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Bully Pulpit

The term "bully pulpit" stems from President Theodore Roosevelt's reference to the White House as a "bully pulpit," meaning a terrific platform from which to persuasively advocate an agenda. Roosevelt often used the word "bully" as an adjective meaning superb/wonderful. The Bully Pulpit features news, reasoned discourse, opinion and some humor.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Democrats and name-calling

The Washington Times

The Democratic strategy against black Republicans is easy enough to understand: Call them sellouts; label them dupes of the racist Republican machine; link them to as many white conservatives as possible; and repeat. Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele is no stranger to this program ever since the Baltimore Sun editorialized that the only thing he brought to the gubernatorial ticket of Robert Ehrlich was "the color of his skin." Now, with Mr. Steele's Senate campaign scaring the wits out of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, The Washington Post saw reason to run a tidy little hit piece Monday headlined "Steele's Donor List Stirs Racial Questions."

Israel warns: free soldier or PM dies

Israel last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.

The unprecedented warning was delivered to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter as Israel debated a deal offered by Hamas to free Corporal Gilad Shalit.

It came as Israeli military officials readied a second invasion force for a huge offensive into Gaza.

Hamas's Gaza-based political leaders, including Mr Haniyeh, had already gone into hiding.

But last night's direct threat to kill Mr Haniyeh, a democratically elected head of state, sharply raised the stakes.

The bid to free Corporal Shalit was brokered by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who last night warned Hamas it faced severe consequences if it did not curb its "extreme stance" and described the growing conflict as a lightning rod for Palestinian vengeance.

Jerusalem has made no official comment, but Egyptian state media said Israel had found the offer unacceptable. Israel has not spelt out the terms demanded by Hamas, but earlier this week it refused to buy into talk of a prisoner swap.


Martin Chulov

I think it's safe to say that Israel is getting weary of playing footsie with these vermin. I can't say I blame them.

Next up: The Bush Adminstration will chide Israel for being too "extreme" and the American Left will turn up the volume on their wailing about the poor, put-upon Palestinians.

What was that about a world-wide war on terror?

Superman eschews longtime patriot act

Nevermind Superman's sexual orientation. Here's another identity-related question that is likely to spark controversy as the Man of Steel soars into theaters nationwide this Fourth of July weekend in Warner Bros. Pictures' "Superman Returns": Is Superman still American?

Ever since artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel created the granddaddy of all comic book icons in 1932, Superman has fought valiantly to preserve "truth, justice and the American way." Whether kicking Nazi ass on the radio in the '40s or wrapping himself in the Stars and Stripes on TV during the Cold War or even rescuing the White House's flag as his final feat in "Superman II," the Krypton-born, Smallville-raised Ubermensch always has been steeped in unmistakable U.S. symbolism.

But in the latest film incarnation, scribes Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris sought to downplay Superman's long-standing patriot act. With one brief line uttered by actor Frank Langella, the caped superhero's mission transformed from "truth, justice and the American way" to "truth, justice and all that stuff."


Tatiana Siegel

Let's see. Not only have these half-wits made Superman a homo, but now he's a Dixie Chick as well. Oh well, I'm glad I saw all this. It saved me $5.50 at the multiplex matinee. Maybe I'll wait and download it just so I can delete it.

Liberal Democrats Equate Terrorists and You...

Thursday, June 29, 2006

NY Times for terrorists ad... :-)

Dean: 'We're About to Enter the '60s Again'


(CNSNews.com) - America is about to revisit one of the most turbulent decades in its history, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean told a religious conference in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. "We're about to enter the '60s again," Dean said, but he was not referring to the Vietnam War or racial tensions.

Dean said he is looking for "the age of enlightenment led by religious figures who want to greet Americans with a moral, uplifting vision."

"The problem is when we hit that '60s spot again, which I am optimistic we're about to hit, we have to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes," Dean added.

Being Rush Limbaugh

By Judi McLeod
Canada Free Press

So Rush Limbaugh had a bottle of Viagra apparently prescribed to someone else in his socks and bvds. He later joked on his popular radio show that the pills came from the Clinton Library and he was told they were blue M&Ms,

Meanwhile, we don’t know what Viagra’s done for Rush Limbaugh, but we do know what Rush has done for Viagra. Now that Rush has been caught with it, Viagra sales are bound to soar.

There goes Rush Limbaugh, a capitalist even when coming off vacation.

IN BID FOR AMNESTY, DeLAY BECOMES IRAQI INSURGENT

Sent to me from a friend:

Former Texas Lawmaker Changes Name to Hassan El-Medfaai

The Borowitz Report


Just days after Iraqi Prime Minister Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki announced a sweeping plan that would offer amnesty to members of the Iraqi insurgency, former Texas congressman Tom DeLay announced that he would become an Iraqi insurgent.

Mr. DeLay, who is under indictment in state court on money-laundering and conspiracy charges, said at a Houston press conference today that he had put the legal gears into motion to attain Iraqi insurgent status.

"On my 2006 tax returns, my occupation will be listed as 'insurgent,' and my name will be legally changed to Hassan El-Medfaai," Mr. DeLay said, adding, "Death to America."

Mr. DeLay's legal advisors seem confident that by changing his legal status to that of an Iraqi insurgent he will be entitled to amnesty from all of the criminal charges he currently faces in Texas.

But in order to become an insurgent, Mr. DeLay faces an immediately hurdle which may prove difficult to surmount: convincing the Iraqi insurgency that he deserves to be a member.

In Basra, the National Coalition of Iraqi Insurgents, a trade association representing over 250,000 Iraqi insurgents, met in an emergency session today to discuss Mr. DeLay's bid for membership in the insurgency.

At the conclusion of the all-day session, however, a spokesman for the group gave the former Texas congressman a resounding thumbs-down.

"As Iraqi insurgents, we have certain ethical standards that we abide by," said a spokesman for the insurgents' group. "Unfortunately, Tom DeLay falls far below those standards."

Thursday Funnies :-)

David Letterman: "Top Other Changes In The United States Army": Instead of "Sir," commanding officers may be addressed as "Dude"; Foxholes will be even "Foxy-er"; Cumbersome kevlar helmet replaced with more comfortable panama hat; Soldiers receive furloughs to see Regis and Susan Lucci at Foxwoods Casino; Due to funding cuts, private first class reduced to private business class; New feel-good drill sergeants demand, "Drop and give me one!"

Jay Leno: It turns out al-Qa'ida had a plot to put poisonous gas in the New York City subway system and then abandoned the idea at the last minute. Well, sure, once it mixed with the toxic fumes and vile odors already in the subway, who would have noticed? New Yorkers would have been like, "Is that Febreeze?" ... Mexico is having its presidential election on July 2nd. You know, it's the only presidential election where every ballot is an absentee ballot. ... North Korea wants the United States to know they're about to test a long-range missile that they say may eventually have the capability of reaching the United States. Ooohhh. Since we're exchanging knowledge here, it may be good for them to know we have a few thousand missiles that can reach North Korea in about an hour. In fact, if Kim Jong ordered a pizza, our missile would get there first. ... Last Tuesday was Dan Rather's last day at CBS. He handed in a letter of resignation—which later turned out to be a forgery. ... Is it me or has Al Gore put on a little weight? I think that's because of global warming, too. Al feels he has to eat all the ice cream before it melts. ... The U.S. soccer team is out of the World Cup after a 2-1 loss to Ghana. And today, an angry John Kerry demanded we pull all our soccer players out of Germany. ... Have you seen these huge rain storms all the way from Minnesota to New York? Or as Al Gore calls it, global leaking. ... The flooding was so bad in Washington, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called the president to say, "You're on your own pal!" ... They also had flooding at the Internal Revenue Service and had to close that down. They said some records may have been lost. Good.

Teacher Twin Ready for Takeoff

By Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts
Washington Post

Jenna Bush, the nation's most famous public-school teacher, is skipping the country and bidding a happy adios to the young-Washington social scene she once ruled. Uh-oh, what do we do now?

Friends say that the blond, younger-by-minutes First Twin has been quietly making plans over recent months to leave D.C. for a teaching job in Latin America, most likely around the end of summer.
It appears Jenna has gone through her partying phase... I wish her the best in her new career.

RE: VIAGRA FOR RAPIST

djbaxter said...


Why is this news? or suprising? We've known since the 1980s that rape is not a crime of sexual passion or desire. It's a crime of misogyny, anger, domination, power, humiliation. Viagra may assist people in getting and maintaining an erection. It does not turn people into reapists.


That begs the question. First, why should anyone who is in the custody of the state receive a recreational drug like Viagra, especially at taxpayer expense, and second, how does an agency of "public health" find itself involved in the distribution of said recreational drug?

And while I disagree with your assessment of the motivation for rape, it really is unimportant. The issue at hand is that for whatever reason a rape might have been committed, Viagra would aid the process. Given that sex offenders have the highest recidivism rates of about any other type of criminal, how can these agencies justify the insanity of providing them with something that aids and abets their crime of choice? It is utterly no different than providing a serial armed robber with a gun.

RE: Is Rush a hypocrite???

The quote Strother posted was from 1995... He didn't get addicted to Oxycontin until the late '90s.

Well he obviously can't be convicted of hypocrisy before the fact, but I suppose one could say that after he had become addicted and was accused of "doctor shopping" he should have just surrendered himself and gone to jail. Of course no such standard exists for any celebrity on the left, even those who take a nominally anti-drug position.

Everyone knows that public figures from the right are guilty upon accusation, so for Limbaugh to evade justice as he did (hiring a lawyer, defending himself) makes him guilty of hypocrisy from a left-hand point of view.

Everyone also knows that leftist celebrities must never be accused of hypocrisy, regardless of the interesting dichotomies they float on a regular basis. I guess the worst of which they can be accused is "irony."

Supreme Court Blocks Bush, Gitmo War Trials

The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.

