There isn't enough DNA in supposed Seville remains to do research, and the Dominicans refuse to grant access to alleged remains in the New World. That means that we may never be able to figure out conclusively where the bones of Christopher Columbus really rest today.

But more than that, will we ever figure out who the "discoverer of America" really was? What were his roots, which have been clouded in mystery for centuries?

He gave new meaning to the phrase "world-class celebrity," but like Garbo, Christopher Columbus had little interest in talking about himself and dismissed queries about his origins with a rhetorical shrug: " Vine de nada" -- "I came from nothing."

It was never enough. For centuries, scholars have wondered about this enigmatic mariner whose compulsion to travel east by traveling west altered the course of Western civilization and effectively ended the Middle Ages.

He may have been born in Genoa, but he wrote in indifferent Latin or in good Spanish -- never in Italian. He had French connections, married a Portuguese woman, may have been Jewish, may have lived in Catalonia and died May 20, 500 years ago this week, in the Spanish city of Valladolid.

To commemorate this event, researchers led by Spanish forensic pathologist Jos� Antonio Lorente Acosta are comparing the DNA of Columbus's illegitimate son, Fernando, with DNA from hundreds of possible Columbus descendants in at least three countries.

The goal is to determine once and for all whether Columbus, as traditionalists hold, was the son of Genoese wool weaver Domenico Colombo, or was instead a Spaniard named Colon; or a Catalan Colom, from Barcelona; or a French Coulom or Colomb; or perhaps Corsican or Mallorcan.

"We'll get something, but it will be complicated," Lorente said in a telephone interview from his University of Granada office. "The trick is to differentiate between the Columbuses from different places -- and there's no guarantee."

The likely result? That is a good question, as there are plausible narratives to explain any of the above -- or some combination.

Or perhaps we will have to live with the mystery.

Posted by: Greg at 10:31 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 358 words, total size 2 kb.

Looks like the Israel-bashers are at it again, holding Jews to a higher standard than that to which they hold Muslims.

Britain's biggest union for college and university teachers plans to ask its 67,000 members to consider boycotting Israeli lecturers who do not publicly dissociate themselves from what it called Israel's "apartheid policies."

The language is from a resolution to be put before the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education at its annual conference in Blackpool from May 27 to 29.

The move has reopened a fiery debate that seized another college union, the Association of University Teachers, last year. In response to appeals from 60 Palestinian organizations, the Association of University Teachers voted in April 2005 to boycott two Israeli universities, saying it would bar faculty members from Haifa and Bar-Ilan Universities from taking part in academic conferences or research with British colleagues.

Less than a month later, the association voted to overturn the boycott when numerous advocates, including a group of Nobel laureates, argued that university campuses in Israel enjoyed vigorous political debate and were not the most appropriate institutions to boycott.

This year, however, the Association of University Teachers, with 40,000 members, plans to merge with the larger National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, just after its conference in Blackpool. The contentious resolution is one of two relating directly to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

So if you are an Israeli Jew, these edu-Nazis want to make you submit to a political litmus test as a condition of allowing you to work or study in the UK. Such requirements are not imposed upon the citizens of the world's most oppressive dictatorships -- Red China, Cuba, North Korea -- but will be imposed upon the citizens of the only Western-style democracy in the Middle East.

Furthermore, this is only one of two resolutions being considered by the group.

The first, concerning Hamas's victory in Palestinian elections, enjoins British academics "to continue to help protect and support Palestinian colleges and universities in the face of the continual attacks by Israel's government" and to "contact the Palestinian Authority government to reaffirm that support."

That resolution accuses Britain of displaying "outrageous bias" against Hamas.

The European Union, the United States and Israel consider Hamas a terrorist organization with which they refuse to have dealings, especially so long as it declines to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

In other words, the group wants to go on record in support of Hamas and the Terrorstinians, who continue to conduct a campaign of murder against innocent civilians. Not only will there be no requirement that Muslims denounce Islamic terror around the globe, but the group willcondemn those who oppose the perpetrators of terror attacks! At the same time, though, any Israeli attempt to safeguard itself and its citizens is to be decried as illegitimate.

In the event this resolution passes, the United States needs to implement a policy of denying visas to all members of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education "who do not publicly dissociate themselves from" the group's anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist policies.

After all, what's good for the Israeli goose is good for the British gander.

Posted by: Greg at 05:26 PM | Comments (52) | Add Comment
Post contains 541 words, total size 4 kb.

Now I am no advocate of censorship, but I do wonder what Australian censors would consider to be inciting violence if these books do not meet the criteria of that nation's anti-terrorism laws.

One of the books, Defence of the Muslim Lands, carried an endorsement from Osama bin Laden on its back cover and promoted "wiring up one's body" with explosives for "martyrdom or self-sacrifice operations".

The Criminal West, written by Australian Muslim Omar Hassan, claimed to be called Australian was something to be ashamed of and Western culture is the culture of wolves, injustice and racism.

It also claims Australian police are rapists who bash young boys and spoke of a conspiracy involving politicians to turn young Muslims into drug addicts.

The Ideological Attack claims there was a barbaric onslaught against Muslims by Jews, Christians and atheists.

Again, these are all books that the Australian government has said are just hunky-dory under its anti-terrorism law and other statutes which ban books promoting hatred and violence.

On the other hand, it is illegal in Australia to quote the Koran to prove that Islam is a religion which promotes hatred of Christians and Jews, and which is promotes violence against non-Muslims -- and Christians have been convicted for doing so.

Posted by: Greg at 05:11 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 215 words, total size 2 kb.

Once again, the atheist Red Chinese choose confrontation over reconciliation with the legitimate authorities of the Catholic Church.

China's state-approved Catholic Church welcomed the installation Sunday of another bishop who was not approved by the pope, exacerbating the strain in Beijing's relations with the Vatican.

Bishop Zhan Silu, also known as Vincent Zhan, celebrated Mass for 500 Catholics and officials in a church in the southern city of Ningde to mark his formal appointment as head of the Mindong diocese. Hong Kong Cable TV showed Zhan holding a gold staff and wearing the pointed hat, or miter, used by bishops.

The welcoming ceremony compounded tensions in Vatican-China relations. Just a few months ago, Catholics had expressed hope that back-channel communications and concessions by the Vatican would end a rift between Rome and a separate Chinese church set up by the Communist government a half-century ago.

In recent weeks, China's state-approved Catholic hierarchy ordained two other bishops without papal assent, drawing a threat of excommunication from the Vatican and aggravating the split.

"They had to know that this would cause a serious reaction, a breakdown in the efforts to normalization," Richard Madsen, an expert on China-Vatican ties at the University of California at San Diego, said of the ordinations. "This shows at some level, they just didn't want relations to go forward."

In the fallout, the Vatican put on hold a review of Zhan's appointment that could have led to his approval by Pope Benedict XVI, a church official in Hong Kong said on condition of anonymity because of his involvement in the Rome-China dialogue.

Seems to me that the butchers in Beijing don't want to be seen as allowing too much religious freedom to the ever growing Christian population of China, so they are intentionally weakening relations with the Vatican -- relations that had been leading to Vatican acceptance of many officially sponsored episopal candidates.

For more on the status of Chinese Catholics loyal to the Vatican, click here.

UPDATE: More on this story here.

Posted by: Greg at 04:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 345 words, total size 3 kb.

I doubt we'll be hearing the name Abramoff prominently from the Democrats this year. That is because any attempt to accuse the GOP of systemic corruption will only lead back to the ethical cess-pool that is the Democrat Party. Take this senior Democrat.

Starting in the 1990s, Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.) chose an unusual way to funnel federal funds into his poverty-ridden district. He set up a network of nonprofit organizations to administer the millions of dollars he directed to such public endeavors as high-tech research and historic preservation.

Over the same period, Mollohan's personal fortunes soared. From 2000 to 2004, his assets grew from no more than $565,000 to at least $6.3 million. The partners in his rapidly expanding real estate empire included the head of one of these nonprofit groups and the owner of a local company for which he arranged substantial federal aid.

Mollohan used his seat on the House Appropriations Committee to secure more than $150 million for five nonprofit groups. One of the groups is headed by a former aide with whom Mollohan bought $2 million worth of property on Bald Head Island, N.C.

Controversy over this blending of commerce and legislation has triggered a federal probe, cost Mollohan his position on the House ethics committee and undermined the Democrats' effort to portray the GOP as the party of corruption because of the Jack Abramoff scandal. As early as today, the 12-term congressman will admit that he misstated some transactions in his congressional filings, according to Mollohan staffers.

"Mollohan has earmarked tens of millions of dollars to groups associated with his own business partners. That immediately raises the question whether these funds were allocated to promote the public good or to promote his interests and the interests of his partners," said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal and Policy Center, a conservative watchdog group. "He also got very rich very quick, and that suggests a relationship that is suspect if not corrupt."

How bad is it? Take a look at this little tidbit.

Mollohan, 63, faces a widening federal investigation. The FBI has notified his nonprofit organizations that they will be subpoenaed soon and, according to Mollohan, a subpoena has already been served on a D.C. real estate company in which he has invested. In addition, Mollohan plans to divulge that he misstated on House financial disclosure forms the amount of loans and income from some of his real estate holdings.

