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It seems Pope Francis needs to brush up on his Tertullian!

It has been reported (in The ChristLast Media, I must note) that the current Pope does not like the phrase "lead us not into temptation...

"Let no freedom be allowed to novelty, because it is not fitting that any addition should be made to antiquity. Let not the clear faith and belief of our forefathers be fouled by any muddy admixture." -- Pope Sixtus III

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

A classless jackass to the ignorant, ignominious end. [Part 2]

From Washington's other newspaper:

Pennsylvania Governor chastises "nation of wusses"

Noted he-man Slow Eddie proves those clowns at Comcast who put him on the Eagles' pregame show should be sacked.

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell spoke out against the NFL's decision move the Minnesota Vikings - Philadelphia Eagles game to Tuesday night because of the blizzard. As Cindy Boren reported:

After calling the postponement "a joke" and saying that "Vince Lombardi would be spinning in his grave," on Sunday, his anger was unabated Monday, when he made frequent use of the "w" word.

"My biggest beef is that this is part of what's happened in this country," Rendell said in an interview on 97.5 radio in Philly. "I think we've become wussies. ... We've become a nation of wusses. The Chinese are kicking our butt in everything. If this was in China do you think the Chinese would have called off the game? People would have been marching down to the stadium, they would have walked and they would have been doing calculus on the way down."
If I believed ol' Slow Eddie was going to lead an anti-commie crusade to free the poor enslaved Chinese, I'd send him a couple of bucks, but he's merely another professional kleptocrat who has been term-limited [Up the rule of law!] out of power.

Shut up and move to DC, you blockhead. I'm sure there's an open spot in Dumbo's Kill Old Folks To Save Money Department.

A classless jackass to the ignorant, ignominious end. [Part 1]

From Washington's other newspaper:

Specter assails ideological 'cannibalism' in Senate in farewell speech

Sen. Arlen Specter began his goodbye speech after 30 years in office Tuesday morning by declaring "this is not a farewell address but rather a closing argument."

And you lost, Senator Brain Damage.

And argumentative he was. The Pennsylvania Republican-turned-Democrat berated his colleagues for stripping the "world's greatest deliberative body" [hee-hee] of its collegiality. In a bitter, at times angry, speech, Specter accused leaders of both parties of abusing the Senate's "cerebral procedures" [har-dee-har-har-har] in the service of partisan rancor and gridlock.

Referring to the 2010 election cycle in which he and more than a half-dozen colleagues were defeated in party primaries, Specter condemned senators for campaigning against one another.

"Collegiality can obviously not be maintained when negotiating with someone simultaneously out to defeat you - especially within your own party," Specter said. "In some quarters, 'compromising' has become a dirty word. Some senators insist on ideological purity as a precondition."

Poor baby.

Specter, 80, surveyed the wreckage of Republicans defeated by tea party insurgents in primaries this year. He said Rep. Michael N. Castle (R-Del.) was rejected in a Senate primary in favor of "a candidate who thought it necessary to defend herself as not being a witch" - a reference from the Senate floor to defeated Republican Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell that caused a few colleagues to smile and hold back laughter.

"Eating or defeating your own is a form of sophisticated cannibalism," Specter added.

Shut up, wipe the spittle off your chin, get away from the levers of power, and go back to sleep, Arlen.

Specter's speech stood in stark contrast to the soaring, valedictory odes to the Senate that Sens. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) and Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) and other veteran legislators have delivered in recent weeks. And it was not lost on anyone that, unlike Dodd and Gregg, Specter - who earned the nickname "Snarlin' Arlen" - is not exiting on his own terms.

A moderate [Instant Translation: totalitarian leftist] Republican since his first election to the Senate in 1980, Specter switched parties in spring 2009 when it became clear to him that he would lose reelection in a GOP primary. But as a Democrat, he faced a surprisingly strong primary challenge from insurgent Rep. Joe Sestak, who beat Specter to the nomination but lost in the general election to Sen.-elect Pat Toomey (R).

Click here!

"Civility is a state of mind," Specter said. "It reflects respect for your opponents and for the institutions you serve together. . . . This polarization will make civility in the next Congress more difficult - and more necessary - than ever."

Fascism is a state of mind, too, you cretinous ghoul.

Specter cited the unlikely write-in victory by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) as evidence that America still wants to be governed by the center. Specter has seen his coalition of moderate senators shrink drastically. In his speech, he rattled off a roll call of moderate Republicans who ate lunch together - "a glorious tradition," he said. Almost all those colleagues are gone from the Senate.

Murkowski should be thrown out of her party.

"That's a far cry from later years, when moderates could fit in a telephone booth," he added.

Specter told senators he was not retiring. "I do not say farewell to my continuing involvement in public policy, which I will pursue in a different venue," he said.

Saints preserve us!

And indeed, Specter retook the floor shortly after giving his farewell to offer his thoughts on the nuclear arms treaty.

Will somebody please drop this moron off at the nearest dog track?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

THANK YOU, JESUS! THE POPE HAS NOT [REPEAT NOT] BEEN REPLACED BY SEAN SPAMMITY!

From The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:


Note on the trivilization of sexuality. Regarding certain interpretations of "Light of the World"
OR
22.12.2010, p. 7.

[English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish]

Following the publication of the interview-book Light of the World by Benedict XVI, a number of erroneous interpretations have emerged which have caused confusion concerning the position of the Catholic Church regarding certain questions of sexual morality. The thought of the Pope has been repeatedly manipulated for ends and interests which are entirely foreign to the meaning of his words – a meaning which is evident to anyone who reads the entire chapters in which human sexuality is treated. The intention of the Holy Father is clear: to rediscover the beauty of the divine gift of human sexuality and, in this way, to avoid the cheapening of sexuality which is common today.

Some interpretations have presented the words of the Pope as a contradiction of the traditional moral teaching of the Church. This hypothesis has been welcomed by some as a positive change and lamented by others as a cause of concern – as if his statements represented a break with the doctrine concerning contraception and with the Church’s stance in the fight against AIDS. In reality, the words of the Pope – which specifically concern a gravely disordered type of human behaviour, namely prostitution (cf. Light of the World, pp. 117-119) – do not signify a change in Catholic moral teaching or in the pastoral practice of the Church.

As is clear from an attentive reading of the pages in question, the Holy Father was talking neither about conjugal morality nor about the moral norm concerning contraception. This norm belongs to the tradition of the Church and was summarized succinctly by Pope Paul VI in paragraph 14 of his Encyclical Letter Humanae vitae, when he wrote that "also to be excluded is any action which either before, at the moment of, or after sexual intercourse, is specifically intended to prevent procreation—whether as an end or as a means." The idea that anyone could deduce from the words of Benedict XVI that it is somehow legitimate, in certain situations, to use condoms to avoid an unwanted pregnancy is completely arbitrary and is in no way justified either by his words or in his thought. On this issue the Pope proposes instead – and also calls the pastors of the Church to propose more often and more effectively (cf. Light of the World, p. 147) – humanly and ethically acceptable ways of behaving which respect the inseparable connection between the unitive and procreative meaning of every conjugal act, through the possible use of natural family planning in view of responsible procreation.

