when it came to foreign policy.

These liberals were horrified when a group of former Democrats, led by Ronald Reagan and Jeane Kirkpatrick, led a hawk resurgence. The Reaganites believed in American exceptionalism, saw themselves as the heirs to Truman and Kennedy, and sought to confront and defeat the evil empire. The Democratic establishment ? again, with Kerry playing a crucial role ? recoiled from such language, and opposed the Reagan arms buildup.

Most Americans decided that Reagan was right about the world, and that the Democrats were na?ve.

I was one of those Americans. Reagan restored our pride, and the hostages were released, we came a-knocking on Quadafi's doorstep and shut him up for awhile, and showed our superiority over the Soviets, leading to their collapse.

But the end of the cold war put an end to that debate. And as the Balkans crisis deepened, the Democrats shifted. Suddenly Democrats were boldly committing troops around the globe, without even bothering to ask the U.N. The Vietnam syndrome seemed to be over. Democrats seemed set to re-emerge as a confident, tough-minded and hawkish party, ready to use force and reassert America's exceptional world role.

Let's not get too excited there. I think some of that may have been to distract from certain pecadillos of Clinton, but maybe he was truly interested in using our troops, although the tragedy in Somalia and the clusterscrew in Haiti don't give much optimism. Our troops were being used as crossing guards with automatic weapons and not the military machines that they are. Plus, we didn't do anything about Bin Laden during the Clinton era.

Now, in the midst of the war against Islamic totalitarianism, the crucial question is this: Is the Democratic Party truly set to reclaim the legacy of Truman and Kennedy, or is it still living in the shadow of Vietnam?

If you talk to Democratic foreign policy elites in Washington and New York, you come away convinced that the party has recovered from Vietnam, and is ready to assert power, albeit in multilateral guises. If, on the other hand, you attend Democratic primary rallies, you come away convinced that the party is still, at its base, the Jimmy Carter party when it comes to global affairs.

And if you listen to John Kerry, you come away not knowing what to think. He seems like a man betwixt and between, unable to issue a clear statement about America's role in the world, and hence floating toward whatever is expedient at the moment.

If Kerry can speak the language of Truman and Kennedy, and stick with it, he will cross a basic threshold, and Americans will consider trusting him with their security. If he does not cross that threshold, all the personal heroism in the world will not be enough to get him elected.

I know how I am voting as I do not trust Kerry. He showed personal courage in battle 30 years ago but has spent that time hence doing his best to destroy US foreign policy, gut our defense forces, and cede our sovereignty to the UN.

Don Henley's op-ed

Don Henley, drummer/singer/cofounder of the Eagles and a good solo artist, has a good op-ed in today's Washington Post about the state of the music industry. It is really good, full of lots of common sense.

Today the music business is in crisis. Sales have decreased between 20 and 30 percent over the past three years. Record labels are suing children for using unauthorized peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing systems. Only a few artists ever hear their music on the radio, yet radio networks are battling Congress over ownership restrictions. Independent music stores are closing at an unprecedented pace. And the artists seem to be at odds with just about everyone -- even the fans.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, the root problem is not the artists, the fans or even new Internet technology. The problem is the music industry itself. It's systemic. The industry, which was once composed of hundreds of big and small record labels, is now controlled by just a handful of unregulated, multinational corporations determined to continue their mad rush toward further consolidation and merger. Sony and BMG announced their agreement to merge in November, and EMI and Time Warner may not be far behind. The industry may soon be dominated by only three multinational corporations.

No argument there. Indy labels or smaller labels such as IRS that helped launch bands like REM are gone, and the odds of getting signed are much steeper.

Radio stations used to be local and diverse. Deejays programmed their own shows and developed close relationships with artists. Today radio stations are centrally programmed by their corporate owners, and airplay is essentially bought rather than earned. The floodgates have opened for corporations to buy an almost unlimited number of radio stations, as well as concert venues and agencies. The delicate balance between artists and radio networks has been dramatically altered; networks can now, and often do, exert unprecedented pressure on artists. Whatever connection the artists had with their music on the airwaves is almost totally gone.

Agree there, too. Clear Channel and Viacom own a big chunk of the radio industry, and the stations are virtually the same no matter what town you are in. The so called "new rock" stations are stuck in 1994 playing Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Greenday instead of helping to launch newer acts. Maybe the recording industry will fall so far down that it will have to rebuild.

New York's finest

The always dependable Steve Dunleavy of the NY Post has a good column today about one of NY's finest who helped take down a real lowlife, and lost his pinkie in the process.

Officer Gilbert Noa lost his right pinkie to a police-hating ex-con, but still managed to give a thumb's up yesterday to the brave cops who saved his life.
"I want those guys to be strong and safe, I love them," Noa said from his bed in the intensive-care unit at Jacobi Medical Center.

Noa, 33, a nine-year veteran, was shot with his own gun Sunday during a fierce struggle in The Bronx with Thomas Cipolla, a hulking thug who spent 30 months behind bars for trying to run a police cruiser off the road.

Noa and his partner, Leonardo Ortiz, were trying to collar Cipolla, 28, for stealing a black Lexus on Jan. 16 - just five weeks after his last trip up the river ended.

The men struggled. They fell. Cipolla snatched Noa's gun from its holster and fired once. The bullet tore off the brave cop's pinkie and plowed through his lower abdomen.

As Cipolla towered over Noa and Ortiz - appearing ready to shoot again - four other cops opened fire, hitting the ex-con in the chest and killing him.

The 5-foot-10, 240-pound lowlife Cipolla had nine arrests on his rap sheet - all in Suffolk County - dating to March 28, 1996.

He was busted for stealing a car on Nov. 24, 1998, and leading Suffolk cops on a high-speed chase during which he tried to run the cruiser off the road. He was paroled after 30 months in the can, but was sent back to the slammer twice for parole violations. He was finally released last Dec. 10.

On Jan. 16, Cipolla stole the Lexus in Northport, L.I., and on Feb. 4, an arrest warrant was issued after he failed to show up for a court hearing on ID theft charges.

Brave officers, having to risk their lives unnecessarily due to the revolving door of NY's "justice" system. Still, Officer Noa isn't backing down or looking to spend a life fishing anytime soon.

As Noa lay in his hospital bed yesterday, sometimes nodding off because of the sedatives, he spoke of returning to the job as soon as possible.

"I just want to get OK, then go back to work," he said.

He turned to Officer Danny Gravius, a Patrolmen's Benevolent Association representative.

"Am I going to be made?" he asked Gravius, talking about his burning desire to be promoted to sergeant this year.

We owe all of our police officers a huge debt of gratitude, for dealing with the wretches of our society and risking their lives to keep us safe. Mr. Dunleavy closes the column very nicely:

Before drifting off yesterday, Noa managed a weak smile and addressed his blessing to me: "Now you stay safe and strong."

Every time you meet a cop like Noa, you always feel safer and stronger.

Mel Gibson's interview

Like millions of others I watched Mel Gibson get grilled by Diane Sawyer last night on ABC. I thought Mel handled himself very well. The main things I took away from the interview:

1) Mel did a great job of showing how ridiculous some of the critics are

2) Some people just don't get it, the meaning of the crucifixion. They worship Jesus the social worker, they don't wish to get involved in any of the suffering part of the faith. Jesus was sent as a sacrifice, and he was killed in a brutal way due to the sins of ALL of us, to forever forgive us and erase the stain of Original Sin.

3) I gained some perspective for the Jewish critics who are worried about a rise in anti-Semitism. I have never been targeted for my faith or my ethnicity, so I can't comprehend what it is like. They are looking back at what has happened in the past and are concerned about anti-Semitism rising. I think if they watch the movie and give Christians a little more credit their fears should be allayed. The Muslim world is far more hostile to Judaism than the Christian world.

4) Mel came across as a very humble person, devout in his Catholic faith, who showed some of the leftist propaganda for how stupid it is. I really liked his point about "the confusion" in the church among the followers, and how getting back to traditions can help alleviate some of the confusion.

All in all, a very nice job by Mr Gibson and I look forward to seeing the movie.

Observations on Daytona

I had a great time with my buddy at the Daytona 500. Seeing Air Force 1, the Stealth bomber flyover, those were great. The stupid choreography at the beginning and Miss America and some other singer butchering songs was not good. I wasn't aware that patriotism meant bad choreography with flag things and bad singers. The race itself was great, my favorite driver won, and the experience was wonderful.

I'm back

I've had one of my best friends visiting since Thursday so the blogging has been light. We had a great time catching up, barhopping, and going to the Daytona 500. I'll have more throughout the day.

Paleswinian Update

Israel has decided not to appear at the Kangaroo Court at the Hague about the legitimacy of The Fence (Patent Pending), and the "Arab Street" (which is a dead end) and their papers have spoken. This was in the Jerusalem Post:

A decision lacking maturity and rationality

What we can conclude from this Israeli decision to be absent from the discussions at the world's highest legal apparatus is a clear disrespect to the court, a disregard for the UN, which referred the fence case to this court in order for it to rule an "unbinding" ruling about the legality of the project. Israel's decision is further a challenge to the international community, and a resolve to proceed in unilateral actions in which Israel has no right to act unilaterally in the first place. These actions relate to the right of the Palestinian people to live a free, noble and stable life on its homeland. (emphasis mine) - Jerusalem-based Palestinian daily Al-Quds

Where to begin? As far as "a disregard for the UN" can one really blame Israel? The anti-Israel and anti-semitic venom that is spewed from the UN on a daily basis should be reason enough for Israel to tell the UN to bugger off. This is the body, after all, that passed a resolution stating that it was racist for Israel to want to exist.

Next, as far "the right of the Palestinian people to live a free, noble and stable life on its homeland", there are many fallacies here. What is noble about killing innocent women and children with suicide bombers? Innocents like these, courtesy of OneFamily.

Next, as far as a Palestinian homeland, they have a homeland: Jordan. Further, there there is no such group of People that are Palestinians. Per the Encylcopedia Britannica from 1911, this is what they say of the area the British called Palestine:

"population" of Palestine composed of so "widely differing" a group of "inhabitants" -- whose "ethnological affinities" create "early in the 20th century a list of no less than fifty languages" that "it is therefore no easy task to write concisely ... on the ethnology of Palestine." In addition to the "Assyrian, Persian and Roman" elements of ancient times, "the short-lived Egyptian government introduced into the population an element from that country which still persists in the villages." There are very large contingents from the Mediterranean countries, especially Armenia, Greece and Italy . . . Turkoman settlements ... a number of Persians and a fairly large Afghan colony . . . Motawila ... long settled immigrants from Persia ... tribes of Kurds ... German "Templar" colonies ... a Bosnian colony ... and the Circassian settlements placed in certain centres ... by the Turkish government in order to keep a restraint on the Bedouin ... a large Algerian element in the population ... still maintain(s) [while] the Sudanese have been reduced in numbers since the beginning of the 20th century.

Keep the fence coming Israel, protect yourself from the Arafat and his murderous minions.

CBS: the democrat's lackey

The government is running ads explaining the new Medicare law and its benefits. CBS has pulled the ad after the dems demanded a General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the ads.

CBS has stopped running the Bush administration's publicly funded ad for the new Medicare prescription drug law pending a review of its content by congressional investigators.

The 30-second ad, titled "Same Medicare. More Benefits," has prompted strong criticism from Democratic lawmakers and a range of interest groups who say it is a barely disguised commercial for President Bush's re-election campaign.

Democrats asked the General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, to examine whether the administration should be using taxpayer money to air the commercial. And several lawmakers have been lobbying network executives to get them to yank the ad, pending the GAO review.

"As soon as we became aware of the investigation, we pulled it," CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said Friday. He said the network stopped airing the ad several days ago.

Kevin Keane, a spokesman for the Health and Human Services Department, said CBS' decision was arbitrary, noting the network accepted the ad and began airing it on Feb. 3.

"If it was OK then, it should remain OK now," Keane said. "It's a lack of judgment by CBS."

No, it was CBS doing the dems bidding as they always do, the Clinton Broadcasting System.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., who requested the GAO investigation, said Friday: "The bottom line is that this ad is an illegal use of taxpayer dollars and is under active investigation. My hope is now other networks will follow suit. It is the least they should do until the offical investigation by GAO is concluded."

Spokesmen for Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said partisan politics were involved, noting that top CBS executives made most of their political contributions to Democrats including leading presidential contender John Kerry.

Lautenberg should know about illegal activity, he and the Torch both. The other networks haven't given in.

Keane said other television networks are continuing to run the ad. He said ABC insisted that the government edit part of the ad, which asserts that members "can save with Medicare drug discount cards this June. And save more with prescription drug coverage in 2006," to indicate that savings can vary.

