TheChurchMilitant: 2006-10-22

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The troops can vote, too.

And all you good guys out there killing bad guys should vote early.

Military votes

Sen. Conrad Burns, Montana Republican, has had to bust up the Pentagon furniture to persuade it to fully adopt the integrated voting alternative site, or IVAS. It is a secure connection whereby a deployed person can download an absentee ballot from his or her county election board and mail it in. It greatly cuts the time to complete and mail in a ballot, meaning more service members should be able to beat their local election board's deadline to vote.

Mr. Burns blocked several Defense Department nominations until he thought the bureaucrats were finally adopting IVAS, as called for in Congress' 2004 defense budget.

There is an independent report that backs Mr. Burns' stance. "Successful outcomes from either the current [Federal Voter Assistance Program] or the continued IVAS effort are questionable at this point," said the August report by a military officer.

It said that after the 2004 election, the Pentagon dropped IVAS altogether. It did not restart it until the 2006 defense bill authorized it and then Mr. Burns raised concerns.

Citing "significant friction," the report also said the Pentagon's voter assistance office and the IVAS developer did not get along. (Thanks to Inside The Ring for the heads up.)

Right Wing Smile of the Day.

From today's Inside Politics columm of The Washington Times:

Republican trend?

"The latest polls show something very strange and quite encouraging is happening: The Republican base seems to be coming back home. This trend, only vaguely and dimly emerging from a variety of polls, suggests that a trend may be afoot that would deny the Democrats control of the House and the Senate," Dick Morris and Eileen McGann wrote in a column yesterday in the New York Post.

"With two weeks to go, anything can happen, but it is beginning to look possible that the Democratic surge in the midterm elections may fall short of control in either House," the writers said.

"Here's the evidence:

• "Pollsters Scott Rasmussen and John Zogby both show Republican Bob Corker gaining on Democratic Rep. Harold Ford Jr. in Tennessee, a must-win Senate seat for the Democrats. Zogby has Corker ahead by seven, while Rasmussen still shows a Ford edge of two points.

• "Zogby reports a 'turnaround' in New Jersey's Senate race with the GOP candidate Tom Kean taking the lead, a conclusion shared by some other public polls.

• "Even though Sen. Jim Talent in Missouri is still under the magic 50 percent threshold for an incumbent, Rasmussen has him one point ahead and Zogby puts him three up. But unless he crests 50 percent, he'll probably still lose.

• "Even though he is a lost cause, both Rasmussen and Zogby show Montana's Republican Sen. Conrad Burns cutting the gap and moving up.
• "In Virginia, Republican embattled incumbent Sen. George Allen has now moved over the 50 percent threshold in his internal polls. (He'd been at 48 percent.)"

Wes Pruden thinks the AmericaLast media's conventional wisdom is a load of hooey.

Get out and vote on November 7, kiddies. (As long as you are not an illegal alien, a compliant corpse in an important targeted district, or a member of any other Democrass special interest group.)

As I often say, "Better Repansycan than thrown into the GULAG."

Is that a cloud on yon horizon?
October 24, 2006

This is the week when the Democrats should be lacing up their Adidas in anticipation of a victory lap. Many of them are.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the queen bee of the San Francisco Democrats who may (or may not) become the speaker of the House of Representatives even if her party prevails on Nov. 7, answered with an expansive boast when a reporter asked which office suite she expects to throw a Republican out of: "I'll have any suite I want."

Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, the ex-colonel of Marines who "supports the troops" by mocking their resolve and dismissing their fighting spirit, predicts that "a tidal wave" of Democratic votes will wash the Congress clean of Republican control, clearing the way for his strategy of cut-and-run from Iraq.

Stanley Greenberg, the pollster who was dispatched to find good news for Bill Clinton every time Bubba forgot where he left his pants, predicts nothing short of a Republican "meltdown." He tells the New York Times: "I don't see how we can lose the House. I don't think it's even close." (The House, currently controlled by a Republican margin of 15 seats, is not the Democrats' to lose, but we get the point.)

The New York Times observes, with a note of satisfaction, that "a party that has become so used to losing is considering, disbelievingly and with the requisite worry, the possibility that it could win in November."

Glee is enough to give wiser and cooler old gray heads the homestretch heebie-jeebies. "I know a lot of people are in somersault land," says Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "I just don't have the liberty or the freedom to do that."

Steve Elmendorf, who advised John Kerry in 2004, recalled the Democratic euphoria on that memorable election eve, born of exit polls that encouraged Teresa Heinz to think of at least 57 changes she would make in the draperies and decor of the White House. "All that was wrong," Mr. Elmendorf says. "We've been up this hill before." The wiser, cooler heads are well aware of how the prospect of Mrs. Pelosi and Mr. Murtha, of Barney Frank and Charley Rangel in charge of the House could inspire a lot of sullen conservative Republicans, who feel betrayed by Republicans who came to strongly resemble the Democrats tossed out in the great tsunami of '94, to get out of bed on Election Day after all.

