Heck, let them keep on killing each other -- then let the Israelis come in and take out the rest of the murderous scum.

Gunmen of the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah sharply escalated their fight for supremacy on Tuesday, with Hamas taking over much of the northern Gaza Strip in what began to look increasingly like a civil war.

Five days of revenge attacks on individuals — including executions, kneecappings and even tossing handcuffed prisoners off tall apartment towers — on Tuesday turned into something larger and more organized: attacks on symbols of power and the deployment of military units. About 25 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 wounded, Palestinian medics said.

In one Hamas attack on a Fatah security headquarters in northern Gaza near Jabaliya Camp, at least 21 Palestinians were reported killed and another 60 wounded, said Moaweya Hassanein of the Palestinian Health Ministry.

After a senior Fatah leader in northern Gaza was killed Monday, FatahÂ’s elite Presidential Guards, who are being trained by the United States and its allies, fired rocket-propelled grenades at the house of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, in the Shati Refugee Camp near Gaza City.

An hour later, HamasÂ’s military wing fired four mortar shells at the presidential office compound of Mahmoud Abbas, of Fatah, who is in the West Bank, a Fatah spokesman, Tawfiq Abu Khoussa, said in a telephone interview.

“Hamas is seeking a military coup against the Palestinian Authority,” he said.

Hamas made a similar accusation against Fatah. Hamas, which has an Islamist ideology, demanded that security forces loyal to Fatah, the more nationalist and secular movement, abandon their positions in northern and central Gaza.

Let's remember, folks, that these two terrorist groups are part of the "unity government" of the Terrorstinian Anarchy. If this is their idea of unity, I fail to see how any reasonable individual can advocate giving the Palestinians a state of their own.

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Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, this does not strike me as particularly good news for the GOP in CD22.

From an email sent out by Harris County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill about a meeting held today for party activists involved in taking back CD22 for the GOP.

Paul Bettencourt, Harris County Tax Assessor/Collector, was invited to attend the meeting to discuss the demographics of the district and his future plans. At the meeting, Mr. Bettencourt stated: “I want to encourage an open primary for anyone who wants to serve the citizens of Congressional 22.” Mr. Bettencourt also stated that, at this time, he is not planning to run in CD22. (emphasis mine)

The decision of Paul Bettencourt not to run for Congress in CD22 is the most momentous thing to happen since the courts ruled that Tom DeLay could not be replaced n the ballot last summer. Bettencourt, if he were to run, would be the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination and take back the congressional seat in this overwhelmingly Republican district.

More At Texas Safety Forum, Professors R-Squared, Texas Politics

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One has to wonder, given that they've lost 90% of their members since 2001 and are primarily bankrolled by just two-dozen individuals.

Membership in the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has declined more than 90 percent since the 2001 terrorist attacks, Audrey Hudson will report in Tuesday's editions of The Washington Times.

According to tax documents obtained by The Times, the number of reported members spiraled down from more than 29,000 in 2000 to less than 1,700 in 2006, a loss of membership that caused the Muslim rights group's annual income from dues to drop from $732,765 in 2000, when yearly dues cost $25, to $58,750 last year, when the group charged $35.

The organization instead is relying on about two dozen individual donors a year to contribute the majority of the money for CAIR's budget, which reached nearly $3 million last year.

Word is that tomorrow we will learn the names of the organization's major contributors, courtesy of the FOIA request filed by the Washington Times. This could be interesting.

UPDATE: Cover-up? All donor names redacted by the IRS.

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This is an interesting development.

Apple said Monday that it would make its Safari Web browser available for Windows-based PCs, opening a new front in its rivalry with Microsoft.

The announcement came at the end of a presentation made by Steven P. Jobs, AppleÂ’s co-founder and chief executive, at the companyÂ’s annual World Wide Developers Conference. It indicates that Apple is increasingly confident in its ability to compete against MicrosoftÂ’s desktop computing monopoly.

I'm downloading the program to see how it works -- though it is still in beta rather than a final release. Still, given that Internet Explorer and most other Microsoft software is released with as many bugs as your average beta software, I don;'t see a problem with that. You can get it here.

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I think the teachers are really setting themselves up for trouble, defying a court order to end the strike. But IÂ’m always shocked by the level of ignorance shown by some folks in responding to calls for better salaries and benefits for teachers.

An ongoing strike pitting Quincy teachers against town officials escalated yesterday, as parents complained their family summer plans are being thrown into turmoil.

Teachers vowed to ignore a court order forcing them back to work today. School officials canceled another day of school as talks with the teachersÂ’ union stalled again last night.

“This is splitting the city in two. People have a lot of opinions about this,” said parent Kelly Tinney, who said she backs the teachers even though she had to switch shifts at work to care for her 9-year-old daughter.

Other parents arenÂ’t as forgiving.

“They only work 180 days a year and they get 90 percent of their health insurance paid,” said Saori Caruso, whose daughter attends Bernazzani Elementary. “My husband works a lot more and he has to pay nearly all of his health insurance.”

I always find it interesting when I hear arguments like Caruso’s – parents who are willing to spend inordinate amounts of money to get their child the latest luxury item, but think that they should pay their child’s teachers on the cheap.

I also find this comment a bit silly as well.

Outside City Hall, parent Roberta Lee said of the teachers, “If they want to do this, why can’t they do it during the off season so the parents don’t have to find day care and the kids can finish the year? It’s not right.”

Let’s think here for a minute – strike during summer vacation would have what impact, exactly? No one would notice, because the kids would be out of school. You wouldn’t care or have to think about the issues because you wouldn’t be inconvenienced in any way. A strike during the school year, however, sort of makes you think about how much value you place on what these teachers do for you and your children, doesn’t it? Do you think that might just be the reason why the strike is occurring now and not in July?

Of course, I’m not a big fan of strikes by public employees or of unions in general. And personally, I’m pretty impressed by the pay and benefits offered by the schools up there in Massachusetts, compared to what we get down here in Texas. Since I’m off school for the summer, I’d be glad to come up and teach for you for a couple of weeks – and would even be open to staying on permanently. So if there is anyone from the Quincy school district personnel department reading this, feel free to send me an email with an offer of employment.

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Here's an interesting discussion of a fun cultural issue -- do diamond engagement rings really serve a legitimate purpose in our day and age?

But there's a powerful case to be made that in an age of equitable marriage the engagement ring is an outmoded commodity—starting with the obvious fact that only the woman gets one. The diamond ring is the site of retrograde fantasies about gender roles. What makes it pernicious—as opposed to tackily fun—is its cost (these days you don't need just a diamond; you need a good diamond), its dubious origins, and the cynical blandishments of TV and print ads designed to suggest a ring's allure through the crassest of stereotypes. Case in point: An American couple stands in a plaza in Europe. The man shouts, "I love this woman!" The woman appears mortified. He then pulls out a diamond ring and offers it to her. She says, in heartfelt tones, "I love this man." And you've probably noticed that these days diamonds really are forever: Men are informed that their beautiful wife needs a "Twenty-Fifth Anniversary" ring (note this ad's reduction of a life to copulation and child-rearing), and single women are told not to wait around for guys but to go ahead and get themselves a "right-finger ring." Live to be 100 and a woman of a certain class might find her entire hand crusted over with diamonds. A diamond company, you see, is unrelenting. In their parlance, "the desire is there; we just want to breathe more life into it."

