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

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette, here are

Sekin Piriler:





























Semra Ertalay:

Senator Inhofe versus the Heat Nazis.

The bottom line, kiddies?

"Global warming" is nothing more than the latest excuse for government imposed socialist economic devastation. The same clowns who once railed against "capital" in the name of the workers and peasants now squeal about the evil of SUVs.

Beware all science and scientists pushing a political agenda!

From Human Events Online:

A Challenge to Journalists Who Cover Global Warming
by Sen. James Inhofe (Senate EPW Committee)

On September 25, Environment and Public Works Chairman James Inhofe (R.-Okla.) gave a speech on the Senate floor taking to task global-warming alarmists and their enablers in the media. Here are excerpts from his speech.


“Global warming”—just that term evokes many members in this chamber, the media, Hollywood elites and our pop culture to nod their heads and fret about an impending climate disaster.

Get down on your knees and thank God there are still a few real men like Mr. Inhofe willing to battle the totalitarian left.

Recently, advocates of alarmism have grown increasingly desperate to try to convince the public that global warming is the greatest moral issue of our generation. Just last week, the vice president of London’s Royal Society sent a chilling letter to the media encouraging them to stifle the voices of scientists skeptical of climate alarmism.

During the past year, the American people have witnessed an unprecedented parade of environmental alarmism by the media and entertainment industry, linking every possible weather event to global warming. The year 2006 saw many major organs of the media dismiss any pretense of balance and objectivity on climate change coverage and cross squarely into global-warming advocacy.

'Hockey Stick' Broken

One of the key aspects that the United Nations, environmental groups and the media have promoted as the “smoking gun” of proof of catastrophic global warming is the so-called “hockey stick” temperature graph by climate scientist Michael Mann and his colleagues.

The “hockey stick” purported to show that temperatures in the Northern hemisphere remained relatively stable over 900 years, then spiked upward in the 20th Century, presumably due to human activity. Mann’s “hockey stick” came under severe scrutiny and was completely and thoroughly broken once and for all in 2006. Several years ago, two Canadian researchers tore apart the statistical foundation for the hockey stick.

In 2006, both the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and an independent researcher further refuted the foundation of the “hockey stick.” The NAS report reaffirmed the existence of the Medieval Warm Period from about 900 AD to 1300 AD and the Little Ice Age from about 1500 AD to 1850 AD. Both of these periods occurred long before the invention of the SUV or human industrial activity could have possibly impacted the Earth’s climate. In fact, scientists believe the Earth was warmer than today during the Medieval Warm Period, when the Vikings grew crops in Greenland.

End of Little Ice Age

The media have missed the big pieces of the puzzle when it comes to the Earth’s temperatures and mankind’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. It is very simplistic to feign horror and say the one degree Fahrenheit temperature increase during the 20th Century means we are all doomed. First of all, the one-degree Fahrenheit rise coincided with the greatest advancement of living standards, life expectancy, food production and human health in the history of our planet. So it is hard to argue that the global warming we experienced in the 20th Century was somehow negative or part of a catastrophic trend.

The climate alarmists and their advocates in the media have continued to ignore the fact that the Little Ice Age, which resulted in harsh winters that froze New York Harbor and caused untold deaths, ended around 1850. So trying to prove man-made global warming by comparing the well-known fact that today’s temperatures are warmer than during the Little Ice Age is akin to comparing summer to winter to show a catastrophic temperature trend.

Alarmists fail to adequately explain why temperatures began warming at the end of the Little Ice Age in about 1850, long before man-made CO2 emissions could have impacted the climate. Then about 1940, just as man-made CO2 emissions rose sharply, the temperatures began a decline that lasted until the 1970s, prompting the media and many scientists to fear a coming ice age.

Kyoto: All Pain, No Gain

I am approached by many in the media and others who ask: “What if you are wrong to doubt the dire global-warming predictions? Will you be able to live with yourself for opposing the Kyoto Protocol?”

My answer is blunt. The history of the modern environmental movement is chock full of predictions of doom that never came true. We have all heard the dire predictions about the threat of overpopulation, resource scarcity, mass starvation and death of our oceans. None of these predictions came true, yet the doomsayers continue to predict a dire environmental future.

It is the global-warming alarmists who should be asked the question: “What if they are correct about man-made catastrophic global warming?” They have come up with no meaningful solution to their supposed climate crisis in the two decades that they have been hyping this issue. If the alarmists truly believe that man-made greenhouse gas emissions are dooming the planet, then they must face up to the fact that symbolism does not solve a supposed climate crisis.

The alarmists freely concede that the Kyoto Protocol, even if fully ratified and complied with, would not have any meaningful impact on global temperatures. Legislation that has been proposed in this chamber would have even less of a temperature effect than Kyoto’s undetectable impact. Global warming alarmists and the media have been praising California for taking action to limit CO2. But this costly feel-good California measure will have no impact on the climate, only the economy.

Symbolism does not solve a climate crisis.

When the history of our era is written, future generations will look back with puzzlement and wonder why we spent so much time and effort on global warming fears and pointless solutions like the Kyoto Protocol.

Climate Change Coverage

Many in the media have taken it upon themselves to drop all pretense of balance on climate change and instead become committed advocates for the issue.

Here is a quote from Newsweek: “There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production—with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth.”

A headline in the New York Times: “Climate Changes Endanger World’s Food Output.”

Here is a quote from Time magazine: “As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval.”

All of this sounds very ominous—until you realize that the three quotes I just read were from articles in 1975 editions of Newsweek and the New York Times, and Time in 1974.

They weren’t referring to global warming—they were warning of a coming ice age.

Heehee. Remember Nuclear Winter, kiddies?

In addition to global cooling fears, Time has also reported on global warming. Here is an example: “[Those] who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right ... weathermen have no doubt that the world, at least for the time being, is growing warmer.”

Before you think that this is just another example of the media’s promoting Vice President Gore’s movie, An Inconvenient Truth, you need to know that that quote was from Jan. 2, 1939.

Yes, in 1939. Nine years before Vice President Gore was born and more than three decades before Time began hyping a coming ice age and almost five decades before they returned to hyping global warming.

In 1951, Time pointed to receding permafrost in Russia as proof that the planet was warming.

