Let's see -- a group that no longer considers itself country and is no longer played by country radio got top country music honors from an organization whose voters are primarily drawn from outside the country music industry. Hardly a vindication, in my book. But the NY Times disagrees.

After death threats, boycotts and a cold shoulder from the country music establishment, the Dixie Chicks gained sweet vindication Sunday night at the 49th annual Grammy Awards, capturing honors in all five of the categories in which they were nominated.

The Dixie Chicks took home Grammys for the top three awards: record, song and album of the year. Their “Taking the Long Way” (Open Wide/Columbia) won best country album and “Not Ready to Make Nice” also captured best country performance by a duo or group with vocal. That song is an unapologetic response to the furor set off in 2003 when the band’s lead singer, Natalie Maines, made an off-the-cuff antiwar remark to London concertgoers: “Just so you know, we’re ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas.”

But Sunday’s awards were the Recording Academy’s rejoinder to the country music radio establishment, which ignored the album. Accepting the award for song of the year, Ms. Maines joked, “For the first time in my life, I’m speechless.” But she found her voice on later trips to the stage. “I’m very humbled and I think people were using their voice the same way this loudmouth did,” she said, self-referentially, after “Taking the Long Way” was named album of the year. The Dixie Chicks’ sweep of the major Grammy categories served as a sharp counterpoint to their shut-out at the Country Music Association awards in November. The Recording Academy consists of members across the nation who work in all genres of music. The Country Music Association’s membership is concentrated among artists, engineers and executives tied to the Nashville establishment.

In other words, these awards are really meaningless, and probably are best seen as a political swipe at the president by an entertainment industry that has always rejected him.

And I think the positioning of the group's performance and introduction by Joan Baez indicate that the night's awards were less about the group's artistic accomplishments than their political activism.

The Dixie Chicks got the last laugh Sunday night. Rejected by the country establishment, the polarizing group was tickled to find itself in the warm embrace of the broader Recording Academy, which honored the Chicks with five Grammy Awards -- including the three biggest: album of the year, record of the year and song of the year.

The Texas trio also won for best country group vocal and best country album. The latter award was especially surprising since they were excommunicated from the church of country music in 2003 after singer Natalie Maines popped off about President Bush and the war in Iraq. Upon bouncing to the podium after the result was announced, Maines said what just about everybody inside Staples Center was probably thinking: "That's interesting." She closed her gaping mouth just long enough to grin mischievously, then said, "Well, to quote the great Simpsons, 'HA HA!' "

"Not Ready to Make Nice," the group's defiant answer to the angry country fans who'd criticized the group for criticizing Bush, won song of the year, the industry's top writing award. "I am, for the first time in my life, speechless," Maines said. Earlier, the protest singer Joan Baez had introduced the Dixie Chicks as "three brave women who are still not ready to make nice."

I've said it before -- the band has every right to make its political statements, ad to remain as defiant as they want. That is part and parcel of the First Amendment. However, country fans have every right to refuse to buy their CDs and concert tickets and country radio has every right to refuse to play their songs on the radio in response -- also protected by the First Amendment. And frankly, most of us don't feel any particular urge to make nice either.

Posted by: Greg at 11:42 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I think this about says it all about where the loyalties of the DemocratICK Party lie..

Senior U.S. defense officials say they have evidence linking some of the deadliest weapons being used against U.S. forces in Iraq to the highest levels of the Iranian government, but congressional Democrats are warning the administration to go slow in making its case.

"Every leader in the region and every observer, every expert here in our country, tells us that Iran does not want a complete and total implosion in Iraq," Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said Sunday.

According to U.S. military officials, a significant increase in a number of explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, found in Iraq have tracked back to Iran. EFPs, which can penetrate heavy armor used in tanks, have killed 170 American troops since 2004.

According to the officials in Baghdad, they recently confiscated a number of EFPS that were found before exploding. The C-4 explosive in them has been chemically traced to Iran, the "machining process" required to make the projectile is not available in Iraq and the triggering devices are also traceable to Iran, they said.

Given a choice between our troops and allies on the one hand and Iran on the other, who do they side with? Iran.

Posted by: Greg at 11:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We live in an age in which we can turn on the television and see presidential speeches and White House press briefings. We can turn on the television and watch the floor debates of both the House and the Senate, as well as committe hearings from both bodies. Yet we cannot watch some of the most important events in government -- oral arguments before the Supreme Court -- because the justices steadfastly refuse to agree to let cameras into the courtroom. Frankly, this needs to change.

With Supreme Court justices becoming increasingly comfortable in the spotlight, Sen. Arlen Specter says it might finally be time for their close-ups.

Spector (Pa.), joined by two other Republican and three Democratic senators, has refiled his legislation to require the court to televise its proceedings. Although getting the rest of Congress to agree still seems very much a long shot, Specter said there is a big difference between now and last year, when the bill did not reach the Senate floor.

"I think the frequency with which the justices are appearing on television can be a very significant factor" in changing minds in Congress, Specter said in an interview.

There is no doubt that the once-cloistered justices are making themselves more available to the media, giving on-the-record interviews with newspapers and magazines and popping up on television. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. starred in PBS's recent look at the history of the court.

Specter, former chairman of the Judiciary Committee and sometimes a sharp critic of the court, said the individual justices have been "extensively televised."

Now honestly, I think Specter's argument here is hogwash -- the fact that justices appear on television outside of the courtroom does not argue for cameras in the courtroom. However there is a better reason -- increasing the familiarity of the American public with the activities of the most secretive of our three branches of government.

Supreme Court proceedings generally consist of oral arguments by attorneys and announcements of decisions by the justices. There are no witnesses to be intimidated. Lawyers would play to the camera at their peril, as their audience would be the nine individuals seated before them.

On the other hand, this development would provide us with a historical record of the great cases of American history, as well as a deeper understanding of the court. And the confidentiality of the deliberative aspects of the high court's activities -- the conferences in which cases are discussed and the circulation of draft opinions - would be maintained under Specter's proposal.

