I learned a long time ago that I need to make sure my car gets a tune up on a regular basis. But IÂ’ve never ever spent much time considering different car insurance options. IÂ’ve been with the same company for almost 30 years, ever since I first got my drivers license. During that time IÂ’ve never made a serious effort to look at other companies to make a change. Then again, most insurance agents tell me that they canÂ’t beat the rates they offer.

I recently found this website called GoCompare.com. It helps you track down the best available car insurance rates. All you have to do is request car insurance. TheyÂ’ll take all of your personal information, the details about your car, and get you the best price possible on the car insurance you need.

Why would you want to try GoCompare.com? Why wouldnÂ’t you want to? At absolute worst, the only thing that will happen is that you will find out that you have the best available car insurance policy for you. At best, you might just save yourself a significant amount of cash over what you have been paying. What on earth could be wrong with that? So drop by and get a quote on car insurance today!

Posted by: Greg at 06:45 PM | Comments (40) | Add Comment
Post contains 214 words, total size 1 kb.

Support for terrorism, a rogue nuclear program, and threats of a genocidal war against Israel would be no obstacle to diplomatic engagement -- and diplomatic relations -- in a Barack Obama administration.

Senator Barack Obama said he would “engage in aggressive personal diplomacy” with Iran if elected president, and would offer economic inducements and a possible promise not to seek “regime change” if Iran stopped meddling in Iraq and cooperated on terrorism and nuclear issues.

In an hourlong interview on Wednesday, Mr. Obama made clear that forging a new relationship with Iran would be a major element of what he pledged would be a broad effort to stabilize Iraq as he executed a speedy timetable for the withdrawal of American combat troops.

Mr. Obama said that Iran had been “acting irresponsibly” by supporting Shiite militant groups in Iraq. He also emphasized that Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons program and its support for “terrorist activities” were serious concerns.

But he asserted that IranÂ’s support for militant groups in Iraq reflected its anxiety over the Bush administrationÂ’s policies in the region, including talk of a possible American military strike on Iranian nuclear installations.

Making clear that he planned to talk to Iran without preconditions, Mr. Obama emphasized further that “changes in behavior” by Iran could possibly be rewarded with membership in the World Trade Organization, other economic benefits and security guarantees.

Did you catch that, folks -- Iran's misdeeds are all Bush's fault. never mind that they stretch back nearly three decades to the failure of another Democrat president, Jimmy Carter. Indeed, the policies he wants to overturn span every administration since Mahmoud the Mad was a "student" helping to take our diplomatic personnel hostage in Teheran in 1979. One has to wonder if this move would be supported by other Democrats -- after all, dhimmitude is in fashion in the party.

Posted by: Greg at 11:17 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 321 words, total size 2 kb.

After all, shouldn't the people of South Carolina have a right to cast a vote for the candidate of their choice?

The momentum of the Colbert presidential campaign hit a cul-de-sac today when the South Carolina Democratic Party decided he wasnÂ’t a serious candidate and turned down his application to get on the ballot.

South Carolina is the only state where Stephen Colbert, the comedian and a native South Carolinian, has sought to get on the ballot. He did not try getting on the Republican ballot because that costs $35,000.

Mr. Colbert met the Democratic filing deadline of noon today to send in some paperwork and a check for $2,500.

But the partyÂ’s executive council just voted 13-3 not to certify him.

Carol Fowler, chairwoman of the state party, told us that the council “really agonized over this because they really like him, they love his show and everyone thinks it’s wonderful that he cares about us.”

But, she said, they decided he did not meet two basic requirements: that the person be generally acknowledge or recognized by the media as a viable nationwide candidate; and be actively campaigning for the South Carolina primary.

You mean to tell me that Colbert is a less viable candidate than Dennis Kucinich, Than Mike Gravel? Than Bill Richardson, Christopher Dodd or Joe Biden? I smell a lawsuit in the offing -- because the biggest obstacle to the democratic process in the South Carolina Democrat primary appears to be the state's Democrat party officials.

After all, don't forget this recent poll.

Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican polling firm, recently completed a national poll of 1,000 likely 2008 voters that included Colbert's name in both the GOP and Democratic primaries. (He has announced his plans to run in both the Democratic and Republican primaries.) In the field from Oct. 18-21, the survey has a 5 percent margin of error.

