Former President Clinton will undergo a medical procedure this week to remove an unusual buildup of fluid and scar tissue from his chest, six months after he underwent quadruple bypass surgery, his office said Tuesday. "I feel fine," Clinton said in Washington.

The low-risk procedure will take place Thursday at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. Clinton will remain hospitalized for three to 10 days and is expected to make a "full functional recovery," doctors said.

Clinton, who planned to play a golf tournament in Florida on Wednesday with former President George H.W. Bush for tsunami relief, said doctors discovered the condition during a recent X-ray. He called the surgery a "routine sort of deal."

"I feel fine," Clinton told reporters following a visit to the Oval Office with the former president. "And we're going to go play golf tomorrow."

The procedure, known as a decortication, will remove scar tissue that has developed as a result of fluid buildup and inflammation, causing compression and collapse of the lower lobe of the left lung, doctors said. The surgery will be done either through a small incision or with a video-assisted thoracoscope inserted between ribs.

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The Roper majority purported to ground its ruling in the nation's "evolving standards of decency," which it says have led to a "national consensus" against the execution of juvenile murderers. Even if there were such a consensus -- and there clearly is not -- there is no reason to believe that it is chiseled in granite.

But by deciding that public opinion has moved decisively on this question, then grafting that decision onto the constitution, the court has stripped lawmakers of the right to someday change their minds. Yet when has legislative support for capital punishment ever been static? As Justice Antonin Scalia notes in his dissent, it "has surged and ebbed throughout our nation's history."

In the years after World War II, for example, there was a dramatic fall-off in executions, as many states went through a phase of abolishing or restricting capital punishment. For several years beginning in 1968, in fact, executions came to a halt.

By the logic of the Roper majority, the Supreme Court could have declared back then that "evolving standards" had reached a "national consensus" in favor of eliminating the death penalty once and for all. In hindsight, we know that any such declaration would have been ludicrous -- within a few years, support for the death penalty had soared. "But had this court then declared the existence of such a consensus, and outlawed capital punishment," wrote Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in a 1988 opinion quoted by Scalia last week, "legislatures would very likely not have been able to revive it. The mistaken premise of the decision would have been frozen into constitutional law."

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Dunagan made eight movies as a child after being discovered at a Memphis, Tenn., talent show. They included 1939's Son of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff and Tower of London with Basil Rathbone. But his career ended when his family fractured. He wound up in boarding homes, then joined the military as a teen.

"I adopted the Marines, and the Marines adopted me," Dunagan said.

Dunagan distinguished himself in the service. The curly-haired lad with the Southern drawl whom Karloff had hoisted on a monster's shoulder became the youngest Marine drill instructor ever. A boxer and devoted Harley rider, Dunagan served three tours in Vietnam and was wounded several times.

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He teaches. He doesn't preach.

His reward? After more than 20 years, Mitchell may be out at CU.

Mitchell isn't as alluring as Churchill. He doesn't hold tenure - or a plastic AK-47. Only bachelor's and master's degrees in education, as well as a doctorate in American social history from CU.

He began teaching history in 1984, and in 1998, Mitchell won the prestigious SOAR Award for teacher of the year.

Recently, William Wei, director of the Sewall Academic Program, let Mitchell know that CU would not be renewing his contract after this year because "his teaching was not up to the department standards."

Mitchell taught at the Hallett Diversity Program for 24 straight semesters. That is, until he made the colossal error of actually presenting a (gasp!) diverse opinion, quoting respected conservative black intellectual Thomas Sowell in a discussion about affirmative action.

Sitting 5 feet from a pink triangle that read "Hate-Free Zone," the progressive head of the department berated Mitchell, calling him a racist.

"That would have come as a surprise to my black children," explains Mitchell, who has nine kids, as of last count, two of them adopted African-Americans.

Then, Mitchell had the audacity to use a book on liberal Protestantism in the late 19th century. So repulsed by the word "god" was one student, she complained, and the department chair fired him without a meeting, he said.

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THE CATHOLIC CHURCH: A practicing Catholic, as is her husband, Heinz Kerry remains outraged at attacks by bishops on her husband's pro-choice views.
"You cannot have bishops in the pulpit -- long before or the Sunday before the election -- as they did in Catholic churches, saying it was a mortal sin to vote for John Kerry," she said.

Heinz Kerry gave no examples. Last year, a few ultraconservative prelates said they would not allow the Democratic nominee to receive communion in their dioceses. The bishop of Colorado Springs declared that Catholics voting for pro-choice candidates were not welcome at the communion rail.

"The church has a right and obligation to teach values," Heinz Kerry declared. "They don't have a right to restrict freedom of expression, which they did."

COUNTING THE VOTES: Heinz Kerry is openly skeptical about results from November's election, particularly in sections of the country where optical scanners were used to record votes.

"Two brothers own 80 percent of the machines used in the United States," Heinz Kerry said. She identified both as "hard-right" Republicans. She argued that it is "very easy to hack into the mother machines."

"We in the United States are not a banana republic," added Heinz Kerry. She argued that Democrats should insist on "accountability and transparency" in how votes are tabulated.

