Few men or women become an icon during their own lives.

Rosa Parks did.

It is therefore fitting that she lie in state in the Rotunda of the US Capitol .

Rosa Parks, the African American seamstress who refused to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Ala., 50 years ago and lent a spark to the beginnings of the modern civil rights movement, will make history again as the first woman ever to lie in honor in the Capitol Rotunda, after the House today passed a resolution permitting the tribute.

The Senate approved a resolution last night. U.S. Capitol Police and the staff in the office of the Architect of the Capitol already had begun working on logistics for the event, which the resolution said would take place Sunday and Monday. Details are still being worked out and will be released later today.

Her former boss, Congressman John Conyers, strongly supported the idea.

After looking at the list of tributes he envisioned since her death -- " a statue, a stamp, a resolution, a memorial service" -- Conyers said it occurred to him that only the vigil reserved for statesmen or warriors would be right. He authored the resolution to permit Parks to lie in honor inside the Capitol.

"We think having her body lie in honor in the Rotunda is probably the most expressive way that we in government can let everyone know that the legacy of Rosa Parks is embraced by the federal legislature," Conyers said yesterday. "I must say that the bipartisan support has been excellent."

I cannot help but agree with Conyers -- the historical significance of Rosa Parksis such that she merits this rare honor. I can imagine no person, of either party, finding this objectionable.

It is approrpaite that Rosa Parks will break another barrier in death.

It would be the first time a woman has been so honored and one of the few occasions for a citizen who did not hold an elected office. Americans have quietly shuffled past the coffins of presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, among others. They have mourned the unknown soldiers of both World Wars, Korea and Vietnam. In 1998, a Rotunda vigil was held for U.S. Capitol Police Officer Jacob Chestnut and Detective Mike Gibson, who were shot to death in an ambush inside the Capitol. Chestnut was the first African American to be honored; Parks would be the second.

Rosa Parks served her nation well in life. Now we will honor her in death with a special tribute.

Posted by: Greg at 01:59 PM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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I'm told this did not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed this womanÂ’s career and personal life over the last several years.

Calling life in the closet "miserable," three-time Olympic gold medalist and reigning WNBA MVP Sheryl Swoopes announced she is gay in an exclusive interview in the current issue of ESPN The Magazine.

"My reason for coming out isn't to be some sort of hero," Swoopes, a forward with the Houston Comets, says in the article. "I'm just at a point in my life where I'm tired of having to pretend to be somebody I'm not. I'm tired of having to hide my feelings about the person I care about. About the person I love.

And, of course, about the big endorsement deal you just signed.

Houston Comets forward Sheryl Swoopes, the WNBA's 2005 most valuable player, will announce today that she will become a spokeswoman for Olivia, a cruise line dedicated to lesbian travelers, and that she is a lesbian, according to a person close to the three-time Olympian.

"The talk about the WNBA being full of lesbians is not true," Swoopes says. "There are as many straight women in the league as there are gay.”

Uh – if there are, then there is a serious overrepresentation in the league, and the concerns the WNBA has had to deal with about being a league for lesbians are very real. After all, don’t the studies show that lesbians account for no more than 5% of the American population, not 50%? Is there perhaps a need for an affirmative action program for straight women in the WNBA?

Personally, I’m not interested in Swoopes’ personal life. I’m really not even a fan of her sport (in the male or female leagues), though I hear about her from my colleagues who coach and watch basketball. But I do hope that her career is not harmed – or helped – by her sexual orientation.

UPDATE: What do you make of this?

"Do I think I was born this way? No," Swoopes said. "And that's probably confusing to some, because I know a lot of people believe that you are."

Does that mean that she made a choice to be a lesbian -- exactly the opposite of what the professional homosexuals tell us is the case?

(Hat Tip -- Safety for Dummies and Brothers Judd)

Posted by: Greg at 01:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yes, this is an overindulgence of a child – but I’m not nearly as offended by that as I am by the neighbor’s complaints and the government’s intervention. After all, it’s only a treehouse.

When Les Firestein, a television producer, and his wife, Gwyn Lurie, a screenwriter, wanted to do something really special for their daughter, Sydney, they enlisted their friend Roderick Wolgamott Romero.

Romero is a renowned builder of elaborate treehouses for such celebrities as Sting and Donna Karan. His work can be found in the "fantasy gift" section of this year's Neiman Marcus holiday catalog. Beginning price: $50,000.

In the backyard of the Firestein-Lurie home, which sits on a tree-studded half-acre north of Sunset Boulevard, Romero and his buddies built a roughly 10-foot-by-10-foot structure of reclaimed wood, salvaged windows and vintage stained glass from Buenos Aires that would quicken the heart of any fun-loving child or parent. The treehouse includes a viewing deck bordered by a railing crafted from tree branches from the backyard.

