More totalitarianism from our moral and intellectual superiors in Harrisburg.

Hey, Pennsylvanians! Think your legislators are working to help you by eliminating the local school property tax? You should know better by now.

Ever hear of the Realty Transfer Tax? It may be going from 1% (fifth highest in the nation) to 3%. The vote is scheduled for Monday November 21.

"But Fyodor", you whimper, "I'm not buying or selling a house, so what do I care?"

Childish imbecile! Think of the cost to businesses and then imagine all of them passing on this tax increase to consumers like you!

The realty transfer tax is a state and local tax assessed on real property when ownership of the property is exchanged between parties. All types of real property, including residential, commercial, and agricultural, are subject to the realty transfer tax. Pennsylvania currently assesses a 1% statewide transfer tax, which is the fifth highest tax rate in the nation.

In addition to the 1% statewide realty transfer tax, local communities are also capable of assessing up to an additional 1%. The exceptions to this rule are home rule counties and municipalities as they may levy above 1% in local transfer taxes. Currently, the realty transfer tax rate in the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh is a combined 4% including state, local, and school district tax.

While proposing to increase the statewide RTT rate to 3%, the Caucus plan also provides that school districts in second, third and fourth class counties would continue to have the power to levy a local RTT at a rate equal to or less than the state RTT rate. This means that if the state RTT rate is raised to 3%, then second, third and fourth class counties would be able to raise their local RTT rates to 3%, thereby producing a 6% total RTT.
(Thanks to PARealtors.org for the heads up.)

An interview with the Pittsburgh Steelers' head coach Bill Cowher.

Joe Bendel of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review asks the Steelers' coach a couple of interesting questions, but not the big one: Where's our fifth Super Bowl trophy?

Another year, another batch of victories for Bill Cowher.

Cowher is 21-3 in his past 24 regular-season games.

On Monday night, he was the subject of a halftime spoof by late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel during the Colts-Patriots game. Kimmel showed various footage of trademark Cowher tirades from the previous Monday night when the Steelers played the Ravens, then superimposed Cowher's angry expression on a class picture.

The skit was humorous, but showed only one side of the 14-year coach.

After his weekly news conference Tuesday, Cowher, 48, revealed some other sides as he sat down with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review's Joe Bendel at the halfway point of the season.

Cowher's Steelers are 6-2 and play host to Cleveland on Sunday night at Heinz Field.

Tribune-Review: You laugh when you talk about the Kimmel bit, but do you like being portrayed that way?

Bill Cowher: I guess it's all done in jest, but my wife's been on me. That is the competitive side of me. I'm not very good at hiding my emotions, and I need to do a better job of that. Because what people see there, I'm not always like that. Those are instances in a game. I'm also the guy who's talking to these players in the six days leading up to games and asking about their families and telling them when they do it well and congratulating them on that. But a lot of times, the only time they show you is when you're upset about a call or about a certain play, and, sometimes, people can portray you as someone you're not. That's the only thing that kind of bothers me about things like that. I'm a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, I really am. I love to compete, but I'm easygoing, too.

TR: Do you show that easygoing side more often than you used to? Did you compartmentalize it in the past, holding it back while letting everyone know you were the man in charge?

BC: I've never done anything that's been calculated. I've always been myself. I think what happens is the exposure, sometimes, has become greater. Last year, we played (mostly) 1 o'clock games and there weren't any national games. This year, we're playing Monday Night games and it's on national television. I'm no different this year than I was last year. The only difference is there's more exposure because you're on national TV more.

TR: Would you prefer to do this with little fanfare?

BC: If it was up to me, I wouldn't want any games to be on TV. I'd rather be out there competing. That's the part of it that turns me off the most, is the exposure. It's the people coming up to me and my family and saying, "Hey, boy, did you see your dad last night." Those types of things I don't like. That bothers me. I love to compete. I love the game of football. I love working with players. I love working with coaches. I love that part of it. The exposure part of it, the recognition part of it, those are things I don't like about this job, that I'd rather not have. Those perceptions aren't things that are calculated. That's just me being me doing my job, and I think, at times, it gets overexposed because we've had success.

