My initial reaction was “Now THAT’S entertainment!”

Kids Watch As Clown Is Crushed to Death

Admit it. It sounds sort of like something out of The Onion.

Unfortunately, the story is much more tragic – and all too true.

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Personally, I've never understood the ban on producing hemp, which has many industrial uses but such a minimal THC level that it is not useful for toking purposes.

Now there is a move to legalize the crop, which was raised by Washington and Jefferson, in California.

Charles MeyerÂ’s politics are as steady and unswerving as the rows of pima cotton on his Central Valley farm. With his work-shirt blue eyes and flinty Clint Eastwood demeanor, he is staunchly in favor of the war in Iraq, against gun control and believes people unwilling to recite the Pledge of Allegiance should be kicked out of America, and fast.

But what gets him excited is the crop he sees as a potential windfall for California farmers: industrial hemp, or Cannabis sativa. The rapidly growing plant with a seemingly infinite variety of uses is against federal law to grow because of its association with its evil twin, marijuana.

“Industrial hemp is a wholesome product,” said Mr. Meyer, 65, who says he has never worn tie-dye and professes a deep disdain for “dope.”

“The fact we’re not growing it is asinine,” Mr. Meyer said.

Things could change if a measure passed by legislators in Sacramento and now on Gov. Arnold SchwarzeneggerÂ’s desk becomes law. [The bill reached Mr. Schwarzenegger last week; he has 30 days to sign or veto it.]

What are the uses of hemp?

Hundreds of hemp products, including energy bars and cold-pressed hemp oil, are made in California, giving the banned plant a capitalist aura. But manufacturers must import the raw material, mostly from Canada, where hemp cultivation was legalized in 1998.

Over 30 countries worldwide allow the cultivation of industrial hemp. The Chinese currently produce about 40% of the world's supply.

Must the War on Drugs, which has produced any number of inane results over the years, make the capitalist system a casualty?

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Now let me begin by saying that I find Trooper Robert Henderson's beliefs and associations to be reprehensible -- but I also find them to be First Amendment protected. And furthermore, I find the attempt to fire him more offensive than his membership in these groups. Fortunately, an arbiter agreed with my position, although the state of Nebraska intends to seek to have a court overturn that ruling.

Robert Henderson was not fired as a state trooper because he belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and another white supremacist group, authorities said. Instead, he was ousted because he could not uphold public trust while participating in such groups, they said.

An arbitrator disagreed, ordering the State Patrol to reinstate Henderson within 60 days and pay him back wages. The state went to court Friday to keep him off the force.

"The integrity of Nebraska's law enforcement is at risk," Attorney General Jon Bruning said at news conference in Lincoln. "The Constitution does not require law enforcement to employ anyone tied to the KKK."

In a summary of the causes for firing Henderson in March, the State Patrol said membership in the KKK "seriously compromised" Henderson's ability to do his job.

Henderson and the state troopers union appealed and, under its contract, went to binding arbitration, to get his job back.

Arbitrator Paul J. Caffera, a New York lawyer, last week overturned the firing.

Heck -- imagine that the state tried that with someone who joined the Nation of Islam, a notoriously racist group. Or for that matter, a Muslim convert -- after all, how much of the public really trusts Muslims since 9/11, especially given the continued terrorism of the last five years (or, for that matter, the preceeding few decades). Or maybe some Hispanic guy associated with MEChA -- which has as its motto "For Our Race, everything. For Those Outside Our Race, nothing" (Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada). Would firing a Communist be acceptable? There would be lawsuits galore regarding First Amendment violations and accusations of racism and religious discrimination. Either all members of the law enforcement community retain their First Amendment rights, or none do.

By the way -- is Robert Byrd still in the US Senate?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT: Stop the ACLU, Wizbang, Samantha Burns, Is It Just Me?, Adam's Blog, Bacon Bits, Bullwinkle Blog, Stuck on Stupid, Conservative Cat, Third World County, Blue Star Chronicle, Right Nation, Uncooperative Blogger, Right Wing Nation

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A dog is a man's best friend.

That even applies -- perhaps especially applies -- if you are a world-famous artist.

And that best friend sometimes even finds his way into your art.

Some old masters made a point of including the faces of fellow artists and patrons in the crowds portrayed in large oil paintings. Pablo Picasso paid similar homage to a more unusual friend: a self-assured little dachshund called Lump.

* * *

More than three decades after the deaths of the Spanish-born artist and the German-born dachshund, Mr. Duncan has published “Picasso and Lump: A Dachshund’s Odyssey” (Bulfinch Press, $24.95), a 100-page book of photographs taken in 1957 that show Lump as the top dog in the Villa La Californie, Picasso’s hillside mansion in Cannes.

The sequence starts on April 19, 1957, the day that Lump met Picasso. Mr. Duncan, who had first photographed Picasso a year earlier, brought Lump along for the ride, largely because the dog did not get along well with Mr. DuncanÂ’s other pet, an Afghan hound called Kublai Khan.

“Lump immediately decided that this would be his new home,” Mr. Duncan recalled in an interview on a visit to Paris, noting pointedly that “lump” means “rascal” in German. “He more or less said, ‘Duncan, that’s it, I’m staying here.’ And he did, for the next six years.”

Picasso was apparently equally entranced. That very day, he did his first portrait of Lump, a signed and dated portrait of the dog that he painted on a plate while having lunch with Jacqueline Roque, his new partner, whom he would marry four years later.

Lump eventually went back home with Duncan -- and died, one week before Picasso, in 1973.

This is a charming story -- and a must for dog lovers everywhere.

Posted by: Greg at 05:03 AM | Comments (37) | Add Comment
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I'm troubled by this story.

A Madison County public defender has been accused of having "inappropriate sexual relations" with a 32-year-old female inmate.

Walter Wood, 52, a one-time Municipal Court judge in Ridgeland, was arrested Wednesday on two counts of disorderly conduct, said Sheriff Toby Trowbridge.

Wood posted bond and referred all questions to his attorney, Tommy Savant.

Savant could not be reached for comment.

Trowbridge said that following a meeting between the inmate and Wood last week, "we had reason to believe that there might be some inappropriate behavior between attorney Walter Wood and his client in the interview room of the detention center."

After their meeting, the woman was interviewed by sheriff's deputies and accused Wood of "sexual misconduct," he said.

1) Could there have been a circumstance under which Wood had "appropriate sexual relations" wih his client?

2) Under the Clinton Doctrine, isn't this "just about sex" and therefore not any of our business?

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If it isn't a baby, how can you explain this attrocity?