"I fear for '06," she said. "I don't trust it the way it is right now."

A SECOND KERRY RUN: Heinz Kerry won't stand in the way of a second presidential bid by her husband. She tersely summed up emotions at the end of November's long election night: "No tears, some sadness."

"I think we should focus on '06: If '06 doesn't work out, '08 will be impossible," she argued. "If it were right for John to do it -- and he felt right -- he would do it again (in 200 . If he didn't feel it right, he wouldn't."

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On their tour of tsunami damage in Southeast Asia, former President Bill Clinton once allowed his predecessor, former President George H.W. Bush, to sleep on the plane's only bed while he stretched out on the floor.

The government plane in which the presidents toured the disaster area had one large bedroom and another room with tables and seats, according to an interview with Bush in this week's Newsweek.

Bush, 80, said Clinton offered ahead of time to give the older former president the bedroom so he could lie flat and avoid paining his body. Clinton, 58, decided to play cards in the other room that night.

The next morning, Bush said he peeked in and saw Clinton sound asleep on the plane's floor.

"We could have switched places, each getting half a night on the bed, but he deferred to me. That was a very courteous thing, very thoughtful, and that meant a great deal to me," Bush said.

Bush said he and Clinton are not close, but have been compatible on the tour, partly because Clinton respects his age

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On the night of Nov. 12, 2003, Robert Aaron Acuna murdered my parents in their Baytown home as they were getting ready for dinner.

My father, 76, was in the garage sitting in a chair, listening to talk radio. Evidence indicates that he was forced to kneel, then shot once through the back of the head with a .38 caliber handgun. His wallet, with credit cards, car keys and cash, were stolen.

My mother, who was 74 and unable to move around without her walker, was in the house, sitting at the kitchen table. She, too, was forced to kneel, and shot twice in the face. The first shot was not fatal. Enough time passed between the first shot and the second shot for her to actually grab a roll of paper towels and wipe some of the gore off of her face. Then Acuna shot her again, this time fatally.

On the morning of Nov. 13, 2003, Acuna was due to appear in court on charges of aggravated robbery. He was charged with, and later confessed to, pulling a knife on an elderly man in the parking lot of the San Jacinto Mall in Baytown.

He did not show up that morning in court. He had stolen my father's car after the murders and had driven to Dallas. On Sunday, Nov. 16, Acuna was arrested at a hotel in Dallas for the murders of James and Joyce Carroll. He had in his possession their credit cards, my father's wallet, car and several personal items, which had been taken from the Carroll house. He was also found to have three shell casings consistent with the murder weapon.

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A 15-year-old girl decided to die. She took three bottles of prescription medication and proceeded to school. Later that day, her mother received a phone call from a school administrator causing her to rush to the emergency room not knowing whether her daughter was dead or alive.

Upon entering the hospital, the mother was met, not by a doctor, but by a school administrator. There were no condolences, just an administrator informing the mother that, because of school policy, her daughter would be suspended and then remanded to the district's disciplinary alternative school for a mandatory 60 days. She served her suspension in a hospital bed.

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It is already provoking a backlash. Anna Wintour, the British editor-in-chief of American Vogue, was attacked when she turned up at a Lagerfeld show in a lamb’s wool jacket dyed pink. A woman shoved food in her face and shouted: “That’s for all the little animals.”

The week before, activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) took over a window of Prada’s flagship store in Milan, smearing themselves with blood and carrying slogans declaring “Death for Sale”.

Rick Swain, an investigator for the Humane Society of the United States, visited a karakul farm in Uzbekistan posing as the owner of a chain of boutiques, making a video of what he saw. “I insisted on seeing the slaughterhouse,” he said.

“We could hear what sounded like the cries of lambs as we were led into this 20ft by 20ft building with hooks in the ceiling.

“The floor was covered with blood and there were carcasses of dead baby lambs.”

Sean Gifford, Peta’s director of European campaigns, said: “The fur trade is a violent, bloody business but these skins are particularly gruesome.

“Upwards of 4m lambs are slaughtered every year for these coats. A ewe can usually have four births in a lifetime. The first three lambs are slaughtered after they are born.

“But the mother is butchered 15 to 30 days before giving birth to the fourth lamb. The unborn lamb is then ripped from her belly. Its skin has not had a chance to develop so it is softer and more highly valued.”

A pliers-like instrument is used because the babyÂ’s bones are calcified, as is the skull. There is no anesthetic for the baby. The abortionist inserts the instrument up into the uterus, seizes a leg or other part of the body, and, with a twisting motion, tears it from the babyÂ’s body. This is repeated again and again. The spine must be snapped, and the skull crushed to remove them. The nurseÂ’s job is to reassemble the body parts to be sure that all are removed.

According to nurse Shafer, the baby was alive and moving as the abortionist “delivered the baby’s body and arms - everything but the head. The doctor kept the baby’s head just inside the uterus. The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, his feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors through the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out in a flinch, a startle reaction, like a baby does when he thinks he might fall. The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby was completely limp.”

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"I am excited that the distinguished award is now in the right place. I know it means a great deal to you and your family," read the Feb. 12 letter from Allen Boyd of Weatherford, Okla.