In return, Romero asked for a week's worth of lodging and all the Baja Fresh meals he could eat. With his tattooed arms and braided, knee-length hair swept up under a tweed cap, Romero and his pals worked for days, even in the rain.

Richard Fleming, the couple's next-door neighbor and a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon, was not amused.

He feared that children could perch in this aerie and look in on him and his wife in their backyard pool and hot tub. He suspected, also, that city codes had been violated.

Enter the city of Los Angeles. As the treehouse neared completion last Thursday, city inspector Thomas Sze arrived on the Firestein-Lurie doorstep, responding, he told them, to an anonymous complaint.

"Oh, that's big," Lurie said he told them after looking at the treehouse and the much larger platform on which it rested. Sze also expressed concern about the structure's safety. On Friday, he delivered a written order that all work be halted.

"We're requiring plans and permits if [they] want to continue," Dave Keim, the city's chief of code enforcement, said in an interview Tuesday. "We'll work with them to try to legalize thisÂ…. It's not going to be easy."

The morals in this story?

1) There is too much government when even treehouses are regulated structures.

2) Some folks need to learn that their property rights end at their property line.

3) Kids are not allowed to be kids today – we either coddle them so much that they never experience the simple joys of childhood, or we overindulge them so much that they never experience them as simple pleasures.

Posted by: Greg at 01:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Every little girl has a stuffed teddy bear – but eight-year-old Sierra Stiles will have one that is a little bit different than most. She just shot and killed hers – a 211-pound black bear – with a .234 rifle in this year’s Maryland bear hunt, becoming the first hunter to score a kill in the state.

After winning one of 200 bear-hunting permits granted by lottery this year -- and acing the required safety test with a score of 98 -- Sierra recalled being rousted out of bed by her mother at 4:58 a.m., wolfing down a bowl of cereal and heading outside, to a field on her granduncle's farm. They waited two hours in the bush under a steady, cold rain.

"I was dragging," Sierra said.

It got a bit brighter as the sun glowed sullenly through a thick blanket of clouds, she said. Sierra's granduncle, Robert Harvey, saw a dark shadow in the distance, but he didn't know what it was. Her father thought it was a bear.

"I froze up," she recalled. Regaining her composure, Sierra stood behind a tree, waiting until the bear was about 50 yards away, she said. Then she took careful aim and squeezed the trigger. The bullet struck the bear behind the shoulder.

Unfazed by the rifle's light recoil, she said, she ejected the casing, reloaded and fired another round.

It hit. The bear ran about 150 feet before collapsing.

"I was really, really, really happy," Sierra exclaimed. "They won't eat now. They won't eat a thing."

Well done, little girl! That will be a heck of a story to tell your kids and grandkids – and one heck of a family heirloom, too, when you bring it back from the taxidermist!

Posted by: Greg at 01:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Of all the incredibly dumb ideas!

The city of Rome has banned goldfish bowls, which animal rights activists say are cruel, and has made regular dog-walks mandatory in the Italian capital, the town's council said on Tuesday.

The classic spherical fish bowls are banned under a new by-law which also stops fish or other animals being given away as fairground prizes. It comes after a national law was passed to allow jail sentences for people who abandon cats or dogs.

"It's good to do whatever we can for our animals who in exchange for a little love fill our existence with their attention," said Monica Cirinna, the councilor behind the by-law.

Good grief! we're talking about goldfish.

The newspaper reported that round bowls caused fish to go blind. No one at Rome council was available to confirm this was why they were banned. Many fish experts say round bowls provide insufficient oxygen for fish.

And we know this because...?

Clearly some folks have too much time on their hands -- and Italian lawmakers are among them.

Posted by: Greg at 02:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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If you find pictures of me from the early 1980s, odds are you will dee me wearing a White Sox cap. I had a sentimental attachment to the team ever since I had the opportunity to meet that wonderful old man and baseball legend, Bill Veeck, when I was in high school.

While time and distance have weaned me from that loyalty, I have never been ashamed of the team or its fans . Until now.

Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen issued a public apology on behalf of his organization to Astros second baseman Craig Biggio, whose wife was slapped by a fan in the stands at U.S. Cellular Field.

"I feel like it's our fault, and I talked to (Biggio) about it, and he knows we're sorry," Guillen said. "He knows it was something we couldn't control. It wasn't like a fight. (The fan) hit the lady and left."

The incident occurred on Sunday night during Game 2 of the 101st World Series at Chicago's ballpark, where several members of the Astros' traveling party were harassed.

"He slapped her and ran," Biggio said of the fan who struck his wife, Patty. "She ran after him. My brother-in-law ended up putting him against the wall. That's pretty sorry."