On the pages in question, the Holy Father refers to the completely different case of prostitution, a type of behaviour which Christian morality has always considered gravely immoral (cf. Vatican II, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes, n. 27; Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2355). The response of the entire Christian tradition – and indeed not only of the Christian tradition – to the practice of prostitution can be summed up in the words of St. Paul: "Flee from fornication" (1 Cor 6:18). The practice of prostitution should be shunned, and it is the duty of the agencies of the Church, of civil society and of the State to do all they can to liberate those involved from this practice.

In this regard, it must be noted that the situation created by the spread of AIDS in many areas of the world has made the problem of prostitution even more serious. Those who know themselves to be infected with HIV and who therefore run the risk of infecting others, apart from committing a sin against the sixth commandment are also committing a sin against the fifth commandment – because they are consciously putting the lives of others at risk through behaviour which has repercussions on public health. In this situation, the Holy Father clearly affirms that the provision of condoms does not constitute "the real or moral solution" to the problem of AIDS and also that "the sheer fixation on the condom implies a banalization of sexuality" in that it refuses to address the mistaken human behaviour which is the root cause of the spread of the virus. In this context, however, it cannot be denied that anyone who uses a condom in order to diminish the risk posed to another person is intending to reduce the evil connected with his or her immoral activity. In this sense the Holy Father points out that the use of a condom "with the intention of reducing the risk of infection, can be a first step in a movement towards a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality." This affirmation is clearly compatible with the Holy Father’s previous statement that this is "not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection."

Some commentators have interpreted the words of Benedict XVI according to the so-called theory of the "lesser evil". This theory is, however, susceptible to proportionalistic misinterpretation (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter Veritatis splendor, n. 75-77). An action which is objectively evil, even if a lesser evil, can never be licitly willed. The Holy Father did not say – as some people have claimed – that prostitution with the use of a condom can be chosen as a lesser evil. The Church teaches that prostitution is immoral and should be shunned. However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another – even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity. This understanding is in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the Church.

In conclusion, in the battle against AIDS, the Catholic faithful and the agencies of the Catholic Church should be close to those affected, should care for the sick and should encourage all people to live abstinence before and fidelity within marriage. In this regard it is also important to condemn any behaviour which cheapens sexuality because, as the Pope says, such behavior is the reason why so many people no longer see in sexuality an expression of their love: "This is why the fight against the banalization of sexuality is also part of the struggle to ensure that sexuality is treated as a positive value and to enable it to have a positive effect on the whole of man’s being" (Light of the World, p. 119).

I would like to apologize to Pope Benedict XVI, and you, dear readers, for being foolish enough to believe the "interpretation" of Benedict's words by unbelievers [and worse]. It seems I was Vatican II'd. You know, that's when a perfectly straightforward and doctrinally sound document is hijacked and twisted beyond recognition by the forces of ignorant darkness both inside and outside the Church. [That's why we have everything from dull liturgies to insipid muzak to altar girls and thousands of sodomites masquerading as priests, kiddies.]

And lastly, Lord please forgive me, your poor servant, for I am old and tired yet little the wiser.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Pope, sodomy, and you.

Perverts all over the world are rejoicing because it seems that they are cool with God after all. Except , of course, if they covet their neighboring male prostitute's customer's rectum...I guess.

A seismic shift, indeed. Even that arch-chowderhead Bill Maher is thinking of becoming Catholic, pending the release of Benedict XVI's next encyclical, which is expected to bless chronic stupidity.

In case you have not heard the latest, kiddies, the head of the Roman Catholic Church [Earth Division] says it's hunky-dory for hookers with penises to wrap said penises in plastic before inserting them in other [paying] beings who happen to have penises. Or vice [get it?] versa. One can only assume that both tops and bottoms are now absolved.

One also hesitates to accuse the heir of St. Peter of fuzzy thinking, so I will be charitable and chalk this nonsense up to his being infected by the zeitgeist [one of my all-time favorite German words], which has always been a great danger to His flock.

As I almost always say [now I guess I should say it always]: Ideas have consequences. The idea in this instance is disguised by the world as something good [as per usual] - the prevention of disease. Who, for Baba Booey 's brother's sake, could be against disease prevention? Unfortunately, that is what is known in the world of professional wrestling as a " work " The world, and its prince, do not give a tinker's cuss [to put it mildly] about AIDS, whooping cough, or chlamydia. The goal is to corrupt souls into eternal damnation. That is the bottom line to end all bottom lines, kiddies.

So, instead of trying to help male hustlers and poor, ignorant [practically by the world's definition, which is overwhelmingly rich, white, and leftist] people of color to stop sinning, we should use technology to stop "the spread of disease". Again, who could possibly want people to get a disease? An excellent "work", an excellent smoke screen, indeed. You pretend to be concerned for people's health in order to disguise your true agenda of destroying families and seducing people into condemning their immortal souls to eternal hellfire. Brilliant!

Has our current Pope tired of the battle? Are we so fatigued by the constant struggle for the salvation of all souls on earth that we are now willing to surrender millions of them to the Foolish One? It sure as Hell [get it?] looks like it.

Let's take this idea to a few of its logical conclusions, shall we?

1) Male whores are allowed to use rubbers because said rubbers are not being used to prevent conception due to the inability of males to [currently, at least] conceive and bear children. Therefore, "sex" between males is permitted because pregnancy is not possible.

2) If male homosexuality is permitted because there is no possibility of conception, other forms of "sex" that also preclude conception are permitted.

A] Good news [Please forgive me, Father. It is merely irony to help the good little kiddies get it.] for King Goober II! He's not going to Hell for inserting his misshapen genitalia into the mouths of willing fat chicks with low self-esteem. Everyone will now call fellatio " gettin' a Clinton". [Rape, however, will probably remain verboten.] N.B. - Obviously this moniker is derived from Spill Clinton, not Hitlery or Sellcheap. They are good girls and would never do that sort of thing.

B] Good news for bisexuals [wink-wink, nudge-nudge] and Ernest Hemingway! Anal sex between men and women is now permitted. There is no chance of finding any eggs to fertilize down that road.

C] Good news for teenagers [but not the guys who have to detail the interiors of their dads' cars afterward]! Hand jobs are now allowed. Poor Ann Landers wasted all those decades warning kiddies about the evils of heavy petting for nothing.

D] Good news for organized crime! Pornography is now permitted. Not only does it go hand-in-hand [get it?] with masturbation [See E below], but pulling it out and blowing it on her face, stomach, back, elbow, or feet is a good thing.

E] Good news for the fat, the ugly, and the socially awkward! Abusing yourself is now permitted.

F] Good news for select surgeons! Vasectomies are not only permitted, but they will immediately become the most popular surgeries in the world. After all, shooting blanks is like having your dingus permanently wrapped in super-duper unbreakable plastic. [Which begs a few questions...Since condoms do "fail" once in a while, whose sin is it if some dude gets sick after a balloon bursts in his pooper? The top? The assembly line worker (I can only assume) who made the prophylactic? His employer?]