Frankly, I see nothing to lose and everything to gain if cameras are installed in at the Supreme Court.

Posted by: Greg at 11:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Valentines Day is almost here -- have you sent the one you love a valentine through Egreetings.com? There are a whole host of wonderful cards for the one you love -- or who you simply lust after -- for every occasion, not just the immediately occurring holiday involving hearts and Cupids.

I mean, what could be better than free funny eCards like this one?

Not to mention the mildly risque ones -- come on, guys, you know you would love to have this one pop up in your email!

So come on by Egreetings.com and sign up for the free 30-day trial -- or better yet, for just $13.99 you can send unlimited ecards for a year, even scheduling them months in advance so that you won't forget that birthday!

So drop by, take a look, and make that special someone very happy on Wednesday when they find that something special in their mailbox at home, school, or work.

Paid Endorsement.

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Last week, I highlighted the first of a series of articles on "textual criticism" of the New Testament of the Bible. This week's installment in that four-part series answers some basic questions about the manuscripts we possess --none of which are the original "autograph" of the books that make up the New Testament.

This article comes second in a four-part series on New Testament textual criticism. It answers questions about the material and process of making the pages of a document, along with the scribal art of writing. What were the scribe's utensils? How was a papyrus sheet or page made? What is parchment? Why wouldn't God protect his Word from such complications? Should I trust the New Testament?

The entire series assumes the basic Christian doctrine of inspiration. The original authors of the New Testament were inspired. But we no longer have their very original manuscripts. Rather, they were transmitted by scribes and copiests who took their work seriously, but were not inspired as the original authors were. They made typical errors that all scribes and copyists do before the age of copy machines, word processors, and spell checks.
Textual criticism attempts to recover the originals, as much as humanly possible. Have textual critics succeeded? By any reckoning, we have 95% of the inspired words, and some scholars place the number as high as 97-98%. Where any uncertainties remain, they do not overturn New Testament doctrine, which are supported by other verses.

That is a remarkable achievement for any text coming out of the Greco-Roman world. Web readers need to know this, so they can be reassured about their Bible when they hear its critics misleading the public about the complete trustworthiness of Scripture. The New Testament (and the Old Testament) is a highly accurate, reliable, and faithful record of the words and ideas of the original authors, as inspired by God.

This article (and the entire series) is about the later manuscripts. Let's educate ourselves about them so we won't be caught unprepared when the needlessly and heedlessly harsh critics appear in the media.

I've got to tell you, despite a degree in history and four years in the seminary, I learned things about the nature of these early manuscripts that I didn't know or had forgotten. I'd again encourage my readers to follow these articles to learn more about the New testament and the process by which we have received and understand it.

Posted by: Greg at 04:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Who Is George Soros? by American Future, and Media Mischaracterizes Senate Resolution Vote by The QandO Blog.  Here is a link to full results of the vote. 

Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

Posted by: Greg at 04:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It is, after all, a basic question of supply and demand. Make a commodity more expensive, and less will be purchased. And labor IS a commodity.

Look at what is happening in Arizona.

Oh, for the days when Arizona's high school students could roll pizza dough, sweep up sticky floors in theaters or scoop ice cream without worrying about ballot initiatives affecting their earning power.

That's certainly not the case under the state's new minimum-wage law that went into effect last month.

Some Valley employers, especially those in the food industry, say payroll budgets have risen so much that they're cutting hours, instituting hiring freezes and laying off employees.

And teens are among the first workers to go.

Companies maintain the new wage was raised to $6.75 per hour from $5.15 per hour to help the breadwinners in working-poor families. Teens typically have other means of support.

Mark Messner, owner of Pepi's Pizza in south Phoenix, estimates he has employed more than 2,000 high school students since 1990. But he plans to lay off three teenage workers and decrease hours worked by others. Of his 25-person workforce, roughly 75 percent are in high school.

"I've had to go to some of my kids and say, 'Look, my payroll just increased 13 percent,' " he said. " 'Sorry, I don't have any hours for you.' "

So tell me -- how have these workers been helped by the pay raise passed by Arizona voters? How will American workers nationwide be helped by a minimum wage increase that brings about the elimination of their jobs?

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Frankly, I don't see what else you can call this proposal by Rochelle Riley.

How long would it take to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney? A day?

It could be the day after impeachment hearings ended in the conviction of President George W. Bush for high crimes and misdemeanors. It would take only one courageous member of the House of Representatives to propose an article of impeachment against Cheney. Then it would take a majority of the House and two-thirds of the Senate to send Cheney packing -- almost as quickly as former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

* * *

I've called for the impeachment of President George W. Bush twice before and had correspondents tell me that their greater fear was a President Cheney. Get rid of them both for "high crimes and misdemeanors" against the American people. The best definition of that came from our own President Gerald Ford in 1970: "An impeachable offense is whatever the majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at any given moment."

When the GOP impeached and sought to remove a sitting president, Bill Clinton, for undeniable violations of the law (to which he later admitted and accepted punishment), we were accused of trying to "overturn the results of an election" despite the fact that the new president would have been Al Gore, the elected vice president who had been Clinton's running mate. No election would have been overturned -- and such a course of action would have undoubtedly led to a landslide victory by President Al Gore in 2000 -- and his likely reelection in 2004.

What Ms. Riley proposes here is the removal of a president and vice president over policy differences and interpretations of the data from our nation's intelligence agencies -- in order to place the government into the hands of a different party, and a new president who had never stood for national office nor been subject to the sort of review that Ms. Riley's new-found hero, President Ford, faced when he assumed the vice presidency under trying circumstances in 1973.

Indeed, her proposal is nothing short of a coup d'etat by the DemocratICK Party -- a group which is is no more loyal to the United States and its Constitution than it was 145 years ago.

