Maybe It's Not That Bad

Re: Homosexuals and the Catholic Church

Just ignore the damn document:

The most startling fact about the document was that it was not approved by the Pope "in forma specifica," which means that it has the lowest possible level of authority a Vatican document can possess. This lack of specific approval only further confirms that the document, however ugly and offensive, will change very little. Whatever the anti-gay prejudices of certain prelates, Catholics have been perfecting the art of ignoring the Vatican for centuries.

Got Time?

Cause I sure don't have the time nor the inclination now to read the National Strategy for Victory in Iraq plan that the Administration released today. Maybe later.

Ughh

Arguments against ordaining gay men into the priesthood should never use analogies such as this one.

But like the vine-dresser pruning in his vineyard, we know that stressing the vine now will produce more intense grapes later and that a lower yield of grapes per acre intensifies the wine’s taste and quality. Likewise, a smaller but healthier body of priests now, men in whose mental, emotional, and spiritual health we can have some assurance, will mean a healthier-—and more numerous—-body of priests later.

And read this article that Bettinelli links to at your own peril. The general gist is that priests who die of AIDS should be ostracized and vilified by the Church because their disease obviously shows they are goddamn sinning homos who should perish in the fires of hell. That Catholic liberals are promoting homosexual ordination in order to replace "ecclesiastical authority with personal experience as the norm derivative of authentic faith" (fancy way of saying placing more emphasis on self-realization as opposed to Church authorities in regard to spiritual matters). The author calls for the laity to act like the gestapo and "challenge" priests who leave the rectory not wearing clerical clothing as they migh be about to engage in unnatural vice. To summarize: gays are sexual deviant scum that should not be allowed near the priesthood, and it is every good Catholics job to sniff them out and hunt them down.

What shitheads. And to think that the Vatican is beginning to step in line with these nutjobs makes me feel ill.

The Church Cont.

Enough loopholes exist in the documents release that gay men (and even those with "deep seated homosexual tendencies") can remain candidates for the priesthood. The crux of the matter is that the document is an attack on gay men (and women).

Sullivan says it best:

Under Benedict, homosexuality itself is morally disordered; even chaste homosexuals are a threat to "priestly life"; homosexuals, whatever they do, are threats to society and the Church; the great gay priests of the past, including Mychal Judge or Henri Nouwen, have "no social value." This is not about hating sin and loving the sinner any more; it's about hating a segment of humankind, segregating them out for moral censure, and banishing them from moral discourse. It's about taking the fundamental message of the Gospels and inverting it.

There are many good men and women in the Catholic Church. Too bad that only a few reside in Rome.

.... fyi. The translation of the Vatican document on homosexuals and seminaries.

The Church

And its policy on ordaining homosexuals into the priesthood. Washington Post:

The document says that "the Church, while profoundly respecting the persons in question, cannot admit to the seminary or to holy orders those who practice homosexuality, present deep-seated homosexual tendencies or support the so-called 'gay culture.' "

It adds that men can become priests if their "homosexual tendencies . . . were only the expression of a transitory problem -- for example, that of an adolescence not yet superseded." But those whose homosexuality is deep-seated "find themselves in a situation that gravely hinders them from relating correctly to men and women," the official English translation says.

This is the real kicker.

But in Rome, the head of the Congregation for Catholic Education, Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, said that the problems of homosexual and heterosexual candidates are not equivalent. Although many people think homosexuality is a "normal condition of the human person," he told Vatican Radio, it "absolutely contradicts human anthropology" and violates "natural law."

This statement scares me because it the purports the stereotype that gay men are unable to control their sexual urges around other priests. At this point in Church tradition, priests must remain celibate. No sex with either men or women. It should not matter whether the candidate is gay or straight, he shouldn't be getting any anyway. Gay men are not a separate class. The Church took one step backward with the release of this document.

Biznatch of the Day

Ann Coulter. Need I write more?

Hahahahahahahahahaha

O'Reilly strikes again. His list of media organizations that have betrayed the public trust by distributing defamation and false information from those damn far left websites.

My gut tells me this list will exponentially multiply in the following weeks and months.

Down With the MSM

Blogs now the 5th estate? Makes sense as Drudge revealed Monicagate, Dan Rather's mishaps detailed at Powerline, among other stories revealed online.

Still need the old 4th estate. Even with all its mishaps.

