Personally, I don't think so. But the presidential candidate sure picked the wrong place to say it.

Note to Sen. Sam Brownback: When in Packerland, donÂ’t diss Brett Favre.

The Kansas Republican drew boos and groans from the audience at the state Republican Party convention Friday evening when he used a football analogy to talk about the need to rebuild the family.

“This is fundamental blocking and tackling,” he said. “This is your line in football. If you don’t have a line, how many passes can Peyton Manning complete? Greatest quarterback, maybe, in NFL history.

Personally, I'm with Brownback. Favre is a great quarterback -- but when their careers are done and assessed, I firmly believe that Manning will come out on top.

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I'm always up for a little good news in the War on Terror.

The Taliban's most prominent military commander, a one-legged fighter who orchestrated an ethnic massacre and a rash of beheadings, was killed in a U.S.-led military operation in southern Afghanistan, officials said Sunday.

Mullah Dadullah, a top lieutenant of Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was killed Saturday in the southern province of Helmand, said Said Ansari, the spokesman for Afghanistan's intelligence service. NATO confirmed his death, calling it "a serious blow" to the insurgency.

Now lets get some more. After all, only the Truthers argue that the Taliban isn't a legimate target in the War on Terror.

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Menopause. It is a biological fact of life for women. They know it is coming, but rarely are they ready to deal with it when it does arrive. And when it does arrive, there are a host of changes that come with it -- physical, psychological, emotional, and spiritual.

There is a website and ebook that deals with the issue of menopause relief. It is called Menopause A-to-Z, and operates from the following philosophical point of view.

From perimenopause to post-menopause, the change of life doesn't have to be traumatic. Here you'll find information and community to help you make it into the next exciting phase of your life!

Now that sounds like a neat idea to me -- a self-help and support group for women who are sharing the experience of change. Some of the topics that get dealt with at the site include memory issues and menopause, herbal remedies for some of the troubling physical symptoms of menopause, and hair loss in menopause. In short, Menopause A-to-Z is a wide-ranging site for women struggling with that change of life -- designed to help them live life to the fullest.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Does America Elect Defeatists? by Big Lizards, and “Better a Thousand Israeli Invasions...” by Michael J. Totten.  Here is a link to the full results of the vote.

Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

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The iPod is the latest entertainment/fashion must-have item in America today. They have even outstripped the cellular phone as the status item for students in school. But let's be honest -- they all look alike, so there has to be some way of making yours stand out as uniquely yours -- and protecting it from scratching and other damage.

Zofunk has cases for all the iPod lines. many of these are made from silicone, and are a mere 1mm thick. You don't even need to take the iPod out of the case to put it in the universal dock -- it is that thin!
Zofunk has cases designed for the video iPds, for 1GB and 2 GB iPod nanos. They protect the screens and the docking ports, so that you will be able to get the maximum use from your well-cared-for iPod.

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After all, now that she has given the name “Shiloh” to her child, she owns it and no one else can make use of it without her permission.

Angelina Jolie is fighting to save daughter Shiloh's name from being misused.

Jewellery-design and fragrance company, Hors Lá Monde Corp, is naming its latest perfume Shiloh but the Hollywood star has contacted the US Patent and Trademark Office to oppose the plans.

New York trademark attorney Thomas M Wilentz said: "The notice of opposition alleges that you will be damaged by the pending trademark.

"Angelina must feel that people applying for 'Shiloh' need to get her consent."
Hors Lá Monde owner, 31-year-old Symine Salimpour, applied to trademark 'Shiloh' last June.

Since then, Jolie's New York lawyer has received two 90-day extensions to prepare a case opposing Hors Lá Monde's use of the name.

Now hold on just a minute. The word is ancient Hebrew. It appears in the Bible as a place name also sometimes refers to Christ. It is also the name of the site of a major Civil War battle. I could go on, but I think you see the point.

But then again, celebrities think they are different from you and I – and that what they want, they own.

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Hey, that’s what it amounts to.

Just days after New Jersey authorities announced the arrest of six men suspected of plotting a terror attack against a military base in the state, two state Democratic lawmakers are pushing a bill to abolish the state's death penalty - even in the most serious cases of terrorism, murder and rape.

A state Senate panel was meeting Thursday to debate replacing the state's death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

"Terrorists want to be martyrs. Let's not give them another reason to commit heinous acts by singling them out for the death penalty," said state Sen. Ray Lesniak, introducing legislation, which the Union County Democrat said "will ensure that the system of justice administered by our state is effective, consistent and just."