CNN will continue to run the ad, a spokesman said, because "it doesn't violate any of our policies, and therefore there is no basis not to air it." NBC also is showing the ad but is considering the Democrats' request to pull it, a spokeswoman said.

Spokesmen at ABC and Fox did not immediately comment Friday.

HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said Thursday he will withdraw the ad only if GAO determines it's political.

But Thompson vigorously defended the content of the commercial and said the law authorizes him to mount an extensive campaign to educate recipients about significant changes to Medicare.

Rather biased indeed.

Private Schools

Anrea Peyser of the NY Post is one of my favorite columnists, and her latest about sending her daughter to private school.

MY little family has taken to waiting by the mailbox each day, our hearts filled with equal parts anticipation - and dread. Anticipation that the acceptance letter will arrive, inviting my 5-year-old daughter into private kindergarten. A school that offers clean hallways, small classes, motivated teachers, a choice of arts and languages, plus a good chance my kid will make it into Harvard - or, at least, make it home each afternoon in one piece.

And then there's the dread. We dread that she'll be accepted.

Words fail to fully express the pressure my husband and I feel as we make what seems like the most important decision in my young child's life. The worry is enormous. The guilt is unspeakable.

My son is still a baby, but I am not going to feel any guilt when he goes to Catholic school. I am going to feel the pinch in the wallet though.

It comes down to this: How can a middle-class couple with a big mortgage, a small car, and the selfish desire to take the occasional summer vacation be expected to shell out the price of a Toyota Camry each year so that our kid can master her ABCs?

Then again - how can we not do just that?

Way back when I was growing up in Queens, private school was not even a consideration. But that was before metal detectors were de rigueur. My teachers may have been surly, but most had a command of written English.

Today's kids face competition in the marketplace that my generation could not imagine, coupled with a public-education system riddled by violence and plummeting standards, and overseen by clock-watching union members. The very thought of sending my daughter to public school feels like child abuse. (emphasis mine-ed.)

Down here in Florida, the beating of a student by a gang on a school bus has made big news. It was caught on the surveillance camera on the bus but the driver did nothing. I am not sending my son to some gladiator academy.

Elected officials like to talk up public education - then ship their own precious progeny to the priciest classrooms money can buy. The one exception is Sen. Charles Schumer. But he once confessed to me that he handpicked the schools his daughters attended - and even sent them out of his district to a junior high school for the gifted.

In my Brooklyn neighborhood, the well-regarded elementary school shut down its gifted program a couple of years ago, in deference to parents who screamed that the entrance requirements were "racist."

At what point did demanding academic achievement become racist? I'm treading on dangerous ground here, seeing as I am a white middle class guy, but I get tired of the race-baiters crying "racism" at every turn. The key to achieving success and better your lot in life, black or white or purple, is to get the necessary education to lift yourself up into a better life. I come from a small town that is very poor now due to the collapse of the steel industry. I went to college and got the hell out of there.

Meanwhile, every day at 3 p.m., the local middle school dumps onto the street a bunch of bullies so wild, business owners can be seen shutting their doors and hovering inside.

When you feel a gun to your head, you empty your wallet.

She's our baby. What choice do we have?

Amen to that. I will not put my precious son in harm's way.

Religion of Peace Update

A 19 year old Orthodox boy was told convert or die.

On his 19th birthday Chechen rebels took Yevgeny Rodionov out of the cell where they had held him prisoner and invited him to convert to Islam. When he refused, they beheaded him.

To growing numbers of Russian Orthodox believers the young soldier is already a saint and a martyr for the faith. They offer prayers to him and credit icons of his image with miraculous works.

"I'm proud of my son, that he met death eye to eye, that he kept his faith to the end," says his mother Lyubov, turning a bloodstained silver crucifix slowly in her hands. "But as for whether he's a saint or not - that's for God to decide."

Yup, Islam is the religion of peace, us barbaric Christians just don't understand them.

Denied, or the tribal rituals of the bar scene

My best friend is visiting me from PA this weekend. We went barhopping last night here in Gainesville, and all in all had a good time. It was interesting to see what the college scene is like these days, and how little it has changed in some regards in the 12 years that have passed since my graduation.

What was troubling last night was the brush off my friend received from a girl. They were hitting it off and having a good time, and then when her roomie shows up the dynamic changed. The 2 girls went to the restroom and then we watched them sneak out the door. We were at a loss as to why this happened. One explanation we considered was that perhaps the roomie was looking for company, the kind she wouldn't get from an old married guy like me. I felt bad for my friend that he got blown off like that, as they had talked for an hour and had kissed a few times. One explanation I also considered was perhaps she had a boyfriend and the roomie laid a guilt trip on her, I don't know. I'm hoping we run into them tonight for a possible explanation.

Kerry a Cad?

First broke by Drudge and now being picked up by other outlets is the possibility that Kerry has his own intern paecadillos.

Democratic front-runner Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign is in peril amid allegations of infidelity, according to the Drudge Report.

"A frantic behind-the-scenes drama is unfolding around Sen. John Kerry and his quest to lock up the Democratic nomination for president," Drudge says.

Earlier this week, according to Drudge, Gen. Wesley Clark told a dozen reporters in an off-the-record conversation, "Kerry will implode over an intern issue … ."

Clark formally announced his withdrawal from the race yesterday. But former front-runner Howard Dean sees the "Kerry commotion" as a chance to revive his dying campaign, Drudge reports.

What is it about dems and their inability to be faithful? Do they admire JFK that much?

The allegation is why Dean "has turned increasingly aggressive against Kerry in recent days, and is the key reason why Dean reversed his decision not to drop out of the race after Wisconsin," top campaign sources told Drudge.

"A serious investigation of the woman and the nature of her relationship with Kerry has been under way at Time magazine, ABC News, the Washington Post and the Associated Press, where the woman in question once worked," Drudge says.

Drudge says the woman recently fled the country, reportedly at the prodding of Kerry. A close friend of the woman, he reports, first approached a reporter late last year "claiming fantastic stories."

The news-industry magazine Editor & Publisher contacted the Associated Press to see if the wire service would be reporting on the story.

During his broadcast today, radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh speculated the bombshell information could have been leaked to Drudge by Bill or Hillary Clinton. He said if that were true, the irony is "just too juicy." The former president was impeached after Drudge first publicized allegations of Clinton's own marital infidelity with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

In a story about Kerry rival John Edwards, AP cites recent encouragement the North Carolina senator has received from Bill Clinton.

Clinton told USA Today, "A lot of times things happen late in the race" which may or may not make a difference. "Look at the elections of the last 30 years. And ask yourself, is this election the same or different?"

A week ago, the Boston Herald's Inside Track column discussed a National Enquirer investigation on John Kerry which claimed Kerry is "an admitted pot smoker who had an eye for Hollywood honeys, namely Morgan Fairchild, Michelle Phillips and Catherine Oxenberg. In fact, Morgan and Michelle were so turned off by him, they both contributed to the other candidates seeking the nomination," the Herald stated.

According to the column, the Enquirer story also mentioned a "22-year-old blonde who was spotted around midnight 'dropping off her resume' at Kerry's Louisburg Square home while wife Teresa Heinz was in Nantucket."

Commenting on the Drudge story, Craig Crawford of the Congressional Quarterly said the allegation is something Wesley Clark campaign secretary and former Al Gore adviser Chris Lahane "has shopped around for a long time.

"It was one reason the Gore vetters in 2000 shied away from Kerry as a running mate choice," Crawford said.

Gore's staffers concluded the news wasn't bad enough to disqualify the Massachusetts senator, he continued, "except for the fact that they couldn't risk it as they were trying so hard to distance themselves from Clinton's personal failings."

Crawford notes that in addition to working for Gore, Lehane briefly advised Kerry during the current campaign.

"The Kerry camp has long expected to deal with this, and have assured party leaders they can handle it," Crawford said.

This could get interesting, although I doubt that the mainstream liberal media will make much hay of this.

Don't bring an ax to a gun fight

One less goblin in the world as a car thief who led police on a chase then pulled an ax on a cop was lit up by a brave police officer.

A man police said was stopped driving a stolen pickup truck was shot and killed by an officer in East Arlington Thursday afternoon.

When the suspect stopped near Jefferson Road and Airport Terrace Drive, in the Regency area, he got out and approached the officer. A struggle began that investigators said continued through a wooded area and onto the next street.

"This was a long, drawn-out fight. The officer put out that he needs help twice on the radio," Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Asst. Chief Steve Weintraub said.

Investigators said the officer used pepper spray, then his baton to try to subdue the suspect. But when the man picked up a double-edged axe from a house and turned toward the officer, two shots were fired, striking the man in the chest.

The goblin made several bad choices today ,and the consequences were fatal for him. The streets are safer.

No, really?

It seems an anti fraud unit of the EU is showing that the Palestine Authority (PA) funded terrorism. I am shocked!

The German daily Die Welt reported last week that suspicion is growing that money from PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's office was transferred to terror organizations, meaning that EU funds were used to help finance terror activities for the first two years of the current violence.

The EU budgeted some 10 million euros a month to the PA from the Fall of 2000, when the current violence erupted, to the Fall of 2002, when questions about usage of the funds forced the European Commission to stop payments.

The documents Israel provided were taken from Arafat's office during Operation Defensive Shield in March 2002 and transferred to the EU by the Defense Ministry.
A terrorist was funding terrorism? Never! Are the EUnichs of the EU that stupid to think that any money given to Arafat wouldn't be used for evil purposes?

What our foreign policy would be like under Kerry



John F'n Kerry is shown under arrest after an anti-war rally after he come home from Nam. The-hands-on-the-head-I-give-up-don't-hurt-me pose is exactly how things will be under Kerry. "Yes, UN, we'll do what you want. We surrender!" We'd be more French-like, in other words.

Only Catholic on Sundays....

....seems to be the attitude of Catholic politicians in Taxachusetts when it comes to gay marriage.

Mark Montigny was raised by an Irish Catholic mother, went to Catholic camp as a kid and attended Catholic grammar school. He holds the church sacraments in high esteem.

He's also a state senator who supports the rights of gays to marry.

"As a Catholic, I would never vote to diminish the sanctity of the church sacrament of marriage," said Montigny, a Democrat. "As a human being, I will never vote to deny someone their equal rights. It is my belief that the only requirement of civil marriage is enduring love and respect."

Montigny appears to forgotten his catechism lessons as marriage is a sacrament also. He is not alone is trying to have it both ways.

Rep. Carol Donovan, a Democrat, said she's concerned that her constituents, many of whom have sent her form letters provided to them by the church, are not being fully informed about the issue by religious leaders. She opposes the amendment.

"They don't understand the issue and the church is not presenting it fairly," she said.

There is no "fair" when it comes to the teachings of the church. TO paraphrase President Bush, you are either with the Church or against the Church. There is no wiggle room or "ifs, ands, buts" in the catechism. And the problem Ms. Donovan is that the voters DO understand the issue, they just don't follow your lead on it.

Rep. Mark A. Howland, a Democrat, said he supports the amendment, and has tried to separate his Catholicism from his role as a lawmaker, even when his own pastor tries to weigh in.

"I tell him, 'You can tell me perhaps what to do on Sunday, if I happen to attend Mass. But Monday through Saturday I'm at the will of the voters,"' Howland said.

Here is a man with feet on both sides of the issue, and I wonder how often that he "happen(s) to attend Mass." I have more respect for the people that have no ambivalence about gay marriage, the ones who don't try to play it both ways. I may disagree with them, but they are consistent, much like I respected the late Sen. Wellstone who was very consistent in his liberal views, even though I disagreed with him.

Kerry is a traitor: a story that won't be in the NY Slimes

Courtesy of his royal highness Emperor Misha I, who was kind enough to inform his subjects about Jihad watch's exposing an email sent to Iran by Kerry's office. The emphasis is mine in the article.

The office of Senator John Kerry, the frontrunner in the Democratic presidential primary in the U.S., sent the Mehr News Agency an e-email saying that Kerry will try to repair the damage done by the incumbent president if he wins the election. The text of the e-mail follows.

As Americans who have lived and worked extensively overseas, we have personally witnessed the high regard with which people around the world have historically viewed the United States. Sadly, we are also painfully aware of how the actions and the attitudes demonstrated by the U.S. government over the past three years have threatened the goodwill earned by presidents of both parties over many decades and put many of our international relationships at risk.

It is in the urgent interests of the people of the United States to restore our country's credibility in the eyes of the world. America needs the kind of leadership that will repair alliances with countries on every continent that have been so damaged in the past few years, as well as build new friendships and overcome tensions with others.

