When you don’t have an actual scandal to complain about, why not create one out of nothing – or less than nothing. We’ve seen that tried this week over the Chimp Cartoon – and now a writer at HuffPo has used a faked recording of Fox News host John Gibson to gin up a scandal.

At the end of a long and pointless conversation between two Fox News reporters covering a zoo escape, John Gibson compared Attorney General Eric Holder to a monkey.

A monkey escaped from the Woodland park Zoo in Seattle and despite the fact that authorities are "taking this very seriously," Julie Banderas and Harris Faulkner were not, cracking jokes about the monkeys' bright blue scrotum.
At 2:48, they toss to John Gibson who complains that he can't get away with saying "bright blue scrotum" on the radio then follows that up by saying, "We were talking about Eric Holder today on the radio and his bright blue scrotum."

Given the journalistic standards Arianna “PuffHo” Huffington, it isn’t surprising that the writer, Alex Leo, didn’t bother to check out the recording closely enough to determine that it was a fake. After all, Gibson is the enemy to these folks, so just run with it and destroy the man’s reputation.

Only after it was irrefutably proved by conservative bloggers that the recording was a hoax did Leo and HuffPo issue a retraction/apology.

As John Gibson notes, this is part of a pattern intended to delegitimize him --conservative voices in the media.

Posted by: Greg at 01:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Bill has pressed (sorry – couldn’t resist) for a return of the Fairness Doctrine to censor points of view that he sees as being expressed too often, or too effectively.

Then he denied wanting to censor anything, instead arguing that he was a defender of free speech and that the only way to get free speech was for the government to require that certain perspectives be aired.

Now, at last, he comes out and admits the truth – his position is all about his personal self-interest, in particular his financial self-interest.

I know why I'm interested in it because I get up every morning at 3:45, I do three hours of talk radio every day from six to nine, that's my life, it's my business, I want to make money at it, and I want to be heard.

So let’s not call it the Fairness Doctrine – call it the Bill Press Bailout and Stimulus Package instead. It is about liberal greed as well as ideological censorship.

Listen to the audio.

Posted by: Greg at 01:54 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, kitty, you can't.

After all -- beef and dairy farming are inefficient and produce a great deal of greenhouse gas.

When it comes to global warming, hamburgers are the Hummers of food, scientists say.

Simply switching from steak to salad could cut as much carbon as leaving the car at home a couple days a week.

That's because beef is such an incredibly inefficient food to produce and cows release so much harmful methane into the atmosphere, said Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Canada.

Pelletier is one of a growing number of scientists studying the environmental costs of food from field to plate.

By looking at everything from how much grain a cow eats before it is ready for slaughter to the emissions released by manure, they are getting a clearer idea of the true costs of food.

The livestock sector is estimated to account for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and beef is the biggest culprit.

Even though beef only accounts for 30 percent of meat consumption in the developed world it's responsible for 78 percent of the emissions, Pelletier said Sunday at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

The next “logical” steps for the acolytes of the religion of global warming? A beef ban (or at least a tax) and some sort of sanction upon dairy products as well. And when they tell you that you cannot have that cheeseburger, you will be reassured that “it is for your own good – and that of the whole world.” After all, the planet has a fever.

Hey, left-wing busybodies – keep your hands out of my fridge and off my plate!

Posted by: Greg at 11:23 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Congratulations, Stump!

At 10 years old, Stump the Sussex spaniel should be well into his dotage. Instead, the dog who technically retired four years ago took home Best in Show on Tuesday at the 133rd Annual Westminster Kennel Club show at Madison Square Garden, becoming the oldest to win the award.

Stump, a Houston dog, nearly died a couple of years back when he fell seriously ill. To see him recovered – and now the top dog in the US – is a wonderful thing.

Good dog!

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Barack Obama has had his "killer rabbit" moment. He hit his head on the door of marine One because he forgot to duck.

Could you imagine the sort of response that this thing would have gotten if it had been George W. Bush? But as we know from another recent Obama gaffe, the press will ignore or minimize the event, as wil the Leftosphere. However, let me offer this in the same spirit of bipartisanship that was displayed by liberals during the eight years of the Bush Administration.

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If advocates of “reproductive choice” would argue against “a woman’s right to choose” when that choice involved having kids like the mother of the recently born octuplets.

Look at this from Ellen Goodman.

Does anyone have a right to tell anyone else how many kids to have? Can only people who can afford them bear children? Do you need a husband to have a baby? These are questions that make us feel queasy when we are talking about old-fashioned families. But they take on a new flavor in the unregulated wild west of fertility technology.

* * *

This is more than an individual decision. Suleman's babies weighed between 1 pound 8 ounces and 3 pounds 4 ounces. They will cost at least $1 million in neonatal care and more if they have the typical range of disabilities for premature babies. The meter is running at the neonatal unit.