G] Good news for beastiality enthusiasts! Since, by definition of the word "species", inter-species lovin' can't result in conception [for instance, the armandillo is strictly a fictional beast], knockin' hooves with your pets, wild forest and jungle critters, and strays is permitted. Attendance at zoos will skyrocket because visiting them will be like cruising certain neighborhoods in Amsterdam. Pet shops, too. Gives "How Much Is That Doggie In The Window?" a whole new meaning, eh kiddies?

H] Good news for Bill & Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett, et al.! Sex with sterilized third world chicks is permitted. Now being rich, white, and racist is more fun than ever.

I] Good news for lesbians! It's about to become more than just a fad, at least in the "developed" world.

J] Good news for pedophiles, sado-masochists, and other as yet undreampt-of perverts who define their miserable existences with the "sex" they prefer.

3) And, since [as all good kiddies know] all sin is related, if you can rationalize away one sin or one category of sins, you can magically make all sins disappear!

Hey, that sounds kinda familiar...

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Dumbo The Presiphant strikes again.

U.S. jury clears Ghailani of terrorism charges [Reuters via Yahoo! News]

The first suspect transferred from Guantanamo military prison to face a U.S. civilian court was found not guilty of terrorism charges on Wednesday in a setback to President Barack's Obama plans for trying terrorism suspects.

Charlie Rangel isn't a black congressthingee, he's a criminal congressthingee.

Rangel pleads for 'fairness and mercy' ahead of punishment
By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press


WASHINGTON – Rep. Charles Rangel of New York pleaded Thursday for "a drop of fairness and mercy" as he braced for likely punishment for his ethical misdeeds.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Harlem Democrat, who rarely sticks to a script, released prepared remarks for a House ethics committee hearing that will decide how he should be sanctioned.

The 80-year-old Rangel was convicted Tuesday on 11 counts of violating House rules. He misused his office in fundraising for a college center named after him, set up a campaign office in a subsidized, residential-only apartment unit, made public a decade of misleading financial statements and failed to pay taxes for 17 years on rental income from a beach villa.

From the "I don't think the engines can take it, Captain" Department:

Crack in one of science's biggest riddles

GENEVA – Scientists claimed a breakthrough Thursday in solving one of the biggest riddles of physics, successfully trapping the first "anti-atom" in a quest to understand what happened to all the antimatter that has vanished since the Big Bang.

An international team of physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, or CERN, managed to create an atom of anti-hydrogen and then hold onto it for long enough to demonstrate that it can be studied in the lab.

"For us it's a big breakthrough because it means we can take the next step, which is to try to compare matter and antimatter," the team's spokesman, American scientist Jeffrey Hangst, told The Associated Press.

"This field is 20 years old and has been making incremental progress toward exactly this all along the way," he added. "We really think that this was the most difficult step."

For decades, researchers have puzzled over why antimatter seems to have disappeared from the universe.

Theory posits that matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts at the moment of the Big Bang, which spawned the universe some 13.7 billion years ago. But while matter — defined as having mass and taking up space — went on to become the building block of everything that exists, antimatter has all but disappeared except in the lab.

Hangst and his colleagues, who included scientists from Britain, Brazil, Canada, Israel and the United States, trapped 38 anti-hydrogen for about one tenth of a second, according to a paper submitted to the respected science journal Nature.

Since their first success, the team has managed to hold the anti-atoms even longer.

"Unfortunately I can't tell you how long, because we haven't published the number yet," Hangst told the AP. "But I can tell you that it's much, much longer than a tenth of a second. Within human comprehension on a real clock."

Scientists have long been able to create individual particles of antimatter such as anti-protons, anti-neutrons and positrons — the opposite of electrons. Since 2002, they have also managed to lump these particles together to form anti-atoms, but until recently none could be trapped for long enough to study them, because atoms made of antimatter and matter annihilate each other in a burst of energy upon contact.

"It doesn't help if they disappear immediately upon their creation," said Hangst. "So the big goal has been to hold onto them."

Two teams had been competing for that goal at CERN, the world's largest physics lab best known for its $10 billion smasher, the Large Hadron Collider. The collider, built deep under the Swiss-French border, wasn't used for this experiment.

Hangst's ALPHA team got there first, beating the rival ATRAP team led by Harvard physicist Gerald Gabrielse, who nevertheless welcomed the result.

"The atoms that were trapped were not yet trapped very long and in a very usable number, but one has to crawl before you sprint," he told the AP.

Many new techniques painstakingly developed over five years of experimental trial and error preceded the successful capture of anti-hydrogen.

To trap the anti-atoms inside an electromagnetic field and to stop them from annihilating atoms, researchers had to create anti-hydrogen at temperatures less than half a degree above absolute zero.

"Think of it as a marble rolling back and forth in a bowl," said Hangst. "If the marble is rolling too fast (i.e. the anti-atom is too hot) it just goes over the edge."

Next, scientists plan to conduct basic experiments on the anti-atom, such as shining a laser onto it and seeing how it behaves, he said.

"We have a chance to make a really precise comparison between a matter system and an antimatter system," he said, "That's unique, that's never been done. That's where we're headed now."

Hangst downplayed speculation that antimatter might someday be harnessed as a source of energy, or to create a powerful weapon, an idea popularized in Dan Brown's best-selling novel "Angels and Demons."

"It would take longer than the age of the universe to make one gram of antimatter," he said, calling the process "a losing proposition because it takes much more energy to make antimatter than you get out of it."

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

The Clap-App.

I know there are more important things going on in the world, kiddies, [For instance: Joe Sobran, one of our true Catholic and conservative intellectuals died a few weeks ago. Please pray for his immortal soul.] but I just could not resist this one.

New tech lets you pee on your phone to check for an STD


The mind boggles, kiddies. It really does.

As much fun as it is to head to your doctor’s office or a clinic to get tested for an STD, it looks like there might be a slightly more private and comfortable option on the horizon. A group of organizations in the UK have combined to produce over $10 million in funding for research related to inexpensive portable STD test. The test consists of a single-use USB dongle [Huh?]-sized component containing a microchip. Once urinated upon, the device connects to a mobile phone or laptop and tests for herpes, chlamydia and gonorrhea with instant results.

Oh, if only this wizardry had existed during King Goober II's reign! The White House would have been a much safer place. For dongles, that is, not women.


The tests would be distributed through vending machines in UK nightclubs, among other places, and would cost less than $2 each. [Oi, you mind pissing on me mobile before we have a go, love?] It is almost a given that more private testing options will lead to more frequent testing and, hopefully, to safer behavior. Let’s just hope that once this great new mobile STD testing technology hits the market in the UK, it spreads quickly.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Spreads quickly, get it?

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

With friends like these, who needs communists?

Oh boy, oh boy!

Network for conservative entertainment launches

Actor Kelsey Grammer is an investor and public face supporting a new network that launched Wednesday with entertainment designed to appeal to political conservatives.

Conservative, huh? How many "wives" has this clown had? An how many of them were strippers?