However, the terrorists are looking to die in the course of their act of terror. And I don’t think we could reasonably argue that they are coming to jurisdictions with the death penalty to double their opportunities to die.
And then there is this stupid argument.

"The frequency of murders makes it obvious that the death penalty simply doesn't work as a deterrent," said state Sen. Shirley Turner, whose district includes Trenton, the state capital which has had serious problems with gang violence and murders in recent years.

And the same argument can be made about the failure of imprisonment to have a deterrent effect, so should we do away with imprisonment as well, right? I guess that Turner has never encountered the notion of the death penalty (or imprisonment) as PUNISHMENT.

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Hey, thatÂ’s what it amounts to.

Just days after New Jersey authorities announced the arrest of six men suspected of plotting a terror attack against a military base in the state, two state Democratic lawmakers are pushing a bill to abolish the state's death penalty - even in the most serious cases of terrorism, murder and rape.

A state Senate panel was meeting Thursday to debate replacing the state's death penalty with life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

"Terrorists want to be martyrs. Let's not give them another reason to commit heinous acts by singling them out for the death penalty," said state Sen. Ray Lesniak, introducing legislation, which the Union County Democrat said "will ensure that the system of justice administered by our state is effective, consistent and just."

However, the terrorists are looking to die in the course of their act of terror. And I donÂ’t think we could reasonably argue that they are coming to jurisdictions with the death penalty to double their opportunities to die.
And then there is this stupid argument.

"The frequency of murders makes it obvious that the death penalty simply doesn't work as a deterrent," said state Sen. Shirley Turner, whose district includes Trenton, the state capital which has had serious problems with gang violence and murders in recent years.

And the same argument can be made about the failure of imprisonment to have a deterrent effect, so should we do away with imprisonment as well, right? I guess that Turner has never encountered the notion of the death penalty (or imprisonment) as PUNISHMENT.

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Don’t dare question the policies of Hamline University. It can get you tossed out and declared a threat to the university – and required to submit to psychological examination and forced counseling.

ThatÂ’s what happened to Tony Scheffler after he raised the issue of allowing guns on campus following the Virginia Tech massacre and HamlineÂ’s offer of counseling to all students.

Scheffler had a different opinion of how the university should react. Using the email handle "Tough Guy Scheffler," Troy fired off his response: Counseling wouldn't make students feel safer, he argued. They needed protection. And the best way to provide it would be for the university to lift its recently implemented prohibition against concealed weapons.

"Ironically, according to a few VA Tech forums, there are plenty of students complaining that this wouldn't have happened if the school wouldn't have banned their permits a few months ago," Scheffler wrote. "I just don't understand why leftists don't understand that criminals don't care about laws; that is why they're criminals. Maybe this school will reconsider its repression of law-abiding citizens' rights."

After stewing over the issue for two days, Scheffler sent a second email to University President Linda Hanson, reiterating his condemnation of the concealed carry ban and launching into a flood of complaints about campus diversity initiatives, which he considered reverse discrimination.

The result was Scheffler being suspended without a hearing, banned from campus, and ordered to submit to a psychological evaluation and any recommended treatment plan. Furthermore, an armed guard was stationed outside his classes to prevent him from entering – and an administrator made a presentation in one class that made it clear that he was to be considered a threat. Furthermore, university officials refuse to communicate with him, even by telephone.

Captain Ed makes a great observation.

Hamline is a private university and can set its own standards for admission and retention. However, it should be made clear to its students and its potential students that Hamline has no room for intellectual dissent from its attendees. Students have to accept the victimology dogma of the administration in silence, and in return Hamline will help them cope with their powerlessness. If by chance one of the students challenges the university directly on its philosophy, they will treat him or her like a psychotic and hire the guards they should have hired when they decided to keep their students disarmed.

I agree completely – and would like to offer the suggestion that Hamline University change its name to Ham-Handed University.

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I have only two questions.

1) What took so long?

2) Why did you put up with him in the first place?

The leader of a Pennsylvania Muslim center has resigned after telling a newspaper that a death sentence was warranted for best-selling author and critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the former Dutch parliament member.

Fouad ElBayly said Wednesday he had stepped down as imam and president of the Islamic Center of Johnstown. He said the center's board members requested his resignation.

The request came after ElBayly's comments about Ali, who spoke April 17 at the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown.

"She has been identified as one who has defamed the faith. If you come into the faith, you must abide by the laws, and when you decide to defame it deliberately, the sentence is death," ElBayly was quoted saying in an April 22 story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

ElBayly, a native of Egypt who came to the United States in 1976, and Mahmood A. Qazi, the center's founder, had tried to get the university to cancel Hirsi Ali's appearance, saying her criticisms were unjustified and could create dissension in their community.