Against the prospective new tsunami of great expectations comes the voice of Wall Street money, saying, "Hey, wait a minute." Writes Jim McTague in Barron's, the Dow Jones financial weekly: "Jubilant Democrats should reconsider their order for confetti and noisemakers ... Our analysis, based on a race-by-race examination of campaign-finance data, suggests that the GOP will hang on to both chambers, at least nominally. We expect the Republican majority in the House to fall by eight seats, to 224 of the chamber's 435 [seats]. At the very worst, our analysis suggests, the party's loss could be as large as 14 seats, leaving a one-vote majority ... In the Senate, with 100 seats, we see the GOP winding up with 52, down three. We ... based our predictions ... on which candidate had the largest campaign war chest, a sign of superior grassroots support. We ignore the polls."

The Barron's analysis is, as you might expect a Wall Street analysis to be, based on cold, hard cash: No sentiment, please, we're all capitalists here. Cash in the stretch not only buys the television commercials -- the meaner the better -- everyone says he hates, but reflects the confidence of the checkbook.

Barron's employed the money test in both 2000 and 2004, and, bucking conventional media wisdom (always a good thing to do), correctly predicted the Republican gains in both years. In the 34 years since 1972, an eternity in politics, the candidate with the most money has won more than 90 percent of the time -- 98 percent, in fact, in the most recent elections. The best of the pollsters can only dream of such results.

Close calls only occasionally make Christians of infidels, as the ancient saying goes, and conservatives willing to believe in the redeeming grace of second chances should not expect miracles. Nevertheless, the prospect of Nancy Pelosi as speaker could give new life to the Republican mantra: "Vote Republican, we're not as bad as you think."

Meanwhile, back in the Holy Land...

The Washington Times: Pre-emptive attack on Hamas eyed

TEL AVIV -- Applying a lesson from the recent war against Hezbollah, Israeli leaders are increasingly talking about staging a pre-emptive military offensive in the Gaza Strip in order to avert a Hamas buildup of improved missiles.

Israeli forces already operating in the Gaza Strip Monday killed at least nine Palestinians and wounded 20. But officials and politicians say a broader operation against Hamas is necessary if Israel wants to deny it the ability to stockpile weapons like the Shi'ite militia Hezbollah, which was able to build up its arsenal during six years of relative calm.

"We should not allow Hamas to build in Gaza what Hezbollah built in Lebanon," said Ephraim Sneh, Labor parliamentarian. "[A broad offensive] seems to me almost unavoidable because the accumulation of arms in Gaza in the hands of Hamas and other terror organization is intolerable."

The talk of an escalation in Gaza comes as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed in principle to bring a far-right party, Yisrael Beitenu, into his coalition.

The move stabilized a coalition whose foundations emerged from the Lebanon war severely shaken. But it also reorients the political constellation of Mr. Olmert's government toward the right.

The Washington Times: Iran, Syria rebuild Hezbollah

Iran and Syria are rapidly rearming Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon as an international peacekeeping force has failed to carry out a U.N. mandate to disarm the Shi'ite militia group, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz said yesterday.

The UN is ineffective! I'm shocked! Shocked and dismayed, I tell you!

Mr. Mofaz, a former defense minister and chief of general staff in the Israeli Defense Force, also warned that time was growing short for the international community to implement effective sanctions to halt Iran's drive for nuclear weapons.

"We know the policy of the Iranian regime is to buy time by talking" while it pursues a nuclear bomb, Mr. Mofaz said in an interview in his suite at the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington. "So far they have been very successful."

Deafness is not a culture. It is a physical defect that can be overcome and, increasingly, corrected.

There! I typed it, and I am proud I did!

I am also proud to proclaim myself an anti-deafism bigot.

Yes, kiddies, Your Humble Servant is possessed by an unquenchable hatred for hearing loss and those sick freaks who think hearing loss is a lifestyle. I am one of those evil Sound Nazis who know it is better to be able to hear Paganini's music than not.

Therefore, all the little protesting knuckleheads at Gallaudet who don't want Jane Fernandes to be the school's next president because she's "not deaf enough" should be rounded up and forcibly fitted with cochlear implants. (If the procedure will improve their hearing, of course.)

Let us call it Better Hearing Through Totalitarianism.

The Washington Times: Protesters leave Gallaudet's College Hall

Protesters who occupied Gallaudet University's College Hall overnight have left the facility.

More than 50 demonstrators occupied the first floor of the main administration building around 3 a.m.

Protest leaders said that they acted in support of hunger strikers who have fasted for several days near the school's main gate.

Both actions are part of a demonstration that intensified more than two weeks ago with the blockade of most of the school's gated entrances.

Gallaudet spokeswoman Mercy Coogan said campus security officers are in the process of reopening College Hall so administrators can pursue their duties.

Protesters are calling for the resignation of Jane Fernandes, who is expected to become president in January. They also want the presidential search process reopened.

More on this kerfuffle from The Washington Times:

Meeting aims to resolve standoff at Gallaudet

Gallaudet University students close down the campus

Gallaudet faculty against Fernandes

New head of Gallaudet in 'deaf enough' clash

Students protest new president
Students blocked the front gate at Gallaudet University yesterday to protest the ... Mrs. Fernandes, who has been at Gallaudet for 11 years and served as ...

Historic school's fate rallies neighborhood...
Several D.C. police cruisers were parked on Gallaudet Street yesterday ... On weekends, Central Place and Gallaudet are among the streets lined with ...

The steaming pile of incompetent inanity that is Bobby "I AM MY FATHER!" Casey.