RightNetwork, whose first series, "Running," follows the fortunes of a couple of Tea Party-backed candidates for public office, is also trying a new model to establish itself. It is initially making programming available through video-on-demand services, the Internet and through mobile phones, bypassing the route of traditional TV networks with a spot on channel lineups.

Ooooooooh! A show about politics! Nothing says "conservative" like politics and politicians, right, kiddies?

And speaking of the so-called Tea Party... Sam Adams and his boys risked execution by committing treason. What do these modern heroes offer us? New Repansycans we haven't heard of. You fools should be ashamed of yourselves for daring to compare yourselves to true patriots who waged war [the real, dirty kind where you risk your hide to kill your enemies] against despots much more benign than those who now oppress us.

Friday, September 03, 2010

Once upon a time in the West..

...there was a funky and punky surf band that called themselves The Heritage Sponges...except when they changed into a Mexican surf band [wrestling masks, etc.]...then they called themselves Los Langostas De Roca...

Genuine Negro Jig

Photobucket



Yes, kiddies, that's the title of the latest album from The Carolina Chocolate Drops, who will be playing in York, PA on Wednesday September 8 at The Strand.


They play genuine American music, which means music that is a combination of poor black folks' music and poor white folks' music. You probably know it by the names "blues", "folk", "bluegrass", or "jazz". [And by jazz, I mean real jazz. Look up Nick LaRocca and you'll see what I mean.] Heck, some might even call it "country". After all, Hank Williams [Senior, of course.] had more in common with Robert Johnson than Eric Clapton did.

Their music is so fine, I won't even notice all the leftards in the audience who think they get it.

Watch as the leftard rats abandon ship.

CAL THOMAS: Obama's Cronkite Moment?

From NEMS360.com:

President Obama may have experienced his Walter Cronkite moment over the economy.

Responding to Cronkite’s reporting from Vietnam four decades ago that the only way to end the war was by negotiating with the North Vietnamese, President Lyndon Johnson was reported (though never confirmed) to have said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America.”

Now President Obama appears to have “lost” New York Times liberal economic columnist Paul Krugman. Krugman, who enthusiastically supported the president’s redistributionist and stimulus plans, has bowed to the reality that they are not working. In a recent column titled “This is Not a Recovery,” Krugman took issue with the president and Vice President Joe Biden that we have experienced a summer of economic recovery. “Unfortunately, that’s not true,” he wrote. “This isn’t a recovery, in any sense that matters. And policymakers should be doing everything they can to change that fact.”

Krugman asked an essential question: “Why are people who know better sugarcoating economic reality? The answer, I’m sorry to say, is that it’s all about evading responsibility.”

Hee-hee. This is really fun, kiddies. But seriously, Krugman and all the other petit-fasciste wannabe dictators know they will vote Communist when 2012 arrives. No matter what.

Speaking of 2012, are the Mayans racist for saying the world will end before President Hussein gets inaugurated for the second time?

It is that, and more. The administration is so locked into its left-wing, “tax, borrow and spend” ideology that it has become like someone trapped in a cult: unable to escape and endlessly repeating the same mantra.

In a speech last week to central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke acknowledged the economy is fragile, especially in light of the government’s latest report, which showed the weakest quarterly growth in a year. He added that high unemployment poses a serious threat. Still, Bernanke tried to sound optimistic by forecasting some pickup in growth in 2011 and beyond.

Optimism not based on reality is false hope based on wishful thinking. One might as well ask a high-performance engine to run at peak level after several of its cylinders have been disabled. It is impossible, no matter how shiny the paint job.

An economy burdened down with debt because of too much government spending, a health care law that will add new and unknown burdens, expiring tax cuts that will take more money from the private sector for government to waste and abuse, and a stock market unsure and thus unable to fuel the economic engine to propel us out of this recession, is not a “summer of recovery,” but a winter of discontent.

The solution is not a “Star Trek” approach in which we must go where no one has gone before. We know what works and what must be done. Social Security and Medicare must be reformed; government programs that have failed, or are obsolete, should be scrapped; military spending designed to enhance re-election prospects for some members of Congress, while doing nothing to improve the military, must be ended, and people should be asked to return to the attitude of previous generations that all of us, including government, must live within our means.

Writing in U.S. News & World Report, publisher Mort Zuckerman takes the Krugman view a step further by calling the administration he once supported “The Most Fiscally Irresponsible Government in U.S. History.”

Zuckerman writes: “People see the stimulus, fashioned and passed by Congress in such a hurry, as a metaphor for wasted money. They are highly critical about the lack of discipline among our political leaders. The question that naturally arises is how to forestall a long-term economic decline.”

The answer is for the Republicans, so eager and so likely to regain power in the House and possibly the Senate in the coming election, to expose the administration’s sugarcoating of reality and get out the bad-tasting medicine. The good news is that by swallowing fiscal responsibility, we will all be better off in the end. But can Republicans withstand and prevail over the Democratic demagoguery that will predictably be heaped on them? They’d better, or they don’t deserve to lead.

As Walter Cronkite used to say, “That’s the way it is.”

Here's a surprise - Government sponsored gambling is a destructive plague.

From Wilkes-Barre's Times-Leader:

A divisive plan to build a casino near the site of the Civil War’s tide-turning Battle of Gettysburg is in the mold of many other communities that have successfully meshed gambling with historical tourist destinations, the developer told state regulators Tuesday.

Many thanks to Slow Eddie Rendell and the Party of Blasphemy, Buggery and 'Bortion for bringing us this wonderful tax on the poor and ignorant that can help fascist criminals get re-elected.

Dumbass Move Of The Day.

I don't know if charitable pledges are legally binding documents, but it doesn't really matter. File this one under cutting off your nose to spite your own face.

Pennsylvania Academy of Music sues donors

From Lancaster Online, which is the internet front for Lancaster Newspapers, Inc., the home for many an Amishland totalitarian "writer":


A Pennsylvania Academy of Music trustee drove to the Pequea home of donors William and Karyn Regitz on Monday to deliver an ultimatum:

Pay the $150,000 still owed — and past due — on their $240,000 multiyear pledge or get sued.

The Regitzes said they still wanted to see PAM's business plan, which they had requested two weeks earlier, to help them decide what to do.

The trustee didn't have the plan.

The Regitzes didn't write the check.

And PAM filed suit against them within hours.

"We feel we'd be putting our money into a big, dark hole. If we could see a viable business plan, which we've asked for and haven't gotten, we'd feel differently," Karyn Regitz said.

Before and since it filed for bankruptcy in May, PAM has pointed to $1.2 million in unpaid pledges from 28 donors as a key to its financial recovery.

It has urged those donors who are on track with their payments to accelerate their schedule.

Those who are behind in their payments were warned several times that PAM might sue to collect.

Monday, for the first time, it did. More suits will follow, said PAM attorney Jacques H. Geisenberger Jr.

"We have a duty to maximize our assets for the benefit of our creditors," he said, declining to say which donors PAM will pursue.

In a separate proceeding, U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Jean FitzSimon this week allowed PAM to occupy space in Liberty Place, as a lease gets finalized.

PAM will begin moving there Monday and start classes there Wednesday.

As of Thursday, 123 students had signed up.