TR: Because of who you are, you could face such exposure even when you're done here. Do you plan to move to the mountains and get away from everything when you retire?

BC: It goes with the territory. I understand that and there's a responsibility that goes with it. Who knows? This is what I'm doing now and I'll take this year to year right now.

TR: Are you calmer today than you were when you were hired here in 1992?

BC: I'd like to think so. But I don't know if calmer is the right word. Probably secure - I'm a little more secure. Still, I'm a very intense individual when it comes to game day. I hold everyone accountable, beginning with myself. I'm my own worst critic. At times, I expect everyone to be the same way.

TR: You said you're more secure. Can you elaborate?

BC: I'm not as sensitive to criticism as I was early in my career. I'm more sensitive to people questioning my integrity than my tactics. I'm not as sensitive to some of the things that people say. You understand it comes with the business. When you're losing, you become accountable. You've got to be stand-up, and I believe in that. I've coached some bad games and I've coached some good games. I've had some bad years and some good years. I continue to try to keep it in perspective and try to grow. I don't profess to know it all, and I keep looking and learning from watching other coaches and other teams. I try to stay grounded and open-minded to be a better football coach and a better person.

TR: You've had some eye-opening success, such as a 21-3 record in your past 24 regular-season games, 11 consecutive road wins and a 95-1-1 record when leading by more than 10 points, among others. Do you feel like some of these things have been taken for granted?

BC: There's a high level of expectation that exists. I don't think there's any question about that. I guess, sometimes, you look at it and I think it's not a bad thing. I think it exists on our football team, it exists within this organization, and I think we set the standards pretty high. I'd rather deal with that than being in a situation where there's low expectations. So, the most important thing is for us to keep it in perspective. I still think certainly that we're looking at a championship as our ultimate goal. But it doesn't mean that you can't achieve things and enjoy things in the process.
TR: Are you enjoying some of this success, or are you pressured by the expectations?

BC: When you're in the middle of doing something, you've got to be careful. You don't become reflective. That's when you can set into complacency.

Daddy, who was Mary Mapes?

How to Get a Head in Journalism

Mary Mapes, who lost her job at "60 Minutes" for relying on fraudulent documents in an inept hit piece against President Bush last year, is back in the news, flogging a book. ABC News reports:

Mapes maintains that her controversial "60 Minutes II" story on President Bush's National Guard service was "true" and that "no one has proved that the documents were not authentic." . . .

In her interview with ABC News chief investigative correspondent Brian Ross, to be broadcast Wednesday morning on "Good Morning America," Mapes says she is unrepentant about her role. "I don't think I committed bad journalism. I really don't," she says. . . .

Mapes rejects suggestions she had political motives. "I did not have it in for George Bush," she said.

Mapes also criticizes other reporters for spending too much time on her story and other flawed journalism. "I think the media's had more fun beating itself up in the last five years than it has asking hard questions of the administration or government officials, and I think that's wrong," she said.

The Washington Post has this astonishing quote from Mapes:

"I was extremely battered," she said in an interview yesterday. "I'd had months and months of having my head kicked around a soccer stadium by much of the Western world. I needed some time to regroup."

Are we crazy for thinking this assertion sounds suspicious? Note her vague language: "months and months," "much of the Western world." If even 1% of the Western world was involved in this, how come it's the first we've heard of it? How come she doesn't name the soccer stadium where this supposedly took place? Furthermore, the ABC Web site has a photo of Mapes that appears to have been taken this week, in which her head is attached to her body. This would make it awkward, if not physically impossible, to kick it around a soccer stadium.

Now, it could be that Mapes's head isn't really attached to her body and the ABC photo was doctored, perhaps by the same creative genius who came up with those memos. But here's another possibility: Perhaps when Mapes says much of the Western world kicked her head around a soccer stadium for months and months, she is guilty of stretching the truth. And isn't that what got her into trouble in the first place?
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)

Taranto quotes a couple of idiots named Murphy and Sullivan. (Irish jokes, if you will.)

Hold That Tiger
This jaw-dropping quote, from Walter Murphy, McCormick Professor in Jurisprudence Emeritus at Princeton, appeared yesterday in the Daily Princetonian, a student newspaper (bracketed verbiage and ellipsis in original):

"Sam is his own man," Murphy said. "He'll never be 'Scalito.' And then it's a gross insult to say in the mold of [other conservative and constructionist justice] Clarence Thomas. Their IQs are so radically different . . . We're not talking about someone in Sam's intellectual league."

