THIS is baseball!

Soccer? HA!

AP: Man, 83, is oldest pro baseball player

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - No one in the bleachers at the Sioux Falls Canaries game was quite sure what was going on down on the field. They were all quiet, wondering and transfixed on the little old man digging into the batters' box.

The infielders moved up on the grass, giggling, and pitcher looked as uncomfortable as anyone else would have felt.

But to 83-year-old Jim Eriotes, it was serious business.

Eriotes led off Tuesday's game for the Canaries against the St. Joe (Mo.) Blacksnakes and took four big swings — even fouling a pitch off — before striking out.

The at-bat made Eriotes the oldest man to ever play professional baseball. It was his only at-bat in the game.

The record didn't mean much to the Chicago native and former minor leaguer.

"I don't give a damn about that stuff," he said, bothered by his failure to reach base. "If I got a couple more at-bats, I'd get a hit. Easy."

Hot diggity!

He wasn't kidding.

Eriotes said he had hit pitches thrown harder than the 83-mph fastball he whiffed against Blacksnakes starter Jesen Merle.

He has appeared on the "Today" show and said he has hit pitches near 100 mph — although they were hurled by a pitching machine.

He did admit that stepping into the box with a professional on the mound is a different story.

"He wasn't throwing that hard," he said. "I fouled one off. You can be the best hitter in the world and you might not get a hit if you only get one chance. But it was a great opportunity. It was cool."

Amen to that!

Spectators Derek Johnson, 27, already had bought his ticket for the game before knowing about Eriotes. But he said he made sure to arrive on time after hearing about the 83-year-old.

"I could not believe he actually got a piece of one. That's better than I could do," he said.

But Johnson's friend Dean Faynor thought the gimmick was excessive.

"I don't know, man, a real game? That's kind of bush," he said.

Former major leaguer Chad Hermansen made sure the Canaries won.
Ralph Santana singled and stole second after Eriotes' at-bat, and Hermansen quickly followed with a two-run homer. He later added a double and another homer as the Canaries defeated the Blacksnakes, 5-3.

So that's what happened to Chad Hermansen.

Hermansen got a good laugh out of his new, and now former, teammate.
"We didn't really know what to expect until we saw him hanging out in the dugout," Hermansen said. "As long as it didn't affect the game, I guess."

But don't expect to see Eriotes in any senior leagues. He's only interested in facing the best.

"Guys my age, it's no challenge," he said. "They're throwing like, what, 40, 50 mph? I'd rather hit pitches that are 90 mph and feel good about myself. If I could just get four at-bats in the majors, I could get a hit."

Amen to all that! Whoever is facing the Phillies' and their pathetic pitching this weekend should sign Mr. Reiotes.

Garcelle Beauvais is underrated. (The Last)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

I do believe that is the finest use of sweater-like material I have seen in a long, long time.

Wow. A corset. Who knew?

Mrs. Louise Will, Requiescat in pace.

Mr. George Will has lost his dear mother. On this 17th day of Tamuz, 5766, he says goodbye:


The long dying of Louise Will ended here recently. It was time. At 98, her body was exhausted by disease and strokes. Dementia, that stealthy thief of identity, had bleached her vibrant self almost to indistinctness, like a photograph long exposed to sunlight.

It is said that G-d gave us memory so we could have roses in winter. Dementia is an ever-deepening advance of wintry whiteness, a protracted paring away of personality. It inflicts on victims the terror of attenuated personhood, challenging philosophic and theological attempts to make death a clean, intelligible and bearable demarcation.

Is death the soul taking flight after the body has failed? That sequence — the physical extinguished, the spiritual not — serves our notion of human dignity. However, mental disintegration mocks that comforting schema by taking the spirit first.

In the very elderly the mind can come and go, a wanderer in time, and a disintegrating personality can acquire angers and jagged edges that are, perhaps, protests against a growing lightness of being. No one has come back from deep in that foreign country to report on life there. However, it must be unbearably frightening to feel one's self become light as a feather, with inner gales rising.

Dementia slowly loosens the sufferer's grip on those unique tokens of humanity, words. An early sign is a forgetfulness that results in repetitiveness, and fixation on the distant past.

For a while, one of Louise's insistently recurring memories was of spring 1918, a war year, and eastbound troop trains passing through Greenville, Pa. When the trains stopped, residents offered candy and magazines to the soldiers — but not to black units. That infuriated Louise's father, whose fury was a fine memory for Louise to have among those of a father who died at age 44.

To the end, even when virtually without speech, Louise could recognize her children, could enjoy music and being read to from love letters written 75 years ago by Fred, her future husband. She could even laugh, in spite of the tormenting chasm between her remaining cognition and the prison of her vanished ability to articulate.

In 1951, in Champaign, Ill., for her 10-year-old son, she made a mother's sacrifice: She became a White Sox fan so she could converse with the argumentative Cubs fan who each evening dried the dishes as she washed. Even after much of her stock of memories had been depleted, she dimly knew that the name Nellie Fox (a second baseman) once meant something playful.

The aging that conquered Louise was, like war, a mighty scourge, and, like war, elicited nobility from those near its vortex. The nearest was Fred Will, who died eight years ago, at the end of his ninth decade.

A few years before his death, Fred, a reticent romantic, whose reticence may have been an effect of his tinge of melancholy, shared with his children some poetry he had written for Louise, including this from 1933:

The warm sun
Beams through the clear air
Upon glistening leaves.
And the birds
Sweep in long arcs
Over the green grass.
They seem to say,
"This might last forever!"
But it doesn't.

But it lasted more than six decades, which is forever, as foreverness is allotted to us.

A retired professor of philosophy, Fred probably knew what Montaigne, quoting Cicero, meant when he said that to study philosophy is to prepare to die. Fred was, strictly speaking, philosophic about his wife's affliction. A common connotation of "philosophic" is placid acceptance of what can be comprehended but not altered. However, Fred's philosophic response to the theft of his wife by aging was much richer than mere stoicism grounded in fatalism. It was a heroic act of will, arising from clearsightedness about the long trajectory of Louise's life.