Geisenberger indicated the figure could grow substantially because "the phone has been ringing off the hook with inquiries."

This spring, PAM had more than 300 students.

The dispute between PAM and the Regitzes symbolizes the schism that's opened between the academy and some of its previous supporters and leaders.

The Regitzes gave their pledge, payable in $40,000 annual installments, to PAM to fund a new building.

In return, PAM promised to put their name on the building's community room.

PAM completed the lavish $32 million building at 42 N. Prince St. in June 2008, winning widespread praise for investing heavily in downtown.

But the following summer, as the recession slashed its income while its operating expenses stayed high, its financial health soured.

William Regitz, a PAM trustee and retired Intel computer company division manager, and the rest of the board resigned amid a clash with PAM's founders over what to do.

Ultimately, this May, PAM not only filed for bankruptcy but lost the building, too.

To Geisenberger, PAM held up its end of the bargain, despite the recent departure from the center-city landmark.

"We built the building. We occupied the building. We put their name on the room. What else do they want us to do?

"We tried to retain the building, but it wasn't economically feasible," he said.

Karyn Regitz saw it differently.

"The money we donated was for the building. They don't have the building," she said.

"They want to use the money for operations. We didn't give the money for that."

Although the Regitzes had stopped their pledge payments, the couple continued to support PAM in other ways.

Most recently, they hosted a pool and barbecue party for 40 foreign students attending PAM's Vivace festival last month.

"We want to support them in ways that make sense," said Karyn Regitz, who served on numerous PAM committees over the years.

But until they see what they consider a persuasive business plan, that support will exclude a six-figure check, she said.

"We just feel we'd be flushing it. We've worked really hard for our money. We don't want to throw it away. We'd rather give to a viable organization, a sustainable organization," Karyn Regitz said.

She predicted that the lawsuit would backfire on PAM, hindering its ability to attract new donors and hurting the efforts of all local nonprofits trying to do so.

"They're going to have a very difficult time getting donors when they have a history of suing them.

"It's not only going to hurt them, it's going to hurt every nonprofit in the county … ," she said. "If people are afraid they'll get sued if circumstances change, it won't encourage them to open their wallets."


The word "racist" has lost all meaning.

'Bed Intruder' songster Antoine Dodson uses new-found fame, fortune to move family out of projects

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) - Antoine Dodson's angry, head-shaking TV interview about a rape attempt against his younger sister in her bed has turned into an iTunes chart-topping song.

The song plays off many of his lines, including: "Y'all need to hide your kids, hide your wife and hide your husband, 'cause they raping everybody out here."

In the first 2 1/2 weeks of sales, the song selling for $1.29 had about 60,000 downloads and at least 25 million views on YouTube. The musicians who put it together are splitting the proceeds with the 24-year-old Dodson.

He says he plans to use the money to move his family out of public housing in Huntsville, Ala.

Amen to that, Brother.

Still, some suggest that the college student and his family are being exploited and that his online rant plays to African-American stereotypes.

Pay no attention to those professional racists, Mr. Dodson. They don't care if little girls get raped, as long as it doesn't threaten their power.

Ol' Jug Ears to the little people: Time to die. You cost too much.

Agent Orange Cases Expanded; Added Costs Raise Fiscal Concerns

Benito Insane Okhrana uses Alan Simpleton [a well known Repansycan psychopath from days gone by] to deliver the glad tidings of hope and change.

Washington's Other Newspaper [I know, I know, but it is fun to watch these cretins justify anything in the name of left-fascist power.] "reports":

Hundreds of thousands of Vietnam War veterans are receiving disability compensation for diseases normally associated with aging - not combat - because of the possibility of a link Agent Orange exposure. The diseases in question range from diabetes, for which 270,000 veterans receive Agent Orange-related checks, to erectile dysfunction. "And taxpayers may soon be responsible for even more: VA said Monday that it will add heart disease, Parkinson's disease and certain types of leukemia to the list of conditions that might be connected to Agent Orange." The total cost of these new payments are estimated at $42 billion over 10 years. Budget watchers say the evidence is too thin to spend so much money on the possibility of a connection.

"The irony (is) that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess," said Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, himself a veteran and the former chair of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee. Simpson now co-chairs President Barack Obama's deficit-reduction commission.

Way to provide bi-partisan cover to the commie killers, Alan.

SEX IS DEATH. (Ho-Ho-Ho)

From CBS 47 in Fresno:

Bakersfield Doctor Suffocated in Chimney

The Kern County Coroner says 49-year-old Jacquelyn Katarac died of asphyxiation.

Police believe she tried to slide down the chimney to get into a home to confront a boyfriend she was having problems with.

Police believe she got stuck in the chimney Wednesday night but her body was not discovered until late Saturday night. Firefighters had to take the brick chimney apart to get Dr. Kotarac out.

Investigators say the boyfriend was out of the country at the time and there is no evidence of foul play in the woman’s death.

As you well know, kiddies, there is foul play and then there is foul play.

From Bakersfield.com:

Estranged boyfriend of doctor found in chimney speaks out

Dr. Jacquelyn Kotarac was a very intelligent, attractive woman and a gifted doctor, estranged boyfriend William Moodie said.

That's awfully nice of him.

In fact, her attention to detail and connections within the medical community resulted in Moodie getting a new heart valve, Moodie said Wednesday evening. She listened to his chest, noticed something was wrong, and drove him to UCLA Medical Center to meet with the chief of cardiothoracic surgery.

That doctor agreed with Kotarac and the heart valve was replaced, Moodie said.

"She was absolutely brilliant as a doctor," he said.

Brilliant!

Kotarac's badly decomposed body was found Saturday wedged in the chimney of Moodie's house. Bakersfield police believe she had been there about three days, since trying to force her way into the house on the evening of Aug. 25.

With all due respect, does anyone ever decompose well? Was she well-accessorized?

Wait a minute...What? She tried to force her way in?

Kotarac, 49, showed up at the house that night and Moodie, not wanting a confrontation, slipped out the back door when she arrived, police said. [Smooth. - F.G.] She apparently used a shovel to try to force open the back door of the home in the 4300 block of La Mirada Drive, police said.

With all due respect, doesn't she sound like a stalker? Or worse? If she was a guy trying that shovel trick, she would have been shot and killed.

Moodie, 58, spent the night someplace else, according to police.

Where he hid from his brilliant, compassionate, on-again, off-again sex partner.

At some point, Kotarac used a ladder to get to the roof, removed the chimney cap and slid down the flue feet first, police said. Her body was found stuck near the bottom of the flue. [So close and yet so far. - F.G.] The coroner's office reported she died from being unable to breathe and her death was an accident. Police said Moodie was never a suspect.

Moodie declined to talk about his relationship with Kotarac or what their status was as a couple when she showed up that night.

Golly, I'll bet she just wanted to talk about their relationship. And the shovel.

But he's tired of people saying negative things about her and said it's time to leave her alone.

It is much easier to respect the dead. For one thing, you don't have to worry about them breaking into your house and caving your melon in with a shovel.

"She made a horrendously bad decision and paid for it with her life," Moodie said.