Barely a decade ago, Charles Murray stirred up rage on the left with his academic discussion of racial differences in IQ in "The Bell Curve." Today it apparently is acceptable in the Ivy League to insult the intelligence of specific black people by stereotyping them as having low IQs. We're all for honest discussion of racial matters, but Murphy's uninhibited expression of racial prejudice doesn't strike us as evidence of progress.


It's Degenerate! No Wait, It's Fair Game!

"It seems to me that using explicitly religious criteria--rather than jurisprudential philosophy--for judicial nominations is yet another sign of how degenerate Bush's brand of conservatism is."--Andrew Sullivan on Harriet Miers, Oct. 28

"The upshot of [Pope] Benedict's church will be indeed to dictate to Catholic public officials, including judges, what they can and cannot do and still be allowed to receive communion. Under those circumstances, a judge's religion would indeed be fair game for Senate hearings, it seems to me."--Andrew Sullivan on Sam Alito, Nov. 7
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)

Carol Burnett gets a Presidential Medal of Freedom? Hooray!

I hope Tim, Harvey, Vicki, and Lyle will be there...

If memories of a tv show can still make me laugh today, it must have been good. The best part was always when they cracked each other up and couldn't stop laughing.

May God bless and protect you Carol, and all your friends and loved ones. (BTW, how about a comeback? TV really stinks these days.)

This week, President Bush awards Carol Burnett the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, commemorating “her combination of creativity, humor, and compassion.” (The roster of honorees this year is impressive, by the way — Jack Nicklaus and Muhammad Ali in the same year? Alan Greenspan and Andy Griffith? I mean, geez, who got it last year? Oh. Pope John Paul II and Doris Day.) This will not be the first award for Ms. Burnett. In her long and distinguished career, she has collected six Emmys, eight Golden Globes, twelve People’s Choice Awards, and a passel of others. One imagines bathroom doors held open by an Ace Award, a Peabody as a bookend. (Jealous? Me? Damn right. I have been consistently slighted by the Academies because of my politics, or my height, or perhaps my subpar work.)

Carol Burnett was born in Texas, and her childhood was anything but ideal. Her parents split up when she was four, and she eventually moved to Los Angeles with her mother and grandmother. Carol’s relationship with her grandmother was particularly close, and throughout her career she always sent “Nanny” a secret hello with her traditional show-closing gesture, the tug of her left ear. (She continues the gesture today as a memorial.) Carol graduated from Hollywood High, studied at UCLA, and came to national attention in a most unusual way — singing a silly love song to the secretary of State. I Made a Fool of Myself over John Foster Dulles was a novelty hit in the mid-50s and led, eventually, to Broadway. (The reader may pause to imagine Fifty Cent penning a similar ode to the current secretary of State.)

A hit on Broadway (Once Upon a Mattress) opened the doors to television, and in 1967 The Carol Burnett Show debuted on CBS. With its roots deeply entrenched in vaudeville, the show presented sketch comedy, song and dance, and celebrity guests at a remarkable level of quality for the next eleven years. The sketches ranged from big-budget movie parodies to simple character pieces — Burnett’s “Charwoman,” with her blue bonnet and mop, became a signature for the show. Burnett and Conway’s office duo, the agonizingly slow Mrs. Wiggins and her long-suffering boss, Mr. Tudball, were particular favorites for my brother and me...

Then of course, there were Eunice and Ed Higgins (Korman), the blue-collar couple whose dysfunctional family included Vicki Lawrence’s classic portrayal of Mama. The Eunice sketches were clearly drawn from Carol’s own troubled upbringing and had a darker edge than almost anything I can remember from that era. One memorable installment featured Eunice proudly going to Hollywood to sing “Feelings” (unironically) on The Gong Show. When, after a few tortured verses, she was gonged, the camera cut to a close-up of her stunned reaction, then slowly faded out on her disappointment. It was chilling, and I’ve never forgotten the power of not getting a laugh.