Said Watters: "I still get goose bumps when I think about it sometimes."

Boyd said he bought the medal for $1 at an estate sale while on a summer vacation four years ago in Gunnison, Colo.

In an interview last week, he said as a patriotic gesture he wanted to find relatives of the man whose name was inscribed on the back: Sgt. 1st Class Cecil H. Watters.

"I'm the kind of guy who gets choked up when we have Veterans Day assembly," said Boyd, a math teacher whose father was a Korean War veteran.

His search for Watters began in Colorado, on the Internet.

"That was an enormous task," he said. "I didn't know what war it was from. I thought maybe it was World War II ... and then I got to thinking, if this person was awarded the Purple Heart for being killed in action and didn't have a son, there might not be anybody left."

His online sleuthing at a temporary dead end, he sought help from the Pentagon. That too, brought no success.

Then one day he found a Web site he'd never seen before. It listed a Cecil H. Watters from Mahaska County, Iowa, as being killed in action in 1950.

"I didn't know anything about Iowa so I went to a map," Boyd said.

Through phone calls he located William Watters, Howard's cousin from Oskaloosa, Iowa, who put him in touch with another relative. That relative, an uncle, got on the phone to Howard Watters and told him the medal had been found.

For Watters, 54, having the medal back is a priceless experience. He said he owes Boyd a debt of gratitude for the effort he made to track him down.

"The odds of me ever seeing this again were astronomical. It's like me hitting the best lottery I could ever hit," he said.

He got "misty-eyed" when he opened the package, his wife, Glenda, said.

"I really don't know how to explain it," Watters said. "It's something I never thought I'd ever see again. I've got something now that belonged to my dad that I wouldn't have had otherwise."

In his letter to Howard Watters, Boyd wrote, "Your dad's Purple Heart was displayed in our home where we were asked many questions about its origin. I continued to periodically search for the owner's family. I knew someone, somewhere was looking for it."

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In 1999, a misguided Legislature passed a bill that made it a crime to make a false allegation of misconduct against a police officer.

It didn't take long for the law to claim its first victim. In 2000, Washoe County resident Robert Eakins griped about Reno police in a letter to the city's mayor. The mayor forwarded the letter to police, who used the law's vague language to label the correspondence a formal complaint. Mr. Eakins was jailed for 14 hours.

In 2002, a federal judge ruled the law was unconstitutional for many reasons, among them its exclusive application to law enforcement officers and not other public officials.

Last week, Sen. Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, introduced Senate Bill 150. To revive the unconstitutional law, this bill would make it a crime -- you guessed it -- to lodge a false allegation against any public official. If this bill is passed, most every taxpayer who has put into writing his frustration with the Legislature's inaction on property tax increases could end up incarcerated.

The public has a guaranteed right to criticize government and public officials. The 1999 law belongs in a distant, unmarked grave where it can never be unearthed for reconsideration.

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The 52 Funniest Things About The Upcoming Death of The Pope

52. Pope pisses himself just before the end; gets all over nurse.

51. After death, saggy, furry tits of dead Pope begin inexorable process of melting away into nothingness, like coldest of Sno-cones under faintest of suns.

“There are many in our society who have long been threatened by the teachings of the Catholic Church, especially those which address sexual ethics. Take the New York Press, for example. Its celebration of libertinism leaves it squarely at odds with the sexual reticence favored by Catholicism. It also leaves it squarely at odds with nature, which explains why attending funerals is not an uncommon experience for those who work there. But like a dopey dog who doesn’t recognize his master, they plod along never learning from the wisdom the Catholic Church has to offer. And, of course, they hate the pope. Which makes sense: he is the one man whose commitment to the truth has literally driven them over the edge.”

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In another one of Anthony Kennedy?s opinions declaring constitutional law based on extra-constitutional sources, the Supreme Court handed down a

5-4 decision declaring that the Constitution bans the execution of individuals who were under the age of 18 at the time they committed a murder. While the case only changes the fates of about 70 or so individuals, it is distressing because it continues a number of trends in recent SCOTUS legislation from the bench.

"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

But that line is not absolute. For example, there is no lower age for exercise of the so-called ?right to choose? to kill one?s unborn child. Why do the justices conclude that teens have sufficient maturity, stability and intellectual capacity to make that decision? After all, their impulsiveness and willfulness is obvious in the poor choices made which led them to become pregnant in the first place. But I sincerely doubt that the Supreme Court will suddenly declare that the execution of innocents under the age of 18 must stop by those who have not reached the ?line... between childhood and adulthood.? As Justice Scalia points out, that is the opposite of what the Court has held in the past.

In other contexts where individualized consideration is provided, we have recognized that at least some minors will be mature enough to make difficult decisions that involve moral considerations. For instance, we have struck down abortion statutes that do not allow minors deemed mature by courts to bypass parental notification provisions. See, e.g., Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U. S. 622, 643.644 (1979) (opinion of Powell, J.); Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U. S. 52, 74.75 (1976). It is hard to see why this context should be any different. Whether to obtain an abortion is surely a much more complex decision for a young person than whether to kill an innocent person in cold blood.