Just one bad one, Billy? Was it the chimney decision? Or possibly the shovel one? Maybe it was refusing to fall out of "love" with you.

He remembers Kotarac, whom he knew for three to three and a half years, as a tremendously giving person who even provided free medical service to some people. Kotarac, a 1991 graduate of UCLA Medical School, was an internal medicine doctor who worked out of an office on San Dimas Street.

As far as hobbies, she was a lifelong fan of equestrian events and owned horses when she was younger. Moodie said he and Kotarac attended a horse jumping competition in Las Vegas, and she often went to see horses race.

Horsies are pretty.

Although her busy schedule often didn't allow it, Kotarac also loved to travel, Moodie said.

Police said Kotarac had an airplane ticket to go to Amsterdam with Moodie the Friday after she went missing. [On again. - F.G.] Moodie and an office assistant of Kotarac's searched his house Thursday and reported her missing to police because her car and purse were there.

Definitely off. Again.

Moodie spent the night at his home Thursday and then went on the trip. Police searched the home Friday evening, but found nothing.

Memo to all you murderers out there: You have approximately three days [somewhat longer in colder climes like Canada] before the local constabulary can smell your rotting victim.

It wasn't until a woman checking on Moodie's fish tank noticed a foul odor Saturday and inspected the chimney flue that Kotarac's body was discovered.

Fishies are pretty, too.

That smell is going to linger, kiddies.

Moodie said he's been staying in hotels since returning to Bakersfield and he won't live in the house. He said he'll have it repaired -- the chimney had to be dismantled to remove the body -- but he imagines there will be some issues selling the home with the notoriety it now has.

Huh. Imagine that...lower property values.

Moodie said it's been a difficult time, and Kotarac's death has had an enormous impact on him.

Not as enormous as she probably wanted to have. [See shovel part of the story, above.]

"I feel this incredible sense of loss," he said. "It's very hard to accept the fact that she's gone."

He said, with a sigh of relief.

World War II continues apace.

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WWII Navy transport spurs memories

From Pittsburgh's other newspaper:

LST 325, a Navy transport that saw action at Normandy in 1944, arrived in Pittsburgh Wednesday morning on its first visit to the city where many of its sister ships were built during World War II.

As they have all along the ship's route from its home base in Evansville, Ind., crowds turned out to greet her as she cruised up the Ohio and moored near Heinz Field, where she will remain from Thursday through Tuesday for tours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Before the ship docked, LST 325 drew alongside the USS Requin, the submarine permanently moored outside the Carnegie Science Center.

The two World War II relics saluted each other with blasts from their deck guns.

The LST -- short for Landing Ship, Tank -- is among the last of its kind in the world and normally a floating museum in Evansville. But twice a year she goes out, and this time her journey took her to Pittsburgh, which has a special connection to LSTs.

Although LST 325 was built in Philadelphia, several hundred of the massive crafts were built by Dravo Corp. on Neville Island and by American Bridge Corp. in Ambridge.

"As a young boy, I saw one being launched," said Gary Augustine, 71, a historian from Leet who served aboard LSTs in the 1960s and is writing a book about them.

During the war his family lived in Ambridge and his father worked there briefly, helping to build LSTs. American Bridge built 123 of the 1,051 assembled for the war effort.

"They were literally building these ships while they were still designing them," said Mr. Augustine. "The idea was British, the design was American."

And the result was a decided victory for the allies, as LSTs ferried troops, tanks and equipment to far-flung battlegrounds in Europe and the Pacific. LST 325 participated in the invasion of Sicily in 1943 and was off the Normandy coast on D-Day. All told, she made 44 trips between England and France, shuttling supplies and men to the beaches and transporting wounded soldiers and German prisoners back to England.

Response to the LST's trip has been overwhelming. Crowds of people, young and old, have turned out along the route since she left Evansville, snapping pictures and taking videos. About 10,000 people toured the ship in Wheeling, W.Va., and more than 1,000 showed up to greet her in East Liverpool, Ohio.

And when the ship arrived at the Emsworth Dam Wednesday -- the last of the locks on the 800-mile journey -- a crowd had already gathered despite the fact that it was 5:30 a.m.

"This," said one man watching yesterday on the North Shore, "is history."

Wow...67,000...Boy, that goofy-eared (Or is it Dumbo?) dictator of ours is a swell guy.

Companies add 67K workers, but jobless rate rises

WASHINGTON (AP) – Private employers hired more workers over the past three months than first thought, a glimmer of hope for the weak economy ahead of the Labor Day weekend. But the unemployment rate rose because not enough jobs were created to absorb the growing number of people looking for work.

Where do we line up for the free processed cheese product?

Speaking of Washington's other newspaper...

Washington Post columnist suspended over Twitter hoax

Golly, if only he was a Catholic trying to blow up a "women's health clinic", Keith Ubermensch could have reported this story.

James J. Lee, environmental militant, slain at Discovery building after taking hostages

From Washington's other newspaper:

James J. Lee divided the world into good and bad. According to his writings on a Web site he created, people were bad, especially "parasitic" babies.

If only he had used his genius to kill babies instead of defenseless cable channels!

Animals and bugs were good, Lee wrote. But war was bad, along with global warming, pollution and international trade.

No! War good! War kill omnivores!

As for civilization?

The environmental militant who was killed Wednesday at the end of a tense hostage standoff at Discovery Communications headquarters in downtown Silver Spring, termed it "filth."

Lee, 43, who once threw money to bystanders as a protest along a Silver Spring street and who believed that the world would be better off without people, was shot by police after the almost four-hour standoff. Police have not publicly named Lee, but several local and federal law enforcement sources identified him as the gunman.

Lee held a grudge against Discovery, viewing the network as a purveyor of ideas he considered environmentally destructive and staging protests outside its headquarters, according to authorities and court records. Yet he got little farther than the lobby of the vast complex while the company alerted its thousands of employees and urged them to stay in locked offices and then evacuate using a designated stairwell.

Lee, whose environmental creed was spread across the Internet in manifestoes and blog posts, was killed at 4:48 p.m. after he stalked into the building with a handgun, took three hostages and later pointed his gun at one of them, said Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger.

The incident, in the headquarters of the global television corporation just outside Washington, sent hundreds of employees streaming for safety into the afternoon heat without their purses, wallets and other personal items. It snarled traffic and riveted media audiences. [I'm glad the America-Last Media has its priorities straight. - F.G.] Police said Lee had four makeshift explosive devices strapped to his body, and was wielding a gun. He entered the building about 1 p.m.

Police worked through the night searching the complex at Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue, trying to determine whether two backpacks and two boxes that seemed to have been carried into the building by Lee also were bombs.

Thursday morning, the building was given an all-clear, Montgomery County police said. Police spokeswoman Angela Cruz said officers were still at the complex, gathering evidence as part of their investigation.

About 1,900 people work at the Discovery building.

Cruz said Wayne Avenue remained closed to traffic Thursday morning between Ramsey Aveue and Georgia Avenue. Pedestrian access was restricted on the sidewalks on the Georgia and Wayne avenue sides of the Discovery building.

