Stupid Paris

I like Hilton hotels. I can't believe this twit will own them one day.

Paris Hilton was on the stand in a libel lawsuit recently. She is the defendant, actually, for allegedly planting a false story about her and her ex-boyfriends ex-girlfriend.


One of the few non-skanky pictures known of Paris Hilton,
pictured with her intellectually superior dog.

Her testimony was mind-numbing.

Excerpts:

AIRHEAD Paris Hilton has revealed she did not know LONDON was in the United Kingdom.
The daft blonde blurted out the admission in a statement for a £5.7million US libel case.
Her catalogue of dumb answers in the witness box gave a fascinating insight into the tiny mind of the hotel heiress, who stands to inherit £30million.

Ms Hilton was asked if the story appeared in the UK.
She replied: “No. There is stuff in London.”

When informed by her lawyer London was in the UK, Paris said: “Right. UK. Whatever.”

She told a pre-trial hearing she was in Europe last summer and did not know if the story appeared there, because “all there is, like, French.”

Paris, 24, also said: “I meet so many people. I don’t even know some of my friends’ names.”
Pressed for the name of a pal, Paris said: “It is like a weird Greek name. Like Douglas.”

Explaining how the row with Ms Graff began, Paris told the court: “I just said to her, she is old and should stay at home with her child instead of being at nightclubs with young people.
“And just that, I just — what else did I say? Just that she is not cute at all.”

She was asked about an email she sent her publicist Rob Shutner, which is said to praise him for placing the story. Paris replied: “Whatever I write in email, it doesn’t mean anything. It’s just words that I write.”

Graff’s case against Paris may go before a jury later this year.

If twelve peers of Paris can be found, they should bury the courthouse with all of them in it.

Little Birdy Comes Calling

Mexico City was the site of one annoyed Little Birdy.

In fact, Little Birdy entered a packed stadium and tossed the spectators around like pillows.

Then Little Birdy was stabbed.

Thirty minutes later, all was back to normal.

Elito Alito

The Senate ended debate, avoiding a filibuster by 12 votes, and is set to vote on Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court today.

Efforts of Senators Kerry and Kennedy failed.

Alito is expected to be confirmed before President Bush's State of the Union address tonight.

Alito was deserving. Now President Bush will have something to talk about on the domestic front other than his many huge, Clinton-like spending programs.

UPDATE: That's Justice Alito to you, Senator Kennedy. He is number 110!

No Story Can Avoid A Bush Slam

Look, Bush has some answering to do on some things. But the Lamestream Media seems to find a way to make every Bush criticism part of a story.

In Saturday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Faith & Values section had a cover story on lying. The subject was basically whether we as Americans have lost our outrage over lying.

The bottom fold of the front page of that section had four pictures with captions. The pictures are not reproduced in this web site version, but the captions are. I include them for you:

TAKING THE TRUTH FOR A SPIN

Recent examples of those accused of stretching the truth include:

> James Frey: He was at first defended by Oprah Winfrey despite embellishments in his book "A Million Little Pieces."

> Martha Stewart: Despite doing time for lying about stocks, she's back in the limelight.

> Bill Clinton: He tried to cover up his sexual encounter with Monica Lewinsky but remains active in public life.

> President Bush: Polls show many believe he misled the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

That is right. The first three are verified, admitted lies. The last one, President Bush, concerns an unproven (and unlikely) allegation about the intelligence on the Iraq War. Now, never mind if you think Bush lied. I think he didn't on this subject because that would mean that Russia and France, who opposed the war, also lied. Our intelligence was consistent with theirs. But that isn't the point. The examples were not about people "accused of lying." The other examples were admitted and proven liars. There is not dispute. By picturing Bush with them in this context, you equate Bush with them by implication.

This is shotty journalism at best, and bias at the obvious.

Unbelievable

No, really. Unbelievable.

"If anyone in Washington is skeptical about these findings, they are in denial," he said. "We have 50 years of evidence that racial prejudice predicts voting. Republicans are supported by whites with prejudice against blacks. If people say, 'This takes me aback,' they are ignoring a huge volume of research."

Yes, this researcher has given his money to Democrats. But, he denies bias.

"All we did was compare questions that people could answer any way they wanted," Nosek said, as he explained why he felt personal views could not have influenced the outcome. "We had no direct contact with participants."

We just interpreted the data. The way we saw fit.

I don't even like the Republican party, but this is garbage research.

What Is Wrong With Schools?

1. Teachers' unions.

2. Monopoly power over the poor (see, 1 above).

3. Parents.

4. Discipline (see 1, above).

Groundhog Day Is Coming

Just wanted to remind you to be aware.

February 2, 2006 is just a few days away.

Are you ready to watch the winter prognosticator?

To keep up to day on the most famous groundhog, check out the official Punxsatawny Groundhog Club site.

Or you can check out the site of the main hog himself.


Do not think that this is a holiday to be ignored. It has its own commercialization website also.



From GroundhogsDay.com you can send your Groundhog Day e-cards or shop for your Groundhogs Day apperal.

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End of the Spear Not End of the Road

I noted how both the lamestream movie critics and the church going movie public was unreliable when reviewing a movie with Christian themes.

Well, Saturday night I saw End of the Spear. It was at least a B+ movie. It certainly did not suck. It was unfairly trashed by the critics.

The story was very moving. The scenes were tastefully done. No unnecessary gore or blood. The special effects budget was quite modest. Which was a good thing. The acting was better than Top Gun, though there were no Anthony Hopkins or Ed Nortons in this movie. Still, Louise Leonardo was quite good I thought. The only criticism I have is the music was a little too much at times. I can get moved without loud sappy music. But that criticism is apt for most Hollywood dramas.

Was it an A+ movie? No. But it was worth seeing, especially if you are a believer. The quality of this movie should not hurt the ability of Christian films to make it to the theater.

What will ultimately matter most, of course, is the dollar.

I intend to buy the documentary as well. I suspect it will be even better.

Oprah Admits It

Oprah appologizes to her audience and admits to being duped for supporting a book of fiction passed on as fact.

In a surprise reversal, Oprah Winfrey apologized to her national television audience this morning for defending James Frey and said she now feels duped by the embattled author of the best-selling memoir "A Million Little Pieces."

"I made a mistake," a somber Winfrey said at the opening of the live show, "and I left the impression that the truth does not matter, and I am deeply sorry about that because that is not what I believe.

"Winfrey's apology and pointed questions about incidents and people in the book appeared to take Frey by surprise as he sat across the couch from Winfrey today as they had done during a much more convivial show four months earlier."It is difficult for me to talk to you because I really feel duped," Winfrey told a startled-looking Frey who licked his lips often before speaking.

"More importantly, I feel you betrayed millions of readers...As I sit here today, I don't know what is true, and I don't know what isn't."

Winfrey looked near tears and her audience gasped when Frey revealed for the first time that Lilly, a central character in the book, didn't commit suicide by hanging, but instead slashed her wrists."Why do you have to lie about that?"
****
The truth of Frey's book initially came under question after the online publication thesmokinggun.com published a lengthy article detailing how Frey had "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished" key portions of the book.