So it seems that the law, as it stands now, is that the very simple moral question of whether or not to commit cold-blooded premeditated murder is beyond the ability of those under 18, but those same individuals are deemed capable of the more complex moral calculus involved in taking the life of an unborn child absent the consent (and often even the notification) of their parents. This patently absurd situation springs directly from the twin liberal desires to avoid taking human life by government (a laudable, if unrealistic, desire which results in giving the killer a greater moral weight than the victim) while casting abortion as a feminist sacrament.

But it gets even worse. Consider this Kennedy gem.

"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," he wrote.

Actually, no it isn?t proper that you acknowledge ?the weight of international opinion against the death penalty.? It is irrelevant to the issue of constitutionality. Your decision is supposed to be made based upon the laws of the United States, not those of any other country. What does OUR Constitution say? That is the question that should be asked. Even if one considers issues of treaty law, one need to respect the fact that failure to ratify the treaty means the terms of the treaty are irrelevant to your deliberations. That is why the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child cannot be used as a basis for this decision ? it was never ratified by the United States Senate, that body charged by the Constitution with ratifying treaties to make them binding. Similarly, the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) includes a specific reservation, binding under US and international law, in which the US rejects the provisions cited by the court related to the death penalty.

he United States reserves the right, subject to its Constitutional constraints, to impose capital punishment on any person (other than a pregnant woman) duly convicted under existing or future laws permitting the imposition of capital punishment, including such punishment for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

In other words, the body with the constitutional duty to ratify treaties did so in a manner that gives specific sanction to the application of the death penalty to minors, but the majority of the justices in this case have declared that exercise of authority under the Constitution to be of no effect! So what we have is a court not only assuming the role of a legislature, but taking charge of American diplomacy as well.

And then there is the federalism question. Kennedy notes that "18 states -- or 47 percent of states that permit capital punishment -- now have legislation prohibiting the execution of offenders under 18.? As a result, that is sufficient grounds for telling the other 19 states with the death penalty ? 53 percent, if my math is correct ? that they cannot execute those under 18. The minority is going to dictate to the majority? And even if one includes all 50 states in the calculus, making it 62 percent refusing to execute 16 & 17 year olds, is that sufficient grounds for striking down the practice? After all, doesn?t each state have a sovereign right to formulate its own criminal code? Or is it now constitutional doctrine that the actions of the state legislature of Texas must be in conformity with those of the state legislatures of a majority of other states? The majority has implicitly driven a stake through the heart of federalism if this will be the standard.

What is the practical result of this decision? Well, for starters, it means that Lee Boyd Malvo, who participated in the multistate spree of sniper murders a couple of years ago, will not be tried for the remaining eight murders beyond he and his companion, John Muhammad, committed in 2002. Since he is currently serving two life sentences, there is no point in continuing with prosecutions that cannot achieve a death sentence for Malvo.

It also means that Christopher Simmons, who attorneys challenged his death sentence, will get to live. What had he done to deserve a sentence of death? Justice Kennedy outlines it well.

At the age of 17, when he was still a junior in high school, Christopher Simmons, the respondent here, committed murder. About nine months later, after he had turned 18, he was tried and sentenced to death. There is little doubt that Simmons was the instigator of the crime. Before its commission Simmons said he wanted to murder someone. In chilling, callous terms he talked about his plan, discussing it for the most part with two friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, then aged 15 and 16 respectively. Simmons proposed to commit burglary and murder by breaking and entering, tying up a victim, and throwing the victim off a bridge. Simmons assured his friends they could ?get away with it? because they were minors.

The three met at about 2 a.m. on the night of the murder, but Tessmer left before the other two set out. (The State later charged Tessmer with conspiracy, but dropped the charge in exchange for his testimony against Simmons.) Simmons and Benjamin entered the home of the victim, Shirley Crook, after reaching through an open window and unlocking the back door. Simmons turned on a hallway light. Awakened, Mrs. Crook called out, ?Who?s there?? In response Simmons entered Mrs. Crook?s bedroom, where he recognized her from a previous car accident involving them both. Simmons later admitted this confirmed his resolve to murder her.

Using duct tape to cover her eyes and mouth and bind her hands, the two perpetrators put Mrs. Crook in her minivan and drove to a state park. They reinforced the bindings, covered her head with a towel, and walked her to a railroad trestle spanning the Meramec River. There they tied her hands and feet together with electrical wire, wrapped her whole face in duct tape and threw her from the bridge, drowning her in the waters below.

By the afternoon of September 9, Steven Crook had returned home from an overnight trip, found his bedroom in disarray, and reported his wife missing. On the same afternoon fishermen recovered the victim?s body from the river. Simmons, meanwhile, was bragging about the killing, telling friends he had killed a woman ?because the bitch seen my face.?

This is the animal that gets to live. Christopher Simmons said that he and his friend would ?get away with it? because they were minors. It seems he was right. Three hots and a cot for life, courtesy of the taxpayers of the state of Missouri ? including the family of Shirley Crook, who received no mercy, due process, or protection from cruel and unusual punishment at the hands of Christopher Simmons and Charles Benjamin.