Asked if Patty had been hurt, Biggio said his New Jersey-raised wife held her own.

"You don't slap a New Jersey girl and get away with it," he said. "That happens sometimes. It's terrible. It's over."

Added Guillen: "I wish she would have grabbed something and broken his head. If that happened to my family, it would have been a big problem. ... People should just go to the game and not bother people next to you, or you're not a White Sox fan or a baseball fan. Just enjoy the game. Drink if you want to drink; just respect the people next to you."

No criminal complaint was made against the fan, according to Chicago police.

I hope that charges are, eventually pressed. There is no need for stuff like this. I'm pleased that the White Sox are responding as they have -- and particularly respect Ozzie Guillen's comments.

Hopefully this will stirr up the Astros and their fans as the World Sseries moves to Houston

Posted by: Greg at 11:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As most of you realize, Paula and I had to trave 400 miles to Oklahoma when we were threatened by Hurricane Rita. Why so far? It was the closest place that we could get a hotel room that welcomed our four-legged family member, Carmie.

I wish that this place had been on our way -- our canine companion was much better behaved than the screaming, stomping kids who lived above us and who ran up-and-down the halls at irregular but frequent intervals. The Winnipeg Star's columnist, Lydia Lovric, talks about the place.

An Austrian hotel owner fed up with rowdy young patrons has made headlines for deciding to ban kids. Dogs, on the other hand, are still welcome.

This may sound odd coming from someone who currently has the proverbial "bun in the oven," but I think kid-free hotels are a fabulous idea. Hopefully, an enterprising Canadian chain will soon follow suit.

Roland Ballner, 38, says he is tired of dealing with badly behaved children and will no longer allow kids under the age of 12 to stay at his hotel.

"My guests have a right to quiet and relaxation without the noise of children," insists Ballner.

Dogs will still be permitted because Ballner claims the four-legged guests are far better trained than most children. The furry guests also don't vandalize the hotel rooms, unlike certain pint-sized patrons.

He blames bad parenting, explaining that many moms and dads turn a blind eye to their child's transgressions. The parents "seem to feel they are here to relax and wash their hands of their children's bad behaviour."

Carmie is all we have in the way of family down here. We can't have kids and love them, but really could have used a quiet spot to bug-out during the evacuation. This would have been nice.

Oh, and by the way, I love the observation at the end of the column on why a hotel that bans kids could never open in Canada.

This is, after all, Canada -- where the only things we're allowed to ban are common sense, conservative professors and politically incorrect jokes.

Zing!

Posted by: Greg at 12:35 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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What can I say – I live just a few miles from Johnson Space Center. How could I not be interested in space stuff like this?

Venus Express, the European Space Agency's first mission to explore Earth's closest neighbour, will be launched next Wednesday from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The ESA gave the prospective launch time as 0443 GMT.

The 1.27-tonne unmanned spacecraft, which will be taken aloft by a Russian-made Soyuz-Fregat rocket, is expected to arrive at Venus on April 6.
Venus Express, equipped with seven instruments, is intended to map the Venusian surface and weather system, looking at temperature variation, cloud formations, wind speeds and gas composition.

Its main goal is to help understand why Venus fell prey to runaway global warming.

Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is similar in size, mass and age to Earth, but the two planets are otherwise quite different.

The so-called Morning Star has clouds of suffocating gas driven by hurricane-force winds, as well as a surface pressure and temperature high enough to crush and melt steel.

Venus Express is a sister to Mars Express, an orbiter that is now circling the Red Planet

More info at www.esa.int

Posted by: Greg at 11:33 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I've watched them blow it every which way the last several years -- now they lead the NLCS 3-1. Could it be that pitching beats hitting?

Willy Taveras wasn't in the game from the start, but he was the difference-maker in the end.

Houston and St. Louis were locked in a tight 1-1 battle in today's NLCS Game 4 until pinch-runner Taveras broke the deadlock, scoring in the seventh on Morgan Ensberg's sacrifice fly to give the Astros a 2-1 victory. Houston now leads the series, 3-1. Game 5 is here on Monday.

Good luck, Astros. You just need one more.

And as an ex-Chicagoan, I'd love to see the World Series played here and Chicago.

Posted by: Greg at 02:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Now you all remember my post about the fact that PETA kills most of the animals brought to its shelter. One would have to assume that there are some truly sick and twisted souls working there to kill animals at the rate shown by the statistics -- which outstrip most American shelters.

You may also recall that some of the employees of PETA's Virginia shelter were arrested dumping dead animals in a dumpster at a shopping mall. Well guess what -- those disgusting human beings were just indicted on 25 fellony counts related to the incident!