Yes! Yes! We want to hear more about the effect the death of this Obama voter had on suburban traffic!

Here's something the Washington Ghost conveniently neglected to mention.

Green terror

From Andrew Bolt of Australia's Herald Sun:

Who awakened Lee to his mission?

Lee said he experienced an ‘‘awakening” when he watched former Vice President Al Gore’s environmental documentary ‘‘An Inconvenient Truth.”

If you really think humans are wilfully murdering the planet and all life upon it, well, what must you do?

Indeed. If the Gorehound had a decent bone in his body, he'd ritually disembowel himself on the Okra Whingefree show.


Thursday, September 02, 2010

THE CZABE IS BACK!

That's right, kiddies, the only morning drive show run by sports fans for sports fans is coming to the Sporting News Radio Network on weekday mornings from 6 to 9 AM Eastern. The clown who "replaced" him on Fox Sports Radio, noted racist Screaming A. Smith, just got whacked by my local Fox station and probably won't be on the network much longer.

From Czabe's blog:

It is indeed a new and beautiful day in sports radioland.

I'm back.

After an 8 month hiatus from the nationally syndicated sports radio airwaves, I am back. And the boys are coming with me. Scotty, Solly, and the dearly departed Al are all back from the radio dead.

See? That wasn't so bad, was it?

Sporting News Radio, as a subsidiary of Mission Media Group of Scottsdale, Arizona, has hired me to host their morning drive shift from 6-9 a.m. from our Washington D.C. area studios.

Oh yeah, football season is going to be fun again kids.

I'd like to say that I just knew it all along. That I was certain this would happen within a year's time, and that the show was just "too good" to not get snapped up by somebody.

But I didn't know that. And I had to assume, that perhaps my run had simply ended.

You guys did have faith, however. Yes faith in me, with perhaps a splash of naivete in how ridiculously stupid the sports radio industry can be sometimes.

As you know, I don't preen at myself in the radio mirror much. I take sports seriously, not myself. I know I am good, but lately I have wondered if "good" really matters any more in our industry.

So when the programming genius at FSR decided 7 years of unmitigated success from me and the guys was all he could handle, I wasn't all that heartbroken. It's the business, what can you do? I did my best. I was proud of the show, and our run lasted a pretty good long while. So truth be told, I was looking for a new lifestyle, and some new opportunities.

Then, I got everybody's emails. That's when things changed.

It wasn't just the sheer volume of emails from you listeners, it was their staggering depth. I am talking about 1500-word-plus emails describing just what it was that made the show so meaningful to them.

You guys remembered a billion more details of segments we did, or moments we had, than I ever could.

The scope of people who wrote to me, was amazing. Age ranges all the way up to 80, and a surprising number of people who claimed they were not even sports fans in the least!

It certainly changed my mind a bit. This wasn't just about me losing a job. Millions of YOU were losing their ride-to-work buddies. It was truly traumatic to many of you.

I was even shocked by some industry calls I got as well. The great Steve Sabol of NFL Films called personally. As I had missed his original call, I returned his call on a break. It rang through to his assistant. I waited on hold. Then, the booming voice of NFL films came bursting through. "Czabe! What the HELL is going on down there!?"

He said he had heard they canceled the show, but just NEEDED to find out directly from the source. I had a chat that bordered on un-seemly manlove because of how much I admire Sabol's work and genius. He concluded the call, by saying matter of factly that I won't be off the air very long. It was very kind.

But I also thought: "Yeah, but what the hell does HE know? I work in this business! He doesn't!"

So as I settled in to being a morning sports radio consumer myself, I quickly began to appreciate how dreadful the national landscape is in that regard. The guy who replaced me is, well, how shall I put this: he's there... for now. And that's all I'm going to say.

And the two other guys on the Disney Sports Channel? Holy regurgitated sports facts, Batman!

I would listen and think: "Do these guys realize, that NOBODY TALKS LIKE THIS when they are talking about sports?"

Which is my only core philosophy about the medium. Good sports radio, is a CONVERSATION. And the more honest, probing, funny, interesting, lively, and no-bullshit you can make that conversation, the better.

That's it. It's that simple.

When I broadcast, I just try to talk to my guys, and talk to the audience, and let the microphones melt away into nothing. Like they aren't even there.

So here we go again. I am so, so, so pumped for this chance. The fellas are equally charged up. They are my faithful engines of creative brilliance. And we're going to do all of what we did before, and then some.

As you may know, Sporting News Radio was once upon a time, One On One Sports Network based out of Chicago.

I got my national radio start there. I remember it like it was yesterday. I rolled into Chicago on August 12, 1994. The day of the F'ING BASEBALL STRIKE that would kill the World Series.

I didn't know a SINGLE PERSON in the city of 6 million. I was rooming temporarily with a friend of a friend I had never before met. My Honda Accord was stuffed to the ceiling with all the crap I owned and could drive in from my parents place in DC.

And it was raining.

Welcome to the big city, kid.

At the time, One On One Sports was the only real "network" doing 24/7 sports programming. ESPN Radio did nights and weekends, but hadn't yet ramped up fully into a round the clock deal.

Over the years, ESPN grew into the beast that it is, and then Fox Sports Radio appeared around 2000. One On One got marginalized a bit, and sold to Sporting News. I think it's fair to say, they became the 3rd horse in the national network race.

Recently, however, long time radio executive Clancy Woods got some investors together to purchase the radio portion of Sporting News. His clarity for the industry, and appreciation for talent is tremendous. I couldn't be luckier to work for a guy like this, because I know he "gets it" like you and I "get it."

This network is going to be a force. You can book that one.

Clancy likes to say that he is "distribution agnostic" about the network and its properties, of which I am now one. By this, he means he'd like to get the longform spoken word product out there in as many ways as possible.

Of course, terrestrial radio affiliates are primary, as is satellite radio, but other distribution channels are here and growing. Things like internet radio and direct audio streaming from websites like, well, www.sportingnewsradio.com.

I can't say for sure, where my show will be heard right away, but suffice to say I will be keeping you posted on all that stuff as I get my facts straight.

On satellite, a bizarre twist remains from the XM/Sirius merger. Apparently - and don't take my word for it, because I may be wrong - if you have an original XM receiver and buy the "Best of Sirius" package, you STILL can't get Sporting News Radio. However, if you have a Sirius package, you CAN get Sporting News Radio on Channel 127.

What does that mean for those of you like me, who have an Acura TL with a WELDED IN XM brand receiver? I don't know, but it doesn't look good right now. Maybe it means I'll have to buy a new car with Sirius installed, and one that doesn't have deer guts all up in its radiator.

I'll have to do more legwork on how and when you could get SNR on an XM unit.

If you have a Sirius receiver and kept it - like I said you should back in January - congrats. We'll see ya'll in September.

In the meantime, we hope to loop back and try to scoop up as many of our excellent market partners we had under the "old" mothership. And I'm talking Richmond, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, et al. We want you back. We're going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.

I even hear rumblings that we might add the show in the DC market. It might just be scurrilous rumors, but then again it may be happening. Stay tuned on that one too.