“More than an individual decision”? What about the “my body, my choice” rhetoric of the feminist movement over the last four decade? Is Goodman really advocating that childbearing is not a decision best left between a woman and her doctor? Does she now advocate that some government bureaucrat be able to step in and determine who can have children through in vitro methods, and how many? And when she defines the decision by Nadya Suleman to have eight embryos implanted as “mal-mothering” because of her unwillingness to abort, does she not recognize the implicit slippery slope that leads to China’s one child policy with its regime of forced abortions (or its functional equivalent)? For that matter, does this advocate of nationalizing medicine not see that her complaints about the cost of saving these babies presages eventual government decisions to limit and deny care that is “too expensive”, even if it leads to the deaths of some to whom government has magnanimously given “free healthcare”?

Odd, isnÂ’t it, how a liberal like Goodman becomes shockingly illiberal when she does not approve of how some exercise the freedom which she advocates. And amazing, too, that she does not appear to see (or care about) the Big Brother-esque implications of her own arguments. More proof that within every well-intentioned liberal there is a moralistic dictator trying to claw his/her way out.

H/T Don Surber

Posted by: Greg at 12:28 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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He performed horrendous medical experiments upon Jews and other prisoners as a concentration camp doctor, so why is it no surprise that he found some sort of comfort in a faith that despises Jews in his later years.

One of the most wanted Nazi war criminals, Aribert Heim or "Doctor Death," lived for years as a quiet, pious Muslim in a small hotel on the edge of Islamic Cairo, where he was known as Doctor Tarek.

Concealed in the labyrinthine streets of the largest city in Africa and the Middle East, the man wanted for killing hundreds of concentration camp victims with horrific medical experiments found refuge until his death in 1992.

"He was like a giant, not very chatty but he never missed a prayer at the mosque," remembers Gamal Abu Ahmed, who today lives in Dr Death's former room on the sixth floor of the Qasr el-Medina hotel.

May he and his ilk burn in Hell for all eternity.

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Since when does death constitute the breaking of a lease?

The ex-husband of one of the nine people killed at a Christmas Eve party in Covina has received demands from a landlord to pay the dead woman's rent.

Broadcrest Foothill Apartment Homes claims Alicia Ortiz broke her lease on an Upland apartment when she and her 17-year-old son were killed by her sister's disgruntled ex-husband. The landlord informed her former husband, Carlos Ortiz, that she gave "insufficient notice to vacate." The company says it is owed $2,821 in rent and penalties.

The itemized invoice claimed Ortiz's estate owes $1,655, plus payment for 12 days rent and other fees for the weeks after she died.

Imagine that – Ortiz and her son were so inconsiderate of their contractual obligations that they went out and got themselves murdered. Apparently she should have notified the company in advance of their impending murder.

HereÂ’s hoping that every resident of this complex chooses not to renew their leases, and that no others move in. After all, this demand is simply beyond the pale.

Posted by: Greg at 01:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Allowing a historical building to retain its historical character is simply common sense. But to then attempt to suppress the free speech rights of the building owner is even worse. And to waste so many tax dollars on a pair of battles that the government could not win is not only foolish, but is also irresponsible.

But thatÂ’s what happened in Ogden, Utah.

A man who has fought for a decade to restore a nearly century-old painted sign advertising beer has emerged victorious.

In 1998, Bruce Edwards' request to restore the painted sign on his C.C. Keller building on the city's 25th Street was denied by the Ogden Landmarks Commission. Edwards said one member of the commission said no because the sign advertised beer and didn't fit a family-friendly image for the thoroughfare.
But recently, the commission approved a renewed request.

"I outlasted 'em," Edwards said. "And the bottom line is, I was right."

The original wording on the sign dates back to about 1910 and is painted on the north side of the two-story brick structure. It reads, "Every hour upon the hour for about an hour Drink Becker's Beer — Ogden's Famous Beer."

After his request was denied, Edwards and the city got into a war of sorts. In 2000, Edwards put up a sign in the window of his then-vacant building hammering the city with insults. The City Council then passed an ordinance forbidding signs like Edwards'.

The battle moved to court, where in 2005 a judge sided with Edwards, saying the city had violated his First Amendment rights. So the critical sign stayed and the landmarks commission denied his request to restore the beer sign again.

After more time in court, Edwards applied again last year and finally got the long sought-after approval.

No word on how much money the battle cost the city.

But a hearty hoist of the beer stein to Bruce Edwards for fighting the good fight on behalf of free speech and property rights.

Posted by: Greg at 03:50 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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A year ago, ChicagoÂ’s Holy Name Cathedral was closed so that major structural renovations could be completed. In August it reopened. It will be closed again for some time after todayÂ’s major fire.

An extra-alarm blaze that broke out this morning at Holy Name Cathedral downtown caused extensive fire damage to the roof and attic, but spared the cathedral's sanctuary.

Cardinal Francis George said the cathedral's roof would have to be rebuilt and there was considerable water damage inside. "Chicago has always bounced back from fires and I think we'll bounce back from this," the cardinal said as he left the church.

The fire may have been related to some renovation. Work was being done on pillars in the cathedral and on some deteriorating wood high in the rafters, according Jimmy Lago, chancellor of the Chicago Archdiocese. He said a worker was present at the time the fire broke out, but didn't know if he was working in the area where the fire started.

