From KITV in Honolulu...

...more Hot TV News Babes.

It looks like Ledeen and the shade of Angleton were wrong on this one.

Remember the first London bombing on July 7?

One of the four suicide attackers who bombed London's transit system on July 7 made a dramatic farewell in a videotape that also included al-Qaida's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri calling the subway attack "a slap to the face" of Britain and warning of more bloodshed.

Mohammad Sidique Khan, a Briton of Pakistani ancestry, said in the tape broadcast on Thursday that Westerners had failed to heed previous warnings. "Therefore we will talk to you in a language that you understand. Our words are dead until we give them life with our blood."

The two men did not appear together in the tape _ instead, shots of each were edited together _ and al-Zawahri did not mention Khan. A newscaster on al-Jazeera, which aired the tape, said Khan's last "will" came as part of a long tape that consisted mostly of al-Zawahri talking.

But the association of the al-Qaida leader and the 30-year-old suicide bomber was the strongest link yet of a role by the terror organization in the attacks on three subway trains and a double-decker bus, which killed 56 people.

It was not clear where or how long before the July 7 bombings the tape of Khan had been made.

Khan did not claim responsibility in the tape for the impending bombings in the name of al-Qaida. But he said he was inspired by al- Zawahri, by al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, and by the leader of al- Qaida in Iraq, Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi.

"Until we feel security, you will be our targets," he said, addressing himself to Westerners. "Until you will stop the bombing, gassing, imprisonment and torture of my people, we will not stop this fight."

Apparently foreshadowing his plan to die, he said: "I'm sure by now the media has painted a suitable picture of me. Its predictable propaganda machine naturally will tack a spin on things to suit the government and scare the masses to conform to their power- and wealth- obsessed agenda."

Heehee. He said power and wealth obsessed. Heehee.

Sorry.

Khan spoke with a heavy Yorkshire accent, sported a trimmed beard, wore a red-and-white checked keffiyeh and a dark jacket and appeared to be sitting against a wall lined with an ornate carpet.

In his remarks, al-Zawahri did not say outright that his terror group carried out the bombings but said the attacks were a direct response to Britain's foreign policies and its rejection of a truce that al- Qaida offered Europe in April 2004. (Thanks to Breitbart.com and Drudge for the heads up.)

A major smile from Get Fuzzy.

Scattisi prego per ingrandire.

You may have won this round wine, but beer shall rise again!

PLCB (PA's antiquated government booze monopoly. A leftover from Prohibition.): Wine Outsips Beer As America's Drink of Choice

For the first time since 1992 when Gallup began tracking beverage preferences, wine has surpassed beer as America's alcoholic drink of choice.

In the latest poll taken July 7-10, 39 percent of participants preferred wine, 36 percent preferred beer and 21 percent chose liquor as their drink of choice. As recently as 2000, beer topped wine 43 percent to 31 percent and was the top selection again in 2004 by a 39 to 33 percent margin. The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board says the shift is no surprise.
(Thanks to RedNova via Yahoo!News for the heads up.)

Psssst! Wanna know how we can tell the Saudis, Hugo Chavez, et al. to go choke on their oil?

Two words, kiddies.

Oil shale.

Of course, it is not that easy. First, we would have to round up every person who considers himself even a casual environmentalist and ship them all to countries with birthrates lower than replacement level.

In a couple of generations, those countries will be our summer homes.

I know what you are wondering. "Why so giddy, Fyodor?"

It is good news from Rand Corporation via the Casper Star Tribune via Yahoo!News:

The United States has an oil reserve at least three times that of Saudi Arabia locked in oil shale deposits beneath federal land in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming, according to a study released Wednesday.

Hooray! But we have known this for decades.

But researchers at the RAND Corp. cautioned the federal government to go carefully, balancing the environmental and economic impacts with development pressure to prevent an oil shale bust later.

"We've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East," said James Bartis, RAND senior policy researcher and the report's lead author. However, he added, "If we go faster, there's a good chance we're going to end up at a dead end. You could end up bogged down.

"For years, the industry and the government considered oil shale -- rock that yields petroleum when heated -- too expensive to be a feasible source of oil.

Why now? $$!

However, oil prices, which spiked above $70 a barrel this week, combined with advances in technology could soon make it possible to tap the estimated 500 billion to 1.1 trillion recoverable barrels, the report found.

That could meet a quarter of the nation's current oil needs for the next 400 years.

But the risks are high. It's unclear how new technologies will affect the land, air and the Colorado River, Bartis said.

There goes my giddy, kiddies. It will never happen. The left-Luddites, along with their allies the soccer moms ("Don't you dare hurt a pretty tree or move one of the rocks God placed there for a reason or 'NO SEX FOR YOU!'") will never let it happen.

But we did have fun for a few paragraphs, didn't we kiddies?

The study, sponsored in part by the Energy Department, comes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which disrupted Gulf oil production and sent crude oil prices surging.

It also comes about a month after the president signed a new energy policy, which dramatically reversed the nation's approach to oil shale, opening the door within a few years to companies that want to tap deposits on public lands.

Bartis said he hopes lawmakers will take the study's recommendations into consideration as they make future decisions on oil shale.

The U.S. has tried to develop oil shale in the West before. Sky-high oil prices in the 1970s led Congress under President Carter to create the Synthetic Fuels Corp., to find new, domestic sources of crude. Entire towns in Colorado were created -- and all but abandoned after oil prices bottomed out in the 1980s.

Ack! Goober I!

The RAND researchers estimate the federal, state and local governments would rake in about $10 billion a year from lease payments, royalties and taxes if the industry produced 3 million barrels a day.

Production would also likely cause oil prices to fall by as much as 5 percent, saving American oil consumers up to $20 billion a year and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The report also says oil shale mining, above-ground processing and disposing of spent shale could cause significant environmental problems. Shell Oil is working on a process that would heat the oil shale in place, which could have less effect on the environment.

"We need to be focusing in on what are the implications," Bartis said. "I'm not saying this is a show-stopper, I'm saying it's important enough we have to have the answers."

The study recommends the federal government take a few low-cost steps to move oil shale production forward, such as adding oil shale to the Energy Department's research and development profile and archiving information on oil shale resources, technologies and impacts of development.

But it also urges the government not to make any major investments in oil shale development until private firms are willing to invest without major government subsidies.

Huh? WTF?

Let me see if I've got this straight:

The feds will not hand over any of our taxes to the oil companies for oil shale oil production until the oil companies invest in oil shale oil production with the understanding there will be no tax money given to them for oil shale oil production. At which point the feds will hand our taxes to the oil companies to subsidize their oil shale oil production.

Kafka lives!

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, a champion of oil shale development, said the report's statistics on the amount of available oil prove the United States must move as quickly as possible.

"Our country runs on energy," he said. "We can't sit back and hope we're going to get all we need from world production."

I did not know that.

Elvis Presley and Harold Lloyd were first cousins.

Fats Domino is safe.

Thanks to AP and Yahoo!News for the good news.

Fats Domino apparently rode out the hurricane in his New Orleans home and was rescued by boat from his flooded neighborhood, his daughter Karen Domino White said Thursday.

The 77-year-old R&B legend had been reported missing Thursday by his longtime agent, Al Embry, and his niece, Checquoline Davis.

White said late Thursday that she saw a photograph of her father that had been taken Monday by the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The photo showed Domino, whose real name is Antoine Domino, in jeans and a blue-striped shirt being helped off a boat by rescuers.

"We're very relieved," White said in a telephone interview.

White said she has been unable to speak to Domino and had no information on his wife, Rosemary, or any other family members in the flooded city.