He understood this stern paradox: Families seared by a loved one's dementia face the challenge of forgetting. They must choose to achieve what dementia inflicts on its victims — short-term memory loss. They must restore to the foreground of remembrance the older memories of vivacity and wit.

"All that we can know about those we have loved and lost," Thornton Wilder wrote, "is that they would wish us to remember them with a more intensified realization of their reality. What is essential does not die but clarifies. The highest tribute to the dead is not grief but gratitude." Louise, released from the toils of old age and modern medicine, is restored to clarity.
(Thanks to Laura Ingraham and Jewish World Review.)

Garcelle Beauvais is underrated. (Part One)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

Yep. Definitely underrated. Definitely.

Dr. Thomas Sowell defends the foundation of our legal system against the depredations of the antique media.

From RealClearPolitics (via Laura Ingraham) comes everything you need to know about Our Boys and the dunderheads of the press.

Media Mistreat American Troops
By Thomas Sowell

The same newspapers and television news programs that are constantly reminding us that some people under indictment "are innocent until proven guilty" are nevertheless hyping the story of American troops accused of rape in Iraq, day in and day out, even though these troops have yet to be proven guilty of anything.

What about all the civilian rapes that are charged -- and even proven -- in the United States? None of them gets this 24/7 coverage in the mainstream media.

Unfortunately, this is not an isolated example of media hype of unproven charges against American troops. While military action was still raging in the early days of the Iraq war, there was media condemnation of our troops for not adequately protecting an Iraqi museum from which various items were missing.

When the smoke of battle cleared, it turned out that members of the museum staff had hidden these items for safekeeping during the fighting.

Then there was the incident when a Marine shot a terrorist who was pretending to be asleep and the media turned that into a big scandal until an investigation revealed how these and other tricks used by terrorists had cost the lives of American troops in Iraq.

None of the brutal beheadings of innocent hostages taken by terrorists in Iraq -- and videotaped for distribution throughout the Middle East -- has aroused half the outrage in the mainstream media as unsubstantiated charges made by terrorists imprisoned in Guantanamo.

Nor have most of the media become any more skeptical about charges made by these cutthroats in Guantanamo after the claim that copies of the Koran had been flushed down the toilet at that prison turned out to be a lie.The idea of trying to flush any book down a toilet ought to have raised suspicions but much of the media treats statements by terrorists and their supporters as true and any denials of wrongdoing by American troops as false and "a coverup."

These are the same liberal media people who claim to be "honoring our troops" when they hype every casualty and make a big production of each landmark death, such as the 1000th American killed in Iraq and then the 2000th.The multiple-page spread in the New York Times and similarly elaborate coverage of these landmark deaths on liberal television programs show that they had been preparing for these particular deaths for some time.

They may well be disappointed if we don't reach the 3000th American death, since the terrorists have shifted their attacks and now target primarily Iraqi civilians.We all need to understand the fraudulence of the claim that these media liberals who have been against the military for decades and who have missed no opportunity to smear the military in Iraq are now in the forefront of "honoring" our troops by rubbing our noses in their deaths, day in and day out.

Troops who have won medals for bravery in battle -- including one soldier who won a Congressional Medal of Honor at the cost of his life -- go unmentioned in most of the mainstream media that is focused on our troops as casualties that they can exploit.

A recent study by the Media Research Center found that the three big broadcast news networks -- CBS, ABC, and NBC -- ran 99 stories in 3 and 1/2 hours about the investigation of charges against Marines in the death of Iraqi civilians in Haditha last November.

These remain unproven charges in a country where people on the side of the terrorists include civilian women and children who set off bombs to kill American troops and who can set off lies to discredit those that they do not kill.

But the same networks that lavished 3 and 1/2 hours of coverage of these unproven charges gave less than one hour of coverage of all the American troops who have won medals for bravery under fire.

Every newspaper and every television commentator has a right to criticize any aspect of the war in Iraq or anywhere else. But when they claim to be reporting the news, that does not mean filtering out whatever goes against their editorial views and hyping unsubstantiated claims that discredit the troops.

Those troops deserve the presumption of innocence at least as much as anyone else.

Irony, thy name is insurance.

Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: Milwaukee gas giveaway sparks crashes, arrests

Two vehicle crashes occurred, four people were arrested for fighting and three officers got sent to the hospital all over some free gasoline Wednesday. For the most part, hundreds of drivers waited patiently for hours for about $30 worth of free gasoline from Allstate Insurance as a reward to Milwaukee for ranking high on its safe drivers list. (Emphasis mine.)

Steelers Update.

The Steelers' QB was even luckier than I thought...

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: Roethlisberger was told he was close to dying

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said Wednesday night that he was told he was "seconds, maybe a minute away from dying" immediately after his motorcycle accident last month.

Roethlisberger, in his first interview since the June 12 accident, told ESPN's "SportsCenter" that he doesn't remember much about the accident when he rammed his motorcycle into a car that was making a left turn in front of him. He did, however, remember what he was told by people at the scene.

"They told me that I was literally seconds, maybe a minute away from dying, because I slit a vein or artery in my mouth or my throat and it was draining blood right into my stomach, and luckily the paramedic noticed it and stopped it, or else I would have had too much blood in my stomach," he said in Los Angeles, where he was for the taping of the ESPY Awards.

"I remember very few things about the accident," Roethlisberger said. "I remember one car turning in front of me, I don't remember the car that hit me, but I remember that first car turning in front of me, and the next thing I remember is being in the ambulance and asking, 'Is this really happening?'

"I said, 'Tell me this is just a bad dream,' and he said, 'No, everything is going to be OK,' and he asked me, 'Is there anyone you want me to call?' ... I just gave him two numbers, and I don't remember anything until I woke up from surgery."