Ughhh

Just an abhorrent cartoon. I hate extremist crap whether it emanates from the left or the right.

Via: Protein Wisdom.

Isolationism

Not good, but unfortunately, it's creeping back into the mindset of the American people.

Iraq

The always brilliant Seymour Hersh reports about the future conduct of the war. His answer: up in the air, with the United States scaling back its troop size and relying more on the air force with Iraqi units possibly selecting the targets. This policy has not been made public, and the administration continues to state that it has no plans to leave, but changes in our handling of the Iraq war must be implemented. And here's why.

Hersh writes:

There are grave concerns within the military about the capability of the U.S. Army to sustain two or three more years of combat in Iraq. Michael O’Hanlon, a specialist on military issues at the Brookings Institution, told me, “The people in the institutional Army feel they don’t have the luxury of deciding troop levels, or even participating in the debate. They’re planning on staying the course until 2009. I can’t believe the Army thinks that it will happen, because there’s no sustained drive to increase the size of the regular Army.” O’Hanlon noted that “if the President decides to stay the present course in Iraq some troops would be compelled to serve fourth and fifth tours of combat by 2007 and 2008, which could have serious consequences for morale and competency levels.”

Not having sufficient troops to secure the peace has led to disaster. The insurgents operate in many areas with impunity, and attacks against troops and civillians have surged. We fought the war on the cheap, and now we are paying the price.

Sadly I Must Concur

With Charles Krauthammer and his essay on torture. The gist: torture is immoral and cruel, but it must be used to ensure the safety and security of our country, specifically in "ticking-time bomb" scenarios, and when interrogating high level terrorists, ala Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Only a select few under the watchful eye of cabinet members or a judicial body would be permitted to use such ghastly methods of persuasion on prisoners.

About Me

Can't You All Go Home for Just One Day?

LA Times:

About 100 antiwar protesters had their Thanksgiving meal a mile or so from where President Bush and his family were observing the holiday at his ranch near Crawford.
The demonstrators ate a traditional Iraqi meal of salmon, lentils, rice with almonds, and a salad of parsley, tomatoes, cucumbers and bulgur wheat.

News+Ads=Advertainment

Romenesko:

KARE-TV's local "Today" show will be renamed "Showcase Minnesota" and charge advertisers $2,000 to $2,500 for 5-minute segments on the show. "I am aghast," says University of Minnesota media ethics professor Jane Kirtley, who at first thought a reporter was kidding about the new format. "This is the logical extension of the whole pernicious practice of infomercials. If viewers are accustomed to getting [talk show] programming in a very different way, to suddenly change the rules on them isn't fair."

Makes me sick to my stomach.

Oh It's Really Not That Important Anyway....

NY Times:

NBC did not interrupt its broadcast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade yesterday to bring viewers the news that an M&M balloon had crashed into a light pole, injuring two sisters.

In fact, when the time came in the tightly scripted three-hour program for the M&Ms' appearance, NBC weaved in tape of the balloon crossing the finish line at last year's parade - even as the damaged balloon itself was being dragged from the accident scene. At 11:47 a.m., as an 11-year-old girl and her 26-year-old sister were being treated for injuries, the parade's on-air announcers - Katie Couric, Matt Lauer and Al Roker - kept up their light-hearted repartee from Herald Square, where the parade ends.

Sigh...

Not that this is a surprising revelation, but disturbing nonethless.

TNR:

A new Pew Institute poll helpfully reminds us not to take U.S. public opinion about foreign affairs too seriously. When asked whether certain countries posessed nuclear weapons, nearly a third said that Libya does. More people--55 percent--believe Iran has nuclear weapons than think Great Britain (52 percent) or France (38 percent) does. Only 48 percent got Israel right. And just over one-fifth didn't know or weren't sure about Russia--Russia! Which has some 20,000 nukes. Yeesh.

On a slightly more pertinent note, the poll found that the savvier Americans are about global affairs (based on their knowledge of key world figures and events), the less likely they are to support a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Sixty-six percent of the least knowledgable folks--i.e., ones who couldn't even ID Vladimir Putin--support a fast withdrawal. Only 48 percent of the best-informed ones took that position. Perhaps that offers some small consolation to the currently besieged stay-the-course crowd. (Thanks to reader AM.)

Never underestimate ignorance.

Driving

Reminds me of cruising around the roads of the Domican Republic a few years back.