'I Think That's Pretty Clear'

Power Line has an astonishing transcript of a Philadelphia Inquirer interview with Bob Casey, Sen. Rick Santorum's Democratic challenger. Here is his clear answer to a question about the terrorist surveillance program:

Inquirer: Last night in the debate, I think you said that you'd support warrantless wiretapping. How does that square with your suspicion about this White House? Why would you be willing to let them do that without judicial oversight? . . .

Casey: . . . On the question of wiretaps, my position all along has been we've got to do everything possible and give every tool that government agencies need, intelligence, law enforcement, give them the tools they need to fight this war on terror. And I think we, in terms of wiretapping, whether its terrorists, known terrorists, or suspected terrorists, we've gotta give this government all the tools it can. And I think what we've seen in the past is the system that has been set up when its operated according to the law, and when the administration goes and puts a wiretap in place and then comes back later and gets a warrant after the fact, the system that has been set up is a pretty solid system, but they often don't comply with it. You can support having a lot of tough wiretapping, but also support the kind of tough oversight of the administration, which I think has been lacking. And I think we can have the two in balance at right.

Inquirer: Well, it might have been misreported this morning, but it certainly seemed to me as if you were endorsing the NSA program which is warrantless wiretapping without court oversight.

Casey: Well, I think, look, my position all along has been you've got to have the ability to wiretap known or suspected terrorists, and I am going to make sure that everything I do in this area is focused on anti-terrorism and making sure that we are being as tough as possible to ferret out any kind of plot or and kind of terrorist activity.

Inquirer: Bob, it's real simple, and it seems to me you are dancing around it. Either you believe that the President or his designees need to go to the FISA court and provide some probable cause for the wiretapping, or you don't. They say they don't. They say they can do it on their own say so and there's no oversight of whether the person they're wiretapping is actually credibly a terrorist suspect or not. That's the issue. Do they have to go through the FISA court or not? Nobody's debating that we need to wiretap suspected terrorists.

Casey: You know very well that Senator Specter has worked very hard on this to try to get this right and I think with bipartisan cooperation, working with people like Senator Specter, as I know I can, that we can get this right. I don't, I don't, I don't see what the--

Inquirer: It's a real simple question. Do they need to go through the FISA Court as the FISA law has said since 1973 or don't they? They say they don't. We say they do. What do you say?

Casey: I think it's worked well.

Inquirer: What has worked well?

Casey: I think it's worked well when you use that system and you use it in the context of making sure that we are doing everything possible to, to--
Inquirer: So, are you saying that the president has been breaking the law since 2002, or whenever the NSA program started?

Casey: I'm saying that people like Senator Specter have a lot of questions about whether or not the law was broken. I don't think anyone has made a determination about that. I think that's pretty clear. (Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)

This clown is not worthy of the office to which he aspires, kiddies. Let's send Little Bobby back to the obscurity he so richly deserves.

Oh, I get it! Michael J. Fox gets to lie because he has a disease!

Don't let Hollyweird think for you.

Don't excuse a man's lies (or, more charitably, his blinding fear) simply because he's dying. (We're all dying, kiddies.)

"Murdering children is just plain wrong." Try repeating that over and over the next time your mind is assaulted by our moral and intellectual superiors preaching about the good that will fall from the sky if only we will get over these silly qualms we have over chopping up kids.

The American Thinker: The Unconscionable Claims of Michael J. Fox by Mary L. Davenport, MD

The popular and appealing actor Michael J. Fox has taken to the airwaves in Senate battleground states Missouri, Maryland, and New Jersey with a highly misleading ad urging defeat of Republican Senatorial candidates opposing the use of taxpayer dollars to fund new embryonic stem cell line research. He states,

“Stem cell research offers hope to millions of Americans with diseases like diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s…. But George Bush and Michael Steele would put limits on the most promising stem cell research.”

Mr. Fox and his ads’ sponsors are guilty of conflating embryonic stem cell research, which the GOP candidates and many Americans oppose for destroying a human life in the name of curing other people’s diseases, with stem cell research in general, which includes adult stem cell research and umbilical cord blood stem cell research.

The only limits in question are on federal funding of new embryonic stem cell lines, requiring the sacrifice of new embryos. Private and state-funded research (California voters are spending six billion dollars borrowing money to fund this) is ongoing. The implicit claim that research based on new embryos is “the most promising” is absurd, completely unsupported by the scientific literature, and an insult to voters, based as it is on the assumption that they are incapable of understanding the issue. Too stupid to tell the difference, is the elitist assumption underlying this campaign.

Exactly!

Flim-flam is a charitable description. Why would federally-funded research be more promising than state- and privately-funded research? And on what possible basis can the claim be made that embryonic stem cell research is more promising than adult stem cell research?

The plain fact is that embryonic stem cell research is proving to be a bust. There are currently 72 therapies showing human benefits using adult stem cells and zero using embryonic stem cells. Scientifically-minded readers can review this medical journal article on the status of adult stem cell research. Adult stem cell therapies are already being advertised and promoted while no such treatments are even remotely in prospect for embryonic stem cell research.

The fact is that adult stem cells have already produced remarkable cures, whereas embryonic stem cells have failed. This should come as no great surprise to anyone with a background in high school biology. When an embryo is created by the union of the sperm and egg, the cells begin to divide, creating embryonic stem cells from which all future tissues and organs are derived. Within days, the embryonic cells differentiate into three cell layers – ectoderm, mesoderm and endoderm. Cells in these layers continue to differentiate into tissues and organs. As the embryo matures into a fetus, child, and adult, some undifferentiated cells of the three types remain in various tissues such as bone marrow, fat, skin and olfactory tissue.