We are convinced that John Kerry is the candidate best qualified to meet this challenge. Senator Kerry has the diplomatic skill and temperament as well as a lifetime of accomplishments in field of international affairs. He believes that collaboration with other countries is crucial to efforts to win the war on terror and make America safer.

An understanding of global affairs is essential in these times, and central to this campaign Kerry has the experience and the understanding necessary to successfully restore the United States to its position of respect within the community of nations. He has the judgment and vision necessary to assure that the United States fulfills a leadership role in meeting the challenges we face throughout the world.

The current Administration's policies of unilateralism and rejection of important international initiatives, from the Kyoto Accords to the Biological Weapons Convention, have alienated much of the world and squandered remarkable reserves of support after 9/11. This climate of hostility affects us all, but most especially impacts those who reside overseas. Disappointment with current U.S. leadership is widespread, extending not just to the corridors of power and politics, but to the man and woman on the street as well.

We believe John Kerry is the Democrat who can go toe-to-toe against the current Administration on national security and defense issues. We also remain convinced that John Kerry has the best chance of beating the incumbent in November, and putting America on a new course that will lead to a safer, more secure, and more stable world.

Oy, where to start. It's bad enough to tell our enemies that we will play nice with them once Bush is out of office. Let's start with the "collaboration with other countries". We went into Iraq with the assistance of the British, the Spanish, and the Polish for starters, and those 3 countries lost soldiers in this war. Just because we didn't let Russia, France, and Germany from stopping us doesn't mean we didn't let others come and play with us.

"Restore the United States to its position of respect" what I think Kerry means by that is the US will play bitch to the UN and the axis of weasel and grovel before we can go defend our interests, although Kerry seems to forget that we went to Kosovo without UN approval under Clinton.

Kerry shows that there is no enemy of the US that he will not bow down to, be it Vietnam, Iran or any other country or group. As far as "restoring credibility" I would just point to Libya suddenly playing nice as a result of us stomping the Taliban and the Ba'astards in Iraq and looking for Who's Next.

Vietnam and the Election

The flap about Bush and what he did or didn't do in the National Guard is getting tiresome. The NY Post's lead editorial makes some good points which crystallized some of what I have been thinking.

To me what it boils down to is that Kerry is trying to show that the 1970 John F'n Kerry was a better Presidential candidate than the 1970 George Bush. I'll agree with Kerry on that point. Kerry served his country, in combat, and was decorated for valor. I have no doubt that a motivating factor for Bush joining the Guard was to reduce the odds of getting blown up in Vietnam. He didn't run off to Oxford or stay in college forever, he at least exposed himself to a chance of seeing combat and flying fighter jets isn't the safest occupation. George Bush in that time was also prone to excessive drinking, living like the son of a rich man without much responsibility. Since then, he has become a devout Christian and a much better man that he was.

George W. Bush's character, particularly when it comes to military matters, no longer needs to be judged by what he did or didn't do over three decades ago.

It's what he's done over the past four years that counts.

Exactly. Just as Kerry's character needs to be judged more by what he has done after his admirable service to our country.

It was Kerry who, during the 1992 controversy over Bill Clinton's efforts to evade the draft, declared: "We do not need to divide America over who served and how."

It's advice that Kerry and his bitterly partisan surrogates should recall today.

There simply are too many dangers facing this country abroad - and too many fundamental disagreements between the candidates on how best to meet them - to be focusing an inordinate amount of attention on who did what 30 years ago.

Let's look at what Kerry has done since the war:

-He hung out with Hanoi Jane and helped Vietnam sue the US over Agent Orange
-Kerry has a 100% report card in voting for liberal issues
-He was one of the few Senators to vote against the partial birth abortion ban
-Is committed to seeing gay marriages become a reality.
-Thinks the approval of the UN is more important than our sovereignty.
-Has married two heiresses

Bush:
- same wife
- successfully worked in the oil business and owned a baseball team
- governor of a state larger than most UN member countries
- pro life and devout Christian
- has shown a willingness to go after our enemies to ensure our safety.

Bottom line: who do YOU think will make us safer?

Bums and such

Here in Gainesville bums, I mean homeless, I mean urban outdoorsmen, I mean the domicile challenged, are always a hot topic for discussion. One of the more useless political bodies this side of Turtle Bay (home of the UN), the Gainesville City Commission, met Monday and discussed new panhandling restrictions. As usual, the unintentional comedy did not disappoint.


Greater curbs on panhandling got two hours' worth of discussion from the Gainesville City Commission Monday night.

At issue is how the commission can protect public safety while also safeguarding the rights of expression that panhandlers can claim.

When the discussion ended, commissioners seemed willing to ban panhandling that obstructs pedestrians or motorists, that is aggressive or that targets people in places from which they can't leave - outdoor cafes, ATMs, public restrooms and the like.

There was no vote Monday night. A new draft of the ordinance amendments will be presented to the commission at a future meeting. Public hearings will be held before the commission votes on the proposals.

A public education campaign about the homeless may be included that would feature the placement of donation jars and old parking meters for people who want to contribute money to charities that help the homeless.

"Right of Expression", that cracks me up. These trash did not have the right to harass people at ATM's, or coming out of stores, or any other time. I'm a big guy but I worry about my wife having to deal with the bums, as they hang out by the library which she goes to from time to time. I've shared my thoughts on the donation jars and homeless meters and how stupid I think those ideas are.

Supporters said the restrictions are aimed at panhandlers and not homeless people in general. Many of those who spoke in favor of the restrictions live or work downtown, where panhandling is prevalent.

"I've been approached, and I shouldn't have to deal with that aggression," said downtown resident Alison Cooper, who walks to work.

Developer Ken McGurn, who built Union Street Station and other downtown properties, said panhandling is bad for business.

"It is a real problem. It is a detriment to the creation of jobs," McGurn said. "These are intimidating actions that take place. People do not come down here because they are intimidated by it."

There was a good point in differentiating between the homeless and the panhandlers. Most of these problems are caused by panhandlers. For the truly homeless there are numerous charities to help.

However, homeless advocates decried parts of the draft ordinance that would stop panhandlers from passively holding signs at intersections.

They also said it would restrict freedom of expression by panhandlers.

"It's class warfare that the rich have been perpetuating on the poor," resident Pat Fitzpatrick said.

Added homeless activist Arupa Freeman, "I think we all agree that there is a need to curb aggressive panhandling, but homeless people must do something to get money. This is the giant boot of government kicking people when they are down."

Some commissioners asked that the beggars be allowed to passively hold signs at intersections as long as they don't disrupt traffic or distract drivers.

Commissioner Craig Lowe pointed out that other groups are allowed to hold signs along roads. "If a sign at an intersection is OK for politicians, restaurateurs and charitable organizations, I wonder why holding a sign asking for money is dangerous," he said.

"homeless people must do something to get money" Yes, it's called WORK. You know, a job, employment? Spare the class warfare rhetoric, it doesn't work. Oops, I'm late for my 9:00am "kick a homeless guy when he is down" appointment. Since I'm rich and all (not hardly) I need to do my part to keep the poor people down.

But some commissioners want tougher restrictions.

"We are trying to see a behavior changed in Gainesville. But what we are talking about will water this ordinance down so much," Commissioner Tony Domenech said. "We need to do as much as we can to strengthen the arm of law enforcement. I want to extinguish this behavior."

An initial proposal was created by the city's Public Safety Committee in response to public complaints about the spreading problem of panhandling.

Gainesville Police Sgt. Keith Kameg said Monday night that 24 people were arrested on panhandling charges in 2003. He said most had lengthy rap sheets including crimes such as robbery and drug offenses.

And that is what the activists want us to ingore, that these beggars are not decent people down on their luck but include some dangerous individuals with criminal records and mental health and substance abuse issues. Downtown Gainesville has enough problems, this is one problem that needs to be solved.

Waiting for the dems and Move On to use this story

Yesterday here in Gainesville a 71 year old man robbed a bank with his 65 year old wife as the getaway driver.

A 71-year-old man told police he robbed a Gainesville bank Tuesday to raise money to pay the medical bills of his wife, who drove the getaway car, reports said.

Gainesville Police said the plan started to unravel for James Roland Clark of Archer - who used a Halloween mask and fake bomb during the robbery - when he got outside the Compass Bank at 2201 NW 43rd St. and a dye pack planted in the money exploded, releasing a large pink cloud over him as he left the bank.

He left the scene of the 9:30 a.m. robbery in a 1992 white Pontiac Grand Am driven by his 66-year-old wife, Deloris Jane Clark, police said. The couple were captured shortly after driving west on NW 8th Avenue.

No one was injured during the robbery.

"(James) Clark said it was to pay for his wife's medical bills," Sgt. Keith Kameg said. "In fact, they were on the way to the doctor at 10 a.m."

I can hardly wait for the commercials that will be made by the likes of Move on. "Bush robbed from the poor to help Medicare, so now the poor are striking back by robbing the rich." It makes for a great story until you get the Paul Harvey "and now, the rest of the story".

The Clarks were being held at the Alachua County jail late Tuesday. Both are charged with armed bank robbery, police said. James Clark also faces a charge of threatening to discharge a destructive device.

Although his wife has no criminal history, James Clark has a "significant federal criminal history" dating back to 1954, Kameg said. Charges include bank robbery, mail fraud and conspiracy to grow and distribute marijuana, officers reported. He also had been sentenced in 1992 to 12 years in a federal prison on bank robbery charges.

Before the fact gets forgotten in a sea of hyperbole, this guy is a bad apple who has been committing crimes for 40 years, including past bank robberies. I know Michael Moore wouldn't know the truth if it bit him in his ample posterior, so I am waiting for the left to make martyrs out of this guy and his wife.

Jeet yet? Yup, a chip chop ham sammich and a pickle 'n 'at

That Pittsburghese for the uninitiated. While posting on
Blue and White Illustrated we started talking about the speech idiosyncracies of those of us who hail from Pittsburgh specifically and Western PA in general. One person recommended this site called Pittsburghese appropriately enough. We have our own words and phrases, such as:

red up: light house cleaning, as in "red up, your mother's coming over"
run the sweeper: vaccuum, as in "I'm reddin up, I'm runnin' the sweeper"
'n 'at: short for "and that" and used to end sentences, as in "eatin' some wings 'n 'at"

We also have our own unique pronunciations:

Stillers: the Pittsburgh Steelers "My dad worked in a still mill and loved the Stillers"
Slippy: slippery "yunz be careful, it's slippy out"
Dawntahn: downtown

Pittsburgh and Western PA are a real melting pot of Irish, German, Polish, Eastern European, Jews, Italians and they all contributed to the culture that is western PA.

Hanoi Jane and John Friggin Kerry



Everyone else on my end of the political spectrum is posting this picture so I will too. Kerry is above Hanoi Jane in the picture, probably listening to some anti-American venom. Vietnam, at least the way we fought it, was a mistake. We either needed to get the hell out or napalm the whole third world backwater. Instead we just stood there and let the Vietcong take the fight to us and drag it out to the point we came home.

The fact that Kerry came home anti-war does not bother me so much as the way he trashed our country and his fellow soldiers in showing his dislike of the war, and hanging with Jane makes the prima facia case that Kerry was acting treasonous back then. God help us if he ends up in the Oval Office, our sovereignty will be ceded to the thugs in the UN.

Kerry is not Scary....

...To any of the terrorist scum out there in the world, so opines Mark Steyn.

Among my Christmas presents was a copy of Survive, a recent collection by Sports Afield magazine of helpful tips for the great outdoors. Most of the stuff was familiar - rub a raw potato on poison ivy, roast a wood bug before you eat it - but on page 70 I was surprised by this novel approach to mountain lions: "Do not approach one, especially if it is feeding or with its young. Most will avoid confrontation, so provide an escape. Do all you can to appear larger. Raise your anus, and open your jacket if you have one on." I can't say I did that the last time I saw a mountain lion, but maybe I had a lucky escape. And then I realised it's meant to be "raise your arms" and that the item is a cautionary tale in the pitfalls of computer "scanning".

One hopes the misprint doesn't lead the less seasoned hiker into an awkward situation, and that any mountain lion confronted by city folks dutifully adopting the prescribed position will think "What the hell do they mean by that?" and wander off shaking his head rather than flying into a carnivorous rage.

I thought of the advice when I caught Presidential candidate John Kerry, the Default Democrat, at one of his final campaign stops in New Hampshire. Unlike the noisily anti-war Howard Dean, Kerry has taken a different tack. The thinking seems to be that, on the war, George W Bush is the mountain lion and the Dems need to "do all you can to appear larger".

None of the dwarves running for President has seemed to make themselves appear larger, although I they have put the arses up in the air alot.