In the Democratic primary, Colbert takes 2.3 percent of the vote -- good for fifth place behind Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (40 percent), Sen. Barack Obama (19 percent), former Sen. John Edwards (12 percent) and Sen. Joe Biden (2.7 percent. Colbert finished ahead of Gov. Bill Richardson (2.1 percent), Rep. Dennis Kucinich (2.1 percent) and former Sen. Mike Gravel (less than 1 percent).

That does make yesterday's action look decidedly wrong-headed -- and designed to spare the party embarrassment, not to weed out candidates with no chance.

Here's hoping Colbert sues.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Stop the ACLU, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, The Midnight Sun, , , Right Truth, The Populist, Shadowscope, Wake Up America, Stuck On Stupid, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, Adeline and Hazel, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, Stageleft, Church and State, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, A Blog For All, The Random Yak, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Grizzly Groundswell, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao's Blog, Phastidio.net, Big Dog's Weblog, Conservative Cat, Nuke's, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Wolf Pangloss, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 10:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 528 words, total size 7 kb.

I've always liked Joe Torre -- and I am glad to see him land on his feet after being dissed by George Steinbrenner.

And what sweet revenge -- manager of the Dodgers!

Joe Torre grew up in Brooklyn rooting against the Dodgers. Now, a half-century after they moved west, heÂ’s their manager.

Torre was hired by Los Angeles to succeed Grady Little on Thursday, taking the job two weeks after walking away from the New York Yankees.

“Joe Torre comes with a great resume,” Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said on a conference call. “What he’s done the last 12 years is as powerful as any manager in recent memory.”

The winningest manager in postseason history, Torre moved from one storied franchise to another, agreeing to a three-year, $13 million contract. He becomes the DodgersÂ’ eighth manager since they left his hometown, where he rooted for the rival New York Giants.

“As a kid growing up, you didn’t like them,” Torre said on WFAN radio in New York before the hiring was announced. “As a player, to me the Dodgers were the Yankees of the National League because ... you either loved them or you hated them.”

There's a little Dodger Blue in every American, and to see Joe Torre end up in Los Angeles seems appropriate. And for hm to manage the two most loved -- and hated -- franchises in America is quite a feat.

Now if he could only have been hired by the Cubs, so that he could have helped them leap forward into the sort of post-season success that they haven't seen in a century.

Posted by: Greg at 10:10 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 274 words, total size 2 kb.

Looking to buy a house in New York? If so, then Prudential Douglas Elliman can help you to find the right home for you and your family in the New York region.

Prudential Douglas Elliman is New York's Largest Real Estate Company, with over 60 offices that serve some 350 communities in New York. They will help you to find the very best of New York City, Long Island and North Fork real estate properties so that you can have your perfect home.

Prudential Douglas Elliman knows the New York region. And not only can they help you find your perfect home, Prudential Douglas Elliman cam also help you sell your current house.

Posted by: Greg at 10:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 119 words, total size 1 kb.

And he is exactly right on this point.

"Unfortunately, on too many issues, some in Congress are behaving as if America is not at war," Bush said during a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. "This is no time for Congress to weaken the Department of Justice by denying it a strong and effective leader. ... It's no time for Congress to weaken our ability to intercept information from terrorists about potential attacks on the United States of America. And this is no time for Congress to hold back vital funding for our troops as they fight al-Qaida terrorists and radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq."

You can debate the wisdom of going to war in Iraq.

You can debate the policies and strategies in place today -- though they appear to be working.

But you cannot debate the reality of the war, or the importance of prosecuting it to a successful end.

Unless, of course, you have some other agenda that does not include American victory -- such as one's own political advancement.

Posted by: Greg at 10:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 182 words, total size 1 kb.

IÂ’m really happy with my hosting arrangement, but I still keep my eyes open to see what is out there. After all, it is good to be aware of what is available, plus offerings change from time to time, prices fluctuate and there are frequently new technologies on the horizon. There was a day, not all that long ago, when you ran your website manually, down to programming the code itself. Today when you have a website hosted it comes with a variety of options that make it almost automatic. Call it a Miracle of technology.

AQHost is a hosting company that offers a wide variety of cheap business web hosting services, from ecommerce hosting and business hosting to blog hosting featuring an installed version of Movable Type. They also offer turn-key solutions for your online needs. After all, many of us who are active bloggers really don’t care about the nuts and bolts operation of our host’s setups – we just want it to work quickly and painlessly. The same is true of many folks who set up online stores. The quicker they can use their cheap ecommerce
hosting package to start selling the better; so going with a pre-packaged solution is a nice idea.