Police and prosecutors in Hialeah, Fla., are investigating an abortion clinic incident that has all the markings of murder. On the morning of July 20, an 18-year-old girl walked into the A Gyn Diagnostics Center to abort her baby at 23 weeks. She had received medication to dilate her cervix the night before. By that afternoon, however, the clinic abortionist, Frantz Bazile, had not shown up for work.

The girl delivered her baby, alive, moving, and trying to breathe. Clinic worker Belkis Gonzalez then allegedly cut the umbilical cord, stuffed the wriggling, gasping baby into a biohazard bag, and sealed the bag shut.

That is the story the baby's mother and at least one other witness told investigators, according to Hialeah Deputy Police Chief Mark Overton. The day the baby was born, police received a tip and searched the clinic, but found no body. Nine days later, acting on another tip, police searched A Gyn again. This time they found the infant, still in the biohazard bag, unrefrigerated and badly decomposed.

There are no words that need be added.

H/T Anna Venger & Right Wing News

Posted by: Greg at 12:52 PM | Comments (119) | Add Comment
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Why are we sending one thin dime to a backwater, Third World hell-hole like New Orleans -- especially as long as this jackass is in charge?

During the "60 minutes" interview, a correspondent pointed out flood-damaged cars still on the streets of New Orleans' devastated Ninth Ward. Nagin replied, "You guys in New York can't get a hole in the ground fixed, and it's five years later. So let's be fair," according to CBS.

New Orleans is one of the stupidist places in America to build a city -- and America's stupitest city. The incompetence and corruption of state and local officials over the course of many years resulted in many deaths and the failure of the levees. And at every turn, Ray Nagin looks to blame someone else for the failures of the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans.

And now he insults the victims of a real American tragedy -- an attack on the United States by foreign enemies.

From where I stand (surrounded by criminals and welfare leeches shipped in from New Orleans following Katrina), the time has come to cut that city off, raze it, and let Mother Nature reclaim the site.

MORE AT Hot Air, Oblogatory Anecdotes, small dead animals, Pundit Guy, HuffPo, Gawker, Ed Driscoll

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Houston's own wonder of the world will be getting a new life in the not too distant future.

Commissioners Court unanimously gave the go-ahead to a private firm's plan to spend $450 million reinventing the mostly dormant, county-owned Astrodome as a convention hotel.

The hotel is planned as a four-star facility with at least 1,000 rooms, a 2,100-space garage around two-thirds of the Dome's exterior, and restaurants, nightclubs and retail stores.

The entrepreneurs behind the project envision the facility as a destination attraction, with winding waterways and gondola rides.

With its vote, the court gave the Harris County Sports & Convention Corp. permission to sign a letter of intent with Astrodome Redevelopment Corp. No public money will be put into the project.

The letter of intent states that by March 2007, Astrodome Redevelopment must obtain financing and the approval of Reliant Park's tenants, the Houston Texans and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo.

Hotel construction would begin late next year at the earliest.

The county would lease the Dome to Astrodome Redevelopment for 50 years and give it an option to extend the lease another 20 years.

Astrodome Redevelopment would pay the county $2.5 million in rent annually and 2 percent to 3 percent of gross revenues.

Unfortunately, the approval forbids the operation of a casino in the dome -- and also bans sexually oriented busineses (I guess to avoid unfair competition with the adult bookstore across Loop 610 and all the local stripper bars).

But that also means that the world's largest emergency shelter will be out of commission.

As the county moved a step closer Tuesday to redevelopment of the Astrodome as a convention hotel, officials said it no longer will figure in emergency shelter plans as it did when thousands of hurricane evacuees arrived last year.

During future emergencies, other facilities, including the George R. Brown Convention Center and Reliant Center, will be the region's primary shelters, Harris County Judge Robert Eckels said.

Posted by: Greg at 10:30 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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Seems to me like we will see fewer car chases on television -- but will have more fleeing traffic violators due to this new policy change.

A new policy rolled out late Tuesday by the Houston Police Department will prohibit officers from chasing minor traffic offenders who refuse to stop.

The new policy- read at roll call Tuesday night-was signed into immediate effect by Houston police Chief Harold Hurtt.

* * *

Houston Police Officers' Association President Hans Marticiuc said the new policy will make officers less effective on the streets.

``Personally, I think it is an asinine policy at this point in the city's history,'' Marticiuc said. ``First of all, we've already got crime going up, and now let's tie the officers' hands a little bit more.

``This is a clear message to the criminal element (to) 'go ahead and run from the police,''' Marticiuc said.

Several HPD officers said late Tuesday that they were not happy with the change in policy. But they declined to comment on the record about why traffic offenders might not stop for police officers.

Marticiuc said that people run from police officers for several reasons.

``Sometimes, they run out of fear. Sometimes, it's other outstanding warrants for minor offenses,'' Marticiuc said. ``And sometimes, they run because they have committed a more serious crime. Why give those people the right to take off from us?``

So if you want to avoid that ticket, fine, and the consequences of your misdeed, just put the pedal to the metal and leave HPD in the dust -- you get a freebie.

But don't bother shooting a bird at the cops as you go -- Chief Hurtt has done that for you.

Posted by: Greg at 10:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It appears we have an unintentional leak of the name of the new crew exploration vehicle which will take us back to the moon and blaze the trail to Mars – Orion.

The name of the new vehicle that NASA hopes will take astronauts back to the moon was supposed to be hush-hush until next week.

But apparently U.S. astronaut Jeff Williams, floating 220 miles above Earth at the international space station, didn't get the memo.

Williams let it slip Tuesday that the new vehicle's name is Orion.

"We've been calling it the crew exploration vehicle for several years, but today it has a name Orion," Williams said, taping a message in advance for the space agency that was transmitted accidentally over space-to-ground radio.

NASA planned to reveal the new name Aug. 31, when the space agency also announces which contractor will build the vehicle. Competing for the award are Lockheed Martin and a team made up of Northrop Grumman and Boeing.

The crew exploration vehicle will replace the space shuttle program after it ends in 2010. Earlier this summer, NASA announced the names of the rockets that will propel the crew exploration vehicle and a cargo vehicle, respectively Ares I and Ares V.

Nine days until we know more about the next generation of space vehicle.

Posted by: Greg at 12:15 PM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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If this were a story about black youth or Hispanic women or quadraplegic Muslim lesbians of Asian descent, there would be calls for massive government intervention to deal with the "crisis". Want to bet the response to this story is silence, thoug -- because the suicide epidemic is among older white men.

Older white males have the highest suicide rate in the United States, said the Population Reference Bureau in Washington.

Suicide is the 11th leading cause of death in the United States with 11 suicide deaths per 100,000 Americans.

For white males over the age of 65, the rate is almost triple that figure.