Everywhere he goes he intones portentously: "I know something about aircraft carriers for real." What does this mean? Does he own one? He's certainly rich enough to afford one and, unlike the French, one that works.

But, of course, it doesn't have to mean anything. It's like the other catchphrases in his stump speech: "We band of brothers," he says, indicating his fellow veterans. "We're a little older, we're a little greyer, but we still know how to fight for this country." These lines are the equivalent of the guy in the woods raising his arms and opening his jacket: it's a way of making a dull politician with no legislative accomplishments and two decades of shifty, flip-flop weathervane votes appear larger than he is. The Dems reckon that Bush is a single-issue candidate - he's the war guy - and that, if Kerry can make himself appear larger on the national-security front, Bush's single issue will cease to be an issue and the election will be fought on Democratic turf - healthcare, education, and so forth.

Ah yes, John F. I served in Nam Kerry, who served in Nam. Did he tell you he seved in Nam?
So far the strategy's working. Kerry won three purple hearts in Vietnam, while Bush was either in the National Guard or, according to Michael Moore, a "deserter". This charge is easily rebutted, but once you start having to explain things the other guy's won. What counts is not the fine print but the meta-narrative: Kerry was in South-East Asia, Bush was in the South-West United States. That makes Kerry seem "larger", which may be why the Bushies are waddling away from a fight on the issue.

That is one view I guess, that Bush and Karl Rove are letting Kerry blather about, although I wish they would go on the attack. As far as Michael Moore goes, he can go back to making fictional documentaries.

But the idea that this puffs up Kerry to be the President's equal on the new war is a more tortuous stretch. The only relevant lesson from Vietnam is this: then, as now, it was not possible for the enemy to achieve military victory over the US; their only hope was that America would, in effect, defeat itself. And few men can claim as large a role in the loss of national will that led to that defeat as John Kerry. A brave man in Vietnam, he returned home to appear before Congress and not merely denounce the war but damn his "band of brothers" as a gang of rapists, torturers and murderers led by officers happy to license them to commit war crimes with impunity. He spent the Seventies playing Jane Fonda and he now wants to run as John Wayne.

That is why the though of John Frigging Kerry as Commander in Chief scares the hell out of me.

Vietnam was a "war of choice". But, once you chose to go in, there was no choice but to win. America's failure of will had terrible consequences. The Seventies - the Kerry decade - was the only point in the Cold War in which the eventual result seemed in doubt. The Communists seized real estate all over the globe, in part because they calculated that the post-Vietnam, Kerrified America would never respond. In the final indignity, when the proto-Islamist regime in Teheran seized the embassy hostages, they too shrewdly understood how thoroughly Kerrified America was. It took Mrs Thatcher's Falklands war and Reagan's liberation of Grenada to reverse the demoralisation of the West that Kerry did so much to advance.

Yes, yes, yes. If you liked the US foreign policy under Jimmy Carter: ineffective and insignificant. Under Carter we lost the US embassy in Iran, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and communism flourished throughout the world. Reagan was elected in part to restore America's confidence in the foreign policy arena. We regained our swagger, as they say in sports.

Senator Kerry has done a good job of enlarging himself but the reality is simple: George W Bush's America has won two swift wars and overthrown two enemy regimes; John Kerry was heroic in a war that America lost and whose loss he celebrated. Since then he's been a model lack-of-conviction politician. The question for anyone who thinks Kerry has "credibility" on national security is a simple one: who do you think Iran, North Korea, Syria, al-Qa'eda's Saudi paymasters and the rogue elements in Pakistan's ISI would prefer to see elected this November?

Those guys are the real dangerous beasts and you can bet that, unlike Democratic primary voters, they don't think Kerry looms so large, with his endless deference to the UN and the French, and his view that the war on terror should be more a matter of "law enforcement" - subpoenas, the Hague, plea bargains. That's as profound a mis-understanding as the fellow on page 70 of my book, raising his butt to the mountain lion. And that's not a position most Americans will want to take.

The situation in the world is too dangerous to surrender our ability to act in our defense to a bunch of third world thugs at the Useless Nations. At least with Clinton he would go with whichever way the wind blew; men like Kerry are truly dangerous to our safety.

Back Pain

I came across an interesting article about back pain in today's AJC. Seeing as how my trick back has been tricking me for about a week, I read the article.

Treating back pain costs Americans $26 billion a year, or 2.5 percent of the total health care bill, according to a new study from Duke University, and far more if disability payments, workers' compensation and lost wages are taken into account. The costs are continuing to rise, researchers say, as patients get ever more aggressive forms of treatment.

Back problems are the leading reason for visits to neurologists and orthopedists, and the eighth leading reason for visits to doctors overall ? ahead of fever, knee pain, rashes, headaches and checkups for healthy babies. More than 70 percent of adults suffer back pain at some time in their lives, studies show. A third have had it in the past 30 days.

Amen, mine has been hurting me this week. I hurt it in high school, and every few years I bend the wrong way and end up in a lot of pain.

Yet for all the costs, for all the hours spent in doctors' offices and operating suites, for all the massage therapy and acupuncture and spinal manipulations, study after study is leading medical experts to ask what, if anything, is doing any good.

Some patients swear by their medical treatments, others by surgery. Surgeons say that while they are conservative about recommending an operation, some patients can get immediate relief from excruciating pain when they have surgery.

Still, a variety of studies have suggested that in 85 percent of cases it is impossible to say why a person's back hurts, said Dr. Richard Deyo, a professor of medicine and health services at the University of Washington. And most of the time, the pain goes away with or without medical treatment.

Mine usually resolves with a heating pad and ibuprofen, but when it is really bothering me muscle relaxants- or Jack Daniels- usually does the trick.

Still, a variety of studies have suggested that in 85 percent of cases it is impossible to say why a person's back hurts, said Dr. Richard Deyo, a professor of medicine and health services at the University of Washington. And most of the time, the pain goes away with or without medical treatment.

"Nearly everyone gets better, nearly everyone improves," said Deyo, citing evidence from large epidemiological studies. But he cautioned, "Getting better doesn't necessarily mean pain-free." "For a small number of patients," he added, "surgery can offer quick relief, although even then it is common to have mild symptoms and recurrences."

The Duke researchers, led by Dr. Xeumei Luo, used national data from 1998. Back pain expenses, they say, included $11.1 billion for office visits; $4.5 billion for hospitalization; $3.9 billion for prescription drugs; $4.7 billion for outpatient services; and $1.1 billion for emergency room care, with the rest made up of such things as medical devices. The total, $26 billion, was a 30 percent increase from 1977 after adjusting for inflation.

"It's not like there's an explosion of new back pain," said Dr. Steven Atlas, an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who investigates back treatments. "The number of cases isn't increasing; the cost per case is increasing. There is a lot more that is being done, but the issue is, is it helping or not?"

Back pain has always been around, like headaches, or the common cold. What has changed, doctors say, are people's expectations. "People say, 'I'm not going to put up with it,'" Deyo said. "And we in the medical profession have turned to ever more aggressive medication, narcotic medication, surgery, more invasive surgery."

But studies find little evidence that patients are better off for all the treatment

As I said, my personal experience is that Advil, heat and the occasional muscle relaxant treat my back. Preventatively I try to stretch and stay in shape, as my back tends to flare up less when I am in shape and at a reasonable weight (FYI, I am not there right now). Are we just not at tough as our ancestors? We have sick time, pizza delivery, and other things that can accomodate our giving in to the pain. When my back gets really bad, I am in agony, but I wonder what would I do if I absolutely had to work? If I was a miner 100 years ago, like some of my ancestors? If I was a farmer in the Dakotas in the 1890's, dealing with various tribes, blizzards, and other threats like another ancestor of mine. I'm sure they had back flareups or migraines or other ailments, but had to suffer through it. Thankfully, I don't.

The smaller the better

he has realised the constraints on people making the best of their lives are mostly placed there by a state which has grown so much that it diminishes the people it is meant to serve.

Was that comment by:
a) a US Senator
b) a US Representative
c) President Bush

The answer is d) none of the above; it was said by British politician Michael Howard. While our politicians, including the President, are growing the government like a kudzu vine, at least one person sees the problem.

Mr Howard came across as a doctor with a reassuring bedside manner, who was able to diagnose the illness of a patient with a number of worrying symptoms.

The illness the country is suffering from, explained Mr Howard, is big government and its symptoms are everywhere to see - in the desultory performance of the National Health Service, poor education, bad transport, high taxes and over-regulation. This argument is not new but, unlike his predecessors as leader of the Opposition, Mr Howard found the right tone when he made it. And he did not lack passion. Before he went to university 45 years ago, he revealed, he wrote an essay called "Why I am an Angry Young Man", claiming Britain's talents were being held back by a society which was too stratified. Today, he said, his principles remain the same; only he has realised the constraints on people making the best of their lives are mostly placed there by a state which has grown so much that it diminishes the people it is meant to serve.

Ah, conservatism, how I miss thee.

The treatment Mr Howard proposes is based on a principle he expounded in his credo more than a month ago: to make the state smaller and people bigger. He believes that the state should be remodelled, so that it is leaner, fitter, and more responsive to the needs of an electorate made up of sophisticated consumers. His motivation for this is not just materialistic, but moral. When taxes rise too high, he said, they bring people low. Individuals come to believe that their obligations to society and one another are discharged simply by handing money to the government.

judging by what he had to say yesterday, Mr Howard is a man who has listened, reflected and understood that the next election will be decided by the millions of voters who feel that a decent life is increasingly difficult under the burden of Labour's heavy and domineering style of government.

So close to the birthday of Ronald Reagan, it's refreshing to hear someone espouse the principles of the Gipper. If Mr. Howard is not wanted over in the UK, we sorely need him on the side of the pond.

A Life Cut Short

As the title of my blog indicates, I am a native of Pennsylvania, and like my Irish immigrant ancestors I still follow the news of my homeland. A boy named Ryan Mohn died from his injuries in a car accident. The whole story really touched me.

Let me say that I don't know any of the parties involved, but having lived in the area I know how tight-knit the Steelton community is. This tragedy shows that.

Ryan Mohn, the Steelton-Highspire High School student injured in a Jan. 31 wreck, died Saturday night. Last night, Steelton-Highspire Principal Paul R. Cronin confirmed reports that Mohn, star quarterback of the Rollers' District 3-A championship football team, had died. Mohn had been hospitalized at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in critical condition with massive head injuries since the accident.

In addition to his football prowess, he was a star baseball player and basketball player, but there was more to him than just his athletic talents.

"Everybody in town knew Ryan," said Mayor Tom Acri. "He was a good kid. The community lost a good young man."

"Ryan was an incredible young man," Cronin said. "Besides being a tremendous athlete, he was a real leader in the classroom and a tremendous student. He truly led by example."

This story is one of several about how the students at Steel-High rallied around Ryan before his passing, and how students at a rival high school were pulling for him.

This is another story about how tight-knit the Steelton-Highspire community is:

At Steelton-Highspire, a small school where the two small blue-collar towns -- Steelton has about 5,000 residents, Highspire about 2,600 -- send their children, everyone knows everyone. And Mohn, Smith and McFall are popular, classmates said. As word of the accident spread over the weekend, townspeople went to the hospital to visit the boys. So many people came that the families asked the school to encourage students to wait a while before visiting.

"That's the Steelton way -- they come and visit you," said Paul Cronin, the school's principal. "The old blue-collar workers stick together."

As you can guess by the name of the town, Steelton has a heritage as a steel mill town, specifically Bethlehem Steel. The halcyon days of the steel industry have long passed by, but the town retains its blue collar ethic. It also rallies around the Steel-High Rollers, whose sports teams, especially in basketball, stir the pride of the citizens. They are as revered as few high school athletes can be. In conclusion, check out
Steelton's web site for the many tributes to this young man, and keep a tissue handy. Here is a sample, this is from one of the rescue workers at the scene:

It was now our turn to go to work. ?County Rescue 50 responding? I said. As we rolled out the door. Now on scene lets do the job? The job we all have done so many times before, but this time it would be different. It was someone I knew. FAMILY. THE ROLLER FAMILY. ?This is Ryan, Ryan Mohn.: I shouted, ?Steel-High quarterback?. Let?s go! Let?s get him out! Ripping and tearing, pulling pushing everything we can do to free Ryan, Tom, and J.D. from this tangled mess. It took everything we had and everyone on scene, every bit of effort and all our energy. With Tom already free. It was time to get Ryan out.

Rest in Peace Ryan, and may God bless you and your family.

Why the War Was Right

This editorial is so good I can't add any value to it, so I'll just copy today's lead editorial in the NY Post and add some emphasis.