Roethlisberger underwent seven hours of surgery to repair a broken jaw and other facial bones. Tests showed no brain injuries, although he had a mild concussion. He also lost two teeth and chipped several others.

Roethlisberger was cited for not wearing a helmet when the accident happened.

"That day I wasn't, I forgot it. I literally forgot it," he said. "You know there are times that, people that have been making a big deal for the last couple years about me riding first of all, and then me riding without a helmet, but it's one of those things that I ride with a helmet also. I do a little bit of both. If you don't wear a seat belt every time you ride in the car, should I label you as a person who doesn't wear a seat belt? And, unfortunately, I happened to not have it on that day because I forgot it in the basement."

Oh, please...

Roethlisberger said he didn't know if he would ride a motorcycle again.
"I don't know. I am not even thinking about that right now," he said. "To me, right now, like I said when I first started thinking about things, I started thinking about my family. Now that I am doing better and I feel good, now all I am thinking about is football and that is what is on my mind right now. I am getting healthy and I am getting better every day, so all I am thinking about is football. I am not thinking about anything else."

Roethlisberger is scheduled to play in a celebrity golf tournament this weekend in Lake Tahoe, Nev.

Including the postseason, the Steelers are 27-4 with Roethlisberger at quarterback. They advanced to the AFC championship game in both his seasons as a starter, winning the Super Bowl in January.

The Steelers won the ESPY for best team and Roethlisberger joined his teammates and coach Bill Cowher onstage to accept the award. It was his first public appearance since the accident.

Roethlisberger didn't appear backstage to talk to reporters.

I've always hated that book.

For the literary-minded among you...

AP: Relatives mark anniversary of 'Tragedy'

BIG MOOSE LAKE, N.Y. - Grace Brown headed to the Adirondack Mountains hoping for a marriage proposal. Instead, authorities said the pregnant woman was murdered by her lover in a sorrowful saga that became the basis for Theodore Dreiser's 1925 novel, "An American Tragedy."

The story was later spun into an Oscar-winning movie, television programs, plays, songs, true crime books and most recently an opera on the Metropolitan Opera stage.

Huh?

In observance of the 100th anniversary of the killing, two of Brown's relatives helped unveil a historical marker Tuesday next to the lake where she died.

"This is very meaningful, especially since so many people in our extended family don't ever talk about it," Robert Williams said of his great-aunt. "By memorializing Grace like this, it feels like we're bringing her back into the family."

About 50 people gathered on the western shore of Big Moose Lake to witness the unveiling of the blue-and-yellow marker. Later Williams and his sister Susan Williams laid a large floral wreath in the lake on the spot where Brown was believed to have been killed.

Surrounded by about 200 onlookers in a flotilla of small boats and canoes, an actress read Brown's last letter to her lover and a local clergyman offered a prayer.

On July 11, 1906, Brown and Chester Gillette took an afternoon rowboat ride on the lake. Authorities said Gillette struck Brown in the head with a tennis racket, and she fell into the lake and drowned.

Brown's body was found the next day in the lake along with the overturned rowboat. Gillette was spotted walking away with his luggage and arrested three days later in nearby Inlet. Soon after, the sheriff found the tennis racket buried under a log.

Gillette's monthlong trial made headlines across the country. He said Brown drowned accidentally, and that he panicked and fled. In March 1908, he was executed in the electric chair at Auburn State Prison.
The story might have faded from public interest if not for Dreiser's novel. In 1951, the story was adapted to the movie screen in "A Place in the Sun," which starred Montgomery Clift, Elizabeth Taylor and Shelley Winters, and won six Oscars.

The three upstate New York counties that share the story's history have held a series of summer events to observe the 100th anniversary, including a re-enactment of Gillette's trial and a three-day conference for scholars.

Susan Williams, of Southfield, Mich., said other relatives have tried to keep their connection secret, likely ashamed that Grace was unwed and pregnant when she was killed and because of the notoriety Gillette's trial later brought the family.

Robert Williams, of Atlanta, Mich., said he didn't learn about the family history until he was in college at Syracuse University and his father saw him reading Dreiser's novel.

"He said, 'If you don't tell your mother, I'll tell you a secret. That story's about grandma's sister.' I didn't believe it at first," he said. "But I can tell you, I was much more interested in the book after that."

Britain and Russia smack down the Luddites.

AP: Nuclear power in Britain's energy future
The British government embraced nuclear power as a key energy source in the coming decades in a new policy unveiled Tuesday, angering environmentalists eager to promote renewable power sources such as sun, wind and waves.

European Voice: Russia wants nuclear energy around the globe
Leaders of eight of the world's most powerful nations will meet in St Petersburg this weekend (15-17 July) to discuss proposals that would make nuclear energy available across the world.

Does Israel remember how to wage war?

The goat rapists in Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran, and Lebanon better hope the answer is no.


Mubarak: Pressure on Hamas blocked Shalit deal at Haaretz - Thu, Jul 13, 2006

Northern residents told to stay near homes at Jerusalem Post - Thu, Jul 13, 2006

Woman killed when rocket hits house in Nahariya; Beirut airport hit as Israel imposes sea and air blockade at Haaretz - Thu, Jul 13, 2006

The Lebanese are paying the price for Syria's malfeasance and their own fecklessness.

Halutz: Kidnapped soldiers are alive at Jerusalem Post - Thu, Jul 13, 2006

Katyushas fall in Safed, many wounded at Jerusalem Post - Thu, Jul 13, 2006

Israeli reprisals hit Lebanon Reuters - 3 minutes ago

Israel destroys Palestinian foreign minister's office Reuters - 11 minutes ago

Gov't urges Israel to keep military action 'proportionate' AFP - 18 minutes ago

World leaders urge restraint after deadly Middle East flare-up AFP - 19 minutes ago

War of the Year.

2006 marks the 800th anniversary of the beginning of Genghis Khan's attempt to impose his version of civilization on everybody else.