These adult stem cells are multipotent: they have the ability to turn into a variety of types of tissues. Successful stem cell therapies cause the DNA in the adult stem cells to further differentiate into more specific types of cells. There is no point in getting the adult stem cell to turn into a less differentiated type of cell, or using the more primitive embryonic stem cells. This would be going backward, in the opposite direction of providing a clinically useful therapy. Difficulties abound with proposed embryonic stem cell therapies. The growth of the more primitive embryonic stem cells is more difficult to control and leads to tumor formation. Recent research suggests brain tumors may result. Additionally, the use of embryonic tissue foreign to the patient can potentially lead to problems with immune rejection of tissue, a problem not encountered in using a patient’s own adult stem cells.

America is the most formidable medical research center in the world, but it is far from alone in pursuing the potential of adult stem cells. The worldwide effort is impressive and growing. For non-adult stem cell research, a morally unquestionable alternative source exists: stem cells drawn from umbilical cord blood. Already a bank exists in Dubai collecting cord blood stem cells.

In short, the claims made in the Michael J. Fox political ads are false and reprehensible, an insult to the voters of Maryland, Missouri and New Jersey, and to all Americans.

Mary L. Davenport, MD is an obstetrician and gynecologist, and a Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Support hot Turkish babes: Various and sundry. (The Last)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette, here are

Yeliz Akkaya:

Yeşim Çatalkaya:

Support hot Turkish babes: Various and sundry. (Part Eleven)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette, here are

Sema Mumcu:

Simla Celep:

Yasemin Ergene:

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update.

Here is one scary Halloween e-card.

DAY 63: PLUTO HELD HOSTAGE

Wow...

...speechless...the sheer stupidity...bourgeois leisure time coughs up another intellectualloid hairball...wow...

The 28 Hour Day
A New Clock for a New Age
(Thanks to Steve Czaban for the heads up.)

Did you ever feel like there just weren't enough hours in the day? Have you ever stayed up late because you weren't tired enough to go to bed? Have you ever felt like you didn't get enough sleep and it was, too soon, time to get up? Have you ever wished for more free time to pursue different activities and goals?

If you can relate to these feelings, you will be interested in the 28 Hour Day. Under the 28 Hour Day system, the current week would remain at exactly 168 hours. (24x7=168) However, this 168 hour period would be divided into six 28-hour days rather than 7 24-hour days.

Some of the benefits of extending the length of the day are relatively clear: you would simply have more time to do the things you wanted to do. Everything you do now in a typical day could be done for a little longer: you could sleep longer, work longer, spend longer blocks of time with your family and friends, and have more leisurely meals. Other benefits become apparent when you realize that "daily" activities would occur less frequently: only six times each week instead of seven. Work, for example, could be accomplished in larger blocks of time, with fewer trips to and from the work place.

There are also benefits that come from the fact that, on a 28-hour day, our wake-sleep cycles would not be synchronized with the earth's cycle of light and dark.

There are strong philosophical and scientific arguments in favor of the 28 hour day. Serious proponents of the 28 hour day share their views here.

Ahhh...neo-darwinism! The descendants of fruit bats speak:

Until very recently in our evolution, it was a tremendous survival advantage to have a strong tendency spend your time and energy in the lit environment of the daytime, when you had the light to do things like hunt, gather, build, travel and fashion tools.

Now that our society has been transformed by mass production, division of labor, and artificial lighting, there is no longer any great advantage to being diurnal. There are, in fact, considerable advantages to breaking free of the 24 hour cycle.

Need a visual aid, kiddies?

© 1997 Copyright Digital Beat Productions.

I can see it now: "Tuesday, the new Monday!"

1997? It must be one of Goober II's "reforms" that didn't quite catch on. BTW, what ever happened to the metric system?

Anyway, after minutes of consideration, I must reject this particular proposal to screw up absolutely everything as unworkable. And it would just kill Jack Bauer.

America's third favorite diseased actor is a cowardly ghoul.

Ol' Mikey Fox wants kids to be killed so he won't shake anymore. The pinhead probably thinks kindmorder will make him immortal, too. (His fourth-rate acting sure won't.)

Damn the real science of this issue and full speed ahead to infanticide!

I can't even imagine the tortuous efforts Citizen Fox must go through to silence his conscience as it screams "Thou Shalt Not Kill!" Of course, many years in Hollyweird certainly help.

Fox News: Actor Michael J. Fox Endorses Dem Senate Candidates
Some critics argue actor Michael J. Fox of acting to make his Parkinson's look worse in a series of ads touting Senate candidates who support embryonic stem cell research; experts decry such charges.

Pray that the good folks of Missouri defeat this diabolic attempt to disguise babykilling as hope for the afflicted.

Let me put it this way, kiddies. If even the disciples of lutherism see the truth, it must be quite obvious...

St. Louis Business Journal: Missouri Synod opposes stem cell amendment
The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod's president, Gerald Kieschnick, voiced opposition Friday to the Missouri Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative...

George Orwell would have a good laugh at that bit of Newspeak.