Carol’s humor was amazing, not just for what it was, but also for what it wasn’t. While great movie characters were ripe for parody, Carol and her cast never stooped to malicious impersonation or lampooning the real-life excesses of celebrities. Topical or political jokes were nowhere to be found. Essentially, Carol played on 60 percent of the field that Saturday Night Live used, but with greater consistency and considerably less meanness. Of course, the rise of SNL as the country’s favorite sketch show led within a few years to the end of The Carol Burnett Show. Somehow, a relatable everywoman who frequently obliged her studio audience’s petitions for her “Tarzan” yell was suddenly out of synch with America in the age of Belushi, Aykroyd, and Radner. Were we better for it?

Carol closed every episode of her show with another (now quaint) tradition, a closing theme song. “I'm so glad we had this time together / Just to have a laugh and sing a song / Seems we just got started and before you know it / Comes the time we have to say, 'So long.'” Well, America is certainly glad for its time with Carol Burnett, and since we’re a long way from having to say “so long,” let’s instead say “thanks,” and congratulations to her on this much-deserved honor.
(Thanks to Warren Bell and NRO for the heads up.)

WTF, Sam?

Washington Post:
Alito Signals Reluctance to Overturn Roe v. Wade

"He basically said . . . that Roe was precedent on which people -- a lot of people -- relied, and been precedent now for decades and therefore deserved great respect," Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) told reporters after meeting with Alito yesterday. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said she had a similar conversation about an hour later with Alito, who has made clear that he personally opposes abortion.

"I asked him whether it made a difference to him if he disagreed with the initial decision but it had been reaffirmed several times since then," Collins told reporters. "I was obviously referring to Roe in that question. He assured me that he has tremendous respect for precedent and that his approach is to not overturn cases due to a disagreement with how they were originally decided."

Collins, Lieberman and others cautioned that they did not directly ask Alito if he would vote to overturn Roe , and that his comments should not be seen as a guarantee of how he may rule. But the conversations appear to be building Alito's resistance to what might be the biggest impediment to his confirmation: liberals' claims that he is a threat to legalized abortion, which most Americans support, according to opinion polls.

Major Andre v. Bin Laden’s Bodyguard

Major Andre v. Bin Laden’s Bodyguard

Here's a little history lesson on how America punishes enemy agents from Terence P. Jeffrey of Human Events Online:

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether our laws and Constitution require President Bush to try al Qaeda terrorists in a more permissive venue than the military tribunals George Washington used for British spies.

The answer is no.

In 1780, a Continental patrol intercepted British Major John Andre, dressed in civilian clothes, sneaking back toward British lines after visiting Gen. Benedict Arnold at West Point. Andre was carrying secret papers from the traitorous Arnold hidden in his boot.

General Washington handed the dashing and courageous Andre over to a military tribunal for trial. The tribunal determined he “ought to be considered a spy from the enemy, and that, agreeably to the law and usage of nations … he ought to suffer death.”

Andre appealed to Washington--asking only to be executed like a gentleman before a firing squad, not hung as spies normally were.
“Sympathy toward a soldier will surely induce your Excellency and a military tribunal to adapt the mode of my death to the feelings of a man of honor,” said Andre.Washington was unmoved. When he failed to persuade the British to trade Andre for the ignominious Arnold (who had fled), he approved Andre’s hanging.

Seven years later, Washington presided at the Constitutional Convention, where the Framers crafted Article 1, Section 8, Clause 10. It says:

“Congress shall have power … to define and punish … offenses against the law of nations.”

More Election Updates.

Texas Voters Pass Marriage Protection Amendment(CNSNews.com) - Voters in Texas gave constitutional backing to a state law banning same-sex marriage on Tuesday. An overwhelming 76 percent of voters approved the constitutional amendment defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Full Story

Dover voters reject 'intelligent design' board (The Patriot-News)
DOVER - While a federal judge weighs the evidence in Kitzmiller et al v. Dover Area School District, voters in the district chose their sides yesterday in a debate about the teaching of intelligent design in their high school.


Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:Fetal Pain Bill Advances in Wisconsin

Fox News/AP:Kansas State Board Approves Teaching Standards Skeptical of Evolution

San Francisco Chronicle:Voters Ban Handguns in San Francisco

Houston Chronicle:Same-Sex Marriage Ban Approved in Texas

Boston Globe:Maine voters turn back bid to rescind state's gay-rights law

USA Today:Calif. voters reject measures pushed by Schwarzenegger

... but most of the time, they creep me out.

Model Hitomi Nishina displays underwear maker Triumph International (Japan) Ltd.'s new creation, "Warm Biz" bra and shorts, in Tokyo Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005. The "Warm Biz" bra uses soft fuzzy material, and adopts lining of infrared thermal fabrics to keep you warm under low heating measures promoted by Japan's environment ministry against global warming. (AP)

Hmmm...maybe that global warming lie could come in handy...

Then again, there must be something wrong if you are surrounded by girls like Hitomi (above) and

Survey shows Japanese the world's least sexually active -- again

Yes, I admit it. The Japanese can be cool too...

Noh master to perform Shakespeare's Hamlet in English

"Hamlet in Noh Style," a unique play fusing traditional Japanese Noh drama with William Shakespeare's world, will be performed in English by Kuniyoshi Ueda, Professor of Nihon University Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, on Nov. 13 in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Ueda, who also serves as President of the International Society for Harmony and Combination of Cultures (ISHCC), was not as impressed by a Shakespeare play he saw when in college as he was by a Noh play that stirred his soul. Ueda believes the reason was that the Shakespeare play was translated into prose, even though the original was a poetic drama.
Ueda then began to perform Shakespeare's plays in English-language Noh chants, keeping the poetic lines of the originals alive. After coming back from Harvard University, where he studied as a Fulbright fellow from 1973 to 1975, he performed the play "Hamlet in Noh Style" for the first time in Japan in 1981. Since then, Ueda has performed the play at Tokyo's National Noh Theatre and in several different countries.

At the upcoming show at MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Ueda will perform with his students at Nihon University Graduate School and volunteer members of ISHCC.

Date: Nov. 13 (3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.).

Venue: MOA Noh Theatre in MOA Museum of Art in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture.

Admission: Free.

Information:http://atlantic.gssc.nihon-u.ac.jp/~ISHCC/

And, congrats to the saps from Virginia...

... who seem to have elected a CINO Democrass pinhead who did nothing but babble incessantly about how he went to church regularly.

Thank you, voters of New Jersey.

Thanks, Garden Staters, for putting Senator At Least Torricelli Got to Bone Bianca Jagger back where he belongs - with you!

Now he can torture you fools with his socialist pablum while he tries to find a way around Hitlery's fat ass for 2008.

Bonus Totalitarian Pennsylvania Update.

One of my brother's best friends is a PA state rep from outside of Pittsburgh. When this pay raise kerfuffle started, he arrogantly proclaimed in public how he deserved every penny of it because he worked so hard for the folks in his district.

He ought to be tossed out, but he won't be. He's a leftist D in a very strong D district. (This is NOT a D versus R thing. There are plenty of fat, lazy, complacent Repansycans in PA who should be thrown out of power too.) Term limits are a necessity, but they will never happen. What oligarch is going to vote himself out of power?

My only consolation is the certainty of a particularly nasty circle of Hell reserved for those who abuse the authority of public offices.

The 2005 pay raise for top state officials could go down in flames on Monday. Perhaps it'll take until Tuesday. Maybe it won't get done until early the following week.

But lawmakers are determined to get this turkey off their plates by Thanksgiving.

House and Senate leaders said they have the same goal: to repeal the 16 percent to 54 percent raises that lawmakers granted themselves and the executive and judicial branches in the early morning hours of July 7.

But they differ on how to do it so that judges can't rely on a constitutional provision to hold onto their raises.

The constitution prevents judges' salaries from being reduced, unless by law applying generally to all salaried officers of the state. The provision is designed to keep the judges free of legislative interference.

In all likelihood, the resolution they seek will be hammered out privately and then presented in final form in public, either at a conference
committee or on the floor of the House or Senate.

That's how many issues in Harrisburg get done. That's how the pay raise was handled. (Thanks to PennLive.com for the heads up.)

Hooray, PA! We were 1 for 2 yesterday.