In 1952, the New York Times noted that the “trump card” of global warming “has been the melting glaciers.”

Pay particular attention to the next two sections, kiddies. You may be able to detect a pattern in coverage of the climate by the know-nothings of the AmericaLast media.

Flip-Flopping Between Scares

There are many more examples of the media’s and scientists’ flip-flopping between warming and cooling scares. Here is a quote from a New York Times report on fears of an approaching ice age: “Geologists Think the World May be Frozen Up Again.” That sentence appeared more than 100 years ago in the Feb. 24, 1895, edition of the New York Times.

A front-page article in the Oct. 7, 1912, New York Times, just a few months after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, declared that a prominent professor “Warns Us of an Encroaching Ice Age.”

The very same day in 1912, the Los Angeles Times ran an article warning that the “Human race will have to fight for its existence against cold.” An Aug. 10, 1923, Washington Post article declared: “Ice Age Coming Here.”

By the 1930s, the media took a break from reporting on the coming ice age and instead switched gears to promoting global warming. “America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-year Rise” stated an article in the New York Times on March 27, 1933.

The media of yesteryear was also not above injecting large amounts of fear and alarmism into their climate articles.

An Aug. 9, 1923, front-page article in the Chicago Tribune declared: “Scientist Says Arctic Ice Will Wipe Out Canada.” The article quoted a Yale University professor who predicted that large parts of Europe and Asia would be “wiped out” and Switzerland would be “entirely obliterated.”

If Canada is wiped out, there won't be any hockey sticks!

A Dec. 29, 1974, New York Times article on global cooling reported that climatologists believed “the facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failure in a decade.”

The article also warned that unless government officials reacted to the coming catastrophe, “mass deaths by starvation and probably in anarchy and violence” would result. In 1975, the New York Times reported that “a major cooling [was] widely considered to be inevitable.” These past predictions of doom have a familiar ring.

Media Coverage in 2006

Has this embarrassing 100-year documented legacy of coverage on what turned out to be trendy climate science theories made the media more skeptical of today’s sensational promoters of global warming?

On Feb. 19, 2006, CBS News’s “60 Minutes” produced a segment on the North Pole. The segment was a completely one-sided report, alleging rapid and unprecedented melting at the polar cap. It even featured correspondent Scott Pelley’s claiming that the ice in Greenland was melting so fast that he barely got off an iceberg before it collapsed into the water. “60 Minutes” failed to inform its viewers of a 2005 study by a scientist named Ola Johannessen and his colleagues showing that the interior of Greenland is gaining ice and mass and that, according to scientists, the Arctic was warmer in the 1930s than today.

On March 19, “60 Minutes” profiled NASA scientist and alarmist James Hansen, who was once again making allegations of being censored by the Bush Administration. In this segment, objectivity and balance were again tossed aside in favor of a one-sided glowing profile of Hansen. The “60 Minutes” segment made no mention of Hansen’s partisan ties to former Vice President Gore or Hansen’s receiving a grant of a quarter of a million dollars from the left-wing Heinz Foundation run by Teresa Heinz Kerry. There was also no mention of Hansen’s subsequent endorsement of her husband John Kerry for President in 2004.

Why would “60 Minutes” ignore the basic tenets of journalism, which call for objectivity and balance in sourcing, and do such one-sided segments? The answer was provided by correspondent Scott Pelley who told the CBS News website that he justified excluding scientists skeptical of global warming alarmism from his segments because he considers skeptics to be the equivalent of “Holocaust deniers.”

Sick bastard.

In April, Time devoted an issue to global warming alarmism titled “Be Worried, Be Very Worried.” This is the same Time that first warned of a coming ice age in the 1920s before switching to warning about global warming in the 1930s before switching yet again to promoting the 1970s coming ice age scare.

The April 3 global-warming special report of Time was a prime example of the media’s shortcomings, as the magazine cited partisan left-wing environmental groups with a vested financial interest in hyping alarmism. Time did not make the slightest attempt to balance its reporting with any interviews with scientists skeptical of this alleged climate apocalypse.

The American people should be worried—very worried—of such shoddy journalism.

The Al Gore Movie

Does anybody actually know someone who paid good money to see this thing?

In May, our nation was exposed to perhaps one of the slickest science propaganda films of all time: former Vice President Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. In addition to having the backing of Paramount Pictures to market this film, Gore had the full backing of the media, and leading the cheerleading charge was none other than the Associated Press.

On June 27, the AP ran an article by Seth Borenstein that boldly declared “Scientists give two thumbs up to Gore’s movie.” The article quoted only five scientists praising Gore’s science, despite AP’s having contacted more than 100 scientists.

The fact that more than 80% of the scientists contacted by the AP had not even seen the movie or that many scientists have harshly criticized the science presented by Gore did not dissuade the news outlet one bit from its mission to promote Gore’s brand of climate alarmism.

Here is a sampling of some of the errors and misrepresentations made by Gore in An Inconvenient Truth:

• He promoted the now-debunked “hockey stick” temperature chart in an attempt to prove man’s overwhelming impact on the climate.

• He attempted to minimize the significance of the Medieval Warm period and the Little Ice Age.

• He insisted on a link between increased hurricane activity and global warming that most scientists believe does not exist.

• He asserted that today’s Arctic is experiencing unprecedented warmth while ignoring that temperatures in the 1930s were as warm or warmer.

• He claimed the Antarctic was warming and losing ice but failed to note that is true only of a small region and the vast bulk has been cooling and gaining ice.

• He hyped unfounded fears that Greenland’s ice is in danger of disappearing.

• He erroneously claimed that the ice cap on Mt. Kilimanjaro is disappearing due to global warming, even while the region cools and researchers blame the ice loss on local land-use practices.

• He made assertions of a massive future sea-level rise that is way outside any supposed scientific “consensus” and is not supported in even the most alarmist literature.

• He incorrectly implied that a Peruvian glacier’s retreat is due to global warming, while ignoring the fact that the region has been cooling since the 1930s and other glaciers in South America are advancing.

• He blamed global warming for water loss in Africa’s Lake Chad, despite NASA scientists’ concluding that local population and grazing factors are the more likely culprits.

• He inaccurately claimed polar bears are drowning in significant numbers due to melting ice when in fact they are thriving.