Oprah, who had helped the book reach 3.5 million in sales by choosing it for her book club in September, defended Frey during his Jan. 11 appearance on the Larry King Show on CNN.

Today, she opened her show by saying, "I regret that phone call."William Bastone, the editor of The Smoking Gun, said he and his colleagues were stunned by Winfrey's reversal. "We were sitting here with our jaws dropping," he said.
****
Bastone was filled with praise for Winfrey: "For someone like her to acknowledge she made a mistake like that speaks really well of her. You don't often see someone of her stature admit a major mistake and apologize to her audience."

Oh, I don't know. I'm sure Dan Rather would accept responsibility for a mistake.

Now if Oprah would appologize to the French.

I can't believe I just said that.

Link Whoring

Eric at The Liberty Papers (his political and philosophical writings are now at The Liberty Papers and not Eric's Grumbles) has a really good essay on global warming and the politicalization of science generally. Check it out.

Bass Fishing With Famous Celebrities is the new reality show du jour. Stop by your water cooler tomorrow and mention it.

Jeff crops pictures, quotes idiots and let's you make the comparison on Titanic and Brokeback Mountain.

Camp Katrina reports that the Department of Defense is the largest charitable giving organization in the world. Which makes me wonder why that is. I mean really, can't our Federal Government just do things it is supposed to do, like national defense, print money, give speeding tickets and operate a court system? I'll chose my charities. The Fed can just keep me safe and protect my property rights. h/t Rightwingsparke.

New grooming product you men just shouldn't be doing without. Via The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns.

tee bee discusses lots of Wal-Mart research. It looks interesting, but it is also lengthy.

Cassandra, now posting at Tigerhawk, discusses bloggers policing their own.

Finally, my Blogfather, Scott Ott at Scappleface, reports how Osama's new book club threatens Oprah.

Bad Analogies

So I receive an e-mail with the following message:

Subject: myth breaker

Member of the house of Representatives, Charles Rangel, (D-N.Y.), who is black, when asked on public TV about President Bush, replied: "Well, I really think that he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all.". . . .

My only response is that Charles Rangel's use of anecdotal evidence to try to prove or disprove racial superiority is nothing more than the pot calling the kettle . . . . Uh, maybe that isn't the best analogy.

If you know any equally bad analogy, simile or metaphor, please share in the comments.

Wednesday's Notes

Berry Important Lawsuit

Heigh Ho's spd rdr sends us message about the big Blackberry lawsuit. From his blackberry of course.

More Uncertainty Among Climate Scientists Among Everything

First, I'm supposed to believe that our scientists from 100 years ago kept reliable termperature readings (in between visits to their doctor for a daily leeching) so that today's scientists can state, with unexplained certainty, that we are experiencing global warming produced by man made emissions.

Now, scientists cannot explain why the Earth is getting less sun light but also increasing in temperature when the sun is also more active.

"The data also reveal that from 2000 to now the clouds have changed so that the Earth may continue warming, even with declining sunlight," said study leader Philip R. Goode of the New Jersey Institute of Technology. "These large and peculiar variabilities of the clouds, coupled with a resulting increasing albedo, presents a fundamental, unmet challenge for all scientists who wish to understand and predict the Earth's climate."

Translation: We don't know what the helk is going on.

But, we apparently knew that in May of 2005:

While researchers argue whether Earth is getting warmer and if humans are contributing, a heated debate over the global effect of sunlight boiled to the surface today. And in this debate there is little data to go on.

A confusing array of new and recent studies reveals that scientists know very little about how much sunlight is absorbed by Earth versus how much the planet reflects, how all this alters temperatures, and why any of it changes from one decade to the next.

Determining Earth's reflectance is crucial to understanding climate change, scientists agree.

We agree that we don't know anything about the interaction of certain variables about climate change that we agree must be understood to understand how they interact with climate change.

Oh, and man is responsible for global warming!

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Truancy Isn't The Crime; Going To School Is

John Stossel writes a great essay about the criminalization of kids who want to go to good schools. The problem, as any non-teachers union supporter knows, is that government schools don't compete and thus often don't care. Thus, when a good public school does exist, students and parents who care will become criminals to get into good schools.

In San Jose, Calif., many parents want to get their kids in Fremont Union schools because they're so much better than neighboring schools. ... Steve Rowley, district superintendent, said, "We have maybe hundreds of kids who are here illegally, under false pretenses."

Illegally. False pretenses. Sounds like the kids are criminals. All they're doing is trying to get a good public-school education. Don't the public schools' defenders insist all children have a right to a good public-school education?

Stossel describes an inspector who works for the school system. He goes door to door to check if kids really live where they say they do. While with Stossell, he catches a family that lied about their address.

Granted, Tapang broke the rules. The rules said her grandson, because of where he lived, wasn't entitled to the quality education Fremont Union schools provide. But which is worse: a system that traps students in bad schools, or a grandmother who lies to save her grandson from being denied a decent education? I asked her, "Isn't it creepy that they force you to go to the black market to get your kid a better education?"

Of course the countries that beat America's pants off in education today never adopted the American "one school based on geography" approach.

Most countries that beat America on international tests give their students that choice. In Belgium, the government spends less than American schools do on each student, but the money is attached to the kids. So they can go wherever they want -- to a state-run school, a Montessori school, or even a religious school.

"I wouldn't send my child to an American public school," said Maria Loth. "Not even for a million dollars." Her son lives in Belgium now, but when he was 6, his family lived in America. "In America, I had to beg, please, please give me good school for my child. And here in Belgium, they're all over the place."

That's right. In public education, our land of the free is now a bunch of local fiefs, where petty-bureaucrats-turned-lords-of-the-manor decide whether you can get a decent education, and parents must go to them, begging for their children's future. Meanwhile, in Belgium and much of the rest of the world, students and their parents have the freedom to choose their schools -- and the opportunity that comes with that freedom.

If only we could convince our states to grant such freedom and financial rationality to our own students.

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The ACLU Wins Another Vital Case

Thank God (oops, sorry ACLU) for the ACLU. It strikes another blow for freedom everywhere.

A male high school student can wear a skirt to school after the American Civil Liberties Union reached an agreement with school officials. The ACLU announced the deal Tuesday. It will allow a Hasbrouck Heights School senior to wear a skirt to protest the school's no-shorts policy.

The district's dress code bans shorts between Oct. 1 and April 15, but allows skirts, a policy 17-year-old Michael Coviello believes is discriminatory. "I'm happy to be able to wear skirts again to bring attention to the fact that the ban on shorts doesn't make sense," Coviello said in a statement.

When I was in high school, no one was allowed to wear shorts. Why? Because the daisy dukes were distracting. Of course, the skirts were distracting as well. So yes, the policy was stupid. It did not require a "pretend" protest by some high school cross-dresser.

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I am so sick of this Anti-American terrorist, commie supporting woman living off the "moral authority" paid for by her son.

Thats all.