But beyond that, there is the principle that the Constitution means what it says, not what today?s majority says it means. These are five justices who are drawing a line based upon their own policy preferences, not upon constitutional principle. Justice Scalia, the intellectual giant of the Rehnquist Court, sums up my position well in his dissenting opinion.

The Court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our Nation's moral standards--and in the course of discharging that awesome responsibility purports to take guidance from the views of foreign courts and legislatures. Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment, any more than the meaning of other provisions of our Constitution, should be determined by the subjective views of five Members of this Court and like-minded foreigners, I dissent.

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BGLTSA Co-Chair Jordan B. Woods ’06 said that, while many BGLTSA members thought Pinkett Smith’s speech was “motivational,” some were insulted because they thought she narrowly defined the roles of men and women in relationships.

“Some of the content was extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable,” he said.

Calling the comments heteronormative, according to Woods, means they implied that standard sexual relationships are only between males and females.

“Our position is that the comments weren’t homophobic, but the content was specific to male-female relationships,” Woods said.

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September 11 was an attack, not just a string of coincidental strokes and heart failures that eliminated thousands of victims at once.

Recall some of the words that soon followed the September 11 atrocity. Kinko's stores, for instance, installed placed with the Stars and Stripes emblazoned across the lower 48 states. That graphic included this regrettable caption:

"The Kinko's family extends our condolences and sympathies to all Americans who have been affected by the circumstances in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania."

Circumstances? That word describes an electrical blackout, not terrorist bloodshed.

Similarly, September 11 was tragic, but far more, too. "The September 11 tragedy" misses the point: Tornadoes cause tragedies, but they are not malicious, as America's enemies were that day, and still are.

Victims of terrorism do not "die," nor are they "lost." They are killed, murdered, and slaughtered.

Likewise, many say that people "died" in the Twin Towers and at the Pentagon. No, people "die" in hospitals, often surrounded by their loved ones while doctors and nurses offer them aid and comfort.

The innocent people at the World Trade Center, the Defense Department, and that field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, were killed in a carefully choreographed act of mass murder.

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"The age of 18 is the point where society draws the line for many purposes between childhood and adulthood. It is, we conclude, the age at which the line for death eligibility ought to rest," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote.

In other contexts where individualized consideration is provided, we have recognized that at least some minors will be mature enough to make difficult decisions that involve moral considerations. For instance, we have struck down abortion statutes that do not allow minors deemed mature by courts to bypass parental notification provisions. See, e.g., Bellotti v. Baird, 443 U. S. 622, 643.644 (1979) (opinion of Powell, J.); Planned Parenthood of Central Mo. v. Danforth, 428 U. S. 52, 74.75 (1976). It is hard to see why this context should be any different. Whether to obtain an abortion is surely a much more complex decision for a young person than whether to kill an innocent person in cold blood.

"It is proper that we acknowledge the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty, resting in large part on the understanding that the instability and emotional imbalance of young people may often be a factor in the crime," he wrote.

he United States reserves the right, subject to its Constitutional constraints, to impose capital punishment on any person (other than a pregnant woman) duly convicted under existing or future laws permitting the imposition of capital punishment, including such punishment for crimes committed by persons below eighteen years of age.

In other words, the body with the constitutional duty to ratify treaties did so in a manner that gives specific sanction to the application of the death penalty to minors, but the majority of the justices in this case have declared that exercise of authority under the Constitution to be of no effect! So what we have is a court not only assuming the role of a legislature, but taking charge of American diplomacy as well.

And then there is the federalism question. Kennedy notes that "18 states -- or 47 percent of states that permit capital punishment -- now have legislation prohibiting the execution of offenders under 18.” As a result, that is sufficient grounds for telling the other 19 states with the death penalty – 53 percent, if my math is correct – that they cannot execute those under 18. The minority is going to dictate to the majority? And even if one includes all 50 states in the calculus, making it 62 percent refusing to execute 16 & 17 year olds, is that sufficient grounds for striking down the practice? After all, doesn’t each state have a sovereign right to formulate its own criminal code? Or is it now constitutional doctrine that the actions of the state legislature of Texas must be in conformity with those of the state legislatures of a majority of other states? The majority has implicitly driven a stake through the heart of federalism if this will be the standard.

What is the practical result of this decision? Well, for starters, it means that Lee Boyd Malvo, who participated in the multistate spree of sniper murders a couple of years ago, will not be tried for the remaining eight murders beyond he and his companion, John Muhammad, committed in 2002. Since he is currently serving two life sentences, there is no point in continuing with prosecutions that cannot achieve a death sentence for Malvo.

It also means that Christopher Simmons, who attorneys challenged his death sentence, will get to live. What had he done to deserve a sentence of death? Justice Kennedy outlines it well.

At the age of 17, when he was still a junior in high school, Christopher Simmons, the respondent here, committed murder. About nine months later, after he had turned 18, he was tried and sentenced to death. There is little doubt that Simmons was the instigator of the crime. Before its commission Simmons said he wanted to murder someone. In chilling, callous terms he talked about his plan, discussing it for the most part with two friends, Charles Benjamin and John Tessmer, then aged 15 and 16 respectively. Simmons proposed to commit burglary and murder by breaking and entering, tying up a victim, and throwing the victim off a bridge. Simmons assured his friends they could “get away with it” because they were minors.