Domino, who has rarely appeared in public in recent years, has a home in the 9th ward, a low-lying area of the flooded city. On Sunday night, Embry said he spoke over the phone to Domino, who told him that he planned to remain in New Orleans despite the order to evacuate.

I get mail, Objectivistly speaking.

Responding to my post regarding totalitarian panic over ID requirements for voters (Is that Robert Byrd in your pocket, or are you just tired?),



Bohemian Like You said...

Someone call the hyperbole cops on these idiots...

This reminds me of an Ayn Rand quote I saw and then posted on my site the other day.

It goes a little something like this:

"The uncontested absurdities of today are the accepted slogans of tomorrow. They come to be accepted by degrees, by precedent, by implication, by erosion, by default, by dint of constant pressure on one side and constant retreat on the other - until the day when they are suddenly declared to be the country's official ideology." ~Ayn Rand


I must reiterate: That Ayn Rand stuff just creeps me out. After slogging through Atlas Shrugged in high school, I thought "So what?" People don't and won't think that way, much less act that way.

The clincher came later when I learned Ayn Rand was just another idiot human with a messed up personal life. Human nature always gets in the way.

Memo to anyone who believes in (or is looking for) a "system": Systems do not work with humans. Hence the genius of the Catholic Church. It knows humans never change.

Anyway, invoking the Theory of Politically Friendly Forces, yadda, yadda, yadda...

B.L.Y. has a point. Those of us who can still think must stop the totalitarians from controlling the language. (Remember when you could use the word "gay"* properly without drawing snickers?) The only way to do this is to get your kids out of the government schools.

Then, after a couple generations of hard work, we won't have to worry as much about the fascists defining the terms of debate and corrupting the pursuit of knowledge.

BTW, hyperbole cops???!!! If those babykilling nazi shilpit wee nyaffs ever read this, I am doomed.

* 1 a : happily excited : MERRY b : keenly alive and exuberant : having or inducing high spirits

2 a : BRIGHT, LIVELY b : brilliant in color

3 : given to social pleasures; also : LICENTIOUS

Those folks on the Gulf Coast are our neighbors. You know what to do.

First, last, and always, PRAY. Pray for the survivors. Pray for the repose of the souls of those killed by Hurricane Katrina. Pray for the families and friends. Pray for the relief workers, the cops, the firemen, the troops, and the technicians. Pray for the volunteers.

It is time to step up once again, kiddies. "Do unto others", "I was naked and you clothed me", et cetera.

Catholic Relief Services is on the job. The absolute best of crisis charities needs money now.

Mail Checks To:

Catholic Charities USA
Hurricane Katrina
PO Box 25168
Alexandria, VA 22313-9788
Call:(800) 919-9338

Contribute Now Online


Agencies Impacted:

Catholic Charities of Miami
Catholic Charities of New Orleans
Catholic Community Services of Baton Rouge
Catholic Social Services of Houma-Thibodaux
Catholic Social and Community Services of Biloxi, MS
Catholic Charities of Jackson, MS
Catholic Social Services of Mobile, AL


And, as always, give generously to the special collections for hurricance disaster relief in your local parish.

Peace of the Day.

Today is the anniversary of the official end of World War II. On this date in 1945, the Empire of Japan signed the formal surrender documents.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is St. Valentine's Day! No, not that one. I mean the fourth century bishop of Strasbourg. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Colossians 1:15-20.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 5:33-39.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to Saint Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

The Find The Hottest TV News Babe Contest continues...

...with the babes of WJXT in Jacksonville.

From top to bottom: Victoria Warren, Hetal Gandhi,
Lauren Freeman, and Jennifer Bauer.

Escape From New Orleans!

Thus spake Zardoz.

Zardoz: The gun is good.

Exterminators: The gun is good.

Zardoz: The penis is evil. The penis shoots seeds, and makes new life, and poisons the earth with a plague of men, as once it was. But the gun shoots death, and purifies the earth of the filth of brutals. Go forth and kill!


Mr. Bruckheimer, have I got a movie idea for you!

First, Jerry, you gotta buy the franchise from John Carpenter. Should be no problem. He hasn't had a hit in a while, probably needs cash.

Second, get hold of Kurt Russell. We gotta have him reprise the role of Snake Plisskin. Who cares how old he is? Kurt's a professional. He survived all those Disney films as a kid, didn't he?

Ok, here's the plot. America's sweetheart and the World's Greatest Mom, Cindy Sheehan, is trapped in post-apocalyptic New Orleans where she was protesting a tv station's broadcasting of old Gomer Pyle and F Troop reruns.

Well meaning but misguided and violent minorities (Ooo! And the poor! Gotta have some poor folks! Ooo! Ooo! I got it, Jerry baby. Poor descendents of African slaves!) are holding La Sheehan hostage and demanding to see the almighty Zardoz himself, CuriousGeorge FlyingBushMonkey. (Irony, baby.) 

And don't you worry. Boorman will kill to make this picture. We'll throw him a bone.


Snake dons his aluminum foil hat and is sent in after being told Pat Robertson will beat the living tar out of a Che Guevara t-shirt if he doesn't save her in 24 hours.
Snake's black helicopter is shot down by poor descendents of African slaves whose minds are being controlled by BushMonkey through the government cheese they ate as children and crashes into the remnants of the SuperDome.

For the next forty minutes Snake battles Catholics, Repansycans, Birchers, Klansmen, Rotarians, people who have never seen Sex and the City, and assorted other enemies of progress.

Snake gets sapped down by a condom filled with a roll of quarters and is taken to evil BushMonkey's secret evil lair, an evil offshore oil rig that pours millions of gallons of evil black poison into the Gulf of Mexico just because it can.

Of course, La Sheehan is being held there as well, but before Snake can untie himself and rescue her, Bush the Elder and King Goober II, (in a dazzling display of the triumph of diplomacy over force) convince the almighty Zardoz to go home and ride his mountain bike.

The camera fades to black as Goober II prepares to deposit his seed on Cindy's only dress and Snake kills everyone not on her (or his) knees.

You love it, right? Call me. We'll do lunch.

Is that Robert Byrd in your pocket, or are you just tired?

There’s a Klansman in your pocket.

Eeeek!

Now, before you panic, please know that I do not refer to the hooded secret member that many of you no doubt immediately feared, but I refer to an insidious intimidator nonetheless. Obviously, I’m talking about your photo ID -- the most intimidating thing any American will ever have to face on Election Day -- at least according to the ACLU.

After a recent Justice Department approval of Georgia’s new anti-fraud law, requiring voters to show one of six reliable forms of photo ID before voting in upcoming elections, the ACLU’s Daniel Levitas claimed that "The decision to clear the measure now gives Georgia the most draconian voter identification requirement in the nation."

Photo ID is draconian.

Wasn't he the Russian dude from Rocky IV?

Representative John Lewis, Democrat, claimed that asking a voter to show photo ID “takes us back to the dark past of literacy tests and other insidious devices that were carefully devised to hamper the participation of all of our citizens in the political process."

Photo ID is insidious.

David Becker, formerly a trial lawyer for the Justice Department, wrote a recent commentary for the Washington Post, entitled Reviving Jim Crow?, in which he called the Photo ID law “one of the single most discriminatory pieces of voting legislation of recent years.”

Photo ID is discriminatory.

Photo ID is the new Jim Crow.

Photo ID is the Klansman in your pocket.

(From Imaginary-Americans: An Increasingly Disenfranchised Minority
by Mac Johnson of Human Events Online)

Can you guess what they're selling?

Wrong. It's Yahoo. Go figure.

'Fats' Domino Missing in New Orleans; No Comment From Green Day, Other Knuckleheads.