• He failed to inform viewers that the 48 scientists who accused President Bush of distorting science were part of a political advocacy group set up to support Democrat presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004.

Following the promotion of An Inconvenient Truth, the press did not miss a beat as advocates for global warming fears.

ABC News put forth its best effort to secure its standing as an advocate for climate alarmism when the network put out a call for people to submit their anecdotal global-warming horror stories in June for use in a future news segment.

In July, the Discovery Channel presented a documentary on global warming narrated by former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw. The program presented only those views of scientists promoting the idea that humans are destroying the Earth’s climate. A Bloomberg News TV review noted, “You’ll find more dissent at a North Korean political rally than in this program.”

Heehee.

You who dwell in the scientific community should pay attention to this next bit. If you do not expose the frauds amongst you to the ridicule they so richly deserve, nobody will trust your research either.

Engineered 'Consensus'

Or, Inconvenient Fascism.

On July 24, 2006, the Los Angeles Times featured an op-ed by Naomi Oreskes, a social scientist at the University of California San Diego and the author of a 2004 Science magazine study. Oreskes insisted that a review of 928 scientific papers showed there was 100% consensus that global warming was not caused by natural climate variations. This study was also featured in former Vice President Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth.

However, the analysis in Science excluded nearly 11,000 studies (more than 90% of the papers dealing with global warming), according to a critique by British social scientist Benny Peiser.

Peiser also pointed out that less than 2% of the climate studies in the survey actually endorsed the so-called “consensus view” that human activity is driving global warming, and some of the studies actually opposed that view.

But despite this manufactured “consensus,” the media continued to ignore any attempt to question the orthodoxy of climate alarmism.

Alarmism Leads to Skepticism

It is an inconvenient truth that 2006 has been a year in which major segments of the media have given up on any quest for journalistic balance, fairness and objectivity when it comes to climate change. The media have so relentlessly promoted global-warming fears that a British group called the Institute for Public Policy Research—a left-leaning group—issued a report in 2006 accusing media outlets of engaging in what the group termed “climate porn” in order to attract the public’s attention.

Heehee. "Climate porn", indeed. Very nice.

The media endlessly hype studies that purportedly show that global warming could increase mosquito populations, malaria, West Nile Virus, heat waves and hurricanes, threaten the oceans, damage coral reefs, boost poison ivy growth, and damage vineyards and global food crops, to name just a few of the global-warming-linked calamities.

Fortunately, the media’s addiction to so-called “climate porn” has failed to seduce many Americans.

According to a July Pew Research Center Poll, the American public is split about evenly between those who say global warming is due to human activity versus those who believe it’s from natural factors or not happening at all.

In addition, an August Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found that most Americans do not attribute the cause of recent severe weather events to global warming, and the portion of Americans who believe global warming is naturally occurring is on the rise.

The American people know when their intelligence is being insulted. They know when they are being used and when they are being duped by the hysterical left.

The American people deserve better from our fourth estate. Breaking the cycles of media hysteria will not be easy since hysteria sells. But I want to challenge the news media to reverse course and report on the objective science of climate change, to stop ignoring legitimate voices in this scientific debate and to stop acting as a vehicle for unsubstantiated hype.

Sen. Inhofe is Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Al Golden gets it.

Mr. Golden, head coach of Temple University's winless football team is trying to teach his players how to become gentlemen. You could do much worse than sending your son to play for him.

Cavalier Daily Online: Al Golden, Temple make difference with help off-field

When Al Golden became Temple's head coach after leaving Virginia last winter, he talked about how his players would be student-athletes. They would sit in the front of class. They would introduce themselves to professors. Golden went on to emphasize character, on and off the football field.

Prior to Temple's loss last Thursday to Clemson, Golden gave a letter to Clemson coach Tommy Bowden indicating that his team would donate $1,500 to the Fahmarr McElrathbey Trust Fund. Fahmarr, the trust's namesake, is the younger brother of Clemson redshirt freshman defensive back Ray Ray McElrathbey.

Over the last month, the McElrathbeys have made national headlines with their inspiring story. Last summer, 20-year-old Ray Ray took temporary custody of 11-year-old Fahmarr because their mother is a drug addict. The brothers live in an off-campus apartment at Clemson while Ray Ray learns on the fly how to be a parent. Recently, the NCAA granted a waiver allowing Clemson to set up a trust fund for Fahmarr to provide for basic needs such as food and clothing.

Al Golden's Temple Owls donated $1,500 to the fund before they lost to Clemson 63-9 last week.

"Our team voted to donate one week's game per diem to help you and your brother. It was a unanimous decision," Golden wrote to Ray Ray in the letter, distributed in the press box during the game.

"What you are doing will not only impact your life and Fahmarr's but many more people that you are an inspiration to," Golden wrote. "Your unselfish actions have not only shown a very positive light on you and your family but to all of college football."

Golden wasn't lying when he came to Temple and said that his student-athletes would develop character. For that, the first-year coach and his team deserve to be commended.

In fact, this isn't the first time that Golden's team has made such a donation. Following Temple's opening game at Buffalo, the team donated $1,530 to the Adam Taliaferro Foundation in the name of Shykem Lawrence, a high school safety who suffered a severe spinal cord injury in late August.

"This is just something we are trying to teach them," Golden said. "Giving is the highest level of living. The kids made the decision."

Amen to all that, Brother!

In a week where all Miami can muster is a pathetic one-game suspension for players involved in a vicious brawl with Florida International Saturday ("Join a Team Not a Gang Night," by the way, with 700 youth in attendance), Golden, his Temple team and Ray Ray McElrathbey are a refreshing reminder that the college athletic experience can actually be a good thing.

It isn't always about wins. It isn't just about the money.

Sometimes it can be about making sure that a college athlete has the necessary resources to raise his little brother. It can be about making sure that Ray Ray and Fahmarr don't have to do it alone -- that they have their team and others supporting them.

When a coach sets out to teach his players the value of character, success isn't just defined by wins. Success is also found in the development of character, exemplified by a simple act of giving. Golden's team has proven that they are successful in that regard.

On the field -- a less important challenge -- the Owls have had some difficulty.

As of now, Temple is 0-7. Any win this season would be a huge success.
I know who I'm rooting for this weekend.

Ray Ray and Fahmarr McElrathbey Update.