It has taken three weeks to get rid of this guy? I would have thought the mosque, if it wasn’t a center for radicalism, would have dumped him on day one. And do you mean to tell me that this guy had not previously shown signs of such radicalism – it just popped up now? Or is the reason for his departure the bad publicity, not the position he took?

And, of course, the question I really want answer is the one about his connections to terrorism and whether he will remain in this country.

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Oh.

My.

God.

Opie and Anthony need to be gone fromt he airwaves for good after this one.

Fantasizing about the rape of a real woman on the air -- even a public official -- crosses the line in so many ways that i cannot even begin to express my outrage.

Voice 1 (Charlie): I tell you what -- what that George Bush b***h, Rice? Condoleezza Rice?

Voice 2 (Host): Condoleezza Rice.

V1: I'd love to f**k that b***h, man. (Laughter) She needs to f**k a man. I'd f**k her.

V2: I can just imagine the horror on Condoleezza Rice's face when she realized what was going on. (Laughter)

V3 (Host 2): You were all just holdin' her down and, you know, f**kin' her. (Laughter)

V1: Punch her all in the f**kin' face, saying, "Shut up, b***h." (Laughter)

V3: That's exactly what I meant. (Laughter)

I don't care if this is satellite radio and subscription only -- I'm open to things being much more racy there, but this moves beyond that, beyond gross, and into pure evil. As a society, we need to draw the line somewhere.

But not at government action.

No, XM needs to fire these guys under pressure from subscribers and outraged members of the public. The violent verbal rape of a real human being is so despicable that we all, as individuals, need to address it. Do we view such "entertainment" as morally acceptable, and are we willing to exact a price from those who produce it?

And let's be honest here. This exceeds any stupid thing that Don Imus said. this even goes beyond the bigotry of Al Sharpton. This sinks to a level that I lack the vocabulary to even describe.

And for all you Bush-bashers and race-baiting Rice-haters out there who may feel a little glee at the thought of Condi Rice being victimized like this, let me pose a simple question for you -- if this were directed ad Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi, would you stand by in silence? And if you wouldn't, how can you do so when such unspeakably vile words are directed at another successful woman, regardless of her politics?

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Newspaper thefts on college campuses are usually based upon ideology, and are very serious affairs.

This one is a bit different.

Two female college students who bared their bellies at a lacrosse game couldn't stomach a front-page newspaper photo of their stunt and now are in trouble for swiping copies, campus officials said.

They apparently felt the photo made them look fat, the paper's faculty adviser said.

The photo in the April 27 edition of The Gatepost at Framingham State College shows seven fans at a women's lacrosse game with “I (heart) N-O-O-N-A-N,” the name of a team member, spelled out on their stomachs. They are wearing hip-hugger shorts and abbreviated tank tops.

Campus police won't pursue criminal charges, but two students face possible disciplinary action, college spokesman Peter Chisholm said.

English professor Desmond McCarthy, the faculty adviser, said he was told by other students the women who took the papers thought they looked fat.

I'll agree with the paper's adviser -- this is the most stupid reason for stealing a newspaper ever.

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Wirefly offers great deals on cellular phones -- everyone knows that. But did you know that they have cell phone accessories, too?

And man, do they ever have some great accessories available through their site.

For example -- do you have a Bluetooth enabled phone? Do you have the earpiece that you need to make that function work for you? Well, they have one available for $34.95. No, that isn't a typo there -- a Motorola H350 can be in your ear for under $40! You really can't beat a price like that.

Or better yet, you can get that headset , a case and a charger for a RAZR phone for only $59.95. I really don't understand how they manage to set prices like this, but they do -- and it can all be to your benefit.

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Frankly, almost all of my alcohol consumption over the years has included caffeine -- in the form of Coke mixed with my rum. Will we now see a ban on such concoctions as well?

Twenty-nine state attorneys general urged Anheuser-Busch yesterday to warn buyers of Spykes and other alcoholic drinks combined with caffeine about the dangers of mixing the two substances.

Anheuser's Spykes, Tilt and Bud Extra should have labels saying the drinks may make people feel less impaired than they are, the officials said in a letter to the company. Among the attorneys general signing the letter were officials from Maryland and the District.

The drinks also attract consumers younger than the legal drinking age of 21 because they look like other caffeinated energy drinks, such as Red Bull and Rockstar, the letter said. The fruity or chocolate flavors, colorful packaging and online marketing campaigns also appeal to teenagers, the letter said.