I love that term, "misstated". Could you imagine the Democrats allowing a senior GOP congressman get by with that? The entire situation reeks of corruption -- yet the Democrats were more than willing to let him sit on the Ethics COmmittee and pass judgement on Tom DeLay, whose alleged lapses have everything to do with politics and not personal enrichment.

Now maybe there is some reasonable explanation for all this, but remember what the Democrats kept telling us -- the appearance of impropriety is itself an impropriety.

Posted by: Greg at 04:26 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 501 words, total size 3 kb.

You know -- it must really suck to live in Massachusetts. Why else do you think a quarter of a million folks escaped between 2000 and 2005? And why else do you think that the state saw a population decrease of over 19,000 just in the period from 2003 to 2005, even with new arrivals and births?

A majority of people who moved out of Massachusetts last year report they are very satisfied with life in their new state and would not move back, a Boston Globe poll has found.

Seventy-three percent of those surveyed said they live in a home that is bigger than their home in Massachusetts was. Fifty-four percent said their standard of living is higher now.

The top reason people gave for leaving Massachusetts was a better job, followed by the cost of housing, family ties, and the weather. In a separate set of questions, 50 percent of those surveyed said the cost of housing was a ''major factor," and a better job was cited as a ''major factor" by 39 percent.

The findings underscored the difficulties of living, raising children, and earning enough money in Massachusetts, and suggested that these fundamental aspirations of the American middle-class are often easier for people to achieve outside the state.

The wide-ranging poll was the first of its kind to measure the motivations of people who have left Massachusetts, whose population of 6.39 million dropped by nearly 19,000 between 2003 and 2005, according to Census data.

The reasons are about what you would expect, and all relate to quality of life.

The survey also sought to measure what was a major factor in prompting people to move. Housing and jobs were cited by 50 percent and 39 percent, respectively. Taxes were cited by 30 percent; a better place to raise kids, by 25 percent; the weather by 24 percent; and the traffic by 20 percent.

Other issues were less important, the poll showed. Only 8 percent of respondents indicated crime as a major factor for their move, while 9 percent cited the public schools, 12 percent cited Massachusetts' liberal bent, and 13 percent its political leadership.

The problem is, though, that many of the reasons cited do, in fact, relate back to political leadership and the liberal politics of the state government. I'd argue that the first four points (housing costs, jobs, taxes, and "better place to raise kids" ) all relate back to the policies coming out of liberal government. This is especially true when you look where folks are going.

The results showed New Hampshire was the top destination for people who left Massachusetts. Florida was the second most popular state, followed by Texas. Regionally, the Southeast was the most popular destination, drawing 19 percent of those polled, followed by 18 percent who now live in the Midwest and West.

Do you notice anything?

By and large, the Massachusetts ex-pats are headed for red states.

Is this a harbinger of decreasing political influence for the People's Republic of Taxachusetts?

Posted by: Greg at 04:03 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 508 words, total size 3 kb.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a hero, standing up against the Islamists who wish to wipe out Western civilization. Having rejected the Muslim faith of her birth, and having taken a stand for the rights of women (especially Muslim women) to equal human dignity, Hirsi Ali has become a target of the same ilk as the murderer of her colleague, Theo Van Gogh.

Now some of her opponents wish to see her stripped of her Dutch citizenship because she lied on an asylum application in 1992 -- a fact which has been public knowledge since 2002, when she was elected to the Dutch Parliament.

The latest political storm followed the airing of a 30-minute TV documentary Thursday tracing her steps from Somalia, where her father was an imprisoned opposition politician, to her family's exile in Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Hirsi Ali repeated on the TV documentary that when she arrived in 1992 she changed her name from Hirsi Magan and her birth date on her asylum application and did not tell the authorities that she had lived in three different countries since leaving Somalia.

"I invented a story that would be consistent with the conditions for asylum," she told The Associated Press.

I urge the US Congress to act now -- grant her US Citizenship for her important work on behalf of freedom, and guarantee her the freedom of speech, religion, and movement that she is denied in the Netherlands, where she is under constant guard by government security personnel and where a court recently ordered her out of her apartment because her presence constitutes a danger to her neighbors.

If we truly believe in human rights, it is the least we can do.

MORE AT: American Expat, Discarded Lies, Liberty and Justice, All Things Beautiful, Jihad Watch, Protein Wisdom, Atlas Shrugs, HNN, Super Fun Power Hour, Daimnation, Allahpundit, Clarity & Resolve, Stop the ACLU, Booker Rising, Drinking From Home, Tammy Bruce, Western Resistance, Pajamas Media, Felis Domesticus

Posted by: Greg at 01:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 346 words, total size 4 kb.

Well, that is how the Terrorstinians and their Left-Wing apologists view this story.

Never mind that the victim was a 16-year-old having lunch with family in a restaurant at the time of the homicide bombing that took his life. Never mind that he has fought for his life for the last month, and that his family and friends have suffered every day.

A Florida teenager wounded in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv last month died Sunday from his injuries, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Daniel Wultz, 16, of Weston, Fla., will be flown home for burial Monday, said Yael Tzuberi, a spokeswoman for the Tel Aviv Medical Center where he was hospitalized.

Wultz came to Israel with his parents to visit relatives on Passover. He and his father, Tuly, were having lunch at a Tel Aviv restaurant on April 17 when a Palestinian suicide bomber detonated about 10 pounds of explosives in the entrance.

His death brought the number of those killed in the attack to 11, in addition to the suicide bomber. Dozens were wounded, including Wultz's father, who survived.

And our government wants Israel to cave into these murderous barbarians because...?

Posted by: Greg at 12:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 211 words, total size 1 kb.

I don't trust John McCain. And I've never been a huge fan of Jerry Falwell, though I do root for Liberty University in the NCAA tourney each year. So I guess that this pronouncement doesn't really do much for me.

If yesterday's teaming up of Sen. John McCain and the Rev. Jerry Falwell seems like a marriage of political convenience, Falwell is quick to say who drove him toward McCain.

Who else? Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton seems to be the political matchmaker for all kinds of conservatives and McCain, who didn't win any friends six years ago when he blasted Falwell as an agent of intolerance.

Now a lot of people are letting bygones be bygones for a simple reason: They think McCain looks like a Hillary-stopper.

"He's consistently beat Hillary in every poll," Falwell said last week. "Others could beat her. But I think McCain, barring health problems or a Howard Dean [style] explosion, is going to beat Hillary."

And that's part of the reason Falwell sounds a lot like a McCain supporter, even though he's officially uncommitted now. He said that while Bill Clinton was a populist, Hillary is "an ideologue. I think Hillary would be the worst thing that would ever happen to America."

But he also says Republicans can't beat her with just anyone. "Anybody who sells her short is not wise," Falwell said.

You know what -- i don't believe that John McCain can get the nomination in the GOP. He has alienatd too many of us who make up the base. Campaign finance "reform" makes a mockery of the Frst Amendment, and McCain has indicated his preference for eliminating its protections completely in the name of "getting money out of politics."

I honor the man's military service -- but if he were on fire, I still couldn't bring myself to spare the water to urinate on him.

Falwell must be in teh grips of senile dementia if he believes mcCain is the answer to the threat of "President Hillary".

Posted by: Greg at 10:18 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 341 words, total size 2 kb.

The first term of the Roberts Court will end in a matter of weeks, and there are still some 35 cases to be decided. By my count, and based upon recent practice, that means we can expect more decisions to start dribbling out if the Supreme Court, culminating with a torrent of decisions in the final to weeks of June.

What is still out there to decide?

Still to be decided are cases involving President Bush's power to order military trials for suspected foreign terrorists held at the Navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and an appeal that will decide when death row inmates should get a new chance to prove their innocence with DNA and other evidence.

In addition, the justices are delving into politics. At issue in one case is whether the court should throw out all or part of a Texas congressional map promoted by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. A free-speech case asks whether states can limit how much money is spent in political campaigns.

My gueses are as follows.

1) Tribunals for terrorists -- yes.

2) DNA evidence -- sometimes.

3) Texas remap -- acceptable.

4) Campaign spending limits -- permitted, unless they decide to oveturn recent precedents on campaign finance "reforms".

And as far as resignations/retirements go, I wouldn't expect any to be announced this year, unless there is a serious health issue that has been kept under wraps. Justices tend not to leave when there might be problems getting the new nominee confirmed before the start of the new Supreme Court term in October -- and there is no way that any justice would get confirmed in this contentious election year.

Posted by: Greg at 09:57 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 288 words, total size 2 kb.

This Tuesday, one of the perpetrators of one of the most horrific killings in Houston history will get what he has coming to him. Hopefully, two of his fellow predators will follow. And unfortunately, two others will escape due to the failure of the US Supreme Court to rule based upon American law and the US Constitution.

Catching up with friends after a family vacation in Florida, Elizabeth Peña beamed as she showed off the stuff she'd bought with her 16th birthday money: a new pager, some new underclothes.

As the summer evening waned, Jennifer Ertman, 14, another Waltrip High School sophomore, checked her Goofy wristwatch and saw that it was pushing midnight. She and Peña would break their curfews if they didn't get home in a hurry.

The girls debated how to get to Peña's Oak Forest home in northwest Houston. One route would take half an hour; a well-known shortcut along the railroad tracks through T.C. Jester Park would save about 10 minutes.