The three met at about 2 a.m. on the night of the murder, but Tessmer left before the other two set out. (The State later charged Tessmer with conspiracy, but dropped the charge in exchange for his testimony against Simmons.) Simmons and Benjamin entered the home of the victim, Shirley Crook, after reaching through an open window and unlocking the back door. Simmons turned on a hallway light. Awakened, Mrs. Crook called out, “Who’s there?” In response Simmons entered Mrs. Crook’s bedroom, where he recognized her from a previous car accident involving them both. Simmons later admitted this confirmed his resolve to murder her.

Using duct tape to cover her eyes and mouth and bind her hands, the two perpetrators put Mrs. Crook in her minivan and drove to a state park. They reinforced the bindings, covered her head with a towel, and walked her to a railroad trestle spanning the Meramec River. There they tied her hands and feet together with electrical wire, wrapped her whole face in duct tape and threw her from the bridge, drowning her in the waters below.

By the afternoon of September 9, Steven Crook had returned home from an overnight trip, found his bedroom in disarray, and reported his wife missing. On the same afternoon fishermen recovered the victim’s body from the river. Simmons, meanwhile, was bragging about the killing, telling friends he had killed a woman “because the bitch seen my face.”

This is the animal that gets to live. Christopher Simmons said that he and his friend would “get away with it” because they were minors. It seems he was right. Three hots and a cot for life, courtesy of the taxpayers of the state of Missouri – including the family of Shirley Crook, who received no mercy, due process, or protection from cruel and unusual punishment at the hands of Christopher Simmons and Charles Benjamin.

But beyond that, there is the principle that the Constitution means what it says, not what todayÂ’s majority says it means. These are five justices who are drawing a line based upon their own policy preferences, not upon constitutional principle. Justice Scalia, the intellectual giant of the Rehnquist Court, sums up my position well in his dissenting opinion.

The Court thus proclaims itself sole arbiter of our Nation's moral standards--and in the course of discharging that awesome responsibility purports to take guidance from the views of foreign courts and legislatures. Because I do not believe that the meaning of our Eighth Amendment, any more than the meaning of other provisions of our Constitution, should be determined by the subjective views of five Members of this Court and like-minded foreigners, I dissent.

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"Teachers do a lot with a little. All of a sudden, a lot of things that they do are just gone. It's demoralizing," said Rachel Baker, who has a son in kindergarten.

Teachers say they don't want to stop volunteering their time.

"It's hard," said high school math teacher Judith Bodenhauser. "I have stacks of papers I haven't graded. Parents want to talk to me; I don't call them back."

The action was organized by the Berkeley Federation of Teachers, which wants a cost-of-living increase next year.

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"If you are murdered by Islamists because they do not like the movie you made about the way they treat women you do not get recognized by the academy. If you are Hitler's propagandist you do. What does that say about Hollywood?"

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I have now seen this several places (History Teacher and Endless Faculty Meeting) . Guess I'll do it too:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions
5. Don’t search around and look for the “coolest” book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.

"One day the Roman army set out, shadowed as usual by Vercingetorix." From THE ENEMIES OF ROME, From Hannibal to Attila the Hun," by Philip Matyszak.

This could be an interesting survey of what bloggers are reading, or at least what books they have near their computers. Have a happy day and Thanks for reading my blog.

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The basic personality of the next pope will also be important to the church's prospects around the world as he will be the new face of an institution struggling in many places to hold its market share.

While they might seem alike to outsiders – celibate male church administrators with an average age of about 70 – the cardinals' personal stories are surprisingly diverse.

Frenchman Jean-Marie Lustiger lost his mother at Auschwitz and grew up as a Jewish boy named Aaron wearing the yellow star imposed on Polish Jews by the Nazis; Francis Arinze of Nigeria was born into the Ibo religion and converted at the age of nine; American Adam Maida is a lawyer who has argued before the US Supreme Court; Juan Luis Cipriani was a Peruvian basketball champion; and Czech Miroslav Vlk worked as a window cleaner for eight years after being banned by communist officials from acting as a priest.

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Former President Clinton said Sunday that his wife, Hillary, would be an excellent choice as the first female leader of the world's most powerful nation.

In an interview with Japan's TV Asahi, Clinton said he did not know whether his wife, the senator of New York state, has any plans to one day run for the presidency.

"I don't know if she'll run or not," he told the network, but added, "She would make an excellent president, and I would always try to help her."

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Border Patrol agents arrested six illegal entrants and the driver of a sport utility vehicle Saturday morning after a high-speed chase over 60 miles that started near Arivaca, went through Park Place and ended in a Midtown neighborhood.

Border Patrol spokesman Rob Daniels said agents tried to pull over the vehicle on a stretch of Arivaca Road "traditionally used for drug and aliens smuggling" at about 7:30 a.m. The driver of the vehicle refused to stop.