Oh, dear -- flavored alcohol. We can't have that, despite the availability of flavored alcoholic beverages for about as long as i can remember.

And the company points out some minor details about the beverages.

Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman Francine Katz said the St. Louis company does not endorse underage drinking and does not target minors. She said Spykes shots, which are sold in 2-ounce bottles and have as much alcohol as a third of a glass of wine, are less likely to appeal to minors, who typically "drink for instant impact."

In other words, they are the antithesis of what kids like to drink.

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What is Prosper learning? That was my first question when I heard about prosperlearning. It turns out that it is the method for business success through mentoring being offered to small business people by Prosper, Inc.

A US Business Review article last year offers this insight into the business.

While each student is paired with a mentor who best fits his or her goals and experience level from the course, each mentor only works with a select group of students at a time, and receives compensation based on the success of their students. "The true differentiating factor in our company is that each student receives customized training in their specific course of study, with a mentor who has been chosen based on both personality and expertise," Willis says.

In addition, students are offered enrollment through an invitation-only process to ensure each person is fully committed to the program and motivated to achieve their goals. "As a company, the most important unit of measurement is that we're turning out success stories," Willis asserts. "We know that people will find success if they work hard at each program. One of the most crucial elements is that each student has the right qualifications and is able to work well with our coaches."

Now think about that. Prosper, Inc. does not offer you a DVD and a book in a box and tell you that you are on your own. It assigns you a mentor who has a stake in your success. Indeed, Prosper, Inc. only invites the best into its program, so that the probability of success is increased for the client/student.

Does it work? I guess so -- over 30,000 successful clients cannot be wrong.

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That seems to be the new White House position on funding the Iraq War.

Hours before the House approved a plan on Thursday to finance the Iraq war only through midsummer, President Bush offered his first public concession to try to resolve the impasse on war spending, acknowledging rising pressure from his own party and the public.

After a briefing at the Pentagon, Mr. Bush said he had instructed Joshua B. Bolten, the White House chief of staff, to reach “common ground” with lawmakers of both parties over setting firm goals, or benchmarks, to measure progress in Iraq. Mr. Bush had previously insisted that he wanted about $95 billion for the military with no strings attached.

“It makes sense to have benchmarks as a part of our discussion on how to go forward,” Mr. Bush said, even as he threatened to veto the House plan, approved on a 221-to-205 vote Thursday night, which would require him to seek approval in two months for the balance of the war money.

Of course, the key is how to make those benchmarks something other than a timetable for withdrawal. And, of course, what criteria are actually being set -- whether they can be attained, and what the consequences of not meeting them are. My big concern is that such benchmarks will become a de facto timetable if the goals are not reasonable and incremental.

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MoCoSpace.com offers free mobile chat communities. That's right -- free Chat for you wherever you go! You and your friends can chat from your mobile phones -- or you can join public chats.

That means no computers, no laptops, no landlines or modems to deal with. Chat with who you want, when you want, where you want -- it is the future of chat!

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Polls show the people of Massachusetts are for a proposal to ban gay marriage -- so why is the state's governor trying to make sure they never get their say?

Gov. Deval Patrick has dangled job offers in front of anti-gay-marriage lawmakers to persuade them to switch their votes and kill a proposed constitutional ban on same-sex nuptials, sources said.

Two sources close to the gay-marriage debate said Patrick has used the controversial tactic as lobbying has intensified in recent weeks. The Legislature adjourned a Constitutional Convention yesterday without voting on the proposed ban, tabling the matter until a session scheduled for June 14.

Supporters of gay marriage said Patrick has worked extremely hard behind the scenes to defeat the proposed ban, and the sources said those efforts have included approaching lawmakers believed to be amenable to a vote switch and telling them they would be considered for administration jobs if they helped defeat the ban.

One can argue the merits of gay marriage -- but there is no legitimate basis for strangling the voice of the citizenry. It is interesting that Patrick, whose Clinton Administration job was focused on ensuring that people were allowed to vote, wants to disenfranchise an entire state -- unless he places the will of a core constituency above the will of the people as a whole.

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Well, is there any question now that Al Sharpton was engaged in a full frontal assault on Mormonism the other day? What other conclusion can one draw now that Sharpton has injected race into the mix -- and set himself up as Grand Inquisitor with his demand that Romney respond to questions about LDS religious beliefs?

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and civil rights activist Al Sharpton traded angry, racially charged accusations yesterday, with Romney alleging that Sharpton had uttered "bigoted" comments about Mormonism.