Third String Tight End at Purdue Brings Good Press

As reported at the site "Everyday Should Be Saturday" (and who can argue with that except for Seventh Day Adventists and Jews who would have to go church like every single day?), Purdue is pleased that it has student-athlete-driver under the influence Garret Bushong. Garret you see was pulled over for DUI. Then Purdue apparently had a number of behavior problems with its athletes. So Garret came to their defense. Little did we know that a third string tight end "runs Purdue."

This letter is a shoutout to all of the athletes of Purdue. [A shoutout?] I am personally sick and tired of all the bad ink we are getting, and it is really time to put an end to it. Yeah, I got an OWI, so what! [I wonder how the "so what" defense played out in court?] It’s over, and everyone now knows about it. [Look guys. Yes, I murdered those people, but it's over and everyone knows about it. Let's move one.] It’s not like 300 other students on this campus haven’t gotten one, yet the names of those people are not put on the front page of the Exponent followed up three months later by a headline on the back page of the Sports section.

I know all those people putting the paper together don’t have anything better to write about, and I am not mad at them for that. I am mad because they continously are publishing articles that make us look so bad. [If only they wouldn't write about the things we are doing.] If I am not mistaken, you guys go to Purdue too and I thought you would have a little more respect for your fellow classmates and the people who bring millions of dollars into this university year after year. [Like me dweeb. Have more respect for me or I'll bully you some more after I get done playing scout offense for the good football players.]

So to all of my basketball players, football players, soccer girls [I thought about using the term "chicks" but thought "girls" would go over better], softball girls, wrestlers, cross country, track and field guys and girls, divers, golfers, tennis girls and guys, volleyball girls and baseball players, forget what ya heard. We’re here to stay, we all know what we do for this school and what we give back. We run this place and if anyone begs to differ, I’ll say what my good buddy Brandon Kirsch once said. “You know where to find me, locker number three, so come and say what you need to say to my face.” [I want to make peace. If you don't agree, come to my locker so I can kick you @$$] Lastly I would like to give another shoutout to the athletes who have gotten bad ink in the Exponent lately. I feel for ya!

Represent in 2006.
Garret Bushong
Junior, College of Consumer and Family Sciences

What a bafoon! Everyday Should Be Saturday published this photo of Mr. Bushong.



All appologies to Brad the Unrepentant Individual for having his school represented by Bushong the Unrepentant Jerk.

Tuesday Tempura

A teacher in Pennsylvania makes an example out of a stinking Broncos fan student.

A 17-year-old high school student said he was humiliated when a teacher made him sit on the floor during a midterm exam in his ethnicity class -- for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey. The teacher, John Kelly, forced Joshua Vannoy to sit on the floor and take the test Friday -- two days before the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Broncos 34-17 in the AFC championship game. Kelly also made other students throw crumpled up paper at Vannoy, whom he called a "stinking Denver fan," Vannoy told The Associated Press on Monday.

OK, first, not cool to make him sit on the floor during an actual exam. A normal class -- maybe. But not a midterm. Not cool. Second, I don't think he "made" anyone throw paper at the kid. This was Steeler country, and he was wearing a Broncos shirt. That was clearly voluntary paper throwing.

Kelly said Vannoy, a junior at Beaver Area Senior High School, just didn't get the joke. "If he felt uncomfortable, then that's a lesson; that's what (the class) is designed to do," Kelly told The Denver Post. "It was silly fun. I can't believe he was upset."

What?!? Being "uncomfortable" was the lesson? What the hell does that mean? Is this an S&M class? Maybe it is. It is a public school. [UPDATE: It was an "enthnicity" class. What the helk is that?]

Vannoy was wearing a No. 7 Broncos jersey on Friday, because he is a fan of John Elway, the Broncos' retired Hall of Fame quarterback. Vannoy said he was so unnerved he left at least 20 questions blank on the 60-question test, and just wants out of Kelly's class because he's afraid the teacher won't treat him fairly now that the story reached the media.

OK, I agree that I would want out fo the teachers' class after this because of the concern for revenge. But let's not be a John Elway pansy about the whole thing.

Punish the teacher. Give the kid a new test, and let him switch classes. Then tell him to be a freaking man.

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Finally, a Lefty with the guts to admit that he doesn't support the troops. Joel Stein's position supports all the Right rhetoric about not being able to "support the troops" and not support the mission. He had a point, and he makes it. With a little humor to boot.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

That is a funny line. But I think his logic breaks down just like the logic of the Right that says you can't support the troops if you weren't in favor of the war breaks down.

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

That was a funny line also. But the distinction I think he fails to address is the difference between an immoral mission and a moral mission but bad choice to go to war. Some (commies mostly) believe that going to Vietnam was immoral. Some simply believe that it was a bad foreign policy decision. Stein actually addresses these issues -- sort of. The above quote leads one to believe that Vietnam's lesson was "avoid foeign conflicts with no pressing national interest." That is a good public policy postion, but it would mean that we don't stop genocide in Ruwanda. Is that his message?

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.

That wasn't as funny. And he sounds like he thinks the Iraq war is immoral ("unjust" v. "immoral" - you make the call). But he doesn't say so. There I would disagree most emphatically.

Iraq may or may not have been justified on WMD grounds or on risk assessment grounds as to the United States. Those are debateable issues.

What is not debateable among resonable people is that Saddam was a brutal distator in the small group of dictators that any foreign power would have the moral right to depose just for altruistic reasons. That doesn't mean he was the worse. But no country that takes it upon itself to depose Saddam, or that nut in North Korea, or Mugabe, is engaged in an unjust war. Maybe an unwise one, but not an unjust one.

I know conservatives who believe that the U.S., as a general rule, should "avoid foeign conflicts with no pressing national interest." for that reason they opposed going into Iraq. But now that we are there, they want to win decisively and quickly and come home.

That is opposing the war and supporting the troops. It can be done. Stein doesn't get it. Which means he is proabably a stinking pinko commie, but I won't know for sure unless I read more of his stuff. Which I probably won't do.

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Shelby Steele writes in the WSJ a nice article about race, the Democrats and Republicans and Sen. Clinton's "plantation" remark at a MLK day rally last week. Read it all, but I found this particularly worthy of repeating:

But this Republican "weakness" [the inability to pander to groups] has now begun to emerge as a great--if still largely potential--Republican advantage. Precisely because Republicans cannot easily pander to black grievance, they have no need to value blacks only for their sense of grievance. Unlike Democrats, they can celebrate what is positive and constructive in minority life without losing power. The dilemma for Democrats, liberals and the civil rights establishment is that they become redundant and lose power the instant blacks move beyond grievance and begin to succeed by dint of their own hard work. So they persecute such blacks, attack their credibility as blacks, just as they pander to blacks who define their political relationship to America through grievance. Republicans are generally freer of the political bigotry by which the left either panders to or persecutes black Americans.