The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti- terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and international Geneva conventions.

The case focused on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden. Hamdan, 36, has spent four years in the U.S. prison in Cuba. He faces a single count of conspiring against U.S. citizens from 1996 to November 2001.

Two years ago, the court rejected Bush's claim to have the authority to seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny them access to courts or lawyers. In this follow-up case, the justices focused solely on the issue of trials for some of the men.


Gina Holland

I haven't had time to read the decision, but I expect it will come down to a question of prevalence of the theory of the unitary executive. Since Thomas, Scalia, and Alito are all more or less originalists, they would have backed the theory. I already knew that Kennedy was no fan of the theory, so Roberts' recusal was of no consequence under those circumstances.

12 Down: Top secret war plans, 36 Across: Treason

When is The New York Times going to get around to uncovering an al-Qaida secret program?

In the latest of a long list of formerly top-secret government anti-terrorism operations that have been revealed by the Times, last week the paper printed the details of a government program tracking terrorists' financial transactions that has already led to the capture of major terrorists and their handmaidens in the U.S.

Ann Coulter

Top Court Rules States Free to Redistrict

WASHINGTON (AP) - A fractured Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that states are free to redraw congressional districts whenever they want, largely blessing Tom DeLay's bitterly contested handiwork in Texas and the gains it gave national Republicans.

"With respect to a mid-decade redistricting to change districts drawn earlier in conformance with a decennial census, the Constitution and Congress state no explicit prohibition," (Anthony) Kennedy wrote.

Mid-decade redistricting for political purposes was not uncommon in the 1800s but has been rare over the last century, said Michael McDonald, an assistant professor in government and politics at George Mason University.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Is Rush a hypocrite???

I was thinkin' (this could be dangerous...Ha!!!) Is Rush truly a hypocrite??? The quote Strother posted was from 1995... He didn't get addicted to Oxycontin until the late '90s. When it was disclosed he had this addiction, he went into rehab for 30 days. It seems to me that the only way for Rush to be a hypocrite on this is if he wanted to still throw the druggies in jail after he went through his drug event. Just my opinion...

VIAGRA FOR RAPIST

A rapist whose victims included "Top Gun" actress Kelly McGillis got taxpayer-funded Viagra for years, despite his fiendish history, it was revealed yesterday as he was sentenced to 50 years in prison.

Serial sex predator Leroy Johnson was prescribed the erectile dysfunction pill by doctors at the Bronx-based Fordham-Tremont Community Mental Health Center from early 2003 to mid-2005, according to court records.

The health center stopped doling out the little blue pills to Johnson only after new DNA tests linked him to a 1996 knife-point double rape - bringing his total number of rape victims to five.

Center officials didn't return calls; Johnson's extensive sex crime history would have been available to doctors when they began seeing him in 2002.

Johnson, arrested for the 1996 rapes last year, was convicted June 13.

The health center's Viagra-for-a-rapist treatment plan came to light yesterday as he was slapped with the max for the rapes - and as his two victims gave wrenching accounts of the emotional fallout.


Meanwhile, as Rush Limbaugh is publicly pilloried for having a perfectly legal dose of Viagra in his luggage, so-called "health" centers proceed with dispensing Viagra to sex offenders. I'd like someone to tell me how Viagra is a solution to any public health issue anyone can name.

RE: Rush on 'Doing Drugs'

Rush Limbaugh, political pundit and former consumer of huge amounts of illegally-obtained Oxycontin, on his radio show on Oct. 5, 1995.

Ok, Strother, so he didn't practice what he preached. I believe I granted you that. I think you're way over the top with the "huge amounts" business, but you can have that. In any case, you're still dodging my challenge to defend your original post on the subject and the implicit bashing of the Christian Right therein. And I still stand behind my assertion that both cases are a tempest in a teapot.

And you still have your pantyhose in an unbalanced wad over right-wing pundits. I eagerly await your reaction to the next drool-encrusted uttering from one of Limbaugh's peers on the left.

Rush on 'Doing Drugs'

"If people are violating the law by doing drugs, they ought to be accused and they ought to be convicted and they ought to be sent up... Too many whites are getting away with drug use. Too many whites are getting away with drug sales. Too many whites are getting away with trafficking in this stuff. The answer to this disparity is not to start letting people out of jail because we're not putting others in jail who are breaking the law. The answer is to go out and find the ones who are getting away with it, convict them and send them up the river, too."


— Rush Limbaugh, political pundit and former consumer of huge amounts of illegally-obtained Oxycontin, on his radio show on Oct. 5, 1995.

Off the Beaten Path, Bush Takes a Detour to Graceland

Fox News

Elvis has left the building … to the politicians.

The Memphis, Tenn., home of the King of Rock and Roll will host a summit of sorts Friday when President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi travel to Graceland for a personal tour of one of America's wackiest — and some may argue tackiest — tourist attractions.

Court Nixes Part of Texas Political Map

WASHINGTON

The Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out part of a Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, saying some of the new boundaries failed to protect minority voting rights.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the majority, said Hispanics do not have a chance to elect a candidate of their choosing under the plan.
How's that??? There are elections where I can't elect a candidate of my choosing but hey, that's life.

U.S. THREATENS TO LAUNCH ANN COULTER TOWARDS NORTH KOREA :-)

Sent to me by a friend...

Rabid Pundit Could Destroy Entire Korean Peninsula, U.N. Warns

The Borowitz Report


In an act of retaliation for North Korean president Kim Jong-Il’s plan to test a long-range missile that could reach California, the United States today threatened to launch conservative pundit Ann Coulter in the direction of North Korea.

President George W. Bush announced the plan to weaponize Ms. Coulter in a nationally televised address.

“If North Korea intends to test the most deadly weapon in its arsenal, we will have no alternative but to use the most deadly weapon in ours,” Mr. Bush said. “And that weapon is Ann Coulter.”

Mr. Bush did not indicate how and when Ms. Coulter would be fired towards Pyongyang, but most military experts believe that she has already been loaded onto a nuclear submarine and could be launched at any moment.

At the United Nations, an emergency session of the Security Council was convened to discourage the U.S. from deploying Ms. Coulter, who is seen by many in the international community as the ultimate doomsday weapon.

Fears abound that if Ms. Coulter were fired towards Pyongyang, she would spew noxious fumes that could lay waste to the entire Korean peninsula and might even destroy Japan and parts of China.

A spokesperson for Ms. Coulter today acknowledged that her client had the power to destroy large areas of Asia, but said that she was “stoked” about the mission.

“If destroying Asia will help Ann sell more books, she’s up for it,” the spokesperson said.

Taxes, Nonprofits, & Coercing Charity

Charity and coercion are not the same. They are not brother and sister. They aren’t even distant cousins.

John Hood

Reading this reminded me of some things that Steve has said in the past.

Tax rate stays same

Stokes budget gets commissioners' OK

By Sherry Youngquist
Winston-Salem Journal

DANBURY

Stokes County commissioners adopted a $38.9 million budget last night that holds the tax rate steady and will keep most county departments at "zero growth."

From a Rush Listener...

I listen to Rush on a daily basis. He's a political pundit/entertainer...nothing more, nothing less. He is very good at what he does.

Listening to Rush, he doesn't come across as a spokesman for the Christian right... Matter of fact, some of the stuff he talks about is rather R-rated. He's more of a fiscal conservative or a constitutionalist rather than a social conservative. I've never heard him quote scripture or anything like that...

Rush was making light of the fact yesterday that he got caught with Viagra. Here is what he said on the radio about it:

"I've been racking my brain... I'm trying to figure out how Bob Dole's luggage got on my airplane. I told the doctor, 'Look, I'm worried about the next election.'"

"The people at Customs were as nice as they could be; they just didn't believe me when I told them that I got those pills from the Clinton Library gift shop. They told me at the Clinton Library gift shop that they were just little blue M&Ms."

"I know a lot of people in Washington don't even need Viagra; they just look at themselves in the mirror and the problem is solved."
Rush can laugh at himself, which is good. :-)

RE: Standing Still

During the Oxycontin episode, he did everything he could to avoid prison alongside his attempts to maintain his professional persona, the one that feels comfortable damning illegal drug users to prison.

Your problem is that you listen to what other people tell you about Limbaugh instead of speaking from experience, Strother. How many of Limbaugh's broadcasts have you listened to? One? Two? None?

You also apply a breathtaking double standard to celebrities and pundits from the right. You rant and rave about things that people like Coulter, Malkin, Limbaugh, and others do and say, but we never hear anything out of you on hypocrisy and downright lunacy that is spewed on a daily basis by the mouthpieces of the left. I can even go back and find a couple of half-hearted defenses you mounted in their favor. Why is that?

I can't honestly say that I have ever heard Limbaugh say a word about illegal drug users. I have heard him berate judges who ignore the law on that subject and I have heard him make fun of the stupid way in which the double-digit IQ types go about defending the legalization of all sorts of nasty drugs like heroin and PCP. Can you cite a single instance, in print or broadcast in which Limbaugh has "damned illegal drug users to prison?" There well may be an instance of that, but you haven't offered anything but your second-hand impressions. You knee-jerked on this just like you do with Coulter. I'm perfectly willing to go along with you when you say Coulter is extreme and she's in it for the notoriety and the bucks. The same goes for Limbaugh. But name a single one of their peers from the left who isn't.

Now he continues to ideologically sell himself to most of those of the right-leaning Christian persuasion, not because he lives the lifestyle, but because he depends on them for ratings, radio ad sales, book sales, et al.

You started this by trying to paste Limbaugh on the Christian Right. You have yet to succeed in doing that. You have jumped all around the issue and now you're trying to run at it sideways with the poor excuse that Limbaugh sells himself to "most" of them. You're still wrong. And you are still depending on naked assertion. You haven't offered a single ounce of evidence that there is any connection whatsoever between Limbaugh and the Christian Right. If you want to say he sells himself to right-wing Republicans who might also be Christians, I might almost go along with you, there is some evidence to support that. However, the only accurate statement you can make and back up with iron-clad evidence is that Limbaugh's target demographic is right-wing Republican Kool-Aid drinkers.