* * *

"Attacking me, not Hitchens, shows [Romney] is playing politics," Sharpton said. "What is bigoted about asking . . . about a denomination based on racism?"

Sharpton called on Romney to address whether the Mormon Church ever supported segregation. "He needs to clarify the truth or non-truth of what I was presented," Sharpton said.

No, he does not, Al -- and you need to crawl back under the rock from which you slithered. But not until you have been called to account for your history of racism and anti-Semitism -- Tawana Brawley, Yankel Rosenbaum, Freddy's Fashion Mart, and the Duke Lacrosse case, for starters.

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My wife and I spent our honeymoon in a vacation cabin we rented in the Great Smokey Mountains. We hope to one day go back for another stay. A nice cabin, condo, townhome or house in a nice location can make for such a wonderful experience -- and a raft of great memories -- for you and your loved ones.

Over at vlbo.com, you can find great vacation rentals around the country and in some foreign destinations. Take, for example, Lake Tahoe vacation rentals. They have several units available, sleeping anywhere from 2 to 18! Pick your date, pick your location, and you are all set!

Paid Endorsement.

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I'd wondered about this, but never asked. But my intuition on the HPV matter has proved to be correct.

The sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer also sharply increases the risk of certain types of throat cancer among people infected through oral sex, according to a study being published today.

The study, involving 100 people with throat cancer and 200 without it, found that those infected with the human papillomavirus were 32 times as likely to develop one form of oral cancer than those free of the virus. Although previous research had indicated HPV caused oral cancer, the new study is the first to definitively establish the link, researchers said.

"It makes it absolutely clear that oral HPV infection is a risk factor," said Maura L. Gillison, an assistant professor of oncology and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions in Baltimore, who led the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The findings could help explain why rates of oral cancer have been increasing in recent years, particularly among younger people and those who are not smokers or heavy drinkers, which had long been the primary at-risk groups, experts said.

"There's been a kind of sea change in the last 10 years in who we're seeing with these cancers," Gillison said. "It makes sense with some changes we've seen in sexual behavior."

Maybe this will serve as notice to some of our young people that oral sex has consequences, too, and is not simply a safe way of having a good time -- or an entertaining form of party game.

But I'm also struck by the time frame of the change in throat cancer patients. What could have happened 10 years ago that would lead to such a change?

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Really, it has been great to be working with these folks doing consumer generated advertising. They sure beat those banner ads and text ads all to heck in terms of productivity. And even if I haven't been eligible for all of the big offers, and have even had one or two rejections along the way, i feel I have been well-treated by them in the three months that I've been grabbing opportunities to advertise on blogs.

How much have I made? Well, let's say that this week will pull in more than I have from AdSense in a year. Heck, I might even drop all those ads in the site redesign that is coming up -- that will certainly make my site seem a bit more sleek. And as for where it is going, there are needs following my wife's hospital stays -- and maybe even the chance to take her on that Alaska Cruise in the next year or two!

Paid Endorsement.

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The sound you just heard is the crashing and burning of Rudy's presidential campaign.

After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.

At the same time, Mr. Giuliani’s campaign — seeking to accomplish the unusual task of persuading Republicans to nominate an abortion rights supporter — is eyeing a path to the nomination that would try to de-emphasize the early states in which abortion opponents wield a great deal of influence. Instead they would focus on the so-called mega-primary of Feb. 5, in which voters in states like California, New York and New Jersey are likely to be more receptive to Mr. Giuliani’s social views than voters in Iowa and South Carolina.

That approach, they said, became more appealing after the Legislature in Florida, another state they said would be receptive to Mr. Giuliani, voted last week to move the primary forward to the end of January.

Now I'll be honest -- as much as I admire Rudy for many things, I've never been a big fan of his candidacy. His equivocation last week was troubling to me. This move simply turns me off to the campaign completely -- because it makes me wonder how much of his previous positioning on issues like judges is sincere. And the harder-line pro-lifers will sit home in 2008 rather than vote for him.

Expect a precipitous drop in the polls. And maybe a formal excommunication.

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I like picking out nice gifts for friends and family members, but I don't always know what to get. It isn't that i don't care or don't have good taste, but rather that I don't always have the time to do the shopping or the originality to come up with a neat gift. That's when I turn to gift baskets -- and there are some excellent ones at GiftBasketsPlus.com.

For example, there are a lot of babies on the way at my school. Rather than go out and buy the same chain-store onesies, I can find a neat baby gift basket that contains a number of quality items that are needed for the new arrival. Or there are personalized piggy banks, a cute gift that will be treasured for years. And there are lots of other gift baskets available, for every occasion.