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Posted by: Greg at 08:17 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Now I realize that those of us who question the theory that human beings are destroying the planet through emissions of greenhouse gases are scheduled to be tried for crimes against humanity by the climate-change alarmists, far-left, and the lapdog media, but science demands that questions be asked and data be examined -- lest it become religion instead.

Which leads, of course, to this theory, which adequately explains such issues as why the average temperature in Antarctica is dropping, and why the amount of sea-ice in that region is increasing?

The best measurements of global air temperatures come from American weather satellites, and they show wobbles but no overall change since 1999.

That levelling off is just what is expected by the chief rival hypothesis, which says that the sun drives climate changes more emphatically than greenhouse gases do. After becoming much more active during the 20th century, the sun now stands at a high but roughly level state of activity. Solar physicists warn of possible global cooling, should the sun revert to the lazier mood it was in during the Little Ice Age 300 years ago.

Climate history and related archeology give solid support to the solar hypothesis. The 20th-century episode, or Modern Warming, was just the latest in a long string of similar events produced by a hyperactive sun, of which the last was the Medieval Warming.

The Chinese population doubled then, while in Europe the Vikings and cathedral-builders prospered. Fascinating relics of earlier episodes come from the Swiss Alps, with the rediscovery in 2003 of a long-forgotten pass used intermittently whenever the world was warm.

What does the Intergovernmental Panel do with such emphatic evidence for an alternation of warm and cold periods, linked to solar activity and going on long before human industry was a possible factor? Less than nothing. The 2007 Summary for Policymakers boasts of cutting in half a very small contribution by the sun to climate change conceded in a 2001 report.

Disdain for the sun goes with a failure by the self-appointed greenhouse experts to keep up with inconvenient discoveries about how the solar variations control the climate. The sunÂ’s brightness may change too little to account for the big swings in the climate. But more than 10 years have passed since Henrik Svensmark in Copenhagen first pointed out a much more powerful mechanism.

He saw from compilations of weather satellite data that cloudiness varies according to how many atomic particles are coming in from exploded stars. More cosmic rays, more clouds. The sunÂ’s magnetic field bats away many of the cosmic rays, and its intensification during the 20th century meant fewer cosmic rays, fewer clouds, and a warmer world. On the other hand the Little Ice Age was chilly because the lazy sun let in more cosmic rays, leaving the world cloudier and gloomier.

What's more, this theory works in a laboratory setting, and is therefore testable in a way that the current global warming consensus is not. What's more, it includes what is, after all, the most common sense source of the earth's temperature -- the Sun. Now I realize that the big ball of gas is inconvenient to all the big bags of gas that bloviate about global climate change being the fault of mankind -- but the evidence needs to be much more carefully studied and considered, as it provides a simpler explanation for the constant climate variation that can be documented over the course of centuries, not just decades.

Maybe we should call that evidence an inconvenient truth.

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Posted by: Greg at 07:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well of course not -- the moderate wing of the Southern Baptists in Texas is lining up on the right left side of the issue here, so the usual fraudulent First Amendment claim doesn't apply.

Texas' largest Baptist group is taking a rare step into environmental advocacy, working to block Gov. Rick Perry's plan to speed the approval process for 18 new coal-fired power plants.

The Christian Life Commission, the public policy arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is mobilizing Baptists against the coal-fired plants and urging the convention's 2.3 million members to voice their opposition to state lawmakers.

"A lot of people felt like our industries, our policy leaders, are going to take care of these big issues like air quality, (and) it's not going to be something our local people are going to have to get up every day and worry about," said Suzii Paynter, director of the commission. "It can't be left to big interests to make these decisions in our behalf."

Mind you, I'm not taking sides on the issue of coal-fired plants in this post -- there are good arguments on both sides of the issue, and I won't rehearse them here. What I am pointing to is the hypocrisy of those who argue that tax exempt religious groups shouldn't be involved in public policy debates -- right up until those groups make common cause with them.

Posted by: Greg at 07:30 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What can I say about credit cards? Frankly, I don't know how anyone can get by today without having one packed away in their purse or wallet -- maybe even more than one. Used responsibly, such little conveniences can be a life-saver in dire straights and emergency situations.

One opportunity you have in many situations is to transfer balances from one card to another. Done correctly, this can save you a wad of cash. Let's say you are walking around with a typical card with a 15% interest rate. If you look closely, it is possible to find opportunities to transfer the balance from that card to a new card that has a promotional 0% rate for a year or longer! Think about it -- 0% balance transfers mean that you are borrowing that money for nothing! That will certainly help you save your money while paying down the balance in a responsible manner. Indeed, I've seen it done that wise users of credit cards can get themselves out of debt months, even years early.

There are also a section on the site devoted to cash back credit cards, credit card reward points, credit card loyalty programs.

So do a little shopping and compare credit cards to find out which one is the right one for you in your particular situation!

Paid Endorsement.

Posted by: Greg at 06:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Is it just me, or are they really slow with picking up blog updates? I just checked, and it says not one of my favorites have updated in the last 5 hours, and several haven't updated in over 24 hours, even though I know they have new posts.

Any idea where the problem lies?

Posted by: Greg at 01:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Why should we not be surprised by this naked threat against the Defense Department by corrupt DemocratICK Congressman John Murtha?

February 10, 2007 -- Perhaps the flap over Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plane wouldn't be so bad - had she and her trusty sidekick, Rep. Jack Murtha (D-Pa.), not reacted so obnoxiously.

When the Pentagon didn't immediately honor the request of the self-proclaimed "most powerful woman in America" for a top-of-the-line Air Force passenger jet, Pelosi deployed the "s"-word: sexism.

"As a woman, as a woman speaker of the House, I don't want any less of an opportunity than male speakers when they have served here," she said.

Pelosi then implied that the Pentagon was getting even with her:

"Why are they [the Pentagon] feeding the flames? Of course, I have been a constant critic - for nearly three years, I've called for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, who still has a desk at the Department of Defense . . ."