AQHost seems to be an up-and-comer; I suspect that we will be seeing a lot of sites hosted by them in the future.

Posted by: Greg at 10:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 231 words, total size 2 kb.

As a history teacher, one of the things of which I am acutely aware is that history is all around us -- and today's current events are tomorrow's history. Our public figures and pop culture icons will be remembered tomorrow as the folks who shaped history and culture for an era. And each day, a little bit of history dies as we lose the participants in key events of earlier generations.

Yesterday was one of those days when there was no doubt that we lost a major figure in an important event.

Brig. Gen. Paul W. Tibbets Jr., the commander and pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 Superfortress that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in the final days of World War II, died today at his home in Columbus, Ohio. He was 92.

His death was announced by a friend, Gerry Newhouse, who said General Tibbets had been in decline with a variety of ailments. Mr. Newhouse said General Tibbets had requested that there be no funeral or headstone, fearing it would give his detractors a place to protest.

In the hours before dawn on Aug. 6, 1945, the Enola Gay lifted off from the island of Tinian carrying a uranium atomic bomb assembled under extraordinary secrecy in the vast endeavor known as the Manhattan Project.

Six and a half hours later, under clear skies, then-Colonel Tibbets, of the Army Air Forces, guided the four-engine plane he had named in honor of his mother toward the bombÂ’s aiming point, the T-shaped Aioi Bridge in the center of Hiroshima, the site of an important Japanese army headquarters.

At 8:15 a.m. local time, the bomb known to its creators as Little Boy dropped free at an altitude of 31,000 feet. Forty-three seconds later, at 1,890 feet above ground zero, it exploded in a nuclear inferno that left tens of thousands dead and dying and turned much of Hiroshima, a city of some 250,000 at the time, into a scorched ruin.

Colonel Tibbets executed a well-rehearsed diving turn to avoid the blast effect.

In his memoir “The Tibbets Story,” he told of “the awesome sight that met our eyes as we turned for a heading that would take us alongside the burning, devastated city.”

“The giant purple mushroom, which the tail-gunner had described, had already risen to a height of 45,000 feet, 3 miles above our own altitude, and was still boiling upward like something terribly alive,” he remembered.

It is easy for us today to question the morality of dropping the atomic bomb when and where we did. That said, there was no question that those in 1945 saw it as an appropriate decision, one that would shorten the war and ultimately save American lives. That there are those today who would revile Paul Tibbetts and his crew is symptomatic of a fundamental conceit that prevails in modern society -- the assumption that contemporary moral outlooks are somehow morally and intellectually superior to those made by other people at other times. Rather than place ourselves in the shoes of those intimately involved in historical events and seek to understand the, too many people would instead look askance at the failure of men and women of an earlier age to act and think like men and women living in the early twenty-first century.

This is not to say that we shouldn't question the morality or wisdom of the actions of historical figures -- indeed, we debated just such issues during a discussion of the slave trade in my classes this week. But as students of history, it is more important that we understand what was done and the reasons why, and to draw lessons accordingly.

And so America now bids farewell to a hero -- one whose deeds helped to end the most horrific conflict of the twentieth century. And if there is room for questioning the wisdom and the correctness of the policy decision that led Paul Tibbetts and his crew to drop the first atomic bomb ever used as a weapon, there can be no question of the importance of the men of Enola Gay -- or their heroism and love of country.

Posted by: Greg at 09:58 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 704 words, total size 4 kb.

While I donÂ’t drink frequently, I do enjoy a good cocktail over on special occasions like a birthday party, holiday party, anniversary party, bachelor party or a wedding. It is a social ritual, part of the passing of time with friends and family, enjoying good company, pleasant entertainment, and favorite foods in a festive setting. In such cases, the bar is a highlight which offers a variety of refreshing drinks. I enjoy trying something new from time to time, as well as order old favorites. For me this means one of a variety of vodka drinks">vodka drinks that IÂ’ve loved for years, as part of that ritual of relaxation and socialization.

One neat thing about bars and bartenders is that they manage to keep old drinks original and exciting. If you are looking for ways to do so, you can visit absolutdrinks.com for some new twists on preparing drinks and cocktails. There is a section on holiday drinks, as well as how to change-up the classic drinks like my favorite, the Screwdriver. You can mix drinks online and save them to your own recipe book. There is a lotto learn and a lot to share. But remember – always drink responsibly.

Posted by: Greg at 06:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 207 words, total size 1 kb.