After all, as I look at my calendar, I see a number of times I might be tempted to buy for someone at GiftBasketsPlus.com. My brother has a birthday in two weeks. My parents have their 46th wedding anniversary early next month. Heck, my wedding anniversary is coming up – followed by my darling wife’s birthday in rapid succession. And let’s not forget that Mother’s Day is Sunday – there is still time to order, even if your gift might be tardy. So drop by and take a look around

Paid Endorsement.

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Immigration knew who they were. They knew where they were. They just didnÂ’t care enough to do anything about it.

You might suspect when illegal immigrants are caught committing violent crimes, it means automatic deportation.

That's simply not the case. We dug through months of arrest records and immigration documents to find criminal illegal immigrants can get three, four and even six strikes, and still be allowed in our country.

You've seen these immigration rallies -- hundreds of marchers. But among these faces, you won't likely find Jimmy Ascencio, convicted of assault, evading arrest, DWI and robbery.

The chance is also slim you'll see Gonzalo Roldan, convicted of theft, burglary, auto theft, and manufacturing and delivering cocaine.

Both men were arrested, and according to the Harris County Sheriff's Department -- both admitted they are in the U.S. illegally.

But we discovered both are now out of jail and likely somewhere in the Houston area.

How bad is ICEÂ’s enforcement record?

From Jan. 1 through the end of March, 979 suspects booked into the Harris County Jail voluntarily told deputies they are illegal immigrants.

But records we obtained show ICE has only made efforts to deport 195 of those suspects in the same time period -- just 20 percent.

And these are the known criminals – and include killers, rapists, and drug dealers. Yet ICE cannot be bothered to return them to their countries of origin, despite the fact they are already in custody.

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Or maybe that should be the “Juan Kerry Question”.

Pope Benedict on Wednesday warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion.

It was the first time that the Pope, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him on a trip to Brazil, dealt in depth with a controversial topic that has come up in many countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy.

The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City.

"Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)".

Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as "automatic excommunication" on themselves.

You can be for and facilitate abortions, or you can be Catholic. You cannot be both. I applaud Pope Benedict XVI for having the courage to say so – and I hope that America’s bishops will have the integrity to follow his lead.

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Or maybe that should be the “Juan Kerry Question”.

Pope Benedict on Wednesday warned Catholic politicians they risked excommunication from the Church and should not receive communion if they support abortion.

It was the first time that the Pope, speaking to reporters aboard the plane taking him on a trip to Brazil, dealt in depth with a controversial topic that has come up in many countries, including the United States, Mexico, and Italy.

The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City.

"Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ," he said.

"They (Mexican Church leaders) did nothing new, surprising or arbitrary. They simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the Church... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment (of life)".

Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as "automatic excommunication" on themselves.

You can be for and facilitate abortions, or you can be Catholic. You cannot be both. I applaud Pope Benedict XVI for having the courage to say so – and I hope that America’s bishops will have the integrity to follow his lead.

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You know, shunning someone because of their misdeeds isn’t a bad thing – indeed, it is virtuous. And as a result, I have to praise Louisville restaurateur Jeff Ruby.

Ruby — who owns restaurants in Cincinnati, Louisville and Belterra, Ind. — said Simpson, who was in town for the Derby on Saturday, came in with a group of about 12 Friday night and was seated at a table in the back. A customer came up to Ruby and was "giddy" about seeing Simpson, Ruby said.

"I didn't want that experience in my restaurant," Ruby said, later adding that seeing Simpson get so much attention "makes me sick to my stomach."
He said he went to Simpson's table and said, "I'm not serving you." Ruby said when Simpson didn't respond, he repeated himself and left the room.

Simpson, he reports, had the grace to leave quietly.

Unfortunately, SimpsonÂ’s lawyer is now attempting to turn the incident into something else.

Simpson's attorney, Yale Galanter, said the incident was about race, and he intended to pursue the matter and possibly go after the restaurant's liquor license.

"He screwed with the wrong guy, he really did," Galanter said by telephone Tuesday night.

I doubt there is a jury in the world that would give Simpson a penny – after all, this is clearly a case of refusing to do business with a loathsome individual. I’d suggest that Galanter may need to consider offering a retraction, unless he has significant poof of racial discrimination.

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Any immigration bill that grants amnesty to illegal aliens, no matter what it is called, leaves open the possibility of giving safe haven to untold numbers of potential criminals and terrorists.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform called the arrests "strong proof that lax enforcement of our immigration laws does pose a severe threat to the security of the nation, and that the government's screening process for granting green cards and other immigration benefits is perilously flawed."