But the desire wasn't always there. In fact, the "tradition" of the diamond engagement ring is newer than you might think. Betrothal rings, a custom inherited from the Romans, became an increasingly common part of the Christian tradition in the 13th century. The first known diamond engagement ring was commissioned for Mary of Burgundy by the Archduke Maximilian of Austria in 1477. The Victorians exchanged "regards" rings set with birthstones. But it wasn't until the late 19th century, after the discovery of mines in South Africa drove the price of diamonds down, that Americans regularly began to give (or receive) diamond engagement rings. (Before that, some betrothed women got thimbles instead of rings.) Even then, the real blingfest didn't get going until the 1930s, when—dim the lights, strike up the violins, and cue entrance—the De Beers diamond company decided it was time to take action against the American public.

I got off easy on this one.

My darling wife and I, early in our dating, had seen an amethyst ring while out shopping, and she mentioned how she loved amethyst more than any other stone because purple is her favorite color. The ring itself had beautiful stained-glass window cut-outs on the side that were backed with more amethyst -- and since we were both seminary students that had a special meaning to us both. Lastly, the amethyst is my birthstone, which added to the significance.

When, some months later, we began talking about marriage, there was never any doubt in my mind about what ring I would get her -- and the fact that she mentioned the ring in another context around the same time served as confirmation that my decision was the right one. It came as something of a surprise to her when I slipped it on her finger -- and she assured me that no other ring would have moved her more. To this day, her friends still say that they envy her for having an engagement ring that MEANS something rather than simply fulfills the social expectation of a diamond solitaire.

But Meghan O'Rourke does raise a really interesting question as well -- in a day and age when women usually work and we are confronted with insistence upon gender equality and equity, does I make sense for a man to go into hock to buy several thousand dollars worth of diamond while the woman in return gives him . . . nothing? Are we really dealing with a relic of a sexist, patriarchal view of the world that needs to be abolished? Come on, feminists -- speak up!

Posted by: Greg at 02:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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1 This feminist says yes, perhaps, but it's also about the way we (Americans? humans?) allow corporations to control our desires.

I doubt many women would look deep inside and decide that owning a sparkly little rock is more important to them than the lives/limbs of African children (or even just being debt-free). You hit the nail on the head as far as where that pressure comes from -- DeBeers. Advertising. Being told constantly that if she is a worthwhile woman, she must be given diamonds (post hoc ergo propter hoc, if she doesn't have diamonds, she's not worthwhile.) And you men have your own advertising mine-field to navigate, mostly full of cars as far as I can tell.

I wish we would all take time to evaluate our desires before indulging them... we have come to resemble a nation of infants, in many respects. Would truly mature people put themselves deeply into debt for something useless but shiny?

Posted by: Elizabeth at Tue Jun 12 11:06:31 2007 (TsRMu)

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Frankly, I don't see there being much likelihood of conservatives bolting the party if Rudy gets the GOP nomination, despite the premise of this article.

A growing number of influential social conservatives are speaking out against Rudy Giuliani, with some threatening that they will take flight from the Republican Party in 2008 if the former New York mayor is the GOP nominee.

Giuliani's support for abortion rights and gay rights has not to date prevented him from winning the support of a sizable number of socially conservative voters, according to polls. But the continued strength of his candidacy is causing alarm among leaders of conservative advocacy groups, many of which have been major players in Republican politics.

Why don't I see this happening? Simple -- I don't see Rudy being on the GOP ticket in 2008, and certainly not in the top spot. He's going to the convention with a bunch of delegates, but not enough to win. And if we end up with some sort of brokered convention, my guess will be that we get a Romney-Thompson or Thompson-Romney ticket -- with Rudy offered the AG spot and an eventual Supreme Court seat and McCain installed as Secretary of Defense.

But let's assume for a minute that we are going to see Giuliani at the head of a GOP ticket -- what then? Are these conservatives really going to stay home or vote for a third-party ticket when the result will be the election fo a president much more hostile to their values? Will President Hillary Clinton, President Barack Obama, or President John Edwards really help advance the pro-life, pro-family agenda more than President Rudy Giuliani? I'd like to think that these folks will recognize that the impact of that third-party vote would be infinitely worse that the impact for a vote for Rudy and a GOP Congress.

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Before transferring to be closer to home, I spent my first two years of college at a school with a strong honor code that forbade cheating. I thought that was great -- but every year we had students expelled for violating the honor code. I really wonder how much impact this new proposal from the TEA will have on the problem of TAKS cheating.

Students will be asked to sign honor pledges next year that they will not cheat on the state's high-stakes test, and school districts could suffer lower ratings if cheating is found, education officials said Monday.

Frankly, I don't know that having the kids sign honor pledges imposed from outside will have any impact on a kid bound and determined to cheat. But i do like this idea.

They'll also use several test versions in the same classroom, making it harder for a student to look over someone's shoulder and make cheating easier to spot if they do, because all seats will be assigned.

Having multiple versions in the same classroom only makes sense, in my book -- and my school has already implemented the assigned seats model and had encouraged it even before it was a mandate.

But for all the talk of "widespread cheating" on the test, the statistics do not really bear that out.

The education agency has been battling allegations of widespread cheating on standardized tests for the past 2 1/2 years. In 2006, Utah-based Caveon Test Security was hired to conduct a study of test scores, and flagged about 700 Texas schools for irregularities.

State investigations cleared most of the schools of cheating allegations. But 16, including four Houston charter schools, remain on the list of campuses with testing irregularities.

In a state the size of Texas, 16 schools is not that significant. And as is pointed out by one school administrator, the initial group of 700 schools got flagged for doing the thing that the tests were supposed to encourage -- improve student performance.

However, Gonzalez said he hopes TEA has a better independent audit than the one done by Caveon. Those flagged schools were publicly named before local officials had a chance to review and contest the data even though the vast majority were cleared.

"They dinged you if your scores were too good even if it was from all the tutorials and steps we took to help kids do better," he said.

In other words, finding a program that works was initially deemed evidence of cheating by the company hired to do the reviews. If such a standard is applied this year, I can only imagine how my school's leap in math scores will be interpreted -- even though it can be accounted for by changes in scheduling, class size, methodology and resources allotted to the math department.

Of course, I personally believe the TAKS test to be a joke. I don't believe it shows what it claims to show, and doesn't measure what it claims to measure. maybe, just maybe, the impending change to end-of-course tests will fix that problem.

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While I can understand the need and the desire to keep anyone affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood out of power, this is not the way to do it.

Egyptian security forces barred voters from entering polling centers in opposition areas Monday during the first national elections since the U.S.-backed government of President Hosni Mubarak pushed through constitutional changes that analysts say were intended to keep the Muslim Brotherhood from power.

In Awseem, a dusty town north of Cairo that is a Brotherhood stronghold, security officers lined up behind chest-high plastic riot shields to block all entrances to a locked polling place. Officers clenching automatic rifles alongside a row of police wagons effectively sealed off another voting site.

Residents in other towns around Egypt on Monday complained of police turning them from the polls and occasionally beating them. One person was killed in election-related violence, the Associated Press reported.

In areas loyal to Mubarak's National Democratic Party, voters surged into polling sites. In Bortos, also north of Cairo, a girl of 15 said she cast a ballot for the NDP, and children who appeared much younger than the voting age of 18 waved fingers stained with the pink ink used to mark ballots and boasted that they had voted.