May God bless the parishioners of Holy Name Cathedral and the people of the Archdiocese of Chicago. And may God also bless the firefighters who put themselves on the line to preserve as much of this historic building as they did.

I ordinarily donÂ’t find it appropriate for reporters to inject their personal feelings into a news story, but in this case I donÂ’t see how it is possible to not do so in the case of a building that has been the spiritual hub of a city for such a long period of time. That is part of why I was touched by this passage in one report.

CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine was emotional on the scene.

"What you can see, basically, is the smoke billowing the roof, but what you see in your mind's eyes are all the events and all the emotional moments," Levine said. "My mind goes back to Luciano Pavarotti singing 'Ave Maria' when Pope John Paul II was here. My mind goes back to the funeral of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin inside; the people that were standing around outside and watching. My mind goes back to so many emotional events in the building, which is really a part of the fabric in the community."

Indeed, my mind goes back to the five priesthood ordinations I attended and/or participated in at Holy Name Cathedral during and after my time as a seminarian at St. Mary of the Lake Seminary in the early 1990s. Indeed, it was at the last of these (as members of my seminary class was ordained) ordinations that I was blessed with a sense of peace with my departure from the seminary and a recognition that my vocation in life lay in marriage and teaching. It is therefore a special place for me, and so I count myself among those who share in the sense of loss brought by this morningÂ’s events. But I know that after the loss associated this event will come a resurrection that mirrors that of Christ himself, and it is my hope that from this experience will flow much grace upon those whose lives have been impacted today.

Posted by: Greg at 01:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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ThatÂ’s what they call their new satellite.

Iran has successfully sent its first domestically made satellite into orbit, the country's president announced Tuesday, claiming a significant step in an ambitious space program that has worried many international observers.
The satellite, called Omid, or hope in Farsi, was launched late Monday after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave the order to proceed, according to a report on state radio. State television showed footage of what it said was the nighttime liftoff of the rocket carrying the satellite at an unidentified location in Iran.

Of course, the current regime in Teheran is noted for its exaggerations regarding its military and space technology. It will be interesting to see if this can be independently verified.

But if it is, it means that Iran has rockets that can hit Israel and Europe -- and may not be far from having the capacity to hit the USA. Will this development result in a CHANGE in the policies of the Obama Administration.

Posted by: Greg at 01:10 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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HereÂ’s one that is sure to get the old arteries hardening.

Think we could introduce this as a part of the menu at Gitmo and its successors? Or perhaps make consumption of a complete one a condition of release?

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 11:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Now I join with many other folks in questioning how a woman with no job and six kids was able to get IVF treatment so as to give birth to octuplets. After all, where did she get the money and how is she going to support the kids? I think we all know the answer to the second question.

But what is most shocking to me is the response of so many folks in the media over this. After all, we regularly hear about “reproductive freedom” and “a woman’s right to choose” – and even about the necessity of government providing funding “reproductive health services” for poor women. But suddenly, the MSM and its talking heads are up in arms, expressing outrage over these births and the medical professionals who assisted this woman in conceiving and bringing the kids to term. I’ve heard some guests on cable news shows this weekend suggesting that the doctor had an obligation to refuse her services, based upon his/her subjective view of whether someone in her situation ought to be permitted to bring more (and certainly that many more) into the world.

Hold on! What about “reproductive choice”? What about “a woman’s right to choose”? Doesn’t “her body, her choice” enter into the discussion? And haven’t we had court cases regarding doctors choosing to deny services to a woman based upon the fact that his or her belief system led to the conclusion that the home to be provided by the prospective mother was an acceptable one? After all, these are the same folks who objected to “conscience clause” protections for those medical professionals who object to participating in abortion procedures.

Now mind you, I think that perhaps there are some interesting legal and ethical questions raised by this situation. But why is it that, once again, it is when the choice is “live birth” we have the “pro-choice” opinion elite coming out in favor of limiting those choices.

Posted by: Greg at 11:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Disgusting. Treasonous. Just plain evil.

Since 1997, Harold Nicholson has been locked in a federal prison in Oregon, the highest-ranking officer of the Central Intelligence Agency ever convicted of espionage.

But even as federal inmate No. 49535-083, Mr. Nicholson never really retired as a Russian spy, federal prosecutors say. In an indictment unsealed Thursday, Mr. Nicholson and his 24-year-old son, Nathan, were charged with using jailhouse visits, coded letters and clandestine overseas meetings to sell more secrets to the Russians over the last three years, in a scheme Mr. Nicholson hatched from his prison cell.

“You have been brave enough to step into this new unseen world that is sometimes dangerous but always fascinating,” Harold Nicholson wrote to his son last July, the indictment says, in what was apparently an reference to the scheme.

The Nicholsons pleaded not guilty on Thursday in federal court in Portland, Ore., and the public defenderÂ’s office was appointed to represent them.