Michael Totten:

Today we drove along the six-lane coastal highway north toward Beirut during a rain storm. Some of the deeper dips in the road were totally flooded. So the drivers ahead of us turned around and came at us in our own lane. (They couldn’t make u-turns because the highway is divided.) All of a sudden I saw headlights coming straight at us – and fast. Okay then. I stopped the car and turned around in an instant. Drivers behind me saw what I did and did the same. The entire highway did a perfectly safe about-face and started moving in the reverse direction toward the nearest exit. We all got off the flooded highway and took a higher and drier road on the side. Traffic kept flowing. Nobody got hurt. The same situation in the United States would have started a traffic jam that backed up for miles and lasted for hours. Even during the evacuation of New Orleans ahead of Hurricane Katrina people only drove on one side of the Interstates. Nothing like that would ever happen in Lebanon. In Lebanon such fates are averted. It’s efficient. It’s safer than you think. And it’s fun.

Oil Oil Oil

Debate at Prospect about what's the future of the world's most precious commodity. It ain't looking good for us fossil fuel guzzlers.

Food for Thought

Newsweek:

And there was an even more troubling implication to his [Darwin's] theory. To a species that believed it was made in the image of God, Darwin's great book addressed only this one cryptic sentence: "Much light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." That would come 12 years later, in "The Descent of Man," which explicitly linked human beings to the rest of the animal kingdom by way of the apes. "Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale," Darwin wrote, offering a small sop to human vanity before his devastating conclusion: "that man with all his noble qualities ... still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."

What Does Sharon's Move to the Center Mean?

NY Times
National Review

Bill the Bastard Cont. (And Friend)

O'Reilly claims the liberals supposed "war on Christmas" (in actuality the "war" really is just some department stores whose advertisements say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas") is the first step of a more nefarious plot that seeks to get Christianity and Judaism completely out of the public square. You would think that since us liberals have such masterly plans for wiping religion out of the public conscience that we would control at least one branch of government...

Oh, and shut the hell up John Gibson. Your a damn fool if you honestly believe that Christmas is going away.

Damn idiots.

Another thought: Gibson, if you honestly believe that the true spirit of Christmas is found in crappy department store trinkets and displays you are one sick twisted puppy.

Damn Kooks

Are what parents of deceased soldiers become, well at least according to some people...

WashingtonMonthly:

"You'll have a parent or two here, as you know, whose tragic grief from the tragic loss of a loved one, of a child, causes their mental thinking to be a little destabilized. That's understandable." -- Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) at a news conference Thursday, discussing parents of slain soldiers who turned antiwar.

Probably best just to keep those feelings to yourself.

Speak the Truth Brother

Of course the general Congress did not possess the same intel that the White House did in regard to Iraq's WMD program.

The former chairman of the Senate Select Committe on Intelligence, Bob Graham, who voted against the war, writes:

The American people needed to know these reservations, and I requested that an unclassified, public version of the NIE be prepared. On Oct. 4, Tenet presented a 25-page document titled "Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction Programs." It represented an unqualified case that Hussein possessed them, avoided a discussion of whether he had the will to use them and omitted the dissenting opinions contained in the classified version. Its conclusions, such as "If Baghdad acquired sufficient weapons-grade fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year," underscored the White House's claim that exactly such material was being provided from Africa to Iraq.

Why was it that just the opinions that contradicted Bush's claims remained classified? Explain that one.

Our Coalition of the Willing

We still have our staunch ally Mongolia in the fight, a proud nation that blessed us with the services of 120 of their crack troops. Hey, only two other countries, England and Denmark, have sent more troops per capita than Mongolia.

It's great that Bush and Rumsfeld support our few remaining allies in the Iraq war, but do they both need to be visiting Mongolia in a span of two months?

Oh How I Love You So

Apple computer. After all I am typing from one your own Powerbooks, a fine computer if I say so myself. But I cannot overlook your misdeeds, and this is a glaring strike on your otherwise impeccable resume.

Balderdash

Emanates once again from the pen of VDH:

A bewildered visitor from Mars would tell Washingtonians something like: "For twelve years you occupied Saddam's airspace, since he refused to abide by the peace accords and you were afraid that he would activate his WMD arsenal again against the Kurds or his neighbors. Now that he is gone and for the first time you can confirm that his weapons program is finally defunct, you are mad about this new precedent that you have established: Given the gravity of WMD arsenals, the onus is now on suspect rogue nations to prove that they do not have weapons of mass destruction, rather than for civilization to establish beyond a responsible doubt that they do?"