But because Rush could bail himself out via a 'Hollyweird' lawyer, he didn't sit in prison alongside the heroin addicts he always felt comfortable damning.

Naked assertion and hearsay don't become any more accurate simply by repeating them. You're going to have to offer evidence of him damning heroin addicts. But let's back up for a minute. This thread was supposedly about the "spokesman for the Christian Right" going down in flames because he was sneaking around with someone else's Viagra in his luggage. This has evolved into something like, "Well he might not speak for the Christian Right, but he's a druggie and he speaks for the anti-druggies." That's not standing still, Strother.

Rush Limbaugh is a hypocrite.

Ok, granted. So what about that attracts your special ire? Al Franken and John Edwards and Barbara Streisand and Bono and Al Gore are all hypocrites, many, many more times over than Limbaugh. Why don't you pounce on them?

I, personally, don't find the insights of hypocrites to be very useful.

I'll remember that next time you post something from one of the above. For that matter, I'll remember that next time you post one of these moronic articles from the BBC on their view of America or an article from our favorite idiot newspaper editor at the Winston-Salem Urinal.

Standing Still

You're still running from the issue.

Running? Hardly. I started this thread, mind you. I'll finish it.

This thing is a tempest in a teapot, just like the painkiller episode...

During the Oxycontin episode, he did everything he could to avoid prison alongside his attempts to maintain his professional persona, the one that feels comfortable damning illegal drug users to prison. Now he continues to ideologically sell himself to most of those of the right-leaning Christian persuasion, not because he lives the lifestyle, but because he depends on them for ratings, radio ad sales, book sales, et al. Because of his occupation — a rightie s*!t stirrer — he must stay in good standing with so many of those who listen to his dreck, and — for some reason — can absorb advice from a total hypocrite.

Oxycontin, taken in the doses that Rush gave himself, provides opiate-like effects and is sometimes used as a substitute for heroin. But because Rush could bail himself out via a ‘Hollyweird’ lawyer, he didn’t sit in prison alongside the heroin addicts he always felt comfortable damning.

Rush Limbaugh is a hypocrite. I, personally, don’t find the insights of hypocrites to be very useful. But that’s just me.

RE: Roy Black, Hollyweird/Celebrity Lawyer

You're still running from the issue. Limbaugh doesn't appear to have been trying to hide anything. This thing is a tempest in a teapot, just like the painkiller episode, and you still haven't even tried to establish, by any rational argument, that there is remotely any hypocrisy on either Limbaugh's or the Christian Right's part in this. To do that, you would have to establish that Limbaugh is himself a part of the Christian Right, which he is most assuredly not, or that he has established any kind of bona fide standing as a spokesman or moral arbiter for them, which he also, most assuredly, has not.

You're barking at ghosts, Strother.

Roy Black, Hollyweird/Celebrity Lawyer

...that 'for privacy purposes' euphemism is not a quote.

Wrong. Like I said, it is a quote from Rush's lawyer, Mr. Roy Black — the same one that covered his ass during the oxycontin thing.

From the AP, appearing almost everywhere: ...Limbaugh's lawyer, Roy Black, said the prescription was written in his doctor's name "for privacy purposes."

RE: RE: Whose Spokesman?

All along, his lawyer has said it was a prescription made out to Limbaugh's own doctor 'for privacy purposes.'

Well now, that seems to me to be quite a bit different than "sneaking someone else's Viagra around in their shaving kit or purse." And that 'for privacy purposes' euphemism is not a quote. His doctor said he put the prescription in his own name to protect Limbaugh's privacy. Those are two different things, Strother. This looks to me like you're just tenderizing that crow so it will go down easier.

I think that explains the situation pretty well. Obviously the man is paranoid.

How does it explain any situation? I'd be willing to bet real money that Limbaugh is not the only celebrity of his stature who has had this done for him. That's right, his doctor did this for him. There is a distinct possibility that Limbaugh didn't even know the prescription wasn't made out to him until US Customs went Byzantine on him. Even if he did, you have no way of knowing how it came to be.

I smell double standard and much ado about nothing here. Liberals try all the time to make Limbaugh out as some kind of arbiter of Christian morals. While I have probably only listened to 10% or less of what he has broadcast, I feel safe in asserting that he has never, ever portrayed himself as anything of the kind, nor would he have been accepted as such if he had. This is an attempt by the left to hang some kind of damning immorality on him, just as was the whole painkiller addiction episode. None of that has worked for them, though, and it is simply because they are barking up the wrong tree. Of course this is typical of the left: if something doesn't work, by all means, try it again.

I am in frequent proximity and communication, both online and personally, with quite a few people who are hardcore Limbaugh fans. Here's a clue for you, Strother: more than half of them aren't practicing Christians and a fair number of them don't even like Christians. This pair of episodes just underscores how little liberals in the press and in the public actually understand about the American Right.

RE: Whose Spokesman?

What are you going to do if you find out Limbaugh just found the bottle belonging to one of his entourage and threw it in his suitcase? I hope you brought plenty of water to wash that crow down. Granted, it could be just as the "news" has portrayed it, but I surely wouldn't be casting such aspersions on these flimsy grounds.

All along, his lawyer has said it was a prescription made out to Limbaugh's own doctor 'for privacy purposes.' I think that explains the situation pretty well. Obviously the man is paranoid.

The science is not in

From an editorial in today's USA Today by Jacob Sullum:

Surgeon General Richard Carmona says secondhand smoke is a deadly public health hazard, lending support to government bans on smoking in private businesses. Surgeons general have been saying the same thing for two decades, but that doesn't make it right. The dangers posed by secondhand smoke are debatable and likely to remain so given the limitations of epidemiology. It's well established that tobacco smoke can raise the risk of diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease. The question is how much it takes.

In Self-perception: Rah, rah, America!

From the AP:

U-S-A! U-S-A! When it comes to national pride, Americans are No. 1, according to a survey of patriotism in 34 countries. Venezuela came in a close second in the survey, released yesterday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.
People rated how proud they were of their countries in 10 areas: political influence, social security, the way their democracy works, economic success, science and technology, sports, arts and literature, military, history, and fair treatment of all groups in society.
In the United States, "the two things we rank high on are what we think of as the political or power dimension," said Tom W. Smith, a researcher at the university. "Given that we're the one world superpower, it's not that surprising."
Patriotism is mostly a New World concept, the researchers said.

Poll show Americans keeping an eye on Congress

By Susan Page, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON: — Americans are paying unusually close attention to the congressional elections in November, a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll finds. They are more inclined to deliver significant gains to Democrats than in any year since Republicans won control of the House and Senate in 1994.
Those surveyed are more concerned about national issues than local ones — a situation that favors Democrats hoping to tap discontent over the Iraq war and gasoline prices — and prefer Democrats over Republicans on handling every major issue except terrorism.

Huge asteroid to fly past Earth July 3

From USA Today:

An asteroid possibly as large as a half-mile or more in diameter is rapidly approaching the Earth. There is no need for concern, for no collision is in the offing, but the space rock will make an exceptionally close approach to our planet early on Monday, July 3, passing just beyond the moon's average distance from Earth.
Due to the proximity of its orbit to Earth [Map] and its estimated size, this object has been classified as a "Potentially Hazardous Asteroid" (PNA) by the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There are currently 783 PNAs.
The latest calculations show that 2004 XP14 will pass closest to Earth at 04:25 UT on July 3 (12:25 a.m. ET or 9:25 p.m. PT on July 2). The asteroid's distance from Earth at that moment will be 268,624-miles (432,308 km), or just 1.1 times the moon's average distance from Earth.


I don't know about you, but that sounds pretty scary to me. How often does this stuff happen exactly? Maybe I should just go back to not paying attention. Maybe it won't even matter who the Democrats find to run in '08.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

RE: Womb environment 'makes men gay'

I've never seen so many weasel words collected together in a single article. There are so many "mays," "mights," and "maybes," it gets to be difficult to tell what the article is really trying to say. Of course, the BBC is trumpeting it as scientific discovery. It really amounts to junk science and the perpetrators of this mess have violated one of the fundamental tenets of empirical observation: correlation is not causation.

As Jiminy Cricket would say, "When you wish upon a star..."

Remembering the Gipper


"[T]he Marxist vision of man without God must eventually be seen as an empty and a false faith...first proclaimed in the Garden of Eden with whispered words of temptations: 'Ye shall be as gods.' The crisis of the Western World, Whittaker Chambers reminded us, exists to the degree in which it is indifferent to God. 'The western World does not know it,' he said about our struggle, 'but it already possesses the answer to this problem—but only provided that its faith in God and the freedom He enjoins is as great as communism's faith in man.' This is the real task before us: to reassert our commitment as a nation to a law higher than our own, to renew our spiritual strength. Only by building a wall of such spiritual resolve can we, as a free people, hope to protect our own heritage and make it someday the birthright of all men."

Ronald Reagan

Womb environment 'makes men gay'

BBC News

A man's sexual orientation may be determined by conditions in the womb, according to a study.

News Flash: Clinton is rich.

Clinton said it is "unconscionable" that the United States has not toughened car emission standards, and he objected to the president's efforts to permanently repeal the estate tax. An estate tax on the richest one percent of Americans could raise $25 million to $40 million a year, enough to wipeout extreme poverty around the globe in a decade.

Clinton noted he is one of those rich Americans and that taxes are in some respect a duty.


Ever since Clinton left the White House in '01, he likes to go around telling people how rich he is... He puts that fact in nearly every speech he gives.

Whose Spokesman?

Oh come on, Strother, surely you can do better than that.