Before NBC, MTV or anyone else puts on a telethon to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, they might want to explore some ancillary issues. To wit: New Orleans is a city famous for its famous musicians, but many of them are missing. Missing with a capital M.

To begin with, one of the city’s most important legends, Antoine "Fats" Domino, has not been heard from since Monday afternoon. Domino’s rollicking boogie-woogie piano and deep soul voice are not only part of the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame but responsible for dozens of hits like “Blue Monday,” “Ain’t That a Shame,” “Blueberry Hill” and “I’m Walking (Yes, Indeed, I’m Talking).”

Domino, 76, lives with his wife Rosemary and daughter in a three-story pink-roofed house in New Orleans’ 9th ward, which is now under water.
On Monday afternoon, Domino told his manager, Al Embry of Nashville, that he would “ride out the storm” at home. Embry is now frantic.

Calls have been made to Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco’s office and to various police officials, and though there’s lots of sympathetic response, the whereabouts of Domino and his family remain a mystery.

In the meantime, another important Louisiana musician who probably hasn’t been asked to be in any telethons is the also legendary Allen Toussaint.

Another Rock Hall member, Toussaint wrote Patti LaBelle’s hit “Lady Marmalade” and Dr. John’s “Right Place, Wrong Time.”

His arrangements and orchestrations for hundreds of hit records, including his own instrumentals “Whipped Cream” and “Java” are American staples. (He also arranged Paul Simon’s hit, “Kodachrome.”)

Last night, Toussaint was one of the 25,000 people holed up at the New Orleans Superdome hoping to get on a bus for Houston’s Astrodome. I know this because he got a message out to his daughter, who relayed to it through friends.

Also not heard from by friends through last night: New Orleans’s “Queen of Soul” Irma Thomas, who was the original singer of what became the Rolling Stones’ hit, “Time is On My Side.”

Let’s hope and pray it is, because while the Stones roll through the U.S. on their $450-a-ticket tour, Thomas is missing in action. Her club, The Lion’s Den, is under water, as are all the famous music hot spots of the city.

Similarly, friends are looking for Antoinette K-Doe, widow of New Orleans wild performer Ernie K-Doe. The Does have a famous nightspot of their own on N. Claiborne Avenue, called the Mother-in-Law Lounge, in honor of Ernie’s immortal hit, “The Mother-in-Law Song.”

Ernie K-Doe, who received a 1998 Pioneer Award from the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, died in 2001 at age 65.

Dry and safe, but in not much better shape, is the famous Neville family of New Orleans. Aaron Neville and many members of the family evacuated on Monday to Memphis, where they are now staying in a hotel.

But most of the Nevilles’ homes are destroyed, reports their niece and my colleague at “A Current Affair,” Arthel Neville. She went down to her hometown yesterday and called me from a boat that was trying to get near town.

“This isn’t like having two feet of water in your basement,” she said, holding back tears. “Everything is destroyed. I am just so lucky to have been born here and to have had the experience of New Orleans."

She confirmed that there had been rumors of dead bodies floating around her Uncle Aaron’s house yesterday. So far, the Nevilles are unannounced to participate in Friday’s TV telethon.

Thank goodness for the Slave China regime. For 40 years they have protected the world from the depredations of the violent, power-mad Tibetans.

China Thursday marked the 40th anniversary of the establishment of an "autonomous region" in Tibet with upbeat newspaper headlines highlighting economic progress, but rights campaigners dismissed the event as a "propaganda extravaganza."

In an editorial Thursday, the state-run People's Daily attributed "the great achievements made by people of different ethnic groups in Tibet over the past four decades" to the "correct leadership of the Communist Party of China."

Other official media carried such headlines as "Cheerful Tibet celebrates 40th founding anniversary," "Tibetans proud of regional progress," and "Tibetans bask in joy of bright tomorrow."

"Dramatic upheavals have taken place in the past four decades since the establishment of the region and some are beyond imagination," said China Daily.

It cited previously unheard-of traffic jams in the capital, Lhasa, attributing the busyness to an improvement in living standards which has enabled more people to buy cars.

"Without understanding the past and present of Tibet, one cannot fully appreciate the gaiety permeating the region today," read another article.

"Locals no longer bother to compare today's Tibet with what it was four decades ago. The gap is too wide, and the pace of change is accelerating all the time."

In what it refers to as Tibet's "peaceful liberation," China seized control of the independent territory in 1951, installed a communist government and then crushed an armed uprising launched in 1959.

Thousands were killed, and tens of thousands of Tibetans fled into exile together with spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Tibet was declared an "autonomous region" on Sept 1, 1965.

Critics and an India-based government-in-exile accuse China of flooding Tibet with ethnic Han Chinese in a concerted effort to dilute the formerly predominantly Tibetan population.

The region is run by a Communist Party secretary -- a position held from 1988 to 1992 by current Chinese President Hu Jintao, during whose tenure martial law was proclaimed there. No Tibetan has ever held the post, according to rights groups.

Beijing says growth in the region has exceeded 10 percent in recent years. It also claims to have transformed the Himalayan territory's society into a modern one, but critics are unimpressed.

"Beijing's current drive to develop Tibet, combined with the increasing influx of Chinese migrants into urban Tibetan areas, has led to increasing exclusion of the indigenous Tibetan population in the development of their land, and is a significant threat to the survival of the Tibetan culture and religion," the International Campaign for Tibet said this week.

In its most recent annual human rights report, covering 2004, the U.S. State Department said that "overall, the level of repression in Tibetan areas remained high and the government's record of respect for religious freedom remained poor during the year."

It reported instances of political imprisonment, detention, torture and degrading treatment, extra-judicial killings and other abuses.

In a speech in Lhasa Wednesday, the head of a high-powered Communist Party delegation from Beijing, Jia Qinglin, urged a crackdown on Tibetan separatist activities, "to ensure social stability and state safety," the official China Tibet Information Center reported.

There was no indication that any foreign visitors were involved in the activities, and Free Tibet campaigners said the region had been shut to outsiders over the commemoration period.

"China's celebration of 40 years of the Tibet autonomous region is yet another propaganda extravaganza," said a Free Tibet representative in London, Alison Reynolds.

"Whatever new measures China comes up with to enhance Tibet's so called 'autonomy,' or however much money China spends in Tibet, the Tibetan people will not be satisfied until there is political change which will give them genuine control of their own affairs."

Reynolds said in keeping with previous major anniversaries, Tibetans would likely be coerced into participating in the various events, at the risk of forfeiting pay or pensions.

Meanwhile, U.N. human rights commissioner Louise Arbour ended her first visit to China Wednesday by signing a memorandum of understanding with the government.

China Daily said the agreement provided for the U.N. to help China to find alternatives to imprisonment and revise various laws.

The U.N. will also help China teach human rights in schools, universities and in training programs for public servants.

The campaign group Human Rights in China welcomed the agreement, calling it an "important and potentially constructive development.

"It also reported, however, that on the eve of Arbour's visit Beijing had acted "to silence or intimidate independent and critical Chinese voices and groups," by placing prominent dissidents under house arrest and raiding the offices of a Chinese rights organization.

During Arbour's visit, top diplomat and state councilor Tang Jiaxuan told a human rights workshop attended by the U.N. official that China should be allowed to handle human rights issues in its own way.

"Every country should choose its own way to promote and protect human rights in line with its national conditions," Tang was quoted as saying. "There is no uniform standard with regard to national human rights action plans, institutions or education." (Thanks to CNSNews for the heads up.)

Baby butchery update.

Is your life cruel and sad and desperate? Violate the Natural Law. That'll help.