No one on the current political scene better embodies this Republican advantage than the current secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. The archetype that Ms. Rice represents is "overcoming" rather than grievance. Despite a childhood in the segregated South that might entitle her to a grievance identity, she has clearly chosen that older black American tradition in which blacks neither deny injustice nor allow themselves to be defined by it. This tradition, as Ralph Ellison once put it, "springs not from a desire to deny the harshness of existence but from a will to deal with it as men at their best have always done." And, because Ms. Rice is grounded in this tradition, she is of absolutely no value to modern liberalism or the Democratic Party despite her many talents and achievements. Quite the reverse, she is their worst nightmare. If blacks were to take her example and embrace overcoming rather than grievance, the wound to liberalism would be mortal. It is impossible to imagine Hillary Clinton's "plantation" pandering in a room full of Condi Rices.

This column is worth a few minutes of your time.

UPDATE: Vote On Condemnation of Justice Souter's Home Set

Logan Darrow Clements, owner of FreeStar Media, has been continuing his effort to have Justice David Souters' home condmened so that the Lost Liberty Hotel can be built on the land.

As reported here before (and here and here), the effort is in response to Souters' part in the Kelo v. City of New London opinion that allowed condemnation of private property for hte purpose of purely private development.

His effort, which is likely in vain, has resulted in a special election:

The group, led by a California man, wants Justice David Souter's home seized for the purpose of building an inn called "Lost Liberty Hotel." They submitted enough petition signatures — only 25 were needed — to bring the matter before voters in March.

This weekend, they're descending on Souter's hometown, the central New Hampshire town of Weare, population 8,500, to rally for support. . . . "All we're trying to do is put an end to eminent domain abuse," Clements said, by having those who advocate or facilitate it "live under it, so they understand why it needs to end."

The petition asks whether the town should take Souter's land for development as an inn; whether to set up a trust fund to accept donations for legal expenses; and whether to set up a second trust fund to accept donations to compensate Souter for taking his land.

The matter goes to voters on March 14.

I don't think this effort should succeed. This type of abuse was wrong in New London, and it is wrong here. But I don't think that is the point. Maybe Souter and his 4 fellow justices now recognize was "public purpose" means.

UPDATE: Welcome readers of Torie Bosch's column in Slate. I'm not sure that my opinion was entirely represented by the soundbite. I hope my "nuance" is more clear after you have read this post and the comments. Also, please browse if the fancy suits you.

SECOND UPDATE: spd rdr and tee bee continue this discussion on their sites.

Dennis Leary's Near Prophesy

Dennis Leary is one of the funniest comedians out there, I think. Of course, now he is busy acting in one of the best TV shows -- Rescue Me. Yes, I realize the show is about a guy that has everything wrong with him, but it is really good.

Anyway, this segment is off his "No Cure For Cancer" consert album:

I take music pretty seriously. You see that scar on my wrist? You see that? You know where that's from? I heard the Beegees were getting back together again. I couldn't take it, okay! That was the only good thing about the 1980's. We got rid of one of the Beegees. One down, three to go. That's what I say, folks. Yeah! Here's ten bucks! Bring me the head of Barry Mantilow, alright? I wanna drink beer out of his empty head! I wanna have a Barry Mantilow skull keg party at my apartment, ok?! You write the songs, we'll drink the beer out of your head.

We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one f*ck*ng bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God! I want it! God! Jesus! Now we've got twenty-five more years. Yeah, I'm real f*ck*ng happy now, God. I'm wearing a huge happy hat, Jesus Christ!

I mean Stevie Ray Vaughan is dead, and we can't get Jon Bon Jovi in a helicopter. Come on, folks. "Get on that helicopter John. Shut the f*ck up and get on that helicopter! There's a hair dresser in there. Yeah, go ahead in there, yeah yeah."

Why did I mention this?

Bon Jovi almost bit the big one.

An airliner carrying members of Bon Jovi skidded off a runway early Saturday after landing in severe weather.

The Boeing 707 carrying the band and its touring staff overshot the runway at Hamilton International Airport.

A spokeswoman said the 14 passengers and flight crew were arriving from Buffalo, N.Y., where the band played Friday. No one was hurt.

Shows scheduled for Saturday, Monday and Tuesday at Toronto's Air Canada Center were expected to proceed as planned, she said.

Bad news for Toronto, I guess. I wonder if that plane had a hairdresser on it?

Heh!?!

Willy Nagin and the Choclate Factory.



Too funny.

The End Of The Spear -- The Tip Of The Iceberg

With the success of The Passion of the Christ, some studios realize that there is a potential market for true Christian themed films. Of course, Hollywood isn't really that interested. We will be fed a steady stream of "powerful, touching" movies in which the protaganists are gay, adulterer, cowboys sleeping with sheep and eating jello rather than pudding.

Yesterday, a new movie called The End of the Spear opened. It has a cool website and is a rare movie in that the Christian characters are treated with respect. In fact, the movie is being unabashedly promoted as a Christian movie and made by a Christian organization.

The story is about some missionaries in the 1950's that go to make contact with a South American primitive tribe. The tribe is recognized as the most violent in history. The five missionaries make peaceful contact, but they are shortly thereafter killed by the spear. The wife of one and the sister of another of the slain then go to live with the tribe. The conversions cascade, and the murder rate and even the warring with rival tribes is greatly reduced. The work of God was successful, and the deaths were clearly not in vain. The story was told in Life Magazine and in a book, Through the Gates of Splendor, by Elisabeth Elliot, which is also a documentary movie.

Naturally, Yahoo reports that the critics are killing it but that the general audience is loving it. The problem here though is bias on both sides.

Do I believe that a movie that treats Christianity and its believers with respect (especially one promoted as a Christian movie) is going to have a hard time getting good reviews? Yes, I do.

Do I believe that the Christians who watch the movie to see their world view supported are going to give it good reviews? Yes I do.

Both the critics and the audience has a built in bias. I am neither surprised nor informed by the difference between the critical reviews and the audience enthusiasm.

So what to do when you can't really trust either set of reviews?

Well, I am going to go see the movie. Not because I expect it to be good. It might suck as a movie, and I hope I'm honest enough to recognize that. But I want to know more about the story behind the movie, which is amazing. Check out the website to read about the story and the movie.

I also want more movies like The End of the Spear to be made and distributed. So it needs to be supported for the bigger cause. I want to see good movies with Chrisitan values and people at least respected if not promoted.

If the End of the Spear doesn't fall into the good movie category, so be it. I will let you know if it does. In the meantime, I'm willing to support studios in their early efforts to get it right.

Boortz On Bin Laden Tape

Because Boortz said it so well, I'm just going to post his statement here, in full.

BIN LADEN IS BACK

Yesterday's release of an audiotape supposedly from Osama Bin Laden was quite the media event. The world's head Islamic terrorist and most wanted man had some interesting things to say. Interestingly, though, bin Laden's script could easily been written by today's leading Democrats. Let's explore the finer points, shall we?