The cats and dogs two PETA employees have been charged with euthanizing and dumping in an Ahoskie garbage bin were killed by injections of pentobarbital, a barbiturate commonly used to put down animals, according to new warrants issued and served on Friday.

Additionally, the two employees were charged with three felony counts of obtaining property by false pretenses. The charges allege that they euthanized three cats from an Ahoskie veterinarian after promising to find the animals new homes, according to the new warrants.

PETA employees Andrew B. Cook, 24, of Virginia Beach, and Adria J. Hinkle, 27, of Norfolk, were served with warrants on 22 felony charges of animal cruelty and the three felony charges of obtaining property by false pretense in court on Friday.

A grand jury is expected to consider formal indictments Oct. 31, Assistant District Attorney Donnie Taylor said.

The new animal cruelty charges replaced 31 previous animal cruelty charges, which were dismissed.

The new warrants now include more information, such as descriptions of animals investigators found, the causes of death and – in some warrants – photographs of the dead dogs.

The new information was added to clarify the charges, which previously did not have such information as the cause of death, Taylor said.

The two employees are still charged with eight misdemeanor counts of illegal disposal of dead animals and one count of trespassing.

Both have been released on $35,000 bail, and PETA is paying their legal fees. PETA suspended Hinkle for 90 days and did not discipline Cook.

Yeah, you read that right -- PETA still employs these creeps, and is paying their legal bills. Yeah, one got a 90 day suspension (which is a slap on the wrist), but the other was not punished at all.

So the next time teh folks from PETA start going on about the "ethical treatment of animals", point out that their own organization fails to engage in ethical activity when confronted with animal cruelty in their own midst.

Posted by: Greg at 01:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I donÂ’t have much sympathy for those who drive while intoxicated. But at the same time, I do have a problem with a policy that throws common sense and statutory law out the window. Take the practice of the Washington, DC police and prosecutor regarding DUI cases

Elizabeth Wingo, chief of the criminal section in the D.C. Attorney General's Office, said her office prosecutes cases regardless of blood alcohol level, as long as there is sufficient evidence of impairment.

"We have zero tolerance for drunk driving. It doesn't matter what your blood alcohol level is," Wingo said. "If you blow .02 and officers can tell you're impaired, you'll be arrested for DUI."

The law says people can be found guilty if they drink enough alcohol "to appreciably disturb or interfere with their normal mental or physical faculties."

Now that sounds perfectly reasonable – .07 and .08 are mighty close, and the impairment level is insignificantly different. But DC police and prosecutors are bringing charges against folks with a BAC of .03, .01, and even .00, based upon breathalyzer results, on the basis that their alcohol consumption had impaired them. In one case, the basis for a determination of impairment was the driver’s failure to turn on her headlights soon enough in the twilight to suit the police officer. Another case involved a woman who answered her cell phone while driving.

Drunk and drugged driving is a serious offense. LetÂ’s not trivialize it by making every driver who has had a single glass of wine guilty of a criminal offense.

Posted by: Greg at 11:55 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You just have to love some headlines. Take this one.

400-500 gallons of Halliburton acid spills on Colorado highway

Not just acid – it is Halliburton acid. Is that really the most important point to the story? Couldn’t you have instead informed your readers of what sort of acid it was – a matter of no little import – so that they could take appropriate precautions?

No, it is much more important to inform us that the acid belongs to a major defense contractor with ties to the Vice President.

Posted by: Greg at 02:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This will certainly raise the hackles of the professional homosexuals in this country.

A debonair New York socialite filed a $5 million legal notice against the Catholic Church yesterday — claiming his molestation at age 7 at the hands of a young priest led him to become gay.

J. David Enright IV — a scion of Albany's renowned Van Rensselaer and de la Grange families — told The Post he was repeatedly sexually abused by the Rev. Joseph Romano, a seminarian counselor at upstate Camp Tekawitha on Lake Luzerne, in 1961 and 1962.

"I believe that my life would be very different now," said Enright, 51, dressed in a custom-made English suit and French cuffed shirt. "I'd probably be married, living in Greenwich, with four children in boarding school.
"Romano bent my life."

The story, of course, is a tragedy. But for Enright to win, he has to establish that homosexuality if not a genetic trait. Instead, homosexuality has to be a trauma-induced defect – call it post-traumatic sexual disorientation. If the latter is the case, then homosexuality is a disorder to be treated and overcome, not a condition to be accepted and normalized.

Posted by: Greg at 02:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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As much as I believe in organ donation, and as much as I lament the lack of transplantable organs, I have to oppose this proposal.

Look, I'm not saying we need more body-snatching, obviously. What we need is a policy - already law in 20 countries - called "presumed consent."