He came pretty darn close to succeeding.

Boston Globe: Amid unsettling times, Mongolians turn to Genghis Khan

Mongolians celebrated the 800th anniversary of Genghis Khan's march to world conquest yesterday with festivities that mixed commercialism with appeals to nationalism.

That could describe the 4th of July here. Do they have softball tourneys in Ulan Bator?

In the capital's Central Stadium, men dressed like warriors in Genghis Khan's 13th-century horde paraded on stout, brown horses. In one section of the grandstands, people held up cards to form images of the conqueror and the national flag. An actor played Genghis Khan in a white robe and head gear, riding a white horse to cheers from the crowd.

``We Mongolians must be united and have one goal: to develop our country. Remember Genghis Khan and his great deeds," said President Nambaryn Enkhbayar , who usually wears a suit but was dressed in a traditional gold and cream silk robe for the occasion.

Mongolians and their leaders are reveling in Genghis Khan, finding a source of identity at an unsettling time.

Sandwiched between a voracious China and an assertive Russia, Mongolia faces international challenges , while at home the democracy and free markets that followed communism's collapse in 1990 have created wealth for some but left a third of the 2.8 million people in poverty.

Bless and protect the free people of Mongolia, Lord.

The greatness of Genghis Khan is something that most Mongolians agree on.

``I feel so proud to have been born in the land of the Great Khan who conquered most of the world," said Tserendulam, a recently retired cook who was among 800 singers at the ceremony. Like many Mongolians, he uses one name.

There's one reason progress may be slow. If you say "Hey, Tserendulam!" in a business meeting, eight guys may answer "What?"

The anniversary marks Genghis Khan's unification of fractious Mongol tribes in 1206 -- an event that gave Mongolians a nascent national identity and set them on a course to forge an empire that stretched from the Pacific to Central Europe.

Though the celebrations will last a year, yesterday 's ceremony was timed for maximum public impact: the start of an annual festival of horse racing, archery, wrestling and camaraderie known as Naadam.

It's a time when the harsh weather of the steppe mellows for a brief summer as Mongolians enjoy themselves and politicians try to burnish their appeal.

Ah, they do have politicians. That will certainly retard progress.

Images of Genghis Khan, often as a wizened elder, have been plastered on billboards, etched in white stones on a mountainside and used to promote tourism. A rock opera of the conqueror's life, modeled on ``Jesus Christ Superstar," is being staged by a popular band.

Oy vey!

The government tore down mausoleums of a 20th-century nationalist hero and a communist dictator on Ulan Bator's central square this year to build a $5 million monument of Genghis Khan in bronze.

Yippee!

At yester day's ceremony, the president and audience sang a newly altered version of the national anthem. The revisions, made by the government in recent weeks, deleted references to the communist past and replaced them with allusions to Mongolian independence.

Amen to that.

In the rush to capitalize on his name, Genghis Khan's legacy as a brutal conqueror is being played down. Instead, he's being cast as an agent of world change, a visionary statesman who promoted low taxes on trade, diplomatic immunity and religious tolerance.

See, kiddies, Genghis Khan was a Reaganite.

``We are forefathers of globalization," says one government slogan.
This marshaling of Genghis Khan's legacy to promote national pride, and the money being spent, has prompted cries of waste and political manipulation from some in the elite.

Oops, I guess he was a neo-con.

Mongolian politics has grown divisive, with partisan bickering between Enkhbayar's Mongolian People's First Party, a successor to the old Communist Party, and a coalition of newer democratic parties.

``As a small country sandwiched between large nations, globalization is felt day to day and it's a pressing matter," Tsend Munkh-Orgil, a member of Mongolia's parliament and Enkhbayar's party, said Monday. He said Genghis Khan can help forge ``the national unity and national consensus" missing since democracy and capitalism emerged 15 years ago.

The fascist left will do ANYTHING to get more money.

What's next for The Party of Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion? Blaming your political opponents for hurricanes?

RedState.com: Disgusting:DCCC Uses Dead Soldiers to Raise Money (You can view the video here as well.)

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has a new fundraising pitch going out. It uses September 11th and our troops to raise money. But, instead of using those images to show Democrats would be tougher on terrorists and make America more secure, it uses pictures of dead soldiers in their flag draped coffins and the subtle threat of harm from September 11th to make a threat to the GOP. See the outrage for yourself here.

In an email from Rahm Emanuel, he links to a new video from the DCCC that shows the flag draped coffins of American soldiers and a standing gun supporting the helmet of one of our fallen -- images of dead American soldiers -- to raise money for the DCCC.

Likewise, the DCCC shows a doctored image of Tom DeLay's mug shot from Texas. The image now has a number at the bottom: 091108GOP. Is September 11, 2008, to be the day the GOP gets wiped out by Democrats? Of all the random sequences of numbers to use, are we really suppose to believe that 091108 is not suppose to have any connection to September 11th and the deaths of so many Americans -- especially after starting the video with the images of dead American soldiers?

This is outrageous. This is disgusting. This is why the Democrats must lose in November. They refuse to hold sacred the lives of American soldiers. Instead, their dead bodies are instruments of fundraising for the DCCC. But remember, we cannot question their patriotism.


From Human Events Online:

Where's the outrage over DCCC's commerical?

Democrats Use Dead Americans as Campaign Props
Michael Reagan, Human Events

Under Fire, Rep. Spratt Wants Ad to Go Away

Pelosi Denies Ad Was Produced to Raise Funds

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Henry, the patron saint of the childless, of Dukes, of the handicapped and those rejected by Religious Orders. He was a great emperor and warrior and he was married to St. Cunegundes. This is also the Feast of St. Dogfan and St. Myrope. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading for the Feast of St. Henry is Micheas 6:6-8.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 1:1-2, 3, 4, 6.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 7:21-27.


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


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.


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.

Happy Birthday, Satch!

More eschatological ruminations from Dilbert.