What looks like a duck and quacks like a duck is usually a duck. Besides, ask most right-leaning Christians what they think of Limbaugh's opinions.

Following your logic, MoveOn.org speaks for all you "centrists" and Al Franken represents mainstream Democrat thought. The difference would be that MoveOn and Franken really wish those things were true, whereas Limbaugh likely couldn't care less.

I'm not sure how one would go about asking "most" of 30 or 40 million people their opinion. If you figure out a way to do that, be sure and let me know. "Most" of the right-leaning Christians I know find Limbaugh amusing and will concede that he is probably right in their view far more often than his leftist peers. However, I can't think of a single one in my awareness who considers Limbaugh a "spokesman."

Sure - there are others, but he is a spokesman, like it or not.

Why, because you say so? Dream on, Strother.

And even your most favorite and outspoken 'Hollyweird activists' don't need to sneak someone else's bottle of Viagra around the world in their shaving kit or purse. They don't have to cover their tracks - or maybe more accurately, cover their sins - in order to continue to appeal to their mascots.

Those are some heavy stones you're throwing, Strother. The only "facts" you have are being provided by a news agency and a local government, both of whom are openly hostile to Limbaugh. What are you going to do if you find out Limbaugh just found the bottle belonging to one of his entourage and threw it in his suitcase? I hope you brought plenty of water to wash that crow down. Granted, it could be just as the "news" has portrayed it, but I surely wouldn't be casting such aspersions on these flimsy grounds.

But let's examine that. All your Hollyweird pals don't have to duck or hide because the sycophant press gives them a pass when it comes to calling them to task for their hypocrisy. And you're trying to argue that it isn't hypocrisy if you don't get caught. Please tell me that you don't think someone who makes $18 million for a few months work is not hypocritical when he preaches Marxism to someone who makes $18,000 a year.

I would in no way excuse Limbaugh his peccadilloes, but you cannot compare the kind of scrutiny he is under constantly by the press to the utter lack thereof, at least on the topic of their activism, felt by people like Bono, Barbara Streisand, or Tim Robbins. As for calling them sins, they may well be, but try as hard as you like, Strother, you're going to have to do better than naked assertion to establish Limbaugh as an accepted moralist or spokesman for the faithful.

Finally, I doubt Limbaugh is particularly concerned over any loss of his following over this dust-up. If his faithful didn't desert him during the whole prescription drug fiasco, they most certainly won't desert him now. Heck, this might even win him a whole new demographic.

(It appears that everyone has mascots, right, Steve?)

Of course they do. However, unlike the leftist elite, Limbaugh doesn't dispense largesse to his at my expense, nor does he do so using the coercive force of the government.

RE: RE: Viagra threatens Limbaugh plea deal

I'm always amused when liberals try to portray Limbaugh as a spokesman for the Christian Right.

What looks like a duck and quacks like a duck is usually a duck. Besides, ask most right-leaning Christians what they think of Limbaugh's opinions. Sure — there are others, but he is a spokesman, like it or not.

Yep, nearly as shocking as discovering that Bono is a filthy rich party-boy at heart or that any of the rest of the Hollyweird "activists" are self-absorbed egoists with gigantic bank accounts who like to preach Marxist morality to the middle class.

No, those things aren't shocking. Bono doesn't try to hide the fact that he is 'filthy rich' or 'a party boy at heart.' (But, even knowing most all of the 'dirt' he has on him, he still appears to be a pretty good guy, a loving dad, and a devoted husband. Go figure.) And even your most favorite and outspoken 'Hollyweird activists' don't need to sneak someone else's bottle of Viagra around the world in their shaving kit or purse. They don't have to cover their tracks — or maybe more accurately, cover their sins — in order to continue to appeal to their mascots. (It appears that everyone has mascots, right, Steve?)

The Worldwide Gun Control Movement

The United Nations is holding a conference beginning this week in New York that ironically coincides with our national 4th of July holiday. It’s ironic because those attending the conference want to do away with one of our most fundamental constitutional freedoms—the right to bear arms.

The stated goal of the conference is to eliminate trading in small arms, but the real goal is to advance a worldwide gun control movement that ultimately supercedes national laws, including our own 2nd Amendment. Many UN observers believe the conference will set the stage in coming years for an international gun control treaty.

Fortunately, U.S. gun owners have responded with an avalanche of letters to the American delegation to the conference, asking that none of our tax dollars be used to further UN anti-gun proposals. But we cannot discount the growing power of international law, whether through the UN, the World Trade Organization, or the NAFTA and CAFTA treaties. Gun rights advocates must understand that the forces behind globalism are hostile toward our Constitution and national sovereignty in general. Our 2nd Amendment means nothing to UN officials.

Domestically, the gun control movement has lost momentum in recent years. The Democratic Party has been conspicuously silent on the issue in recent elections because they know it’s a political loser. In the midst of declining public support for new gun laws, more and more states have adopted concealed-carry programs. The September 11th terrorist attacks and last summer’s hurricanes only made matters worse for gun control proponents, as millions of Americans were starkly reminded that we cannot rely on government to protect us from criminals.


Ron Paul

RE: Viagra threatens Limbaugh plea deal

I'm always amused when liberals try to portray Limbaugh as a spokesman for the Christian Right. I don't think he has ever made such a claim, nor has any bona fide leader of the Christian Right (whoever that might be) anointed him so.

Limbaugh was, is, and always will be a propagandist for the conservative wing of the GOP. Furthermore, he is an entertainer, nothing more, nothing less. He has never claimed to be anything else.


Again, I’m simply shocked.


Yep, nearly as shocking as discovering that Bono is a filthy rich party-boy at heart or that any of the rest of the Hollyweird "activists" are self-absorbed egoists with gigantic bank accounts who like to preach Marxist morality to the middle class.

By the way, some sources say that the Viagra belonged to a member of his entourage. I doubt that either the Feds or the state of Florida will want to pursue this one. It sets a dangerous precedent. It means you could be convicted of the misdemeanor for carrying your wife's birth control pills through customs in your suitcase.

No Go: Commissioners unyielding on request for health plaza

From James Romoser in today's WSJ:

A spirited group of activists, politicians, clergy and others unsuccessfully urged the Forsyth County commissioners last night to restore financing to the Downtown Health Plaza, saying that the county has a moral obligation to support health care for the poor.
In a series of emotional speeches followed by heavy applause, supporters of the health plaza dominated the public-comment part of the commissioners' meeting. One by one, speakers called on the commissioners to reconsider their recent decision to eliminate the county's subsidy to the health plaza, which is run by N.C. Baptist Hospital and is the main source of health care for people in the county who lack insurance.
..Before the meeting, supporters of the health plaza held a rally in front of the county government building that drew almost 100 people.


I am a bit confused about why there were only ‘almost 100 people’ at a rally that was — at least to the protesters — about publicly addressing a disenfranchisement of low-income citizens of Winston-Salem by Forsyth county commissioners. Also, I’d think that such a rally about a supposedly hot topic would get at least a few happy ‘lower-my-taxes’ cheerleaders out there, too.

Do so few Winston-Salem/Forsyth County taxpayers even care about all this? I guess that this question is what Dr. Tim Monroe would say that his opinion letter in last week’s WSJ was, at least in part, about.

But even if no one except for those who actually use the center’s services showed up for the 100-person demonstration, wouldn’t you think that more than a hundred warm bodies could be rallied to fight for the continued existence of this benefit?

Maybe the problem here is that not enough people really give a crap at all. Obviously, if only 100 protesters can show up for this rally, even those who use the center don’t care as much as they should.

And that could turn into a very bad thing for everyone.

In my opinion, the loss of such a center could only add to the frustration of checking into local hospitals for those that can and/or do fully intend to pay all medical bills. In the recent past, I have personally dealt with clearly overburdened emergency room doctors and nurses on multiple occasions. What would my experiences have been like if — suddenly — all of the Triad’s Uninsured visited emergency rooms for every tiny ailment, fully knowing that they wouldn’t be turned away, even without insurance?

Viagra threatens Limbaugh plea deal

From CNN:

WEST PALM BEACH — Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name. Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic.


I find this behavior quite shocking coming from a conservative Christian mouthpiece such as Mr. Limbaugh. Isn’t Rush three times divorced? Why would a single man of such standing among conservative Christians need Viagra? And returning from the Dominican Republic, huh? Down there on business, I presume?

Doesn’t he practice the moral standards he aligns himself with in his professional work?

Further, does the sacred institution of marriage mean anything to him?

Again, I’m simply shocked.

What’s next, Ann Coulter seen buying condoms at Duane Reade?

Planned Parenthood Celebration Jolted by Abortion Survivor

I want to share with you an awesome experience I had in the Colorado House of Representatives on May 8. It is a humbling experience to look back and realize that God used me to play a role in His divine orchestration.

I was leaving the House chambers for the weekend when our Democrat speaker of the House announced that the coming Monday would be the final day of this year's General Assembly. He went on to state that there were still numerous resolutions on the calendar which we would need to be addressed prior to the summer adjournment. Interestingly, he specifically mentioned that one of the resolutions we would be hearing was being carried by the House Majority Leader Alice Madden, honoring the 90th anniversary of Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains.

As a strong pro-life legislator I was disgusted by the idea that we would pass a resolution honoring this 90-year legacy of genocide. I drove home that night wondering what I could say that might pierce the darkness during the debate on this heinous resolution.


Ted Harvey

RE: Stokes is wary of mental-health cuts

CenterPoint is a waste of money and space. The County should have found another provider long ago. Actually, the County shouldn't be involved in providing "mental health services" to anyone, but that's another story altogether.

During the years I was involved in County government, CenterPoint was just one failure after another. They were all about trying to infiltrate the schools and doing things they had no business doing, but when it came to actually providing the services they were supposed to, they were a dismal failure.