Could the miracle of evolution be providing a way to cut down on the number of filthy pigeons?

BBC: Pelican swallows pigeon in park

Families and tourists in a London park were left shocked when a pelican picked up and swallowed a pigeon.

The unusual wildlife spectacle in St James's Park was caught on camera by photographer Cathal McNaughton.

He said the Eastern White pelican had the unfortunate pigeon in its beak for more than 20 minutes before swallowing it whole.

An RSPB spokesman said: "It is almost unheard of for a pelican to eat a bird. Their diet should be strictly fish."

There you have it, kiddies. The neo-darwinists were right. In a few hundred years, pelicans will be buying burgers at Wendy's.

Mr McNaughton, from the Press Association, said: "The pelican was on the towpath preening itself, and there were a lot of tourists watching it.

"Then the bird got up and strolled along until it reached one of the pigeons, which it just grabbed in its beak.

"There was a bit of a struggle for about 20 minutes, with all these people watching. The pelican only opened its mouth a couple of times.

"Then it managed to get the pigeon to go head first down its throat. It was kicking and flapping the whole way down."

There are currently five pelicans living near Duck Island in St James's Park - four Eastern Whites and one Louisiana Brown.

The last must be a Katrina refugee...

Pelicans were introduced into the park during King Charles II's reign as a gift from the Russian ambassador.

Ah...the Russians!

Wanna watch? Here's a short clip:

Pelican Eats Pigeon - video powered by Metacafe

The password is...SEGREGATION.

(With humblest appy-polly loggies to the late Allen Ludden and crew.)

The New York Sun: Government Loosens Single-Sex Restrictions on Public Schools
Public schools districts nationwide will be able to offer more single-sex classes and extracurricular activities and open more single-sex schools under a federal regulation that will go into effect this November. In an announcement yesterday, U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, said final Title IX single-sex regulations would loosen 30-year-old restrictions on single-sex education...

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Segregation entrenched among Masons in South
White-controlled Grand Lodges in 12 states, including Texas, do not officially recognize black Masons.

Victoria Advocate: Texas student helped integrate U.S. Army
Late in World War II, a severe shortage of combat troops forced the U.S. Army to rescind its policy of racial segregation. The Army began assigning African-American units to combat duty.

Frost Illustrated: Maryland faces education segregation suit
In a move that hails back to the education battles of the last century, a local coalition filed a lawsuit Oct. 5 in Baltimore Circuit Court, alleging the state of Maryland had not fulfilled its obligations under an agreement with the U.S. Department of Education to equitably fund a

Pye Chamberlayne, Requiescat in pace.

Pye in heaven

Godspeed to longtime UPI newsman Pye Chamberlayne, a former resident of Old Town Alexandria who died this past weekend at his country home west of Washington.

During his 50-plus-year career, he covered the White House and Congress. And when he retired in 1999, he still covered the occasional breaking story, albeit for the rural Clarke Times-Courier -- like the dump truck that flipped upside down on a gravel road near his house.

Mr. Chamberlayne also kept a Web log, where he posted everything from a family scrapbook (his son is serving in Iraq) to his personal observations, often in verse. Like this post-September 11 take on the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) confusing threat level:

Whenever I feel paranoid,
I really must confess,
My attitude gets greatly buoyed
By the Web site of DHS

There's a little thingy there
I call the threat-o-mat
That lets the DHSers share
Where the threat level's at.

If the threat-o-mat shows red
You'll be alarmed to know
You're just this side of getting dead
So to the shelter go.

But if the threat-o-thing is green
To hide I'm sure is no more use.
What worries me is what t'will mean
If that damn thing should display puce.

(With apologies to that poor underpaid devil, Tom Ridge.)
Chrs, Pye
(Thanks to John McCaslin of The Washington Times.)

Dumbass Mom of the Day.

From Inside The Beltway by John McCaslin of The Washington Times comes another reason to call them Democrasses.

What goes around

As expected, the mailbox overfloweth after Inside the Beltway published a letter to the editor of a local Virginia newspaper from Jan Falk of Fairfax Station, who bragged about how she and her 11-year-old son verbally assaulted Susan Allen, wife of Virginia Republican Sen. George Allen.

"I have never been more proud of my son," Mrs. Falk wrote the Centre View in Centreville, citing the eloquence in which her son greeted Mrs. Allen: "You suck."

"We are teaching respect on a case-by-case basis, not on arbitrary parameters having to do with social position or age," she wrote. (Emphasis mine.)

Of the many letters we received, we'll allow David Hoyt to speak for the outraged crowd, among them many Democrats:

"I guess Mrs. Falk doesn't realize the foolishness of teaching
her children respect on a case-by-case basis. Suppose her children decide some day that she doesn't deserve respect. Wouldn't that be a delicious outcome? After all, when you make it a subjective decision as to who deserves respect,
well you get what you deserve."

Mayor Lou Barletta gets it.

Little Hazelton, PA is on the front line of the war against the illegal immigrant invasion.

The Morning Call: Hazleton mayor says immigration law aimed at all ethnic groups

The illegal immigrants Hazleton has targeted in a new ordinance are Hispanics, but Mayor Lou Barletta said Monday that people with his own Italian ancestry would get the same unfriendly reception if they violated U.S. immigration laws in moving to the city.