The most famous freshman football player in the country wishes he could save his whole family.

The Post and Courier: Ray Ray's worries, pain far from over

ATLANTA - Cornelius McElrathbey picked up the phone, paused for a moment, and started dialing his older brother's cell number.

The weekly rent of $176 was due, and the hotel was hours away from evicting him, his sister and their mother. Ray Ray already had swooped to their rescue a few weeks earlier, and mom was too embarrassed to plead for his help again on this weekday morning in mid-September.

So Cornelius, 16, reluctantly made the call that would ultimately extend the family's stay in what 13-year-old Brittany called "the worst hotel in Atlanta."

"It kind of felt sad," Cornelius recalled. "It was hard to ask him. But if he said no, we'd have been in the streets."

The television features, the newspaper articles and the adoration from strangers paint something of a fairy-tale picture of Ray Ray, a 20-year-old Clemson football player who is raising his 11-year-old brother Fahmarr because of their mother's drug addiction and father's gambling problem.

The courageous story is so heartwarming that the NCAA relaxed its stringent rules against extra benefits, allowing outsiders to provide Ray Ray with support - financial and otherwise - as he juggles football, school and surrogate fatherhood.

But beyond the feel-good vibes and the nice, tidy endings that have been applied, Ray Ray remains afflicted with worry and grief. Because he still has siblings who are stuck in the same unpredictable hell that he and Fahmarr managed to escape.

A few days ago, mother Tonya and the two kids were scraping by in Atlanta. Today, mom is in a rehabilitation facility and the children are with an older sister in North Carolina.

What's next? Ray Ray wishes he knew.

"There's not a happy ending to this, because they're going through the same thing I went through," he said. "People don't realize that it's not over for me."

'It's all around us'

Despair was the prevailing emotion last week at Sunset Lodge, a four-story hotel that overlooks the bustle of I-20 about nine miles southeast of downtown.

In August, Tonya made the decision to bring the family back to Atlanta after a failed attempt to reconnect with her husband in Las Vegas. The hotel stay was intended to be temporary, but Tonya lost her job at a warehouse after three weeks and had tried unsuccessfully to find employment elsewhere.

She has been cycled off welfare rolls, and the only steady support has been food stamps and a monthly disability check the government provides Cornelius, who has a mental disability. Tonya said her husband remains in Las Vegas and is essentially out of the picture.

Brittany attended a nearby middle school, and Cornelius took the city bus to Southwest Dekalb High. There was no desk for them to use as they completed homework, no table for Tonya to serve canned dinners that were heated by a small microwave.

Brittany and her mother slept in one bed, Cornelius in the other. There were no family pictures on the walls or the night stand - nothing around to remind them of better times and better places.

Outside, the sight of drugs changing hands did not raise eyebrows.

"The environment, the drinking and drugs and stuff, is so close," Cornelius said. "It's all around us."

Ray Ray and Fahmarr went home last weekend, visiting the ramshackle hotel for the first time. Ray Ray didn't like what he saw.

Brittany's big brown eyes, bright smile and bubbly persona lit up the drab and depressing surroundings. But her expression changed when she was asked about the 300 square feet that served as home.

"You can see when you drive up that it's nasty and it's not a place for a child," she said. "You wouldn't want to be here, would you?"

Hoping for change

From that same hotel room, Tonya, 40, began sobbing as she recalled her most haunting image from Ray Ray's childhood. Deep in the throes of her addiction to crack cocaine, she'd frantically rummage through his clothes searching for money.

One of eight siblings ages 7 to 23, Ray Ray spent most of his formative years bouncing around foster homes and living with coaches. His mother's problems began when he was 7.

That's about when she took Ray Ray to a crack house and left him in an adjacent room while she went to get high. She said she was stunned to read that revelation in a recent newspaper article.

Ray Ray and his siblings took turns standing watch at night so Tonya wouldn't try to sell the television. They also guarded the food so she wouldn't take that. When mom rifled through their pockets looking for cash, the money was hidden in their underwear.

"I think about that now and I'm like, Oh my God. What was I thinking?" she said. "Ray Ray would say, 'I don't have any money, Mama.' "

Tonya said she began to confront her addiction more seriously after her problems were broadcast to the world. She said pieces by ESPN, ABC, and other national outlets, following the initial Aug. 19 article in The Post and Courier, have made her "the most famous drug addict on TV."

Ray Ray has used the visibility of his story to find people who are willing to help. Last week, a day after she partied for most the night, Tonya agreed to commit herself to an inpatient facility in Atlanta.

Cornelius and Brittany are moving to Elizabeth City, N.C., where their 21-year-old sister, Sabra, lives with her 2-year-old son.

Tonya's problems began in the early 1990s when she started drinking with friends after her husband lost his job. That led to a few snorts of cocaine every now and then, but recreational fun quickly became a raging and relentless addiction.

Before long, she moved to crack. She said the only respite in the past decade came four years ago, when she joined a treatment program and discovered she was just the latest person on her mother's side of the family to suffer from depression and chemical dependency.

She said she stayed clean for two years before relapsing. In September 2005, she cleaned up enough to regain custody of Cornelius, Brittany and Fahmarr before she took them to Las Vegas.

Now, Ray Ray's fame and the reasons behind it have inspired her to try again.

"It makes me want to change," she said. "I want to get the family back together as much as possible. I want it where everybody can come back to our house or apartment to visit. And maybe barbecues in the backyard, dinners. You know, stuff that families do."

'What about us?'

The setting on the second floor of the hotel stood in stark contrast to the environment Ray Ray and Fahmarr enjoy at Clemson.

Ray Ray, a redshirt freshman defensive back who gained temporary custody of Fahmarr in July with Tonya's consent, uses an off-campus living stipend to rent a two-bedroom town home about five miles from campus.

After the NCAA relaxed its rules, Clemson set up a trust fund to help Ray Ray support Fahmarr. The most recent estimates have shown more than $60,000 in contributions in little more than a month. The money will eventually be put into a college fund for Fahmarr, and he will incrementally receive whatever is left as an adult.

Susan Spence, wife of Clemson offensive coordinator Rob Spence, has played a large role in taking care of Fahmarr. She gives him rides to and from school with her two daughters, and on Monday nights Fahmarr sleeps over because Ray Ray doesn't return from practice until late.