* * *

"Given [Tuesday's] events, the American public has a right to demand, not ask, that Congress and the Bush administration drop all talk of amnesty and guest worker programs and get to work on the single most important priority: controlling our borders and fixing an immigration system that allows terrorists and just about anyone else to enter and hide out in this country," said FAIR President Dan Stein.

"Luck was on our side this time, but luck is not a substitute for due diligence and an immigration enforcement policy that protects the nation and its people," he said.

FAIR said the arrests in New Jersey prove that terrorists can and will take advantage of "unenforced immigration policies that have flooded this country with illegal immigrants."

And lest anyone forget – three of the Fort Dix Six were illegally in this country.

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Any immigration bill that grants amnesty to illegal aliens, no matter what it is called, leaves open the possibility of giving safe haven to untold numbers of potential criminals and terrorists.

The Federation for American Immigration Reform called the arrests "strong proof that lax enforcement of our immigration laws does pose a severe threat to the security of the nation, and that the government's screening process for granting green cards and other immigration benefits is perilously flawed."

* * *

"Given [Tuesday's] events, the American public has a right to demand, not ask, that Congress and the Bush administration drop all talk of amnesty and guest worker programs and get to work on the single most important priority: controlling our borders and fixing an immigration system that allows terrorists and just about anyone else to enter and hide out in this country," said FAIR President Dan Stein.

"Luck was on our side this time, but luck is not a substitute for due diligence and an immigration enforcement policy that protects the nation and its people," he said.

FAIR said the arrests in New Jersey prove that terrorists can and will take advantage of "unenforced immigration policies that have flooded this country with illegal immigrants."

And lest anyone forget – three of the Fort Dix Six were illegally in this country.

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IÂ’m betting the answer will be NO!

Two national hurricane experts say they expect an especially active storm season in the Atlantic this year, with one predicting 17 tropical storms and hurricanes.

Philip Klotzbach, a research associate at Colorado State University, and Joe Bastardi, the chief hurricane forecaster for AccuWeather Inc., acknowledged Tuesday that similar predictions for the 2006 season were wrong but still think there will be a more active storm cycle this year.

Klotzbach and Bastardi spoke at the Second Annual AccuWeather Hurricane Summit, a gathering of more than 100 weather experts and academics to discuss the coming season with members of the energy industry, whose business can be severely affected by storms.

"We didn't predict very well last year," Klotzbach said, noting that 2006 turned out to be an average year.

What we have here is really very little more than guesswork – and the track record of the predicters, I don’t know that I have much to be worried about on the Texas Gulf Coast.

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And I thought we kept being told that it was the evangelical Right that would be questioning Romney's religious beliefs and spouting anti-Mormon rhetoric. It isn't -- it is Al Sharpton!

"As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation," Sharpton said Monday during a debate with Hitchens at the New York Public Library's Beaux-Arts headquarters.

So -- will the sensitivity police get after the so-called civil rights leader? or does he get a pass on this, like he does on anti-white, anti-Jew, anti-Asian comments in his past?

This is not to say that disagreeing with Mormon beliefs/theology is an act of bigotry -- it isn't, and I do (including in a conversation with a dear Mormon friend yesterday). However, the sort of marginalization of Mormons Sharpton is talking about seems to cross more lines than skepticism about that faith. Would such a statement stand unchallenged if it wer made about a Muslim candidate by a conservative Christian leader?

MORE AT My Man Mitt (including video), Jawa Report, Free Constitution, Blog-o-Fascists

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Andrew Sullivan asks what, it seems to me, is a really dumb question here.

If gun rights are civil rights, why would anyone feel the need to hide the fact that they own one?

I suppose one could also ask why, if freedom of speech and association are civil rights, one would wish to engage in anonymous speech or keep one's membership in political organizations secret. Doesn't Sullivan believe in a right to privacy?

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Now here is an idea that, if tried nationally, could really help lower energy prices -- lower the tax burden imposed upon fuel costs.

With pump prices surging toward $3 and possibly beyond this summer, the Texas House voted by a wide margin Tuesday to temporarily save motorists 20 cents a gallon every time they fuel up.

Call it "tax-free gas" for the summer driving season, Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, said after the House tentatively approved his amendment 118-16.

* * *

His amendment to a gas-tax collection bill would repeal the state's gasoline tax for 90 days, which would cost Texas an estimated $500 million to $700 million toward highway construction and public education. But the proposal would make up for it by sapping the $8 billion budget surplus, currently split almost evenly between money set aside for future school property tax cuts and the state's Rainy Day fund.