(CNSNews.com) - "Did you escape the hurricane without your birth control?" asks Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas. "As a courtesy to women fleeing Hurricane Katrina, we will offer one free cycle (one month) of birth control or one free Emergency Contraception kit to women" who come to a Houston-area Planned Parenthood clinic and produce a valid Louisiana or Mississippi driver's license. But the generosity does not impress a pro-life group that considers birth control pills and emergency contraception abortifacients.



Bid Bye-Bye to Banausic Baby Butcherin' Bureaucrat

(The Washington Times via CNSNews.com) - A top official with the Food and Drug Administration resigned Wednesday because the FDA refused to allow over-the-counter sales of the morning-after pill, the Associated Press reports. Susan Wood, director of the FDA's Office of Women's Health, sent her letter of resignation in an e-mail to colleagues, and her supporters then released it.

5 questions for John Roberts. (Remember him?)

From CNSNews.com:

A pro-life lobby is publishing five questions that Judge John Roberts "must be asked."

The National Pro-Life Action Center (NPLAC) -- which calls itself the uncompromising voice of pro-life America on Capitol Hill -- said it is delivering those questions to every member of the U.S. House and Senate in preparation for next week's confirmation hearing.

The group also is launching a print ad listing the questions.

"Until now, most people involved in this process have sadly been content to ask loaded questions that are designed to appease partisan special interests or obfuscate the facts," said Stephen G. Peroutka, NPLAC chairman and co-author of the report.

"The time has come to restore integrity and propriety to the nomination process and the judiciary itself. These questions are designed to legitimately establish the foundation of Judge Roberts' judicial temperament while respecting the standards of the inquiry."

The five questions are:

1.) Do basic human rights come only from government or are they rooted in something that transcends government

They are rooted in the Natural Law, [The exposition of St. Thomas is at once the most simple and philosophic. Starting from the premise that good is what primarily falls under the apprehension of the practical reason–that is of reason acting as the dictator of conduct–and that, consequently, the supreme principle of moral action must have the good as its central idea, he holds that the supreme principle, from which all the other principles and precepts are derived, is that good is to be done, and evil avoided (I-II, Q, xciv, a. 2). ] which comes from God.

2.) Is man's inherent human nature fixed or does raw political power determine who is and is not a member of the human family?

Self evidently, all men are created equal, and they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, and among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. (Ring a bell, kiddies?)

3.) Is law merely the construct of jurists and lawmakers or is it based on first principles of morals and justice?

Positive law (which must be based in the Natural Law to be just) is written by the duly elected representatives of the people, not judges.

4.) Is the proper role of the judiciary to restrain/limit itself to interpreting law or does it possess de facto legislative powers?

See the answer to #3, above.

5.) Should the judiciary share power equally with the other two branches of government (the legislative and executive) or should its powers transcend them?

The the three branches of the federal government are co-equal, as the US Constitution stipulates.

NPLAC said Members of Congress also will receive a 10-minute CD discussing the origin of the questions, the proper answers and why these questions are key to achieving a proper understanding of the judicial temperament of any potential jurist.

The National Pro-Life Action Center on Capitol Hill is located near the U.S. Supreme Court and is a joint effort of Faith and Action, Priests for Life and Catholics United for Life.

Amen to that, Brothers and Sisters.

When completed, it says it will house the largest pro-life library in the country, provide essential resources to advocates before the High Court, and support both those working on legislation before Congress and policy directors in the administration.

Thomas Hobbes, call your office.

New Orleans Mayor Finally Vows to Stop Looting

(CNSNews.com) - Mayor Ray Nagin on Wednesday night ordered 1,500 police to stop the looting that has gone on for two days and become increasingly violent, press reports said. "They are starting to get closer to heavily populated areas -- hotels, hospitals, and we're going to stop it right now," Nagin said in a statement to The Associated Press. The images of looting in New Orleans have disappointed many Americans and come to symbolize the anarchy in a devastated city that seems to be unprepared for the magnitude of the disaster that hit it. The looting of consumer goods that have no bearing on survival has gone on in full view of outnumbered police and TV cameras.


Making Excuses for Looting? 'Opportunity for Class Warfare'

We fear the anarchy, the feral fanaticism and, at the heart of it, the primeval bugbear of someone coming after our homes, our stores, our stuff.

To follow the news on television the past couple of days, looters have pretty much taken over the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. "The fear, of course," said talk show host Tucker Carlson, who is less breathy and sensationalist than most, "is that looting contributes to the sense that things are out of control, and that lawlessness begins to snowball, and that stealing becomes murder."

It's among the scariest and nastiest of nightmares. One person breaks a store window, others seem to gain courage and storm the establishment. In the popular mind, we are watching mob psychology in dangerous action.
But, as we are also learning from the post-Katrina chaos, what we think of as looting may be more complicated than it seems.

Benigno E. Aguirre of the Disaster Research Center at the University of Delaware has been watching and reading about looters in Louisiana. "It may look from the outside as if they are stealing or breaking the law," says Aguirre, "when in fact some of them are trying to survive."

On the other hand, he says, some of the thieves are garden-variety crooks. "There is always a very small number of people that are predisposed to crime, and they see a disaster as an opportunity to act."

There are the disenfranchised who jump at the chance to get even with those who have more stuff than they do. "Disasters can become opportunity for class warfare, and that kind of appropriation of other people's property should be prosecuted," he says,
There are looters, he says, but "people use the concept of looting without making distinctions."

Many may be people taking drastic measures required by drastic times. And some, he says, are the in-an-emergency equivalent of hunters/gatherers, foraging for food, fresh water, medicine, matches, batteries, everyday essentials that are just not available. Not at home, not at shelters. (Thanks to CNSNews for the heads up.)

Science is not magic, kiddies. It is not beyond the ken of a reasonably intelligent layman. Scientists do not have the right to dictate to you...

...or, I get mail.

A reasonably intelligent woman falls into the trap of believing instead of knowing. Please, kiddies, keep belief out of science and put it where it belongs. (Hint: It starts with the letter "r".)

My post on RFK Jr.'s insane vomiting of fascism disguised as temperature data ended thusly:

Behold Pseudo-Science! The gateway to 21st century fascist enslavement of man!

Do not believe the lies, kiddies. There is NO evidence this planet is warming. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

I dare anyone and everyone to try and find empirical evidence of global warming. Not belief in global warming. Not hearsay. Not left-fascist political fantasy disguised as evidence. I dare all to show the world proof.


In response,


callieischatty said...

oh yes there is a ton.


And that, girls and boys, is precisely our problem. The actual data available is about 120 years worth of temperature readings of which the first 50 or 60 years worth is not global in scope and often is less than reliable. That means the global warming fetish is a house of cards. And marked ones at that.

Even if all the data was perfectly reliable, there is not enough of it to draw the type of conclusions being thrown about. A thousand years is not long enough to establish these trends. Geologic time makes it look like the blink of an eye.

So, from whence comes the global warming fetish? Here are a few sources:

Socialism - "How dare they presume to produce and accumulate wealth? They are not free. They belong to me and the others who follow me."

Neo-pagan dirt worship - "The earth does not belong to them, it belongs to me and the others who follow me." (You may know this particular brand of stupidity by its obscurantist title "environmentalism".)

Envy - "I can't afford a big SUV. Therefore, they should not be allowed to have one."

Intellectual laziness - "I have heard Katie Couric say it twice in my lifetime, therefore it must be true."

Bad science - "I didn't spend all that time in school to have to actually work and think logically. I'll just make up something that will attract followers and keep the grant money flowing. "

The thing without a name - (There is probably a really cool sounding six-syllable German word for it, but in english, who knows? Let me try to give you an example in my inimitable style.) "Bad things are happening. Therefore, other bad things must be the cause. But those things can't cause themselves. I need answers! Why is my life not perfect? Wait! People..."