Then the thuggish, ethically challenged Murtha weighed in - saying it would be a "mistake" to deny her request, "since she decides on the allocations for the Department of Defense."

* * *

"I don't need to pressure them. I just tell them what they need to do," Murtha said of his efforts to secure from the Pentagon a plane for Pelosi.

As more information comes out, I'm progressively more willing to give Pelosi a pass -- it appears that it wasn't her or her staff who asked for the larger plane to be at her full-time disposal. But Murtha's words are more troubling.

Especially since this isn't the first time he has tried crap like this.

Murtha's history of manipulating defense appropriations for personal gain is long and distinguished. In a 1989 defense bill, then-Speaker Tom Foley was shamed into redlining a Murtha-authored provision requiring the speaker have a C-20 jet available at all times.

And, of course, there is his cozy relationship with Defense industry lobbyists who feather his nest, and with companies that are clients of his brother's company.

Thuggish and corrupt -- those are two of the words that best describe John Murtha. I'll refrain from using the other one that comes to mind.

Posted by: Greg at 12:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As I've said in the past, the situation involving the stricken senator transcends the political -- and so I bring you the following update of what can only be called positive developments.

Sen. Tim Johnson is reading news clippings and starting to do some office work from the hospital, almost two months after suffering a life-threatening brain hemorrhage. "At this point, he has requested more contact with office and is looking for updates from staff," his office said in a statement Friday.

Spokeswoman Julianne Fisher said the South Dakota Democrat is starting slowly.

"We do not anticipate him back (in the Senate) for several weeks," Fisher said. "We are bringing work to him rather than him coming to us. His first priority still is rehabilitation."

Johnson has been undergoing physical, occupational and speech therapy since he was transferred to rehabilitation from intensive care at George Washington University Hospital last month. He recently began to read and speak in full sentences, according to statements from his doctors.

Johnson continues to have weakness on his right side, but is continuing with therapy and will eventually return to the Senate. And while I'm of a different party, I will rejoice when that day arrives -- as should every American.

Posted by: Greg at 12:35 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'll be honest -- I'd never heard of the Mandaeans before today. They are, however, perhaps the only remaining remnant of the ancient Gnostics. The Iraq war has led to questions about the survival of the faith in its native land -- and the dispersion of many of the faithful to other countries leads to questions about its disappearance abroad.

Among the casualties of the Iraq war is a little-known religious faith called Mandaeanism that has survived roughly two millennia and whose adherents believe that John the Baptist was their great teacher.

While there were more than 60,000 Mandaeans in Iraq in the early 1990s, only about 5,000 to 7,000 remain. Many have fled amid targeted killings, rapes, forced conversions and property confiscation by Islamic extremists, according to a report released last week by the New Jersey-based Mandaean Society of America.

For those who have an interest in the many forms of faith that man's religious nature has taken, I encourage you to look to the article cited above.

Posted by: Greg at 12:29 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After committing political suicide this past week, we now hear that Rick Perry doesn't have an ambition to seek any office higher than governor.

Gov. Rick Perry has no interest in national politics and may seek re-election in 2010, his chief political consultant said Friday.

Dave Carney said speculation that recent decisions by Perry, including his mandate that middle-school girls be inoculated against a sexually transmitted virus linked to cervical cancer, are designed to raise the governor's profile nationally is "one of the most retarded things about the political observers in Texas."

"He hates Washington. He doesn't like to go there," Carney continued.

Perry also isn't worried about his legacy, Carney added. The 56-year-old governor, who has served since 2001, is on track to be the longest-serving governor in Texas history.

"He's one of the few politicians in the world who doesn't care about what people write, what editorials say. That's why he's been so successful. He doesn't put his personal ego and reputation ahead of doing the right thing," Carney said.

Well, Rich Perry has done the wrong thing time and again over the last few years, and a lot of us would be happy to see him gone. If he runs for reelection in 2010, it had better be as an independent, because most of us will not support him then (and for the record, I didn't vote for him in 2006).

Posted by: Greg at 03:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Somebody had to ask.

Over almost three decades, a small laboratory at Princeton University managed to embarrass university administrators, outrage Nobel laureates, entice the support of philanthropists and make headlines around the world with its efforts to prove that thoughts can alter the course of events.

But at the end of the month, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research laboratory, or PEAR, will close, not because of controversy but because, its founder says, it is time.

The laboratory has conducted studies on extrasensory perception and telekinesis from its cramped quarters in the basement of the universityÂ’s engineering building since 1979. Its equipment is aging, its finances dwindling.

Interestingly enough, this research was privately funded. That argues in favor of the notion that scientific research can proceed just fine without infusions of government cash. Not only that, it also disproves the fraudulent notion -- foisted upon the American people by the advocates of fetal stem-cell research -- that research not funded by the government is banned.

Posted by: Greg at 03:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not, of course, that the DemocratICK Party want to let the US military actually take action against the state sponsors of terrorism killing American troops and innocent Iraqi civilians. After all -- that might give George W. Bush (and, almost as bad in their eyes, the United States) a victory.

The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran.

The assertion of an Iranian role in supplying the device to Shiite militias reflects broad agreement among American intelligence agencies, although officials acknowledge that the picture is not entirely complete.

In interviews, civilian and military officials from a broad range of government agencies provided specific details to support what until now has been a more generally worded claim, in a new National Intelligence Estimate, that Iran is providing “lethal support” to Shiite militants in Iraq.

The focus of American concern is known as an “explosively formed penetrator,” a particularly deadly type of roadside bomb being used by Shiite groups in attacks on American troops in Iraq. Attacks using the device have doubled in the past year, and have prompted increasing concern among military officers. In the last three months of 2006, attacks using the weapons accounted for a significant portion of Americans killed and wounded in Iraq, though less than a quarter of the total, military officials say.

Given the use of dead American soldiers as campaign props by the DemocratICK Party during the last election, could these weapons constitute an "in-kind" donation to the DNC by Iran?