You know that your standing are on shaky ground when employing hypothetical views of "bewildered visitor[s] from Mars" is necessary for advancing your arguments.

Ohh. And unlike VDH, I believe that invading countries to determine that their WMD programs are defunct is bad policy. The natural progression in the checking WMD by invasion would be North Korea.... then Syria.... then Iran...

Just admit it. Invading Iraq was a terrible mistake. Containment worked. There are no WMDs in Iraq.

Burn Baby Burn

Peter Daou knocks down the 10 limbed straw man espoused by the pro Iraq War faction of our nation. Only one problem with the list. Daou presents the common liberal myth the myth that in the Middle East "[t]he shifting alliances, the internal pressures, the regional influences, make it next to impossible to say whether or not the removal of American forces would further destabilize Iraq."

As I do support the continued presence of American troops in Iraq I cannot support Daou's claim that withdrawal from Iraq will not have catastrophic consequences. My one word response: Afghanistan. The US abandoned Afghanistan after the Soviet withdrawal, which created a power vacuum that allowed the Taliban to seize power. That situation didn't turn out so well for us. We don't need a repeat.

Ughh

What sort of sick twisted mind thinks that Sean Hannity will be a good matchmaker?

Snifff

Crazy ass bitch complains. I respect and enjoy reading and listening to many conservative thinkers and pundits including Andrew Sullivan, George Will, Charles Krauthammer, John Cole, David Brooks and Daniel Drezner among others. But I cannot stand the lies and invectives spewed by bat shit crazy ones. And that includes the aforementioned crazy ass bitch, Michelle Malkin.

Laugh Your Ass Off

Here. Check out the dude chillin' in the background playing computer games. Gotta love the Yao jerseys.

Why Do I Even Bother

Reading Powerline? Discredit, smear, and obscufiate all criticism of Bush, no matter how credible. I disagree with Murtha's call for US withdrawal from Iraq, but to spin Murtha as being some sort of quasi-peacenik as powerline has... well nothing surprising from those hacks.

Few would deny that Murtha is a "key house Democrat" as the Times states. However, his status as a hawk is debatable. The hawk-dove dichotomy was much-invoked during the war in Vietnam. Hawks supported the war and tended to argue for the use of more force; doves supported leaving Vietnam to the Communists. Since then, the term hawk has been used in other contexts, but with the appropriate modifer, as in "deficit hawk." To be a hawk tout court, it seems to me, Murtha must not only support big defense budgets, but also the use of force overseas to a greater extent than most other politicians do. But the Post provides no evidence that this the case with Murtha, nor does there appear to be any. It's true that he favored going to war in Iraq, but so did John Kerry and countless other Democrats. By May 2004, Murtha had joned with Nancy Pelosi in criticizing the war. He also supported the candidacy of Howard Dean, the party's most prominent dove, for leader of the DNC. The Post story, of course, mentions none of this. Instead, the hard copy story is larded-up at the back-end with "Bush lied" quotes from the likes of Senators Kennedy and Reid.

WMDs, Where Art Thee?

Definitely haven't found any of Saddam's stockpile as of yet. People are still trying to peddle the fantasy that Saddam had WMD, but then gave them to Syria or flushed them down the toilet once he anticipated war.

Sex Sex Sex

Is it the end of the monogamous relationship? New York Mag breathlessly asks. While the article provided steamy escapades of orgies, three ways, and horny housewives no other evidence exists other than a few random stories from across the United States. What did I learn? That some people like having crazy sex in their free time. Hardly different from any other time in history. Other than the article claims that couples are now "negotiating the terms of their monogamy." Whatever.

More interesting was the survey about teen sex, which compared the sex activity teens say they have with what their clueless parents believe. Parents, your teenage kids are horny little devils.

Gotta love this one:

"My father tells me stories about his youth and scolds me for not having as much sex as he did."
Boy, 18

Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them

Big Dick Cheney and 51 misleading (at best) statements for why we should go to war with Iraq.