Ray Ray and Fahmarr have become virtual celebrities at Clemson as their story has grown. Meanwhile, Cornelius and Brittany watched it all unfold from the hotel with conflicting emotions.

"When they saw Fahmarr on TV, they said 'Oh my God, he is so lucky,' " Tonya said. "I try to promise them they're going to be OK. But they're like, 'What about us?' "

Cornelius and Fahmarr share a tight bond from years spent together in foster care. Cornelius said he experiences pride and relief knowing Fahmarr is in a better place, and he pledges to live by the example set by Ray Ray.

But when the credits roll on the glossy television shows, Cornelius and Brittany look around and wonder what their future holds.

"It kind of makes me wish I was there too," Cornelius said. "I wish I would have went with Fahmarr, but I know it would be too much for Ray Ray."

Hidden pain

Expressive and gregarious, Ray Ray rarely reveals his deeper emotions publicly. He admits to being tormented by the despair back home.

"I just keep it to myself for the most part," he said.

His oldest sister, 23-year-old Tanea, has no job and no home in Atlanta. She is trying to regain custody of her three children after two years without them. His two youngest siblings, 9-year-old Tatiana and 7-year-old Alanta, live with a grandparent in Decatur. Ray Ray feels as though he barely knows them.

"He doesn't show you he's worried or feeling pressure," Cornelius said. "But if you've been around him long enough, you can tell when he's keeping it in."

A little more than a month ago, Ray Ray had every reason to feel as if he was on top of the world. ABC News and World Report, which named him its "Person of the Week," was following him around with cameras. Two days later, ESPN would profile his story to the nation on College GameDay.

But after receiving the phone call from Cornelius that morning, Ray Ray was finding it impossible to be happy. He wired the $176 to his mother to stave off eviction for another week, and then the folks from ABC wanted him to be engaging and entertaining and enlightening.

He tried his best and managed to pull off the act. But deep down he hurt, because he knew his happy ending wasn't even close to the end of the story.

"When I think about it, I really don't know how I cope with it," he said. "I just take it how it goes."


To contribute:

All checks to the trust fund should be made payable to First Citizen F/B/O Fahmarr McElrathbey.

They can be mailed to:
Fahmarr McElrathbey Trust, C/O First Citizens and Olson Smith Jordan and Cox Attorneys at Law, P.O. Box 1627, Clemson, SC 29633.

Justice delayed is justice denied. But we'll take it.

AP: Cult leader headed to execution in Ohio

KIRTLAND, Ohio - Sixteen years ago, Jeffrey Lundgren tried to convince a jury that he was a prophet of God — and therefore not worthy of the death penalty.

"It's not a figment of my imagination that I can in fact talk to God, that I can hear his voice," he said. "I am a prophet of God. I am even more than a prophet."

May God have mercy on your soul, you lying dog. You're going to need it. Big time.

Lundgren's argument didn't sway jurors: They recommended the cult leader be executed for the killings of Dennis Avery, 49; his wife, Cheryl, 46; and their daughters, Trina, 15, Rebecca, 13, and 7-year-old Karen.

Lundgren's execution was scheduled for Tuesday. The U.S. Supreme Court denied his last appeal Tuesday morning, his lawyer said.

The evidence against him was compelling: Lundgren, upset by what he thought was the Avery family's lack of faith, arranged a dinner hosted by cult members. Afterward, he and his followers led the Avery family members one by one — Dennis first, Karen last — to their deaths in a barn.

Each was bound and shot. A chain saw was used to muffle the gunfire while remaining Avery family members cleaned up after dinner.

"I cannot say that God was wrong. I cannot say that I am sorry I did what God commanded me to do in the physical act," Lundgren, now 56, told a jury in 1990 in a bid to spare his life.

Over the years 40 judges have reviewed Lundgren's appeals. The most recent claimed lethal injection would be cruel and unusual punishment, particularly since Lundgren is overweight and diabetic.

He sure doesn't appeal like a guy with a hotline to the Lord...

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued an order late Monday allowing the execution to go forward, overturning a lower court ruling that would have delayed the execution to allow Lundgren to join a lawsuit challenging Ohio's use of lethal injection.

Lundgren formed a religious cult after he was dismissed in 1987 as a lay minister of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, an offshoot of the main Mormon church.

If you're too much of a wacko for the wackos who are too wacky for those wacky mormons, you've got some serious problems.

Lundgren said God commanded him, through interpretation of Scriptures, to kill the Averys, who were members of the cult, which had about 20 members.

Lundgren was careful to make sure no one would be looking for the Averys. Before the murders, he directed Cheryl Avery to write to her family and inform them that they were moving to Wyoming and would provide contact information when they got settled.

The case was cracked eight months later when a dissident cult member, upset that his wife had been selected to become Lundgren's second wife, tipped off authorities. On Jan. 4, 1990, the bodies were found.

Thirteen cult members were charged in the case, including Lundgren's wife, Alice, now 55, and their son, Damon, now 35, both serving life prison terms.

Police Sgt. Ronald Andolsek, who as a patrolman led the investigation into the cult killings, said the crime was personalized for him three days after the bodies were dug up when, for the first time, he saw a group photo of the Avery family.

"It hit me right then," he said.

Andolsek compared Lundgren's mind-control tactics to that used by other cult leaders such as David Koresh, Jim Jones and Charles Manson. "They used the same methods on their followers," Andolsek said. "Jeff wasn't the first. He won't be the last."

Sadly, no.

Speaking of pro wrestlers...

...there is another Nikolai Volkoff at Ball State University in Indiana.

Ball State daily News: Students chase robbery suspects

Junior Seth Robinson had a gun pointed to his head Wednesday night, but he said he wasn't too afraid despite the death threats because he had a feeling the gun wasn't real.

"You'd be amazed how your senses improve in situations like that," Robinson said. "I started picking up everything. I heard his gun against the wall; it sounded like plastic. That's when I lost a lot of my fear. I thought 'What's really going on here?'"

The man suspected of holding the gun, Lewaki Lewis, 33, and two others, Elijah Fairchild, 27, and Carisha Gilmore, 26, were arrested Wednesday night at 11:45 p.m. on suspicion of armed robbery, according to a police report. Robinson and his roommate Nikolai Volkoff, a junior, helped lead to the suspects' arrests by chasing after them in Volkoff's car and giving the Muncie Police the suspects' license plate number, Robinson said.