Given other infringements on civil liberties in Egypt (restrictions on the rights of the Copts, prosecution of anti-government bloggers), this goes a long way to show just how unacceptable the Mubarak regime really is. Are we really improving the situation in the region by backing such a farcical election?

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Maybe we'll luck out and they will wipe out their entire breed of terrorist scum.

Gunmen reportedly fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the home of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya of Hamas today as the worst factional fighting among Palestinians in nearly a month appeared to intensify.

Earlier today, mortar shells hit the Gaza City office of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, the Associated Press reported. No one was hurt in the two attacks, according to the A.P.

The prime ministerÂ’s home and office had come under attack on Monday when violence elsewhere in Gaza left at least nine dead. The death toll on Monday made it the bloodiest day since a fierce two-week bout of internal violence ended in mid-May, and the number of dead appeared to rise again on Tuesday, with the A.P. reporting the death toll over the two days of violence now at 18.

The latest fighting has erupted despite a cease-fire that was supposed to come into force on Monday morning.

Now imagine that -- they violated a cease-fire. Sort of like they have every time there is supposed to be a cease-fire with Israel. When will the world recognize that the problem is not the Jews -- it is the Arabs.

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What do I think they need to do with the cash? Well, I personally want to see them use it to increase the client base of PPP, which will certainly put money in both their pockets and in the pockets of bloggers like me. After all, the more they can get folks to advertise on blogs -- especially as they have begun to get movie studios and a band like the Police to do, the more opportunities there are for me to make more and bigger money as the business grows. And as much as I like some of the great promos out there, like this one, HD Tuesdays and Oppapalooza, I’d still rather see more and higher paying opportunities directed towards those of us with a Google Page Rank of 5, not just the ones that are tantalizingly out of reach for PR 6 & 7 bloggers. Still, whatever happens is bound to help me and the rest of the regular posties out while helping their bottom line and the high level of blog ethics they encourage.

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Will Muslims riot against the terrorists?

NAIROBI - The Kenyan capital was rocked Monday by a bomb blast thought to be the work of a suicide bomber who blew himself to bits while clutching a copy of the Koran, injuring dozens of people.

“It was a bomb explosion and body parts have been thrown apart,” policeman Gabriel Omondi told AFP after the blast in front of the crowded City Gate restaurant on Moi Avenue, one of Nairobi’s main streets.

When false rumors circulate of Koran desecrations by American troops, Muslims riot. When false accusations claim a Koran has been desecrated by a Christian , that Christian often ends up dead in a mob action. So will there be a similar response to blowing up a Koran as part of a suicide bombing? Or do Muslim terrorists who desecrate the Koran during their acts of violence get a pass?

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Kudos to Mort Zuckerman for reminding the world that Palestinian terrorism pre-dates the Six-Day War.

The Palestine Liberation Organization, created three years before the Six-Day War, was dedicated to taking back all of Palestine from the hated Jews. We forget that the PLO carried out terrorist attacks in 1964, 1965, and 1966, when Israel was in possession of no occupied territories whatsoever. We forget that a victorious Israel immediately offered to return Sinai to Egypt and the Golan to Syria, only to be met with the Arab League's famous three "nos": no peace, no recognition, and no negotiation. If the Palestinians had wanted a viable state of their own, they could have had it long ago.

As yet another "peace plan" is being prepared to back Israel into a corner and give the Palestinians a baseline from which to start negotiating (for each new proposal giving them more becomes their new minimum standard in negotiations), the fundamental reality needs to be dealt with -- until the Palestinians are willing to fully and unambiguously recognize the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish state, any attempt to create a Palestinian state serves only to empower Israel's enemies and undermine her security.

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Every study proves it. And the quicker it is implemented, the more lives it saves.

Among the conclusions:

• Each execution deters an average of 18 murders, according to a 2003 nationwide study by professors at Emory University. (Other studies have estimated the deterred murders per execution at three, five and 14).

• The Illinois moratorium on executions in 2000 led to 150 additional homicides over four years following, according to a 2006 study by professors at the University of Houston.

• Speeding up executions would strengthen the deterrent effect. For every 2.75 years cut from time spent on death row, one murder would be prevented, according to a 2004 study by an Emory University professor.

And for all the folks criticizing the studies, there has not been a single study to show that they are wrong. People just don't like the outcome.

And this also overlooks the other important issue -- no one who is executed ever commits another murder, while those sentenced to life without parole or a lesser sentence have the capacity to (and, indeed, have) kill fellow inmates and/or guards at the facility where they are incarcerated. After all, how much deterrent effect is there in sentencing an individual serving a life sentence to another life sentence?

Now this is not to say that we should rush to execute anybody, or that we should lower procedural safeguards. However, it does indicate that eliminating the death penalty results in a greater death toll.

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Have we descended so far into the depths of pro-abortion political correctness that using the word "baby" is now forbidden?

A full-term fetus was found in a southwest Houston apartment Sunday after the mother went to the hospital, police said. Nurses at Ben Taub General Hospital became suspicious when the woman arrived there about 8 a.m., police said.

"It looked as if she had just given birth," said John Cannon, an HPD spokesman.

Hospital workers called police when the woman denied having a baby. Officers found the fetus inside the apartment in the 5100 block of South Willow.

Although the fetus appeared fully developed, HPD investigators couldn't say whether it was the result of a miscarriage or had been born.

"We'll have to wait on the medical examiners to rule on what happened, exactly, to the baby," said Sgt. Bobby Roberts, with HPD's homicide division.

The mother, about 23, was still at the hospital later Sunday, where detectives expected to question her again. They also want to speak with the father.

If we are talking about a "full-term fetus", then miscarriage is not an option. What we have is either a live-birth or a still-birth of a BABY! Why can't the Houston Chronicle have the decency to acknowledge as much?

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Yeah, that's right -- what goes up does, indeed, come down -- including the price of filling your tank and taking a drive.

Gas prices are down for the first time since January, according to a national survey released Sunday.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline has dropped more than 7 cents in the past three weeks, to $3.11, the survey found.

Drivers in Jackson, Mississippi, are getting the best deal at $2.87 per gallon. Chicago drivers are paying the most -- $3.61.

The Lundberg Survey of about 5,000 gas stations was carried out June 8 and May 18.

When the average price of gasoline hit $3.18 in May, it was the highest price ever recorded, even when adjusted for inflation, according to a previous Lundberg survey.

The 7.37-cent drop comes nowhere near offsetting the $1.00 rise in the price of gas that occurred between January 19 and May 18, said survey publisher Trilby Lundberg.

"It's unlikely we can see the other 93 cents any time soon," she told CNN in a telephone interview.

Most of that 7-cents-relief came from lower prices charged for gas produced in refineries outside the United States, she said.

"Some of our domestic refining capacity is still just limping along, after at least four months of extraordinary down time," she said, citing seasonal maintenance and more than 30 other events "that were beyond ordinary seasonal tune-ups," including fires and explosions.

The nation's refineries are operating at 89.6 percent capacity, down about 6 points from normal, she said.

And I agree that we are unlikely to see the other 93 cents in the near term, but i wouldn't be surprised to see the prices drop some more -- around here I'm paying $2.89 -- I wouldn't be surprised to see $2.50 to $2.75 before the summer has ended.