President Bush yesterday made it painfully clear why America needed to go to war in Iraq. In a full hour-length interview on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, the president reiterated exactly what was - and is - at stake in Iraq.

That he had to do that, of course, is regrettable - but nonetheless necessary, given the gap between pre- and post-war assessments of Iraqi WMDs.

Yesterday, Bush acknowledged that, before the war, his team had thought Saddam possessed such weapons.

So did much of the world.

Chief U.S. weapons inspector David Kay now thinks there were no weapons.

But Saddam did have "the capacity" to make a weapon, Bush noted, and to "then let that weapon fall into the hands of a shadowy terrorist network."

Is saying that Saddam had the capacity to build WMDs different than saying he actually had weapons on hand?

Of course it is.

Does it make much difference?

Not really.

Not in terms of the decision to go to war, anyway.

The fact is, Saddam was a danger.

His weapons-making programs - according to Kay himself - actually exceeded even what U.S. and international intelligence agencies believed.

Would Bush's critics - Democratic presidential frontrunner Sen. John Kerry, for example - have preferred to wait until those weapons had been deployed?

If so, the consequences might have been catastrophic.

"It is essential," Bush said, "that when we see a threat, we deal with those threats before they become imminent.

"It's too late if they become imminent. It's too late in this new kind of war, and so that's why I made the decision I made."

Bush is absolutely right: It would have been irresponsible to "trust a madman."

Kerry bolstered his title as frontrunner following additional victories this weekend.

But he and fellow Democratic hopefuls have repeatedly suggested the war was a mistake - simply because Kay now believes Saddam hadn't stockpiled WMDs.

Bush's response yesterday was as much meant to address such criticism as it was to advance a debate that will form the heart of the coming presidential contest.

The election, the president said, will center on which candidate "can properly use American power in a way to make the world a better place."

After months of attacking the president, none of the Democrats has so far managed to enunciate a single, coherent alternative to George W. Bush's aggressive doctrine of U.S. leadership in the world.

Come November, that won't suffice.

It won't be enough for Democrats to have attacked, criticized and caviled.

They'll need to have presented a convincing plan of their own that assures American security in a post-9/11 world.

Americans should demand such a plan from Bush's challengers.

And, assuming they get one, weigh it against the successes that Bush's course has produced.

We think we know what they'll decide.

"Helping" the Homeless

Here in Gainesville, FL, we have a homeless problem. Not so much a problem with people down on their luck getting thrown onto the streets, as much as psychos and addicts running loose trying to get spare change to fuel their habits. The crackpots that run this city have an idea how to help. This ought to be good.


Parking meters have been around a long time, but homeless meters could be coming to Gainesville.

City commissioners on Monday will consider changes to panhandling ordinances.

During the meeting, commissioners may be asked to use old parking meters as collection boxes for those who want to donate money to the homeless. Tip jars to benefit the homeless also may be placed in some restaurants.

The money would go to a nonprofit agency and would be used to provide meals, clothing and other necessities to the homeless.

Similar meters have been installed in Athens, Ga., as a way to curb panhandling. Reports in Athens newspapers indicate the meters have been only mildly successful in raising money and have not deterred much panhandling.
"Only midly successful" is bureaucratic obsufucation for "this program sucks and doesn't work at all." Being true liberals, the folks in charge here in Gainesville believe that, like Communism, the wrong people were in charge and WE (the city commissioners) can do it right. There are good organizations here in Gainesville that help the truly unfortunate, Saint Francis House being among the leaders. The bums that are panhandling are typically not people that are going to use the services of the shelters, as they are just trying to go from one fix to another with no effort to improve their lot. The ones that aren't criminals and addicts tend to be a few french fries short of a happy meal.

The recommendation here is coming from the city's Homeless Activities Committee. It is part of a package of action that also includes a public education campaign to deter people from giving money to panhandlers and an ordinance to tighten down on panhandling.

"We want to market the entire thing - that if people want to give or want to volunteer at a charity, those avenues will be open," said Gainesville Police Capt. Tony Jones, who helped develop the proposal. "Some people say tip jars may be better than the meters. I'm just saying, let's have an outlet for people who want to give."

I would hope that a member of the police department would have more sense than this, but perhaps he was forced by the PC police to help with this. "Those avenues will be open," heck, they are already open. Write a check and mail it to St Francis House, or call and ask to help serve food. Why do I have a feeling these meters have less to do with actually helping and more for the libs to have something to point to saying "see, we care." After all, showing that one cares is more importantly than actually helping people.

The ordinance would create a category called a "captive audience" - people at an outdoor cafe or waiting in line at an ATM - common targets of panhandlers.

Panhandlers who target such people would be in violation of the ordinance.

Gainesville Police Sgt. Keith Kameg said complaints about panhandlers are increasing, particularly those who badger captive audiences.

"We get a tremendous amount of complaints from people. It seems the area is spreading out - we're starting to see it more and more around businesses, so W. University Avenue is probably our main concern," Kameg said. "We hope we will have more of an ability to keep Gainesville from being a haven for panhandlers. The true homeless person is not who we are targeting. The majority of people (who are pandhandlers) have extensive criminal histories and narcotics violations. That's where the money is going - not to food."

At least the good sergeant has some common sense about this problem. The panhandlers are crooks and addicts, and some of them are very aggressive about accosting people at ATM's. I'm built like a lineman and have had some run-ins with them, I can only imagine how scary it must be for a female or a smaller male. If we could only shoot them in the name of extermination; that is how we deal with rodents and other parasites. Perhaps we could offer them some camping space in Payne's Prairie State Park, they could help feed the gators. I don't know if the gators ever get THAT hungry enough to eat some of those flea-ridden bums though.

In Pace Rescquiat

Here locally a sheriff's deputy was killed in the line of duty as he went to do a routine check on an elderly man.

A K-9 sheriff's deputy in Marion County was shot and killed by a 74-year-old man Saturday when deputies went to the man's home to conduct a well-being check, authorities say.

Deputy Brian Litz, 35, died in the attack. The elderly man that was being checked on, Ivan Gotham, also died.

Marion County Sheriff's deputies and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which is investigating the incident, released few details about the shooting at 9030 SW 104th Place.

The article doesn't contain much about what may have happened, as the police are not releasing much information. The article does talk about Officer Litz.

Deputies who served with Litz said he was a fun-loving man who went above and beyond the call of duty to help fellow deputies. Litz had a wife, Cherie, and a son, Brian, 5.

Hired as a part-time bailiff in October 1994, Litz became a deputy in June 1995. He was transferred to the K-9 Unit in October 2001. Before he was transferred to the K-9 Unit, Litz was a former Honor Guard and Field Force Team member. He also served as a Field Training Officer for the Patrol Division. He and his dog Justice, were practically inseparable.

Litz was given numerous Letters of Commendation from citizens and other law enforcement agencies, and was also awarded three Eagle Eye medals and a Medal of Commendation. Two years ago, Litz, along with K-9 Justice, had received their National K-9 Bomb Certification which certified them as experts in detecting explosives.

Rest in peace, Deputy Litz, and may God bless you and your family, who will be in my prayers. The Thin Blue Line just got a little thinner.

More athletes behaving badly

It turns out that the Miami Hurricanes' biggest recruit is a real dirtbag.

University of Miami officials concede they failed to properly perform a background check on the team's top recruit. But they did not rescind the scholarship offer to linebacker Willie Williams.

Williams, a Parade All-American, is on probation for felony burglary charges in 2002. He also is named in three criminal complaints stemming from a recruiting trip to the University of Florida last weekend.

The complaints could lead to his arrest in Broward County for a probation violation. If Williams is arrested, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison, an administrator with the Department of Corrections said Friday.

Kind of hard to contribute from lockup. This player was submitting his journal of his recruiting visits to the Miami Herald, and the gluttony and largesse of the trips made national news. He told of downing numerous lobster tails, steaks, and living the high life. This should have been pretty easy to check for such a high profile person.

Miami athletic director Paul Dee said Friday coaches and officials will review all the information that becomes available before making a decision on whether Williams will be allowed to enroll in school.

"In situations of this kind, we have to be fair to the prospective student-athlete," Dee said in a statement. "All other indicators are positive, specifically his academic qualifications and the recommendations of coaches and administrators."

His coaches and administrators probably are tired of checking to make sure their wallets and purses haven't been stolen.

He has been arrested 10 times since 1999, according to Florida Department of Law Enforcement records. He was charged with theft as a 14-year-old, in 1999. He was arrested five times the following year, including twice on felony charges.

His most recent arrest occurred July 11, 2002, when Pembroke Pines police charged him with burglary and possession of burglary tools, according to the Department of Corrections. Williams, then 17, was prosecuted as an adult on the felony charges. He pleaded no contest and was sentenced to 18 months of probation, court records show.

Not exactly a model citizen here. Being on probation, you'd think he would try to keep his nose clean. What does Miami have to say about missing this information about their superstar recruit?

Miami athletic department spokesman Mark Pray said the school performs background checks on each recruit, but he wasn't sure if it covers criminal records.

"The process used to screen backgrounds was insufficient in that it failed to reveal all that is now public," Dee said. "In this regard, we must improve our efforts to obtain information of this type in the future."

Bunk. 3 things here: First, what kind of background check does not include searching for a criminal record? Every background I have ever had checked to see if I have a record. Second, Florida makes many facts a matter of public record and easy to check. Third, this is a kid in their backyard, they should have known about the kid being a burglar.

Williams allegedly hugged a female student without her permission, hit a man at a bar and set off three fire extinguishers in his hotel -- all in span of five hours during the recruiting trip that began Jan. 30.

The State Attorney's Office in Gainesville will investigate the sworn complaints before deciding whether to officially charge Williams. Don Monroe, circuit administrator for the Department of Corrections, said Friday that his office was working with police and the state attorney's office in Gainesville to determine whether Williams violated his probation.

"If we're going to do something, we have to do it before his probation ends," Monroe said. "We think we have enough time to examine all the facts and not rush into anything." Williams' probation ends Wednesday.

If the Department of Corrections decides Williams violated his probation, it would then present evidence to Circuit Judge Michael Kaplan, who presided over Williams' burglary case. The judge could then issue a warrant for Williams' arrest, Monroe said. Kaplan would have sole power to sentence Williams. Monroe said the sentence could range from extended probation to five years in prison --the sentence Williams' originally faced in the burglary charges.

First let me address the new complaints. The first incident was not "hugging without permission", he grabbed a woman in the student union building at UF. When she pulled away and complained, he alledgedly said "that's how we do it in Miami." Second, I don't have much faith in the judical system that it will incarcerate this guy for anywhere near the 5 year sentence. I fully expect him to be in Miami uniform come August. The president of Miami, Donna Shalala, who pretends to be such an advocate of women and children, should be blamed when this thug assaults a student at Miami, or is caught breaking into dorm rooms or apartments of students.

More about St John's

In particular Grady Reynolds, a 6'7" basketball player who prior to this stripper business had assaulted a swimmer at St. John's. The NY Post spoke with her.

Rachel Seager says Grady Reynolds appearance in the eye of the Red Storm sex scandal comes as no surprise to her - she's already seen the kind of bad behavior he is capable of.
The 6-foot-7 center/forward was charged in 2002 with brutalizing Seager - formerly a swimmer at St. John's - inside a school bathroom.

Reynolds, who was expelled after this week's bawdy hotel-room debacle in which he and two other Johnnies were falsely accused of rape, allegedly smashed the then 20-year-old Seager against a tiled wall and bashed her head, leaving her with injuries that required surgery.

A real piece of work, this Reynolds. He should have been thrown out of school, there is no excuse for a man to hit a woman, much less smash her against a tile wall. And what was the punishment for this dirtbag?

Seager is disappointed the school allowed Reynolds to continue playing on the team after he was charged with misdemeanor assault.

She also was unhappy that the player - who insisted in his defense that Seager was a crazed stalker - was allowed to take a plea bargain that let him dodge jail time and have the charges dropped if he took anger-management classes and performed community service. "No one would listen to me, no one," Seager said yesterday.

"Anger management classes" for brutally assaulting a female. IF she was my daughter I would have kneecapped him, let him try playing basketball when he can't walk. There is no excuse for a man hitting a woman, and if my son ever did he had better worry about my reaction.

Ban this breed

A Cherokee County toddler was hospitalized Friday after being attacked by a stray dog. A 3-year-old boy was standing on the carport of the family's Spanish Oak Drive home with his 9-year-old brother at about 8:30 a.m. when a stray pit bull attacked the younger child, according to Cherokee Sheriff's Deputy Nicole Combs.

The boy, whose name has not been released, was critically injured and taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition late Friday morning.

Combs said neighbors stabbed the dog while trying to help the child.