After all, this is how they led off a story on the latest coalition military action in Afghanistan.

Children die in Afghanistan raid

Two children died as U.S.-led coalition forces stormed a compound in Afghanistan where a suspected Taliban militant had holed himself up with his young family, a military spokesman said Thursday.

Afghan forces, backed by coalition troops raided the compound in eastern Nangarhar province after receiving "credible intelligence" about militants in the area, said Maj. Chris Belcher, Combined Joint Task Forces-82 spokesman.

Belcher said troops were engaged in a firefight with the militant, after which the two children were found dead. Another child and a wounded adult female were also found, he said.

Yep, there go the Americans, murdering innocent children like the war criminals they are.

It takes until the fourth paragraph to get to this minor bit of information.

"While resisting multiple requests to surrender, the militant barricaded himself in a room. Unbeknownst to Afghan forces, his family was barricaded in the room with him," he said.

"It is regrettable when innocent lives are put at risk by militant forces. Our sincerest condolences go out to the families of the deceased and wounded."

It seems that the reason that the kids are dead is that Daddy used them as human shields. After all, the option of surrender was offered, and he could have easily ensured the safety of his family by sending them out. Instead, he chose to keep them close at hand, ensuring that they would be subject to the maximum amount of harm.

And leave it to our “neutral, objective” press to report the story in a manner most likely to inflame world opinion against the Americans. Is it any wonder that so many of us find the “mainstream” press to be beyond belief?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, Right Truth, The Populist, Shadowscope, Leaning Straight Up, Adeline and Hazel, Conservative Thoughts, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 10:04 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 366 words, total size 4 kb.

Why are folks upset over KitnaÂ’s costume?

Detroit Lions quarterback Jon Kitna and his wife dressed up as a naked man and a fast-food drive-through attendant at a teammate's Halloween party, depicting an embarrassing moment for one of the team's assistant coaches.

Now Kitna is getting some flak on local TV and in a newspaper column. Kitna said he was just trying to have fun, but regrets the scrutiny the costumes created.
"If I would've known this, I wouldn't have done it because I didn't want to try to bring attention to it," Kitna said Wednesday while surrounded by reporters and television cameras.

Defensive line coach Joe Cullen pleaded no contest to disorderly conduct and guilty to impaired driving after he was arrested twice last year, once in August 2006 after police said he was driving nude through a Wendy's drive-through lane, and a week later when they said he was driving under the influence of alcohol.

Especially since the butt of his joke doesnÂ’t seem too troubled by the Halloween silliness.

"When we talked yesterday, the first question out of his mouth was, `Did you win?' He seemed to not have a problem with it."

I’m curious – had he appeared as Senator Larry Craig, would there have been this controversy? And let’s be honest here – if this is the worst dirt you can dig up on Kitna, there really isn’t anything to complain about. No guns, no dead dogs, no drugs. Lighten up, folks.

Posted by: Greg at 10:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 261 words, total size 2 kb.

When you hold a woman at gunpoint and force her to have sex against her will, you have committed rape.

It doesnÂ’t matter if she is a prostitute by trade.

Why doesnÂ’t this idiot judge understand that?

A judge in Philadelphia has come under fire for a controversial ruling in which she reduced charges so that a man accused of raping a prostitute at gunpoint faced only robbery charges for "theft of services."

Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni earlier this month dismissed rape and sexual assault charges against Dominique Gindraw, who is accused of forcing a prostitute at gunpoint to have sex with him and several other men. Deni left intact charges of armed robbery for theft of services against Gindraw.

Prosecuting Gindraw for rape, the judge said in a subsequent newspaper interview "minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped."

The decision — and Deni's subsequent comments to a local newspaper — prompted about 40 complaints from around the country to the local bar association, said executive director Ken Shear, as well as a campaign by women's groups to encourage people to vote against Deni when she is up for reelection Tuesday

By the way – theft of service is what you get charged with if you have an illegal cable hook-up. Forced sex at gunpoint is no more serious than stealing HBO and Showtime?

How can one argue that forced sex at gunpoint isnÂ’t rape? Especially since it meets the definition of rape under Pennsylvania law? That the judge cannot understand that is an indication not only of her unfitness for the bench, but of her fundamental lack of decency as a human being.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Is It Just Me?, Right Truth, The Populist, Shadowscope, Leaning Straight Up, Adeline and Hazel, Conservative Thoughts, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 10:02 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 343 words, total size 4 kb.