Offering a truce with the U.S. military, Bin Laden said "Our situation is getting better and better and your situation is getting worse and worse." Sounds like Cindy Sheehan or Nancy Pelosi, doesn't it? It's not true, of course. If it were, bin Laden wouldn't be talking truce. Then Osama commented on polls. "But I wanted to talk to you because of the lies that have been given to you by your President Bush when he commented on the results of the opinion polls in your country that showed the majority was for the pull out of U.S. forces in Iraq." Bin Laden went on to say Bush should follow those polls.

If indeed the voice on the tape is Bin Laden's, then that proves a point that's been being made for a long time. The Islamic terrorists we're fighting in the War On Terror know that the PR war is as important as the shooting and bombing war. When the mainstream media in the United States reports only bad news from Iraq and suppress the good, they are doing the work of Al-Qaeda, plain and simple. Bin Laden smiles.

The weird beard's message also, of course, contained the threat of future terrorist attacks: "The reason why we didn't have any such an operation in the United States is not because of security difficulties; the operation will take place and you will see such operations by the grace of God and by the will of God." Now understand the significance of this. Osama Bin Laden, who slaughtered 3,000 innocent people on September 11, 2001, has threatened to attack again. Will people take it seriously? Probably not. That's too bad...because the next attack could be much, much worse. Besides, more Americans can tell you who won the Golden Globes earlier this week than can tell you what was in Osama's latest rant.

And finally, Osama concluded with a statement that could have easily been faxed over from the Democratic National Committee: "So you see how Bush was misleading people. The opinion polls are for the pull out and it's important that opinion polls say the people didn't want to fight the Muslims in their land and they didn't want the Muslims to fight them in their land." At least now we know where the left is getting their talking points.

Maybe this will wake people up. We are engaged in a struggle for the survival of our American way of life...the struggle against Islamic terrorism. The sooner people realize the threat remains, the better. Sadly, more people care about celebrities, athletes and American Idol than they do about the war we're fighting.

Which suits Al-Qaeda just fine.

From Nealz Nuze.

UPDATE: Another good take, with humor. h/t Masked Mennace.

Carnival of Liberty XXVII and XXVIII

I have not been a good LLP member since November. I have not contributed to, or even directed you to, recent Carnivals of Liberty.

So let me direct you to the most recent two Carnivals of Liberty.

Go check out the Carnival of Liberty XXVII and XXVIII.

Go now, or you are a dirty stinking pinko commie.

Thomas Nails It. Again.

Here is the Supreme Court Opinion in the doctor assisted suicide case called Gonzales v. Oregon. (Warning: pdf file.)

By a 6-3 decision, the Oregon law was upheld and the Federal government was told that it could not interfere with a prescription to assist in suicide.

I happen to agree with this decision on Federalism, i.e., constitutional grounds. But this is essentially the same issue that was before the Court last year in the medical marijuana case, Gonzales v. Raich.

So imagine my initial confusion, having not paid close attention to the case, when I learned the line-up. The 3 justices who voted to uphold the Federal government's power were Thomas, Scalia and Roberts.

Now, Roberts wasn't involved in Raich, so no conclusion can be drawn from that. And Scalia's and O'Conner's votes seemed consistent. O'Conner voted to overturn the Federal intrusion in Raich, as she did in Oregon. Likewise, Scalia's dissent is consistent with his vote in Raich, which was to uphold the Federal power.

But what was up with the other justices -- those who upheld the Feds in the Raich opinion and defeated the Feds in Oregon? And what of Thomas? Did he switch sides as well?

Well, I was interested, so I read the opinion to find out. The correct answer is that Thomas is only one that got both opinions correct.

What makes these two cases seeminly inconsistent is that the issues on the table are not the same. The Federalism issue (i.e., the Constitutional issues) was not on the table in this new case. The only issue was Administrative law and the deference given to the Feds to enforce the Federal law. For those that have never heard of "Administrative Law" before, don't worry. You probably have more awake hours than those of us who have read the decisions cited in this opinion.

Last year, the issue was Congress' power to prohibit medicinal marijuana. Thomas (and O'Conner and Renquist) dissented on Federalism grounds. They said Congress' commerce clause power didn't go that far. Scalia surprisingly (to most conservatives I know, and to me) joined the majority for a 6-3 ruling. I agreed with the 3 dissenters.

Today, the Court decided, under the same Federal laws and regs, the doctor assisted suicide law. Now, keep in mind, there the issue before the Supreme Court was not "Federalism." This was NOT a constitutional law case -- it was actually a federal administrative law case citing to really boring but important adminstrative case law cases.

In today's opinion, Thomas filed a seperate dissent. It is short and sweet, and the only one who nails it. If you read it, you will understand why.

This is one example of why Thomas is a good justice. He applied the law correctly. He relied on the case he dissented from on the Constitutional issue, and though he clearly doesn't like the outcome (for constitutional reasons), he pointed out that the other 5 justices on the Court were inconsistent in their reading of the same Federal law in back to back terms.

The Court blew the Constitutional issue last term. They blew the administrative law question this term. The only justice who was right in both cases was Thomas.

Pop Quiz

Who said:

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America" and at black communities, too, for tearing themselves apart with violence and political infighting.

"Surely God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country,"

No, not Pat Robertson or Jerry Farwell. Keep reading.

"Surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses. But surely he is upset at black America also. We're not taking care of ourselves."

[He] also promised that New Orleans will be a "chocolate" city again. Many of the city's black neighborhoods were heavily damaged by Katrina.

"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans _ the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

The correct answer is New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, a black Democrat.

I always thought New Orleans was choclate on the outside, but with a caramel and peanut butter center.

Nagin went on to channel the spirit of MLK for a personal interview, and he sounded an awful lot like Voltaire. Read it.

Gay Thursday (OK, its Monday - so sue me)

Reviving a long time tradition at the Cheese, we renew Gay Thursday*, recognizing that its Monday, but I couldn't find any really gay* stories last Thursday.

The Golden Globes are out. This is definitely a colorful, happy day for the nominees. And they include:

(1) Brokeback Mountain, a story about two rugged gay cowboys concealing their homosexual affair. This led the field with seven nominations, including best drama queen.

(2) "Capote" star Philip Hoffman was nominated for playing the happy, colorful Truman Capote.

(3) "Transamerica" star Felicity Huffman was nominated for a role in which she plays a man preparing for surgery to become a woman.

Oh, and some movies and actors who play run of the mill mobsters, adulterers and liberal journalists fighting against Commie bashing Senators also got nominated.

This all sounds so familar.

* Gay: 1 a : happily excited : MERRY b : keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits 2 a : BRIGHT, LIVELY b : brilliant in color

For more Gay* Thursday fun, check out A Guide to Midwestern Culture.

Sometimes You Just Can't Get A Break

Anti-death penalty activists suffered another devastating political blow today when they learned that another man put to death was actually guilty of the crimes for which he had been sentenced.

RICHMOND, Va. — Death penalty opponents said new DNA tests confirming the guilt of a murderer who was put to death in Virginia while still proclaiming his innocence will do nothing to end their fight to abolish capital punishment.

Their disappintment was unmistakable, but their enthusiasm that one day they will find an innocent man (or woman or womyn) that had been put to death for a crime he (or she or something in between) did not commit cannot be shaken.