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Why on earth would the LA Times run a column about a Mormon presidential candidate by an anti-Mormon writer who is trying to drum up sales of her anti-Mormon book and the anti-Mormon movie based upon it? That is my question after reading this piece by Sally Denton -- which does nothing but rehash a 150-year-old atrocity and long-repudiated Mormon doctrines while expressing skepticism (which I share) about Joseph Smith, the founder of the LDS Church.

Particularly disturbing is this paragraph.

Still, is it fair or legitimate to hold Mitt Romney accountable for dark deeds committed many years ago by the church to which he belongs? If we start down that road, where does it lead? Shall we, for instance, burden Bill Richardson with the Inquisition because he is a member of the Catholic Church?

It's not a church's eccentric past that makes a candidate's religion relevant today, but its contemporary doctrines. (And it's worth noting that polygamy and blood atonement, among other practices, are no longer condoned by the official Mormon church hierarchy.)

The problem -- Denton never bothers to mention a single contemporary doctrine that Romney should be held responsible for or required to answer for. Indeed, she never even bothers to explain why Romney should have to answer for those doctrines at all. Rather, she prefers to tar Romney with the "eccentric past" that she claims is not relevant today and hints at something nefarious in the contemporary faith. Indeed, she brings up only one question that Romney needs to answer.

In the end, it seems less a candidate's religion that concerns Americans and more an apprehension of fundamentalist fanaticism and a fear that the separation of church and state is becoming murky. As for Romney and Mormonism, there seems only one legitimate and relevant question: Do you, like the prophet you follow, believe in a theocratic nation state? All the rest is pyrotechnics.

Interestingly enough, Denton's question does not refer to any contemporary teaching, but to that very history that she claims should be irrelevant! So which is it, Sally -- is Romney responsible for the past of the LDS Church and every past statement by Mormon leaders or not?

Of course, as she raises the specter of Mormon theocracy, Denton neatly ignores this statement from the LDS Church itself on the issue of church political neutrality -- because bringing mentioning the statement would destroy the entire premise of her argument. As such, its exclusion instead neatly demonstrates her bigotry, ill-will, and dishonesty.

H/T Captain's Quarters

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Posted by: Greg at 09:27 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Just a little reminder from George Will.

In the 102 quarters since Ronald Reagan's tax cuts went into effect more than 25 years ago, there have been 96 quarters of growth. Since the Bush tax cuts and the current expansion began, the economy's growth has averaged 3 percent per quarter, and more than 8 million jobs have been created. The deficit as a percentage of gross domestic product is below the post-World War II average.

So, why would any sensible American want to vote for a Democrat?

And remember -- this is what happens when the Bush tax cuts expire.

Twenty-three months after the next president is inaugurated, the Bush tax cuts expire. The winner of the 2008 election and her or his congressional allies will determine what is done about the fact that, unless action is taken, in 2011 the economy will be walloped:

The five income tax brackets (10, 25, 28, 33 and 35 percent) will be increased 50, 12, 10.7, 9.1 and 13.1 percent, respectively, to 15, 28, 31, 36 and 39.6 percent. The child tax credit reverts to $500 from $1,000. The estate tax rate, which falls to zero in 2009, will snap back to a 60 percent maximum, and exemptions that have increased will decrease. The capital gains rate will rise, and the marriage penalty will be revived, as will the double taxation of dividends.

Furthermore, the alternative minimum tax was enacted by Democratic moralists in 1969 because 21 millionaires had legally avoided paying any income tax. The AMT, which allows almost no deductions, had one rate (24 percent) until 1993, when Democrats replaced it with two (26 percent and 28 percent). It has never been indexed for inflation and in the current tax year will hit almost one in five households -- 23 million of them.

Interesting, isn't it, that the group seeing the largest tax increase when the "tax cuts for the rich" expire during the next presidential term will be those making the least? And I wonder how many of those low income Americans removed from the tax rolls completely by the Bush "tax cuts for the rich" will find themselves once again required to pay income taxes with the return to Clinton-era tax policies?

Still, the Democrats want to insist that putting them in power means that "Happy Days Are here Again" -- but I would contend that will be the case only if you believe that the dark days of the Great Depression was a time of joy for Americans

Posted by: Greg at 07:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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To the degree this keeps guns out of the hands of the truly mentally ill, I don't have a particular problem with this agreement between two adversaries.

Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date, as well as penalties for failing to comply.

To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions from Democratic negotiators in weeks of painstaking talks. Individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records. The federal government would be permanently barred from charging gun buyers or sellers a fee for their background checks. In addition, faulty records such as duplicative names or expunged convictions would have to be scrubbed from the database.

"The NRA worked diligently with the concerns of gun owners and law enforcement in mind to make a . . . system that's better for gun owners and better for law enforcement," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell (D-Mich.), a former NRA board member, who led the talks.

My questions:

1) How difficult will it be for victims of faulty information to correct it?

2) How long will purchase records be retained by the government?

I'm also concerned about the issue of allowing folks with minor infractions to be removed from the database. I'd personally like to see such a program expanded to include those convicted of non-violent felonies -- why should a conviction for tax evasion, for example, be the basis for losing the right to keep and bear arms?

However, this agreement does seem to be a reasonable step towards public safety -- but we must remain vigilant lest it become one more effort to unnecessarily restrict a liberty enshrined in the Constitution.

Posted by: Greg at 07:26 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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We know that the jihadi pigs have their own twisted sense of honor, but this article is chilling right from the beginning.

We were in a small house in Zarqa, Jordan, trying to interview two heavily bearded Islamic militants about their distribution of recruitment videos when one of us asked one too many questions.

“He’s American?” one of the militants growled. “Let’s kidnap and kill him.”

The room fell silent. But before anyone could act on this impulse, the rules of jihadi etiquette kicked in. You canÂ’t just slaughter a visitor, militants are taught by sympathetic Islamic scholars. You need permission from whoever arranges the meeting. And in this case, the arranger who helped us to meet this pair declined to sign off.

“He’s my guest,” Marwan Shehadeh, a Jordanian researcher, told the bearded men.

With Islamist violence brewing in various parts of the world, the set of rules that seek to guide and justify the killing that militants do is growing more complex.

What are the rules? Broadly speaking, Michael Moss and Souad Mekhennet identify the following.

Rule No. 1: You can kill bystanders without feeling a lot of guilt.
Rule No. 2: You can kill children, too, without needing to feel distress.
Rule No. 3: Sometimes, you can single out civilians for killing; bankers are an example.
Rule No. 4: You cannot kill in the country where you reside unless you were born there.
Rule No. 5: You can lie or hide your religion if you do this for jihad.
Rule No. 6. You may need to ask your parents for their consent.

These rules is each backed with an appropriate citation from the Quran, hadith, or sharia law. And some of what is put forward is chilling -- for example, having voted for the wrong political candidate makes an individual a combatant and therefore eligible for death under the Islamic Rules.

Maybe we need one rule for the Crusade Against Islamo-Fascist Jihad:

If it walks like a jihaid pig and talks like a jihadi pig and looks like a jihadi pig, it is a jihadi pig -- KILL IT.

And really, how can any sympathizer with jihad object? After all, if the victims are jihadis, they end up in paradise with 72 virgins. If they are an innocent, they end up in paradise with 72 virgins. What is there to complain about?