The shorter route instead led the girls into the hands of six teenage gang members who had just finished an initiation ritual. For an hour, the six raped and tortured the girls before strangling them — stomping on their necks for good measure.

Their bodies were discovered four days later, horrifying a city that shrugs off hundreds of homicides each year. The Ertman-Peña case captivated a generation of Houstonians the way the Dean Corll-Elmer Wayne Henley multiple murders had an earlier one.

On Tuesday, the first of Ertman and Peña's killers is set to die by injection.

Sadly, the do-gooders think that it is in the best interest of society to save teh first of these animals from death -- Derrick Sean O'Brien. I wholeheartedly hope they fail in his case, and in those of Peter Anthony Cantu and Jose Medellin. For that matter, I wish that the state of Texas would set execution dates for Raul Villarreal and Efrain Perez, in an effort to overturn the extra-constitutional decision in Roper v. Simmons.

Because as we say down here in Texas -- some folks just need killing.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT: Conservative Cat, Third World Country, Sed Vitae, TMH Bacon Bits, Adam's Blog, Uncooperative Blogger, Is It Just Me?, Blue Star Chronicles, Stop The ACLU, Leaning Straight Up

Posted by: Greg at 09:35 AM | Comments (39) | Add Comment
Post contains 390 words, total size 3 kb.

The friendly folks at the Jawa Report supply the snail mail address of a poor soul doing a long stretch in the pokey.

Zacarias Moussaoui has been moved to the Federal Supermax Prison in Florence Co.

CNN : Moussaoui was removed from the Alexandria, Virginia, detention center on Friday night and flown to Colorado on a service nicknamed "Con Air."

A team of deputy U.S. marshals delivered him early Saturday to the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. The prison is sometimes called the "Alcatraz in the Rockies."

"It is a place of extraordinary security, 23 hours a day in cells, one hour of recreation," CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said at the time of Moussaoui's sentencing earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Alexandria.

"It is as close to permanent solitary confinement as exists in our prison system," Toobin said.

So the rotting has begun. LetÂ’s all send him a note so he really has to dig to find that letter from mommy. Remember be civil (no threats of any kind) and tell him how glad you are that he will never see the light of day. I got his new address here at the FBOP

ZACARIAS MOUSSAOUI
51427-054

Inmate Mail/Parcels
FLORENCE ADMAX USP
PO BOX 8500
FLORENCE, CO 81226

I'm sure Zack would enjoy hearing from you all.

Posted by: Greg at 06:15 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 228 words, total size 1 kb.

They found DNA.

And it doesn't match anyone from the team.

It matches her boyfriend.

Will Nifong have the honesty to admit this is a hoax, apologize to the players, and drop all charges against them?

Will he have the guts to charge the accuser with making false statements to police?

Posted by: Greg at 05:58 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 65 words, total size 1 kb.

Hugh Hewitt notes that Andrew Sullivan wants to lump the conservative Christians in with Taliban and al-Qaeda.

What does the term "Christianist" mean and why is Time peddling it?

Time columnist Andrew Sullivan uses the term to describe evangelicals with whom he disagrees. He says his goal is to "take back the word Christian while giving the religious right a new adjective: Christianist. Christianity, in this view, is simply a faith. Christianism is an ideology, politics, an ism. The distinction between Christian and Christianist echoes the distinction we make between Muslim and Islamist."

He explains further, "Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. Not all Islamists are violent. Only a tiny few are terrorists. And I should underline that the term Christianist is in no way designed to label people on the religious right as favoring any violence at all. I mean merely by the term Christianist the view that religious faith is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda. It is the belief that religion dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, Christian and non-Christian alike."

Most pundits have rejected "Christianist" because it obviously tries to link Islamists and those evangelicals Mr. Sullivan loathes. He is attempting to dress up hate speech as simple precision, but given the vast spectrum of political opinions among believers on the center-right, "Christianist" is a howler. Still, no one should be laughing when a once-respected newsweekly defines a huge portion of the American mainstream as the equivalent of the Islamists who attacked the country on 9/11. Be prepared as others pick up Time's term.

Such crap coming from Sullivan and Time couldn't be a sign of the continuing War on Christianity, which teh Left steadfastly assures us is a figment of our our own imaginations and our desire to illegitiamtely manipulate the debate on cultural and political issues.

But two can play that game. Let's just engage in a little bit of substitution with Sullivan's own words.

"Muslims are those who follow Islam. Islamists are those who want to wield Islam as a political force and conflate state and mosque. Not all Islamists are violent. Only a tiny few are terrorists. And I should underline that the term Homosexualist is in no way designed to label people in the homosexual rights movement as favoring any violence at all. I mean merely by the term Homosexualist the view that homosexuality is so important that it must also have a precise political agenda. It is the belief that sexual orientation dictates politics and that politics should dictate the laws for everyone, homosexual and non-homosexual alike."

The description probably fits the so-called "gay rights" movement better than it fits the religious right. And we can certainly see plenty of developments over the last several years in which the undeniable rights of hristians (and other religious believers) to live their lives according to their faith have been trampled by the questionable claims of the homosexualists.

MORE AT: Outside the Beltway, Eunomia, Don Singleton, Fides et Veritas, Civil Commotion, Hugh Hewitt (twice), ChronWatch

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT: Conservative Cat, Third World Country, Sed Vitae, TMH Bacon Bits, Adam's Blog, Uncooperative Blogger, Is It Just Me?, Blue Star Chronicles, Stop The ACLU, Leaning Straight Up

Posted by: Greg at 05:03 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 567 words, total size 6 kb.

When it comes to being PC, you can't get better thanthe Pacific Northwest. The school district in Seattle has proven that in spades, having officially promulgated a definition of racism that EXPLICITLY excludes white student and staff from protection under policies that ban racist acts, practices, or harrassment.

Racism:

The systematic subordination of members of targeted racial groups who have relatively little social power in the United States (Blacks, Latino/as, Native Americans, and Asians), by the members of the agent racial group who have relatively more social power (Whites). The subordination is supported by the actions of individuals, cultural norms and values, and the institutional structures and practices of society.

So when your little white child is assaulted by a gang of black or Hispanic kids because he is white, it isn't an act of racism. When a white teacher is targetted for firing by a group of minority parents who shout "discrimination" because he or she has high expectations for students, it isn't an act of racism. And when a teacher calls another teacher a "cracker bitch" because of a disagreement over material to use in the following year's curriculum, it was not an act of racism.

On the other hand, a gang of white kids beating up a minority child, white parents objecting to a minority teacher, or a racial slur directed at a minority teacher are all acts of racism and will be treated as such.

I guess some animals really are more equal than others in Seattle. It is all a matter of the color of one's skin, not the content of one's character.

I wonder what federal law and the US Constitution have to say about such race-based politcies and practices? Or is "equal protection of the law" a culturally racist construct that needs to be eliminated in the name of "Equity and Race Relations".

(H/T AndrewsDad, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

Posted by: Greg at 04:12 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 332 words, total size 2 kb.

Well, I think I've got the new computer running the way I want it to. Unfortunately, the Darling Democrat and I lost a lot of stuff in the crash of the old system. That means that someone in the family is pretty upset about a number of unrecoverable graphics.

* * *

Well, in celebration, let's have a linkfest and open trackback party.

Post as much as you want, within reason -- but make sure it is good/interesting stuff.

And remember the rules.

No Spam. No Porn. No Problem.

OTHER TRACKBACK PARTIERS: Conservative Cat, Third World Country, Sed Vitae, TMH Bacon Bits, Adam's Blog, Uncooperative Blogger, Is It Just Me?, Blue Star Chronicles, Stop The ACLU, Leaning Straight Up

Posted by: Greg at 01:48 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
Post contains 125 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Thanks for the linkge. Coupla lil things: tb returned an error on your tb URI. Don't know why. I may try again another way. Other, while I very, very much appreciate having my borders expanded, third world county is still just a county. :-) No biggie. It's a tyypoo trap, after all. *heh*

Posted by: David at Sat May 13 02:36:55 2006 (s499z)

2 I may have to start including Wizbang's little toy in my posts -- I've had several reports of this problem.

And I'm shocked -- I've always included the "r" when mentioning your blog. Ooops!

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat May 13 03:41:03 2006 (dYb0p)

3 I think it's a problem with mu.nu - every mu nu blog I've tried to tb to today has returned undelieverable.

Posted by: beth at Sat May 13 12:07:27 2006 (X6tm3)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

I've got to ask -- what is it about Alabama Democrats? First you had the idiot legislative candidate/teacher showing profane anti-Bush material to students in his science classes. Now you have this candidate for attorney general denying the Holocaust.

Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general denies the Holocaust occurred and said Friday he will speak this weekend in New Jersey to a "pro-white" organization that is widely viewed as being racist.

Larry Darby concedes his views are radical, but he said they should help him win wide support among Alabama voters as he tries to "reawaken white racial awareness" with his campaign against Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson.

* * *

Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Darby said he believes no more than 140,000 Jewish people died in Europe during World War II, and most of them succumbed to typhus.

Historians say about 6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, but Darby said the figure is a false claim of the "Holocaust industry."

"I am what the propagandists call a Holocaust denier, but I do not deny mass deaths that included some Jews," Darby said. "There was no systematic extermination of Jews. There's no evidence of that at all."

And not only is he a Holocaust denier and white supremacist, he also stakes out some other interesting positions.