Thanks again for your most genuine letters and thoughts, and bear with us as we get everything ramped up at our new home.

Like Jack Buck said: "Go crazy folks, go crazy!"

Monday, August 30, 2010

Logos Of The Day

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A tiny glimmer of hope in Lancaster, PA...

Delving into the classical core of learning
New diploma program for home-schoolers builds to the study of college-level Latin and Greek
by Daina Savage - Lancaster Sunday Screws


Of course, studying the classics does not mean you will learn how to think properly, but it sure beats earth sciences, "women's studies", and bully management.

Don't tell Sawyer Neale that Latin is a dead language.

The 14-year-old home-schooled scholar from Elizabethtown is an enthusiastic reader of ancient texts, eager to point out how useful, and alive, they are in everyday life.

"Even in this conversation we're having now, most of the words we're using come from the Greek and Latin," he said.

In an animated classroom at the Lancaster Center for Classical Studies, 910 Marietta Ave., between declining Latin nouns and reciting the Greek alphabet, Sawyer and his peers extolled the virtues of delving into the study of classical languages.

These home-schoolers are part of a rigorous new diploma program at the center, which culminates in college-level coursework in Latin and Greek.

"Besides the fact that they help you with learning any other languages, including English, they are especially helpful with problem solving," said 16-year-old Rowan Byrne, of Lancaster. "And reading about the history of Rome, their customs and politics, you can compare it to current events and see that often they made more sense."

Sawyer and Rowan? Really, people? Really?

"They make learning everything a lot easier," agreed Laura Cray, of Mount Joy, who is now in her sixth year of study at the center and eager to apply her skills to deciphering and mastering Arabic and Mandarin.

For centuries in Europe, and in colonial America, the mark of a well-educated person was a deep knowledge of the classical languages and texts.

Just colonial America? Methinks La Savage needed to do some research before writing that sentence.

That has fallen by the wayside, as many schools today may feel more pressure to prepare students to ace the SAT than to lay the foundation of a true liberal arts education.

Heck, most schools have given up on reading and writing.

Center founders Peter and Laurie Brown are combating this superficiality with a new diploma program aimed at re-establishing substantive study of the classics to the heart of a curriculum in order to develop critical thinking and foster a love of lifelong learning.

"We don't want Greek and Latin studies to be looked at as a foreign language or an enrichment on the side," Peter Brown said. "We see it as the vibrant core of a whole educational program: central and rich and limitless in possibilities."

"There's no question that the study of Latin and Greek supports every other area of study," Laurie Brown added. "It's almost impossible to understand English literature without understanding its origins, or to understand the New Testament without reading it in its original Greek, and then reading it again in Latin and observing the difficulties of translating it. This education builds a complexity of thought that you can't achieve otherwise."

The Browns said they believe the study of Greek and Latin serves to cultivate a student's powers of observation, analysis, reasoning and method.

"The most original and decisive works in the broad fields of history, literature, mathematics, science and religion are products of the Greek and Latin languages," Peter Brown said.

Exactly.

The Browns have developed a demanding, progressive course of study embraced by parents as it inspires their children.

"I enrolled my kids at first because I thought Latin would open doors for them and help train them for the SATs, but soon I realized it will help them with their whole lives," said Nikki Byrne, of Lancaster, whose home-schooled children, Rowan and Declan, have taken classes at the school for years.

"Studying Latin and Greek is so rich in how they make you think and conceptualize," said Claudia Helman, of West Hempfield Township, whose sons Christopher, 14, and Benjamin, 9, are enrolled at the center.

Although preparatory studies in grammar can begin as soon as a child can read well, usually by the fourth grade, the program begins in earnest at the start of seventh grade with a curriculum translating Vergil [Acceptable, but uncommon in American English. Hmmm... - F.G.] and Sophocles, Homer and Plato. Throughout their studies, students re-enact scenes from "The Illiad" in dramatic readings, debate the politics of Cicero, reflect on the histories of Plutarch, and compare and contrast biblical translations.

The Browns developed the state-sanctioned diploma program in part as a service to home-school families intent on demonstrating their rigorous studies to prospective colleges.

"Our students have typically been accepted at the college of their choice, where they often find themselves better prepared than their classmates," said Peter Brown, who after earning his doctorate in Greek and Latin was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. Laurie Brown's doctoral work was also in Latin and Greek, and she did research as a Fulbright fellow.

Both have taught at the college level and at lower levels for years before founding the center in 2000. They were home-schooling their own children when other home-schooling parents asked them to teach theirs as well.

Approved by the Pennsylvania Department of Education as a home education association with the ability to issue a state-recognized diploma, the center requires its graduates to, at minimum, complete the full Latin curriculum of seven courses, in addition to the state's graduation requirements.

A typical Latin or Greek course meets for an hour, twice a week, for 30 weeks. Students are expected to devote three hours of work at home for each hour of class time. Students who begin Latin in fifth grade are typically ready to begin reading Vergil or Caesar by the beginning of eighth grade. Upper level courses in Latin and Greek are college-level.

Students enrolled in the diploma program are charged tuition for the core curriculum Latin and Greek classes, as well as for various optional supplementary courses.

Complementary curricula in classical literature, writing, speaking, history, geography, mathematics and natural science are developed in close relation to the core curriculum. Further instruction in these topics may be provided by parents or other sources.

"We see this diploma program as the culmination of what we've been doing all these years, brought together in a final meaningful way before our daughter goes on," said Jane Cray, whose daughter, Laura, has been a student at the center for six years.

"Her classes here have become the bedrock of our home-schooling curriculum. Somehow its fingers reached into all educational areas — history and mathematics — not just language. The discipline that you learn is applied to everything that you are studying."

Katcha Neale, of Elizabethtown, whose sons, Sawyer and Saben, are in their fourth year at the center, says the new diploma program is a way to integrate all of their coursework, "plus it puts a light on Latin and Greek that they deserve."

Rather than thinking of these languages as dusty and ancient, Neale said they serve to illuminate vitally and vibrantly all areas of study.

It's exactly the idea the Browns wish to impart. Their mission statement says that a "classical education has nothing to do with the idea of 'antiquity' " but rather "it is concerned with eternity … [preparing students] for every eventuality."

Amen to that.

Neale said she believes her sons are discovering just that. "This program speaks to what I think education is all about," she said. "This discipline hasn't crushed their love of learning, but instead served to enhance their thinking and understanding."

• For more information about the Lancaster Center for Classical Studies, contact Peter and Laurie Brown at 397-3223 or lccs.org@verizon.net.

The writer's daughter has taken after-school Latin classes at the center.

Note that disclaimer.

The bottom line remains the same, kiddies: Get your young 'uns out of the Government Indoctrination Centers before they start writing love poems to the Great High-Yellow Father.

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First of all, the word is SEX, not GENDER. If you are ever tempted to use the word GENDER, don't. The word is SEX! SEX! SEX! SEX! For example: "My sex is male." is correct. "My gender is male." means nothing. Look it up. What kind of sick neo-Puritan nonsense is this? Idiot left-fascists, get your blood-soaked paws off the English language. Hence I am choosing "male" under protest.

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