White males are more than eight times as likely to kill themselves as women of the same age and the risk increases as they get older, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Suicide experts are unable to pinpoint an exact cause for the higher rate but some believe white males lack the resilience and coping mechanisms that women and other ethnic groups have.

They also point to the fact that males are socialized to be in control and are less apt to seek help for depression which leads to suicide.

I think it probably comes from a lifetime of being told that every social problem is the fault of white males. If you internalize the notion that every single problem in the world is ultimately your responsibility, wouldn't you feel a moral obligation to check out as soon as possible?

Posted by: Greg at 11:58 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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After all, this "civil rights advocate" has spewed bigotted garbage against ethnic minorities and Jews -- while stone-cold sober. Will Andrew Young get the Mel Gibson treatment?

The civil rights leader Andrew Young, who was hired by Wal-Mart to improve its public image, resigned from that post last night after telling an African-American newspaper that Jewish, Arab and Korean shop owners had “ripped off” urban communities for years, “selling us stale bread, and bad meat and wilted vegetables.”

In the interview, published yesterday in The Los Angeles Sentinel, a weekly, Mr. Young said that Wal-Mart “should” displace mom-and-pop stores in urban neighborhoods.

“You see those are the people who have been overcharging us,” he said of the owners of the small stores, “and they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs.”

Mr. Young, 74, a former mayor of Atlanta and a former United States representative to the United Nations, apologized for the comments and retracted them in an interview last night. Less than an hour later, he resigned as chairman of Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group created and financed by the company to trumpet its accomplishments.

“It’s against everything I ever thought in my life,” Mr. Young said. “It never should have been said. I was speaking in the context of Atlanta, and that does not work in New York or Los Angeles.”

His remarks drew forceful condemnation from Arab, Jewish and Asian leaders.

Mel Gibson is an alcoholic actor who spoke while three (or more ) sheets to the wind. Young is an influential political figure who spoke while under the influence of his own hatred. Wil he receive the same sort of high-tech lynching that Gibson did -- or will his liberal credentials be sufficient to earn him a pass from those who have sought the personal destruction of a sick conservative?

Posted by: Greg at 10:37 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Imagine that -- bucking the trend and condemning terrorists for engaging in terrorism.

NICOLE Kidman has made a public stand against terrorism.

The actress, joined by 84 other high-profile Hollywood stars, directors, studio bosses and media moguls, has taken out a powerfully-worded full page advertisement in today's Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It specifically targets "terrorist organisations" such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Palestine.

"We the undersigned are pained and devastated by the civilian casualties in Israel and Lebanon caused by terrorist actions initiated by terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah and Hamas," the ad reads.

"If we do not succeed in stopping terrorism around the world, chaos will rule and innocent people will continue to die.

"We need to support democratic societies and stop terrorism at all costs."

A who's who of Hollywood heavyweights joined Kidman on the ad.

The actors listed included: Michael Douglas, Dennis Hopper, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, Danny De Vito, Don Johnson, James Woods, Kelly Preston, Patricia Heaton and William Hurt.

Directors Ridley Scott, Tony Scott, Michael Mann, Dick Donner and Sam Raimi also signed their names.

Other Hollywood powerplayers supporting the ad included Sumner Redstone, the chairman and majority owner of Paramount Pictures, and billionaire mogul, Haim Saban.

Is it just me, but are the big donors to Democrats missing from this list? Could it be that there is a connection between support for liberals and support for terrorists?

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Almost a decade later, police have cracked one of the great crime mysteries of the 1990s -- the case that led to the current trend of covering crimes against pretty white girls more heavily than anyone else.

An American man was arrested in Bangkok as a suspect in the 1996 death of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old girl from Boulder, Colo., whose unsolved killing became a media obsession, prosecutors said Wednesday.

[The man, John Mark Karr, 41, said publicly Thursday he was with the 6-year-old when she died and called her death "an accident," the Associated Press reported from Bangkok. "I was with JonBenet when she died," Karr, a former schoolteacher, told reporters in Bangkok, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. "Her death was an accident." Police said Karr admitted to the killing after he was arrested Wednesday at his downtown Bangkok apartment by Thai and American authorities.

Karr will be taken to Colorado within the next week where he will face charges of murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attache at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.

Karr, speaking to reporters after the news conference, declined to say what his connection was to the Ramsey family or how long he had known JonBenet. Wearing a blue, short-sleeved shirt, he appeared ashen with an expressionless look on his face.]

Karr was arrested on sex charges unrelated to JonBenet's slaying after several months of investigation, officials said. Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy said investigators from her office were heading to Thailand to question the suspect and bring him to Colorado.

Officials said that John and Patsy Ramsey, who were at one point suspected in their daughter's death, had been consulted during the investigation. Patsy Ramsey died of cancer in June but was told before her death that an arrest might be imminent, her husband said.

I never believed that this little girl died at the hands of her parents, no matter who odd their actions were. That this man, who killed her in the course of sexually abusing her, dares to call it an accident is paticulalrly galling.

I'm glad that her mother knew that the authorities were closing in on this guy. May that knowledge help her rest in peace.

Posted by: Greg at 10:02 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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But it seems they are seen as undesirable by Australian farmers.

Australian scientists have called on the country's farmers to report any ugly sheep found in their flocks.

A campaign called "Xtreme sheep" aims to study sheep with undesirable wool features to unlock the genetic makeup of the prized merino and ensure production of its high quality fleece.

The South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI) said Tuesday its search for "Australia's ugliest merino lambs" may hold the key to securing the nation's A$2.8 billion (US$2.1 billion) wool industry.

The institute said ugly lambs -- with uneven wool, strange fibres, clumps of wool that fall out, bare patches, no wool, or highly wrinkled skin -- are usually culled by farmers.

"Before sending them to the abattoir, we'd like farmers to talk to us first, because studying animals with extreme features offers one of the most efficient ways to find good genes that can impact on certain wool traits," said project leader Simon Bawden.

"It might seem a paradox that ugly wool may be good, but when looking through a genetic profile, the random genetic mistakes act like a flag, speeding up our search to finding genes critical to wool formation and synthesis," Bawden told reporters

The institute hopes to the DNA study will lead to improvements in Australia's merino wool, making it stretchier, less scratchy, shinier and easier to spin, and better able to compete against synthetic fibres.

So far only 10 ugly sheep have been found this lambing season, which stretches from April to September, when statistically there could be hundreds, said the institute.

Sounds interesting -- and I bet that such sheep would be welcome in College Station, had the Aggies' animal husbandry program not been ended by the Texas Legislature due to large unexplained expenses for candy, flowers, and sexy lingerie from Victoria's Secret.

Please feel free to add other Aggie jokes in the comment section.

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After all, which political party holds the reins of power in the area?