Thomas Spear, Requiescat in pace.

Oops! I am happy to report Mr. Spear is alive and well. My humblest appy-polly loggies to everyone.

Posted by Kevin Romano on 7:59:49 PM Oct/20/2006

Thanks to Matt for informing me.

From WWE.com:

Former WWE Superstar Thomas Spear, professionally known as Corporal Kirchner, passed away of natural causes Sunday in his home in White Marsh, Md. He is survived by his two sons, daughter and step-daughter, as well as two grandchildren.

A Vietnam veteran, Kirchner is known for defending his country in the ring as well as out. He is not only revered as one of sports-entertainment’s toughest competitors, but also one of its greatest patriots.

In the early 1980s, Kirchner was a close protégé of another patriot, former WWE Champion and Hall of Famer Sgt. Slaughter. Perhaps one of Kirchner’s most celebrated victories took place at WrestleMania 2 where he defeated WWE Hall of Famer Nikolai Volkoff in a Flag Match. (Thanks to TWNPNews.com for this obituary.)

Battle of the Day.

Thanks to the bumbling bimbos at Blogger, I was unable to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising of Hungarian freedom fighters against their communist slavemasters yesterday. The fighting raged from October 23, 1956 until November 4, when Russian communist troops and tanks invaded brave Hungary and bloodily put an end to it.

May God have mercy on the souls of the hundreds of millions of victims of communism, which still afflicts us to this day.


From the BBC:

Hungarians rise up against Soviet rule

Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in Hungary to demand an end to Soviet rule.

There are believed to have been many casualties in a day which started as a peaceful rally, and ended with running battles between police and demonstrators in which shots are said to have been fired.

The demonstrators are demanding that the former Prime Minister, Imre Nagy, be returned to power.

Mr Nagy was dismissed last year for his liberal policies, but has since been rehabilitated and was re-admitted to the Hungarian Workers' Party this month.

Other demands include free elections, freedom of the press, and a withdrawal of Soviet troops.

Declaration of independence

The uprising began as a rally in central Budapest, to express solidarity with Polish demonstrators who have recently succeeded in getting their deposed liberal leader, Wladyslaw Gomulka, returned to power.

The gathering turned into a mass demonstration for a similar Hungarian "declaration of independence" from Moscow's control.

As more and more people joined the demonstration, the First Secretary of the Hungarian Communist Party, Erno Gerö, made an unscheduled radio announcement, describing as "lies and rumours" reports that Hungary wanted to loosen its ties with the Soviet Union.

Mr Gerö is known for his hardline views, and tensions in Hungary have been high since he was appointed in July.

Immediately after the broadcast, the crowd marched on the broadcasting station.

Running battle

The gathering was peaceful at first, but the crowd became restless and tried to force their way in.

They were driven back by security forces with tear gas and responded by throwing stones at the windows. One group drove a heavy lorry at the front door in an attempt to break it open.

The incident marked the start of an escalation of violence.

A running battle began to clear the crowd away from the building, while clashes between demonstrators and armed police broke out elsewhere in the city.

When the crowds refused to disperse despite police opening fire on them, Mr Gerö ordered Soviet tanks onto the streets.

The demonstrators, however, are showing no signs of giving up their protest, which is continuing into the night.

Today's Hungarians still suffer under the thumb of socialists. Luckily, these haven't started shooting...yet.

The Scotsman: Hungarian protesters seize tank; Police fire rubber bullets to disperse crowds remembering 1956 uprising against Soviets

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. Anthony Mary Claret, founder of the Missionary Sons of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, known today as the Claretians, and the Apostolic Training Institute of the Immaculate Conception, Claretian nuns. Pray for us, all you angels and saints.


Today's reading for the Feast of St. Anthony Mary Claret is Isaias 52:7-10.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 96:1-2, 2-3, 7-8, 10.
Today's Gospel reading is Mark 1:14-20.


Everyday links:

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


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

The Apostles Creed

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


Memorare

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


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


Anima Christi

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


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

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


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

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


Prayer to End Abortion

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


Prayer For Vocations

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


Prayer Before The Crucifix

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


Divine Praises

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

Dumbass False Religion Flapdoodle About 'False Religion' of the Day.

Some poor deluded soul (or souls) dumped some 'jehovah's witless' bile inside my screen door this weekend. Besides being the usual rebellious nonsense, I am pretty sure it violates local littering ordinances.

I will have to tack up a crucifix on my front door. That'll scare the ignorant fools back under their rocks (or maybe into a real church).

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

From the pages of The King Abdullah Gazette, here are

Pınar Öğün:

Selin Ortaçlı:

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update. (Four of Four)

This is also my Right Wing Smile of the Day!

US Senatrix Hitlery Schicklgruber (N-NY) suffers mightily under the unrealistic expectations of our masturbatory culture promulgated by Big Masturbation CEO Huge "Tiny" Hefner.

WNBC: Spencer: 'I Would Never Call Hillary Clinton Ugly'

Of course she's not ugly! She's hot. Eva Braun hot.

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Republican challenger John Spencer told a reporter that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton wasn't very attractive when she was younger and may have had a lot of work done to improve her looks, according to a published report Monday.

Spencer, in a subsequent interview with The Associated Press, flatly denied making such comments to a reporter-columnist for the New York Daily News during a flight from New York City to Rochester on Friday for the first of two weekend debates between the Senate contenders.

"It's a fabrication. I would never call Hillary Clinton ugly," the former mayor of Yonkers told the AP. "That's outrageous. I didn't do it."

Spencer acknowledged talking to reporter Ben Smith on the flight.

Smith told the AP that Spencer made the comments during a flight in which Spencer, his wife and Smith sat together.

"You ever see a picture of her back then? Whew," Spencer was quoted by the Daily News as saying about Clinton in her younger days. "I don't know why Bill married her."

She had a bigger pair of stones and still does. A certain type of personality finds that attractive.

Noting she looks different now, he chalked it up to "millions of dollars" of "work," according to the tabloid.