Dilbert and the spreadsheet from Hell.

Religion of Peace and Love Update.

The cowardly, cretinous mohammedans murder a Christian woman in the name of their false god. Justice awaits them.

Crosswalk.com: Mob in Nigeria Stones Woman for Evangelizing

Church leaders here said Muslim extremists overwhelmed police officers providing refuge for an unidentified Christian woman in this town in Niger state on June 28 and stoned and clubbed her to death for doing street evangelism.

David Atabo of the Roman Catholic Church in Izom said he witnessed the killing of the woman. He told Compass that she had met a group of Muslim youths, shared the gospel with them and gave them some tracts to read.

“As soon as the woman left, some Muslim elders standing by sought to know from the youths what the woman told them,” Atabo said. “When they learned that the woman had preached to the youths, they claimed she insulted the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, and directed that the woman must be killed.”

They know their pathetic beliefs are no match for the Word of God, so they do everything they can to silence His messengers. There is a particularly nasty place in Hell reserved for these evildoers.

Atabo said the Muslim leaders’ allegations inspired hundreds of Muslims to pour into the streets to track down the woman. They caught up with her around the River Gurara area and started beating her, he said, but police rescued her.

Officers took the woman into protective custody at the Izom police station. But the restive mob stormed the premises, demanding that the woman be released to be stoned to death in accordance with sharia (Islamic) law or else they would burn down the police station.

“The police, realizing that the Muslim crowd was overwhelming, smuggled the woman through a back door to escape with her, but the Muslims blocked all escape routes, and at this point the police abandoned the woman to save their lives,” Atabo said. “She was clubbed to death.”

Police later moved the woman’s corpse to the mortuary at the Suleja Government Hospital. Atabo added that three policemen were injured in the fracas.

Mystery IdentityChristian leaders in Izom said they were disturbed that police have not identified the woman.

“This woman was killed before the police could identify her or even question her,” Atabo said. “We have also tried to find out which church she comes from, but without success.”

The area Christian leaders suspect the murdered woman might have come from neighboring Suleja town.

Atabo, chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Izom town, said the Muslims claimed that the Christian woman dropped a document containing derogatory remarks about Muhammad.
When he asked the police to allow him see the alleged document, though, “there was nothing like that,” he said.

Daniel Mazuri, pastor of the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) Good News Church in Izom, said those at the scene of the incident told him Muslims accosted the woman and accused her of insulting Muhammad. The Muslims claimed she dropped a letter in a mosque insulting Muhammad, he said, but friends of his in the police force told him this was false.

“I believe the Muslims just wanted to ignite a religious crisis in this town,” Muzari told Compass. “This is a very unhealthy development, and it has now opened the door for unending religious conflicts.”

Mazuri said his inquiries led to the conclusion that Muslims doctored a document in order to create a religious crisis in this town.

“They are known for this attitude, and we are not surprised at the occurrence of this incident,” he said.

The Rev. Tanko Madaki of the ECWA, Hausa section, also concluded that Muslims planned the attack with the aim of igniting a religious crisis in the town.

“We are aware of the antics of the Muslims,” he said. “They are always good in fabricating falsehood and then anchoring their actions on such falsehood.”

Another FirstIt is common in Nigeria to find Christians engaged in street evangelism – preaching the gospel in marketplaces, buses and trains. Muslims are believed to constitute about half of the residents of Izom town, in the Gurara local government area.

The death of the unknown Christian woman marks the first fatality of Niger state’s Islamic legal system, introduced in 2000. Niger is one of the 12 states that has implemented sharia in northern Nigeria.

“We are hoping that the police will be able to unravel the identity of this woman eventually, or that any of her relations may contact us soon,” Atabo said.

There are nine churches in Izom town, including the Roman Catholic Church, the ECWA, All Christian Fellowship Mission, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), The Apostolic Church, the Baptist Church, and the Deeper Life Bible Church.

Dumbass Movie of the Decade.

Snakes on a Plane

"On board a flight over the Pacific Ocean, an assassin, bent on killing a passenger who's a witness in protective custody, lets loose a crate full of deadly snakes." (view trailer)

This bit of Hollyweird magic stars Samuel L. Jackson (I can only assume the poor fellow is up to his eyeballs in debt.) and opens soon (unless somebody grows a conscience).

The Return of the Death of the Plameplot Dome scandal!!!!!

Ack! I learned her name from the back of a box of Fruit Loops.

Novak Learned Valerie Plame's Name from 'Who's Who'
(CNSNews.com) - "I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in 'Who's Who in America,'" Robert D. Novak writes in a new column explaining his testimony in the leak case. Novak said Karl Rove was one of two sources who merely confirmed what he learned from another, still unidentified source. Read the column

Ashanti can sing, too. (The Last)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

If we continue to give a damn about the Beatles, the slave traders win.

The Columbus Dispatch: Penny Lane won't be renamed
LONDON — Penny Lane will keep its name. Liverpool officials said last week they would modify a proposal to rename streets linked to the slave trade when they realized the road made famous by the 1967 Beatles song was one of them.

Ha! Don't Hold Your Breath! Headline of the Day.

Roto-Reuters: Republican says feds readying crackdown on leaks..

The Bush administration is preparing a crackdown on intelligence leaks to the media and will try to pursue prosecutions in some recent cases, the chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Tuesday.

Michigan Republican Rep. Peter Hoekstra also suggested some unauthorized leaks could have been deliberate attempts to help al Qaeda.

"More frequently than what we would like, we find out that the intelligence community has been penetrated, not necessarily by al Qaeda, but by other nations or organizations," he said.

If only we had executed Jonathan Pollard and Sandy Berger...

"I don't have any evidence. But from my perspective, when you have information that is leaked that is clearly helpful to our enemy, you cannot discount that possibility," he added.

In recent months, two major intelligence operations were leaked to the media: the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions.