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Posted by: Greg at 07:15 AM | Comments (389) | Add Comment
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Following WWII, American troops stayed in Germany for a half century. We still have US troops in Japan, as well as Korea. I guess I've always sort of assumed that we would have a US troop presence in Iraq for the rest of my lifetime, and well beyond that. Indeed, my question is why anyone would be surprised.

U.S. military officials here are increasingly envisioning a "post-occupation" troop presence in Iraq that neither maintains current levels nor leads to a complete pullout, but aims for a smaller, longer-term force that would remain in the country for years.

This goal, drawn from recent interviews with more than 20 U.S. military officers and other officials here, including senior commanders, strategists and analysts, remains in the early planning stages. It is based on officials' assessment that a sharp drawdown of troops is likely to begin by the middle of next year, with roughly two-thirds of the current force of 150,000 moving out by late 2008 or early 2009. The questions officials are grappling with are not whether the U.S. presence will be cut, but how quickly, to what level and to what purpose.

One of the guiding principles, according to two officials here, is that the United States should leave Iraq more intelligently than it entered. Military officials, many of whom would be interviewed only on the condition of anonymity, say they are now assessing conditions more realistically, rejecting the "steady progress" mantra of their predecessors and recognizing that short-term political reconciliation in Iraq is unlikely. A reduction of troops, some officials argue, would demonstrate to anti-American factions that the occupation will not last forever while reassuring Iraqi allies that the United States does not intend to abandon the country.

The planning is shaped in part by logistical realities in Iraq. The immediate all-or-nothing debate in Washington over troop levels represents a false dilemma, some military officials said. Even if a total pullout is the goal, it could take a year to execute a full withdrawal. One official estimated that with only one major route from the country -- through southern Iraq to Kuwait -- it would take at least 3,000 large convoys some 10 months to remove U.S. military gear and personnel alone, not including the several thousand combat vehicles that would be needed to protect such an operation.

"We're not going to go from where we're at now to zero overnight," said Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the U.S. commander for day-to-day operations in Iraq.

Indeed, what we are talking about is a force that will be equal to what we had in Korea for decades -- around 40,000. Of the proposed force remaining in Iraq, 10,000 would be there to help train the Iraqi military, and I would imagine that these troops would be removed within 5-10 years as the Iraqis gain enough experience to train their own. Indeed, I suspect that the US force will be drawn down by 40-50% within 20 years -- but that we will maintain bases in the region for decades for strategic reasons.

Frankly, I don't know why anyone is surprised by the information in this story, and cannot imagine any but the most extreme members of the Left objecting -- you know, the US Out Of San Francisco crowd. For the rest of America -- those who believe in a sound military policy -- this news should be comforting.

Posted by: Greg at 06:51 AM | Comments (174) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Greg at 06:37 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are 3 Spies and Six Days by Soccer Dad, and Four Modest Proposals for Getting Out of Iraq by Dan Simmons.  Here is a link to the full results of the vote.

Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

Posted by: Greg at 06:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, with the Police now reunited and on their world tour, there is a lot of excitement among the group's fans. This is especially true with the release of the new Police cd containing so many of their greatest hits. Personally, I will always remain a fan of Roxanne, the song that introduced almost all of us to the group.

I was fortunate enough to get to see the group on their final tour before the big break-up back during my college years. A group of us made the drive from our college up to Chicago to see them. It was, as I recall, a wild night for the bunch of us. All in our early 20s, we were old enough to drink and so indulged a bit during the concert. However, one thing stood out from the other concerts for other bands that I had been to before -- this one was much more about the music than it was about the lights, video, and special effects emphasized by so many other bands. That made this concert very special -- the emphasis was not on showmanship as much as it was on artistry.

I'm looking forward to getting the new Police cd soon, and hope to be able to score some tickets for the concert here in Houston at the last minute (my wife was in the hospital when they went on sale -- and I do have my priorities straight). But even if I don't, the CD alone will feed my love of the band, Roxanne, and the rest of their wonderful music.

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Or at least some really strange medication side effects.

Doctors at Vancouver's St. Paul's Hospital came across something highly illogical when they tried to put an arterial line into a patient about to undergo surgery: his blood was dark green.

The green blood — reminiscent of the Vulcan blood found in Mr. Spock of Star Trek fame — came as a bit of a shock to Dr. Alana Flexman and her colleagues, who report on the unusual case in this week's issue of the journal The Lancet.

* * *

As surgical staff prepared the man for the middle-of-the-night emergency operation, Flexman and a colleague attempted to insert a line into a wrist artery.

Arterial lines are used to monitor blood pressure during an operation; any blood that flows when the line is inserted into the artery should be vivid red, the sign it has been oxygenated.

But in this case, which occurred in October 2005, it was not.

"During insertion, we normally see arterial blood come out. That's how we know we're in the right place. And normally that blood is bright red, as you would expect in an artery," Flexman said in an interview Thursday.

"But in his case, the blood kept coming back as dark green instead of bright red.

"It was sort of a green-black. Â… Like an avocado skin maybe."

The reaction in the room? "We were very concerned, obviously," said Flexman, who is training in anesthesia at the hospital.

Doctors suspect a reaction to the patient taking a larger than prescribed dose of a prescription medication.

Still, wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall when the blood started flowing out green? The response of the medical team must have been priceless.

Posted by: Greg at 03:38 AM | Comments (27) | Add Comment
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Indeed, the quote has only been known to be a fraud for over 100 years.

You can't really blame Al Gore for not using footnotes in his new book, "The Assault on Reason." It's a sprawling, untidy blast of indignation, and annotating it with footnotes would be like trying to slip rubber bands around a puddle of quicksilver. Still, I'd love to know where he found the scary quote from Abraham Lincoln that he uses on page 88.

In a chapter entitled "The Politics of Wealth," Gore argues that the ancient threat to democracy posed by rich people run amok has finally been realized under the man who beat him in the 2000 presidential race. Even Lincoln, Gore says, saw the age of Bush coming in 1864: "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."

* * *

Writing in 1999 in the Abraham Lincoln Association's newsletter, the great Lincoln historian Thomas F. Schwartz traced the bogus passage to the 1880s, about 20 years after Lincoln's death. One theory is that it first appeared in a pamphlet advertising patent medicines. Opponents of Gilded Age capitalism -- Gore's forerunners -- found the quote so useful that Lincoln's former White House secretaries felt compelled to launch a campaign "denouncing the forgery," Schwartz said. Robert Todd Lincoln, who was the president's only surviving son and himself a wealthy railroad lawyer, called it "an impudent invention" that ascribed to his father views that the former president would never have held.

"I discovered what I think is the true and only source of this supposed quotation," Robert wrote in an unpublished letter, probably tongue-in-cheek. "It originated, I think, at what is called a Spiritualist Séance in a country town in Iowa, a number of years ago, as being a communication by President Lincoln through what is called a Medium." Even bloggers might think twice about trusting such a source.

Well, maybe not left-wing bloggers.

And frankly, I'm shocked that the guy who invented created the Internet (happy now, Dan?) couldn't use it to do a better job fact-checking his book. Makes you wonder how much of the rest of his book is based upon pseudo-sources and lousy research.

Posted by: Greg at 03:29 AM | Comments (159) | Add Comment
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1 Too funny that you compain of someone else's research in the same sentence where you pass on a fabrication about Gore claiming to have invented the internet.  That kettle sure is black, isn't it?