Stokes County stuck with CenterPoint, in theory anyway, because we were cooperating with Forsythg County in providing services. In truth, Stokes County's taxpayers were doing little more than subsidizing the services provided to Forsyth County.

Panel OK's dump plans

Residents say they will fight decision, raise more money

By James Romoser
Winston-Salem Journal


A large construction and demolition landfill is on its way to northeast Forsyth County, despite protests from hundreds of neighbors who say that it will ruin their community.

Stokes is wary of mental-health cuts

It ties financing to current services

By Sherry Youngquist
Winston-Salem Journal


Stokes County officials say they are trying to head off proposed changes to the county's mental-health program administered by CenterPoint.

The cuts could include closing outpatient psychiatric services in King and limiting those services in Danbury.

Commissioners say they have met with CenterPoint officials and say that the amount of county money going to CenterPoint depends on whether the agency continues to provide its current services.

If the center in King continues to be open four days a week and the one in Danbury once a week, some commissioners say they will recommend the current county appropriation of $398,830 to CenterPoint for fiscal year 2006-07.

Monday, June 26, 2006

Democrat Down Cycle

DEAN'S DELUSIONS

Democrat National Committee chairman Howard Dean is seeing polling numbers that are making him a nervous man. Recent internal polling data for Senate races from Washington state, Minnesota, Michigan, Missouri, and Maryland -- with the exception of Missouri, which is a GOP defense -- shows Democrat support cratering if not crumbling around the edges.

Alito breaks tie, Kan. death penalty stays

By GINA HOLLAND,
Associated Press Writer


New Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito broke a tie Monday in a ruling that affirmed a state death penalty law and also revealed the court's deep divisions over capital punishment.

RE: RE: Scary Christian Boom

This part, the end result of the author's prediction:

Some countries "might be brought to ruin by the clash of jihad and crusade."


I thought that's what might have you disturbed. It's nothing new, though, Strother. Most of the great European nations that formed Western Civilization for the 500 years leading up to the American Revolution can trace their origins, at least in part, to the old nations and empires being rendered to dust by the clash of jihad and crusade. Now, I can agree that the thought of living under Sharia doesn't exactly fill me with glee, but I really don't think the United States is one of those countries to which Pipes was referring. In fact, falling to jihad is about one of the last downside outcomes for this country that I can imagine. The places to which he was referring are going to be in Africa and South Asia, where there already exists an interface between Christendom and Islam.

The United States is far more likely to fall under its own weight, or crumble from within as the underpinnings of a moral society are continually eroded by the tiny minority who think as Tucker does that humanism is a reasonable substitute for spiritual morality. As long as the majority of people, who still believe in the fundamentals of the Christian Faith as they are delineated in scripture, refuse to confront the agit-prop and whispering that the social justice warriors are selling, those foundations will continue to wash away and we will decline and fall just as the Empires of Rome and Old Europe did before us, and for the very same reasons.

What I find particularly interesting are the continuing parallels to traditional interpretations of the events described in The Apocalypse. But then, we can't make any better guesses about what that means, can we?

RE: The Looming Power Struggle with Iran


"Islamic fundamentalists,” he told me, "consider democratic reform to be like toilet paper. You use it once, and then you throw it away.” There is no doubt in his mind that the Shiites in Iraq are using democracy in this fashion, simply to gain power, with no intention whatsoever of continuing democratic reform beyond that point.


This is exactly what everyone I know who has actually spent time in the Middle East says. So why can't the geniuses in the Bush Administration understand this?

The answer is that understanding isn't what they're after. As with the Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s, their aim is to press American-style democracy on their identified "bad boys," regardless of the cost or consequence.

RE: Scary Christian Boom

Which part?

This part, the end result of the author's prediction:

Some countries "might be brought to ruin by the clash of jihad and crusade."

The Looming Power Struggle with Iran

From Ted Koppel for NPR:

Consider the Jordanians as a canary in the Middle Eastern coal mine, an early warning system in a dangerous region that could become infinitely more dangerous. Certainly Jordan -- small, vulnerable and ultra-sensitive to developing threats -- is bracing itself for very bad times.

Scary Christian Boom

...this article is pretty scary.

Really? Which part? The part about spreading jihad? I didn't find it scary since Islamist fascism promoted using the jihad is nothing new.

And I hope you weren't responding to Tucker's comment since it was brain-dead (as usual) and indicated that he either didn't read or didn't understand the article.

RE: 'comment' on A Christian Boom

Yep, don't let the pleasant title fool you, BP readers: this article is pretty scary.

A Christian Boom

Which of the world's largest faiths, Christianity or Islam, is experiencing the greater ideological reassertion and demographic surge?

"Islam" is surely nearly everyone's answer. As American Christians experiment with ever-milder versions of their faith, Muslims display a fervor for extreme interpretations of Islam. As Europe suffers the lowest population growth rates ever recorded, Muslim countries have some of the highest.

But, argues Philip Jenkins recently in the Atlantic Monthly, Islam is the wrong answer. He shows how Christianity is the religion currently undergoing the most basic rethinking and the largest increase in adherents. He makes a good case for its militancy most affecting the next century.

"For obvious reasons," notes this professor of history and religious studies at Pennsylvania State University, "news reports today are filled with material about the influence of a resurgent and sometimes angry Islam. But in its variety and vitality, in its global reach, in its association with the world's fastest-growing societies, in its shifting centers of gravity, in the way its values and practices vary from place to place . . . it is Christianity that will leave the deepest mark on the 21st century."

What Jenkins dubs the "Christian revolution" is so little noted because Christians divide into two very different regions North (Europe, North America, Australia) and South (South America, Africa, Asia) and we who live in the North only dimly perceive the momentous developments under way in the South. Fortunately, Jenkins is there to guide us.


Daniel Pipes

The Brothel or the Burqah

One of the surprises of the 21st century is the revival of slavery around the world. From the Chinese laogai to the brothels of Berlin, from Darfur to Darby, humans are being bought and sold as property. In fact, it is estimated that 27 million individuals are currently enslaved, nearly double the number that were owned as slaves throughout the entire history of American slavery.

This revival of slavery is more than a little ironic, especially in the West, considering it comes at a time when the equalitarian dogma of sexual sameness is taken for granted and millionaire descendants of African slaves demand reparations for acts committed over 14 decades ago, while ignoring Africans enslaved today.

In examining this issue, it is important to understand that slavery has been, throughout most of human history, an accepted institution. Every culture and every religion has embraced it, from the civilized Egyptians, Greeks and Romans to the barbarian Celts, Mongols and Zulus. Slaves have been owned by Christians, by Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists alike.

There are only two cultures of which I am aware that have banned slavery without external pressure. One is Japan during the Momoyama Period of the 1580s, the other is early nineteenth-century Britain. But while the Japanese ban was inspired by one man's dictate and did not long survive his successor, the British ban was inspired by Protestant Christianity and was spread by the daunting influence of Imperial British arms, everywhere from Europe to Asia, Africa and America.


Vox Day

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Lance Armstrong threatened my life, claims former Tour de France champ LeMond...

Former Tour de France champion Greg LeMond has claimed that he was threatened by fellow American Lance Armstrong for having criticised the seven-time race winner's association with a doctor implicated in doping affairs.

Murtha says U.S. poses top threat to world peace

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Tucson, Arizona

MIAMI —
American presence in Iraq is more dangerous to world peace than nuclear threats from North Korea or Iran, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said to an audience of more than 200 in North Miami Saturday afternoon.
Murtha has gone off the deep end...

Whither Strother

No, no. You're making way too much out of this.

If you say so, Strother. The topic here for about the last week has been liberal Christians and their organizations. Your choice of articles certainly looked to take the direction I indicated.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Declining Clergy

A question, then: do you doubt that there has been a 20-year decline among mainline denominations in the number of clergy under 35?

Who knows? Who cares? Since Christianity is currently the fastest growing religion in the world, I would expect that no such decline exists worldwide. In Europe, I expect the decline in the number of clergy of all ages has probably flattened out since Europeans have pretty much dispensed with Christianity altogether. In the United States, we have just begun that journey, so I expect the decline here is just beginning.

If not, then what do you attribute it to?

That question doesn't make any sense. If not what?

The United States has begun its decline into a post-Christian society with the social dominance of the children of the 1960s. As the Reverend Larkin pointed out, Satan has been very successful in convincing American Christians that salvation can be found in the government. As well, the vast majority of people born after 1969 tend to be far more self-interested and hedonistic than their forebears. The young lady in the article is an excellent example. All she can think of when she looks at working in the service of God is what's in it for her. I'm sure she'll end up being a good little Social Justice Christian when she comes out of whatever bootcamp she attends. In any case, why would some empty-headed twenty-something be remotely interested in experiencing human misery, pain, and spiritual anguish firsthand when watching TV, playing video games, and clubbing are so much more fun?

RE: RE: A course correction (?)

You posted three articles with fundamentals in liberal Christianity in a row. You knew exactly what you were doing. I simply did you the kindness of responding as you knew I would.

No, no. You're making way too much out of this. Yes, the writer of the opinion column called Winston-Salem citizens' Christianity into question by electing representatives that wouldn't allow for a one-cent tax increase earmarked to fund the downtown health plaza. The plaza and its funding have been touchy subjects around here lately. I found the 3rd piece interesting because, honestly, I wonder who will be the mainstream Christian clergy of tomorrow if these stats are true.

RE: RE: 35 and Older

Then Laura... I guess the ministry isn't the place for you.

Well, sure.

A pox on the AP and the Winston-Salem fishwrap for their unattributed "experts."

Okay. A question, then: do you doubt that there has been a 20-year decline among mainline denominations in the number of clergy under 35? If not, then what do you attribute it to?

RE: A course correction (?)

Steve doth protest too much, methinks.