"There will be a renewed effort by the Justice Department in a couple of these cases to go through the entire process ... so they can prosecute," Hoekstra said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

Justice Department officials were not immediately available for comment.
Hoekstra also said the newly-installed CIA director Michael Hayden was conducting aggressive internal investigations against leakers.

The evil that is Aztec Math.

Michelle Malkin exposes the totalitarian racists infesting the ranks of Americans of Mexican descent. Does anyone seriously believe the millions of illegal invaders from the south are going to be more "moderate" than this?

Top White House adviser Karl Rove traveled to Los Angeles this week to pay homage to the anti-immigration enforcement lobbying group for Latinos: the National Council of La Raza.

"La Raza" is Spanish for "The Race."

It's bad enough the White House lent its prestige to The Race's annual conference. But did you know the Bush administration has forked over millions of federal tax dollars directly to The Race?

According to GOP Rep. Charlie Norwood of Georgia, The Race snapped up $15.2 million in federal grants last year alone and more than $30 million since 1996. Undisclosed amounts went to get-out-the-vote efforts supporting La Raza political positions. The U.S. Department of Education funneled nearly $8 million in taxpayer grants to the group for a nationwide charter-schools initiative.

Among The Race's most infamous government-funded charter schools is La Academia Semillas del Pueblo, the Los Angeles public school that teaches "Aztec math" (ancient dot math is the new math) and the Mexican indigenous language of "Nahuatl." The ethnic separatist principal of the school, Marcos Aguilar, told a sympathetic UCLA interviewer:

We don't want to drink from a white water fountain; we have our own wells and our natural reservoirs and our way of collecting rain in our aqueducts. We don't need a white water fountain. ... We are not interested in what they have because
we have so much more and because the world is so much larger. And ultimately, the white way, the American way, the neo-liberal, capitalist way of life will eventually lead to our own destruction."

That's the tip of the iceberg. I found dozens of other publicly subsidized charter schools sponsored by The Race and funded with our money, including:

Aztlan Academy in Tucson, Ariz. According to The Race, the school's success rests on "Aztlan's ability to integrate a meaningful Chicano Studies program into their lives, language and academics, as a means of developing their intellects as well as their pride and self-esteem." The school's name – a
reference to a mythical swath of the vast Southwestern U.S. expanse, which Latino activists claim is their rightful homeland and which they seek to reconquer for Mexico – says it all.

Mexicayotl Academy in Nogales, Ariz. Who needs the three Rs? At Mexicayotl, it's all about the three Ms: me, me, me! The school's program is "structured and developed around the concepts of identity, culture and language." Second mission: supporting local ethnic lobbying efforts "to right social injustices by educating the community and helping create social change." Under "greatest achievements," the school's website lists its participation in a "Peace and Dignity Run"; its visit from Rigoberta Menchu (the Marxist academic fraud from
Guatemala who lied her way to a Nobel Peace Prize); and its sponsorship of the local annual Dia de los Muertos (the Mexican holiday).

The Dolores Huerta Preparatory High School in Pueblo, Colo. It's named after the far-left Latina labor union activist who recently railed that "Republicans hate Latinos," praised illegal-alien marchers and screeched that "We didn't cross the
borders, the borders crossed us" in a hate-filled tirade before Arizona students.

Academia Cesar Chavez Charter School in St. Paul, Minn. Board of Directors member Louis Mendoza, an activist Chicano Studies professor, pushed the school to lobby for the federal DREAM Act (providing in-state tuition discounts to
illegal-alien students not available to legal non-residents). The school's website features one flag on its front page: the Mexican flag.

The White House will tell you that the National Council of The Race is a "moderate," mainstream civil-rights group. But there's nothing "moderate" about The Race's advocacy of driver's licenses and in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens. Or its opposition to strengthening security for identity documents and improving cooperation on immigration enforcement between state, local and federal enforcement immigration officials. Or its all-out war on the House GOP's border security and enforcement-first bill passed last December.

President Bush pays lip service to immigration enforcement and assimilation, while the White House sends Karl Rove to make nice with the separatist leaders of The Race and the Bush Education Department showers our tax dollars on radical Reconquista schools. It doesn't add up.

Unless, of course, you're using Aztec math. (Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the heads up.)

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Veronica, the woman of Jerusalem who wiped the face of Christ with a veil while he was on the way to Calvary. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's reading is Hosea 10:1-3, 7-8, 12.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 105:2-3, 4-5, 6-7.
Today's Gospel reading is Matthew 10:1-7.


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


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.


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.

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

Future Hype : The Myths of Technology Change
by Bob Seidensticker

We’re not the first generation to feel overwhelmed by technology, not the first to rearrange our lives to accommodate technology, and not the first to ask ourselves if technology’s good outweighs its bad. Generations past have dealt with disruptions every bit as challenging and exciting as our own. Our awe of today’s technology isn’t unique—it isn’t even particularly substantial.

Today, progress is quick in a few areas and slower in all the rest, as it has been for centuries. The PC and Internet are indeed unprecedented—just like every other major technology before them. The clumsy exponential-growth model must be replaced by a more accurate paradigm.

Three decades ago, Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock created a sensation with its portrayal of technology spinning out of society’s control. Future Hype approaches the same topic but arrives at a very different conclusion: that the popular view of technology change is wrong and that the future won’t be so shocking.

Come see how technology change really works and how to better evaluate it, anticipate it, and control it.


“Future Hype takes us on a technological rollercoaster over a landscape of exaggerated promises and failed dreams. Required reading for journalists, teachers, business managers and, well, everybody else.”
— A. K. Dewdney, author of Beyond Reason and Yes, We Have No Neutrons

* Who? Look here.

From The Hank Aaron Is Still My Home Run Champion Department:

AFP: Major League Baseball sees indictment coming for Bonds

Several senior figures in Major League Baseball expect Barry Bonds will be indicted by a San Francisco grand jury investigating the record-setting slugger, a US newspaper reported.