Posted by: Dan at Sun Jun 10 07:51:36 2007 (IU21y)

2 Dan:

During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.

Your apology is accepted in advance.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 09:49:39 2007 (K/dGH)

3 If you'd like, though, I would be open to changing my wording to "the guy who created the Internet" instead.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 09:53:38 2007 (K/dGH)

4 it would be a refreshing change of pace for you to stop making up quotations - though I'll admit that a whole lot of people fell for the lie you're spreading here. A whole lot more than fell for your lie about Reid.

Claiming to have invented the internet is not the same as accurately claiming to have taking the congressional initiative in creating the internet,

Once again, you've been caught lying. Does it ever get tiring, spreading the lies and smears that ruin your credibility and undercut any shred of intellectual honesty?

Posted by: Dan at Sun Jun 10 14:31:55 2007 (IU21y)

5 Gee, Dan, I give you the quote and you still will not admit you are wrong.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 15:28:06 2007 (HNpfZ)

6 Besides -- where is it written that only Dan is allowed to engage in satire?

Or is it that the only satire that Dan can understand is Dan's own?

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Jun 10 15:32:46 2007 (HNpfZ)

7 RWR - Why would I admit I'm wrong, when the quotation you provided proved that I was right? He did not claim to have invented the internet, did he?

Are you now claiming that you were engaged in satire??

Posted by: Dan at Sun Jun 10 23:05:49 2007 (IU21y)

8 Dan -- the "inventing the internet" comment (which I have changed to meet your objection) was intended to satirize the Gore statement in which he takes credit for something which predates his service in Congress.

It was done to make a solid point -- for all his claims about his role in developing the "information superhighway", he (or his staffers who actually wrote the book) appears to have been incapable of using it for seem to have been incapable of doing the basic research necessary to document the quote. Where else was their research so sloppy.

And why do i expect an apology? Because "invent" and "create" in the sense of a technological development are not really all that different -- and I could document the basis of my satire with relative ease. But then again, you already knew the origin of my comment and attempted to deny it existed.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 01:02:25 2007 (eWgKt)

9 The lie that Al Gore claimed to singlehandedly create the internet has become a piece of net lore. In fact, Gore (as early as 1986) was instrumental in writing legislation and securing funding for creating what we know today as "the Web". Overstatement is common in politics (many still claim that Reagan singlehandedly brought down the Soviet Union!!! HAHAHA), but the basic truth is that Gore WAS instrumental in funding and creating the Web.

And, ummm, Gore doesn't have footnotes because he has ENDNOTES! The Lincoln quote comes from:

"88 "may prove groundless": Abraham Lincoln, "Letter to Col. William F. Elkins, Nov. 21, 1864," The Lincoln Encyclopedia, ed. Archer H. Shaw (New York: Macmillan, 1950) 40"

On every subject from evolution to global warming to sex ed to foreign policy, Republicans of today truly are "fact-challenged" !!

Why don't you go to "Conservapedia" and read about dinosaurs being vegetarians that existed concurrently with humans!!! LOL!

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 01:50:01 2007 (Sp9Z2)

10 Rhymes with Right??? Okay, I'll try:

Blight, Trite, Lite, Lack of foresight, Dustmite, Flea Bite, Toxic Waste Site. . .

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 01:57:36 2007 (Sp9Z2)

11 Actually, "Rhymes With Right" is the device I use to help my students pronounce my last name, you asshole.

And given Gore's claim to be the Daddy of the internet, you would think he (or the interns who wrote it for him) would use it to determine that the quote is spurious, as every reputable modern Lincoln scholar agrees. The source he cites is one riddled with inaccuracies, as Shaw took any quote attributed to Lincoln and included it.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 03:07:13 2007 (11sD7)

12 >>my last name, you asshole.

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 04:48:31 2007 (Sp9Z2)

13 Hey, I'll agree with you on the other Lincoln quote -- which I believe has been variously attributed over the years.

As for Reagan, I would be among those who argue that his policies helped drive the final nails into the coffin of the corrupt Soviet system and its empire of oppression -- but I would not give credit to him alone.

As for Gore and the internet, I'd like to point you to this article that pretty conclusively points out that Gore was hardly the creative impulse behind the internet. Yes, he sponsored a couple of bills -- but the internet was already coming into being without him.

And YOU ASSHOLE is my designation for you -- my name is only four letters long and begins with its only vowel

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 05:20:32 2007 (/BJv7)

14 >>And YOU ASSHOLE is my designation for you -- my name is only four letters long>As for Reagan, I would be among those who argue that his policies helped drive the final nails into the coffin of the corrupt Soviet system and its empire of oppression -- but I would not give credit to him alone.

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 05:37:54 2007 (Sp9Z2)

15 So, to sum up according to the article YOU reference. . .

The 'turning point" for the World Wide Web began with Mosaic, which was funded by Al GORE's "High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991". So, Al Gore was sort of a visionary who saw the potential of the internet BEFORE the World Wide Web (as we know it) existed.

How exactly does that "conclusively" point out that Gore was not a force in helping to fund the early internet?

BTW, there are also technology visionaries on the Republican side, like Sen "It's not a Big Truck, It's a Series of Tubes" Stevens, who headed the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation under the last Congress, which oversaw Internet commerce!!!

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 05:46:56 2007 (Sp9Z2)

16 Yes -- but to argue that Gore was the creator of the internet is like claiming that Eisenhower was the creator of the road because of his role in creating the Interstate Highway System. The Internet had already come into being as early as the 1970s, and had its woots in the 1950s and 1960s. Yes, Gore made a contribution, but hardly as significant as he (and you) would like to claim.

And as for my designation for you -- my site, my choice.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 07:40:25 2007 (rtzPv)

17 You're quite disingenuous, Mr. Dustmite. I (and Gore himself) never claimed that he invented the internet- this was a talking point from the Republicans which caught on in the MSM. Indeed, Gore WAS instrumental in funding what became the WWW and deserves his due credit, just as Eisenhower deserves credit for the Interstate Highway System.

Again, there are plenty of Wingnuts who give Reagan sole credit for the colapse of the Soviet Union. This is patently false- Gorbeshev himself (who deserves some credit himself) dismissed this 'theory'; Pope John Paul II also deserves a fair amount of credit, black market US goods, etc, etc. . . Reagan played his part (opening a dialogue with the Soviets WAS a contribution), but he wasn't as involved as much as his worshipers pretend. . .

At least now you're admitting that Gore's role in funding the Web and foreseeing its potential is MUCH GREATER than the GOP's talking points (which you thoughtlessly recycled) let on. At least you're making a LITTLE progress in critical thinking, Mr. Fleabite!

Republicans are a little slow, but eventually they'll catch on- even Rush LImbaugh is now admitting that smoking and cancer are correlated (something he denied for years)! Maybe someday they'll even believe in evolution, global warming, and other scientific consensuses!

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 08:07:50 2007 (Sp9Z2)

18 Just a quick couple of notes.

1) Reagan -- big contribution, but I put JPII and Thatcher well-ahead of Gorby. Indeed, I remain unconvinced that he was not a willing part of the 1991 coup attempt that finally brought down the SU after his reforms escaped his control.

2) Gore deserves more credit than he gets, but less than he claims -- none of which excuses his crappy research.