''I hope I catch an illegal Italian — I do — just so I could prove that it doesn't matter to me,'' he told reporters after addressing about 100 business people, lobbyists and reporters at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon.

Unless he's a chef or a tailor, of course.

The ordinance that has gained Barletta and Hazleton national notoriety would punish businesses that hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. It has been approved by City Council and is scheduled to take effect Nov. 1.

An earlier version of the ordinance was set aside last month after the American Civil Liberties Union and Hispanic activists sued in federal court to overturn it as discriminatory and unworkable. The current version, designed to better withstand a legal challenge, puts the burden of verifying immigration status on the city, and gives businesses and landlords time to correct violations.

Since Hazleton adopted the original ordinance, about 40 other municipalities around the country have adopted similar laws or are considering them, Barletta said.

A Republican in his second term, Barletta reiterated that a recent influx of illegal immigrants has caused increases in violent crime and strained municipal services. He pointed to blown-up newspaper headlines that flanked him as evidence of that criminal activity, but declined to say what percentage of the city's crime he attributes to illegal immigrants.

Illegal immigrants were involved in all three of the murders committed in Hazleton in the past 18 months, he said.

''I don't need a number,'' he said. ''Numbers are important mostly to people from the outside who are trying to understand what's happening. But if you lived in the city of Hazleton and you woke up to morning news such as this, you would understand that we have a major immigration problem.''

Barletta said the illegal immigrants involved in criminal activity in Hazleton have all been Hispanics, mostly from the Dominican Republic. He stressed that the ordinance is not aimed at a particular ethnic group but rather at rooting out foreigners who have entered the country illegally, adding to the pressure on police and other government services intended for citizens.

Barletta claimed some of the illegal immigrants who were living in Hazleton have moved — ''some in the middle of the night, actually'' — in anticipation of the ordinance taking effect.

People from every state have sent donations totaling more than $35,000 to a legal defense fund that the city established to help defray the cost of a court battle that Barletta said will ''probably go as far as the Supreme Court.''

Battle of the Day.

All you Shakespeare fans know that St. Crispin's Day is the anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. Today is the 591st anniversary of this battle from the Hundred Years War.

Of course, the Bard was no military historian. So here's a quick overview of the battle from the link above. (More detail may be found there as well.)

The Hundred Years War was fought because of claims by English monarchs on the French throne. In 1415, Henry V sailed to France for a season of campaigning. After a successful but long siege of Harfleur, he decided to march through the French countryside to Calais before returning to England. In spite of the political turmoil in France, various nobles marshalled their forces to block Henry's march north.

On 25 October 1415, the French forces blocked the road to Calais and challenged Henry to battle. The lines were drawn in some recently plowed fields between the villages of Agincourt and Tramecourt. English forces, weary and ill from the long march, were outnumbered by the French forces and appeared to be doomed. At first, the French waited; Henry ordered the English line to move forward to extreme longbow range and stop. The first round of arrows to strike the French ignited a calvary charge and the battle was joined.

The calvary charge was blunted by concentrated English longbow firing, the muddy field, and wooden stakes the English archers had driven into the ground. The French nobles, knights, and men-at-arms advanced on foot towards the English infantry. By the time they reached the English line, most were exhausted by the struggle through the mud. The French ignored the English archers (who were firing constantly) so as to gain glory by defeating the English nobles. Those French men felled by arrows or pushed to the ground were helpless because their heavy armor kept them from standing. The English line held while the lightly-armored (thus nimble) archers killed prostrate French. The battle turned into a rout and the French departed the field.

While sources vary, it appears that the English lost a few hundred men while the French lost several thousand. The English longbowmen certainly played a major role but the primary reason the French were defeated was their lack of a unified command. The French were provoked into an attack on unfavorable terms and no commander on the field had the ability to stop the charge. The English won the day; the French eventually won the war and expelled the English from France.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Crispin and St. Crispinian, brothers and martyrs. They are the patrons of shoemakers, cobblers, and leatherworkers. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Ephesians 3:2-12.
Today's Responsorial is Isaiah 12:2-3, 4, 5-6.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 12:39-48.

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
ZENIT - The World Seen From Rome

Just in case you are wondering what exactly Catholics believe, here is

The Apostles Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of Heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son Our Lord, Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into Hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into Heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.

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.

Anima Christi

Soul of Christ, sanctify me; Body of Christ, save me; Blood of Christ, inebriate me; Water from Christ's side, wash me; Passion of Christ, strengthen me; O good Jesus, hear me; Within Thy wounds hide me; Suffer me not to be separated from Thee; From the malicious enemy defend me; In the hour of my death call me; And bid me come unto Thee; That I may praise Thee with Thy saints and with Thy angels Forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer to St. 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.

Prayer to End Abortion

Lord God, I thank You today for the gift of my life, and for the lives of all my brothers and sisters. I know there is nothing that destroys more life than abortion, yet I rejoice that you have conquered death by the resurrection of Your Son. I am ready to do my part to end abortion. Today I commit myself never to be silent, never to be passive, and never to be forgetful of the unborn. I commit myself to be active in the pro-life movement, and never stop defending life until all my brothers and sisters are protected and our nation once again becomes a nation with liberty and justice, not just for some, but for all. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer For Vocations

Send forth your Spirit, Lord, into the hearts of your faithful people, that we may be conscious of our vocation to holiness and sevice to others. Grant that many of us may dedicate ourselves to You through the priesthood and the religious life. We pray especially for the needs of our own parish and diocese. Grant that we may always have sufficient good and holy priests, and dedicated Sisters to serve our commumities. We pray, too, for religious orders; that generous men may join them to become zealous missionaries in preaching the Gospel in word and action, especially to the poor and abandoned. We make this prayer through Jesus Christ, Our Lord and Redeemer. Amen.