Sheriff's deputies and animal control officers were still trying to locate the brown and white dog, which was last seen in the area of Oak Grove Road off Woodstock Road.

I love dogs, especially mine. Dogs will bite, even seemingly sweet dogs are capable of chomping on someone in a given situation. However, no breed attacks as viciously without provocation as the pit bull. I have read of too many attacks by stray pit bulls: Colorado, where a woman was killed; Ocala, FL where a woman was killed; Harrisburg, PA where several folks were attacked until police shot the dogs; and here locally in Gainesville we had some stray pit bulls running lose.

Lest anyone throw my pro gun attitude in my face, let me state this: a gun is an inanimate object. It does nothing on its own, it doesn't just shoot people. It doesn't roam around looking for a child to shoot. We exterminate rats due to the health problems they pose, what about the health problems we face from pit bulls?

One less Paleswinian

Despite his best efforts, here is one Paleswinian that won't get to be a martyr for Allah.

Hamas military wing commander in refugee camp near Gaza City was killed Thursday night in an explosion inside his home, Yediot Ahronot's website reported.

The terrorist was identified by Hamas officials as Abdel Naser Abu Shuka, 36, Reuters reported.

Shuka reportedly died after receiving an 'explosive package', Ynet quoted Palestinian sources as saying.

According to Reuters, witnesses spotted Israeli helicopters hovering over Bureij refugee camp on Thursday shortly after the blast killed Shuka.

An IDF military source told the news agency that the army suspected that Abu Shuka died in an accident while preparing an explosive.

Oops, hate when you have an accident while dealing with Semtex. You follow the manuals, try to be careful but, dammit, the stuff just went boom. No 72 virgins for you, moron.

Blasting Blitzer

Wolf Blitzer abused, I mean interviewed, Dennis Kucinich on his show on CNN. Eric Burns of Fox News blasts Blitzer's contemptable abuse of Kucinich and sheds some light on why CNN's ratings are down.

Hard-hitting.” It’s an adjective. And, if you’re a journalist, it’s a compliment.

“Self-serving,” “arrogant,” “cruel.” These are also adjectives. And, if you’re a human being in any line of work, they’re not compliments.

Unless you are a lawyer, but I digress.

Wolf Blitzer may or may not be a hard-hitting newsman by temperament, but he played one the other day on television. The performance was a success. It was also a disgrace.

Blitzer, a CNN anchor, was interviewing Dennis Kucinich about his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The campaign has been less than successful. Kucinich is a single-digit candidate in a double-digit competition, and a low single-digit candidate at that.

It is, thus, perfect reasonable for a journalist to ask Kucinich about his desire to dwell in the White House, and why he soldiers on despite unanimously unimpressive showings in the polls and primaries. It is not reasonable, however, to attack the man, as if his persistence were somehow a felony. He is not a “get” like Michael Jackson, accused of molesting children. He is not a “get” like Robert Blake, accused of murdering his wife. He is not a “get” like Pete Rose, accused of compromising the integrity of the national pastime. Kucinich is, in fact, not a “get” at all. But Wolf Blitzer got him, in a performance that suggested Blitzer is far more of a bully than a journalist.

It is a slow news day when your big story is an interview of Dennis Kucinich, who gets less press than Al Sharpton in the primary elections. I thought Blitzer was too busy sucking up to dictators to bully people. By the way, how manly to bully someone who wants to create a department of peace.

Blitzer asked Kucinich why he is such a loser. Not why his campaign does not seem to be attracting more support--a fair way to put it. Not why his poll numbers are not higher--a fair way to put it. Not whether he thinks the odds against him are too great--a fair way to put it. Blitzer asked Kucinich why he is such a loser--a self-serving, arrogant, cruel way to put it.

Self-serving because, as Jay Rosen points out in an on-line publication called PressThink, the question was “asked not for the benefit of the viewing audience. It is not for voters’ ears, either. Blitzer asks it for reasons wholly internal to his profession, and the only interest served, I think, is the journalist’s.” Blitzer asked the question, in other words, to show off, to demonstrate to his fellow members of the press corps that he is hard-hitting.

Arrogant because Blitzer so clearly put his own agenda above that of his audience. By phrasing his question in such insulting terms, Blitzer virtually guaranteed that Kucinich would not provide an answer so much as a defense for himself. The mystery--if it is truly that--of his ongoing efforts to be president would remain.

And cruel for obvious reasons. A person who loses at the ballot box loses only in the political arena. Those defeats do not make him a loser in life; in fact, the ability he has previously demonstrated to attract a certain measure of support and a certain amount of financing indicates that there are thousands of people who think of him as a winner.

I take my share of potshots at Kucinich, but I am not a reporter for a supposedly respectable news network. While Mr. Kucinich has shall we say unusual views of the world, calling him a loser is pretty harsh. Mr. Burns gets in a great parting shot on Blitzer.

Blitzer is not alone in his hard-hitting approach to journalism. There are many others who practice it these days--more all the time, it seems--including some at my own network. It is not to be excused no matter who the perpetrator is. And it is one of many reasons that the public is so disenchanted these days with those who commandeer the airwaves to inform them.

Blitzer hosts a daily program on CNN from 5pm to 6 pm. Most afternoons, Fox News Channel’s John Gibson beats him in the ratings.

Why are you such a loser, Wolf?

I've asked that question many times of Wolf and many other reporters.

Personal fouls

St John's University, a Catholic University which needs to be reminded of that, is bearing the fruit of its bad seeds, and Mike Vaccaro of the NY Post lets them have it.

MAYBE if St. John's had the courage to do the right thing a year ago, before the mudslide began, the basketball program's soul would have been retrievable.
Maybe the university wouldn't be consumed by a quagmire now, a casualty of misguided ambition and misplaced integrity. The culture surrounding the Red Storm has been choking it dead for months.

It could have been prevented. Could have been stopped. And should never have gotten to the point where at least three players - Grady Reynolds, Elijah Ingram and Abe Keita - were trolling a strip club in McKees Rocks, Pa., early yesterday morning, long after midnight, long after curfew, long after St. John's had gotten drummed by Pittsburgh, 71-51, dropping the Red Storm to 5-14 on the year.

These guys are getting a free ride at an expensive Catholic college, and while college kids will do stupid things (I know from first hand experience), you'd think they would at least wait until they won a game before going to strip clubs.

They were looking for something when they walked into Club Erotica, and it wasn't a good pinball machine. What they found was trouble, in the form of an Astoria woman named Sherri Ann Urbanek-Bach, who accused the three of rape before being charged herself with lying about it. So their St. John's careers end in a place where $20 gets you in the door and buys you a lap dance. Once their pending expulsions are official, they can ponder if it was a worthy trade.

Maybe if St. John's had paid greater attention to its own mission statement - which reads, in part, "Our community strives for an openness which is wholly directed to all that is true, all that is honest, pure, admirable, decent, virtuous" - it could have avoided this slippery slope.

These players were far from "pure, admirable, decent, virtuous." This article gives more of the sordid story. In short, the players snuck out of the hotel, went to a strip club, told the stripper they would pay her $600 for sex. She goes back to the hotel, they have sex with her, and offer her $6. She then falsely accuses them of rape. You'd think she'd be smart enough to demand payment up front, I guess she was counting on them to act "admirable" and "decent". However, for at least one of these losers this is not the first bite of the apple.

Fourteen months ago, Reynolds stood accused of third-degree assault and second-degree harassment of a fellow student-athlete. St. John's response to those charges was to smugly refuse to discipline Reynolds.

"Why shouldn't he play?" cried Mike Jarvis, the ever-sanctimonious head coach at the time. "I know he didn't do anything wrong."

It never occurred to Jarvis - and the university never made it occur to him - that docking Reynolds a game might serve a greater purpose than hiding behind quasi-constitutional rhetoric, sending a message to other St. John's players that the mere appearance of impropriety would not be tolerated. Maybe that would've kept them in their hotel rooms at the Westin Convention Center Wednesday.

The case against Reynolds was dismissed last month when he completed anger-management courses. But the bad taste about the way St. John's tried to close its eyes and make the charges disappear lingered.

Denial is more than just a river in Egypt. If this player is so good that they slapped him on the wrists, why have they won only 5 games? He beats up a woman and has to take "anger-management" classes, how pathetic. Further proof of this jerk's attitude toward women. There is evidence that the university has learned its lesson, which I hope is the case.

The university didn't wait for charges to land on these three players - Reynolds included - before suspending them this time. Too late. St. John's, a laughingstock on the court, is now a source of bottomless shame off it. St. John's is about to make the most important hire of its basketball history, and cannot ransom its soul any longer. It must return to the fundamentals - character players, and character coaches, with New York City being the foundation of that character.
Amen, brother. St John's can lose with losers, or try to win with players who are winners on AND off the court. Character does count.

Connecting with my inner Beavis



Yesterday I bought Rob Zombie Past Present and Future, which is a greatest hits compliation of Rob Zombie, both solo and with White Zombie. He was always a favorite of Beavis and Butthead, and is good to jam too when I am stressed at work or to blast in my truck. It's music by a man who listened to too much Black Sabbath and watched too many horror films and read too many comic books, and just rocks. Gotta love the covers of "I'm your boogieman" and "Brickhouse", 2 funk/disco classics.

Global warming?

There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now.

Another article about global warming? Wrong! Courtesy of Rush Limbaugh's website is article from Newsweek in 1975 about global COOLING. It uses some of the same tactics used by the global warming chicken littles, and we can use their facts to refute the global warming fools. So are we melting or are we freezing?

Others regard the cooling as a reversion to the “little ice age” conditions that brought bitter winters to much of Europe and northern America between 1600 and 1900 – years when the Thames used to freeze so solidly that Londoners roasted oxen on the ice and when iceboats sailed the Hudson River almost as far south as New York City.

30 years ago we had to worry about an Ice Age coming, now these same leftist publications (Newsweek is published by the Washington ComPost) are telling me that my central Florida house could be beachfront property someday.

Happy 93rd birthday Gipper!



Happy birthday to Ronald Reagan, the man who was president during my formative years, from 6th grade until my sophomore year of college. I remember the disaster in chief that Jimmy Carter was, with long lines to buy gas, and double digit insterest, inflation, and unemployment rates, the so called misery index. I also remember Americans held hostage in Iran, and that they were released when Reagan was inaugurated. Carter and Cyrus Vance were nothing to be afraid of, but do you really want to mess with Reagan and Al Haig? Here are some good quotes I found:

Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born.


Facts are stupid things.

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidise it.

I have left orders to be awakened at any time in case of national emergency, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting.

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

History teaches that wars begin when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap. (Osama thought this)

Republicans believe every day is 4th of July, but Democrats believe every day is April 15.

They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.

How do you tell a Communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.

How the Dems can win in the Fall, courtesy of Frank J

The always entertaining and insightful Frank J shows Letterman a thing or 2 with his "Top Ten Ways the Democrats Can Ensure Victory in the Presidential Election ":

10. So as not to scare moderates, lock all the extreme wacko leftists in an underground cavern feeding them nothing but sardine heads and anti-Bush rhetoric until Election Day.

9. Though I'm pretty sure Satan is a registered independent, you could win the favor of his evil power by sacrificing a goat in his honor or sending him a fruit basket.

8. Gain even more potential Democrat voters by making sure that convicted felons, the criminally insane, dead people, and feces-throwing monkeys have the right to vote.

7. Don't fall for the temptation to look tough on terrorists as that will make you lose the important "Death to America!" vote.

6. Get lots of free publicity by having attractive, female staffers have "wardrobe malfunctions" during rallies.

5. If presidential candidate had served in Vietnam, make sure to mention it.

4. Texas has a large number of electoral votes certain to go to Bush. As Janet Reno demonstrated, it's quite flammable, and "accidents" happen.

3. Say that, if the Democrat wins, a large number of puppies will be given to orphans, but, if the Democrat loses, the puppies will be drowned while the orphans are forced to watch.

2. Use the White Zombie song "More Human than Human" in campaign commercials. That song totally rocks.

And the number one way Democrats can ensure victory in the presidential election...

Run for president in some other country, you g'damn pinkos.

I think they are actually trying some of these, especially #8 "convicted felons, the criminally insane, dead people, and feces-throwing monkeys" being able to vote, as the dead have voted for dems for decades, especially in Boston and Chicago.

Reverend Al

This story about Reverend Al rates really high on the "unintentionally funny" scale. I know the NY Slimes has to suck up to every democrat, liberal, and/or minority out there, but I wonder how they can type some of this with a straight face.