3) Evolution? Heck yes -- it is how the hand of God worked its way through creation.

4) Global warming -- undeniable -- but part of the normal cycle that has expressed itself over the last several millennia rather than induced by human beings. The consensus view is based not on sound science but rather on the logical fallacy that correlation equals causation.

5) Science -- generally for, but concerned about the direction some of it heads as ethics/morality has become more and more separated from the notion of absolutes.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 09:39:22 2007 (KHzUl)

19 Wow, Mr. Asstight, we actually agree on some of these things!

"Gore deserves more credit than he gets, but less than he claims -- none of which excuses his crappy research."

Well, I haven't read the book, so I don't know whether he makes it clear that there's doubt about the attribution of the quote. Reagan, as I mentioned previously, also misquoted Lincoln (but didn't write a book where the standards should be higher) However, there are a SLEW of right-wing book (Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly) with outright fabrications, mischaracterizations, and a complete lack of facts. This in NO WAY excuses poor research on Gore's part (assuming he makes no mention of the dispute over the Lincoln quote), but does prove that poor research is not just the domain of the left.

"Evolution? Heck yes -- it is how the hand of God worked its way through creation."

We agree, although it is not up to science to determine anything about the "hand of God". That is up to religion and out of the scientific realm.

"Global warming -- undeniable -- but part of the normal cycle that has expressed itself over the last several millennia rather than induced by human beings. The consensus view is based not on sound science but rather on the logical fallacy that correlation equals causation."

Are you sure about that? Are you completely positive (unlike over 90% of the scientific community) that human being DON'T play a part in GW? It seems to me that up until recently the Right was denying the existance of GW, but now the meme is "it's not caused by human activity". . . It SURE SEEMS like there is an undeniable link between atmospheric CO2 and temperature over the last 650,000 years! Do you think that warmer temperatures CAUSE more CO2? Or is it mere coincidence? (Up until the 1980s, the Right Wing was saying the same exact thing about smoking- "you're confusing correlation with causation"; most of them have 'come around' now)

"Science -- generally for, but concerned about the direction some of it heads as ethics/morality has become more and more separated from the notion of absolutes."

Huh? Again, aren't 'absolutes' the domain of RELIGION? How can science study 'absolutes'? Wouldn't that also forbid the development of things which COULD be used for 'evil' (like television, guns, nuclear weapons, etc)??? Furthermore, if we used religion and absolutes to describe everything scientific, we would have VERY convoluted equations for the 'Theory of Gravity" , the "Theory of Relativity", etc (ie things fall at such a rate WHEN GOD wants them to, otherwise they don't)

Glad to see, though, that we are in general agreement Mr. Wastesite.

Posted by: coulterfan at Mon Jun 11 11:13:29 2007 (Sp9Z2)

20 You seem to have missed the fact that my last name is four letters long and starts with its only vowel.

I'll let some of your jibes go -- but will point out that my teaching field is History, and so part of that has included the ebb and flow of climate change and its effects on mankind. When you see the climate doing more or less what it has always done for thousands of years, you are faced with only one reasonable conclusion -- that what is happening is part of the natural cycle. To claim that THIS TIME, unlike all the other times, it has a different cause is not terribly logical, is it?

And you miss my point on the problem of science and ethics/morality -- it isn't that we shouldn't do anything that could be used for evil, but rather that there are means in and of themselves that are evil that we should not be using. My model for that problem is Dr. Mengele -- who fetal stem cell researchers would do well to remember.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jun 11 11:38:11 2007 (KHzUl)

21 >>but will point out that my teaching field is History, and so part of that has included the ebb and flow of climate change and its effects on mankind. When you see the climate doing more or less what it has always done for thousands of years, you are faced with only one reasonable conclusion -- that what is happening is part of the natural cycle. To claim that THIS TIME, unlike all the other times, it has a different cause is not terribly logical, is it?>My model for that problem is Dr. Mengele -- who fetal stem cell researchers would do well to remember.

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Maybe -- if the president and the bill's supporters in the Senate have their way.

Proponents of the immigration bill that stalled in the Senate regrouped Friday, holding strategy sessions and conference calls aimed at salvaging the overhaul.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and other key negotiators said they would return soon to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) with a plan to move the bill toward passage.

The challenge is to whittle a lengthy list of amendments down to about 20, convince Republican critics that they are getting adequate opportunity to air their concerns and spend only two or three days of the Senate floor time to complete the bill, senators said.

“We are not giving up. We are not giving in,” Kennedy said. “The American people expect us to legislate. I think all of us look at the Senate the old-fashioned way: We are here to get something done.”

Kyl said they “have already begun the process of figuring how to get this back together and concluded in the next few weeks.”

And Reid signaled again Friday that he would accommodate them. “We are committed to finding room in the Senate schedule as soon as possible to get this bill passed,” said Reid’s spokesman, Jim Manley.

President Bush, who has staked his domestic agenda on immigration, will go to the Capitol Tuesday to meet with Senate Republicans during their weekly policy luncheon. And Saturday he will appeal to Congress in his weekly radio address.

“I urge senators from both parties to support it,” Bush said in an early transcript released by the White House.

The Kennedy quote indicates a fundamental flaw with the approach of the bill's supporters -- the notion that they are expected to pass some legislation is simply wrong. What is really expected of them is that they pass a good piece of legislation that actually solves the problems of border security and settles the illegal immigration problem once and for all. This piece of legislation will not do that -- and so the better course of action is to do nothing rather than allow a bad bill to become law.

Ultimately, the bill is probably doomed in the House, where teh bill faces bipartisan opposition.

Some House Democrats and Republicans declared the Bush-backed legislation dead, saying the only viable alternative would focus more heavily on tightening borders without granting lawful status to those who entered the country illegally.

"The Senate immigration bill was a deeply, deeply flawed proposal, and I'm glad it has finally landed in the political graveyard," said freshman Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Kan. "America needs enforcement, not amnesty."

"This bill is dead," said Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif. He called for new legislation "that does not grant amnesty" but focuses instead on border security and workplace enforcement.

Let's have a bill come out of the House of Representatives -- the People's House -- first, and have the Senate approve that and the President sign it. The current approach has failed.

Posted by: Greg at 02:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Who'd have expected this?

The highlight of President BushÂ’s European tour may well be his visit on Sunday to this tiny country, one of the few places left where he can bask in unabashed pro-American sentiment without a protester in sight.

Americans here are greeted with a refreshing adoration that feels as though it comes from another time.

“Albania is for sure the most pro-American country in Europe, maybe even in the world,” said Edi Rama, Tirana’s mayor and leader of the opposition Socialists. “Nowhere else can you find such respect and hospitality for the president of the United States. Even in Michigan, he wouldn’t be as welcome.”

Much of the pro-American sentiment stems from the time of Woodrow Wilson and his efforts to ensure that Albania would be an independent country. But I personally suspect that the Albanians, who suffered under what may have been the most oppressive regime behind the Iron Curtain, probably recognize that the US really is still the beacon of liberty for the world.

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Posted by: Greg at 02:17 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Could this be a sign of the eventual presidential contest?

In the the aftermath of this week's presidential debates in New Hampshire, Clinton and Romney come out on top in a new Mason-Dixon poll of likely primary voters there. Among likely Democratic primary voters, Clinton leads Obama, 26%-21%, with Edwards at 18%, Richardson at 9%, and Biden at 6%; no other Democratic presidential contender gets more than 1%.