Darby, founder of the Atheist Law Center and a longtime supporter of separation of church and state, said he has no money for campaign advertising and has made only a few campaign speeches.

Tyson said aside from his views on race and the Holocaust, Darby also has publicly advocated legalizing drugs and shooting all illegal immigrants.

In the defense of the Alabama Democrats, their party chairman had this to say.

The state Democratic chairman, Joe Turnham, said the party became aware of some of Darby's views only days ago and was considering what to do about his candidacy.

"Any type of hatred toward groups of people, especially for political gain, is completely unacceptable in the Alabama Democratic Party," said Turnham.

* * *

Turnham said the party began an investigation last week after hearing about some of Darby's comments in a television interview. While the party supports the free-speech rights of any candidate, Turnham said some of Darby's views appear to be in "a realm of thought that is unacceptable.

But you have to wonder -- what is it about the Democrat Party that attracts individuals of this calibre?

Posted by: Greg at 12:38 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 420 words, total size 3 kb.

The Democrats are signaling their intent to filibuster the Kavanaugh nomination.

While Democrats on the committee acknowledged Mr. Kavanaugh has "top-flight credentials," they said his background is overtly political.

"While his academic credentials are undeniably top-notch, he has largely devoted his legal talent to helping notch political victories for his party," Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, said yesterday.

Which means, of course, that this is a qualified nominee, but the Democrats donÂ’t like his politics. There exists no legitimate reason -- and certainly no "extraordianry circumstance" -- for delaying or denying this nominee.

Time to restore the Constitution by laying the filibuster to rest in the case of judicial nominees – first by making the Democrats actually hold the floor continuously while preventing all other business from taking place, and then by getting a ruling from the parliamentarian that such a filibuster is not in order when the GOP is ready for the vote – preferably during prime time.

Posted by: Greg at 12:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 165 words, total size 1 kb.

This story disturbs me deeply. It seems to strike at the heart of the citizenship rights of teachers. Do teachers not have free speech rights outside of the classroom. Are the political, social, and philosophical views of teachers really an appropriate mater for public inquiry? Do certain view make someone unfit for the classroom?

Inside the walls of Brookland-Cayce High School, you expect students to be treated equally. But a viewer tip led News19 online where a teacher's comments left us asking questions.

"These sorts of things are going to upset people, but the truth can be very upsetting," said Brookland-Cayce High School teacher Winston McCuen.

That truth, at least according to McCuen, is that black people are inferior to whites.

"Intellectually, yes they are," said McCuen. "This has been confirmed over and over, and this is a generalization. Again, there are some blacks who are more intelligent than individual whites. But as a rule, that is true. I-Q tests prove it over, and over and over."

Now I can’t help but conclude that this man’s beliefs and statements outside of class are racist. But they do not appear to have influenced his treatment of his students – at least not if the story is any indication. After all, the one student quoted talks about some comments related to John C. Calhoun, the nemesis of Andrew Jackson. Seems like this was off topic in a Latin class, but hardly a problem. Calhoun was known for lacing classical quotes into his speeches, so it is not beyond the realm of possibility that this is the way in which the course and the discussion segued.

But to get back on point, how much (or how little) protection are we going to allow educators under the Bill of Rights? And will that protection be selective – because I doubt we would ever see such an investigation of the views of a high school teacher who was a Communist. After all, that would be McCarthyism.

But isnÂ’t an investigation like this also McCarthyistic in its very nature?

UPDATE: My esteemed friend, fellow teacher, and fellow Watcher's Council member EdWonk offers a very different point of view -- not that I agree with him.

McCuen claims that his views do not affect his teaching.

I have to call B.S. on that one.

The type of nonsense that McCuen is spewing uttering is prima faci evidence that he is indeed prejudiced in his belief that a student's race is a component of his or her ability to acheive mastery of academic concepts.

Winston McCuen damns himself with his own words.

McCuen has been placed on administrative leave for the remainder of this school year and will not be teaching in the same district next year, although he hopes to obtain another teaching position after resolving certain undefined "credentialing" issues.

Maybe those men males who run amok in white sheets and hoods may consider hiring him for the nearly-impossible task of teaching them how to read and write.

The problem is that the mere existence of a prejudice is not evidence that said prejudice is expressed in the classroom or that it impacts ones ability to do one's job in a professional manner. it may indicate that you are a reprehensible human being -- but do we want ideological litmus tests imposed on teachers?

OPEN TRACKBACKING: Conservative Cat, Third World Country, Sed Vitae, TMH Bacon Bits, Adam's Blog, Uncooperative Blogger, Is It Just Me?, Blue Star Chronicles, Stop The ACLU, Leaning Straight Up

Posted by: Greg at 12:07 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 592 words, total size 5 kb.

A senior police official in the Atlanta area has admitted that he refused to promote qualified officer because they are white.

Police union officials Thursday accused the former second-ranking DeKalb County police commander of delaying promotions to hurt the careers of white officers.

Union officials released an audio recording purportedly containing the voice of former Assistant Chief R.P. Flemister asking someone: "Have you ever thought about why I ain't promoted them nine on the list right now ... because seven of them are white."

* * *

Police Chief Louis Graham resigned last week after police union leaders disclosed a profanity-laced audio recording of a conversation between Graham and Flemister in which Flemister referred to an unnamed person as a "white bitch." Flemister retired last Friday.

In the recording released Thursday, a voice apparently belonging to Flemister says that "the white folks understand, [things] done changed. ... That's what this union is about."

Later, he says he is not worried about unspecified rumors about the police department because Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones is "running the black-[expletive] place."

Funny, IÂ’ve not seen anything about this in the national media. Racial discrimination in a major law enforcement agency in a major metropolitan area used to be big news.

But then again, when the racists are black and the victims are white, it just isn’t news in the eyes of the MSM. After all, they think of it as affirmative action – judging people by the color of their skin, not the content of their character or the strength of their accomplishments.

Posted by: Greg at 11:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 267 words, total size 2 kb.

Regardless of the answer, it is certainly tasteless and beyond the bounds of morally acceptable behavior.

Despite an apology, a syndicated hip-hop disc jockey was being investigated for a possible bias crime after making threatening racial and sexual remarks about a rival's wife and 4-year-old daughter, police said Thursday.

The New York Police Department's Hate Crime Task Force launched the probe after the chief of detectives reviewed a transcript of DJ Star's on-air comments about DJ Envy and his family, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, apologized on Thursday through his attorney, Benjamin Brafman.

The lawyer called the remarks "unsuitable and inappropriate" and assured the rival's wife she had nothing to fear. But he also claimed his client was the victim of threats by her husband.

"The statements made by Star in response, while inappropriate, were, however, made under great duress and at a time when he was fearful for his safety and the safety of members of his staff," Brafman said in statement.

Torain worked for Clear Channel Radio's Power 105.1 FM before being fired Wednesday amid protests from elected officials. A city councilman, John Liu, said on Thursday that the disgraced DJ "now must be put behind bars for spewing these threats against a little 4-year-old girl."

I guess the question that I have is whether or not these actually constitute threats of a criminal nature. The sort of garbage spewed out of hip-hop culture is disgusting and appalling. Was this an actual threat, or was it a part of the shtick that is part of the entertainment milieu?

What was said, of course, is beyond the bounds of decency.

In the comments, made between May 3 and Monday, Torain — co-host of the "Star & Buc Wild Morning Show" — offered $500 to any listener who could provide information about the rival DJ's daughter's school and used racial slurs when talking about his wife, who is part Asian.

"I will come for your kids," Torain said, according to transcribed excerpts provided by Liu's office. "I finally got the information on his slant-eyed, whore wife."

Torain also called the couple's child a "little half a lo mein eater" and said he wanted to "do an R. Kelly on your seed, on your little baby girl. I would like to tinkle on her," according to the excerpts.

Sick, racist stuff – but is it criminal? And is it really all that unusual, in a sub-culture which calls R. Kelly a victim and labels his young victim the perpetrator? Should we be surprised when one DJ several years ago claimed that “rumor has it” that one teenage rapper was anally raped by his bodyguards and needed multiple stitches to repair his injuries? Threats of violence and threats of death – not to mention blatant glorification of sexual assault and degradation of women -- are mainstream fare in hip-hop and rap. Is it any wonder that this guy made such comments in a field where life is often nasty, brutish and short?

I donÂ’t know that criminal charges or monetary fines in this discrete instance are really the right answer. Maybe the end of this moral moronÂ’s career is a good start. Perhaps what needs to happen is for Clear Channel and other media companies to reconsider their support for the thug life that is hip-hop and rap.

And lest we let these folks get away with their outrage over the racism of it all, please remember that DJ Envy (Raashaun Casey), whose wife and child were the targets in all this, was part of another famous incident involving anti-Asian racism – but as the perpetrator.

Mr. Casey and Ms. Jones were among several employees suspended by Hot 97 in January 2005 after broadcasting a song that ridiculed victims of the previous month's tsunami in Asia.

That history makes me wonder if the notion of this being a hate crime is nothing more than a bit of PR puffery by a member of the thugocracy of hip-hop and rap.

UPDATE: As pointed out in a comment below, Torain has been arrested and charged in this case.

A syndicated hip-hop disc jockey was arrested Friday on charges of harassment and endangering the welfare of a child amid an uproar over his on-air racial and sexual rants about a radio rival's wife and 4-year-old daughter.