Presumed consent simply presumes that once you die, you consent to have your body parts given to the living, unless you have specifically indicated otherwise.
From Singapore to Spain to Sweden and Italy, it's a done deal. Anyone who does not want to donate simply joins a national registry of those "opting out." They get "opt out" cards to carry.

Here in America, however, our posthumous policy is exactly the opposite: The government presumes you don't want to donate. If, however, you do, you have to "opt in" by signing a space on your driver's license and/or talking about it with your next of kin. Since most people don't bother to sign anything and are disinclined to discuss the disposal of their bodies in any event, we don't have the 98% participation rate that presumed-consent countries like Spain have.

The short answer is that my body belongs to me. It is not government property, to be disposed of by government dictate after I die. If I choose to donate my organs (and I do – I signed up for organ donation when I got my first driver’s license, and have signed every renewal since then), that is my decision – but if I choose to take them to my grave I should be permitted to do so without having to overcome some government hurdle.

And in this case, unlike in the case of abortion, the mantra of “my body, my choice” is actually accurate.

Posted by: Greg at 02:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Again, words fail me in the face of such a disaster.

Up to 40,000 people have been killed, at least 60,000 injured and two-and-a-half million left homeless by the devastating south Asia earthquake, according to latest figures.

Behind the raw and rising statistics, the dreadful human cost of the tragedy was emerging in ruined towns across Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

The mountainous province of Kashmir was the worst hit, but the effects of the quake were felt in a 300-mile belt from Jalabad in Afghanistan to Srinagar in northern India. The earthquake struck at 0450BST on Saturday and is the worst to hit South Asia in a century.

"It is a whole generation that has been lost, the maximum number affected was schoolchildren," Major General Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan's military spokesman said.

"Rescuers are pulling out dead children in Muzaffarabad [the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, and the epicentre of the 7.6 quake] but there is no-one to claim the bodies. The parents, too, are dead."

The United Nations ChildrenÂ’s Fund (Unicef) said today that between 30,000 and 40,000 people had died. The figure is likely to rise further as rescue teams reach isolated towns and villages whose water supplies, power and road links have been wiped out.

The numbers are mind-boggling.

Please offer prayers, and help, to the survivors.

Posted by: Greg at 12:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Mary Mapes claims in her new book that there was a "vast right wing conspiracy" to get her, Dan Rather, and CBS News in the wake of the use of fake documents to accuse President Bush of failing to complete his Texas Air National Guard service.

But the revised edition of David Blum's book on 60 Minutes provides a different take on the scandal.

Dan Rather’s future on CBS News certainly looks less than assured, just as the updated paperback edition of David Blum’s 60 Minutes tell-all, Tick . . . Tick . . . Tick . . . , hits stores this week. Among Blum’s new revelations: The night before last fall’s controversial National Guard piece aired, Rather called 60 Minutes Wednesday executive producer Josh Howard from the anchor desk to find out why he wasn’t running promos for the story. When Howard told him he couldn’t promote it—CBS News president Andrew Heyward hadn’t seen it yet, nor had the lawyers, and they hadn’t even contacted the White House for comment—Rather threatened to take the story to the Times that night. (Rather later backed down.) The anchor was feeling a good deal less of a cowboy after the story blew up in his face. According to the book, on the night before his on-air apology, Rather confessed to Howard that he’d had doubts about the veracity of the memos all along. “I knew when I did the [document consultant Marcel] Matley interview that something wasn’t right with all this,” Rather confessed to Howard, belying his stalwart public position. A CBS News spokesperson, Sandy Genelius, said, “I have no way of verifying this, these were private conversations,” before noting that they weren’t in the 224-page report of the CBS investigation. Rather was overseas and unavailable to comment.

Rather, it seems, was much more interested in getting it out fast than in getting it right -- and was even willing to hand the story to the New York Times to do so.

So, Mary, are we talking about a vast right wing conspiracy to smear you, or simply shoddy journailsm by folks more interested in bringing down another Republican President?

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 AM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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How else can we explain the pregnancy of a young woman who publicly vowed not to wait for her wedding night to have sex?

APPARENTLY Tom Cruise had it in him after all.

The Hollywood superstar and Scientologist has announced he is expecting a child with Katie Holmes, the 26-year-old actor who swore she would remain a virgin until the pair married.

I won't speculate on what role Scientology played in getting Katie pregnant now.

But I will ask one question -- did anyone think about the implications of the first sentence of this story? I mean seriously, I don't think it is an issue of whether Tom "had it in him", at least not as I understand the biological process involved.

(And yes, before anyone objects to my use of the term "Immaculate Conception", I do know the difference between the doctrines of the Immaculate Conception and the virgin birth. The joke just worked better this way. If you are offended, you are cordially invited to get over it.)