A report released yesterday describes Orleans Parish prisoners trapped in flooded cells, deprived of food and water for days, and calls the scene at the jail ``some of the worst horrors of Hurricane Katrina."

The American Civil Liberties Union compiled the report through interviews with prisoners, Orleans Parish Prison deputies and staff and through legal and public documents.

``Prisoners went days without food, water, and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan," the ACLU report said. ``Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need."

Other deputies abandoned prisoners in locked cells, where some were standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests, according to the report.
Tom Jawetz, litigation fellow for the ACLU's National Prison Project, said the sheriff's office was ``completely unprepared for the storm."

Interestingly enough, the ACLU neglected to note that abiding by the law would have spared all of these victims from the horrors they suffered.

There is also this small note.

``The Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals did more for its 263 stray pets than the sheriff did for the more than 6,500 men, women, and children left in his care," Jawetz said.

Might I suggest that the 263 stray pets are of more value to our society than those criminals who have shown themselves unable to conform to the basic norms of society?

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What will this do to gas prices?

Oil company BP has indefinitely shut down the nation's biggest oilfield after finding a pipeline leak, removing about 8 percent of U.S. oil production and stoking fears that already high gas prices will shoot up further.

Steve Marshall, president of BP Exploration Alaska Inc., said Sunday night that the eastern side of Prudhoe Bay would be shut down first, an operation anticipated to take 24 to 36 hours. The company will then move to shut down the west side, a move that could close more than 1,000 Prudhoe Bay wells.

Once the field is shut down, BP said oil production will be reduced by 400,000 barrels a day. That's close to 8 percent of U.S. oil production or about 2.6 percent of U.S. supply including imports, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

BP officials said they didn't know how long the Prudhoe Bay field would be off line. "I don't even know how long it's going to take to shut it down," said Tom Williams, BP's senior tax and royalty counsel.

It is unclear if this is a case of production being down for a wek, or whether it will take longer.

But this should serve as a spur to opening up off-shore drilling and other oil exploration -- and put to rest the notion that oil companies are not good stewards of the environment. After all, BP is acting on its own, not based upon a government mandate to stop production.

Posted by: Greg at 11:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Frankly, I don't care about the notion of a trial for such as these -- lynching seems to be in order to me. After all, a crime like this is simply evil.

An Iraq war veteran who lost an arm and leg in a roadside bombing was mugged during a night out from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, according to an Associated Press report.

Lance Cpl. Mark Beyers, 27, and his wife were attacked and robbed as they left a restaurant in Bethesda, Md. on July 22.

The Marine from western New York was dining out while finishing up rehabilitation at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

As they left the restaurant, five men approached them and asked for a cigarette.

Denise Beyers told The Buffalo News they gave the men a cigarette -- but then the men grabbed her purse, kicked her and knocked the couple to the ground.

The thieves made off with $500 just wired to them by a relative.

Mark Beyers expects to be back home in the Buffalo area this weekend.

His family is planning a fundraiser for him on Aug. 12.

If someone will help me track down an address on where to help Lance Cpl. Bryers and his wife, I will be pleased to post it here.

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I'm not about to make nasty comments about Elena White, who was arrested for DUI on Monday night here in Houston. I'm not even going to take any cheap shots at her daddy, Houston Mayor Bill White, or his parenting skills. I believed such things were wrong when it involved the Bush twins, and I believe that they would be wrong now.

Even though Elena smelled of alcohol when she was pulled over after cops spotted her weaving in and out of traffic with no headlights at around 11:00 PM (which I must note is after the curfew that her father and the City Council want to impose on every teen in the city).

Even though she failed the field sobriety test.

Even though she refused the Breathalyzer test.

Even though daddy has now hired high-power defense attorney Rusty Hardin to handle her case.

But I will note that Elena is 17.

And I will note that Mayor White, whose office initially issued a very responsible statement on the situation, has shifted direction and adopted a position that I can only call irresponsible.

"My daughter believes that she was not intoxicated and was not dangerous and wouldn't be impaired in her condition to drive," White said, calling her a "good kid" who has "always shot straight with me."

He added, "I personally, based on what I've heard today, think that it (the arrest) may have been a mistake."

Excuse me, Mr. Mayor.

I believe the legal drinking age here in Texas is 21. That makes it pretty clear that your daughter broke the law and deserved to be cited.

Your daughter couldn't walk a straight line or track objects with her eyes during the field sobriety test -- would you accept the assurances of any other drunk that they weren't impaired and could safely drive in that situation? Would you consider their arrest "a mistake"? Would you ever consider issing an order that the police release any driver who, having failed those tests, assured them that they weren't impaired and could make it home safely? I think we all know the answers to those questions.

It is clear you love your daughter, sir. And it is clear that she made a stupid mistake of the sort that many kids make in high school and on into college. As you point out, it doesn't make her a wild child or of bad seed, or proof of your moral failings as a parent, politician, or human being.

But might I urge you to reconsider that quote I cited above. It sends the wrong signal -- to her, and to young people all over this area. While it may be the first impulse of a loving parent, it is wrong for you to try to help her avoid the consequences for something she clearly did.

The best thing you can do for your daughter is to get her to 'fess up to what she did, accept her punishment, and learn from the mistake. And might I suggest that you teach her by example, by issuing a statement and conceding that your comments above, while made out of the purest love of a parent for his child, were wrong.

Because while I disagree with you on many things political, I know beyond all doubt that you are a good man. Prove me right.

Posted by: Greg at 09:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Or leeches.

What else can you call such folks, who could work but don't want to settle for anything less than their previous job and level of earnings? I can accept living off your assets, but this is intolerable.

But the fastest growing source of help is a patchwork system of government support, the main one being federal disability insurance, which is financed by Social Security payroll taxes. The disability stipends range up to $1,000 a month and, after the first two years, Medicare kicks in, giving access to health insurance that for many missing men no longer comes with the low-wage jobs available to them.

No federal entitlement program is growing as quickly, with more than 6.5 million men and women now receiving monthly disability payments, up from 3 million in 1990. About 25 percent of the missing men are collecting this insurance.

The ailments that qualify them are usually real, like back pain, heart trouble or mental illness. But in some cases, the illnesses are not so serious that they would prevent people from working if a well-paying job with benefits were an option.

The disability program, in turn, is an obstacle to working again. Taking a job holds the risk of demonstrating that one can earn a living and is thus no longer entitled to the monthly payments. But staying out of work has consequences. Skills deteriorate, along with the desire for a paying job and the habits that it requires.

“The longer you stay on disability benefits,” said Martin H. Gerry, deputy commissioner for disability and income security at the Social Security Administration, “the longer you’re out of the work force, the less likely you are to go back to work.”

Not only that, but it becomes harder for those who really are disabled to gain benefits.