Among likely GOP primary voters, Romney leads McCain, 27%-16%, followed by Giuliani at 15%, Fred Thompson at 12%, and Huckabee at 5%.

Romney is also quite strong in Iowa, while the other major candidates are abandoning the state by their refusal to participate in the Ames straw poll. If the former Massachusetts governor can win these two early contests, he could effectively shut the door on his GOP opponents. Granted that we are still early in the process and the impact of the Fred Thompson candidacy has not really been felt yet, but we may be seeing the beginning of the Mitt Romney charge to the head of the pack.

The question is -- faced with a Hillary Mitt race, which way would the American people go? Would they vote for the Mormon or the harridan.

Posted by: Greg at 02:08 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Well, he never had any support among the irreconcilable Democrats, who have been out to sink his presidency since before it ever began. And he has lost the support of many Americans, who have been led astray by the constant media focus on bad news in Iraq to the exclusion of the many positive developments there. And now he has alienated much of the GOP base by supporting the illegal immigration amnesty bill. Does this mean that Bush is irrelevant for the next 18 months?

The breakthrough on the “grand bargain” on immigration a few weeks ago had brought new life to a White House under siege, putting a long-sought goal suddenly within reach. After many grim months, there was almost giddiness at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

But that early euphoria only made the grand bargainÂ’s grand collapse on Thursday night all the more of a blow, pointing up a stubbornly unshakable dynamic for President Bush in the final 19 months of his term: With low approval ratings and the race to succeed him well under way, his ability to push his agenda has faded to the point where he can fairly be judged to have entered his lame duck period.

In all, 38 of the 48 Senate Republicans effectively voted against the White House on the crucial procedural vote on the immigration bill, leaving the presidentÂ’s No. 1 domestic priority somewhere between stalled and dead.

The White House has similarly been through a sharp reversal on the domestic politics of the Iraq war. After receiving a lift last month in the defeat of Democratic efforts to link war finances to Iraq withdrawal dates, the White House acknowledged Friday that it could not renominate Mr. BushÂ’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Peter Pace, because of expected opposition on Capitol Hill.

For a president whose muscular assertions of executive authority had overshadowed Congress for years, it was a striking indicator of how the balance of power in Washington has shifted away from him.

Sadly, I think it may be that this is the case. Having been abandoned by the white House on immigration, I find it hard to find any motivation to back the administration on anything other than the War in Iraq -- and that not because of Bush, but because of the essential security issues that would be compromised by failing to pursue victory.

Expect to see the GOP candidates for president run against the President as much as they do against the Democrats. After all, he has abandoned us -- why should we remain loyal to him?

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A much more worthy story about heroic people -- people who really deserve the respect of America's young people -- doing something for which they must be admired.

A patched-up Atlantis blasted off with seven astronauts Friday on the first space shuttle flight of 2007, putting NASA back on track after a run of bad luck and scandal that included a damaging hailstorm and a lurid love triangle.

Its big orange fuel tank covered with white blotches where the foam insulation had been repaired, the spaceship rose from its seaside launch pad with a roar and climbed into a clear and still-brightly lit sky at 7:38 p.m. EDT, setting a course for the international space station.

The countdown was nearly flawless, and the shuttle smoothly settled into orbit around the Earth.

During the 11-day flight, Atlantis' astronauts will deliver a new segment and a pair of solar panels to the orbiting outpost. They will also swap out a member of the space station's crew.

It was picture perfect -- though my wife and I always hold our breaths until we hear those haunting words -- "Go with throttle up" -- that we remember with great sadness from the doomed Challenger launch. No doubt we will do something similar 11 days from now.

Godspeed, crew of Shuttle Atlantis!

And best wishes to the crew from church who are working on this mission five miles down the road at JSC even as I type, and to everyone else associated with the space program and this mission (yes, including you, John C.). Your contributions to pushing back the "final frontier" are noted and appreciated deeply by this space geek.

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In jail, that is.

It didn't take long for the judge in this case to order Paris Hilton taken back into custody and returned to jail following her release contrary to his stipulated conditions.

A sobbing, shouting Paris Hilton was led from the courtroom Friday and ordered by a judge to return to jail to serve out the remainder of her 45-day sentence.

"It's not right," yelled Hilton, rising from her seat at the defendant's table.

"Mom! Mom! Mom!" she cried out to her mother, Kathy, who collapsed in tears in the front row of the courtroom.

Hilton, who was brought from her home to the court in handcuffs in a sheriff's car, entered the courtroom red-eyed and trembling, and she cried throughout the hour-long hearing, dabbing her face with tissues, biting her knuckles, and shaking her head. She sat slumped at the table throughout the proceeding, wearing a gray sweater, her blond hair pinned up.

Guess what. Paris -- welcome to how the other 99.9% of Americans live! The only thing not right about the situation here is that you were ever released in the first place, and that you were not sent to the jail medical facility for treatment, just like any other jailed criminal would have been in the same situation. Funny, isn't it, that the sheriff's department was able to find just such a facility for you once he was righteously slapped down by the judge in this case.

Personally, I believe your effort to dodge your earlier sentence should be a basis for making you serve the full time in jail, with no time off for good behavior. Hell, you would not know good behavior if it came up and bit you on the ass! Too bad it is unlikely that you will have to spend the full 45 days without personally prepared gourmet meals, sleeping on low-thread count sheets.

I hope that at every future appearance there are folks who should "Mom! Mom! Mom!" at you, mocking your wimpy inability to do the time for your crime.

By the way -- has the sheriff been held in contempt by the judge? And what penalty has been imposed for his flouting of the court order to keep her in jail and the court order to bring Paris to court for a 9:00 hearing?

Regardless, I guess this means that the Jailhouse Rock Party at Paris' house scheduled for tonight has been canceled.

Posted by: Greg at 12:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, what else is he going to do. If William Jefferson had any honor, he would have never have engaged in these acts in the first place.

Rep. William Jefferson (news, bio, voting record) pleaded not guilty Friday to charges of soliciting more than $500,000 in bribes while using his office to broker business deals in Africa.

Jefferson, D-La., said he understood the charges during the federal court hearing. He was released on $100,000 unsecured bond.

"I am absolutely innocent of the charges that have been leveled against me," Jefferson said afterward. "I'm going to fight my heart out to clear my name."

And with all the folks around him who have already been convicted or entered guilty pleas, can you believe he is going to claim that he was somehow entrapped?

According to court records, FBI agents videotaped Jefferson picking up a $100,000 cash bribe in 2005 from an informant in a hotel parking garage. Two days later, FBI agents raided Jefferson's home in Washington and found $90,000 in cash stuffed in a box in his freezer.

Jefferson alluded to that money on Friday, but he declined to answer any questions.

"The $90,000 was the FBI's money," he said. "The FBI gave it to me as part of its plan — part of their plan — that I would give it to the Nigerian vice president, but I did not do that. When all the facts are understood, I trust that I will be vindicated."

According to court records, Jefferson told associates he needed cash to pay bribes to the country's vice president, Atiku Abubakar. Abubakar has denied the allegations.

He is caught, dead to rights. Too bad he is going to sting this thing along to delay justice as long as possible.

Posted by: Greg at 06:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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