Posted by: Greg at 11:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When the County Commissioners in Hillsborough voted down an ordinance to ban discrimination against homosexuals in public and private employment, they did something much worse -- they made it more difficult for the people to speak directly on the issue.

Hillsborough County Commissioner Kathy Castor said she was only trying to repair Hillsborough's reputation as unfriendly to gay rights when she asked commissioners Wednesday to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation for private and public employees.

But the request backfired when commissioners, led by Ronda Storms, not only refused Castor, but voted 5-2 to make it harder for voters to decide the issue.

They required that the workplace protection of gays can't be put on a referendum ballot unless at least five commissioners approve it. Before Castor's request, only four votes were needed. Castor and Tom Scott dissented.

The decision by the commissioners was wrong, at least in part.

The non-discrimiantion provision in public employment should have been adopted, but the private employment provision was properly rejected as intruding upon the civil rights of employers (for the record, I oppose all non-discrimination laws that target private individuals and entities, as opposed to government). And under no circumstances should the commissioners have made it more difficult to get a measure on the ballot, The voice of the people should always be heard, not stifled!

I've condemned those legislators in Massachusetts who have refused to put homosexual marriage on the ballot. I've spoken against legislators in Massachusetts who have ignored the state constitution and the vote of the people on the definition of marriage. I've objected when courts have tossed-out the vote of the people on gay marriage and gay rights flimsy constitutional grounds that do not stand up under scrutiny. Honesty and principle require me to condemn Hillsborough County for this action as well -- for it isn't the result that is important nearly so much as it is the process.

Posted by: Greg at 12:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It sure looks that way, over the next few months.

High-quality crude oil fell below the psychologically significant $60 per barrel mark Thursday in London trading.

So-called Brent crude on the International Petroleum Exchange fell 67 cents to $59.45, the Financial Times reported.

In New York, a barrel of similar crude oil fell 1.4 percent to $61.90 per barrel.

Gasoline on the New York Mercantile Exchange dropped about 2 percent to $1.87 per gallon, and heating oil drifted down slightly to $1.9833 per gallon.

Natural gas, however, rose 1.6 cents.

The generally downward movement in energy prices reflects the slow resumption of production and refining operations from storm-battered sites in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts said. Chevron Corp., for example, said Thursday it had begun restarting its 325,000 barrel-per-day Pascagoula, Miss., refinery.

Now if we could just do something about the nearly $1.00 a gallon in gas taxes that push the pump price so high.

Posted by: Greg at 11:07 AM | Comments (61) | Add Comment
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I love this interpretation of polling data regarding the Hurricane Rita evacuation.

About 70 percent of those who left were afraid of the storm — fearing for their safety from wind and flooding — as Rita seemed poised for a near-direct hit. Only one in five listed evacuation orders as the primary motivation for taking flight, according to the poll of residents in Harris and seven adjacent counties.

Now I live in one of the mandatory evacuation zones, but if asked I would have said I left because I was afraid of the storm. Hell, I live four blocks from Galveston Bay, halfway between Houston and Galveston. All the models showed that my entire house was going to be under water. Damn straight I was afraid – that’s why I got ou I didn’t need someone to tell me “Greg, there is an evacuation set – you’ve got to leave” before I decided it might just be a good thing to get out of Dodge. I had already made the decision to go because I didn’t want to be one of those people trapped in an attic drowning. The fact that the government was telling me to go was simply an additional spur that determined when I left, not if I was going to go. I suspect the same mindset was at work for many others in the mandatory evacuation area.

What shocks me is that there were actually 20% that wouldnÂ’t sufficiently concerned to leave if we were getting a storm like was predicted in the days before the evacuation.

Posted by: Greg at 10:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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One would think that a citizen of the United States would be able to engage in the intended use of a bench in a city park without finding him or herself in trouble with the law.

Not in New York City, apparantly, where good intentions combined with lack of common sense on the part of law enforcement recently.

It's an only in New York story. A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.
The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child.

Forty-seven-year-old Sandra Catena says she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start. Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a one thousand dollar fine and 90 days in jail.

As one might imagine, the laudable goal of the law was to keep pedophiles away from the playground. Unfortunately, these good intentions were supplemented with an utter disregard of common sense by cops who couldn't see that the better option was to ask Ms. Catena to move along.

If we have at last reached the day when sitting by a playground is a criminal offense, then we to recognize that government has gone too far in micromanaging our daily lives "for the public good".

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Mary Mapes got caught doing shoddy journalism. Now she claims to be the victim of a “vast right wing conspiracy”.

She is convinced she was the victim of a group of loosely associated Internet bloggers "with a harsh political bent" who pounced on CBS News minutes after the airing of the now-infamous Texas Air National Guard story on "60 Minutes 2" in September 2004.