The elder Mr. Nicholson pleaded guilty in 1997 to selling the Russians identities of fellow C.I.A. officers. Prosecutors said he “trained and tasked” his son in spycraft from his cell beginning in 2006, and helped the son meet Russian handlers in Mexico, Peru and Cyprus to pass on information intended to help Russian agents evade detection, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Nathan Nicholson, a former Army paratrooper, had returned from his visits with the Russians with at least $35,000 in cash, some of it in a PlayStation video game case. The money was intended in part to settle a “pension” that Harold Nicholson said was owed him from his days as a C.I.A. spy for the Russians before his arrest in 1996, the prosecutors said.

The elder Nicholson should have gotten a life sentence the first time around, not a plea bargain that netted him only 23 years. The time is here now to lock both father and son in the deepest, darkest hole in the US prison system (if not Gitmo) forever. Too bad we canÂ’t apply the Rosenberg treatment to them, as I believe should be done with all Americans who betray the US by engaging in espionage against our country.

And may I make a special note for those who have speciously accused me of anti-Semitism for opposing a pardon for the spy Jonathon Pollard – I apply the exact same standard to these two Christian traitors who sold-out to Russia as I apply to the Jewish traitor Pollard who sold-out to Israel.

Posted by: Greg at 10:25 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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That would be my reaction to this sign.

It is real – the result of hackers.

Transportation officials in Texas are scrambling to prevent hackers from changing messages on digital road signs after one sign in Austin was altered to read, "Zombies Ahead."

Chris Lippincott, director of media relations for the Texas Department of Transportation, confirmed that a portable traffic sign at Lamar Boulevard and West 15th Street, near the University of Texas at Austin, was hacked into during the early hours of Jan. 19.

"It was clever, kind of cute, but not what it was intended for," said Lippincott, who saw the sign during his morning commute. "Those signs are deployed for a reason — to improve traffic conditions, let folks know there's a road closure."
"It's sort of amusing, but not at all helpful," he told FOXNews.com.

So yes, it was a hoax – not the herd of Hope’N’Change addicts in search of the Obamessiah.

Posted by: Greg at 09:17 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Over the weekend, I made my first purchase from Circuit City in over three years. The prices were OK – but not the sort of bargains that so many folks seem to be expecting. I bought a camera for my computer at just a couple bucks less than what I would have paid across the street, and a game program that was enough of a bargain that I was willing to drop some cash on it. But otherwise, my wife and I simply walked away feeling the same way described in this article.

As Circuit City fades into history, the electronics chain is teaching shoppers that a liquidation sale does not necessarily translate to bargains.
ThereÂ’s no question the shelves are emptying, but some shoppers have been walking out empty-handed.

“I wanted to see what the sales were like,” said David Woods, a power plant operator, who left the Galleria-area store without buying anything. The discounts, mostly 10 percent to 30 percent off, didn’t impress him.
“You can get that online,” he said.

The problem, in my book, is that Circuit City rarely had prices that were competitive with the other places I shop. Therefore the discounts just are not that impressive.

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You know, I love a good burger -- but this might just be taking the idea a little bit too far.

An 8,000 calorie burger? My arteries are hardening just considering the concept! Still, let's be honest -- it does look REALLY good.

So, if you ever find yourself in Chandler, Arizona, this might just be the place to drop in for a bite.

(And are there any restaurant entrepreneurs interested in bringing this concept to Houston?)

H/T Debbie Schlussel

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And it has appeared in various publications worldwide today.

Clinically Depressed Poodle Mauls Former French President Chirac

I have a vision of Chirac writhng on the floor screaming out France's national motto -- "Je capitule à vous!"

Posted by: Greg at 10:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't know that my words can add anything to this photo of the aftermath of US Airways Flight 1549.

All passengers and crew present and accounted for -- alive.

Posted by: Greg at 05:25 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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From today's Houston Chronicle homepage comes this headline:

Elevator accidents has workers in Houston tower using stairs

Shouldn't that be "have"? Good thing these folks don't write for a living. Oh, yeah -- they do.

Wonder if they will sweep the error down the memory hole.

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Here in Harris County, pretty bad.

Hurricane Ike damaged almost half the homes in Harris County and left more than 18,000 dwellings uninhabitable, according to a detailed assessment by the Harris County Housing Authority.

Hardest hit was the small Galveston Bay community of Shoreacres, an all-residential town where 58.6 percent of the homes were destroyed or suffered greater than 50 percent damage, according to the assessment provided to the Houston Chronicle Tuesday.

The report, based on inspections of 774,000 of the countyÂ’s 994,000 residential units from Sept. 23 through Nov. 13, is the most comprehensive assessment to date of the destruction caused by Ike, although itÂ’s limited to residential damage in Harris County.

As someone still out of my house due to the storm, I know how true this really is. My house stayed in the “minor damage” category – but that means that we were less than 50% damaged by the storm. Put my home at about 40-45% damaged – but a good number of my neighbors were not as lucky.