Posted by: Greg at 02:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My dad sent me one of those bits of internet humor that show up in the mailbox from time to time. I don't know the source, but it does give me hope for the future.

One sunny day in 2009, an old man approached the White House from Across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine replied, "Sir, Mrs. Clinton is not the President and doesn't reside here."

The old man said, "Okay," and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and Said to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton".

The Marine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mrs. Clinton is not the President and doesn't reside here."

The man thanked him and again walked away . . .

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to The very same Marine, saying "I would like to go in and meet with President Hillary Clinton."

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the Man And said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mrs. Clinton. I've told you already several times that Mrs Clinton is not the President and doesn't reside here.

Don't you understand?"

The old man answered, "Oh, I understand you fine; I just love hearing your answer!"

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow."

May we be so fortunate -- and may the actual resident in 2009 have an (R) after his/her name.

Posted by: Greg at 02:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What can I say? I like a bargain, and so does my wife. Over the years we have both learned that you can find incredible deals on the internet if you use online coupons to stretch your dollar a bit further.

As Valentine's Day approaches, flowers are a must for your lady love. It is therefore a good idea to see if you can find a good coupon to get something just a little bit nicer than you could normally afford. If you would like, for example, you can get a great deal at 1-800-FLOWERS just by using a coupon! You know, just something small like an extra dozen roses AND a vase to go with the dozen you had already planned on purchasing. Think about it -- she'll be quit impressed by the sight of two dozen beautiful flowers proclaiming your love for her and only her.

Not that you need to limit your flower-buying to just one day of the year.

Where can you find this and so many other great internet bargains involving the use of internet coupons? Why at CouponChief.com, of course!

Paid Endorsement.

Posted by: Greg at 06:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Any time a private group is allowed to post a display on public property, I think it is appropriate for there to be disclaimer that the point of view does not necessarily constitute an official endorsement. I really don't care what the subject is, whether it be civil rights, pet adoption, or picking up litter. So I really wouldn't have any problem with this library district putting a disclaimer on a display by a religious group -- or the ACLU's actions in looking at the library's policy.

I do, however, have a problem with this statement by the would-be censor who is using the ACLU to fight impose his views on the rest of society.

The current display’s reference to the Bible’s book of Leviticus amounts to “thinly veiled hate speech disguised as religion, to give it some modicum of respectability it doesn’t deserve,” [retired attorney Bill] Hugenberg said.

Gee -- differ with Hugenberg over religion doctrine and you are a bigot. What a narrow-minded, intolerant view of the world!

Sounds like hate speech to me.

Posted by: Greg at 12:01 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
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Well, if you say so – though this would certainly seem to contradict that claim.

Israeli police stormed the grounds of Islam's third-holiest shrine Friday, firing stun grenades and tear gas to disperse thousands of Muslim worshippers who hurled stones, bottles and trash in an eruption of outrage over Israeli renovation nearby.

Where I come from, that isn’t worship – that is a riot. And when you go to a religious service where the get you all hyped up to riot, that doesn’t constitute a peaceful religion.

And I'm curious as to which one "mainstream" Muslim organizations will denounce -- the riot instigated by Jew-hating clerics, or the attempt to restore a walkway that provoked it?

Posted by: Greg at 11:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I do not believe that Gardasil should be mandated by any government. That said, I do support the method being pursued by this New York lawmaker.

A Democratic state assemblywoman plans to introduce legislation next week that would require schoolgirls in New York to get shots meant to knock out the virus linked to cervical cancer.

The question of whether to inoculate girls against human papilloma virus recently touched off controversy in Texas where Gov. Rick Perry issued an executive order requiring the vaccine.

''This is a revolutionary opportunity to eradicate a disease that kills many, many women. As a mom, I'm grateful my daughter will not have to fear having cervical cancer,'' Amy Paulin of Westchester County, whose 18-year-old daughter just received her first shot, told the New York Daily News for its Friday edition.

Paulin's legislation would require girls be inoculated with the three-shot series against HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that causes 70 percent of cervical cancers. Children whose parents have religious objections to the vaccine, called Gardasil, would be exempt.

I’ve explained my opposition to requiring this vaccine in the past, and won’t go into those reasons again. They have to do with the right of families to determine appropriate medical care, and the lack of a reasonable nexus between the vaccine and the right to a public education – and I have in a general sense rejected the “middle schoolers gone wild” argument espoused by a small minority of my fellow conservatives. I’ve also said that I would get the vaccine for my daughter if I had one, and that I believe girls OUGHT to be vaccinated without state coercion.

However, if such a requirement is the wave of the future, this method, not the dictatorial decree by a single officeholder, should be how the requirement is enacted into law.

It’s called democracy, folks, and it is how such decisions should be made – if it is proper that they even enter the realm of government decison-making at all.

Posted by: Greg at 11:27 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If Karl Rove said anything even remotely close to this, he simply needs to be fired by the President.

According to a congressman's wife who attended a Republican women's luncheon yesterday, Karl Rove explained the rationale behind the president's amnesty/open-borders proposal this way: "I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."

Like most members of the GOP, I come from a background in which hard work was stressed as a positive thing. I was raised to believe that no work was beneath the dignity of any person so long as they did it to the best of their ability. Indeed, that is why my folks encouraged me to take my first job (age 14) stacking bundles of newspaper, bagging empty cans, and putting old jars and bottles in crates at the base recycling center. It is why I did stock work for three years at the base PX and worked the drive-thru window at Burger King while finishing graduate school. RoveÂ’s statement insults those of us in the conservative base who have done the kind of menial/manual labor that he seems to view with disdain, and too good for his own child.

And I wonÂ’t get into the fact that he clearly thinks that such work is the proper field for my many Hispanic students. There is an implicit racism there that needs no comment.

Assuming, of course, that this report is accurate.