The story purported to have proof that George W. Bush received preferential treatment while serving with the Guard during the Vietnam era. The story was based in part on alleged "newly discovered" memos about his attendance record that were later discredited.

"Within a few minutes, I was online visiting Websites I had never heard of before: Free Republic, Little Green Footballs, Power Line," writes Mapes in the first chapter of her new book about the reaction to the story.

"They were hard-core, politically angry, hyperconservative sites loaded with vitriol about Dan Rather and CBS."

Uh, they were loaded with vitriol about the airing of disproven claims using documents of questionable provenance. They were upset that such accusations were broadcast so close to election day. That does not make it a conspiracy – and the fact that the CBS story fell apart within hours is proof enough that this was not a conspiracy. Instead, what you saw was a confluence of expertise and knowledge used to debunk false claims made by a discredited media sources and unethical journalists with an ideological agenda.

Or do you have some actual evidence – not obtained from a secret source and photocopied o prevent examination – that demonstrates you were set up?

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I bet my pooch wishes I could have gotten one of these.

Honda Motor Co. has designed a car that's friendly for dogs — part of the Japanese automaker's ongoing effort to create vehicles that are easy to use and comfortable to ride in.

The W.O.W. Concept, which stands for "wonderful openhearted wagon," shown to reporters recently, is an exhibition model with no plans for commercial sale that will be exhibited at the Tokyo auto show later this month.

A special crate for dogs in the glove apartment allows owners to interact with their pets while driving. A bigger crate pops up from the floor in the back seat area and can be folded back into the floor when it's not needed. For even bigger dogs, just buckle them up with a special seat belt to the floor.

I wonder when and if they plan on marketing this car in the United States. I suspect that they would be quite popular with people like me, with no children but a spoiled pet. It certainly would have come in handy during the evacuation.

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1 Bow WOW.

Posted by: mcconnell at Thu Oct 6 07:45:39 2005 (o58ig)

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Well, sex toys have moved out of the porn shops and into the chain stores.

Sex toys are moving out of the novelty shops and into your local drug store and big-box retailer.

Minnesota-based Target is one of the national chains that will be carrying a new line of women's products that includes a vibrator.

Elexa by Trojan spokeswoman Cassandra Johnson says the products will be discreetly packaged and sold in the feminine care aisle.

Formerly the domain of sex shops, such products have been brought out of the shadows by popular television shows like "Sex and the City."

Johnson says the Elexa by Trojan line should be in stores everywhere by the end of the month.

Is this a healthy development, or is it a sign of our societyÂ’s further obsession with sex?

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Well, Breanna Zipf will at least have to do a bit more time in jail. Judge Brock Thomas used his authority to tack six months of real jail time on to the 10 years of probation the jury gave her for murdering Gwendolen Davey -- and refused to count the 14 months served while awaiting trial towards the jail time.

State District Judge Brock Thomas told Zipf that, though he is required to follow a jury's recommendation of 10 years' probation, he is going to hold her accountable for Davey's death. "It should have never happened," the judge said. "And you're responsible for it."

Investigators said Zipf, then 17, passed out at the wheel of her mother's rental car July 23, 2004, before it struck and killed Davey as the 38-year-old teacher was walking her dog.

In addition to assessing the 180-day sentence, Thomas imposed other conditions.

Zipf must complete a nine-month drug-rehabilitation program; perform 500 hours of community service; obey a curfew allowing her to attend only school or work; and pay restitution to the teacher's family. The amount will be determined later.

Thomas also ordered Zipf to submit to drug and alcohol testing and forbade her to drive while on probation.

Still, the arrogant, spoiled girl is paying a a pretty cheap price for willfully engaging in self-indulgent conduct that resulted in the death of a productive member of society.

Good job, Judge Thomas.

Now we just need to get the legislature to close down the option of probation for murder.

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Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice has been declared "rude" for calling upon Hamas to disarm.

The political leader of the radical Palestinian Hamas militant group said Sunday that calls by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for his group to disarm were "rude" interference in internal Palestinian affairs.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Khaled Mashaal also accused the United States of conspiring with Israel against the interests and rights of the Palestinian people.

Rice said last week that Hamas cannot participate in Palestinian politics if it remains armed.

"You cannot simultaneously keep an option on politics and an option on violence," she said in a speech at Princeton University.

So I guess that Hamas is made up of polite terrorists who fire make sure their pinkie is extended as tehy engage in the worst slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.

Tell me -- is there a polite way to deliver a smart-bomb to Khaled Mashaal's house? Or should we be rude and have the Israelis drop it by unannounced?

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When Paula and I evacuated for Huricane Rita, we headed to Ardmore, Oklahoma. People have asked why, given that there may have been spots closer for us to stay.