Power-madness - "I need to find a way to control..."

Now, be honest, kiddies. Which is your rationale for believing a lie?

Those folks on the Gulf Coast are our neighbors. You know what to do.

First, last, and always, PRAY. Pray for the survivors. Pray for the repose of the souls of those killed by Hurricane Katrina. Pray for the families and friends. Pray for the relief workers, the cops, the firemen, the troops, and the technicians. Pray for the volunteers.

It is time to step up once again, kiddies. "Do unto others", "I was naked and you clothed me", et cetera.

Catholic Relief Services is on the job. The absolute best of crisis charities needs money now.


Mail Checks To:

Catholic Charities USA
Hurricane Katrina
PO Box 25168
Alexandria, VA 22313-9788
Call:(800) 919-9338

Contribute Now Online


Agencies Impacted:

Catholic Charities of Miami
Catholic Charities of New Orleans
Catholic Community Services of Baton Rouge
Catholic Social Services of Houma-Thibodaux
Catholic Social and Community Services of Biloxi, MS
Catholic Charities of Jackson, MS
Catholic Social Services of Mobile, AL

And, as always, give generously to the special collections for hurricance disaster relief in your local parish.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today we honor Blessed Michael Ghebre, Vincentian priest from Ethiopia and martyr. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Colossians 1:9-14.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 5:1-11.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTN
National Coalition of Clergy and Laity (dedicated to action for a genuine Catholic Restoration)
The Catholic Calendar Page for Today


Memorare

Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that any one who fled to thy protection, implored thy help or sought thy intercession,was left unaided.Inspired with this confidence, I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins my Mother; to thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful; O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy clemency hear and answer me. Amen.


St. Joseph, her most chaste spouse, pray for us.


Prayer to Saint Anthony, Martyr of Desire

Dear St. Anthony, you became a Franciscan with the hope of shedding your blood for Christ. In God's plan for you, your thirst for martyrdom was never to be satisfied. St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire, pray that I may become less afraid to stand up and be counted as a follower of the Lord Jesus. Intercede also for my other intentions. (Name them.)


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil; may God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou O Prince of the heavenly hosts, by the divine power, thrust into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl about the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Bonus Animal Flesh Recipe of the Day.

Merrilees Parker, the Food Network, and Your Humble Servant conspire to slaughter more helpless cows to bring you


Beef Bourguignon (Yeah, yeah, it's French. It's not like you have to buy the recipe from Chirac, kiddies.)

2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) good quality beef or Charolais beef, cut into 2-inch pieces.

For the Marinade:

1 (750ml) bottle Burgundian wine, like Pinot Noir
2 large stalks celery, roughly chopped
2 fresh bay leaves
Pinch fresh thyme
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 large onions, peeled and quartered
1 bulb garlic, unpeeled and cut horizontally
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns


For the sauce:

2 ounces (50 grams) butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
8 ounces (200 grams) smoked bacon, pancetta or lardons, chopped into small dices
4 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
Mashed potatoes, recipe follows


Place the beef in a large bowl and add all the marinade ingredients. Cover and marinade for at least 8 hours or preferably overnight, refrigerated.
Drain off the liquid from the marinade and reserve. Remove the peppercorns, onions, and garlic. Separate vegetables from the meat. Dry the meat thoroughly on paper towels.

Heat a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add the butter and oil, then add in the beef. Cook over a high heat until seared all over, then remove from the pan and keep warm. Add the lardons and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden. Add the shallots and cook until they just begin to soften. Stir in all the marinade vegetables, and cook for a further 3 to 4 minutes. Return the meat to the pan and season generously with salt and pepper and stir in the mustard until all the ingredients are coated generously. Pour in the reserved marinade liquid and bring to a gentle bubble. Cover with a lid and cook for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, the sauce should be thick and the meat tender. You may need to add a little water half way through the cooking process. Serve with mashed potatoes.


Mashed Potatoes:

6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
1/2 cup (1/4 pint) double (heavy) cream
2 1/2 ounces (75 grams) butter
A handful chives
A handful parsley
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper


Cook the potatoes in salted boiling water for 12 to 15 minutes until tender.
Heat the cream and butter together until the butter is thoroughly melted. Blanch the herbs in boiling salted water 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and rinse thoroughly under very cold water until completely cooled. Place blanched herbs in a blender and puree. Slowly add the olive oil, while the motor is still running, to form a smooth puree.

Mash the potatoes, then add butter and cream. Stir thoroughly until you have a smooth paste. Finally fold in herb puree and season generously. Mix well to form a green smooth mash.

Animal Flesh Recipe of the Day.

Bossy gets whacked so we can survive another day.


From Wolfgang Puck and the Food Network comes

Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa and Potato Cheese Galette


2 1/2 pounds beef tenderloin, trimmed
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon coriander, toasted and crushed
Olive oil, for searing
2 cups mixed greens
2 tablespoons olive oil
Tomato Salsa, recipe follows
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Potato Cheese Galette, recipe follows


Season the beef with salt, pepper, and coriander. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a saute pan, heat some of the olive oil until smoking and sear the beef until browned all over. Transfer to oven and cook until medium rare, (120-degree internal temperature) about 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside and allow to rest for 10 minutes. Season mixed greens with the two tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper. Divide evenly onto 4 plates. Cut the tenderloin into 1/2-inch thick slices and place slices on top of mixed greens. Spoon half of the tomato salsa over the beef (do not cover completely) and serve remaining salsa on the side. Serve with Potato Cheese Galette.


Tomato Salsa:

5 Roma tomatoes
2 chipotles, reconstituted
1/2 cup chopped basil
1/4 cup minced garlic
1/2 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 cup olive oil


Over a hot grill, roast the tomatoes until blackened. Transfer to a bowl and add the chipotles. Cover and allow to cool for 15 minutes. Add the basil, garlic and lime juice and marinate for 10 minutes. Transfer to a blender or food processor and pulse until chunky. Transfer to a bowl and add the vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper. Slowly whisk in 1 cup of olive oil. Reserve. Yield: 4 servings


Potato Cheese Galette:

1 pound baking potato, peeled and cut into very thin rounds
1/4 cup clarified butter
Salt
2 ounces shredded mozzarella
2 ounces fresh goat cheese


Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the potato slices in a double layer in a medium bowl, pour the clarified butter over, and toss to coat the slices. Season lightly with salt. Arrange half the potatoes, flower fashion, in a 9-inch ovenproof skillet. Cook over medium heat until the ends begin to brown and the potatoes stick together (this will keep the cheeses from running through). Sprinkle with the cheeses and cover with the remaining potatoes, arranged the same way as the bottom layer. Set in the oven for 10 minutes, carefully flip potatoes with a wide spatula, and brown on a medium-high flame. Return to the oven for 5 minutes longer. Cut into 4 quarters and keep warm. Yield: 4 servings

From KGO in San Francisco...

Sandhya Patel, (left) Janelle Wang , (right) and Carolyn Johnson (below left).

Prisoners Riot, Take Hostages In New Orleans.

Inmates at a prison in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans have rioted, attempted to escape and are now holding hostages, a prison commissioner told ABC News affiliate WBRZ in Baton Rouge, La.

Orleans Parish Prison Commissioner Oliver Thomas reported the incident to WBRZ.

A deputy at Orleans Parish Prison, his wife and their four children have been taken hostage by rioting prisoners after riding out Hurricane Katrina inside the jail building, according to WBRZ.

Officials are expected to hold a press conference regarding the riots at 9 p.m. ET.

A woman interviewed by WBRZ said her son, a deputy at the prison whose family is among the hostages, told her that many of the prisoners have fashioned homemade weapons. Her son had brought his family there hoping they would be safe during the storm.