Posted by: Greg at 11:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Spectacular blogger and former WatcherÂ’s Council member, Dr. Pat Santy, speaks about her area of professional expertise in this article from MSNBC.

Serious questions are being raised this week about how closely NASA monitors the mental health of its astronauts, particularly regarding personal situations that could detract from their ability to handle their stressful jobs. NASA Administrator Mike Griffin has ordered a full review of current procedures and an assessment of potential improvements to them.

Veteran NASA flight surgeon and professional psychiatrist Patricia Santy worked at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston from 1984 to 1991, eventually becoming flight surgeon, or flight doctor, at Mission Control Center. She also is a board-certified psychiatrist, and helped develop psychiatric standards used to assess astronaut applicants in that period. She literally wrote the book on the physiological analysis involved in choosing space flyers titled "Choosing the Right Stuff: The Psychological Selection of Astronauts and Cosmonauts." She is widely regarded as a leading authority on the psychology of human spaceflight.
Santy talked to MSNBC.com about NASA practices and her thoughts about potential improvements to the screening process.

HereÂ’s hoping that Pat is intimately involved in whatever changes are made by NASA coming out of this case.

Posted by: Greg at 11:21 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I guess that only anti-American dissent is good dissent -- dissent against PC orthodoxy is a crime against humanity.

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

I know of no one who denies that the planet’s temperature is rising. I do, on the other hand, know many folks who argue that human beings are not the cause of that warming – and based upon my study of history, view the current trend to be a part of the cyclical variation that has happened repeatedly throughout recorded history.

And if you don’t believe in such cycles, contemplate this – why is a certain glacier-covered landmass in the North Atlantic called GREENland?

Jonah Goldberg has this comment.

Posted by: Greg at 11:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I guess that only anti-American dissent is good dissent -- dissent against PC orthodoxy is a crime against humanity.

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

I know of no one who denies that the planet’s temperature is rising. I do, on the other hand, know many folks who argue that human beings are not the cause of that warming – and based upon my study of history, view the current trend to be a part of the cyclical variation that has happened repeatedly throughout recorded history.

And if you don’t believe in such cycles, contemplate this – why is a certain glacier-covered landmass in the North Atlantic called GREENland?

Jonah Goldberg has this comment.

Posted by: Greg at 11:18 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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That's the only way to interpret the decision not to fire the two NutRoots bloggers his campaign has recently hired.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Thursday he was personally offended by the provocative messages two of his campaign bloggers wrote criticizing the Catholic church, but he's not firing them.

Edwards issued a written statement about the fate of Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, two days after the head of the conservative Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights demanded they be fired for messages they wrote before working on the campaign.

The campaign distributed written apologies from the two women, who stressed they were writing on personal blogs and not on behalf of the campaign. Edwards said he believes in giving everyone a "fair shake."

"I've talked to Amanda and Melissa; they have both assured me that it was never their intention to malign anyone's faith, and I take them at their word," Edwards said.

The problem is that what they wrote was not merely "critical" of the Catholic Church. I'd be fine with that. What they wrote were crude, hate-filled anti-Catholic rantings that (at least in Marcotte's case) were clearly intended to malign the faith of Catholics (indeed, of all Christians).

I'll just ask -- would Edwards keep around staffers who wrote equally offensive things about the beliefs of Jews or Muslims, or attacked in such crude and insulting language major leaders of the black and Hispanic communities? I think we can all answer that question without too much help -- and can therefore see that John Edwards is merely talking a good game when it comes to rejecting bigotry, even as he embraces it by keeping these two hatemongers on his staff.

I guess we know whose votes John Edwards is counting on in order to win the presidency -- bigots, not Catholics. In doing so, he has embraced the KKK heritage of the DemocratICK Party.

Posted by: Greg at 11:26 PM | Comments (241) | Add Comment
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Well, here is the statement of Rep. John Zerwas on the Rick Perry’s decision to play doctor with every little girl in Texas by unilaterally making the HPV vaccine mandatory if they are to receive a public education. And he is clearly against it.

Governor Perry’s mandating the vaccination of 11 year-old girls against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted disease, to me represents a radical and unwise shift away from the state’s current policies for vaccinating children.

To start, though HPV does present some serious health risks for women if left untreated, it does not present the same level of public health hazard as do the measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough. There is a reason why vaccines for these other illnesses are mandated: they are contagious diseases that can be transmitted by virtue of an infected child walking in a classroom and breathing. As in real estate, location matters here because the HPV cannot be transmitted without sexual activity – and, therefore, does not constitute a public health threat to Texas’ schoolchildren while in the classroom.

It follows, then, that I cannot support extending the mandated childhood immunization program as preferred by the Governor. Such a prescription, in my view, will only serve to undermine public trust in the existing, and badly needed, childhood immunization efforts.

In other words, exactly what I have been arguing since Friday – there is no nexus between HPV and presence in a public school classroom that justifies requiring it for all girls. This is simply a naked power grab by Rick Perry.

Posted by: Greg at 12:49 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Well, here is the statement of Rep. John Zerwas on the Rick PerryÂ’s decision to play doctor with every little girl in Texas by unilaterally making the HPV vaccine mandatory if they are to receive a public education. And he is clearly against it.

Governor PerryÂ’s mandating the vaccination of 11 year-old girls against the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually-transmitted disease, to me represents a radical and unwise shift away from the stateÂ’s current policies for vaccinating children.

To start, though HPV does present some serious health risks for women if left untreated, it does not present the same level of public health hazard as do the measles, mumps, rubella, and whooping cough. There is a reason why vaccines for these other illnesses are mandated: they are contagious diseases that can be transmitted by virtue of an infected child walking in a classroom and breathing. As in real estate, location matters here because the HPV cannot be transmitted without sexual activity – and, therefore, does not constitute a public health threat to Texas’ schoolchildren while in the classroom.

It follows, then, that I cannot support extending the mandated childhood immunization program as preferred by the Governor. Such a prescription, in my view, will only serve to undermine public trust in the existing, and badly needed, childhood immunization efforts.