El Lago, a southeast Harris County town of about 4,100 people, was a distant second to Shoreacres in major damage, with 12.6 percent of its homes destroyed or sustaining greater than 50 percent damage. Next were Seabrook, 11.4 percent, and Nassau Bay, 10.1 percent.

I see that every day as I go by the house to check out the progress of my contractor on getting us back in – hopefully about 5 weeks from now. And since we share a zip code with El Lago, you can imagine what the damage to the area is really like. But the recurrent theme you hear around the area is "we will be back, better than ever."

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I wonder if this will clue him in that there are folks who hate the US and every American just because we are.

Iranian demonstrators burned photographs of Barack Obama today as they protested against AmericaÂ’s inaction over Gaza.

Dozens of people gathered in Tehran waving Palestinian flags and defacing and setting fire to images of the President-elect.

Iranian demonstrators have often burned effigies or pictures of US presidents in the past but this appeared to be the first time Mr ObamaÂ’s picture had been defaced, a week before his inauguration as president.

Yo, Barry, you had better get used to this reality – YOU have become the face of the Great Satan. You are the enemy now – and America’s implacable foes aren’t going to buy into any Hopey-Changey agenda.

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DonÂ’t we constantly hear that sexual orientation (and the associated sexual behavior) is an immutable quality and not a choice? If that is so, then explain this.

If the lipstick lesbian was the gay icon of the nineties, these days she’s been replaced by her more controversial counterpart, the hasbian: a woman who used to date women but now dates men. Though Anne Heche is the most prominent example, many hasbians (sometimes called LUGS: lesbians until graduation) are by-products of nineties liberal-arts educations. Caught up in the gay scene at school, they came out at 20 or 21 and now, five or ten years later, are finding themselves in the odd position of coming out all over again—as heterosexuals.

Some hasbians identify as bisexual, while others say theyÂ’re straight and describe their lesbianism as a meaningful but finite phase of their lives. . . .

Just a phase? Really? No wonder such women are considered such a threat by the gay community – their very existence undermines a major argument that is made to justify a host of legal and social changes. But if sexual orientation is fluid rather than hard-wired, doesn’t the main line of offense for gay rights activists weaken significantly as the issue becomes one of choice and conduct rather than immutable status?

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Why did five pirates making off with the ransom for their hijacked tanker die?

Because they were trying to avoid having the ransom taken by other pirates!

"Other pirates on the shore wanted a tip from the pirates on the Sirius Star, so they started to fire in the air as our people approached the land," Libaan Jaama told CNN. "When our pirates heard the shots, they thought they would be robbed, so they tried to return to the tanker. In that quick turn the boat capsized."

What? ThereÂ’s no honor among thieves? Shocking!

H/T Jawa Report

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When the biggest thing an NAACP chapter has to complain about is a racially diverse group of young women wearing vaguely antebellum hoop skirts with sun hats, then the organization needs to close up shop and go out of business.

They're part of a long standing tradition that will soon become a part of Presidential history.

The head of the Alabama NAACP, however, wants Mobile's Azalea Trail Maids to stay home on Inauguration Day, claiming the group reminds him of slavery.

"These are not just regular costumes. These are the costumes that remind someone of the plantation in Gone with the Wind," Edward Vaughn said in a phone interview.

Now I think the group looks rather silly – but not because of a connection to slavery, but rather because the outfits are almost a parody of what women actually wore in the mid-1800s. That said, I don’t see a need for them to consigned to the dust-bin of history.

Besides, what more modern icon would Vaughn have them replaced with? Perhaps a crew of idiocy-spewing race hustlers like himself – which I would argue demonstrates a shameful present much more offensive than anything that the Maids might represent of a “shameful past”?

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Don’t call them “fish”. Call them “sea kittens”.

RADICAL international animal rights group PETA has launched its most bizarre campaign yet, demanding fish be renamed "sea kittens".
PETA - People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals - believes calling fish sea kittens will make sea food less appealing.

It wants to change the image of fish as slimy and slithery creatures by claiming they are similar to cuter, more popular animals. "Would people think twice about ordering fish sticks if they were called sea kitten sticks?" PETA asked on its website.

Of course, it doesn’t matter to the ideologues (or is that “idiot-logues”) at PETA that fish really are slimy and slippery – they are so opposed to the consumption of anything with a spinal column that they are willing to engage in absurd word tricks and shameless stunts (and sometimes acts of violence) to force others to conform to their standards.

In a related story, the leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and the Taliban are seeking to replace the word “terrorist”. On their website they ask the question “Would people think twice about opposing the world domination of radical Islam and the murder of Jews, Christians and other infidels if our noble jihadis were called sand kittens?”

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But we can apparently hear space roaring!

Space is typically thought of as a very quiet place. But one team of astronomers has found a strange cosmic noise that booms six times louder than expected.

The roar is from the distant cosmos. Nobody knows what causes it.

I don’t know about you, but I have my guess as to the cause of this roar – it is the dying screams of the trillions of souls whose planets have been destroyed by Galactus!

(What the heck – it seems as good as any explanation in the article!)