The New York Daily News, citing several unnamed major league sources in a Tuesday internet posting, said indictments for perjury and tax evasion could be issued by next week or the end of July against the
San Francisco Giants outfielder.

A grand jury looking into revelations stemming from the BALCO steroid scandal is scheduled to expire by the end of the month.

The Daily News said their sources had no inside information regarding the grand jury but anticipated that Bonds will be indicted, which would create a nightmare scenario for Major League Baseball during its usual late-season peak.

That expectation, the newspaper reported, came from information about Bonds uncovered in a secret investigation launched more than a year ago - well before former US Senator George Mitchell was named in April to lead an MLB-inquiry into doping allegations.

Bringing you the constant variety of sport...

KTVA: Gunman opens fire at Anchorage flag football game
A man with an "Uzi-style" weapon fired numerous shots at a crowded flag football field in Anchorage before fleeing. At least one person was wounded in the incident Sunday night . The name of the 22-year-old victim has not been released.

Ashanti can sing, too. (Part Two)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

Imagine what Hitlery would do to him if he did not buy condoms!*

Bay News 9: Clerk charged with attacking boy for not buying yo-yo
FORT PIERCE, FL - Police said a convenience store clerk is being held without bail for allegedly attacking a boy in Fort Pierce for not buying a yo-yo.

* For the skinny (sorry) on the woman who claims to be expert in all things penis, look here.

Mom? Mom?

I get both sides of this story...

I guess Mr. Siegel should be thankful his mother didn't have him killed. That's a better break than a lot of kids get.

WIS-TV: California man sentenced for stalking biological mother

A California man has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for stalking the woman he discovered had given him up for adoption almost 40 years ago.

The woman is now a lawyer in New York. She testified that she didn't want to reunite with her son, who was conceived in a rape by her ex-fiance.

Roger Siegel learned his mother's identity in 2002 after persuading a court to unseal his adoption records. He then bombarded the woman with phone messages and faxes.

Siegel said at his sentencing Friday that he's been "deeply hurt" and was "looking for what was missing in his life - a mom, a family."

Totalitarian Pensylvania Update.

"Slow Eddie" Rendell condemns Keystone Staters to higher prices and fewer jobs while pretending to help the poor.

Ha!

Watch this sick clown feature his compassion and leadership in his campaign ads between now and November.

NBC 10 Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Minimum Wage To Go Up $2 Per Hour

Gov. Ed Rendell signed the bill raising the minimum wage by $2 an hour Sunday in Philadelphia at Sharon Baptist Church in Wynnefield Heights.

The minimum wage increase will be phased in over the next year.

Here are some details from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry:

For businesses with 11 or more employees:
By Jan. 1, 2007 the minimum wage must be raised to $6.25 an hour
By July 1, 2007 the minimum wage must be raised to $7.15 an hour

For the estimated 207,000 Pennsylvania businesses with 10 or less employees:
By Jan. 1, 2007 the minimum wage must be raised to $5.65 an hour
By July 1, 2007 the minimum wage must be raised to $6.65 an hour
By July 1, 2008 the minimum wage must be raised to $7.15 an hour

Currently 423,000 Pennsylvanians earn less than $7.15 an hour.

Is it just me, or does the Slave China regime seem scared witless of a Japan willing to fight?

I know this is gong to upset a lot of people, but I think it is time for Japan to re-arm. The chances are excellent we are going to have to do something about China sooner rather than later...

Roto-Reuters: China says Japan over-reacts with UN resolution

China condemned a Japan-sponsored U.N. resolution to slap sanctions on
North Korea over its missile tests on Tuesday, calling it an over-reaction that would split the Security Council.

The statement came as a top U.S. envoy flew into Beijing, seeking a briefing on China's urgent efforts to resolve the crisis by diplomatic means.

The U.N. Security Council delayed a vote overnight on the resolution to impose sanctions on the isolated state to allow time for a high-level Chinese delegation to talk to Pyongyang.

"The Chinese side thinks the concerned draft resolution is an over-reaction. If approved, it will aggravate contradictions and increase tension," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told a news conference. "It will hurt efforts to resume six-party talks as well as lead to the U.N. Security Council splitting."

Chinese President Hu Jintao told visiting North Korean parliamentarian Yang Hyong Sop that China opposed any action that would stoke tension on the Korean peninsula. State media said he urged all parties to take steps conducive to peace and stability.

Senior U.S. diplomat Christopher Hill, Washington's top man on North Korea, arrived back in the Chinese capital on Tuesday.

"We have the DPRK (North Korea) which, instead of coming to the six-party process, is firing off missiles of all shapes and sizes, missiles that are aimed at not just us but countries in the region," Hill told reporters at his hotel.

He said that he hoped to meet Chinese officials later on Tuesday, that he wanted to see what "kind of leverage" Beijing had over Pyongyang and that he hoped for progress in bringing North Korea back to the six-party talks on its nuclear program.

"At this point, the jury is still out, we don't know what the DPRK wants to do."

TALKS IN PYONGYANG

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei was still in North Korea, the spokeswoman said, contradicting earlier Korean media reports that he had returned home. Vice Premier Hui Liangyu flew to North Korea on Monday for a six-day visit.

"The problems cannot be resolved in one or two trips and solely through diplomatic efforts by the Chinese side," the spokeswoman said.

A State Department official said on Sunday Washington believed it had the backing in the 15-member council for the resolution to pass. Veto-wielding China opposes sanctions.

Smells like goat rapists...

...but if I was a Tamil mass-murderer, I'd do it the same way...

AP: 8 bombs on India commuter trains kill 147

Eight bombs hit Bombay's commuter rail network during rush hour Tuesday evening, killing at least 147 people and wounding more than 400 in what authorities called a well-coordinated terrorist attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in the bombings, which came in quick succession — a common tactic employed by Kashmiri militants. The blasts came hours after a series of grenade attacks by Islamic extremists killed eight people in the main city of India's part of
Kashmir.