I am hoping (but not holding my breath) the voters don't ever calm down. I am certain the weasel politicians will keep up their end of the bargain and remain weasels.

I doubt Justice Nigro is no ogre, and I'm sure Slow Eddie Rendell will name someone much worse to replace him, but this election was about the people taking control back from the political class that rules over us. Nigro was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm sure he has a lucrative ambulance-chasing practice to get back to in Philly.

IF (and that's a big if, kiddies) the people of the Keystone State keep this up, this state may someday again be fit for human habitation.

Nigro ousted from top court; Newman wins

State Supreme Court Justice Russell Nigro didn't vote for the pay raises, but he paid for them anyway.

Voters yesterday ousted Nigro by a 51-49 ratio, making him the first justice on the high court to ever lose a retention election.

Justice Sandra Schultz Newman won a new term on the state's highest court, with 54 percent of voters saying she should stay.

Judicial-retention elections traditionally lack drama. But Newman and Nigro were the first statewide candidates to face voters since July, when Gov. Ed Rendell and lawmakers approved the raises for themselves, judges and top state officials.

With no lawmakers seeking re-election yesterday, many said they saw the two justices as fitting targets. Government-reform advocates implored voters to make a statement.

By any measure, they did.

"By making history today, Pennsylvania voters have also begun to make their future," said Tim Potts, who led the coalition Democracy Rising to seize on the voter outrage.

"People want integrity in government, and anyone who is running for governor or the Legislature next year who doesn't get that message will not be elected," Potts added.

Opponents of the pay raise mounted vigorous campaigns arguing that change in government starts with removing the justices. They said the high court's rulings encouraged lawmakers to skirt provisions in the state Constitution designed to ensure an open legislative process.

Nigro became the state's first appellate judge to lose a retention vote since the yes-no vote was instituted in 1969...

It's about time.

Nigro will serve until his term expires in early January. Then, Rendell will nominate a replacement. With Senate confirmation, an appointee would serve through 2007, when voters would elect a candidate for a 10-year term.

Newman can serve until November 2007, when she reaches the court's mandatory retirement age of 70.

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome, the oldest of the four great basilicas there. It is the cathedral of the Patriarch of the West, the pope. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.

Today's first reading is Ezechiel 47: 1-2, 8-9, 12.
Today's second reading is Corinthians 3:9-11, 16-17.
Today's Gospel reading is John 2:13-22.


Everyday links:

The Blessed Virgin Mary
The Rosary
Our Mother of Perpetual Help
Prayers from EWTNNational 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 Saint Anthony, Martyr of Desire

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


PRAYER TO SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL

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

Get Fuzzy sometimes makes it easier to get through the nonsense.

Click to enlarge.

From The Our Wacky Japanese Neighbors Take Some More Corn Off Our Hands Department:

Miss USA 2005 Chelsea Cooley from Charlotte, North Carolina, smiles as she pulls on socks made from corn-derived Ingeo fiber at an exhibition of earth-friendly products in Tokyo on Tuesday, November 8. A group of U.S. hosiery manufacturers, including Twin City Knitting Company Inc. which makes the sweet-smelling product, have joined together to offer to the Japanese market products made from Ingeo fibre, derived from agriculture-based materials instead of oil-based substances. (Reuters)

In vitro, no one can hear you scream.

Why do leftist white hags think it necessary to kill as many people of color as possible? Everyone knows the peasants of China and Africa have no "Choice" (as the thuggish hags' bumpers proclaim). The simplest answer is leftist hags are racists who don't think people who look different are really human.

Your average leftist hag will charge me with hate speech for this, but shouldn't they be required to defend their support of Big Babykilling? If they are so smart (Ha! I knew I couldn't type that with a straight face.) and they believe killing Others is best, they should jump at the chance.

Samuel Alito isn't the only nominee under attack by liberals for his record on abortion. So is Ellen Sauerbrey, President Bush's choice to be Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.

To be precise, Ms. Sauerbrey is under fire for supporting Mr. Bush's priorities at the United Nations, where the former Maryland legislator and gubernatorial candidate has spent four years as U.S. envoy to the Commission on the Status of Women. Among her alleged sins is that she supports the Administration's decision to withhold $34 million from the U.N. Population Fund because some of the agency's contributions go to China's appalling forced-abortion policy.