Major K.: The Right Stuff.

Chuck Yeager has nothing on these guys.

Backtracking Part II

I have already seen plenty here that many people never get to see and some that no people ever should have to see. I have also heard many stories that would be unbelievable if they were not true. In many cases, I have seen the aftermath of many of these stories arriving after the part worth telling had taken place. While Dup is still missed by his brothers in Charlie Company, there is another story from that horrible day that Dup was killed. Dup was not the only one fired upon by the arhabi sniper. A second shot was fired that hit SGT C. in the throat. He was not grazed on the side, he was shot through the center of his neck. SGT C. already knew at the time that his unit was under attack by a sniper. As his men came to get him out of the line of fire he warned them to stay back. He knew that one of them could be next, and he was unwilling to put his men at risk. Well, they just wouldn't have it, and came forward anyway, pulling him back to a covered position where they administered first-aid and prepared to evacuate him. Luckily, no one else was hit that day. SGT C. was evacuated to the Military Hospital in the Green zone where he was pronounced the luckiest man in Iraq. The sniper's bullet had passed through his neck and throat with an absolute minimum of damage. It missed his carotid artery, jugular vein, spine, and spinal cord by millimeters. He was offered the opportunity to fly to Germany and probably then on to the US to recuperate by the medical staff. He turned it down. He wanted to get back to his men and his brothers in Charlie Company. While the news of Dup's tragic death made headlines in local papers back home, no reporter ever came by to learn about this. They just regurgitated the military press release and called the family. I could even give them a headline for the article: "THE RIGHT STUFF."

BlameBush! strikes again.

Larry gives us the straight poop on CuriousGeorge the flying BushMonkey (You know like in the Wizard of Oz? But not Zardoz, which is the only Sean Connery movie that features a giant stone head flying around a post-apocalyptic countryside distributing rifles to the natives. At least I think it's the only one. What about that one where he slaps his women around? What? That's not a movie? Oh, never mind. Where was I? Oh, yeah. Larry is a clever fellow.)

Camp Larry Update #2

Mother returned to Camp Larry this morning, surfing on a veritible tsusami of Grief Mojo. With her head held high and her bong even higher, she looked more the conquering heroine than a woman who has lost both a son and a brother to Bush's pointless "war on terror".

Shortly after getting kicked out of Jersey's Sports Bar for "Giving everyone the creeps", the whole hootenanny moved up the block to the Gold Star Tavern, bringing mother 50 yards closer to the Coward in Crawford and even harder for him to ignore. With hundreds of supporters arriving each day to bask in Mother's aura of Absolute Moral Authority, Bush will soon have no choice but to end this immoral war and legalize marijuana. On Sunday, we were even treated to a visit by the great Neil Young, who staggered into the tavern and performed an impromptu rendition of his timeless anti-war ballad, I'm Not Neil Young, You Stupid Hippies before passing out atop the Huggy Bears for Peace display.


Robertson Activates Christian Sleeper Cells

Except for few desperate individuals driven to violence by U.S. imperialism, Islam is a Religion of Peace. Christianity, on the other hand, has been the engine of world suffering for over 2000 years. It was Christianity that nearly eradicated the indigenous peoples of this continent, the survivors condemned to the perpetual humiliation of cartoon stereotypes and offensive sports mascots. It was Bush's Christian cousin, Adolf Hitler, who sent hundreds of homosexuals and midgets to the gas chambers even as great agnostics like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. fought against racial injustice. And it is the Christians who constantly subvert our political process by allowing their "moral compass" to determine how they should vote, rather than NARAL or labor union leaders. Now, the man described by the New York Times as "The Unequivocal Voice of Christian Conservativism - Perhaps Even Christianity Itself" has called for the murder of a benevolent Latin American leader. Alas, the heartless evil of the American Taliban has been never been so palpably insidious.

With a red beret and a thick Latin accent that makes the panties of every progressive American glisten with dew, Hugo Chavez is much more than your typical Marxist revolutionary. Unlike Bush, he's a democratically elected leader who is greatly loved by his people. He's also one of the few Latin American leaders not installed and controlled by the CIA, which has made him the target of several Bush-ordered coups and failed assassination attempts. But in spite of U.S. imperialist plots to poison his Fruit Loops, Chavez has instituted widespread social and economic reforms. This year, he was honored by both Greenpeace and Amnesty International for disposing of the old corroded car batteries in his torture chambers and using cleaner, more efficient solar power to energize the nation's impoverished testicles. Furthermore, spontaneous human decapitations have dropped by 12 percent on Chavez's watch. Can Bush say as much? I don't think so.

Its no wonder, then, that Pat Robertson has issued a death warrant on Papa Chavez.

For the lack of a more gender neutral noun, our founding "fathers" never intended for one man to wield so much power over the mouth-breathing, biblethumping lemmings of Jesusland. That's why they constructed a wall between church and state - the only thing in the Living Breathing Constitution that isn't ethereal or anachronistic. It's for our protection, people! One word from this Osama Bin Laden of the Religious Right and Christian sleeper cells could be activated all across the nation, acting all Holier-Than-Thou and making gay couples feel like second class citizens. Before you know it, Robert Schuller would be sawing off the heads of fornicators on The Hour of Power.

Venezuelan Vice President Charles Rangel (D) had it right. Calls for the assassination of world leaders should be done only by the seasoned professionals on Air America, where they can be directed at members of the Bush administration in a humorous, light-hearted fashion. What Robertson did goes beyond the pale. In a free, democratic society like Venezuela, he'd never get away with it.

I hope Larry quickly gets the word out on Hurricane Katrinabush and how the evil Repansycan turned all those nice folks in New Orleans into looters.

Requiescat in pace.

Mayor: Katrina May Have Killed Thousands

Yippee! CuriousGeorge BushMonkey teases us with two whole weeks of a real energy policy.

US Govt waives clean air rules for gasoline, diesel

The Bush administration said on Wednesday it will waive for all 50 U.S. states certain federal environmental regulations through September 15 for gasoline and diesel due to a disruption in supplies caused by Hurricane Katrina.

"These waivers are necessary to see that fuel is available throughout the country," said Stephen Johnson, head of the
Environmental Protection Agency.

The waivers will allow gasoline with higher evaporation rates and diesel fuel with a higher sulfur content to be sold.

You mean that noted democrat (That's a small "d", kiddies.) Muqtada al-Sadr?

This comes from the blog Who's your Baghdaddy? which is produced by the nietzschean-monikered John Upperman of Round Rock, Texas who is currently deep in the heart of ol' Babylon.

We caught some of the scumbags that were responsible for Saturday’s mortar attack. A raid was organized and conducted in the early morning hours yesterday and we netted several bad guys. Out of this group of thieves we have identified at least four of them as suspected members of Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia. The troops are all pumped from the results of a successful mission, but we are not done yet. We are continuing to tighten the noose in order flush more of these rodents out of their hiding places. Obviously I can’t provide a lot of detail, but I will post updates as I can.

"If you are going to yank the tiger's tail you had better have a plan for dealing with his teeth."

It is worse than I thought, kiddies. When he's not freeing oppressed people he works for Dell. (I'm a Toshiba, IBM, and HP man myself. However, my Dad owns a Dell.) And he's in marketing! Shhhh!

Read what Michael Yon writes or remain ignorant of the war we're in.

The man 's amazing. Let's all hope and pray he survives the war and spends the rest of his life writing great books about it.

As a "surge" operation, Lancer Fury is sort of a crocodile hunt, where our people do things to make the crocodiles come out, trying to flush them into predictable directions, or make them take certain actions. And when they do, we nail them. The combat portion of the Surge amounted to a sophisticated "area ambush" that would unfold over the period of about one week.