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After all, he is seeking to medically endanger (or financially bankrupt) his estranged wife in order to get a more favorable divorce settlement.

A Long Island surgeon embroiled in a nearly four-year divorce proceeding wants his estranged wife to return the kidney he donated to her, although he says heÂ’ll settle for $1.5 million in compensation.

Dr. Richard Batista, a surgeon at Nassau University Medical Center, told reporters at his lawyerÂ’s Long Island office Wednesday that he decided to go public with his demand for kidney compensation because he has grown frustrated with the negotiations with his estranged wife. Â…

He said he gave his kidney to Dawnell Batista, now 44, in June 2001. She filed for divorce in July 2005, although he claims she began having an extramarital affair 18 months to two years after receiving the kidney transplant, his attorney, Dominick Barbara said.

As a physician, DOCTOR Richard Batista knows that to repossess the kidney he DONATED would be to cause Dawnell Batista irreparable physical harm – possibly including her death. So much for his Hyppocratic Oath!

And there is this minor detail, noted by Hot AirÂ’s Ed Morrissey.

We have plenty of experience with transplants. The First Mate has had four transplants (three kidneys and a pancreas), two of which came from live donors. For the first, I planned on donating one of my kidneys, but a cadaver donor became available before I finished my tests. During the planning, it was made clear that this gift was non-refundable and non-negotiable, and in fact I signed paperwork acknowledging that, as did the two friends who later did donate live kidneys to the FM over the last five years.

Dr. Batista would have had to sign similar forms as well – so he knows that this demand is not merely unethical but also unenforceable. And then there is the minor detail that he is effectively asking for payment of $1.5 million for the organ – a violation of American law which makes the sale of human organs for transplantation illegal. Perhaps the loss of his medical license is not the only thing that needs to happen here – perhaps he needs a bit of jail time as well.

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It isn’t that an additional interstate in Texas is a bad idea – but the project was frightfully flawed from the beginning.

The ambitious proposal to create the Trans-Texas Corridor network has been dropped in response to public outcry and will be replaced with a plan to carry out road projects at an incremental, modest pace, state officials said Tuesday.

"The Trans-Texas Corridor, as a single-project concept, is not the choice of Texans, so we decided to put the name to rest," said Amadeo Saenz Jr., executive director of the Texas Department of Transportation, at the agency's annual Texas Transportation Forum in Austin. "To be clear, the Trans-Texas Corridor as it is known, no longer exists."

The state will move forward with a series of individual projects that had been considered part of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, he said. Among those is the Interstate 69 project, which, as proposed, would run from Texarkana to Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley.

Saenz said overwhelming public response was a key factor in the agency's decision to abandon the plan, and he pledged that the agency would rely heavily on input from Texans through more town hall meetings and an updated Web site.

"One practical lesson we've taken away from this experience is, we need to do a better job of communicating," he said. "We need to do a better job of listening."

And listening was the problem – Texans woke up one day to find that the state had approved a massive highway project that would involve the use of eminent domain for a for-profit highway that would benefit a foreign company, but not the Texas taxpayer. What’s more, the access to the highway would be so limited that the highway would essentially bypass the cities and towns of Texas – vehicles would essentially get on at the border with Mexico and exit at the northern border of the state, with few exits or entrances in between.

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Want to know what makes their food taste good? Salt and fat.

THE woman given the job of promoting McDonald's has revealed the secret of the fast-food chain's success – salt and fat.

In what some might see as a slightly-too-honest appraisal of her company's products, Jill McDonald, chief marketing officer for McDonald's UK, admitted that if the firm removed unhealthy ingredients, consumers would vote with their feet and eat elsewhere.

* * *

Ms McDonald said the core market remained burgers because that was what the public wanted – along with the salt and fat which came with them.

"Although we are very clear we are a burger business – that is why primarily people come to us – our customers are more aware of the need to follow a balanced diet and we needed to move in line with what customers wanted," she said.

"But fat and salt makes food taste good. There is no point taking all the fat and salt out of your food because people won't like it and they will eat with someone else. We have to make small steps to help people improve their diet."

Let's be honest -- she's right. Salt helps bring out the flavor of food -- that is the reason it is such a common ingredient in the foods we buy. And the fat in meat we eat provides both texture and flavor -- what do you think is the major component of that juice in that oozes from a juicy burger or steak. Eliminate the fat and salt and you get a dry, tasteless piece of meat with the texture and flavor of a hockey puck.

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The only columnist in the publication worth reading on a regular basis has been fired in a cost cutting move.

The troubled Village Voice laid off three employees Tuesday, including Nat Hentoff, the prominent columnist who has worked for the paper since 1958, contributing opinionated columns about jazz, civil liberties and politics.

* * *

“Nat Hentoff wrote liner notes for every great musician that I’ve ever loved, from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan and Aretha Franklin, and that’s not even what he’s been writing about for the last 30 years,” said Tom Robbins, a Voice staff writer.