Death penalty opponents have argued for years that the risk of a grave and irreversible mistake by the criminal justice system is too great to allow capital punishment. A finding of innocence in the Coleman case would have been explosive news and almost certainly would have had a powerful effect on the public's attitude toward the death penalty. But despite the finding of guilt, death penalty opponents insist the results do not mean capital punishment is infallible.

"Obviously, one case does not in any way reflect on the correctness of the other 1,000 executions we've had in the last 30 years," said Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project. "Other governors should take their lead from Governor Warner and do post-execution testing in their cases, because ... there's no reason not to — it's all about getting to the truth."

Solidarity to my brothers soft on crime. I'm rooting with you for the death of an innocent man.

Dreamer

America recognizes today as a day off (for many) to celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. specifically and the civil rights movement generally. I like to think of this holiday as the civil rights holiday, personally.

The way this holiday came into being, through political pressure of boycotts primarily, is both unseemly and sad. I think that a civil rights movement holiday is worth having, though I would prefer that it be in June or August when we could use a real holiday. I mean, do we have to crowd more than half of our holidays in the 7 week period of late November to mid-January?

Anyway, the only Holiday to officially recognize only one man's birth other than Christmas is today. rememberance, followed by a lament.

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

There are few civil rights leaders any more that focus on true racial injustice. Today, we have Jesse "Shakedown" Jackson funneling money to his "charities" and love children in exchange for not boycotting corporate giants that pay him to go away. We have the "Rev. Sharpton" who starts riots and makes his claim to fame defaming police officers on a false charge.

Perhpas we have made enough progress that the truely focused civil rights leader would not have enough to do. That is probably not true, but hopefully it will be soon. In any event, we have the media telling us what the true civil rights problems are today, and I stand still in confusion.

The most famous passage of that speech is the one most ignored by the race warlords of today.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

Today, that passage has been rewritten.

For example, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin (who, by Atlanta Mayor historic standards is a diamond among poorly cut cubic zirconias) cuts to heart of the message:

Franklin asked listeners to "comprehend the full message of Dr. King" — by helping the young, the old and the poor and demanding more federal funding for Hurricane Katrina victims.

Ah, yes. The Federal funding part of that speech was unmistakeable.

Today, the dream is about everything except recognizing people for the content of their character. In Georgia, we are told that a race neutrual law to require a simple photo ID to prove your identity when you vote is "against what MLK stood for." Even Mrs. King spoke against this simple, common sense law.

Today, we are told that executing a black man (not a white or Asian man presumably, but probably a hispanic man) actually guilty of murder is racist justice. We are told that SAT tests that meassure vocabulary and math skills are culterally biased. People with certain skin colors should be allowed to have lower scores for the same rewards, like entrance to college, we are told. This is because somehow racism (Note: On academic tests, Asians do not get to claim racism. They do too well, so they are allowed to be discriminated against.) made them do poorer on the test.

The truth is that race warlords are out of business as soon as we actually recognize that progress has been made and discrimination is no longer acceptable. So expect a whole lot of "we still have so far to go" endings to news stories today about Dr. King.

No favored group typically gives up its favor willingly. So long as we recognize that any racial classification is OK, we will have racism, racial anger and scapegoating by some people.

Also, being judged solely on the content of one's character is tough business. The mere concept is very scary for some people. People like Jesse Jackson and Al Shapton. It can also be scary for those that fought against Dr. King. You know, people like Senator Robert KKK Byrd.

Let's demand that Dr. King's dream be recognized. Let's demand it today.

Award For Thoughtful Brevity

Sometimes, I find myself in awe of someone who can state a coherent, excellent argument of a concept worthy of a whole book in just a few words.

Jeff, of Beautiful Autrocities, also a writer, provocateur and nice guy, and owner of one of the funniest sites on the internet BTW, did just that in a comment to one of his own posts.

Since I don't have his gift of brevity, let me give you a long winded background.

Jeff wrote a great post noting the real enemy to the homosexual community represented by radical Islam. Mark Steyn then recognized one of Jeff's great lines ['Under Shariah, you'll really be giving head, & not in a good way' ] and nominated it for a Pulitzer. Jeff, being the good blogger he is, noted Steyn's comment in a new post.

A comment to that post by reader David Thomson stated as follows:

Jeff and I probably have our differences. I am adamantly against gay marriage (my views are premised on secular concerns and have next to nothing to do with religious values). Other than that, though, homosexuals should have equal rights. Among them, is the ability to persuade America’s voters to disagree with me. Alas, I may ultimately be on the losing side!

Jeff responded with such a brilliant comment it is worthy of its own post. It sums up nearly all identity politics perfectly.

FYI I agree that subverting the social contract it's taken hundreds of years to develop is not a good idea, but support civil unions. The gay 'community' - by which I mean the highly visible group that won't shut up - seems to be following the black 'community' right off the identity politics cliff. It's a self-centered, victim-oriented worldview in which anyone who disagrees with you is a hater, out to GET you. Which precludes the need for thoughtful debate. Then you blame your self-marginalization on - homophobia! (or racism, misogyny, fill-in-the-blank)

Great point, Jeff. And I second the Pulitzer. I Lost My Head Over Islam is a great post.

Of course, he still doesn't link to No Government Cheese, but I'm not one to quible over quid pro quos.

More Hot Air, or Putting the 'Green' in Greenhouse Gasses

Since KJ brought up the draft, I thought this was timely:

IT'S not just farting cows and belching sheep that spew out methane. Living plants have been disgorging millions of tonnes of the potent greenhouse gas into the atmosphere every year - without anybody noticing.

The concentration of methane in the atmosphere has almost tripled since pre-industrial times. Environmental scientists thought they had identified all natural sources where bacteria convert organic plant matter to methane, such as swamps, wetlands and rice paddies. These bacteria only thrive in wet, oxygen-poor environments; they cannot survive in air.

So Frank Keppler, an environmental engineer at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany, was surprised when he saw signs of methane being emitted by plants he was examining in normal air. "If we were following the textbook, we would have ignored it as a mistake," he says.

[...]

This would make plants responsible for roughly 10 to 30 per cent of [annual] global methane production.

According to "The lungs of the planet are belching methane," scientists had begun to notice the disparity in their models and the appearance of higher-than-expected levels of methane coming from rainforests. Keppler's discovery, sure to be the proud progenitor of many late-night and water cooler jokes, may explain the discrepancies and help scientists amend their strategies for controlling man-made emissions.

I anticipate a decade of scrimmage between scientists and activists before significant clarity is disseminated to the masses.

Yes, it's ironic that because of the rainforests we'll have to work harder to minimize our pollutants, but we were headed that direction anyway. Can't just blame it on the rainforest. Then again, maybe we can, considering George Carlin's hypothesis on "saving the planet."

Thusday's Money Quotes

When pro-lifers go too far with this whole conception thing. Money quote:

"To follow her philosophy would require officers to carry guns, radios and pregnancy testers, and I don't think we want to go there," said Sgt. Dave Norton, the Phoenix police officer who cited Dickinson on Nov. 8.