It's College Week

At Slate. Check out a week of college life in the beautiful sunny UNC. Much different than life here in frosty Minneapolis where I prefer to sit on my ass in my apartment then brave the freezing cold winds. (until I get some nice booze to warm my tummy)

Snifff

The Corner is celebrating their venerated founder, William F Buckley's b-day today, one week early mind you.

Why We Stay

Lieberman:

If we withdraw prematurely from Iraq, there will be civil war, and there is a great probability that others in the neighborhood will come in. The Iranians will be tempted to come in on the side of the Shia Muslims in the south. The Turks will be tempted to come in against the Kurds in the north. The other Sunni nations, such as the Saudis and the Jordanians, will be sorely tempted, if not to come in at least to aggressively support the Sunni Muslim population. There will be instability in the Middle East, and the hope of creating a different model for a better life in the Middle East in this historic center of the Arab world, Iraq, will be gone.

If we successfully complete our mission, we will have left a country that is self-governing with an open economy, with an opportunity for the people of Iraq to do what they clearly want to do, which is to live a better life, to get a job, to have their kids get a decent education, to live a better life. There seems to be broad consensus on that, and yet the partisanship that characterizes our time here gets in the way of realizing those broadly expressed and shared goals.

Get to See

Atmosphere tonight at the 1st ave.
atmosphere

Torture in Iraq

NY Times:

Iraq's government said Tuesday that it had ordered an urgent investigation of allegations that many of the 173 detainees American troops discovered over the weekend in the basement of an Interior Ministry building in a Baghdad suburb had been tortured by their Iraqi captors. A senior Iraqi official who visited the detainees said two appeared paralyzed and others had some of the skin peeled off their bodies by their abusers.
.......................

Thahe Mohammed Sabar said in a statement released by the American Civil Liberties Union that soldiers had pushed him and Sherzad Khalid, a friend, into the cage, then pulled them out when a lion moved toward him. Mr. Khalid said soldiers had forced him into the cages after repeatedly asking where to find Saddam Hussein and unconventional weapons.

Horrific. Abhorrent. But the revelation does not change my opinion regarding the selective use of torture to prevent catastrophe.

Hahahahahahahahahaha

What they smoking over in NBER? Drinking doesn't increase sex? Have these pinheads ever attended college? Math problem for the day that every college student knows: alcohol+mixture of the sexes=increased sexual activity.

He's Loved Now

by the Kosers and DUers, but this TNR article portrays Russ Feingold as more nuanced than his image as the new Howard Dean riding in on a white horse that will give Dems some "spine" and save the party.

Some things about Feingold that make hard lefties squirm. He was the only senator to defend the impeachment process of big Bill (though he later voted against it), Feingold voted for the confirmation of Roberts, and has an aversion to nation-building. Other than Clinton impeachment business, the his other stances look palpable to me.

He's got one glaring problem. With heavy heart I will not support my fellow Wisconsinite in the '08 Democratic primary. Despite him being the only senator with the courage to vote against the Patriot Act and his principled stands that I admire (his refusal to take a pay raise for one), I cannot in good faith vote for the man who demands a US withdrawal from Iraq at the end of 2006. Feingold is a fine Senator, President Russ? Nu-uh.

Awww Thanks John

For some reason the Friends of John Kerry keep sending me crappy emails despite the fact I continually click on the "never send me anymore of this junk" link in each email.

Here's the latest installment:

Dear Tom,

You can feel the ice breaking. For far too long, Republican leaders have refused
to challenge the aimless Bush "stay as long as it takes" approach to Iraq. But
now, their unwillingness to act has started to crumble.

Today in the Senate, facing a Democratic resolution on Iraq, the Republicans
offered their own call for President Bush to come up with a plan. They didn't go
nearly far enough, but clearly our call for a concrete plan is gaining momentum.

It's time for the next step. Help our "20,000 troops home over the holidays"
campaign place billboards in the home districts of Republican leaders.

Help place billboards in Republican leaders' home districts:
https://contribute.johnkerry.com/form.html?sc=7037

To date, over a quarter of a million people have signed our call to withdraw
20,000 troops from Iraq over the holidays. That withdrawal should be linked to
the completion of December elections in Iraq - and it should be the first step
in the concrete plan for Iraq that President George W. Bush owes the American
people.

We shouldn't let America's brave men and women go another day without having
such a plan in place. That's why we're turning up the heat with our Billboards
and House Signs campaign over the next month.

Will you add your voice and your financial support to this effort right now?