Police officials had launched a hate crime investigation of DJ Star on Thursday after reviewing a transcript of his recent remarks about DJ Envy and his family.

DJ Star, whose real name is Troi Torain, was contacted by police on Friday and ordered to surrender a 9mm handgun and target-practice permit at Police Headquarters. When he arrived, he was arrested and taken to the 1st Precinct stationhouse in lower Manhattan, said police spokesman Paul Browne.

Posted by: Greg at 11:54 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 821 words, total size 5 kb.

When will the pro-terrorist Left get the message that the illegal combatants captured in the course of combat operations have NO rights under the Geneva Conventions? The International Red Cross still doesnÂ’t get it.

The head of the international Red Cross on Friday deplored the Bush administration's refusal to allow its delegates to visit detainees in secret detention.

In an unusually strongly worded statement, the neutral agency known for its discretion expressed disappointment that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other officials refused to yield to its demand.

"No matter how legitimate the grounds for detention, there exists no right to conceal a person's whereabouts or to deny that he or she is being detained," said Jakob Kellenberger, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, following a series of top-level meetings in Washington.

The ICRC is designated by the Geneva Conventions on warfare as the organization to visit prisoners of war. It is the only independent body the United States allows to visit terror suspects detained in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but it has long been demanding access to detainees in "undisclosed locations."

The one problem is that they are not prisoners of war. They do not meet the requirements for that status, as they did not wear recognizable uniforms or insignia. They therefore have no right to any visits from anyone, nor do they have any rights beyond the most basic of humane treatment. They may, under traditional rules of war, be detained permanently, and even lack the right to more than the most rudimentary elements of due process.

When we are done with them, they merit a 5-minute hearing before a military officer in order to permit a plea for mercy, ordinarily followed by execution within the hour. And they should be reminded that such treatment is better than that received by hostages at the hands of their fellow terrorists.

Posted by: Greg at 11:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 329 words, total size 2 kb.

Well, Tom DeLay has finally informed us of his intended resignation date -- and I am unhappy about it.

He won't resign until June 9, 2006 -- and presumably will not render himself ineligible to be on the ballot until the same time.

Rep. Tom DeLay, the once-powerful majority leader whose career was undermined by scandal, said Thursday he would resign from the House on June 9.

"As you are aware," the Texas Republican wrote House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., "I have recently made the decision to pursue new opportunities to engage in the important cultural and political battles of our day from an arena outside of the U.S. House of Representatives."

He told Hastert he would resign at the close of business on June 9.

The combative conservative last month stated his intention to resign in June, saying he did not want to allow Democrats to turn the next election in his district near Houston into a negative personal campaign.

Why am I unhappy? Because the resignation will not take place before the Texas GOP convention on June 2-3 -- when I had hoped to see the party's new standard-bearer announced and given a rousing launch to his/her campaign. Instead, the formal selection process cannot even begin for a week after convention ends.

Assuming, of course, that the man doesn't dally about switching his residency and notifying the party here in Texas.

Once that takes place, state law sets the following process for selecting a replacement candidate.

1) State GOP Chair declares DeLay ineligible for reelection.

2) Precinct chairs from the district caucus by county and select one of their number to form a committee to select a new candidate.

3) Committee meets to select a new candidate.

4) If no candidate is selected by 70 days prior to the election, the State Republican Election Committee may select a candidate.

5) General election takes place in November -- in this case, in tandem with a free-for-all special election to complete the last two months of Delay's term of office.

Nick Lampson's folks are still not willing to admit that state law permits the removal of DeLay and the naming of a replacement.

Many have speculated that LampsonÂ’s campaign or the Democratic Party would challenge DeLayÂ’s ability to drop off the ballot merely by changing residency.

“We have never conceded that Tom DeLay can legally remove his name from the ballot simply because he saw he was going to lose and wanted the chance to choose his successor,” Malaise said two weeks ago.

This despite the fact that state law has specific provisions allowing for exactly such a process to take place if a candidate becomes ineligible -- and Constitutionally, Tom DeLay becomes ineligible the minute he establishes residency in another state by doing something like registering to vote there.

There is, of course, another candidate in the race besides Nick Lampson.

Former Rep. Steve Stockman has collected enough voter signatures to run as an independent candidate in the race to replace former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, his spokesman said Wednesday.

Stockman, a former Republican, has collected more than the 500 signatures needed, said campaign spokesman Jason Posey, though he didn't immediately know the total amount.

Most of us are quite unhappy about this, given that Stockman's candidacy can only hurt the eventual GOP nominee.

I'll say it loud and clear -- I wish that Delay were leaving office TODAY, so we could hasten the process along. Actually, havign been nominated, I wish he would have stuck it out no matter what the polls said on his reelection chances. Better yet, I wish he had not sought the nomination, since there is every indication that he had been seriously considering a withdrawal from the general election as early as the day he filed for reelection.

It is going to be a long month for me and the rest of the precinct chairs in CD22.

Posted by: Greg at 10:41 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 667 words, total size 4 kb.

Remember that pro-life display that was demolished in Washington state? Well, students at Western Washington University want to make sure nothing like that ever happens again on their campus.

No, they are not out to strengthen the campus policy on freedom of speech or the responsibility of all students to respect the rights of others to express thoughts and ideas they reject.

No, they want to ban pro-life speech as a form of “hate speech” on campus, making those who oppose abortion subject to penalties imposed by the campus kangaroo court judicial system.

In response to the anti-abortion display Tuesday and Wednesday in Red Square, Western senior Cara Pierson started a petition to ban hate speech from campus.

She said the photos of aborted fetuses, lynchings and Holocaust victims bullied and offended women who had abortions or considered having abortions.
Pierson said she felt the displayÂ’s message constituted hate speech.

“Hate speech is a verbal, written or visual harassment of a particular group intended to degrade or dehumanize members of that group,” Pierson said.

She started the petition Wednesday and spent five hours in Red Square collecting approximately 300 signatures from students, professors and staff members.

Pierson said she researched other colleges that have policies protecting campuses from hate speech before bringing her petition to Red Square.

In other words, one side of the debate on a major social and political issue in our society would be suppressed at Western Washington University, while the opposing side will be subsidized as part of the academic program (Women’s Studies). It seems appropriate, therefore, that the assault on free speech was conducted in the middle of “Red Square” – after all, the policy demanded by Pierson and her supporters is nothing short of Stalinism.

Fortunately, the school is not interested in imposing such viewpoint censorship

.Dean of Students Ted Pratt said WesternÂ’s policy must respect citizensÂ’ right to free speech the First Amendment protects.

“We have our policies here that talk about freedom of expression and those are in line with the First Amendment,” Pratt said.

WesternÂ’s policy is that it deals with protests or displays on campus on a case-by-case basis, Pratt said. No policy specifically addresses hate speech, he said.

The administration reviewed the anti-abortion display before allowing it on campus, he said.

It determined the display didnÂ’t advocate violence or hate against any groups, such as women who have had abortions and saw no reason to stop Western For Life from bringing the display to campus, Pratt said.

Seems to me that the school has an appropriate policy in place. Perhaps Cara Pierson needs to be re-enrolled in American Government so she can learn about the rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

(H/T The Torch

Posted by: Greg at 01:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 474 words, total size 3 kb.

They got their second hearing – time for the Democrats to stand aside and allow this superbly qualified judicial nominee to be confirmed by the majority that supports him.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved White House aide Brett Kavanaugh for an appeals-court seat on Thursday, clearing the way for a likely confirmation vote by the full Senate.

Kavanaugh won approval from the committee on a 10-8 party-line vote as Democrats said he was too partisan and inexperienced for the job.

Democratic senators had asked for an unusual second hearing on his nomination to question his involvement in White House policies on like eavesdropping on U.S. citizens' telephone calls without obtaining warrants and torture of detainees.

* * *

Kavanaugh must be approved by the full Senate, where Republicans hold 55 of 100 seats, before joining the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Democrats are unlikely to muster the 60 votes necessary to block his nomination. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says he intends to schedule a vote before the late-May Memorial Day recess.

Should he be filibustered, it is time for the Constitutional option to be invoked, eliminating the ability of a minority to impose an unconstitutional requirement of a super-majority for confirmation.

I cannot help but note the laughable comments of Senator Ted Kennedy (D-Chivas Regal), father of Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-Pills & Liquor).

He failed to win over committee Democrats. "This nomination is a triumph of cronyism over credentials," Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy said. Kavanaugh, 41, has been a White House aide since 2001.

Let’s see – this is the same guy who got elected to the Senate at age 30 with the sole qualification that his brother was the sitting president. His son was first elected to office at age 21 with no particular qualification other than his name. He has no more place criticizing a nominee for lack of credentials than he does criticizing them for their driving skills.

HereÂ’s hoping that certain spineless republicans do not interfere in the deployment of the GOP nukes if there is any Democrat funny business.

Posted by: Greg at 01:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 361 words, total size 3 kb.

This suit is proof that we have either too many laws, too many lawyers, or too many greedy Americans.

A Los Angeles psychologist who was denied a tote bag during a Mother's Day giveaway at an Angel game is suing the baseball team, alleging sex and age discrimination.