Sharpton May Find Local Role Tarnished by Primary Showing

The Rev. Al Sharpton flew out of South Carolina on Wednesday with his campaign for the presidency deeply in debt, his credibility damaged by a poor showing at the polls and, perhaps more troubling, a sense back home in New York that he has lost the aura of influence that once gave him a strong hand in local politics.

"may find role tarnished"? "aura of influence"? Bwahahahahahah! Good thing I wasn't drinking anything at the time, it would be on my monitor. This is the dirtbag that brought us Tawana Brawley, violence and rioting in NYC, and whose offices go up in smoke whenever the feds want financial information from him.

"I think that Al sort of diminished any aura of power he had with this campaign," said George Arzt, a Democratic political consultant. "He hasn't strengthened his position. He has weakened it."

Mr. Sharpton has always been shadowed by the accusation that he does what he does to promote himself, as opposed to helping others. Many people now say that rightly or wrongly, the manner in which he ran his campaign fueled that perception. While his one-liners were entertaining in the debates, and he performed well on "Saturday Night Live," there was a sense that he did not do enough to articulate a rationale for his run. He did not explain the benefits of leverage politics to his would-be voters, did little to raise money and did virtually nothing to build an organization and staff it with legions of workers never before involved in politics, said political analysts, as well as some of Mr. Sharpton's supporters.

The emperor has no clothes, as it were. People are now realizing what Al is all about, or more accurately even the lefties are realizing what a loser Al is.

In the past, when Mr. Sharpton lost, he argued that he had won. When he ran for the United States Senate and came in third, ahead of Elizabeth Holtzman, that elevated his status. But he has been losing for years now, and many people say that losing no longer means winning.

Last I looked, losing is NOT winning. Thanks for clarifying that for me. Here is the kicker:

"Reverend Sharpton is not doing the work that is necessary in order to harvest votes out of the Democratic Party," she said. "He doesn't understand the black electorate. I have been telling him for months, all they want to do is beat Bush."

There is that common theme in the dem primaries, not caring about any issues just wanting to beat Bush. Damn the issues, just beat Bush.

Mother of the year candidate

A woman in PA left her 3 month old at Walmart and now wants custody of the child.

Melissa Dunning, 22, waived her right to a preliminary hearing yesterday on charges of child endangerment, reckless endangerment and false reports to law enforcement. Matthew Zatko, Dunning’s attorney, said the woman wants to regain custody of her daughter, who has been placed in foster care.

“All of her efforts right now are focused on getting her daughter back,” Zatko said. “To that end, she is doing everything possible and utilizing all the recourses available to her.”

Dunning is accused of leaving the then-3-month-old girl in a shopping cart in a Wal-Mart in Somerset in December. Police said Dunning then returned to her home about 12 miles away.

Inexcusable. I have a seven month old, and I just can't imagine leaving him somewhere. Parents are supposed to care for their children, even (especially) when the kids are upset and fussy. If this was too much there are all sorts of birth control she could have been utilizing. One final thought on closing: what is it about Walmart that attracts these incidents?

One less goblin in the world

Just a little over half an hour from me the State of Florida tucked in a goblin for a dirtnap:


Appeals brought a last-minute halt but failed to stop Wednesday's execution of an inmate, convicted for the 1985 murder of a Plant City woman.

Johnny L. Robinson, 51, was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Bradford County following an almost 90-minute delay caused by the U.S. Supreme Court. Fifteen minutes before he was scheduled to die at 6 p.m., the Supreme Court asked the state "to wait for further word" about pending matters in Robinson's case.

But, shortly after 7 p.m., the court refused to stop the execution by a 5-4 vote.

I guess the folks on the highest bench had too many 9th Circus Court of Appeals decisions to overturn to deal with this dirtbag. Why was he given the big needle?

Robinson had been sentenced to death for the Aug. 12, 1985, murder of Beverly St. George. The 31-year-old had been driving from Plant City to Quantico, Va., when her car broke down on Interstate 95 in St. Johns County.

St. George was abducted at gunpoint by Robinson and a friend, Clinton Fields, court records state. She was then handcuffed and taken to a cemetery where she was raped by both men and shot twice in the head.

Robinson maintained St. George agreed to go with them to the cemetery and that he and the woman had consensual sex. During the sexual encounter, he said there was a struggle and his .22-caliber pistol went off and hit St. George in the face. He said he shot her again because he didn't think people would believe the shooting of a white woman by a black man was an accident.

Asked by a prison official if he had any last words before the execution, Robinson said, "Yep!" Then he said, "Later!"

Man, I hate it when the gun goes off accidentally. Later indeed, Mr. Robinson. Too bad "Old Sparky" isn't still in use, I would have turned off as much electricity in my house as possible, just to make sure he got as much juice as possible.

The husband of the murdered woman, Harland St. George Jr., witnessed the execution and read a statement afterward that talked about Robinson's criminal background. In it he said Robinson had raped three other women, and one attack occurred a week after Beverly St. George's death.

Holding a family photo of himself, his wife and two sons, Harland St. George Jr. said, "Because of his violent acts there are many families that live each day with the emotional scars, fears and trauma that he inflicted upon us. I am sure that they will not mourn his death, and neither will I.

Nor will I mourn his death. Others at the scene did, though.

About 20 protestors against the death penalty waited across the road from the prison for news about the delay. After learning of the Supreme Court's decision, they kept their vigil, singing a few hymns before corrections officials announced the execution had been completed.

"It is human beings killing another human being and not only that but toying with him," said Bonnie Flassig with Gainesville Citizens for Alternatives to the Death Penalty about the execution and the delay.

I guess raping four women and killing one of them is not "toying" with them. Good riddance, dirtbag, you have just been voted off the island.

A few of their favorite things

This article at Fox news gives us some factoids about the democratic candidates that I didn't know.

In recent queries as to their personal preferences of movies, music and foods, the candidates have offered a surprising array of answers: Sen. John Kerry has an affection for the movie "Old School" and music by The Beatles but hates rhubarb pie; Wesley Clark craves Cheetos and Gummi Bears, enjoys the "Lord of the Rings" movies and has a soft spot for the band Journey.

"So now I come to you, with open arms......." sorry, just picturing the General crooning Journey at karaoke. What are some other likes and dislikes?

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean is partial to R&B singer Wyclef Jean and chocolate chip cookies, while North Carolina Sen. John Edwards likes Bruce Springsteen and his mama's pecan pie. The experts say the answers can make the candidates seem more like the guys next door.

Maybe, until you remember that Kerry is worth over $500 million and Edwards is nowhere near the poverty line either.

But many consultants and voters agree that Rev. Al Sharpton's penchant for Southern cooking and distaste for sushi or Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich's aversion to any non-vegan dishes probably won't sway decisions at the polls.

I don't see myself voting for a vegan anytime soon, but I would hope that a voter doesn't pull the lever for a candidate due to their choice of snack foods.

Proof that Ariel Sharon is wrong

Ariel Sharon, the prime minister of Israel, has proposed pulling out of 17 settlements in the Gaza strip. Here is proof that he is wrong:

In a rare move, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan praised Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Wednesday. He said Sharon's words gave new momentum to the peace process.

"I was quite intrigued by Prime Minister Sharon's decision to pull out of Gaza. I think it's a positive development," Annan told reporters. "The withdrawal from Gaza that has been announced by the prime minister — if it does take place — can really give us a very important moment, a new dynamic that can propel the process forward."

Sharon's announcement of his desire to pull out of 17 settlements in the Gaza Strip is part of an overall unilateral withdrawal plan he is preparing in advance of his trip to Washington next month. It's expected that the first draft of that plan will be ready next week.

If Kofi supports something, that is usually a good sign that the idea is a bad one. Who else supports the idea?

In Berlin, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer on Wednesday welcomed Sharon's Gaza plan as a "step in the right direction."

"It's without doubt a step in the right direction," he said. "We must follow the concrete decisions exactly."

There is one member of the Axis of Weasel on board, further proof that Sharon is wrong about giving land to the misplaced Arabs, er I mean the Paleswinians.

Super Bowl of Sleaze

Between my bad back and my sniffling son I haven't had much time on the computer. I have read a lot of about the super bowl of sleaze. I thought the following columnists were very good:

Tom Shales of the Washington Post:

Viewers who tuned in expecting a big-time football game saw the Super Bowl of Sleaze instead. Sexy and violent commercials that included jokes about flatulence and bestiality mercilessly interrupted the CBS telecast of Super Bowl XXXVIII from Houston last night, making it a dubious choice for family viewing.

But it was the unexpected climax of the MTV-produced halftime show that shocked viewers and set the CBS switchboard ablaze. As a musical number ended, out popped one of Janet Jackson's breasts. Fellow performer Justin Timberlake clearly exposed it to the crowd in Reliant Stadium and to the audience of millions watching at home by reaching over and yanking off part of her costume.

But the ghastly output from Bud Light included a commercial in which a chimpanzee talked to a beautiful girl as they sat together on a couch while she waited for her date to return from the kitchen. The monkey made a pass at the girl and asked, "So, how do you feel about back hair?" There was also an excess of commercials for drugs designed to help men suffering from erectile dysfunction.

Maybe the Super Bowl will have to move from the broadcast networks to the Playboy Channel if its commercials are going to be so dirty that they embarrass parents watching with their kids.

Donna Britt of the Washington Post:

Sometimes, it takes the mind a moment to accept the eyes' report of that which makes no sense. Jackson's exposed breast on a Super Bowl broadcast during family hour didn't conform to anything I'd seen on network TV. Nothing had prepared me for it -- not the Madonna-Britney tongue-lashing, not the nude female corpses on "CSI," not BET's relentless rump-shaking, not J.Lo's assorted transparent gowns.

I wasn't alone. Watching the show in her Cabin John family room with her son, 12, and daughter, 13, economic consultant Alice Makl was already uneasy -- "everything was objectionable: the dancing, the lyrics" -- before Timberlake ripped and The Breast emerged.

"My son immediately burst out, 'That's nasty!' " Makl recalled. "My daughter just sat there." The "costume reveal," her daughter later said privately, reminded her of a novel she'd read in which a female slave was repeatedly raped.

"For my daughter, it was a violent devaluation of women portrayed as entertainment," Makl said.

Steve Dunleavy:

If I had a buck for every time celebs, their flacks or their lawyers told me a baldfaced, bloody lie, I could pay for a pad in Trump Tower. It's just in the chromosomes of these Hollywood people to lie.

Now Timberlake is as happy as a clam that hasn't been eaten.

People are actually saying the, um, exposure will help the careers of these double bubble-heads.

Spin magazine editor Doug Brod said: "It [the act] was well thought out and executed."

Now, I am many things, but not a hypocrite. Actually, like President Bush, I didn't see the scene . . . thanks for the mammary.

At halftime, my eyeballs were on the ceiling as my head rolled backwards to gulp a can of Bud because I cannot stand the idiocy of halftime geek shows. But if I did see it, I promise I would not run to confession. After all, I was breast fed when I was born - in fact, I was only a baby.

OK, FCC chief Michael Powell is talking fines against CBS. When he said the act was a "classless, crass, deplorable stunt," he was right.

Now what did they really expect when they let MTV produce this spectacle starring a gaggle of goons?

The Methodist's turn to jump off the cliff

The United Methodist will have their Quadrennial Meeting in Pittsburgh this spring and will have the opportunity to follow the Anglicans, from which the Methodists sprung, over the cliff of heresy.


About 280 United Methodists departed town yesterday a little more ready to prepare their jurisdictions and congregations for the work of setting policy and direction for the church.

Clergy, laypeople and church officials had been in town since Thursday to educate themselves in preparation for the 12-day Quadrennial, a meeting held every four years to essentially rewrite the Book of Discipline, the governing document of the church. This year's Quadrennial will take place in Pittsburgh from April 27 through May 7.

Key issues include a recommended budget of $585 million to fund the church's administration and missions; a continuing divide in whether the church should recognize gay clergy and same-sex unions; and expanding ethnic outreach.

Is it me or does this have a familiar ring to it?

Participants in the meetings here last week are to return to their home jurisdictions and congregations to help educate the church's other 8.5 million members. United Methodists make up the nation's second largest Protestant group, behind Baptists.

The proposed budget of $585 million represents a 7.3 percent increase over the $545 million budget passed four years ago. But there are challenges: Though worshippers are giving more, membership has declined by 2 million in recent decades.

Financially, the church must deal with the growing costs of health care and pensions for its employees, and how to align apportionments, or the payments local churches must make to the general church, with local budgets.

Some individual churches fear that their apportionment rates could draw from what they spend on social mission work.

A protestant denomination is struggling with declining membership and the local churches are concerned that the money they send to the national church takes away from their own social mission work. No, I'm serious, this isn't ECUSA I'm talking about.