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Kudos to Hube for pointing to this.

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Because I'm not about to drive 45 minutes to the Whole Foods nearest to us.

Homeowners, real estate brokers and builders see the natural foods powerhouse not just as a grocery but also as an engine for development. In Pittsburgh's East Liberty neighborhood, a Whole Foods is credited with triggering a revival. In Sarasota, Fla., developers say they pre-sold all 95 apartments in a condominium tower because a Whole Foods opened on the first floor. And in Washington, many trace the revival of Logan Circle and the 14th Street corridor to the opening in 2000 of a Whole Foods on P Street NW.

What makes the Columbia Heights quest pronounced -- and controversial -- is that a glistening Giant opened less than a year ago a cucumber's toss from where the Whole Foods would go. Giant's all right in a pinch, Cooper and others say, but it's no Whole Foods.

The hunger of some residents for the cachet of Whole Foods is stirring unease among working-class residents who worry they will be forced out by new affluence and among longtime retailers who are struggling with rising rents and sagging sales.

* * *

Whole Foods has received about 500 e-mails from people in Columbia Heights. Some bear messages as simple as "We beg you!" Others contain sophisticated references to the company's stock price, corporate strategy and the neighborhood's demographics. Many of the writers said they admired the company's social conscience and employment practices.

Whole Foods gets similar requests every day, said Kate Lowery, spokeswoman for the 184-store chain, which was founded 27 years ago as a natural foods store in Austin and had $4.7 billion in sales last year. "We even get e-mails from people who say 'I'm thinking of moving to a certain city but before I leave, do you have any plans to move there?' " she said.

Listen to the Clear Lake area -- build it and we will come.

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Andrea Yates and Clara Harris both did their killings within a short distance of my home. The Railway Killer took out a couple of victims near my old home in Illinois, and one not too far from my night job. So if there is one person responsible for these killings, I'm glad they are on the other side of town from where I live.

Still, I can't help but feel a chill as I read about six deaths that appear to be connected. Add to that the sexual assaults, and I fear for the safety of women I know who live in that part of town.

Houston police said this afternoon they are looking into whether a serial killer is responsible for the deaths of six women and the sexual assaults of six others in north Houston this year.

"We clearly believe that these cases are related," said Capt. Dale Brown of the Houston Police Department's homicide division.

"We are very concerned about this series of deaths that have occurred, and we have assigned a lot of resources to this investigation," added Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

The slayings occurred primarily in and around the Acres Homes area. Police said some of the victims had a history of being involved in prostitution.

A woman found stabbed to death behind a northwest Houston bar Wednesday may be the latest victim.

I hope HPD solves this case quickly, before others are violated or killed.

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A sad loss of a decent man.

Lt. Gov. Win Rockefeller, the unassuming billionaire who last year abandoned a race for Arkansas governor a post once held by his father died Sunday after unsuccessful treatments for a blood disorder, his office said. He was 57.

Rockefeller died Sunday morning at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences with his family present, said Steve Brawner, the lieutenant governor's spokesman.

Bone marrow transplants Oct. 7 and March 29 at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center failed to cure an unclassified myeloproliferative disorder. He returned to Arkansas on July 8 and immediately entered the hospital. The next day, Rockefeller notified Gov. Mike Huckabee that he could not continue his duties, at least temporarily.

May those who knew and loved him be comforted in this time of loss.

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Just a few more IP addresses have been made available for all of us to use.

TO THE lay observer it seems like an infinite network of computers, servers and cables stretching around the globe.

But the worldwide web is filling up. So quickly, it turns out, that programmers have had to devise a new one.

Of the internet addresses available, more than three quarters are already in use, and the remainder are expected to be assigned by 2009. So, what will happen as more people in developing countries come online? The answer is IPv6, a new internet protocol that has more spaces than the old one: 340,282,366,920,938,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000 spaces, in fact. “Currently there’s four billion addresses available and there are six billion humans on Earth, so there’s obviously an issue there,” said David Kessens, chairman of the IPv6 working group at RIPE, one of five regional internet registries in charge of rolling it out.

Every device that is connected to the internet — websites, computers and mobile phones — needs an “internet address” to locate it on the network.

When the internet was developed in the 1980s, programmers had no idea how big it would become. They gave each address a “16-bit” number, which meant that the total number of available addresses worked out at about four billion (2 to the power of 32).

But as use grew, it became clear that the old protocol, IPv4, wasn’t big enough, so a new one was written based on “32-bit numbers”. That increased the number of available addresses to 340 undecillion, 282 decillion, 366 nonillion, 920 octillion, 938 septillion — enough for the foreseeable future, Mr Kessens said.

I guess this means we can all have multiple IP addresses without putting a strain on the system.

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I'm hoping my darling wife doesn't see this story. The last thing I need is for her to start hearing sounds in the attic.

Almost immediately after Rebecca Peña moved into her house in Old East Dallas last month, strange things began to happen.

The chandelier would rattle. Once, when she was playing dominoes, she saw water begin to slosh – Jurassic Park-like – in a glass. She heard footsteps at night.

A family member suggested it was ghosts, but Ms. Peña was skeptical.

"I said, 'No, man, the footsteps are too heavy for ghosts,' " said Ms. Peña , 25, manager of a dry-cleaning business.

She thought it was more likely to be an animal.

But when she and her boyfriend took a flashlight and finally investigated the attic earlier this week, they discovered that they could definitely rule out mice.

She said the attic had been cordoned off with cloth. Beer and water bottles, a blanket and old shirts were littered about.

In short, someone had been living there, apparently sneaking out when Ms. Peña went to work and sneaking back before she returned.

She believes the intruder would jimmy the front door, walk through her living room and up the stairs.

"I work 12 hours a day, and nobody's there. My kids are in day-care," she said. "Somebody could do it and not get caught."

Could someone really get away with something like this? It looks like they may have, if the rest of the story is correct. Peñafrightened the guy out of the house, but he seems to have gotten back in. What happened when teh police came is even stranger.

When she went back in her house, she said, she thought she heard more noises coming from the attic – either the man had not really left, or someone else was up there.

According to the police report, Ms. Peña went into the attic and saw the man. She told him to leave, but he refused. She locked the door leading to the attic until police arrived, the report says.

Police said they searched the attic and found signs someone had been living there but were unable to find anyone.

Ms. Peña said that when they came back downstairs, she and the police heard more noises coming from upstairs, but a second search also came up empty.

On the advice of police, Ms. Peña had the attic door boarded up. When she left for work on Friday, she kept the television turned on.

I'm sure that there is some "public interest lawyer" preparing a suit right now, accusing Ms. Peña of violating the civil rights of the former resident of her attic. I mean, he isn't really an intruder who has been breaking and entering her house in violation of the law -- he is merely an undocumented resident willing to live in place Americans don't want to live.