Horse manure, Strother. The article had nothing to do with selfishness, other than Tim's own, and I don't think he was calling himself selfish. The article was a fatuous little attempt by one of Satan's willing minions to browbeat the proletariat into gracefully accepting slavery. Tim is clearly a Marxist pice of filth. Hiding behind the skirts of a false appeal to Christian charity just makes him a damnable Marxist piece of filth.

What does any of that have to do with where I am 'tending' or my making 'course corrections' of any sort?

Now who is protesting too much? Spare me the wounded innocence act, Strother. You posted three articles with fundamentals in liberal Christianity in a row. You knew exactly what you were doing. I simply did you the kindness of responding as you knew I would.

Ok, your turn. Your pat response would be "Yeah, whatever."

RE: Fire and Brimstone

Wow, Steve. Harsh! I don't think I'd feel too comfortable making a call like that.

I can only guess, but that's probably because you're not a Biblical Christian. Tim is obviously a Pharisee. Read the twenty-third chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew. You'll see I actually went light on him.

A course correction (?)

No, people hate to be preached to by Marxists who hide their agit-prop behind Christianity.

People also really hate to be called selfish. Am I wrong? I know that I do. Steve doth protest too much, methinks.

What's the matter Strother, were you tending too far to the right? Did you need a course correction?

Why would you say that? I just posted a opinion column and the reaction it got from my local government officials. I also pointed out that people really hate to be called selfish. What does any of that have to do with where I am 'tending' or my making 'course corrections' of any sort?

Fire and Brimstone

What's that I smell, Tim? Brimstone? Souls burning? Maybe you better get used to that smell, Tim.

Wow, Steve. Harsh! I don't think I'd feel too comfortable making a call like that.

Satan, His Methods

Satan seeing that he could not stamp out the church by violence and persecution has changed his tactics and is now trying to seduce her into conformity to the world, and to try to better an "Age" that God has doomed to destruction. His present purpose is to build up a "magnificent civilization," and he has been deceiving the church that it can bring in the "Millenium" without Christ, by the Betterment of Society. His hope is that the "Gospel of Social Service"will take the place of the "Gospel of Grace," and by diverting the attention of Christian people to "secondary" things, they will neglect the primary work of soul saving, and thus delay the evangelization of the world, and postpone the Return of the Lord, and his own confinement in the bottomless pit. [All emphasis by the author]

Clarence Larkin, The Spirit World

The Episcopal Tragedy & the Coming of Clarity

Christians have before us the task of rebuilding the whole of Biblical theology in a manner which can take on the secularists and the pagans. That is what the Road to Emmaus is about, and the task to which I am called, and which I find people working on at Biola U. where I am now teaching.

The first task for Christians is recovery of our intellectual credibility. If we have no reputation for being truth-seekers, we pass the reputation on to God as being not interested in truth. That is slander. When we lose truth, everything else erodes as well. We will recover our moral and spiritual credibility only when we again base them on objective truth.

Secondly, we must recover what God was birthing in Western Civilization, a Godly form of civil government. Americans must recover the constitution we were given, and learn how to explain the Biblical foundations of a free people.

The issues are bigger than the Episcopal disaster, which is just a forerunner. America shows all the signs of going the Episcopal way -- down the sink hole of relativism and pseudo-pluralism, ending in totalitarianism. They are the issues of Western Civilization, and becoming the issues of world culture (thanks to the globalists and their tool, the UN).

There is no hope for civilization outside the Church of God. Only a people rooted in the Hand of God and obedient to His Voice will be able to turn the momentum of self-destruction back toward rational, sane, and truly compassionate culture and spirituality.


F. Earle Fox

RE: 35 and Older

As the daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian preachers, Laura Elly Hudson knew plenty about the ministry growing up - mostly that she didn't want any part of it.

The low pay was one reason. And the long hours. Not to mention that she was terrified of having to answer the most vexing spiritual questions at the toughest times in people's lives.


Then Laura, you simple-minded twit, I guess the ministry isn't the place for you. You obviously don't have the vaguest clue what being a shepherd is all about.

Experts say that those and other concerns are discouraging young adults from pursuing careers in church ministry and have led to a 20-year decline among mainline denominations in the number of clergy under 35.

A pox on the AP and the Winston-Salem fishwrap for their unattributed "experts." These three paragraphs make the entire rest of the article a waste of bits and ink. Thanks for nothing, Strother.

RE: Health director's column hits nerve

People really hate to be called selfish.

No, people hate to be preached to by Marxists who hide their agit-prop behind Christianity.

What's the matter Strother, were you tending too far to the right? Did you need a course correction?

RE: Our refusal to help needy says who we are

The consequence is that many services for the less fortunate of our community will continue to be inadequate.

Of course, Timmy-boy doesn't bother to mention that those services are all things the government has no business doing.

Would it be an unreasonable burden on property owners to pay a 1-cent increase so that the disenfranchised might enjoy an incremental improvement in needed services?

Why yes, Tim, it would. And who gets to decide who is "disenfranchised," you? And what are the criteria for how much these services are "needed?" Is the need that you address your need to maintain your elitist position of power and continue to dispense largesse to your mascots at our expense?

This is an insulting and offensive piece and Tim is a blubbering moron. I just don't seem to recall the passages in the Bible that read, "Go work for the government so you can steal people's property at the point of a gun to give to someone else."

What's that I smell, Tim? Brimstone? Souls burning? Maybe you better get used to that smell, Tim.

35 and Older

By the AP's Liz Austin:

AUSTIN, TEXAS: As the daughter and granddaughter of Presbyterian preachers, Laura Elly Hudson knew plenty about the ministry growing up - mostly that she didn't want any part of it. The low pay was one reason. And the long hours. Not to mention that she was terrified of having to answer the most vexing spiritual questions at the toughest times in people's lives.
Experts say that those and other concerns are discouraging young adults from pursuing careers in church ministry and have led to a 20-year decline among mainline denominations in the number of clergy under 35.

Health director's column hits nerve

People really hate to be called selfish.

By James Romoser in today's WSJ:

The Forsyth County health director is being criticized by county commissioners after he publicly questioned the county's commitment to helping the poor. Dr. Tim Monroe wrote an opinion column, which appeared in Thursday's Winston-Salem Journal, that denounced the county's recently approved 2006-07 budget. In the article, he wrote that the commissioners and many county residents are so concerned about avoiding a tax increase that they have neglected services, such as health care, to people in need.
The chairwoman and vice chairwoman of the board of commissioners shot back. "I think he's very disrespectful to the commissioners. I think he's being misleading to the community," said Gloria Whisenhunt, the chairwoman. "Tim has never been a team player."

Our refusal to help needy says who we are

In Thursday's WSJ:

By Timothy Monroe, guest columnist and the health director of the Forsyth County Department of Public Health

We have all used and/or heard the term "Christian community." In most parts of the United States, most people like to think of their community as such. How does a community qualify for the title? Is it the number, size or attendance level of our churches? Or are we to be known by our works?
One example of our works was the action taken June 15 by the Forsyth County commissioners, when a majority made it clear that their greatest concern was for the needs of the property owners. They refused to consider a tax increase that would have meant an increase of $100 a year in the property taxes for a $1 million home. Those with less expensive shelter can do the math to determine their additional tax burdens. The consequence is that many services for the lessfortunate of our community will continue to be inadequate.
But we should not judge the commissioners. We placed them there, and we sent them the unmistakable message of our true values - that they would not be re-elected if they raised taxes. We must judge ourselves. Would it be an unreasonable burden on property owners to pay a 1-cent increase so that the disenfranchised might enjoy an incremental improvement in needed services?

The Dark Side

Courtesy of PBS:

Amid revelations about faulty prewar intelligence and a scandal surrounding the indictment of the vice president's chief of staff and presidential adviser, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, FRONTLINE goes behind the headlines to investigate the internal war that was waged between the intelligence community and Richard Bruce Cheney, the most powerful vice president in the nation's history.

RE: Edwards carries political messages toward '08

The only hope for the Democratic Party is our hometown boy, Mr. John Edwards!

Let's see, weighing in the balance:

The Beast in Pants Suits versus the lying, ambulance-chasing, ACLU-loving Silky Pony.

Nope, no hope there. It won't matter, though, Her Beastlyness will use up the Breck Girl and spit him out like old chewing gum.

I expect Linda Brinson and John Gates both just go positively moist at the thought of Edwards running, though.

Edwards carries political messages toward '08

The WSJ knows that touting Hillary is a lost cause in NC. The only hope for the Democratic Party is our hometown boy, Mr. John Edwards!

John Edwards might not be in the U.S. Senate anymore, but he's still a politician. Edwards, the one-term Democratic senator from North Carolina, and 2004 Democratic nominee for vice president, spoke yesterday at the National Press Club about his signature issue - poverty.
...a recent poll by the Des Moines Register ranked Edwards as the favorite in Iowa, even ahead of Clinton. Cook said that this puts Edwards in a good place to compete against Clinton and was probably the best possible news Edwards could have hoped for.


The official Democratic Party sales pitch: The lesser of two evils, perhaps? 'Anybody But Hillary'? Go, John! Go!

Friday, June 23, 2006

Steve leaves some droppings of his own

But I don't have a problem with the concept of religious entities adopting alternate phrasings and words to explain the faith to the new, uninitiated, and/or uninterested. Sometimes newer tools and approaches make evangelism more effective, right?

Well, of course you're right, so maybe I wasn't being clear. My problem is with using these phrases in place of the traditional description of the Trinity. Many of them come from traditional sources, like Christian poetry and even some Christian prose. If it was nothing more than using these phrases for the purposes of evangelism, I would have said, "nice work," and moved on. I also have a serious problem with something called a "Presbyterian Legislative Committee." Therein is where evil and apostasy gain a toehold. The UCC and Episcopalians both began their headlong dash into ruin with this kind of nonsense.