The answer is simple -- we were not going anyplace that we could not be certain that we could take Carmie, our beloved Beagle/Chow/Lab mix who serves as our surrogate child.

That is why I completely understand the point of this article.

All along the Gulf Coast, many people who didn't evacuate for Hurricane Katrina say they stayed because of their pets.

"You couldn't take the dog to the shelter, and I wasn't leaving my dogs," Wendy Morgan said two days after Katrina's Aug. 29 landfall. Morgan's husband, Clint, stayed in their Slidell, La., home with two dogs, braving chest-high storm surge.

Similar stories can be heard from New Orleans all the way to Mobile -- people who remained with animals that they view as family members, instead of abandoning them.

While it's unclear how many of the storm's 1,000-plus casualties died because they stayed behind with their pets, the question of how animals influence potentially life-or-death evacuation decisions is among the troubling issues Katrina spotlighted.

"People are literally dying because they won't leave their pets," said Anne Culver, director of disaster services for the Humane Society of the United States, based in Washington, D.C.

No, we were not going to stay behind and die. Hurricane Rita was going to put our house under at least 15 feet of water if she didn't turn (I thank God she die). But we had to find the closest hotel room which would take a pet -- and that was 400 miles away in Ardmore. We simply could not be sure that any of the designated shelters would take Carmie, and we were not going to leave her in a kennel or the local ASPCA shelter. At a stressful time, we needed her with us. She is our family.

What can be done to make sure people do not die saving their animals? Here are some options.

For those who stay in public shelters, emergency managers and animal groups have begun creating a parallel network of pet shelters.

That solves the problem of people who arrive looking for a refuge with their animals, only to get turned away. For example, a four-person family from Metairie, La., camped in a tent outside the Bayou La Batre Community Center shelter for a while after Katrina because their rat terrier Spot wasn't allowed.

"He's not just a dog; he is family," Larry Harris said.

One option is for owners to stay with their animals, Culver said, maybe separating cats in one room and dogs in another. More common, though, is an arrangement where a pet shelter is set up in a building a short distance from where the people are staying. Owners check their pets in and come back to tend to them during their stay.

Culver teaches a course on how to set up a shelter, encouraging emergency managers and animal groups to make plans well in advance.

Like a shelter for humans, a pet shelter starts with a safe building. It needs plenty of clean water and parking for people to drop off and visit their pets. Also key is a floor that can be cleaned easily, and for areas that could lose power, a generator is suggested.

Beyond that, Culver urges volunteers to gather a cache of pet supplies, including cages, food, bowls and leashes. Owners are urged to bring that equipment, but many don't.

"Inevitably, someone will evacuate and they will have a cat in a pillowcase, because that's all they can handle," Culver said.

Volunteers man the shelter, checking in pets. But owners are supposed to come and feed their animals and walk their dogs, meaning that large numbers of people aren't needed to care for the animals.

In many places, plans are already in place for pet shelters. A Web site tracking pet-friendly shelters found at least 20 counties in Florida have designated them.

In Charlottesville, Va., the local SPCA opened a pet-friendly shelter during Hurricane Isabel in 2001, said Nancy Hartman, an SPCA volunteer. Hartman said the group has a storage unit with cages, food and other supplies ready to go if the shelter is needed again.

Paula and I will evacuate when we have to -- but Carmie has to come with us. There are many like us. Disaster planning officials need to acknowledge that reality.

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Remember my July report about the discovery of the solar system's tenth planet? You know, the one the discoverers wanted to name Xena after the Lucy Lawless character from the TV show?

Well, the tenth planet has a moon. And in keeping with the theme, the discoverers have informally named the newly discovered sattelite.

While observing the new, so-called planet from Hawaii last month, a team of astronomers led by Michael Brown of the California Institute of Technology spotted a faint object trailing next to it. Because it was moving, astronomers ruled it was a moon and not a background star, which is stationary.

The moon discovery is important because it can help scientists determine the new planet's mass. In July, Brown announced the discovery of an icy, rocky object larger than Pluto in the Kuiper Belt, a disc of icy bodies beyond Neptune. Brown labeled the object a planet and nicknamed it Xena after the lead character in the former TV series "Xena: Warrior Princess." The moon was nicknamed Gabrielle, after Xena's faithful traveling sidekick.

By determining the moon's distance and orbit around Xena, scientists can calculate how heavy Xena is. For example, the faster a moon goes around a planet, the more massive a planet is.

You know, the naming thing has gotten a bit silly. As I said in July, I think that there remail a number of gods from Greco-Roman mythology that could be so honored without breaking the naming pattern that is in place.

And just think -- if they name it "Vulcan", we could call the moon "Spock".

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