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Rooting for the home team wasn't the only thing on this mascot's agenda.

A man who played the mascot for a minor league baseball team was arrested after a woman said she was fondled at a game in April.

Cecil McLaurin Amick III, 37, of Boiling Springs, portrays Reedy Rip'It, a giant frog for the Greenville Drive of the Class A South Atlantic League. He faces a misdemeanor charge of molesting.

According to an incident report from the Greenville Police Department, the woman said she and a friend were leaving their seats at West End Field when the mascot grabbed her breast in a stairwell.

Dude -- should have stuck with the peanuts and Cracker Jacks.

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Hatred of the late Ken Lay runs deep in this country -- especially here in Houston. No surprise, given his role in the Enron collapse.

One man I know said he would not believe that Lay hadn't paid everyone off and faked his death unless a stake was driven through his heart during the funeral. A woman I know said she wanted to go to the viewing and knock on his forehead shouting "Kenny -boy, are you still in there!" And I've seen outrageous internet suggestions, such as that he be strung up by his heels in front of his old office building, like Mussolini was by the Italian peasants after his death.

As a result, I think this family decision will only feed conspiracy theories.

The body of Enron Corp. founder Ken Lay will be cremated and his ashes buried in Aspen, Colo., where he died this week of an apparent heart attack, a newspaper reported Friday.

The Houston Chronicle, quoting a source close to Lay's family, said the cremation and Aspen burial had been Lay's wish because the mountain town, where he once owned several properties, was his favorite place in the world.

The Lay family will hold a private service in Aspen on Sunday for the one-time corporate titan who became a convicted felon, followed by another service in Houston on Wednesday, the newspaper said.

We're sure to hear -- was there really a body? Did he really die? Or is he living in the islands with Tupac?

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Some things transcend politics -- and whatever I think of Jimmy Carter as a political figure, I cannot help but be gratified by the example of marital love and faithfulness he and his beautiful wife have given to America.

Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, fresh off of a trip to Nicaragua to monitor preparations for November's elections, plan to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary Friday with a quiet day in their Georgia hometown.

In the long line of American presidents and first ladies, the Carters have the second longest marriage. George and Barbara Bush have been married for 61 years.

Jimmy Carter is 81. Rosalynn Carter is 78. They have four children and 11 grandchildren, and are expecting their first great-grandchild in September.

Friends and associates say the Carters remain as active as ever two and a half decades after leaving the White House.

"They continue to be full partners in the post-presidency to this day," said Deanna Congileo, spokeswoman for the couple. "They're continuing the work of the Carter Center, strengthening democracy, advancing human rights and ending suffering around the world."

Congileo said the Carters have no fancy plans to celebrate the anniversary _ "a quiet day in Plains," she said.

And may you share many more years of love and devotion together.

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Traditional marriage won two victories today in state courts in the United States.

First, the New York Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, ruled that the state's marriage laws were constitutional.

New York's highest court today turned back a broad attempt by gay and lesbian couples across the state to win the right to marry and raise children under New York State's marriage law, saying that denying marriage to same-sex couples does not violate the state constitution.

In a 4-2 decision, the Court of Appeals found that the state's definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman, enacted more than a century ago, could have a rational basis, and that it was up to the State Legislature, not the courts, to decide whether it should be changed.

The majority decision, written by Judge Robert S. Smith, who was appointed by Gov. George Pataki, found that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples could be based on rational social goals, primarily the protection and welfare of children.

"Plaintiffs have not persuaded us that this long-accepted restriction is a wholly irrational one, based solely on ignorance and prejudice against homosexuals," Judge Smith wrote in his 22-page opinion. For example, he wrote, it could be argued that children benefit from being raised by two natural parents, a mother and a father, rather than by gay or lesbian couples.

In other words, absent a clear and convincing showing that a law violates a right, the decision on what is proper policy is in the hands of the people and their elected legislators, not the courts. This decision is important in that it does recognize that there is no constitutional bar to or requirement of homosexual marriage -- and that like ages of consent, consanguinity and other issues, the state may set reasonable limits on what marriage will be recognized. This upholds a fundamental principle of American government which is oft overlooked by those who seek social change against the will of the people.

The Georgia decision likewise is a triumph for the right of the people to control the direction of government.

In Georgia, where three-quarters of voters approved a ban on gay marriage when it was on the ballot in 2004, the top court reinstated the ban Thursday, ruling unanimously that it did not violate the state's single-subject rule for ballot measures. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that the ballot language was misleading, asking voters to decide on same-sex marriage and civil unions, separate issues about which many people had different opinions.

The Georgia court saw through the semantic game which was being played by the plaintiffs in this case -- and indeed rejected an argument that amounted to "the voters of Georgia are too stupid to know what they are voting on." The clear will of three out of every four voters was to ban homosexual marriage and civil unions -- and to argue that they wee two different issues was specious.

The simple fact of the matter, ignored by the supporters of homosexual marriage (or dismissed as irrelevant) is that the people of the United States support traditional marriage and oppose homosexual marriage. The statistics make the case for me.

Forty-five states have specifically barred same-sex marriage through statutes or constitutional amendments. Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriage, although Vermont and Connecticut allow same-sex civil unions that confer the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples.

In two of those cases, Vermont and Massachusetts, the institutions as they now exist were imposed by judges who interpreted eighteenth century documents to confer rights that neither the majority of those who adopted them nor the majority of those alive at the time accepted as being contained in them.

It is important to note why these cases are in court.

With little hope of getting a gay marriage bill signed into law in Albany, advocates from the ACLU, Lambda Legal and other advocacy groups marshaled forces for a court fight.

Yes, you read that correctly -- this was a deliberate act intended to defy the will of the people as expresssed by the elected government. These groups and individuals decided that what they could not win through persuasion they would have imposed upon the people of their respective states. Dare I suggest that this should be unacceptable to Americans of all political persuasion?

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More good news from yesterday's launch of Shuttle Discovery.

Early inspections have revealed no damage to the space shuttle Discovery, NASA said Wednesday after a day of checking out the spacecraft with on-board cameras. That means that when the shuttle meets up with the international space station Thursday morning it likely won't need emergency repairs while hooked up with the orbital outpost - unlike last year's daring spacewalk fixes.

Discovery's delicate heat shield and everything else appear at first glance to be in near perfect shape, NASA officials said, although it's still very early in the analysis.

Engineers are nowhere near finished poring over 70 minutes of video that astronauts shot using an extended boom armed with a laser and cameras to inspect Discovery's delicate reinforced carbon wing and nosecone.