See, kiddies? If you save your pennies, use commodities tips from fixers with inside knowledge, and claim the used panties you donated to the poor as a tax deduction , you too can afford to look like a white, middle class matron.

"She looks good now," he is quoted as saying.

Sadly, New Yorkers will not elect a blind man to the US Senate.

Absolutely Devastating Political Ad of the Year!

Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick (PA-8) is running against some shilpit wee nyaff* named Pat Murphy.

Go to Mike's reelection campaign site and check out his tv ad "Honest". Watch Chris Matthews (of all people) reduce (?) Murphy to a stuttering and babbling pile of Jello with one simple question about Iraq.

* 'a misshapen little good-for-nothing'

Robert Redford is a commie creep who supports government theft of YOUR house.

I'll bet you $20 no politician would dare touch anything belonging to this Hollyweird left-fascist thug and former prettyboy.

Los Angeles Daily News: Robert Redford opposes California's eminent domain initiative
Robert Redford has added a celebrity touch to those urging California voters to reject a sweeping eminent domain initiative.

Results of this weekend's football picks.

My college prognosticating produced a pungent 13 and 9 record on Saturday 10/21.

My pro prognosticating produced an even more pungent 6 and 7 record on Sunday 10/22 and Monday 10/23.

Wesley Snipes stars in 'The Fugitive'.

E! Online: Snipes Found in Brangelina Country

Call off the manhunt, we have a Wesley Snipes spotting.

A Namibian film official has announced that the actor, currently wanted on charges of tax fraud in the U.S., has been in the African country for the past two months shooting a movie.

"It is confirmed," Edwin Kanguatjivi, chief executive officer of the Namibia Film Commission, told Reuters. "He has been in Namibia since the end of August."

According to the wire service, Snipes has been filming Gallowwalker in the desert near Swakopmund, the same coastal town that was home to a prenatal Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt in the run-up to their daughter Shiloh's birth last spring.

The Blade badass was indicted on eight counts of tax fraud in Florida earlier this week for allegedly failing to file tax returns for six years and for seeking $12 million in fraudulent refunds from the federal government.

If convicted, Snipes could face up to 16 years in prison—hardly an incentive to rush back to the States. And as luck would have it for the on-the-lam star, Namibia does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S. and, accordingly, is not expected to take any action to send the 44-year-old actor home to be tried.

Sweet. If it's good enough for Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, it's good enough for Wesley.

And the exchange rate is fantastic!

The White Men Can't Jump star was indicted along with two other men, Eddie Ray Kahn, who, per the feds, "promoted and sold fraudulent tax schemes," and Douglas Rosile, an accountant who worked for Kahn.

The duo reportedly told Snipes that thanks to a loophole in the tax code, something Kahn deemed the "861 Argument," the actor would only be responsible for paying taxes on wages he earned outside the U.S. Needless to say, the loophole does not exist.

Even if there is no constitutional justification for the income tax, you still gotta pay, Wes.

There is no constitutional justification for limiting campaign spending either. In fact, the US Constitution specifically prohibits such limits on political speech. But when the three branches agree, that old piece of paper doesn't mean a thing. He who has the guns makes the rules.

Based on the fraudulent—and potentially costly—logic, Snipes opted not to file tax returns from 1999 to 2004, during which he did not make any money from foreign sources, and also sought a $12 million refund on taxes he previously paid.

Federal officials issued an arrest warrant for the actor last week after being unable to locate him. According to the indictment, prosecutors attempted to contact Snipes over the course of several years to straighten out his legal mess, only to receive phony documentation from his accountants.

Should Snipes, who has a well-documented aversion to any kind of tax, be it income or property, decide to return to the States and surrender, he'd be the second of the indicted threesome to be taken into custody.

Rosile, who filed the phony tax forms on behalf of the actor, has already turned himself in. Kahn, meanwhile, has reportedly hightailed it to Panama.

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update. (Three of Four)

Q: Why is this a Hitlery Schicklgruber (N-NY) story?

AFP: US Senator Barack Obama now considering White House run
Senator Barack Obama, a rising star of the Democratic party, said he is considering running for the US presidency in 2008.

A: If Senator Token has changed his mind about 2008, he must smell some serious weakness emanating from The Smartest Bust In The World and he must have some polling numbers to back it up.

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update. (Two of Four)

Babylon wears many disguises, man. But its face is always in a permanent screw. That helps you spot it.

New York Daily News: Hillary enemies find her cross just unbearable

La Schicklgruber (N-NY) violates a whole Rose-law-firm-filing-cabinet-full of EPA standards by frequently wearing asbestos sweaters.

Hillary Clinton has appeared a handful of times this summer and fall with a cross around her neck, and it's an image that touches a nerve with the people who hate her.

But Clinton is among the most religious Protestants seeking the presidency in 2008. If she gets the Democratic nod, she could well be matched against a less openly devout Republican.

Heehee! One of the most religious prods in the 2008 race is a babykilling nazi ghoul with a totalitarian fetish. That doesn't say a whole heck of a lot for for the denominations of heresy and schism, does it, kiddies?

"She's actually the real deal, although a lot of people don't think of her as religious," said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life in Washingon.

HEEHEE! Is this an Onion story?

Clinton, a Methodist like President Bush, though from a more liberal wing of that church, has appeared publicly wearing a cross intermittently during her time in the Senate. Her aides didn't respond to questions about whether she is wearing the symbol more now than in the past.

She should be thankful she doesn't burst into flame every time she puts one on.

But her faith has been part of her public character since she taught Sunday school as the First Lady of Arkansas and was an active member of a Washington church as First Lady.

OH PUH-LEEEEEEEZE! Not the Sunday school teacher one again! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

The Atlantic Monthly reported recently that she's a member of an elite prayer group of about a dozen senators, including conservative Republicans like Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback whose Christianity is central to their politics.

Rick Santorum doesn't need to wear his crucifix. He votes like a good Catholic.

If Hitlery behaved like a Christian (Stay with me here, you prods. I know this smacks of good works, but just think for a minute.) instead of a bloodthirsty left-fascist thug, fewer people would doubt her sincerity.

Of course, if wishes were horses...

Clinton's public displays of faith anger her critics, who see her as an opportunist - more than 800 people wrote comments, most of them attacking her, below her photograph on the Daily News political blog.