In other words, exactly what I have been arguing since Friday – there is no nexus between HPV and presence in a public school classroom that justifies requiring it for all girls. This is simply a naked power grab by Rick Perry.

Posted by: Greg at 12:49 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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That’s right, our liberal friends at ACORN, the DemocratICK Party supporting group that has been connected with vote fraud around the nation.

A man who worked for an advocacy group that signs up new voters pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to voter registration fraud, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Dale D. Franklin, 44, was hired by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, to work with Project Vote, another not-for-profit group that helps register voters.

Franklin admitted to giving the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners a forged voter registration application while he worked as a recruiter in late September and early October, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

He faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

In November, four other ACORN workers were indicted on charges of submitting false voter registrations to the Kansas City election board.

Once again, we find the same pattern – the same liberals who object to reliable proof of identity to vote are involved in creating fictitious voters, to make it easier to engage in vote fraud.

Posted by: Greg at 12:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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ThatÂ’s right, our liberal friends at ACORN, the DemocratICK Party supporting group that has been connected with vote fraud around the nation.

A man who worked for an advocacy group that signs up new voters pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to voter registration fraud, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Dale D. Franklin, 44, was hired by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, to work with Project Vote, another not-for-profit group that helps register voters.

Franklin admitted to giving the Kansas City Board of Election Commissioners a forged voter registration application while he worked as a recruiter in late September and early October, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement.

He faces up to five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000. A sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.

In November, four other ACORN workers were indicted on charges of submitting false voter registrations to the Kansas City election board.

Once again, we find the same pattern – the same liberals who object to reliable proof of identity to vote are involved in creating fictitious voters, to make it easier to engage in vote fraud.

Posted by: Greg at 12:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Look at what we would stand to lose under a single-payer, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton style “single payer” system. After all, this is the English system, touted as a model by the DemocratICK candidates.

Women in labour could face lengthy journeys by ambulance to distant specialist units under plans which would strip dozens of local hospitals of consultant-led maternity services.

Department of Health proposals unveiled yesterday seek a smaller number of consultant units to deal with the most complicated births and the sickest babies.
It would be left to local, midwife-led units to handle the majority of births, while more women would be encouraged to have their babies at home.

Unusually, the health minister responsible for maternity services, Ivan Lewis, was not present at the report's launch.

To put that into American English for you, that means that having an actual attending physician at a birth would become even less common in England, and specialists – ObGyns – would be rarer still.

Indeed, we see that the quality of healthcare continues to decline under the NHS. Why would we try to implement such a system here?

Posted by: Greg at 12:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Look at what we would stand to lose under a single-payer, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton style “single payer” system. After all, this is the English system, touted as a model by the DemocratICK candidates.

Women in labour could face lengthy journeys by ambulance to distant specialist units under plans which would strip dozens of local hospitals of consultant-led maternity services.

Department of Health proposals unveiled yesterday seek a smaller number of consultant units to deal with the most complicated births and the sickest babies.
It would be left to local, midwife-led units to handle the majority of births, while more women would be encouraged to have their babies at home.

Unusually, the health minister responsible for maternity services, Ivan Lewis, was not present at the report's launch.

To put that into American English for you, that means that having an actual attending physician at a birth would become even less common in England, and specialists – ObGyns – would be rarer still.

Indeed, we see that the quality of healthcare continues to decline under the NHS. Why would we try to implement such a system here?

Posted by: Greg at 12:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now they are seeking to use the courts to punish those who dared to print the Danish Muhammad cartoons.

A French court case shining light on the gray area where free speech and religious sensitivities overlap opens on Wednesday when Muslim groups sue a satirical magazine that published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

The Grand Mosque of Paris and the Union of French Islamic Organizations accuse Charlie Hebdo of inciting racial hatred by reprinting the Danish caricatures that sparked violence in the Muslim world last year.

Politicians, intellectuals, secular Muslims and left-wing pressure groups have lined up behind Charlie Hebdo, arguing that Muslim groups have no right to call for limits on free speech.

"I just cannot imagine the consequences not only for France but for Denmark and Europe if they lose the case," Fleming Rose, the Danish editor who first published the cartoons, told a news conference with Charlie Hebdo publisher Philippe Val.

"It would turn back the clock decades, ages."

However, an opinion poll on Tuesday showed 79 percent thought it unacceptable to ridicule a religion publicly and 78 percent ruled out parodies of Jesus Christ, Mohammad or Buddha.

"Are the French rediscovering the sacred?" asked the Catholic weekly Pelerin which published the poll. "Are they renouncing the critical spirit that has inspired a French tradition since Voltaire and the Enlightenment?"

So in a spirit of support for the inalienable right to freedom of speech, I join the French newspaper Liberation in extending this act of solidarity with publishers, editors, and staff of Charlie Hebdo.
more...

Posted by: Greg at 12:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now the New York Times is covering it!

Two bloggers hired by John Edwards to reach out to liberals in the online world have landed his presidential campaign in hot water for doing what bloggers do — expressing their opinions in provocative and often crude language.

The Catholic League, a conservative religious group, is demanding that Mr. Edwards dismiss the two, Amanda Marcotte of the Pandagon blog site and Melissa McEwan, who writes on her blog, ShakespeareÂ’s Sister, for expressing anti-Catholic opinions.

Mr. Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, is among the leading Democratic presidential candidates.

Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, said in a statement on Tuesday, “John Edwards is a decent man who has had his campaign tarnished by two anti-Catholic vulgar trash-talking bigots.”

Mr. EdwardsÂ’s spokeswoman, Jennifer Palmieri, said Tuesday night that the campaign was weighing the fate of the two bloggers.

Will the Edwards campaign – like the Biden campaign – be tarnished by yet another scandal that that would have passed unnoticed in years past, but became a story because of the intrepid work of the journalists of the blogosphere.