"That fund goes to times when we are in crisis and, right now, with gas prices through the roof, there is a crisis," Martinez Fischer said. "The last time I checked, that money belongs to the people of Texas."

The proposal may not survive the State Senate in the final three weeks of our biennial legislative session (next regular session -- January, 2009). However, I suspect that enough voices from the public might have an effect to get the measure through, and make Texas a model for every other state and the ferderal government to really help reduce fuel costs.

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I cannot believe the ignorance that these folks are showing here in their editorial regarding the Military Commissions Act of 2006.

Rewriting the act should start with one simple step: restoring to prisoners of the war on terror the fundamental right to challenge their detention in a real court. So far, promised measures to restore habeas corpus have yet to see the light of day, and they may remain buried unless Democratic leaders make them a priority and members of both parties vote on principle, not out of fear of attack ads.

Anyone who knows anything about international law would stop reading at that point. Under international law, POWs do not have the right to access the courts of the nation holding them. Indeed, they can be held indefinitely, until the end of hostilities, and may not be tried in any civilian court -- or (ordinarily) in any military court except for certain carefully delineated offenses that constitute crimes against humanity or other violations of the laws of war.

So in fact, what the editors of the New York Times are calling for is a strict violation of the Geneva Conventions. Is it any wonder that the Gray Lady are no longer particularly relevant in the public discourse.

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If you do any amount of shopping online, you know you can find great prices on almost anything. But are there ways to get prices that are even better? Yes, there are -- if you know where to look. And the place to look is CouponChief.com!

CouponChief.com is a site that links to thousands of advertisers with great online coupon codes. And some of these coupons can be quite beneficial to you.

lets say you are in the market for a Sony Vaio notebook computer. You can shop around town and surf the web, but are you sure you are going to get the best possible deal? Well, heres a thought -- visit this link and find a code for $340 off the price of a Vaio! Plus, you'll find a host of other great Sony coupon offers.

So check out CouponChief.com and SAVE!

Paid Endorsement.

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The actual site of the first successful English colony in North America was lost for centuries -- but 13 years ago was rediscovered.

Much that is new and exciting in the story of Jamestown is the result of discoveries made in the past 13 years by a white-haired 66-year-old archeologist named William M. Kelso, who found something here no other archaeologist had been able to find in a century of looking:

The long-lost site of Jamestown's fort.

Kelso's findings, unfolding quietly over more than a decade, take Jamestown's story back to its beginning, experts say, and rank among the greatest in North American archeology in the past 50 years.

"It's a big deal," said Carter L. Hudgins, chairman of the department of history and American studies at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg. "It's something you thought you'd never be able to look at. . . . We can now begin with the letter A. We don't have to begin with the letter D."

Kelso himself seems astonished. Last week he hosted the queen of England and Vice President Cheney. This week, the president. He chuckles: "This is the whole ball of wax, man."

The rest of the story is fascinating -- as are the discoveries that have been made in the last 13 years, bringing to light the lost history of the founding colonists.

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Business cards have become more and more a staple of professional life in recent years. Everyone seems to have business cards -- not just doctors and lawyers, but even folks the guy who does your lawn and the girl who grooms your dog. Even my students have them now -- the easier to get connected with friends and acquaintances. ProfessionalBusinessCards.com has some great business card designs, and at a great price. And while I'll be honest that I find the site itself to be somewhat boring, the selection of business cards they present is really great, with beautiful designs.

Paid Endorsement.

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Good Lord -- the terrorist scum of Hamas have even kidnapped the beloved Disney character and turned him into a terror-supporting anti-Semite.

Hamas militants have enlisted a figure bearing a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic domination and armed resistance to their most impressionable audience — children.

A giant black-and-white rodent — named "Farfour," or "butterfly," but unmistakably a rip-off of the Disney character — does his high-pitched preaching against the U.S. and

Israel on a children's show each Friday on Al-Aqsa TV, a station run by Hamas. The militant group, sworn to Israel's destruction, shares power in the Palestinian government.

"You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists," Farfour squeaked on a recent episode of the show, which is called "Tomorrow's Pioneers."

"We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers."

Children call in to the show, many singing Hamas anthems about fighting Israel.

You wonder why the Palestinians hate? Clearly, they have been taught to do so from the earliest age, and the indoctrination continues.

I think Golda Meir had it right decades ago -- "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."

Seems pretty clear that point has not been reached.

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