India's major cities were put on high alert. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called an emergency Cabinet meeting and said that "terrorists" were behind the attacks.

Pakistan, India's rival over the disputed territory of Kashmir, quickly condemned the bombings.

As they should. But that government does not speak for all Pakistanis.

Chaos engulfed the crowded rail network in India's financial capital following the blasts that ripped apart densely packed carriages on trains that police said had either pulled into stations or were traveling between them. Doors and windows were blown off the train cars, and witnesses said body parts were strewn on the ground.

After meeting with his Cabinet, Maharashtra state Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said Tuesday night that the death toll was 147, with another 439 wounded.

Deshmukh, the state's top elected official, also corrected initial reports of seven blasts, saying there had actually been eight, including two at one station.

Authorities struggled to treat survivors and recover the dead in the wreckage amid heavy monsoon downpours, and the effort continued into the night. Survivors clutched bandages to their heads and faces, and some frantically dialed their cell phones. Luggage and debris were spattered with blood.

There was no immediate indication if suicide bombers were involved. Police inspector Ramesh Sawant said most of the victims suffered head and chest injuries, leading authorities to believe the bombs were placed in overhead luggage racks.

Hmmmm...

Smarter than average goat rapists, perhaps?

"I can't hear anything," said Shailesh Mhate, a man in his 20s, sitting on the floor of Veena Desai Hospital surrounded by bloody cotton swabs. "People around me didn't survive. I don't know how I did."

Another man, bloody bandages over his eyes, held out a phone to a nurse, begging her to call his wife and tell her he was OK.

In Washington, the State Department said it had no information about whether there were any American casualties.

Commuter transit systems have been tempting targets for terrorists in recent years, with bombers killing 191 in Madrid, Spain, in 2004, and 52 in London last year.

A senior Bombay police official, P.S. Pasricha, said the Bombay explosions were part of a well-coordinated attack. Vilasrao Deshmukh, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, where Bombay is located, said bombs had caused all the explosions.

Police reportedly carried out raids across the country following the Bombay blasts. One TV station said a suspect was in custody.

Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil told reporters that authorities had had some information that an attack was coming, "but place and time was not known."

The bombings occurred after the stock markets ended. The commercial capital suffered similar serial blasts in 1993 that included the Bombay Stock Exchange, killing more than 250 people.

Tuesday evening's first explosion hit a train at a railway station in the northwestern suburb of Khar, said a police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Other blasts followed down the line of the western railway at the Mahim, Bandra, Matunga, Borivili, Mira Road and Jogeshwari stations. Some passengers reportedly jumped from speeding trains in panic.

India's CNN-IBN television news, which had a reporter aboard one train, said a blast struck a first-class compartment as the train was moving, ripping through the compartment and killing more than a dozen people.

The Press Trust of India, citing railway officials, said all the blasts had hit first-class cars.

Class envy? Class warfare? I don't remember if this happened in the Spanish train attack.

Pranay Prabhakar, the spokesman for the Western Railway, said all train service had been suspended and appealed to the public to stay away from stations in the city of 16 million people — India's principal port on the Arabian Sea.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since the subcontinent was partitioned upon independence from Britain in 1947, two over Kashmir.
Dozens of militant groups have been fighting Indian rule in Kashmir, demanding the mostly Muslim region's independence, or its merger with Pakistan.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry late Tuesday strongly condemned the Bombay attacks.

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf offered condolences over the loss of life, the Foreign Ministry said, adding: "Terrorism is a bane of our times and it must be condemned, rejected and countered effectively and comprehensively."

The General is a thug, but he's our thug. (For the most part.) There are worse alternatives. Much worse.

New Delhi has accused Pakistan of training, arming and funding the militants. Islamabad insists it only offers the rebels diplomatic and moral support.

Accusations of Pakistani involvement in a 2001 attack on India's parliament put the nuclear-armed rivals on the brink of a fourth war. But since then, Pakistan and India embarked on a peace process aimed at resolving their differences, including their conflicting claims to all of Jammu-Kashmir.

In Washington, two U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because the events were still unfolding said it was too early to know for certain what group was behind the attacks. But both officials said they were likely part of the sectarian violence over Kashmir.

One of the officials said the attacks' coordinated nature and their targeting of trains at peak travel times match the modus operandi of two Islamic extremist groups that have been active in India during the last several years: Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, or Army of the Righteous, and Jaish-e-Mohammad, or Army of Mohammed.

The U.S. government has designated both groups as terrorist organizations and considers them affiliates of al-Qaida.

Ashanti can sing, too. (Part One)

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette:

Man, this cigar thing has got to end. And soon.

Hey, John Kerry! Where's the missle defense that's gonna protect us from your creepy commie buddies?

From Human Events Online:

'Star Wars' Critics Stay Silent
by Robert B. Bluey


A day after Human Events editorialized in favor of a comprehensive missile-defense system comes a hard-hitting editorial from the Washington Examiner that asks, "Where are ‘Star Wars’ critics now?

"It's an important question to ponder, and as the Examiner puts it:

Noticeably absent are the voices of those who, since President Reagan first proposed such a system in 1984, have fought development and deployment of the missile defense system the U.S. must now depend upon in dealing with North Korea. These folks have claimed over and over that the system they derisively call “Star Wars” can’t possibly work, would be too expensive, would incite a new world arms race, etc., etc. Names that come to mind in this regard include senators like Joe Biden, D-Del., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Ted
Kennedy, D-Mass., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., and the Clinton-Gore administration that delayed and dilly-dallied with work on missile defense for most of the ’90s.

Kudos to the Examiner for calling out these senators -- as well as the bad decisions made by Clinton and Gore in the 1990s. As we learn more about North Korea's failed test -- that the missiles were actually aimed at Hawaii -- it's growing more apparent that the Democrats' policies of yesteryear could literally put our country at risk today. Remember that this November when you head to the polls to vote.