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"I want to know why," she says, caressing her baby's back. "Why did they take him?"

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Conservatism revived with great intellectual ferment and a long burst of new ideas, and liberalism presumably can do the same. But there is no sign that this is happening. No real breakthrough in liberal thought and programs has occurred since the New Deal, giving liberalism its nostalgic, reactionary cast.

Worse, the cultural liberalism that emerged from the convulsions of the 1960s drove the liberal faith out of the mainstream. Its fundamental value is that society should have no fundamental values, except for a pervasive relativism that sees all values as equal. Part of the package was a militant secularism, pitched against religion, the chief source of fundamental values. Complaints about "imposing" values were also popular then, aimed at teachers and parents who worked to socialize children.

Modern liberalism, says Harvard political philosopher Michael Sandel, has emptied the national narrative of its civic resources, putting religion outside the public square and creating a value-neutral "procedural republic." One of the old heroes of liberalism, John Dewey, said in 1897 that the practical problem of modern society is the maintenance of the spiritual values of civilization. Not much room in liberal thought for that now, or for what another liberal icon, Walter Lippmann, called the "public philosophy." The failure to perceive the importance of community has seriously wounded liberalism and undermined its core principles. So has the strong tendency to convert moral and social questions into issues of individual rights, usually constructed and then massaged by judges to place them beyond the reach of majorities and the normal democratic process.

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A Somali-born Dutch politician who received death threats after making a film critical of Islam has revealed she has been living in hiding on a naval base, a newspaper reported on Friday.

NRC Handelsblad said Ayaan Hirsi Ali had revealed her secret residence on a navy base to protest against the circumstances of her hiding.

"I want to live in a place of which everybody knows: here lives a threatened member of parliament, and he or she is safe here," Hirsi Ali was quoted as saying.

Hirsi Ali returned to public life last month after 75 days in hiding following threats to her life after she made a film critical of Islam with Theo van Gogh, who was murdered on Nov. 2.

The newspaper said Hirsi Ali was living on a heavily guarded navy base in Amsterdam, while anti-immigration populist Geert Wilders, whose life has also been threatened, was sleeping in a prison cell in the central Dutch town of Zeist.

The Liberal VVD said she revealed the secret locations due to "fear that it would be discovered by other people", the newspaper reported.

"I want to live in a place that everyone knows is where a threatened MP lives. That's the way it is in
countries such as the US and Israel, but also in Italy and Spain," she said.

Hirsi Ali said the secret living circumstances are "very unjust and poignant". She claimed the principle of free speech was threatened by the security philosophy employed by Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner and the national protection and security service NCBB.

She claimed the philosophy is one in which anyone is threatened must be "hidden away". Hirsi Ali asserted further that the government was inadvertently assisting those who were opposed to her.

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That's not to say I have changed my opinion about the right of all of us to die with dignity when life has lost all meaning. But for Terri Schiavo, who lingers in a Florida nursing home, the devil is in the details, uncomfortable details that raise sticky moral dilemmas.

Detail 1: Terry Schiavo is not dying. She is not being kept alive artificially. Her heart beats and lungs breathe without help. She cannot swallow food or water. Once the feeding tube is removed, she would slowly starve to death over days or weeks.

Detail 2: Schiavo is not comatose. Her eyes open, and she sometimes responds to stimuli. Doctors say there is no brain activity and her responses are simply reflexive. Her parents, Robert and Mary Schindler, want to believe otherwise.

Detail 3: The Schindlers think their daughter could benefit from physical therapy and might someday swallow on her own, but her husband, as her legal guardian, reportedly will not allow it. Which leads to an equally uncomfortable question: If Schiavo merely required spoon feeding instead of tube feeding, would anyone seriously be arguing to withhold food and water? Does not every human, no matter how incapacitated, deserve sustenance?

Detail 4: Unproven allegations that Schiavo might have suffered physical trauma immediately before her heart stopped for several minutes in 1990, leading to brain damage, have not been fully investigated. The Schindlers have long suggested their son-in-law strangled their daughter; Michael Schiavo's lawyer says the abuse allegations have never been substantiated. Before pulling the plug on this woman, don't these questions need to be fully answered?

The abuse allegations against Michael Schiavo may be nothing but scurrilous rumor spread to damage his credibility. But what if there is even a tiny chance he is guilty of abuse? Should such a person be in a position to decide this life-and-death issue?

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Star Trek" fans from around the world gathered at the gates of Paramount Studios in Hollywood Friday to protest the impending cancellation of the television series "Star Trek: Enterprise."

Carrying signs reading "It's Not Just a Show, It's a Responsibility" and "18 Years of Loyalty & This Is the Thanks I Get?," more than 100 people massed at the gates of the studio where "Enterprise" is produced to show support for a franchise that has perhaps the most loyal fan base in the world.

None wore costumes, however, in a departure from many gatherings of "Trekkies."

The UPN network, which like Paramount is a unit of Viacom Inc., said earlier this month it would end "Enterprise" in May after its fourth season. But the fans are not letting it go quietly.