But her public devotion is in striking contrast with many of the front-runners vying for President, and particularly the Republicans, most of whom are quite distant from the born-again Christian faiths of their most energetic partisans.

Rudy Giuliani is a Catholic on his third marriage. Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney is a Mormon, not a mainstream Protestant. Sen. John McCain is an Episcopalian who has kept his faith out of his public life to the degree that longtime adviser Marshall Wittman said he wasn't sure whether the senator attends church.

Repansycans, all.

"Sen. McCain goes to church every Sunday that he can. He is devout, but very private about it," said McCain spokeswoman Elaine McMenamin, who offered to put a reporter in touch with McCain's pastor.

It Takes A Village To Staff A Gestapo Unit Update. (One of Four)

US Senatrix Hitlery Schicklgruber (N-NY) (see courtroom sketch artist portrait above) is leaving creepy pro-murder recorded messages on California answering machines.

I cannot say I'm surprised.

The New York Sun: In Abortion Battle, Both Sides Claim Clinton Backing

SAN FRANCISCO — Senator Clinton is lending her voice, quite literally, to a campaign to defeat a California ballot initiative that would require teenage girls seeking abortions to notify a parent or get a waiver from a judge.

About 250,000 Californians received automated phone messages yesterday in which Mrs. Clinton warned about the dangers of the proposed parental notification law, according to opponents of the measure, which goes before voters next month as Proposition 85.

Ha! "Automated". Fascism by remote-control.

"We are opposed because 85 will put our most vulnerable teens at risk — teens who may already be endangered by negligent or even abusive homes," Mrs. Clinton says in the audio recording. "We can do better. Let's work together to protect all our children."

Except for the ones who need to be chopped up, of course.

Supporters of the measure contend that Mrs. Clinton's active involvement in a campaign taking place thousands of miles from New York undercuts an effort she made early last year to articulate a more centrist stance on abortion in advance of a possible presidential bid in 2008.

"It looks like Hillary's moving pretty far to the other side now," a spokesman for the Yes on 85 effort, Albin Rhomberg, said. "It also shows that Hillary is quite fickle. She seems to want to please whatever the winds are or the tide at the time."

York, PA can't handle the truth.

Another win for Big Babykilling...

York Daily Record: YWCA rejects Grove's anti-babykilling float

Despite what has become something of an unsavory (Behold the bias inherent in the system. - F.G.) tradition, the Rev. Jim Grove's pictures of aborted fetuses won't be part of this year's Halloween Parade.

The pastor of Loganville's Heritage Baptist Church received his rejection letter from parade organizers Wednesday.

This year marks the first time the event hasn't been hosted by the City of York. Rather, the YWCA has taken over the duty. Because the YWCA is a private organization, Grove isn't afforded the same First Amendment protections to participate as he does under a government-sponsored event.

Unless you are the Boy Scouts...or a country club...or are anywhere to the right of Ghoul Soros...

Grove said his float theme was in line with the spirit of Halloween, a holiday he argues is about Satanic worship. His proposed float would have been called "The devil's ultimate handiwork. Slash and Burn" and would have included grisly photos.

Nice.

Find some pleasant abortion photos and publish them. I'm sure the vast you-know-what has them hidden in Cheyenne Mountain.

"My attempt to meet the requirements was aborted, I guess," Grove said.
Despite critics' attempts to keep him out in the past, Grove's anti-abortion floats - last year, it was called Baby Disposal Service - have become a fixture in the parade.

Leslie Bentz, a YWCA spokeswoman, said the organization had no comment on Grove's application nor on the other two rejected applicants, whom she has declined to name.

Rather, she said, the emphasis should be on the 100 applications that have been accepted.

What a tool.

"We are focusing on the parade being a community event that the entire family will enjoy," she said.

Instant translation: "Pay no attention to the dead babies behind the curtain!"

Instead of being in the parade, Grove said, he will march on the public access of the sidewalk. He will also carry the photos and pass out literature.

"I assume the police will afford me the 14th Amendment right of equal protection under the law," Grove said.

I wouldn't bet on it, pal.

DAY 61: PLUTO HELD HOSTAGE

AP: Teachers say Pluto planet downgrade is teachable

Ha! Good luck with that.

The bad science of the Air Nazis starve children and devastate the economy.

The Morning Call: Mack to lay off 450

Mack Trucks announced plans Friday to lay off more than 40 percent of the workers at its Lower Macungie Township plant, as the highly cyclical truck manufacturing industry heads into another downturn.

Well, not exactly, kiddies.

The Allentown company said it will cut 450 of 1,040 workers at the plant, which makes construction and garbage trucks. The first of the layoffs will take place before Thanksgiving, and the rest will follow in 2007...

Why?

The recent surge in demand was driven by new U.S. emission standards that are expected to increase prices as much as $7,500 per $100,000 truck as of Jan. 1.

Customers have rushed to buy cheaper trucks before they are taken off the market. With their fleets replenished, there will be little demand for the new, more expensive trucks next year.

Retarded vote-buying politicians and pseudo-science: always a deadly combination.

''This is very much a regulatory-driven buying cycle, and it's specific to the truck industry,'' said Jim Mele, editor of Fleet Owner magazine.

The resulting downturn will last at least through fall of next year, but perhaps longer, depending on the economy, he said.

''They've been going full tilt, and now sales are just going to drop off the table,'' he said. ''That's a tough thing to manage.''

Saint of the Day and daily Mass readings.

Today is the Feast of St. John of Capistrano, Franciscan, missionary, preacher, and lawyer. He is the patron saint of jurists. At the age of seventy, was commissioned by Pope Callistus II to preach and lead a crusade against the invading Turks. Marching at the head of seventy thousand Christians, he gained victory in the great battle of Belgrade against the Turks in 1456 three months before he died.

Today's reading for the Feast of St. John of Capistrano is 2 Corinthians 5:14-20.
Today's Responsorial Psalm is Psalms 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 11.
Today's Gospel reading is Luke 9:57-62.


Everyday links:

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


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

The Apostles Creed

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


Memorare

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


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


Anima Christi

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


Prayer to St. Anthony, Martyr of Desire

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


Prayer To Saint Michael The Archangel

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


Prayer to End Abortion

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


Prayer For Vocations

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


Prayer Before The Crucifix

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


Divine Praises

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