The Presbyterians have never exactly been firebrands (which is, in itself a problem, see Revelation 3:14-18, but that's for another discussion), so I guess I am concerned that they are tempted to play with this kind of fire. It just seems to me that they are easy pickings and this kind of thing is like inviting the thief into your house.

Not me, dude. I’ll always admit its faults.

Once again, you're right, so I have to backtrack on including you in the herd, but I think you understand the simile.

Ha. Just so you know, I won’t vote for Ms. Clinton, even if she is the best thing the Dems have for ’08. Let’s all hope that’s not the case.

So who are we going to vote for, Strother? There isn't a single GOP candidate in the bullpen right now who I could even remotely consider voting for. Obviously, the same thing applies to the Democrats. The Libertarians don't seem to be moving with alacrity toward getting a candidate who isn't running solely on legalizing pot. The Constitution Party is in complete disarray and the Greens keep bouncing back and forth between modified Marxism and all-out Bolshevism. At the moment I'm seeing a big blank spot on my presidential ballot in 2008.

She couldn’t win a presidential election, anyway.

I wouldn't be too sure about that. She's been all but anointed by the Bush clan, that means Karl Rove might even roll up his sleeves and go to work for her. It seems almost inevitable to me. After all, someone has to get busy implementing the mark of the Beast. Who better than the Beast herself?

RE: Strother sails by...

Thanks for the drive-by posting.

You're welcome. Just a few thoughts in addition to what I already said... and that’s all, folks.

RE: The Dixie Chicks...

How does one of the biggest country music successes of the last decade repair this damage? Who knows, and it probably can't be done anyway.

All the sound and fury is there to generate publicity and, as any good publicist will tell you, there is no such thing as bad publicity

Wrong, any publicity is not good publicity — not if it's bad for you. In this case, it has sold a lot of supermarket trash-rags, but not nearly enough DC albums and concert tickets.

RE: Sexist Trinity...

Oh, yeah. I think that the supposed reason behind the Presbyterian Legislative Committee's proposal is silly. I personally find nothing sexist about 'Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.' If you do, you're really looking for something. But I don't have a problem with the concept of religious entities adopting alternate phrasings and words to explain the faith to the new, uninitiated, and/or uninterested. Sometimes newer tools and approaches make evangelism more effective, right?

All I have to do is say something negative about the sacred religion of public education and I'll have Bullinses and Millers crawling all over me.

Not me, dude. I’ll always admit its faults.

RE: Murtha's Second Act...

Still defending those liberal, Democrat icons Strother? I know, you just can't help yourself, it must be in your chromosomes. I noticed you chose not to respond to anything I had to say about Murtha, but ran immediately to the defense of Our Lady of the Thick Ankles.

Ha. Just so you know, I won’t vote for Ms. Clinton, even if she is the best thing the Dems have for ’08. Let’s all hope that’s not the case. She couldn’t win a presidential election, anyway.

Whether Dem, Rep, or something else, having nothing but bad choices on the ballot isn’t good for anyone.

Strother sails by to leave a few droppings...er...postings

Thanks for the drive-by posting. I think I can handle most of them in one shot.

The Dixie Chicks...

My, aren't we disingenuous today? Who cares how many buses, planes, and adoring fans they have? Celebrities (and their direct and indirect entourages) get so annoyed when they are reminded that their celebrity is due to some superficial physical attribute or ability and not their (usually brain-dead) world view. No one really cares what Natalie Maines thinks, and more to the point, no one wants to hear her tell us what she thinks. Really. It's as simple as that. All the sound and fury is there to generate publicity and, as any good publicist will tell you, there is no such thing as bad publicity. The reporters are just doing their masters' bidding.

Poor Natalie, who appears to have no more than an average intellect, probably less, seems so shocked and confused that her musical talent (such as it is) doesn't also get her a free pass to hold forth on the world political scene. What I find highly amusing is the outrage celebrities engage themselves in when the public chooses to withhold their entertainment dollars for no other reason than the celebrity's own proclivity to shove their head all the way up their ass and spout off about current events. And if you want real comedy, just watch for the self-righteous indignation when some celebrity's career goes down the tubes after they decide to attack some core ethic held by Joe Sixpack. If you doubt that, just ask Linda Ronstadt how her career is doing following her nasty little remarks about Christians.

Sexist Trinity...

They're not trying to explain anything, Strother. They are obfuscating and hiding. They are imposing the confusion of a political agenda upon understanding. As I said before, they are heeding Satan's whispering. The words they chose don't convey anything like the truth of the Trinity. The words they are attempting to replace, albeit in two languages, have been in place for 2000 years. What utter self-congratulation and ego to think that some Marxist political committee can now suddenly decide those words are wrong, simply to appease some tiny minority whom the committee elite have decided to adopt as mascots.

And yes, people do get worked up over a few words, especially when those words are used to tear down a belief system and an institution on which millions of people believe and depend. You should know that. All I have to do is say something negative about the sacred religion of public education and I'll have Bullinses and Millers crawling all over me. But more than that, Strother, it is the attempt by you folks on the left to turn Christianity into nothing but words. If that's how you choose to see the Word of God, that's fine, but don't be so surprised when those of us who understand the truth fight back.

Life in Iraq...

I hope you weren't waiting for a response from me. I thought the document was a brilliant, if unintentional exposition of just exactly what is wrong with the neo-Jacobin, Wilsonian agenda of Bush and his neo-cons.

Murtha's Second Act...

Still defending those liberal, Democrat icons Strother? I know, you just can't help yourself, it must be in your chromosomes. I noticed you chose not to respond to anything I had to say about Murtha, but ran immediately to the defense of Our Lady of the Thick Ankles. Can I assume you agree with my assessment of Murtha and the left's attendant love affair with him?

Kool-Aid drinkers are all alike, whether they are on the left or on the right. The Beast in Pants Suits understands that with the very fiber of her being. Watching her pander to both sides of the equation simultaneously is breathtaking. It's kind of like watching a train wreck or a plane crash in progress: you know the outcome will be terrible, but you can't help but be in awe of the mechanics.

RE: Murtha's second act

Steve: Of course, the anti-war left doesn't do too well at paying attention or remembering things, so they probably thought she (Ms. Clinton, the right's fave lib target)was speaking out against the war.

Oh, yeah. Kind of like the pro-war right who doesn't pay attention to or remember all the different stories they got from Dubya about why this war was happening in the first place?

RE: Life In Iraq

Of course, I knew that there would be absolutely no response to this post, so I feel inclined to remind readers of the BP of the 'progress' made in Iraq, so eloquently illustrated within the pages of this 'Sensitive' document.

The truth hurts?

Thursday, June 22, 2006

RE: RE: RE: Sexist Trinity?

I always find it interesting how worked up people can get over a few words, an interpretation, or a translation.

Isn't is nice that some people even care to try to explain the idea of the Trinity to a new audience?

RE: Anderson and Angelina

Don't assume you know what this article says after the teaser I posted. Read it.

I read it, and yeah — every once in a while, a celeb pulls a 'Bono' and does and says some very honest, cool, and unnarcissistic stuff. Good for her.

RE: Dumb Clucks

So the Chicks are sushi-grade-tuna-eating liberals. They're famous, they ride around the country on a posh bus (or more like a plane these days) from gig to gig, and people regularly tell them that they love them. They do what they do well, but still — relentlessly — reporters ask them what they think about political and worldly issues. They answer honestly. So freaking what? What do you expect from them? Just because they have an enviable public platform and you don't shouldn't matter, unless you're consumed by jealousy.

I don't look to celebrities to tell me what to think about subjects that I know more about than they do. But I also don't fault them for having opinions on those subjects. Don't hate the messenger, no matter how wacky, how unqualified, or how unworthy. Shake your head at those who actually care what the messenger thinks.

Which Democrat Is Not Supporting Joe Lieberman?

Fox News

Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman's lead over challenger Ned Lamont in the Connecticut Senate primary is shrinking fast, dropping from 20 points to just 6 in the latest Rasmussen Reports poll.

Now, Lieberman's running mate in the 2000 presidential election has refused to come to his aid. Former Vice President Al Gore says he won't endorse Lieberman, though he calls him a "close friend," telling Bloomberg TV, "I don't get involved in primaries."

But that did not stop Gore from endorsing Howard Dean for president during the 2004 presidential primary season, while Lieberman was still in the presidential race.

Seven Nabbed in Miami on Terror Charges in Plot to Hit Sears Tower

MIAMI — Seven people were arrested on terrorism conspiracy charges Thursday in connection with the early stages of a plot to attack Chicago's Sears Tower and other buildings in the United States, a federal law enforcement official said.

Celebs to Join Cindy Sheehan in Hunger Strike

(CNSNews.com) - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan announced Wednesday that she plans to begin an "open-ended hunger strike" on July 4 to urge the Bush administration to bring troops home from Iraq.

Dumb Clucks

How to sound stupid about patriotism.

By Myrna Blyth

Oops, she’s done it again. Natalie Maines, the pudgy, pug-faced, pugnacious Dixie Chick, just can’t seem to keep her Jimmy Choos out of her mouth — at least, not when she’s talking to someone with a British accent. Last week, the Daily Telegraph’s Adam Sweeting got together with Maines, joined by Emily Robison and Martie Maguire, the other members of the trio, to discuss their recent falling out with the world of country music. They talked over a lunch of asparagus tempura and tuna sashimi or salmon teriyaki with organic greens. As Sweeting remarked, “The Chicks have traditionally been branded a country band, but clearly it's some time since their diet consisted of ribs, tacos and pancakes.” Shoot, I remember when the trio’s primary goal was not discussing the pros and cons of America’s foreign policy with Diane Sawyer but scoring a cover on Redbook.

Operation Barbarossa Anniversary - John Murtha/Kerry

From Jay S. Parsons:

Hey Andy: Maybe you will want to post this at The Bully Pulpit.