More importantly, Hentoff has been one of the great voices on issues of freedom of speech and freedom of the press over the last couple of decades. I was first introduced to him in graduate school, when one of our ancillary readings was his classic book, The First Freedom. Even though I depart with him on the Crusade Against Jihadi Terrorism, I have never doubted that his views are worthy of respectful consideration. Indeed, he is one of only two syndicated columnists whose work I insist upon reading as soon as it comes out. To see the Village Voice dump him is a shock.

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Best wishes to new parents Levi Johnston and Bristol Palin on the birth of their son.

Bristol Palin, the 18-year-old daughter of former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin, gave birth on Sunday to a healthy 7 lb., 4 oz., baby boy in Palmer, Alaska.

"We think it's wonderful," said Colleen Jones, the sister of Bristol's grandmother Sally Heath, who confirmed the news. "The baby is fine and Bristol is doing well. Everyone is excited."

The baby's name is Tripp Easton Mitchell Johnston, according to Jones.

Baby Tripp takes his surname from his dad, Levi Johnston, an apprentice electrician and former Wasilla High School hockey player who has been dating Bristol for three years.

Bristol Palin is currently residing in Wasilla and completing her high-school diploma through correspondence courses.

Baby Tripp's parents are planning a 2009 wedding.

And to those on the Left who want to accuse me of hypocrisy for not condemning the new parents, please realize that my attitude is not yours. Every birth is a moment of beauty and wonder -- a miracle of new opportunities contained in new life. I therefore rejoice, even if I view the choices made by the child's parents to be less than ideal.

Oh, and by the way -- will this finally lay to rest the absurd conspiracy theories regarding young Tripp's mother, grandmother, and uncle perpetuated by folks who now ought to publicly admit that they were not just wrong, but also malicious.

H/T Hot Air

Posted by: Greg at 02:18 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Sink the blockade runners -- and rid the world of this anti-Semitic publicity hound.

Free Gaza Group spokeswoman Caoimhe Butterly said their 20-meter yacht Dignity would leave Larnaca port around 5 p.m. (1400GMT) Monday with 3.5 tons of donated supplies.

She said the yacht would carry 16 passengers, including former US Congresswoman Cynthia Mckinney, Cypriot lawmaker and doctor Eleni Theocharous and activists from Britain, Australia, Ireland and Tunisia.

Remember, this is the same Cynthia McKinney who is noted for her history of anti-Semitism. She is going to help those who are actively involved in trying to kill Jews, and demanding that Israel stop defending its citizens from those who have engaged in repeated terror attacks on Israeli. As such, she and her fellow-travelers are entering a war zone with contraband -- and are legitimate military targets.

H/T LGF, Malkin

Posted by: Greg at 08:25 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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No, not for his part in the Blagojevich scandal. That could come later.

I mean for the illegal dumping of human remains.

Secret Service security keeps a close watch as Obama, oldest daughter Malia and sister Maya Soetoro-Ng, among others, make their way down to the rocky shoreline. Together, they spread the ashes of Madelyn Dunham. It's the same spot Obama paid tribute to his mother last August. She died in 1995.

However, consider what the law is on the matter. In Hawaii, it is required that the dumping of human remains take place at least three nautical miles from shore. Federal regulations impose a similar requirement. And while I am not necessarily an expert on such matters, I feel that I am competent to state that this is not taking place three nautical miles from shore..

That's right -- President-elect Obama is demonstrably breaking federal and state environmental laws by dumping the dearly departed less than three feet from shore.

As the folks at NewsBusters point out, our nation's lapdog media has not been willing to cover this mini-scandal -- just as they are willing to accept his self-absolution in the Blagojevich scandal.

But my question is one even more basic -- will the authorities apply the law regarding the illegal dumping of human remains in this case against Barack Obama? Or will he be given a pass on his public lawbreaking?

Posted by: Greg at 02:06 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Though with a headline like this, it ought to be.

Oldest bat in captivity to mark birthday today at Cranbrook Institute

Here's a little more information.

Tanner, the oldest bat in captivity in the world, turns 23 today at the Cranbrook Institute of Science.

But don't expect loud horns or funny hats at this birthday party.

And instead of cake, he'll get a luscious cup of papaya, mango and melon at noon.

Tanner is a golden bat, a rare species found in nature only on a 13-square-mile island in the Indian Ocean, about 1,300 miles off the shores of Madagascar. The species is critically endangered, with only 1,000 in captivity.

Tanner is only 23. Helen Thomas is 88.

Which do you find more creepy and frightening?

Seems to me she has the battle won hands down.

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Prepare for another move towards successful private space travel -- the carrier for SpaceShip Two has made its first flight.

A carrier aircraft designed to be the first stage of a commercial spaceline system made its maiden test flight Sunday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

Designed by Scaled Composites, the huge and unique White Knight Two mothership rolled down the runway and muscled itself into the air using four Pratt and Whitney PW308A turbofan engines. The White Knight Two flew for about an hour, departing the runway at roughly 8:17 a.m. PT, safely touching down at the Mojave airport at approximately 9:17 a.m. PT.