Prayer Before The Crucifix

Behold, O kind and gentle Jesus, I kneel before Thee and pray that Thou would impress upon my heart the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, with true repentance for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment. At the same time, with sorrow I meditate on Thy five precious wounds, having in mind the words which David spoke in prophecy: "They have pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones."

Divine Praises

Blessed be God.
Blessed be His Holy Name.
Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man.
Blessed be the Name of Jesus.
Blessed be His most Sacred Heart.
Blessed be His most Precious Blood.
Blessed be Jesus in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar.
Blessed be the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete.
Blessed be the great Mother of God, Mary most holy.
Blessed be her holy and Immaculate Conception.
Blessed be her glorious Assumption.
Blessed be the name of Mary, Virgin and Mother.
Blessed be Saint Joseph, her most chaste spouse.
Blessed be God in His angels and in His saints.
May the Heart of Jesus in the most Blessed Sacrament
Be praised, adored and loved
With grateful affection at every moment
In all the tabernacles of the world
Even to the end of time. Amen.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Stuff about your body.

Michael J. Fox, call your office...

Stem cells cause brain tumors?
Researchers warn of injecting them into Parkinson's disease patients
--Reuters

Eek...

Cell-phone use 'damages sperm'
Doc: 'It is just like using a toothbrush but mobiles could be having a devastating effect on fertility' --London Telegraph

No wonder I have no desire to return Reese Witherspoon's calls...

Blue-eyed men prefer blue-eyed women
Apparently because color can help reveal whether or not partner has been faithful --Reuters

Yippee...

2 drinks daily help men avoid heart attack
'Moderate drinking could be viewed as a complement, rather than an alternative' --Reuters

No! Even turnips?

Vegetables slow memory loss in old age
People who eat green leafs such as lettuce, spinach had fewest problems
--Reuters

Thieves lead to discovery of Egyptian tombs.

AP: Arrest of robbers brings archaeologists to graves of 3 royal dentists; Earliest record of regular Wednesday AM tee times found

Fyodor's Headlinks.

Stories that have absolutely nothing in common...or do they?

La Crosse Tribune: Pagan student club created at University of Wisconsin; 20-year-old president: 'We're coming out of the broom closet'

KYW-TV: Dad pulls gun on son's football coach; 'They were screaming. It was nuts. Mothers were grabbing their children'

From The Great Dutch Tradition Of Military Dominance Department:

Dutch mayor: Send hookers with troops; 'The army must consider ways its soldiers can let off steam'
(Thanks to Roto-Reuters for the heads up.)

General Joseph Hooker, call your office...or, The more things change, the more "Don't let this happen to you" films we have to retrieve from the national archives.

Dumbass Neo-pagan Dirtworship Story of the Day.

No, kiddies, it's not those pro wrestlers who say everybody on earth has been dead since Reagan's second term...

London Times (via WorldNetDaily): WWF study claims we've been living beyond ecology's means for 2 decades; 'Earth can't sustain man's heavy footprint'

...but Andre The Giant did have really big footprints.

Is BIG BABYKILLING running scared in South Dakota?

I doubt it.

People who support the legalized murder of innocent kids are just naturally thugs. What's a little vandalism after you have rationalized kindmord?

WorldNetDaily: Coat hangers painted on South Dakota's pro-life signs
Abortion opponents say their message is reaching people, provoking reactions

NOW he does something to stop the invasion!

WorldNetDaily: Border-fence bill goes to President Bush
Plan calls for 1st $1.2 billion of work on barrier to illegals

For the ten trillionth time, Dr. Walter E. Williams explains the foreign trade 'deficit'.

Pay attention and learn some basic economics, kiddies. This is the stuff you should have been taught in the government indoctrination centers.

Walter E. Williams: Foreign trade angst

Patrick Buchanan's recent syndicated column titled "New Deal for U.S. Manufacturers" stokes the fires of misunderstanding and panic. Mr. Buchanan, my longtime friend, is right about a lot of things, but he's wrong about trade.

First, he laments, "Europeans, Japanese, Canadians and Chinese sell us so much more than they buy from us, because they have rigged the rules of world trade." But so what? I buy more from my grocer than he buys from me. It wouldn't make a difference if I lived 2 feet south of the U.S.-Canadian border and my grocer lived 2 feet north of it.

Like many, Buchanan worries about our foreign trade deficit, pointing out that it's reaching an annual rate of $816 billion, and that means "dependency on foreigners." Actually, the foreign dependency is a two-way street. I'll explain it, starting with the alleged trade deficit I run with my grocer.

When I purchase $100 worth of groceries, my goods account (groceries) rises by $100, but my capital account (money) falls by $100. That means there's really a balance in my trade account. By the same token, my grocer's goods account (groceries) falls by $100 but his capital account (money) rises by $100, also a balance in his trade account.

It really is that simple, kiddies.