It took Discovery's crew more than six hours to get 70 minutes of video because they had to move the boom slowly so not to bump the fragile shuttle skin.

Looks like we may have a perfect mission -- although there is one humorous bit in all this.

The first video of the right wing of Discovery showed whitish splotches on the black coating. When Ceccacci saw that in Mission Control, he said he laughed. That's because three weeks earlier he had noticed the same splotches on Discovery as it sat awaiting launch. He said they looked like bird droppings from a distance of about 10 feet.

"We didn't touch anything if that's what you're asking," Ceccacci told reporters, drawing a big laugh.

Ceccacci said the imagery experts will study the splotches to be sure they're harmless. If that's what they are, "it'll burn up," during the return from space, he said. There wasn't enough heat during launch to get rid of the residue.

Well as they say -- shit happens.

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Enron founder and former CEO Ken Lay died early this morning of a heart attack. Lay, convicted of fraud on May 25, was facing life in pison.

The recently convicted former Enron chairman Kenneth L. Lay, 64, died early today near Aspen, Colo., a family spokeswoman said. Lay, convicted of fraud and conspiracy for his part in the Houston-based energy company's collapse, faced the possibility of life in prison at his sentencing scheduled for September.

Family spokeswoman Kelly Kimberly said Lay died of a heart attack.

"The Lays have a very large family with whom they need to communicate, and out of respect for the family we will release further details at a later time," a statement from the Lay family said.

Lay's pastor, Rev. Steve Wende of Houston's First Methodist Church, had this to say in a memo to the church staff.

"He and his wife, Linda, were in Colorado for the week, and his death was totally unexpected. Apparently, his heart simply gave out," Steve Wende, of First Methodist Houston said in a memo today to church staff.

Lay was the public face of Enron, a major player in the corporate world and the Houston business scene until the collapse of the company in 2001.

At Enron, Mr. Skilling was the visionary from the world of management consulting who spearheaded the company's rapid ascent by fastening on new ways to turn commodities, like natural gas and electricity, into lucrative financial instruments.

Mr. Lay, the company's founder, was the public face of Enron. Known for his close ties to President Bush's family, he built Enron into a symbol of civic pride and envy here in its hometown of Houston and throughout the financial

Yet while the media liked to focus on the friendship between Lay and the Bush family, it is often overlooked that both lay and his company were large donors to politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Ann Richards, Jack Brooks, and Bill Clinton. It is often overlooked that while the collapse of Enron came during the Bush administration, the bulk of the financial shenanigans came during the Clinton Administration and should have been caught by the SEC.

UPDATE: Jeff Skilling has no comment on his co-defendant's death.

My wife raised the uestion of whether or not Lay's family will keep the millions of dollars he still had at the time of his death. CNN's article briefly examined this issue.

Lay's family may still face the music when it comes to the barrage of civil lawsuits filed against him.

Jacob Zamansky, principle at Zamansky & Associates, a law firm that represents shareholders, said Lay's estate is still liable for damages.

"Lay's passing isn't going to have any material effect on the civil suits," Zamansky said. "His testimony is still out there."

Still, how much of the pot will be available to claimants is uncertain. Lay testified that he had lost millions after Enron's collapse and most of his estate was depleted in order to pay legal costs and living expenses.

In addition, last week prosecutors filed a motion for the forfeiture of over $180 million in assets owned by Lay and Skilling. The government is not commenting on how Lay's death will impact that move.

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Project Guttenberg and other organizations have joined together to offer hundreds of thousands of ebooks for free between July 4 and August 4 as part of their World eBook Fair. I mentioned this last month, but wanted to highlight it again since it started today.

You are encouraged to participate in The World eBook Fair, by downloading any of the 1/3 million eBooks provided here for personal use. The World eBook fair is currently scheduled for the next few July and August periods as follows:

2007 1/2 Million eBooks
2008 3/4 Million eBooks
2009 One Million eBooks

The World eBook Fair, Project Gutenberg, and World eBook Library, along with our other participants, join together to encourage you to assist in bringing many entire libraries to the general public and to encourage ever increasing levels of literacy and reading.

We hope the invention of eBooks will advance the world as much as did the invention of The Gutenberg Press, and look forward to the Neo-Industrial Revolution following the advent of eBooks, just as the invention of The Gutenberg Press undoubtedly led to the first Industrial Revolution, and your participation can help bring this new revolution in reading and libraries to the world.

We heartily thank you for visiting The World eBook Fair.

We hope you and yours will find lifetimes of reading materials to expand your horizons over the years.

I've already picked up a few offerings from Baen Books, and will be downloading some classics over the next few days. The books come in a variety of formats, and cover a wide range of fields.

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A picture perfect launch for Shuttle Discovery and the crew of STS-121.

The rain may put the damper on fireworks in Houston tonight, but the only firecracker that mattered to folks in this part of town went off around 2:38 PM local time in Florida.

With a rocket's red glare, Space Shuttle Discovery lifted off from Kennedy Space Center in a spectacular display of sound and light befitting of Independence Day.

Commanded by Steven Lindsey, Discovery and its crew of seven astronauts roared from Launch Pad 39B to begin a 15,000-mph chase to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

As Discovery raced into the bright blue sky, cheers and applause erupted across Kennedy and along the nearby beaches of Florida's Space Coast. Today's successful launch came on the third try after the first two attempts to launch were dashed by poor weather.

Now under way, Discovery and its crew set their sights on a mission to deliver equipment, supplies and an additional crewmember to the station. While docked, the STS-121 crew will test new equipment and procedures to improve shuttle safety, as well as make repairs to the station.

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Despite my earlier post looking forward to tomorrow's launch of Discovery, there may be another delay, for a more serious reason.

NASA officials delayed until this evening a decision on whether to go forward with the Fourth of July launch of the space shuttle Discovery after a 5-inch crack was found in the insulating foam on the external fuel tank.

NASA managers said they needed more time to evaluate the crack -- about 5 inches by 1/2 inch -- and will meet again at 6:30 p.m. EDT to decide whether to push ahead with the launch or delay it once again.

John Shannon, deputy manager of the space shuttle program, told reporters gathered at Cape Canaveral, Fla., that there were three considerations scientists needed to investigate further. They were: whether the underlying structure is at risk of over-heating, whether ice will form because of the crack in the foam, and whether other foam is in danger of coming off.

Shannon said ice build-up on the tank caused the crack.

"What we think happened yesterday, when we had all of that rain, we had condensation," Shannon said. "It's very cold. It froze.

Not only did the foam crack, but a piece actually fell off the flexible joint and tumbled to the base of the launch pad. While the piece is not large and is less than half the size that NASA considers dangerous if lost during launch, I have to wonder if this raises questions of she integrity of the foam on the entire assembly.