"It's a big day," said Stuart Witt, general manager of Mojave Air and Space Port. "I think it's a real reflective time. When everybody's looking for a bailout, there are still people that are doing something for a much larger reason," he told Space.com.

SpaceShip Two will be the second step towards Virgin Galactic's suborbital space service. And once it succeeds, who knows what the future will hold for us. My question -- will Sir Richard Branson's venture beat NASA's next generation spacecraft into earth orbit.

Posted by: Greg at 01:28 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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That's what the statistics show.

This holiday season is a time to examine whoÂ’s been naughty and whoÂ’s been nice, but IÂ’m unhappy with my findings. The problem is this: We liberals are personally stingy.

Liberals show tremendous compassion in pushing for generous government spending to help the neediest people at home and abroad. Yet when it comes to individual contributions to charitable causes, liberals are cheapskates.

Arthur Brooks, the author of a book on donors to charity, “Who Really Cares,” cites data that households headed by conservatives give 30 percent more to charity than households headed by liberals. A study by Google found an even greater disproportion: average annual contributions reported by conservatives were almost double those of liberals.

Other research has reached similar conclusions. The “generosity index” from the Catalogue for Philanthropy typically finds that red states are the most likely to give to nonprofits, while Northeastern states are least likely to do so.

The upshot is that Democrats, who speak passionately about the hungry and homeless, personally fork over less money to charity than Republicans — the ones who try to cut health insurance for children.

What is pretty clear here is that while we on the right may question the propriety and effectiveness of government programs, we do more to actually help the poor than liberals do. Support for high taxes and yet another government give-away leads liberals to absolve themselves of the need to actually do something personally for the poor -- while conservatives at all financial levels give more to charitable causes than do liberals at the same income level. And when you include volunteer time, you see the disparity grow. Only if you exclude giving to religious organizations (which would include not just churches, but religious hospitals, religious schools, and other religious charities that engage in their work for religious reasons) does the gap close. But such an exclusion, besides being intellectually dishonest, is also an example of the essential religious bigotry that permeates much of contemporary secular liberalism.

That isn't to say that liberals are bad people -- most of them are not. But when they call for sacrificial giving, they are unwilling to engage in it themselves unless they are forced to do so by the government -- and everyone else is forced to do so with them.

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While our government is trying to save the banking and auto industries, Italy has its own economic crisis to be overcome by government intervention.

The Italian government says it's shoring up the parmigiana market by buying 100,000 wheels of the famed cheese to give to charity.

Despite a strong demand for the cheese in Italy and abroad, parmigiana producers are struggling to make money, which puts parmigiana's future at risk, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The government is buying the chunks of cheese, which weigh about 77 pounds each, with money from a special European Fund meant to feed poor people, the Journal reported.

And in all seriousness, makers of mozzarella producers are upset, arguing that they need a bailout as well.

Well, at least the Italian government is getting something tangible for its money -- is the US government getting anything similar for all the billions in taxpayer cash being tossed around in bailout plans?

Posted by: Greg at 08:59 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Just like the dinosaurs, a big old asteroid is coming to wipe us out.

A blue-ribbon panel of scientists is trying to determine the best way to detect and ward off any wandering space rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth.

"We're looking for the killer asteroid,'' James Heasley, of the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy, last week told the committee that the National Academy of Sciences created at Congress' request.

Congress asked the academy to conduct the study after astronomers were unable to eliminate an extremely slight chance that an asteroid called Apophis will slam into Earth with devastating effect in 2036.

Apophis was discovered in 2004 about 17 million miles from Earth on a course that would overlap our planet's orbit in 2029 and return seven years later.

Observers said that the asteroid — a massive boulder left over from the birth of the solar system — is about 1,000 feet wide and weighs at least 50 million tons.
After further observations, astronomers reported that the asteroid would skim by Earth harmlessly in 2029, but it has a one in 44,000 probability of slamming into our planet on Easter Sunday, April 13, 2036.

Hmmmm. . . one-in-44,000. I don’t know that I like those odds. So the article posits an Armageddon-like project to decrease the possibility of an impact. Of course, it may be the end of the world as we know it – but I feel fine.

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A pocket of magma beneath the earth’s crust in Hawaii – the first we can actually study.

A geothermal power company drilling a mile and a half deep on one of the Hawaiian Islands has for the first time encountered an undisturbed chamber of magma, or molten rock, scientists reported this week.

Before the discovery, which was made in 2005, the only access to magma had been on Earth's surface -- in the form of lava from volcanoes.

The 2,000-degree Fahrenheit material in the chamber is undergoing a complicated transformation that may give geologists the first real-time look at how the silicate-rich rock of continents is formed.

"This is Jurassic Park. This is first contact. Here we see this [continental] stuff being produced in its natural habitat," said Bruce D. Marsh, a geologist at Johns Hopkins University. He described the findings at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Imagine the possibilities.

Increased scientific knowledge.

Near limitless geothermal energy.

An ideal spot to house Gitmo detainees, given that it closely approximates the corner of Hell to which they will be consigned.

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