UPDATE: Terry Moran of ABC News asks – Does John Edwards Condone Hate Speech?

UPDATE 2: Have the girls been fired by Edwards? Will they stay fired?

Posted by: Greg at 08:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't know anyone -- certainly not in education -- who doesn't believe that we should strive to ensure that every student leaves schools with a set of basic skills . One of the many problems with No Child left behind, however, is that its mandates are almost exclusively set at the bottom end of the achievement spectrum, with little actual incentive to MAXIMIZE student achievement among those who are capable of doing more than the minimum. The result is funding cuts for programs for our best and brightest students.

But across the country, programs like this can be hard to sustain. The federal No Child Left Behind law requires that virtually all children become proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014, and this demand is forcing many school districts to focus attention — and money — on students who are not proficient in reading or math. Many families of exceptionally bright children like to say that it is the gifted who are being left behind.

In the years after the lawÂ’s signing in January 2002, Illinois jettisoned its $19 million allocation for gifted programs and Michigan cut spending to $250,000 from $4 million. Here in Connecticut, 22 percent of the stateÂ’s districts eliminated or shrank gifted programs in 2002, and others have since scaled back. It doesnÂ’t take a gifted person to figure out that the law is siphoning off the money.

“N.C.L.B. swallows up resources,” said Jeanne H. Purcell, Connecticut’s consultant for gifted education.

The federal government provides less than $10 million for gifted programs, and only half the states offer additional money. But districts needing to pay for after-school tutoring or other score-raising remedies needed under No Child Left Behind inevitably poach dollars from programs for students who already score high.

“Our education reform is so focused on making sure everybody is mediocre that we haven’t thought about meeting the needs of those students already exceeding those goals,” said Susan Rhodes, principal of Iles Elementary School in Springfield, Ill. “Everybody assumes those children are going to continue to grow. But it’s like an athlete with potential. If they don’t have a coach, that skill is not going to be drawn out.”

But what is worse, is that the kids KNOW they are getting screwed. I might not have blogged about this article at all, but for the fact that it dovetails so nicely with a conversation I had yesterday with one of my students, who is frustrated by the many district-mandated activities and strategies designed to drag the lowest performing students up to standard.

"Mr. RWR," she said to me, "it is the same in every one of my classes! We've got so many special activities to boost our test scores on the TAKS test, but not any to take us deeper into what we are learning about. It's like everything is focused on the bottom 20%. When do the top 20% get something special to keep us from being bored out of our minds by the constant pressure to pass a test that we could have passed before the school year started?"

And she is right. When will we stop shortchanging the kids with the sharpest minds in order to ensure that the weakest links are not left behind?

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The titles of these books currently selling like hotcakes in China are stunning.

One promises "The Eight Most Valuable Business Secrets of the Jewish."

Another title teases readers with "The Legend of Jewish Wealth." A third provides a look at "Jewish People and Business: The Bible of How to Live Their Lives."

In the United States, where making broad generalizations about races, cultures or religions has become unacceptable in most circles, the titles of some of these books might make people cringe. Throughout history and around the world, even outwardly innocuous and broadly accepted characterizations of Jews have sometimes formed the basis for eventual campaigns of violent anti-Semitism.

One has to ask -- what other stereotypes and falsehoods regarding the Jews will be revived in th world's largest country, and what will be the impact of their rebirth?

Posted by: Greg at 11:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Last week, Texas Gov. Rick Perry decided he was going to play doctor with little girls across the Lone Star State by unilaterally ordering that they receive the Gardasil vaccine when they enter sixth grade. Many Texans, of all political stripes, are outraged by this naked power grab designed to bypass the legislative process. Others question the message that a mandatory vaccine for an STD sends to these children.

But there is one other group opposing Perry's practice of medicine without a license -- physicians.

From, among others, the Texas Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, many doctors are saying it's too early to mandate the vaccine, which was approved for use last June. It protects against four strains of the human papillomavirus that cause 70 percent of cervical cancers.

"We support physicians being able to provide the vaccine, but we don't support a state mandate at this time," said Dr. Bill Hinchey, a San Antonio pathologist and president-elect of the TMA, which represents 41,000 physicians. "There are issues, such as liability and cost, that need to be vetted first."

Other reasons cited by doctors in Texas and across the country include the vaccine's newness; supply and distribution considerations; the possibility opposition could snowball and lead to a reduction in other immunizations; the possibility it could lull women into not going for still-necessary cervical cancer screenings; gender-equity issues; and the tradition of vaccines starting as voluntary and becoming mandatory after a need is demonstrated.

Hinchey said that TMA leadership expressed their concerns to Perry on Tuesday. He said the TMA arrived at its position after debating the issue in committees in recent days.

A perry spokesperson indicates that the governor is "listening" -- but actually means he is digging in his heels and ignoring all opposition to his end-run around the 181 members of the Texas legislature and every parent in the state.

Commercials for Gardasil counsel consumers to "talk to your doctor to see if Gardasil is right for you." It appears that physicians are giving an answer that is unambiguous -- mandatory vaccination with Gardasil is wrong for Texas.

Posted by: Greg at 11:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some folks just donÂ’t learn the lessons of history.

• "Last year, some believed that cutting back our military assistance to the South Vietnamese Government would induce negotiations for a political settlement. Instead, the opposite has happened. North Vietnam is refusing negotiations and is increasing its military pressure."-- Gerald Ford, "Special Message to the Congress Requesting Supplemental Assistance for the Republic of Vietnam and Cambodia," Jan. 28, 1975

• "I want to make it very clear that we need to threaten the Iraqi government, that we're going to take money away from their troops, not our troops who still lack body armor and armored vehicles; that we're going to send a clear message--that we are finished with their empty promises and with this president's blank check."-- Hillary Clinton, speech to the Democratic National Committee, Feb. 2, 2007

Cutting off money to an ally merely emboldens our mutual foes.

H/T Tarranto

Posted by: Greg at 11:25 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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