Mr. Buchanan writes, "Imports surged to $188 billion for the month [of July], as our dependency on foreigners for the vital necessities of our national life ever deepens." That means we imported $188 billion worth of goods. Do foreigners keep all those dollars they earned under a mattress? They are not that stupid. They use those dollars to import capital goods such as U.S. stocks, bonds and U.S. Treasury notes.

They might use some of it to build factories in the U.S. such as Honda, Novartis and Samsung. The dollar amount of those purchases is going to equalize the value of what we import. We sport a huge surplus in our capital account with foreigners. As such, they are dependent on us for a safe and profitable place to invest their earnings. That dependency contributes to our economic growth.

Bingo!

Then there's Buchanan's worry about U.S. manufacturing job loss. U.S. farming has a similar history. Farm employment peaked between 1840 and 1870. In 1900, 40 percent of American workers were employed in farming; today, it's less than two percent. Technological advances made that possible. U.S. manufacturing employment reached its peak in 1950 and has been in decline ever since.

This has more to do with technological innovation than outsourcing. It's a worldwide phenomenon. Since 2000, China has lost 4.5 million manufacturing jobs compared to the loss of 3.1 million in the U.S. Nine of the top 10 manufacturing countries, who produce 75 percent of the world's manufacturing output (the U.S., Japan, Germany, China, Britain, France, Italy, Korea, Canada, and Mexico), have lost manufacturing jobs, Italy being the exception. Because of technological progress, manufacturing output has risen while manufacturing employment has fallen.

I'm one of those whom Pat calls "robotic free-traders." That might be another label for those of us who support peaceable, voluntary exchange, and I plead guilty. Buchanan, like so many others, points to the government subsidies and tariff protections given to businesses in other countries, a practice from which we can't plead complete innocence.
Protectionists call for "free trade but fair trade." They call for a "level playing field."

In effect, they're saying that if other governments rip off their citizens with business subsidies and import duties, forcing them to pay higher prices, our government should retaliate by using the same tools to rip off its citizens.

The next time I see Pat, I might ask him what he would do if we both were at sea in a rowboat and I shot a hole in my end of the boat. Would he retaliate by shooting a hole in his end? (Thanks to Townhall.com for the heads up.)

Dr. Sowell knows the problems of Repansycans.

Thomas Sowell : A blank check from America?

Media pundits have just about given this year's election to the Democrats -- at least in the House of Representatives and perhaps in the Senate as well. They might even be right, for a change.

Some are saying that this could be like the 1994 midterm election shocker when the Republicans seized control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years. If so, the Democrats will win by following the exact opposite strategy from that which brought the Congressional Republicans to power in 1994.

The Republican strategy, crafted by Newt Gingrich, was to spell out their stands on key issues and to promise to bring those issues to a vote in Congress. They called their agenda "The Contract with America."

It is now clear to all that this year's Democrats are deliberately avoiding spelling out any coherent policy program of their own.

Their strategy is to second-guess, denigrate and undermine Republicans instead of offering an agenda of their own. Rather than having a contract with America, they are seeking a blank check from America. Moreover, they may get it.

How did the Republicans manage to bring themselves to this dire condition, just two years after winning both Houses of Congress, the White House, and most of the state governorships?

It wasn't easy -- and it wasn't new. It was the same thing that caused the first President Bush to lose his bid for re-election in 1992, after having had sky-high approval ratings in 1991. It was betraying the trust of supporters.
(Thanks to Townhall.com for the heads up.)

Watch a Democrass debase the language.

Dennis Prager, writing at Townhall.com, says:

A vote for Patty Wetterling can hurt children

Everyone knows what child molestation is, right?

Everyone knows what Mark Foley did, right?

I do not live in Minnesota.

Nor have I ever written a column about any congressional race.

But what Patty Wetterling, Democratic congressional candidate in Minnesota's sixth district, just did is so wrong, so dishonest, so low even for the generally negative tone of political advertising, and so injurious to children, that I am breaking a lifelong silence on congressional races to beg Democrats and others in her district not to vote for her.

This is not motivated by partisanship; I would even prefer a candidate to the left of her. Vote for the Green candidate if there is one; write in someone to the left of her. But to vote for Patty Wetterling is to harm political discourse and compromise our society's battle against child abuse.
Her recent television ad, referring to the Mark Foley scandal, states: "It shocks the conscience . . . congressional leaders have admitted covering up the predatory behavior of a congressman who used the Internet to molest children."

Even the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, among America's most left/liberal newspapers, which essentially endorses only Democrats, published an article under the headline, "Wetterling ad overstates facts: The TV spot by the Sixth District candidate is wrong in stating that members of Congress admitted to a coverup -- none has."

But that lie in the Patty Wetterling ad is actually the lesser of its sins. The greater sin, the unforgivable one, is its characterization that what former Republican Congressman Mark Foley did was "molest children."

Foley not only did not molest any children, to the best of anyone's knowledge, he did not even engage in consensual sex with any page over the age of consent. (There was a relationship with one adult male who had served as a page.)

So that is the second lie in the Patty Wetterling ad. No one was molested. And no child was involved at any time in any way.

That is what prompts this anger at Patty Wetterling more than her lies, which she continues to defend. It is her use of the words "molest children" when everything that happened took place via the Internet, and the youngest page to receive his cyberspace attention was 16 years old.