This Surge is a complicated piece of work, with multidimensional variables and multifarious moving parts. Those parts range literally from boots on our feet to satellites zipping overhead. So, of course, glitches and snags started occurring the first day. Among other things, key gear failed; but overall, the Surge was going well. A few terrorists had already been caught in the first 24 hours.

Thursday night, a revised plan had me following some Deuce Four soldiers on a midnight raid. They had night vision gear, so they moved quickly. I had only moonlight, so I nearly broke my leg keeping up. Sleeking around Mosul under moonlight, we prowled through the pale glow until we came upon a pond near a farmhouse. Recon platoon had already raided one house and snagged some suspects, then crept away in the darkness to another target close by.

Five soldiers from Recon—Holt, Ferguson, Yates, Welch and Ross—were moving through moon-cast shadows when an Iraqi man came out from a farmhouse, his AK-47 rifle hanging by his side. Suddenly encircled by the rifles, lights and lasers of four soldiers, the man was quickly disarmed. A fifth soldier radioed for the interpreter and together they sorted out that he was a farmer who thought the soldiers were thieves skulking around his property. Recon returned the man his rifle, and started making their way back, umbral and silent across the ploughed fields.

During a halt in some trees at the edge of the field, I overheard the voice of LTC Kurilla, the commander of the Deuce Four battalion, quietly praising one of the soldiers for showing discipline in not shooting the farmer. After loading the other suspects onto Strykers, we returned to base, where I fell, exhausted, at about 3AM Friday morning.

The Surge continued while I slept.

Wars and rumors of wars.

695 Dead, 180 Hurt in Iraq Bridge Stampede

Panic engulfed thousands of Shiites marching across a bridge in a religious procession Wednesday after rumors spread that a suicide bomber was about to attack, triggering a stampede that killed at least 695 people.

Updated:

769 Dead, 307 Hurt in Iraq Bridge Stampede

NYT: Rats! Americans are religious fanatics...

...or, All the News That's Fit to Fudge.

Psssst! What are we gonna do?

I know, let's bury it on page A7!

Yeah, no one will see it there.

Teaching of Creationism Is Endorsed in New Survey
(Thanks to Laura Ingraham for the heads up.)

In a finding that is likely to intensify the debate over what to teach students about the origins of life, a poll released yesterday found that nearly two-thirds of Americans say that creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public schools.
Skip to next paragraph


Divided Over Evolution

The poll found that 42 percent of respondents held strict creationist views, agreeing that "living things have existed in their present form since the beginning of time."

In contrast, 48 percent said they believed that humans had evolved over time. But of those, 18 percent said that evolution was "guided by a supreme being," and 26 percent said that evolution occurred through natural selection. In all, 64 percent said they were open to the idea of teaching creationism in addition to evolution, while 38 percent favored replacing evolution with creationism.

The poll was conducted July 7-17 by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life and the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. The questions about evolution were asked of 2,000 people. The margin of error was 2.5 percentage points.

John C. Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum, said he was surprised to see that teaching both evolution and creationism was favored not only by conservative Christians, but also by majorities of secular respondents, liberal Democrats and those who accept the theory of natural selection. Mr. Green called it a reflection of "American pragmatism."

Heehee. Watch the leftist squirm and try to obscure facts with his words.

"It's like they're saying, 'Some people see it this way, some see it that way, so just teach it all and let the kids figure it out.' It seems like a nice compromise, but it infuriates both the creationists and the scientists," said Mr. Green, who is also a professor at the University of Akron in Ohio.

As opposed to Akron in Pennsylvania, I suppose?

Website of the Day.

Want a list of saints of the day? Check this out.

If I hear one more fool complain about how we aren't getting any foreign assistance for the Katrina cleanup, I'm gonna puke!

Who's gonna repair our electric grid for us? The French? They die by the thousands every time there's a heat wave because they don't have air conditioning!

So shut up and get to work, America.

Right Wing Smile of the Day.

It's the Wars Prevented by the UN counter! (Brought to you by Bohemian Like You at his blog Where have you gone, Ronald Reagan?)

It's updated every five minutes!

Add it to your website today, kiddies.

Jihadists - the new black.

By Vince O'Farrell of The Illawarra* Mercury, Australia.


*Home of the Illawarra Steelers. Once a Steelers fan, ALWAYS a Steelers fan.

Pope Benedict XVI, the leader of The Church on earth.

Thanks to Yahoo!News for these links:

Pope tells Catholics to multiply

Pope Benedict XVI told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates.

"Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society," he told about 15,000 people at his weekly audience in the Vatican, to which he arrived by helicopter from his summer residence southeast of Rome.

He said the decline in the number of births "deprives some nations of freshness and energy and of hopes for the future incarnate in children."

The Pope also spoke of "the security, the stability and the force of a numerous family."

Although the Vatican bans all forms of artificial contraception, this is widely ignored even in predominantly Catholic countries such as Italy and Spain, which have some of the lowest birth rates in the world.

Unholy editorial in an alleged news story, Batman!

The pontiff regretted that God is "unhappily often excluded or ignored" in many societies.

"A sound society certainly is born out of the commitment of all of its members, but it also has a need of the blessing and support of God," he said.


Pope Benedict XVI meets ‘rebel’ cleric

Pope Benedict XVI, who has made reconciliation among Christians a priority of his pontificate, will on Monday meet the leader of a schismatic group of ultra-traditionalists, according to a statement by the group.

The Vatican has neither confirmed nor denied that the meeting will take place, but if it does it could be the first step to bringing the defiant traditionalists back into the Catholic fold, observers said.

Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X, based in Econe, Switzerland, will meet the Pope at his country residence here, the Fraternity said in a brief communiqué August 24.

Fellay was one of four men illegally consecrated as bishops by the late leader of the ultra-traditionalists, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

That led to the excommunication in 1988 of Lefebvre, Fellay and the other three illegal bishops and anyone who follows them, meaning that the Vatican considers the breakaway traditionalists to be heretics.

The meeting has taken place. Please Lord, help us heal this wound in Your Church.


Pope Benedict XVI praises Poland's Solidarity movement
and Pope Benedict XVI to Visit Poland

Pope Benedict XVI praised Poland's Solidarity movement Wednesday as a "breath of a new spirit" that changed Europe as he marked the trade union's 25th anniversary by sending out a special prayer for all those who work for social justice and workers' rights.

Benedict referred to Solidarity's anniversary in comments in Polish to the tens of thousands of tourists and faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for his weekly general audience.

Benedict's predecessor, the Polish-born Pope John Paul II, was a firm backer of Solidarity and has been credited with helping inspire the movement, the AP reminds.

"I thank Divine Providence for the breath of a new spirit that this movement brought to the events of contemporary Europe," Benedict said. "May God bless all those who are committed to promoting social justice and the good of workers."

On Aug. 31, 1980, 18 days of strikes at the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk, Poland, and elsewhere culminated with the communist regime making unprecedented concessions to the workers, including allowing the Soviet bloc's first free trade union.

Solidarity went on to negotiate a peaceful end of communism in Poland in 1989, which in turn helped hasten the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

World dignitaries and communist-era dissidents were gathering in Gdansk on Wednesday for a day of festivities and a Mass honoring John Paul.

Please, Lord, bless and protect the people of Poland and help them to remain faithful to Thee.

Have mercy, Lord, on the brave souls of those who died fighting for freedom from godless materialism.


Pope Prays for Hurricane Katrina Victims

Pope Benedict XVI said Wednesday he was praying for victims of Hurricane Katrina and urged rescue workers to persevere in bringing comfort to survivors.