The Population Fund is one of the principal cheerleaders of China's one-child policy, which has been enforced through fines, imprisonment, forced abortion, sterilizations and even, human-rights groups charge, infanticide. Several weeks ago Mr. Bush invoked a 20-year-old policy--known as the Kemp-Kasten Amendment--which prohibits federal funding of "any organization or program which supports or participates in the management of a program of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilization."

One would think that women's organizations would applaud this decision--and the appointment of an American woman who champions it. Mandatory limitations on family size and involuntary sterilizations hardly represent "reproductive freedom" or "a woman's right to choose." Instead, groups such as Planned Parenthood have protested that Mr. Bush is denying women access to reproductive health and family planning services. Planned Parenthood is also attacking Ms. Sauerbrey.

China insists that coercion is a thing of the past. But the senior China specialist at the U.S. Census Bureau told Congress in December that, "The evidence is clear that the one-child policy is still basic national policy, that it remains coercive and violative of human rights." Amnesty International continues to document abortions, sterilizations and infanticide inside rural hospitals. China also uses fines and "social compensation" penalties of up to four years of salary to punish one-child violators.

There are an estimated 40 million girls demographically missing in China as a result of its one-child policy. The Population Research Institute reports that the sex ratio of 117 boys to 100 girls is so out of balance that the Chinese government has initiated emergency programs to teach parents about the value of girls.

Representative Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) has introduced legislation to release taxpayer funds for the Population Fund and give recipients a blank check on how to spend it. But it is Ms. Maloney and her allies who should be forced to defend the Population Fund's practices, especially its support for China's birth-control policy. The Fund has publicly praised the one-child policy as "the most successful family planning (sic) policy ever developed," and it once gave the Chinese government an award for the "effectiveness" of its population control.

American elites share the blame for this and other coercive population programs by instructing foreign leaders with the false Malthusian premise that people constrain economic progress. The notion of a "population bomb," so universally accepted in the 1960s and 1970s, has been thoroughly discredited.

The birth rate in developing countries like Mexico and India has plummeted to just over three children per couple today from about six in 1950. The major explanation for smaller family sizes, longer life expectancy, income gains and improved health and nutrition has been economic growth, not condom distribution or lower birth rates. Population stabilization is not a cause, but rather a consequence, of growth and prosperity. The Reagan Administration had it right when it first stopped financing the Population Fund and declared that "capitalism is by far the best contraceptive." (Thanks to OpinionJournal for the heads up.)

Aloe uber alles.

On "Meet the Press" Sunday, Sen. Ted Kennedy tried to help out:

I'm rather distressed and troubled and I'm sure the American people are on how we arrived at this particular nominee. We went through Harriet Miers' situation which the right wing had a litmus test that Harriet Miers didn't meet, and then they sort of knocked her down.

Irritated by litmus tests? We have just the balm: Samuel Alito, whose name is an anagram for "a litmus aloe."

Religion of Peace Update.

You'd think these pinheads would blame somebody else once in a while for their ignorance, poverty, anger, et cetera.

But then again, the sad fact is Blame-The-Jew works all too often.

Iran's Mehr "news" agency, meanwhile, reports that Iranian "journalists" are "calling on the French government to cooperate with them in establishing a fact-finding commission in order to investigate the conditions of French Muslims." The pro-mullah scribes blame the Jews for the Muslims' violence:

"We suppose that the French government has carried out the recent discriminatory and anti-human rights acts under the influence of the Zionist lobby in France to limit the social and personal freedoms of the Muslims residing in the country, which is quite unacceptable on the part of a country that claims to be democratic," part of the statement read.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports President Jacques Chirac "has kept almost completely out of sight" since the insurgency began--certainly a blessing to Americans, if not to Frenchmen seeking leadership.

Now It's Really Getting Ugly"Rioters Thumb Noses at Chirac"--headline, Australian, Nov. 8

French Police Kill Americans!"It's been 11 days since two African-American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this."--CNN anchorman Carol Lin, Nov. 6
(Thanks to Best of the Web Today for the heads up.)