Ann Coulter discusses the Alito hearings, and she makes me laugh. Money quote:

The Republican Party was founded expressly as the anti-slavery party, which to a great extent remains their position today. Having won that one, today's Republican Party stands for life, limited government and national defense. And today's Democratic Party stands for ... the right of women to have unprotected sex with men they don't especially like. We're the Blacks-Aren't-Property/Don't-Kill-Babies party. They're the Hook-Up party.

And is it just me, or are the Alito hearings more compelling TV than the Roberts hearings? An excerpt to prove my point. Of course it isn't always pretty. [See photo at right.]

At least the Senators (of both parties) are having hissy fits, even though they all seem to be equally outmatched intelectually by Alito as they were Roberts.

It is enough to make you think twice about the slipery slope of redefining marriage. Look, I'm no Rick Santorum. I'm just saying some people actually do want the definition of "marriage" to be opened beyond the current homosexual union demand. As a British woman recently proved. The money quote of the Woman/Dophin marriage ceremony:

"It's not a perverted thing. I do love this dolphin. He's the love of my life," she said Saturday, upon her return to London.

And his taste for fish certainly doesn't hurt . . . . Never mind.

Charlotte, North Carolina was recently recognized as having the best educated kids among "large cities." Yes, Charlotte, North Carolina. Thomas Sowell, who moved from Charlotte to New York as a child, recounts how that used to not be the case. He wonders what changed. His is money quote:

That a Southern city's school children would now top the list of big city test scores may be due to the fact that the South has not jumped on the bandwagon of the latest fads in education to the same extent as avant garde places like New York City, where spending per pupil is about 50 percent above the national average.

Pro-communist dictator, former entertainer, current traitor, and I actually mean that, Harry Belafonte, recently called President Bush the biggest terrorist in the world. Where? While at the right hand of Venezeualan commie dictator Chavez. Michelle Malkin collects some of Belafonte's worst offenses. The money quote:

Belafonte, in other words, was supporting the Soviet bloc in its Cold War with the United States. And he was doing so in full embrace with the East German prison state. Here, where the notorious secret police, the Stasi, ruled by waging a perpetual witch-hunt against the entire population - Belafonte had only love and good wishes for their success.

Belafonte is a tyrant loving commie. His record proving such is long and distinguished. But don't worry. He will making an appearance soon with Senator Hillary Clinton. We'll see how she handles that.

Been Busy; Back Now

Sorry I have been kind of quiet for a few days.

I had oral argument in the Court of Appeals today on a rather large, complicated lawsuit.

So, both sides have appealed multiple issues, but I get to start out.

Four minutes in, I'm making my great analogy on why I should win the case outright on a technicality, and the Judge asks:

"Assuming that argument doesn't work, counsel, what else do you have."

KJ: "Well, your honor, all I have is my jokes. I don't sing or dance."

************************************************************************************

It Is Hall Time

Today is the day Baseball votes on the Hall of Fame. It is also the day Virginia Tech votes on its Hall of Shame.

Some thoughts.

The focus this year is on the bullpen. It takes a vote on 75% of the ballots to make it into the Hall of Fame.

Guys who have fallen short in years past include one of the first true closers, Bruce Sutter and fellow reliever and closer Rich Gossage.

Bruce Sutter should be a lock. He ushered in one of the biggest changes to the game (the closer) prior to the steroid era and popularized the split finger pitch, one of the biggest pitching innovations in the game. Sutter was still not used as a true closer it today, though. Sutter often pitched 2 and 3 innings to close games. Today's closers often come in at the start of the ninth.

Goose Gossage was one of the first feared fire-ball closers in his era, had a great name, and like Sutter pitched much harder than today's one inning closers. He should join Sutter on the stand.

Also, outfielder Jim Rice, who apparently was not a nice guy to reporters in his day, has had his Hall of Fame induction postponed long enough. Induct him. He is a no brainer in my mind. Like Sutter and Gossage, Rice and all other Hall of Fame players must be viewed in their time period. For a period of 12 years -- 1975-86 -- Rice led all American League players in 12 different offensive categories, including home runs (350), RBI (1,276), total bases (3,670), slugging percentage (.520), runs (1,098) and hits (2,145). Twelve years of dominance is enough for me. But he also has another distinction. Among all major leaguers, only nine players have compiled as high a career batting average (.298) and as many homers. They are: Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott, Hank Aaron, Jimmie Foxx, Lou Gehrig, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Stan Musial. Hall of Famers all. Rice should make it 10 of 10.

Andre Dawson also has a case to be made. No eligible player has ever collected as many hits (2,774) or RBI (1,591) without becoming a Hall of Famer. He also has an MVP while with the Cubs, one of the few won by a player on a last place team. Dawson spent much of his career battling his own knees. He played hard and was very good for several years. I think he probably deserves a vote, as well.

Also hoping for more love is Bert Blylevin. He has 287 wins (300 is considered automatic Hall of Fame material) and is 5th all time in strikeouts. But he has a low winning percentage, in part due to his career of awful run support.

The guys who are first time eligibles are not a bumper crop, though there are many good, but not Hall of Fame, players on the list. Lee Smith, Orel Hershiser, who had some great years, and Dwight Gooden, who also had some great years, are just not quite Hall of Fame material.

Other guys are hoping to see thier stock rise.

I don't think Albert Belle is really worth considering.

Will Clark has a case to be made. He was a great clutch player, had good lifetime numbers and did nothing but win games, including playoff and world series games. He won't make it.

Other guys hoping to see a rise in their vote totals include Andre Dawson, Jack Morris and Bert Blyleven. I'd look closely at Jack Morris, but I don't think I'd vote for him. I'm not sold on Andre or Bert.

My ballot would be Sutter, Goose, and Rice.

UPDATE: As I was preparing this, the Hall announced its vote. Only Sutter made it. I am glad for him, but disappointed for Rice and Goose.

The Only Draft Has Been From Hot Air

When Bush was running for re-election, there was a constant refrain from the Left that President Bush would re-institute the draft. Never mind that he denied it, and that the only bill in the House to bring back the draft was proposed by Democrat Chuck Rangel of New York.

No, the fear mongering method of turning young voters against President Bush was to threaten over and over again that President Bush would, in fact would be forced to, bring back the draft.

Kerry suggested it. Paul Krugman suggested it. NYT columnist Bob Herbert said it. (Who is this Bob Herbert? This sums him up nicely.) Michael Moore said it and promoted the idea on his site. Lots of leftist activists said it.

It still has not happened. It still isn't being discussed. It isn't going to happen.

Will they admit they were wrong? Will they admit they knew they were wrong when the accusation was made?

***crickets chirping***

Alabamastan Troopers -- Why People Hate Cops.

Alabama State Troopers Are Jerks.

This commentary is made with all due respect for the men in blue generally. However, when I have only two stories of travel in the not so great state of Alabamastan, and both involve BS stops by Alabama State Troopers, I detect a pattern.