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived at the Wiesbaden Army Airfield on Wednesday dressed all in black. She was wearing a black skirt that hit just above the knee, and it was topped with a black coat that fell to mid-calf. The coat, with its seven gold buttons running down the front and its band collar, called to mind a Marine's dress uniform or the "save humanity" ensemble worn by Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix."

As Rice walked out to greet the troops, the coat blew open in a rather swashbuckling way to reveal the top of a pair of knee-high boots. The boots had a high, slender heel that is not particularly practical. But it is a popular silhouette because it tends to elongate and flatter the leg. In short, the boots are sexy.

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But more than anything, it was the left's hypocrisy when it came to the war on terrorism that made me turn rightward after 9/11. I remember, back in my liberal days, being fiercely opposed to the Taliban and its brutal treatment of women. Even then, I felt that Afghanistan should immediately be liberated, as Malcolm X once said in another context, by any means necessary. But when it came time, it turned out that the left was mostly opposed to such liberation, whether of the Afghan people or of the Iraqis (especially if America and a Republican president were at the helm).

Indeed, liberals had become strangely conservative in their fierce attachment to the status quo. In contrast, the much-maligned neoconservatives (among whose ranks I count myself) and Bush had become the "radicals," bringing freedom and democracy to the despotic Middle East. Is it any wonder that in such a topsy-turvy world, I found myself in agreement with those I'd formerly denounced?

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Where are all the American and European anti-war activists? Here they are with the opportunity of a lifetime to make a meaningful contribution toward a more peaceful world, and all we hear from them is either a deafening silence or else the usual nonsense about the Bush administration being a gang of imperialist, oil-grabbing war criminals.

Why are these protesters, who are so readily energized when it comes to condemning President Bush and the United States, so silent about the vicious anti-democratic forces that are now committing assassinations, beheadings, kidnappings and murders by the hundreds in Iraq?

Surely the Christian- and Jew-hating terrorists who are committing such heinous acts would be completely demoralized if they were to witness millions of people around the world demonstrating against them. Surely such massive international protests would strike a powerful blow for peace.

But the silence of the anti-war groups is broken only by their wild conspiracy theories and their timeworn objections to the war in Iraq. A lot of good that does. The only beneficiaries of that misdirected behavior are the terrorist insurgents, whose only remaining hope is to create enough death and mayhem to weaken the resolve of the coalition member states to stand side by side with the courageous people of Iraq.

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The leader of a Ku Klux Klan splinter group who urged "planting bombs to cause maximum damage" was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison in the nation's first federal conviction under a new anti-terror law.

David Wayne Hull, 42, of Amwell, Washington County, taught another man how to use a pipe bomb at a November 2002 white supremacist gathering on Hull's property. He also gave bomb parts to the other man, a government informant who posed as a violent anti-abortion activist.

The 2002 anti-terror statute bans instructing others how to use pipe bombs or other dangerous weapons in furtherance of a crime. It carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence.

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EL UNIVERSAL learned on Friday that the Mexican government sent a diplomatic note to the United States earlier this month expressing concern over vigilante activities of anti-immigrant groups on the ArizonaSonora border.

Foreign Relations Secretary (SRE) official Gerónimo Gutiérrez said it was "very probable" that these groups are violating the rights of undocumented migrants. The note urged the United States to ensure that vigilante groups do not break the law when dealing with Mexican migrants, he added.

According to Gutiérrez, the SRE has singled out a group dubbing itself the Minuteman project. Around 500 volunteers have joined the movement, which plans to patrol a 40-mile stretch of the border in April when migrants cross in peak numbers.

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John Chaney's use of a "goon" might have ended a player's season, and the Hall of Fame coach's career could be the next casualty.

Chaney was suspended for the rest of the regular season by Temple on Friday for ordering rough play by one of his players, Nehemiah Ingram, who fouled out in four minutes against Saint Joseph's after breaking an opponent's arm.

Saint Joseph's forward John Bryant, a senior and sixth man for the Hawks, will likely miss the rest of the season.

The Hall of Fame coach had suspended himself for one game Wednesday and apologized.

Chaney will miss Temple's home game against Massachusetts today and road games against Rhode Island and La Salle, before returning for the Atlantic 10 tournament.

"I think my behavior is reprehensible and, as I've said a thousand times, I take responsibility," Chaney said. "If it's the judgment of the school to suspend me, I can accept the responsibility of my actions."

He warned before the game he might send some of his "goons" into the game if referees didn't whistle St. Joe's for illegal screens.

He did it, too.

Saint Joseph's senior forward John Bryant suffered a broken arm after a hard foul by one of Chaney's goons. There also were elbows and punches thrown, hard screens attacked and the like.

Temple fans followed their coach's behavior by spitting on Bryant as he lay on the floor. At that point, the night easily could have escalated into something far worse.

Chaney made the matter worse after the game by announcing: "I'm a mean, ornery SOB."

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That said, perhaps some readers will understand why my friends and I rip yellow ribbon "support the troops" magnets off of cars or wherever people have affixed them. By ripping off these ribbons, we find a way to deal with our guilt, as though with each ribbon swiped we take back a life that was taken by this senseless war started by our senseless president and those who support him.

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