The first order of the church is to be a beacon of spiritual renewal, said the Rev. Randy Day, of New York City, an official of the General Board of Global Ministries. "So we must look at a budget that funds ways to battle systems that force people into destitution.''

Otherwise, he said, "Poverty becomes a weapon of mass destruction."

Really. I'm not kidding. This isn't a pronouncement from Solheim or Griswold. I love how the statement starts with such promise "to be a beacon of spiritual renewal" then degenerates into the usual claptrap. Not that anyone wants people to be starving, but there are many examples in the Bible about the poor being good people.
Sirach 13:
The rich man does wrong and boasts of it, the poor man is wronged and begs forgiveness. As long as the rich man can use you he will enslave you, but when you are exhausted, he will abandon you.
Proverbs 22: A good name is more desirable than great riches, and high esteem, than gold and silver.
James 2: Listen, my beloved brothers. Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him?

The sharp debate over gay ordination and same-sex marriage is far from resolved.

United Methodists support civil liberties for gays and lesbians, but since 1972 the church has condemned homosexuality as "incompatible with Christian teaching" and forbids the ordination of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals."

A clergywoman in Washington state is facing a church trial for disclosing that she lives in a "covenanted homosexual relationship."

Donald Messner, 62, a pastor and church official from Colorado, said he believes the issue gives the church a great opportunity to be more inclusive.

"We have hang-ups on sexuality," he said. "We have failed to be an inclusive body. We once excluded persons of color, women. Now we have policies of exclusions on gays and lesbians in our denominations."

Messner believes that one-third of the delegates to the Quadrennial would back a resolution calling for a more moderate stance on gay issues. Such a resolution would at least recognize that differences exist in how members view gay ordination and the blessings of same-sex unions.

"We will not be silent," said Messner.

Why won't you believe me when I say this isn't a story about ECUSA? Anyway, those darn "hang-ups" about sexuality just keep getting in the way. I also have no doubt that Messner "will not be silent" just as I have little doubt that he "will not be orthodox" and "will not be Biblical" and "will not be reasonable". The church is not being exclusional towards those with same sex attraction, just those who are "avowed practicing homosexuals". You know, behavior that is called a big no-no in the Bible. You know, the Bible, that book with the leather cover, up on the lectern and in some of the pews.

More conservative members argue that accepting such language would not be faithful to the Bible and would break the tradition of the church, which traces its roots to the early 1700s, when clergyman John Wesley led a renewal movement within the Church of England.

Methodism spread to colonial North America shortly before the American Revolution, and, in 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in Baltimore. The United Methodist Church was created in 1968 with the merger of the Evangelical United Brethren and the Methodist Church.

My Irish Catholic father married my Protestant mother, whose family is predominately Methodist, and as Germans many have their roots in the Brethern churches. They are very conservative and orthodox and would run, not walk, into the arms of a denomination that would be more hospitable to orthodoxy (sorry ECUSA, try the next house) or an evangelical church.

Four years ago, at its meeting in Cleveland, the United Methodists embraced racial reconciliation.

They expressed sorrow for "sins of racism" and welcomed closer relationships with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. All three congregations are predominately black and broke away from the Methodist Church in the 1800s because of racial discrimination.

It is good to apologize. These congregations should tell the UMC to stay true to Christianity or go feel liberal guilt with some other groups. In conclusion, another denomination that belongs to the NCC looks to be ready to do a triple Lindy off of the cliff of orthodoxy onto the rocks of heresy.

Kucinich should have bought this domain

kucinich.com is not the official web site for Dennis Kucinich's exercise in futility (43 people can't be wrong) but it should be. Memo to future candidates: make sure to buy the names of any potential web sites that might be mistaken for your official website. Here are some highlights of the parodies on the web site:

People back in my congressional district just don't get it, though. They expect me to be back in Cleveland working on keeping jobs in Northeast Ohio or improving the quality of life there. Do they realize how cold, grey and depressing Cleveland is in the winter? I'd much rather be gallivanting all around the country, hanging around with celebrities and the REAL presidential candidates and people who are as liberal and misguided as me. Besides, I get paid my $160,000 salary regardless of what I do and what I accomplish.
And, just how many hot chicks am I going to find in Cleveland anyway? We all know that's the main reason I'm running for president - to meet hot chicks and get laid. I guess that means you could call me the "Piece Candidate"!

My favorite are the results of some poll questions that Kucinich actually won, from Playboy magazine:



Someone among the dems had to be "least endowed" and "last to lose their virginity".

The department of peace

Living in a college town, I see many political bumper stickers. I saw one the other day for The Department of Peace Campaign. Figuring it to be some crazy leftist group, I was curious enough to check out their web page to see what their goals are. I wasn't disappointed after reading their Bill to create a Department of Peace. Here are some excerpts:

ESTABLISHMENT- There is hereby established a Department of Peace (hereinafter in this Act referred to as the `Department'), which shall-- (1) be a cabinet-level department in the executive branch of the Federal Government; and (2) be dedicated to peacemaking and the study of conditions that are conducive to both domestic and international peace.

MISSION- The Department shall--
(1) hold peace as an organizing principle, coordinating service to every level of American society;
(2) endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to expand human rights; (3) strengthen nonmilitary means of peacemaking;
(4) promote the development of human potential;
(5) work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures in nonviolent dispute resolution;
(6) take a proactive, strategic approach in the development of policies that promote national and international conflict prevention, nonviolent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of conflict, and structured mediation of conflict;
(7) address matters both domestic and international in scope; and
(8) encourage the development of initiatives from local communities, religious groups, and nongovernmental organizations.

And then we'll hit a Chinese buffet as we all got a serious case of the munchies from that many bong hits. "Use field tested programs", "strengthen non-military means of peacekeeping".... I'm trying not to further hurt my back laughing at this nonsense. I'm reminded of the Robin Williams line about English bobbies yelling at crooks: "Stop! or I'll say stop again!" Excuse Mr. Terrorist, please put down the RPG. Oh come on, PRETTY please put down the RPG. Ask Rachel Corrie AKA Princess Pancake about stopping bulldozers. On the domestic front:

DOMESTIC RESPONSIBILITIES- The Secretary shall--

(1) develop policies that address domestic violence, including spousal abuse, child abuse, and mistreatment of the elderly;

(2) create new policies and incorporate existing programs that reduce drug and alcohol abuse; (3) develop new policies and incorporate existing policies regarding crime, punishment, and rehabilitation;

(4) develop policies to address violence against animals;

(5) analyze existing policies, employ successful, field-tested programs, and develop new approaches for dealing with the implements of violence, including gun-related violence and the overwhelming presence of handguns;

(6) develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes;

(7) make policy recommendations to the Attorney General regarding civil rights and labor law;

(8) assist in the establishment and funding of community-based violence prevention programs, including violence prevention counseling and peer mediation in schools;

(9) counsel and advocate on behalf of women victimized by violence;

(10) provide for public education programs and counseling strategies concerning hate crimes;

(11) promote racial and ethnic tolerance;

(12) finance local community initiatives that can draw on neighborhood resources to create peace projects that facilitate the development of conflict resolution at a national level and thereby inform and inspire national policy; and

(13) provide ethical-based and value-based analyses to the Department of Defense.

There's that "field tested programs" thing again. Tested where......poppy fields? I also really want to see a bunch of hippies go into South Central and deal with the gang bangers. There is a lot of other nonsense, but the one I liked was the department of peace education:

(a) IN GENERAL- There shall be in the Department an Office of Peace Education and Training, the head of which shall be the Assistant Secretary for Peace Education and Training. The Assistant Secretary for Peace Education and Training shall carry out those functions of the Department relating to the creation, encouragement, and impact of peace education and training at the elementary, secondary, university, and postgraduate levels, including the development of a Peace Academy.

The Peace Academy. BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! I want to play them in some sports, except it will probably be soccer without goalies and no scoring, so that no feelings are hurt, and ultimate frisbie (also without scorekeeping) and hackey sack.

The revolving door of justice

In New York, the man arrested for being the East Side rapist is no stranger to handcuffs. In fact, since 1989 the scum was arrested 27 times yet served no term longer than 6 months.

The man accused of being the vicious East Side rapist has a staggering 27 arrests on his rap sheet - but has never spent more than six months behind bars.
From October 1989 to November 2002, Kevin White, 34, was convicted 25 times for crimes ranging from fare-beating to peddling pot to weapons possession, NYPD records show.

White was also arrested in the alleged rape of a Brooklyn call girl in 1998, but officials yesterday did not know the disposition of that case. Another lesser charge was dismissed, too.

But in the other 25 arrests, White, charged with four sexual attacks and robberies last week, copped a plea and received sentences mostly ranging from conditional discharge to 60 days in the slammer.

There are at least 4 rape victims that didn't need to be victims if the courts would lock these bastards up.

Going digital

I bought a digital camera today, the Sony DSCP8 which seems to offer the most bang for the buck for my needs. I bought it because we need one to email pictures of our son to everyone, and I also bought it to cheer myself up due to my trick back getting tricky on me.

Even more garbage in our education system

This op-ed was in the AJC, I missed it but Emperor Misha I commented on it and it is infuriating. It is by a black man who recently graduated college with honors and wants to teach school in his native Atlanta and help other black students.

I am a 22-year-old African-American male and recent graduate of a respectable liberal arts college in Kentucky. I acquired a 3.75 grade-point average with a double major in Social Studies Secondary Education and sociology.

I was a Rhodes Scholar nominee, inducted into the Mensa society in May 2001, named to the National Dean's List for three consecutive years, successfully competed in intercollegiate forensics and served as student body president.

So far so good, I'd hire him for just about any job with these credentials.

As a young black male, I am often perceived as dumb, lazy, promiscuous and criminally inclined. If I sound at all pretentious for wanting to prove that I am anything but the above, then please accept my sincere apologies. In any event, lately it appears that my achievements have proved to be a liability rather than an asset.

Anyone who meets me will attest to the fact that I am an extremely passionate individual. My passion is for people, which explains my choice of studies. Originally I planned to attend law school after college, though I wasn't entirely sure this was the right path for me.

Over the summer, I came to realize that my true calling lay in inspiring, motivating, challenging and educating other young adults. After investigating, I assumed that Atlanta would perhaps be a viable market for teaching jobs. I applied to metro Atlanta counties including Fulton, DeKalb, Clayton, Cobb, Gwinnett, plus the Atlanta public schools, all to no avail.

There is that stereotype unfortunately, but this young man has definitely gone above and beyond in proving those stereotypes wrong. Also, I applaud him for wanting to be a teacher. My wife was a teacher until our son was born, and the job she did in molding her students is so important. This man decided to help our youth instead of chasing ambulances. This man sounds like the very type of people we need in our classrooms.

Certification was not the issue. I am certified to teach in Kentucky and have applied for certification in Georgia. My application is still being processed.

Recently, I interviewed with a school in one of the metro Atlanta counties, only to receive an e-mail from the principal stating, "Though your qualifications are quite impressive, I regret to inform you that we have selected another candidate. It was felt that your demeanor and therefore presence in the classroom would serve as an unrealistic expectation as to what high school students could strive to achieve or become. However, it is highly recommended that you seek employment at the collegiate level; there your intellectual comportment would be greatly appreciated. Good luck."

Translation: we don't want you showing how stupid our other teachers are or helping our kids achieve too much as it may jeapordize our funding. In the dark days of segregation, Washington Dunbar high school was once a school where many of the teachers had PhD's and the school had a college placement rate exceeding many white high schools. Unfortunately after the schools were desegregated it became just another public school and not the elite magnet school it once was.

Article about Russians and their vodka

In the Pittsburgh P-G is an article about a writer traveling to Russia. Mainly the article is about borsh, which like American chili can have all sorts of ingredients. There was one bit about the downfall of Gorbachev which related his ouster to his restrictions on vodka:

Supermarket shelves have plenty of vodka, in dizzying varieties. According to the vodka museum at Mandrogi, Russia has 2,270 kinds of vodka.

Russians take their vodka seriously, too. Many blame Mikhail Gorbachev for the collapse of the Soviet Union. In 1986, he introduced special alcohol measures, including a law that people couldn't buy vodka until 2 p.m. It led to his downfall.

Super Bowl Sunday

I don't see this as a high scoring affair, I'll pick the Patriots 20, Panthers 14. I have no animosity towards either team so I'll be fine with either team winning. The Panthers employ one of my favorite players of all time, Donnie Shell, in the front office. The owner of the Patriots is one of the few owners that won't sell his soul to win. RObert Kraft takes a hardline on misconduct and cuts bad apples, unlike teams like the Rams, who start a player who while drunk killed a mother of 3 and used to start a player that beat a student 100 pounds smaller into a coma.