On this the 65th anniversary (22 June 1941) of the start of Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of The Soviet Union by Germany, it is fitting to remember how Adolf Hitler's experience with military service translated into his own political judgment and management of military affairs as he presided over the utter destruction of Germany (in large part as a consequence of invading The USSR). Hilter served in the German Army in WWI and he argued his own legitimacy as the leader of Germany upon the experience he acquired during such service. Perhaps John Murtha and John Kerry should reconsider the validity of arguing for military service as a condition precedent to legitimate opinions about both military campaigns and the political consequences of such campaigns, they might be accused of sounding like someone else.

The Z Team :-)


"Kerry, Murtha, Pelosi and Levin -- they're the Z-Team. The A-Team is the top of the list. Democrats have fielded their Z-Team, folks. They can't get any lower."

Rush Limbaugh

Murtha's second act

On NBC's "Meet the Press" last Sunday, Rep. John Murtha repeated his call for "redeploying" U.S. troops from Iraq with something new -- and disturbing to fellow Democrats. Asked by moderator Tim Russert about sites for redeployment, Murtha replied: "We can go to Okinawa. ... We can redeploy there almost instantly."

When Russert expressed doubt about "a timely response" from Okinawa to meet a Middle East crisis, the 16-term congressman from western Pennsylvania and new national security spokesman for his party stumbled: "Well, it -- you know, they -- when I say Okinawa, I, I'm saying troops in Okinawa. When I say a timely response, you know, our fighters can fly from Okinawa very quickly. And -- and -- when they don't know we're coming."

In fact, a Pentagon spokesman says it would take "under a month" to prepare and send a 4,500-man Marine Expeditionary Force 6,000 nautical miles from Okinawa to Bahrain and then 600 more miles to Baghdad.


Robert Novak

Well, well, well. It looks like lambasting opponents without military service in their backgrounds for having the temerity to speak up on military matters just achieved that most sacred of standings in the Congress: bipartisanship.

I think it's just hilarious that the Democrats, desperate for someone, anyone with some military gravitas have landed on this senile old fool. I've seen a couple of clips of Murtha on the floor of the House. His rhetoric consists almost solely of "None of you wimps have ever been in combat and I have so shut up and do what I say!"

Things have gotten so dicey for the Democrats lately that The Beast in Pants Suits had to hold forth yesterday. She was taking the Republicans to task, not for the fact that they support the war, because she nominally supports it as well, but for the way in which they were going about supporting it. Leave it to a Clinton to approach it from that angle. Of course, the anti-war left doesn't do too well at paying attention or remembering things, so they probably thought she was speaking out against the war.

Anderson and Angelina

CNN hit a new low in smarmy as it hyped a "special edition" of "Anderson Cooper 360" Tuesday night: "Angelina Jolie: Her Mission and Motherhood," featuring Cooper's big scoop, the "first interview" with Angelina Jolie since she had her baby.

Start with Cooper, the glam, my-precious-feelings correspondent whose ascent to cable TV news stardom steamrolled over avuncular veteran newsman Aaron Brown and depressed the news slot's ratings for months. Add Jolie, the tattooed ex-wife of Tinsel town bad boy Billy Bob Thornton, fresh from Namibia, where she had a baby with a trendy Hollywood name -- Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt -- sired by a movie star who just last year was someone else's husband. And here's an eye-roller: They're Talking About Poverty in the Third World.

It promised to be a package of everything annoying about celebrity culture -- the rich and statuesque preening as they bemoan the plight of the destitute and forsaken.


Debra Saunders

Don't assume you know what this article says after the teaser I posted. Read it.

RE: RE: Sexist Trinity?

"Lover, Beloved, Love" is a pretty good way to explain it to those who may not get it otherwise.

No, it isn't. It is confusion. It is more of Satan's whispering. "Sexism" is a stupid construct created by feminists to browbeat gamma males. The phrase conveys nothing of the truth of the situation. It is also very subtly anti-trinitarian. If you didn't get it before you heard the phrase, you are actually farther from the truth after hearing it.

...because the traditional phrasing promotes men as superior to women.

As far as Christianity is concerned, they are, so what?

Presbyterian Legislative Committee chair, Nancy Olthoff, says the decision doesn't alter the church's theological position, but merely "provides an educational resource to enhance the spiritual life of our membership."

I have some bad news for you, Nancy. God's Word is not subject to committee review. You might want to reflect on that for a while.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

RE: Sexist Trinity?

"Lover, Beloved, Love" is a pretty good way to explain it to those who may not get it otherwise. So what?

N. Korea’s heir apparent follows Eric Clapton on tour in Germany

World Tribune

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il's son and heir apparent, Kim Jong-Chol, toured Germany earlier this month to see concerts by rock star Eric Clapton.

...Seoul's Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Jong-Chol traveled to France and other European countries earlier this month to visit a hospital. Jong-Chol reportedly suffers from a rare illness that results in his body producing excessive amounts of female hormones.

Sexist Trinity?

Fox News

The Presbyterian National Assembly has agreed to allow churches to change how they refer to the holy Christian Trinity of "Father, Son and Holy Spirit" — because the traditional phrasing promotes men as superior to women.

Some "alternative phrasings" proposed by the church? "Mother, Child and Womb," "Rock, Redeemer and Friend," and "Lover, Beloved, Love."

Presbyterian Legislative Committee chair, Nancy Olthoff, says the decision doesn't alter the church's theological position, but merely "provides an educational resource to enhance the spiritual life of our membership."

NASA Safety Chief Comes Out Against Discovery Launch

Fox News

WASHINGTON —
NASA's top safety official objected to the agency's decision to press ahead with the launch of Discovery next month without fixing a potentially catastrophic foam-shedding problem, but said he won't appeal — and won't resign in protest — because he does not believe the shuttle astronauts' lives are in danger.

Murtha's Fuzzy Math

Congressman Murtha is free to spin the absurd notion of pulling out of Iraq as a simple "change of direction" as he did yesterday, but at least he could do it without misstatements and mischaracterizations.

Tom Bevan

Wednesday Funnies :-)

David Letterman: "Top Signs New York City Is Becoming More Polite": After selling a hot dog, vendors share helpful food poisoning remedies; Batteries thrown by New York Yankees fans are the environmentally-friendly rechargeable kind; Muggers say, "May I?" before gutting you like a carp; Cab drivers no longer curse and give the finger at the same time; Two words: complimentary rats; "Thank you" always follows, "Do as I say and no one gets hurt"; Number of motorists who stop at red lights is up to 8%.

Jay Leno: President Bush went to Iraq to boost the new government. That shows how rough the situation is in Iraq when a guy with a 30% approval rating stops by to give you a boost. ... President Bush sneaked into Iraq without any formal paperwork, which I guess would make him an undocumented leader. ... President Bush returned safely from his surprise trip to Iraq. A lot of people criticize him, saying he was only in Iraq for five hours. Hey, it's still five hours longer than the French were there. ... Democrats are refusing to give President Bush any credit for killing al-Zarqawi. Like today Al Gore blamed it on global warming. And John Kerry said of the two 500 pound bombs that hit the safe house, he voted for the first bomb—not the second one. ... Gore said they could have gotten the same job done with one hybrid mini bomb that runs on vegetable oil. Less pollution. ... What's the difference between al-Zarqawi and Patrick Kennedy? Patrick Kennedy will get bombed again. ... Remember those $1,000 credit cards given to the victims of Hurricane Katrina? Congressional investigators now say FEMA was conned out of over $1.4 billion in bogus claims. Imagine how much worse it would have been if FEMA had actually gotten there on time? ... Congress is outraged by these bogus claims. Congress said, "If people want to break the law and steal taxpayer money, hey, get elected to Congress like everybody else."... Bill Clinton said it is now recognized that he and Al Gore were right about global warming. Get the feeling right now Gore is going, "We?" The only thing Clinton thought was hot back in the '90s was Paula Jones.

Life In Iraq

As published by The Washington Post:

FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 5042
INFO IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS BAGHDAD 001992

SUBJECT:
Snapshots from the Office: Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord

SENSITIVE


Interesting stuff. As the person who forwarded this link to me stated, this report on the sad state of life in Iraq can't be attributed to 'the mainstream media.'

Direct democracy

Steve opines: Democracy itself is a pathetic form of government, but direct democracy is suicide. The people of South Dakota voted their representatives into office. That meant they were giving their consent to be governed by those representatives. Voter confirmation of legislative issues effectively negates the power of elected representatives to perform the very duties they were elected to carry out.

This is what representatives do when they don't want to tackle an issue they consider tough and/or controversial: They put it up for a referendum. Elected officials just need to stick to their principles and vote their conscience.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

RE: South Dakota abortion law to go before voters Nov. 7

Here is an excellent example of why our republic will not survive another century, maybe not even a few more decades. And it has nothing to do directly with abortion.

Democracy itself is a pathetic form of government, but direct democracy is suicide. The people of South Dakota voted their representatives into office. That meant they were giving their consent to be governed by those representatives. Voter confirmation of legislative issues effectively negates the power of elected representatives to perform the very duties they were elected to carry out. They will forever have to second-guess the voters and good government will fall to the whims of public opinion. The rule of law collapses before the arbitrary marketing initiatives of the special interest.

Kalifornia has already fallen to direct democracy and I think New York is not far behind. Several states have moved to overcome the electoral college. As the states collapse into this black pit, the future of our republic crumbles alongside. Tyranny cannot be far behind.

South Dakota abortion law to go before voters Nov. 7

Winston-Salem Journal

PIERRE, S.D. -
Voters will have the final say on South Dakota's new law that bans almost all abortions.

Secretary of State Chris Nelson said yesterday that the law's opponents had collected enough signatures to put a question on the Nov. 7 ballot asking voters if the law should go into effect or be dumped.

The state's abortion law, among the strictest in the nation, bans the procedure in all cases except when necessary to save a woman's life, with no exceptions for rape or incest.