In a telegram of condolences, Benedict said he was "deeply saddened" to learn of the catastrophe caused by the storm, which slammed into the Gulf Coast states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama on Monday.

The telegram, sent by the Vatican's secretary of state, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, said Benedict was praying for the victims and offered consolation to their families.

"His Holiness likewise prays for the rescue workers and all involved in providing assistance to the victims of this disaster, encouraging them to persevere in their efforts to bring relief and support," the telegram said.


Pope meets controversial critic of Islam

Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting at his summer residence in Castel Gandolfo with Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci, a strident critic of Islam,
Vatican sources confirmed.

The 76-year-old writer, who describes herself as an atheist Christian and was sued in Italy for insulting the Muslim faith in one of her books, asked to meet the pope, a source said.

The meeting on Saturday between Benedict XVI and the former war correspondent became public only after Fallaci's associates let slip that the meeting took place.

Based in the United States where she is being treated for cancer, Fallaci once said in a newspaper interview that she was comforted by the writings of German Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger before he became pope after the death of John Paul II.

"Europe is no longer Europe, it is 'Eurabia,' a colony of Islam, where the Islamic invasion does not proceed only in a physical sense, but also in a mental and cultural sense," Fallaci told The Wall Street Journal on June 23.

"Servility to the invaders has poisoned democracy, with obvious consequences for the freedom of thought, and for the concept itself of liberty," she said.

"I feel less alone when I read Ratzinger's books," the journalist added.

But writing in the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera three weeks later, she said integrating Muslims in Western society was a "nightmare" and criticised the pope's call for dialogue with Muslim leaders after the July 7 London suicide bombings.

Before becoming pope, Ratzinger outlined his opposition to Turkey joining the European Union and his concerns about the West's "inner disarray" at a time when "history's soul is awakening once again".

But he has since rejected the clash-of-civilisations scenario and this month met a Muslim delegation at the Catholic World Youth Day celebrations in Cologne.

In 2002, Fallaci was sued in a French court over her book "Rage and Pride", a post-September 11 diatribe against the dangers of Islamic extremism. She was accused of violating anti-racism laws, but the case was dismissed on a technicality.

An Italian judge in May this year ordered Fallaci to stand trial for "insulting religion" over her latest book, "The Force of Reason".
But the journalist told The Wall Street Journal she was so riddled with cancer she would probably die before the matter is heard in June 2006.

Have mercy on her, O Lord.

And, finally, this:

If Only Pathetic PETA Pinheads Would Listen to the Pope

The new Pope has spoken movingly about the exploitation of all beings, particularly of farmed animals. When he was asked about the rights of animals in a 2002 interview, he said, "That is a very serious question. At any rate, we can see that they are given into our care, that we cannot just do whatever we want with them. Animals, too, are God's creatures . . . Certainly, a sort of industrial use of creatures, so that geese are fed in such a way as to produce as large a liver as possible, or hens live so packed together that they become just caricatures of birds, this degrading of living creatures to a commodity seems to me in fact to contradict the relationship of mutuality that comes across in the Bible."

Cardinal Ratzinger was echoing official church teachings, as laid out in the Catholic Catechism, which states clearly that “Animals are God’s creatures. He surrounds them with his providential care. By their mere existence they bless him and give him glory. Thus men owe them kindness. We should recall the gentleness with which saints like St. Francis of Assisi or St. Philip Neri treated animals. . . . It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.” (Emphasis mine.)

Eduardo Discoli is riding his horse around the world.

Don Quixote lives!

How cool is this?

(Eduardo Discoli, center, joins the fray in a Sunday match at the Strasburg Polo Club.)






Eduardo Discoli is a self-proclaimed gaucho -- a South American cowboy whose roaming heart is wandering into pastures more vast than he ever expected.

Though Discoli has spent the last four years traveling around the world on horseback, the affable man layered in turquoise necklaces had more than ample energy Sunday to stop in at the Strasburg Polo Club for a match.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Discoli began his journey in July 2001, but he has dreamt about it since he was 6 years old.

A former lawyer who auctioned property in Buenos Aires, Discoli also was a soybean farmer. Although he's had many different jobs, Discoli always has identified himself as a horseman.

"I was many things many years ago. But I have always been a horseman," Discoli said in strained English.

Fellow Argentinean Ricardo Beccaglia of Maryland recently met Discoli and traveled to Strasburg to watch him play and to serve as a translator.

Beccaglia said it's an honor to have met Discoli.

"I had to catch up with this guy," Beccaglia said, "to see somebody actually making history."

So far, Discoli has traveled through South America, Mexico and 12 states and plans to travel to Canada, Europe and Africa before returning home to Buenos Aires. He calculates that his trip around the world will take another 4 years.

Discoli, who has three mustangs and a Spanish purebred, travels on one horse while leading the others. It's a monumental undertaking that Discoli knows wouldn't be possible without support.

One supporter is Alison Gieschen of Swedesboro, N.J., who has been hosting Discoli at her home for the last 11 days. "‚Gieschen, who is a horse vaulting coach, invited Discoli to her local polo club after Gieschen's sister told her Discoli had just traveled through her hometown state of South Carolina by police escort.

Sherry Beiler, part owner of Strasburg Polo Club, learned of Discoli's journey through a polo magazine and called Gieschen. It all came together on Sunday as Beiler watched Discoli gallop across the field.

"I think it's an honor for Lancaster County to have him here," Beiler said. "I couldn't imagine doing what he's doing. It sounds like a trying life."

At 53, Discoli admitted he has aches and pains, but his passion for riding horses overrides any obstacle has met.

Some of those obstacles would have easily dampened another's drive. Discoli has been robbed three times, been detained at the Mexico/U.S. border and slid about 70 feet on a crumbling mountain road.

But, overall, Discoli considers himself blessed. The sun-drenched man with shoulder-length, wind-blown hair and deep black sideburns said, "It's been very good. I've been lucky in my travels."

While being a cowboy may seem like a lonely existence, Discoli said he has made lifelong friends who are making this dream come true.

Discoli relies solely on money for his journey from people he meets along his trip. He's especially found support in polo communities who network with other polo clubs to raise money for him.

"Many people help me," Discoli said, "I have many mothers." One of those beloved mothers, Gieschen, called Discoli a hero."

So many athletes now are obsessed with money," Gieschen said. "He's got old-time hero status. It's not about fame or money. It's about the journey and purpose about realizing a dream. He has so much resolve."

While riding through Washington, D.C., Discoli definitely was noticed. "People get up for me," Discoli said.

Whether Discoli thinks of himself as a hero or not, people in his native Argentina do. News of his journey even reached Argentinean ambassador Lino Gutierrez, who phoned Gieschen and thanked her for hosting Discoli and invited Gieschen and her family to his home in Washington in late September.

After spending a few more days in New Jersey, Discoli will travel to Cortland, N.Y., and then to Canada. Right now Gieschen and others are trying to find a way to get Discoli and his horses to Europe.

Gieschen said she will try to arrange a trip, perhaps through the military, which would transport the horses for about $2,000.

Jennifer Buck of Delaware has a horse farm and said she will support Discoli every step of the way.

"I think it's amazing that anyone this day and age can do this and believe that you're going to be OK," Buck said. "It's very inspiring, very cool."

When his adventure is over, Discoli will return to Argentina, but he isn't reining in his mount just yet. Discoli said he plans to write a book and return to the United States and distribute it to everyone that helped him achieve his dream. It's because of them, Discoli said, motioning above his head, his journey so far has been "way up here." (Thanks to Lancaster Online for the heads up.)

La buena suerte, señor Discoli, y puede Dios bendecirle y proteger en su viaje. (Thank goodness for Babel Fish!)