Michael Cohn's class-action claim in Orange County Superior Court alleges that thousands of males and fans under 18 were "treated unequally" at a "Family Sunday" promotion last May and are entitled to $4,000 each in damages.

The targets of the suit are the team and the Corinthian Colleges. Corinthian oversees Bryman College, which has an Anaheim campus and sponsored the event, its name printed on the bags.

Thousands of the red nylon bags were given to women 18 and older attending the Sunday Mother's Day game.

Angel officials said they had not seen the suit, filed May 4, and could not comment. But Angel spokesman Tim Mead said the team was proud of its promotions and giveaway days.

"Historically, we have tried to appeal on those special days that might be nationally noted holidays or special occasions," he said. "We have tailored programs or giveaways accordingly. In the past, we've given the moms rosesÂ…. We're trying to satisfy fans of all ages, genders and, most importantly, the baseball fans, so there's something for everybody."

I am sure about two things that will result from this piece of litigation.

First, sports teams will be less likely to have special giveaways like this one, resulting in ever dwindling attendance.

Second, Cohn will be deemed eligible to receive the team logo “pound of flesh” to be given away at next season’s “Litigious Assholes Day”.

Posted by: Greg at 01:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 283 words, total size 2 kb.

After all, the Constitution certainly appears to limit actual voting representation to states. How can this legislation meet that challenge?

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) is teaming up with U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.) to introduce a bill that would for the first time give the District a full vote in Congress, a sign of bipartisan cooperation that advocates of D.C. voting rights hailed as a breakthrough.

The legislation, set to be unveiled at a news conference today, would expand the House from 435 to 437 seats, giving a vote to the District as well as a fourth seat to Utah, the state next in line to enlarge its congressional delegation based on the 2000 Census.

Davis first introduced a version of the bill two years ago, but he struggled to persuade Norton and House Democrats to support it. Through a spokeswoman, Norton declined yesterday to discuss her change of heart, promising to explain all at today's news conference.

"We have an agreement in principle with our Democrats, and that's a significant development," said Davis spokesman David Marin. "It's no secret that legislation to give the District a vote wasn't going to go too far without Eleanor Holmes Norton on board."

Given that the District is all territory carved from the state of Maryland, I would prefer to see the city lumped in with Maryland for representation purposes. It would finesse the issue of giving representation to anything other than states. Look for a challenge to the first law on which the DC delegate casts the deciding vote.

And then there is the Utah question, which raises another Constitutional issue in my book.

The first would address Democratic concerns by making Utah's new seat a statewide position, rather than creating another congressional district. Utah now has three House members, including one Democrat, Jim Matheson. House Democrats had worried that Utah Republicans, who control the statehouse, would use the extra seat to reconfigure the congressional districts and push Matheson out of his job. By making the fourth seat an at-large position, the three existing districts would remain intact.

Now hold on here -- once seats are apportioned among the states, it is the business of the state legislatures to take care of districting issues. This provision seems to usurp the function of the state legislature. As such it seems certain to meet a stiff Constitutional challenge.

Also, does the "at-large" mandate disappear after the 2010 census?

Posted by: Greg at 10:44 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 413 words, total size 3 kb.

Remember the martyrdom of three Christian teens in Indonesia. These pig-spawned followers of Satan have confessed to their guilt in the deed.

Seven suspected Islamic terrorists have confessed to beheading three Christian schoolgirls on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island, police said on Wednesday.

The seven detained suspects confessed under questioning that they planned and carried out the October 29 beheadings in the Sulawesi town of Poso, police chief Lieutenant Colonel Rudi Sufahriadi told The Associated Press.

Another girl was wounded but spared by the assailants, he said.

Two of the suspects also say they have ties to Noordin Top, regarded as a key leader of the al-Qaeda-linked group Jemaah Islamiyah, according to Central Sulawesi police chief Brigadier General Oegroseno.

Indonesia has arrested scores of militants belonging to the al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah terror group in recent years.

Jemaah Islamiyah has been blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Indonesia in recent years, including two separate strikes on the tourist island of Bali.

Poso, a coastal town, is some 1600km northeast of Jakarta. It was the scene of clashes between Muslims and Christians in 1999-2002 that claimed more than 1000 lives.

Sporadic bombings and attacks, mostly targeting the Christian community, have continued and police suspect Jemaah Islamiyah involvement.

May the blood of saints murdered for their faith in Christ inspire us to continue to be faithful to the truths he gave us. And may the very pit of Hell open to welcome all those who kill the innocent in the name of their false god.

More at Interested Participant and Jawa Report

Posted by: Greg at 10:15 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 269 words, total size 2 kb.

I posted on the Ashley Reeves story, and it generated a lot of traffic and comments from a group of girls. One of them made a particularly nasty allegation, and when I saw it refuted today by Ashley's mother, I thought it was important to post it.

he parents of Ashley Reeves, 17, who was strangled and left for dead in a Belleville park on April 29, said their daughter "is fighting various injuries related to brain trauma" and is not on life support, according to a statement released by the hospital this afternoon.

Mother Michelle Reeves said in the statement that Ashley has a high fever "that may be related to the many insect bites on her body."

Responding to rumors that have circulated on the case, the family said that Ashley "is not pregnant, nor has she ever been pregnant."

So thank you, Kim, for taking a rumor that you heard somewhere and broadcasting it to the world without a shred of actual evidence to back it up, so that the mother of a grievously injured girl has to go public and deny such lies. I won't say where I believe such behavior puts you on the morality scale -- but I suggest you remove that beam from your eye before your criticize either Ashley or your sister.

Posted by: Greg at 09:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 230 words, total size 1 kb.

Even if my computer had not crashed last Friday, I had no intention on commenting the CD22 Candidate Screening meeting held by Harris County Precinct Chairs. It was SUPPOSED to be a private meeting, and my understanding was that it was supposed to be private at this point. After all, Tom DeLay has taken no action to get off the ballot or out of Congress, so everything is informal and preliminary.

That said, our “on private property so we can keep it private” meeting had a reporter in the lobby, being gabbed to by an individual who I thought was sensible enough to know better. Interesting, isn’t it, that she is the establishment candidate for the Harris County Elector? And It appears her comments went beyond that single reporter, too, giving the establishment line.

And then there is this reflection from another participant, one whose views are clearly those of one of the establishment. Chris seems to think the author is a Harris County chair, and I have no reason to dispute this conclusion. Here is what this blogger thinks.

If I had to pick in terms of sheer performance on Saturday, I would go with the candidates in the following order:

1. Charlie Howard
2. Robert Talton
3. Shelly Sekula-Gibbs
4. Mike Jackson
(Gibbs & Jackson could really be a tie)
5. Tom Campbell
6. Andy Meyers
7. Tim Turner

David Wallace & Brad Wright made appointments but didn't show up, so I'm not considering either of them. Actually, I don't think I will consider anyone who hadn't already gotten their crap together enough to be prepared for this particular event. I can't commit to saying for sure that I definitely won't, but I don't think I will. This is going to be a sprint campaign and people will have to be ready.

Now, remember, gentle YPS readers, the above ranking is based upon Saturday' performance alone. Here are my candidate choices in rank order based on all factors. This is how I will position myself within the caucus, take this as if we were voting tomorrow.

1. Charlie Howard - I had never met or had any contact with Mr. Howard, but he really knocked my socks off on Saturday. I was really impressed with him. I had previously looked up his voting record in the State House and he puts his vote in the right place too. His questionnaire was spot on, his background is impressive and he is solid. There is a difference between a party conservative and a true conservative. You can learn which you have just by listening to them. Trust me folks, Howard is a true conservative. He's wow and ready.

2. Mike Jackson - This is the individual I went in favoring. Saturday he was very flat, uninspiring and unprepared. He acknowledged that his work in the Senate over the special session really didn't give him time to “brush up” on federal issues; however, I'm thinking that if you don't know where you stand on most of these issues by now, you deserve the job you have, and not much more. Both Talton and Howard are also in special session and gave much more solid presentations. Honestly, I am afraid that Lampson might out shine him in a debate if he can't get his crap together.. He stays my second choice, however, because I know that he's a good conservative and will vote the right way.

3. Robert Talton - I could not place Talton as my #1 or 2 for personal reasons, although he would keep a fairly solid conservative voting record. He put his friends ahead of principle once regarding a purely non-politics issue, and I can't put my trust in anyone who might have a shot at becoming “friends” with Sheila Jackson Lee or Nancy Pelosi. Plus, he makes me nervous because he stated that he doesn't support zero-based budgeting.

4. Shelly Sekula-Gibbs - I post the most about her because it seems as if she has positioned herself the most strongly amongst the precinct chairs. Or maybe her contingent is the most outspoken/annoying. Gibbs was very energetic and charismatic, but I still hold that she doesn't have the temperament for this office. She was almost too immature/girly. I didn't like in her opening statement on Saturday, how she evoked the memory of her late husband (who was a local news anchor/celebrity). As previously posted by me, she didn't take on her married name until she started running for office, so it comes off as sheer opportunism. Her worst habit, however is that nobody likes to be told how much “smarter I am than you”. And she just keeps doing that, it is very condescending. She says things like “well you probably don't know this because you're not a doctor.” It might be cool in Clear Lake, but that crap isn't going to fly with the industrial guys in the area where we live because it is very blue collar. Plus, quite simply, she's a “nanny stater”. She actually bragged because she was the force behind the “no smoking in Houston restaurants” ordinance. Now, don't get me wrong, I quit smoking about 3 years ago and don't like it much, but I can't get behind anyone who will tell a private property/business owner how he or she can conduct his or her business. It all comes back to that “I'm smarter than you and I know what's best for you mentality”. Thank you, Hillary Clinton. Further, she can't seem to get a grip on any issue outside the health care/medical side of it because of her royal doctorness, I guess. Her questionnaire answers were strong, but when she provided additional comments, she killed herself. We deserve more than her; she's too liberal.