On Friday, Mrs. KJ had to go to southern Alabamastan on business. Because it was an unfamiliar area for her and most intelligent Americans, she took "our" new car (which I plan to drive regularly), which has a built in GPS satelinte and navigation system. Our new car was purchased the last week in December from a relative. The vehicle still has a 30 day Indiana paper tag, all perfectly legal, until Georgia issues us our permanent tag.

My wife, knowing she was in Alabamastan, was using the cruise control at 57 in a 55. She saw the poilce officer clock her and knew how fast she was going. He pulled her over anyway. The questioning was a full fleged cross-examination. He pulled her over for "going to little too fast over that hill." That was a lie, of course. He pulled her over for driving a luxery vehicle with a paper tag.

He wanted to know what kind of tag she had on the vehicle. He wanted to know why she was in Alabamastan with an Indiana tag. "On business." "Why do you have a Georgia licence?" "I live in Georgia." "Your car was bought in Indiana?" "Yes. I have family there. I was visiting them the last week of December." "I don't get that. So you just went and bought yourself a luxery vehicle while you were in Indiana to see family?" "Yes, sir, Officer." "Must be nice." "Yes, sir." [Irony alert: we bought the car from an Indiana State Trooper.]

Anyway, he made her roll all her windows down so he could look into the car at all angles. Then he gave her a written warning for speeding (he didn't identify her actual speed on the warning of course) before letting her go. To that officer, who played the class warfare game a pulled over a car with a legal temporary tag and harrassed my wife for no reason, I offer a mighty "FU."

But the story doesn't end there. This is the second such BS stop my family has experienced in Alabamastan. On 9/12/2001 I was driving through Alabamastan with two other attorneys. We had been in Texas on 9/11 for a deposition. We decided to merge our rental cars and drive back in one car. My rental car was slightly largest, so we chose it.

At around 5 a.m. we get pulled over by Alabamastan State Patrol. His reason? I swear to God: "You made in illegal lane change back there." "I thought I used my signal, officer." "You did, but you turned it off before actually crossing the white lines. That made it illegal." Then the questioning started. Of course, he really pulled us over for driving a Texas rental car in Alabama.

Now, mind you, we were three white guys in suits. Even though we were clearly not terrorists (which he was not looking for) or drug runners (which he was looking for) or black or hispanic (which I'm sure he was counting on), he asked to look through our trunk. Since we didn't want to wait for the dogs to come to sniff the car, we consented. He didn't give us a ticket, and he eventually let us go home after wasting a good 15-30 minutes of our time.

He pulled us over for no reason other than we were driving a rental car, and he wanted to check it for drugs with no basis for suspision. A lot of people think we were pulled over b/c of 9/11, but I don't believe that. He wasn't looking for terrorists. He was looking for drugs, and rental cars from Texas probably met a courier profile. He then had to invent a reason to pull us over. A belated FU to him as well.

Alabamastan State Troopers are the king of the made up stops. But to their defense - I don't think they racially profile. They like pulling cars over on racially neutral profiles and harrassing people of all genders and races.

Alito Confirmation Countdown Begins

Looks like we're gearing up for Alito's confirmation hearings.

Fox News has an in-depth piece on the latest, including the "Democrat's key witness" who confirms he won't be testifying about Alito's "controversial" anti-affirmative action CAP membership, but "can't elaborate." Can someone explain to me why the Democrats need witnesses? Nevermind.

Reuters has "Alito's fellow judges back his U.S. high-court bid." That must have hurt them to post, or they're counting on some juicy Alito dirt to surface soon.

ABC News notes "Confirmation Hearing Will Be No Walk in the Park for Alito." Just, "Duh."

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer writes "O'Connor, Alito differ in style, views." Which, on reading, the O'Connor bio and comparison angle sounds oddly familiar. I think they ran this same article in the early Roberts days, before he was bumped up to replace Rhenquist, and are re-running it now with Alito in place of Roberts. Still good stuff.

CP @ GMC.

Celebration As Art Form

I'm a little old school when in comes to sports celebrating. I like it when officials punish taunting and celebrating and trash talking. I like it when a player knocks the snot out of the other player, then without a word reaches down and helps the woosey opponent back to his feet. That's just me.

But some people like the celebrations. The NFL, which for a while tried to stop the ridiculous celebrations for doing your job, and was briefly called the "No Fun League" by people too shortsighted to realize that the fun of the league was supposed to be in the sport of football and not in the sport of poor sportsmanship, relaxed its "no celebration" penalty a few years ago. As a result, the celebration has become prominant again.

The best at it this year appears to be Bengal wide out Chad Johnson (a photo of his "Football CPR" celebration above). Chad, lucky enough to play for the Bengals in a year that they don't suck, Johnson was able to score a number of touchdowns, and he proved quite original in his celebratory methods.

The top ten list of his TD celebrations is here. Some great photos, including a video clip of his Riverdance celebration, may be found here.

Enjoy.

Florida Supreme Court Hates Poor And Minority Students

This is of course an accurate headline, I think. By a 5-2 decision, the Florida Supreme Court has struck down Florida's voucher program.

Now, keep in mind, this program only applied to students who were attending schools that were deemed to be "failing" for two years in a row or something like that. So the Court essentially ruled that no matter how bad your public school was, it was unconstitutional to give you back your own tax dollars to send you to a private school that might be able to teach you how to read.

Avoiding the first amendment establishment clause question that the U.S. Supreme Court already ruled was OK, the Florida Supreme Court focused on a state constitutional provision.

In a 5-2 ruling, the high court said the program violates the Florida Constitution's requirement of a uniform system of free public education.

Voucher opponents had also argued that the program violated the separation of church and state in giving tax dollars to parochial schools, and a lower court agreed. But the state Supreme Court did not address that issue.

"Uniform and free." Uniform of course means "public." And "crappy." And "failing." And "incompetent." But at least the students are given the same, uniform crappy, failing and incompetent education.

Showing utter arrogance, some actually claim that is a victory for the poor students who were finally offered a way out of their public school nightmare.

The ruling was a victory for public schools across the state and nation, said Ron Meyer, lead attorney for a coalition that challenged the voucher program.

"Students using vouchers will now be welcomed back into Florida public schools," Meyer said in a statement. "It decides with finality that the voucher program is unconstitutional."

Of course they will be welcomed back. More students means more money for the school, which means higher administrator salaries. And more stupid kids who aren't educated. But screw them. At least the school district gets to squander, er, I mean spend the money.

So who supported the elimination of this limited, student friendly voucher program. The usual suspects of those looking out for the poor students.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support the state. Voucher opponents included the state teachers union, the Florida PTA, the NAACP and the League of Women Voters.

The ruling did not directly affect nearly 30,000 students in two other voucher programs for disabled and poor children, but it could be cited as a precedent.

I can't wait for the all the handicapped kids to lose their private voucher money, too. Somehow, I'll bet the Florida Supreme Court finds a way to distinguish those kids. After all, the public school don't really want them because they are expensive.