Depending on the decision, we may se a launch tomorrow -- or we could be in for a long delay.

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It looks like a July 4 launch for the space shuttle, after a second day of rain delays.

Flight controllers for the second day in a row Sunday scrubbed the launch of space shuttle Discovery, poised for liftoff beneath murky gray skies as lightning crackled and thunderstorms rumbled. NASA officials said they will try again Tuesday.

"We have scrubbed for the day," shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach told mission control at 1:14 p.m., only a few minutes after mission Commander Steven Lindsey and Discovery's six other crew members had been strapped into their seats. Launch had been scheduled for 3:26 p.m.

Leinbach said he and flight director Steve Stich conferred about noon Sunday after a clearing trend in the weather suddenly reversed, and decided two hours early to scrub the mission to provide extra time for refueling, a difficult and painstaking process. A full load of hydrogen should give the shuttle enough electricity to add a day to its 12-day mission.

Leinbach said the team will attempt to launch Tuesday, at 2:38 p.m., and Wednesday, if necessary. Bad weather is predicted for Monday, but some improvement is expected Tuesday. At no time Sunday were launch chances rated any better than 30 percent.

Should Tuesday bring a successful launch, it will mark the first time in the shuttle's 25-year history that the craft -- in effect an enormous rocket -- launched on Independence Day. John Shannon, chairman of the mission management team, called it "a great gift NASA can give to the nation."

Good luck, Discovery -- Houston is waiting for you.

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You have to love the confused thinking of San Francisco Chronicle columnist John Carroll. To his way of thinking, condemnations of the New York Times by President Bush are really appeals to anti-Semitism!

Also, the name of the New York Times contains the word "New York." Many members of the president's base consider "New York" to be a nifty code word for "Jewish." It is very nice for the president to be able to campaign against the Jews without (a) actually saying the word "Jew" and (b) without irritating the Israelis. A number of prominent Zionist groups think the New York Times is insufficiently anti-Palestinian, so they think the New York Times isn't Jewish enough.

So let me get this straight -- refering to the New York Times as the New York Times is really an act of bigotry even though the name of the paper is the New York Times. And at the same time, this appeal to hatred also scores points with members of the disfavored group because they don't believe the New York Times hews sufficiently to their beliefs. Incredible! Anti-Semitism and philo-Semitism all in a simple mention of the name of a newspaper.

Maybe he could have appealed to liberal black Democrats like Jesse Jackson by calling it the Hymietown Times once or twice.

And by the way -- my mention of Carroll's newspaper is in no way an accusation of homosexuality -- merely an accurate statement of his place of employment.

(H/T Colossus of Rhodey and The New Editor)

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Here's hoping they never have to try this.

NASA officials revealed a new plan on Thursday that might allow a last-ditch effort to save a damaged space shuttle by guiding it back to Earth without astronauts aboard.

The system, which could be used if astronauts were forced to abandon the shuttle and take refuge in the International Space Station, makes use of a 28-foot-long braided cable, weighing about five pounds, that can be attached to various control boxes on the shuttle. It would allow flight controllers on the ground to activate systems that previously had to be switched on by members of the shuttle crew, including power units, landing gear and drag chutes.

I'd love to know the odds of a successful landing in such a situation -- then I'd plunk down a C-note in Vegas, figuring that could retire on the winnings if the shuttle did make it to landing relatively intact.

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Q: Why not?
A: NY Times.

Looks to me like Ted Olson has picked the worst time to lobby for the creation of a statute protecting a “reporter’s privilege”.

Journalists reporting on high-profile legal or political controversies cannot function effectively without offering some measure of confidentiality to their sources. Their ability to do so yields substantial benefits to the public in the form of stories that might otherwise never be written about corruption, misfeasance and abuse of power. A person with information about wrongdoing is often vulnerable to retaliation if exposed as an informant.

Yet it has become almost routine for journalists to be slapped with subpoenas seeking the identity of their sources when their reports make it into print or onto the air. From the Valerie Plame imbroglio and the Wen Ho Lee investigation to the use of steroids by professional baseball players, it is now de rigueur to round up the reporters, haul them before a court, and threaten them with heavy fines and jail sentences if they don't cough up names and details concerning their sources.

And so the solution , according to Olson, is to place reporters above the law by permitting them to withhold evidence that any other citizen would be required to divulge. But donÂ’t dare call it that, Olson says.

Reporters do not expect to be above the law. But they should be accorded some protection so that they can perform their public service in ensuring the free flow of information and exposing fraud, dishonesty and improper conduct without being exposed to an unanticipated jail sentence. A free society depends on access to information and on a free and robust press willing to dig out the truth and spread it around. This requires some ability to deal from time to time with sources who, for one reason or another, require the capacity to speak freely but anonymously.

But unfortunately we have seen in the last few months too many cases of the “Paper of Record” decides to put secret information related to the prosecution of the Crusade Against Jihadi Terror on the front page. It then cloaks its provision of aid and comfort to the enemy by wrapping itself in the First Amendment, despite the fact that such treason is clearly not protected by the Amendment. After all, Tokyo Rose, Axis Sally, and Ezra Pound were all acting in a journalistic role when they made their infamous broadcasts – two went to prison and the third to an asylum.

Sorry, Ted, I admire and respect you – but disagree on this point.

And IÂ’m sad to see you shilling for the very entities that serve as intelligence agencies for jihadi sine like those who murdered Barbara.

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That is where the US population should be by fall.

The U.S. population is on target to hit 300 million this fall and it's a good bet the milestone baby — or immigrant — will be Hispanic.

No one will know for sure because the date and time will be just an estimate.

But Latinos — immigrants and those born in this country — are driving the population growth. They accounted for almost half the increase last year, more than any other ethnic or racial group. White non-Hispanics, who make up about two-thirds of the population, accounted for less than one-fifth of the increase.

Of course that has been the biggest percentage of the population increase -- in the last 30 years we have allowed 20-25 million illegal aliens to jump the border. We gave amnesty in 1986, and are promising to do so again. And as I can attest from observing my students and their behavior, they are a population with a high fertility rate and they start having chilren young -- looking at my female former students who are taking summer school this year, there are no less than eight who are either currently pregnant or already mothers out of around 150 girls I've taught over the last two years. Every one of them is Hispanic. And in the last couple of years I have noticed that I am teaching the fourth, fifth, or sixth child of many Hispanic families.

Please note that I am not making comments critical of the Hispanic community (well -- maybe the teen pregnancy comment is a bit critical), but merely noting the trends I am seeing in my school, which hasseen a 20% increase in enrollment in the last six years.

So when 300,000,000 comes this fall, of course I expect him or her to be Hispanic. That is where the trends have been headed for years.

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