And such is my assessment. The remainder of the pack aren't worth mentioning, in my opinion. Bless their hearts. They were outclassed, either too emotional or unprepared, and just not suitable for this particular office.

IÂ’d have to rank the candidates differently in terms of performance at the forum.

1) Shelley Sekula-Gibbs
2) Charlie Howard
3) Andy Meyers
4) Mike Jackson
5) Robert Talton
6) Tim Turner
7) Tom Campbell

As he points out, David Wallace & Brad Wright made appointments but missed them, so I place them at the bottom of the list.

My ranking of the candidates, based upon my personal preference, also differs. These are subject to revision, based upon future developments.

1) Shelley Sekula-Gibbs – Let’s say it flat out – this lady has been campaigning like she really wants this nomination and this office. That counts for something – and the fact that the candidate and her supporters are active and enthusiastic should not be seen as “annoying” – unless one considers support for anyone other than one of the three “good old boy” members of the legislature to be an annoyance. Shelley is intelligent (which frightens the blogger in question) articulate, and passionate, all of which are generally considered plusses in a candidate. And yes, she is conservative – though I personally disagree with her on the smoking ban issue. Oh, by the way, she did make the “you probably don't know this because you're not a doctor” comment – but it was in relationship to a particular law that impacts medical care. That law, EMTALA, may as well be called “The Anchor Baby Creation Act”, as it requires that an illegal alien in labor be allowed to deliver her child in the US, even if transferring her back across the border to a hospital in Mexico would in no way endanger her life or health or that of her child. I didn’t know about that law before I first met Dr. Sekula-Gibbs a month ago, and I suspect the same was true of many of those in attendance. Also, I like the brash pledge to be our congresswoman for at least six terms – it radiates a confidence and optimism that I like.

2) Charlie Howard – Here is a hard-working legislator who is well-spoken and conservative. He is a strong conservative, and I cannot say I heard anything that I disagree with. He would make a great candidate for Congressman. He has not made much of an effort to contact precinct chairs. My only issue is his age – even though Charlie is in good health, I have to ask how many terms we are likely to have him around. Will we be looking for a new candidate in four or six years? I would rather we were not.

3) Mike Jackson – My state senator has a lot of CD22 in his district, and he always does well. He is reasonably conservative, but I think he hurt himself with his vote last week on the tax bill, though he explained his reasoning well. I’m just worried how much compromising he would be willing to do in Washington. Mike's nomination will also set off a scramble to take his place in the state senate – and probably for at least one state representative district. I’m uncomfortable with the notion so many positions being filled by precinct chairs in the weeks prior to the general election.

4) Andy Meyers – Is he simply a surrogate for Robert Eckels and Paul Bettencourt? He is close to both and didn’t enter the race until they decided not to run. Does he have the desire to win on his own merits? I don’t care how right he is on the issues, I don’t want to settle for third best.

5) Robert Talton – There seems to be too maneuvering and scheming on the part of the Harris County GOP hierarchy to get this nomination for Talton. He also couldn’t clearly answer some questions about his votes on certain issues in the current special session. Add to that the reality that his major legislative priority in the last regular session was to keep homosexuals from adopting or being foster parents – and would have actually prohibited all single people, regardless of sexual orientation, from adopting or fostering. Besides having out-of-whack priorities, he is, at best, a pale shadow of Charlie Howard.

6) Tim Turner – Never won an election. He would not be a bad choice to replace Shelley or Mike, given his experience in appointed positions and business.

7) Tom Campbell – still asserts that his second-place finish in the primary was the result of disaffected Republicans, not cross-over Democrats. We don’t need a candidate who is delusional.

David Wallace – Probably the only candidate whose nomination would lead me to not vote GOP in this race in November. Stood us up after requesting inclusion after missing the deadline. We don’t need a candidate who is stupid.

9) Brad Wright – No name recognition.

Well, that is my take on the candidates. It should be fun over the next few weeks to see how this whole thing works out. And anyone in CD22, please feel free to let me know what you think about candidates.

Posted by: Greg at 04:44 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 1855 words, total size 11 kb.

Well, I got through my unit on WWII and the Holocaust this year without encountering this situation – for the first time in 10 years.

“Of course I dislike the Nazis. But who is to say they’re morally wrong?”

* * *

The statement above was spoken by a student at Hamilton College in New York. “Professor Roger Simon … said that he has never met a student who denied the Holocaust happened,” Anderson writes. “But he also reported that 10 to 20 percent of his students cannot bring themselves to say that killing millions of people is wrong.”

The first time I heard this argument, I was horrified – “Well, the Holocaust may be wrong for me here and now, but I really can’t say that it would be wrong for anyone else. It may have been OK for the Germans – and it could have been OK for me if I lived back then in Germany.”

And that was from students in a Catholic school, where they had supposedly been inculcated with Christian morality.

I have to agree with Rebecca HagelinÂ’s condemnation of moral relativism that follows.

If this isn’t an indictment of how modern society has deified “tolerance,” nothing is. What could illustrate the dangerous folly of moral relativism more perfectly than a student who can’t admit that mass murder is wrong -- not because of his feelings but because it’s a fact? A society of people who cannot condemn the Nazis is a society courting moral anarchy.

Sadly, we see the results of such relativism all around us – from pregnant twelve-year-olds to gay marriage to illegal alien rights demonstrations. Will we stand up for moral values – and is it already too late.

Posted by: Greg at 04:42 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 292 words, total size 2 kb.

The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are decided.

The top Council entry was The Last Boat Out of Liverpool by Gates of Vienna, with You're-being-mean-to-me Liberalism by New World Man making a strong showing in second place.

Similarly, Non-Council entry Can America Still Win Wars? by Villainous Company was selected as the winner this week, hotly pursued by Of a Fire in a Field from American Digest. 

Having linked to both winning entries and their runners up, here is the full results of the vote.

Congratulations one and all!

Posted by: Greg at 04:38 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 100 words, total size 1 kb.

We are not talking about a small discrepancy here – the woman in the Duke case initially claimed a substantially larger number of attackers.

The day after the March 13 team party where a 27-year-old black woman claimed she was raped, Durham police told campus officers that "this will blow over," the report said. The woman initially told police she was raped by 20 white men, then said she was attacked by three, the report said.

Now given the timeline that we are aware of in this case, this does raise some questions about the accusations. It isn’t as if she said four, or even five. The accuser indicated that she was raped by twenty men – which makes for one every 90 seconds during the time she was in the house. She later settled on three. I cannot see this as doing anything other than helping the defense.

Posted by: Greg at 04:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 155 words, total size 1 kb.

Heya folks. Rhodey here from The Colossus of Rhodey (go figure, eh?). Just wanted to inform you that the lack of posts from Greg are due to a very good reason -- one that many of us have experienced at one point or another: His computer went kablooey late last week.

Hopefully, he'll be back in action soon!

Posted by: Rhodey at 10:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 64 words, total size 1 kb.

Remember this guy?

The Chronicle notes today a case at Reagan High School, where Principal Robert Pambello flew the Mexican flag along with the U.S. and Texas flags on the school's flagpole yesterday. Pambello was ordered to remove the Mexican flag because HISD said "it is not appropriate to permit use of school district flagpoles for the purpose of flying flags representing other countries."

Well, it seems that he has quit his job at Reagan High School -- but over a completely different issue.

The Reagan High School principal who was disciplined in March for flying a Mexican flag on campus has resigned amid allegations that he sexually harassed a teacher.

Citing personal reasons, Principal Robert Pambello left his post at the 1,700-student campus April 22. He's using accumulated leave until his resignation takes effect July 18.

"I am leaving the district for personal reasons and to pursue other opportunities," Pambello said in a letter to Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra. "I appreciate the support and coaching you have personally provided me with during my time as an employee with HISD."

Pambello could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

According to Houston Independent School District spokesman Terry Abbott, an investigation completed April 19 by the district's Office of Equal Employment Opportunity office confirmed an allegation of sexual harassment.

"He was accused by a teacher of transmitting an offensive image by e-mail," Abbott said.

Sounds like it was a needed change -- this man clearly has serious questions surrounding his judgement.

Posted by: Greg at 03:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 252 words, total size 2 kb.

Looks like some educators do not realize that the First Amendment does apply to students.

A civil rights group has filed a federal lawsuit against the Sampson County school board claiming a ninth-grader was wrongfully suspended last week for disregarding a warning not to express his Christian faith.

Attorneys with the Alliance Defense Fund said students at Midway High School were allowed to participate in the April 26 Day of Silence, an event promoted by the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network.

The group said student Benjamin Arthurs was refused permission to wear a Day of Truth shirt on the following day and distribute cards presenting a Christian viewpoint on homosexual behavior during non-instructional time. He was suspended Monday after ignoring the warning.

"School officials shouldn't be treating religious students any differently than they treat other students," David Cortman, an attorney with the group, said in a statement. "This is unconstitutional treatment, plain and simple."

According to the lawsuit, Sampson County Board of Education Superintendent Stewart Hobbs said religious T-shirts would not be allowed and that no religious literature could be distributed. He said Arthurs would be "pushing his religion on others" and "religion is not allowed in school," according to the plaintiffs.

A phone message left for Hobbs was not immediately returned Thursday.

Now let's get this matter straight, once and for all. The alleged principle of "separation of church and state" (which appears no where in any edition of the Constitution I've ever encountered) prohibits THE GOVERNMENT from endorsing religion, not private individuals. It also forbids the suppression of religion by the government. Nothing in the Constitution prohibits the endorsement of a religious point of view by private individuals, not even when they are on public property. That this superintendent is so unfamiliar with that fundamental principle of individual liberty is a sign that he is not fit to continue to be employed in his current post.

I suspect that the school district will be paying tuition for Benjamin Arthurs sometime through the end of his graduate school career, because there is no way that this action, coupled with the statements of the superintendent, will be allowed to stand -- expecially since this is not the Ninth Circuit, where they make it up as they go along.

Posted by: Greg at 01:30 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 392 words, total size 3 kb.

Four Chinese bishops have been excommunicated for their role in the non-canonical consecration of bishops for the state-controlled counterfeit “Catholic” organization operated by the Beijing regime.

However, as is often the case, the headline assigned to the article does not accurately reflect the reality of the situation.

The Vatican on Thursday excommunicated two bishops ordained by China's state-controlled church without the pope's consent, escalating tensions as the two sides explored preliminary moves toward improving ties.
The Vatican also excommunicated the two bishops who ordained them, citing church law.

Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls cited Article 1382 of the Roman Catholic Church's canon law. That article states that "both the bishop who, without a pontifical mandate, consecrates a person a bishop, and the one who receives the consecration from him, incur a 'latae sententiae excommunication,'" which means they are automatically excommunicated.

As was often pointed out in my canon law classes, such excommunications are automatic and not a matter of official discretion. Technically, the person committing the offense excommunicates themselves by engaging in certain serious offenses. The act of unauthorized consecration of a bishop (an offense against the unity of the Church), like the act of procuring an abortion (an offense against innocent human life), is one of such gravity that knowingly committing the prohibited act results in the penalty. As such, it is incorrect to say that “the Vatican excommunicated” these men.

Earlier, Navarro-Valls said Pope Benedict XVI was deeply saddened by news of the ordinations, which have occurred in recent weeks.
"It is a great wound to the unity of the church," Navarro-Valls said in a statement.

Chinese Foreign Ministry officials were not available to comment on the excommunications. But earlier, a duty officer referred to an April 30 statement issued after the Vatican criticized the first ordination.

"The criticism toward the Chinese side by the Vatican is groundless," that statement said. "We hope the Vatican can respect the will of Chinese church and the vast numbers of priests as well as its church members so as to create good atmosphere for the improvement of Sino-Vatican ties."

On Wednesday, the official church, known as the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, ordained Liu Xinhong as bishop at the city of Wuhu's St. Joseph's Church in the eastern province of Anhui.

It was the second ordination in three days without the consent of the Vatican, which traditionally appoints its own bishops. On Sunday, China's official church ordained Ma Yinglin as a bishop in the southwestern province of Yunnan.

The Red Chinese stand ready to ordain another twenty men as bishops over the objections of the Vatican. It therefore seems clear that the recent moves by the Communist regime in Beijing may have been a subterfuge designed to undermine papal authority over Chinese Catholics. In consecrating these bishops, the Chinese government is acting to set up a rival episcopal hierarchy which will perpetuate the Communist-instigated schism in Red China that has endured for over half a century.

Posted by: Greg at 12:20 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 499 words, total size 3 kb.

Perhaps there is hope for a more moderate Islam in parts of the Muslim world. Certainly, this bodes well for the status of women in that kingdom, given the terrible treatment of women in many Islamist communities.

Fifty women have graduated as Muslim preachers, part of a concerted effort by authorities in Morocco to promote moderate Islam in a country grappling with extremism.

Another 150 men graduated Wednesday as imams, or prayer leaders. The 50 female religious guides, or morchidat, won't lead prayers in mosques, which is reserved for men, but will be sent around the country to teach women -- and, occasionally, men -- about Islam.

While Moroccan officials said the appointment of female state preachers was a rare experiment in the Muslim world, others said it was unprecedented in Morocco and the majority of other Arab countries.

"Your duty ... is to prevent intrusion by foreign agents trying to violate our values and traditions," Ahmed Taoufiq, minister of Islamic Affairs, told the graduates Wednesday.

"You must be committed to the faith and politics of the state which the people have chosen. This choice includes the policies of the Amir al Moumenin (Commander of the Faithful) who runs deep in our veins," said Taoufiq, referring to the religious title of King Mohammed VI.

The training of the preachers is part of a campaign launched by the young king, a descendant of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, to strengthen state-controlled mosques while undermining radical clerics who preach Islamic extremism. He has vowed that no foreign religious doctrine would be tolerated in the North African kingdom, which is a close ally of the United States and a partner in its war against terrorism.

I applaud King Mohammed VI for his efforts to bring Islam into the modern world, and to place greater emphasis on its positive aspects rather than the more blood-thirsty side highlighted by bin Laden and his ilk.

Posted by: Greg at 12:19 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 328 words, total size 2 kb.

It has been only a few days since the Red Chinese dictator was warmly welcomed at the White House by President Bush and an American citizen was arrested for voicing her displeasure. Now, the democratically elected leader of the Republic of China – Taiwan, for those who wan to kowtow to the Commies – has been denied permission to visit the United States, and is permitted only to stay in this country long enough for his plane to refuel in Alaska.

Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian has dropped plans to stop over in the US on his way to Latin America.

The move was prompted by a US decision not to allow him a more high-profile visit than a transit stop in Alaska.

Mr Chen - who has often made short visits to the US during previous trips abroad - accused China of influencing Washington's decision.

China, which considers Taiwan part of its territory, disapproves of trips that imply Taiwanese sovereignty.

Mr Chen is en route to Paraguay and Coast Rica, two of a decreasing number of countries - now just 25 - that recognise Taiwan diplomatically.

The Republic of China shares our values. The murderous Beijing regime oppresses well over a billion souls, and murders or imprisons those who strive for even a hint of American-style freedom. It is nothing short of scandalous that we welcome the tyrant while banning the president. SHAME!

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | Comments (33) | Add Comment
Post contains 239 words, total size 1 kb.

Most secrets around school last a week or two. Kids are congenitally unable to keep a secret. A decade ago, when my car was egged, all I had to do was keep my mouth shut for a week before I knew the name of all four culprits – good kids who got bored on a Saturday night in the little hick town where we all lived.

And then there are the campus legends. Every school has a place – usually the gym or the auditorium -- where some kid committed suicide or died in a tragic accident – but the school hushed it out. Or there is the janitorial closet where a couple of teachers got locked during a “rendezvous” before, during, or after school. Such legends are usually false, and even when true don’t stay secret for long.

But at one high school, a secret was recently discovered that goes all the way back to the Ford Administration, 31 years ago.

For 31 years, a hideaway in the rafters of Smoky Hill High School has served as a refuge for select drama students - a secret getaway whose whereabouts were passed down every year from class to class.

Unbeknownst to teachers and administrators, students had hauled up chairs, a radio and candles to furnish the lair above the lights. The room was actually a space created by the vents and walls of the ventilation system, accessible only by perilous traverses across catwalks.

Knowledge about the room had become a sacred Smoky Hill rite until the school newspaper last month revealed the secret. The April 14 article in the Smoky Hill Express prompted administrators to shut down access.

In its wake, newspaper students learned the power of the printed word. Drama students learned that their unsupervised exploits above the rafters could have been deadly.

"It's probably a pretty good idea to keep the kids safe," said Brian Pelepchan, 45, one of two teens who created the room during the school's first year in 1975.
Pelepchan and his best friend, Gary Walker, were sophomores, avid rock climbers and drama- department "techies" who were allowed on the catwalks above the stage.

"We went up into the catwalks and saw this little opening, climbed up the structure and, lo and behold, we found this little cavelike place that we could hang out in," said Pelepchan, now an engineer with three children who attend Smoky Hill.

Pelepchan and Walker started the log book, which later filled with the names of everyone who had visited the room. Rumors about activities in the room ranged from sex to drugs to rock 'n' roll. Students changed the room's location in the rafters at various times over the years.

For better or for worse, the school newspaper found out about the secret room and published a report, and the school shut down access o the room. But much to my surprise, there was a bit of common sense exercised by administrators.

[Activities Director Kathy] Daly and [journalism teacher Carrie] Faust met with the drama department. Students who had used the room were given amnesty. The department was given the log book.

A good decision all around – let the tradition be preserved, but shut down the potentially dangerous element – and not punish anyone for participating in what had been, in a very real sense, harmless rite of passage for a group of kids who historically are outcasts in a school setting.

But you know – a little bit of me hopes the “secret room” is resurrected in some way. After all, it is a tradition!

Posted by: Greg at 12:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 598 words, total size 4 kb.