Help place billboards in Republican leaders' home districts:
https://contribute.johnkerry.com/form.html?sc=7037

This is the next key step in a grassroots organizing and mobilizing campaign
that won't end until we've forced the Bush administration to act. The best way
to do that is to turn up the heat on Republican leaders in Congress.

It's important to get our "20,000 troops home over the holidays" message out
everywhere. With your help, we'll run these billboards where they can be seen by
key Republican leaders of Congress.

And, to extend this phase of our "20,000 troops home over the holidays" effort
to your own hometown, here's what we've done. We've created a downloadable
version of the billboard that you can print and post in your own home.

Download and display a house sign:
http://www.johnkerry.com/action/20000/window-sign.pdf

We can feel the momentum building every day behind our call for a concrete plan
for Iraq. And our Billboards and House Signs initiative can keep moving things
forward. Let's make it happen.

Sincerely,

John Kerry

P.S. We've got to act fast to place and produce these billboards. In addition to
donating, I hope you'll pass news of this exciting initiative on to your friends
and colleagues by forwarding this message now

This man had better not win the Democratic primary in '08. This ridiculous "bring 20,000 troops back by Christmas" ploy makes me mad, either support bringing all the men and women of our armed forces home, or shut up and try to win the war. Half ass measures don't work.

If memory serves me right, didn't Kerry say that one of the problems with managing the war was lack of troops in Iraq?

Not Often

That I can say this but Yeahhh Repubs. Complete the damn reconstruction and secure Iraq before leaving.

Whoops

MN Daily:

The most obvious example is Coca-Cola, which has been accused of having union leaders murdered at its Colombian bottling plants and stealing water from villages in India. Despite this and the growing list of international injustices, the University continues to deal with the Coca-Cola Company and has not brought a public demand to Coca-Cola.

Quite a bit misleading. Coke did not "order" the execution as the editorial implies, they unknowingly hired anti-union bottlers who took it upon themselves to execute eight union leaders. Coke was dismissed as a defendant from a recent lawsuit brought forth by a murdered union leader. The problem is not Coke, but the fact that Colombia is a hell hole, over 1,800 union leaders alone have been brutally murdered over the past 12 years. This is not equivalent to the corporate scandals of Nestle, Enron, or WorldCom, among others. The blame rests in the lawlessness and unrest in Colombia, not Coke.

Who'd a Thunk it?

Work out=live longer. Obvously a report from the Center for Figuring Out Really Obvious Things.

Waste of My $$$

Howard Kurtz:

It may be unpopular in the blogosphere, but the New York Times has signed up 135,000 subscribers at 50 bucks a pop for online access to its columnists and other bonus material (plus an equal number of print subscribers who get the service free). Other news outlets are surely taking note.

And I am one of those suckers (albeit I signed up for the early bird 40$ special). Really wish I had spent the money on subscription to TNR, or just more Miller Lite. Do I really need to read the whining rants of M. Dowd, David Brooks' convoluted and way off base opinions about American culture, or anything by Bob Herbert? No. I really don't. (Must confess I do have a soft spot in the heart for the fellow Tom, but 40 bones a year? No thanks)

Even Here

At the Univ of Minn this crap is taught in classrooms.

Panda's Thumb:

They include some remarks from chemical engineer Christopher Macosko of University of Minnesota:

[WSJ]…a member of the National Academy of Engineering, [who] became a born-again Christian as an assistant professor after a falling-out with a business partner. For eight years, he’s taught a freshman seminar: “Life: By Chance or By Design?” According to Mr. Macosko, “All the students who finish my course say, ‘Gee, I didn’t realize how shaky evolution is.’ “

Hey Arnold

Things ain't going well in Cali, but at least they love ya in China. Now if only you could get those damn California hippies to remember the Arnold the action hero and forget about Arnold the governor... maybe more movie quotes in your speeches? That seemed to work well last time you tried.

WTF?

WashingtonPost:

Sergey Brin and Larry Page have ambitious long-term plans for Google's expansion into the fields of biology and genetics through the fusion of science, medicine, and technology. Their goal -- through Google, its charitable foundation, and an evolving entity called Google.org -- is to empower millions of individuals and scientists with information that will lead to healthier and smarter living through the prevention and cure of a wide range of diseases. Some of this work, done in partnership with others, is already under way, making use of Google's array of small teams of gifted employees and its unwavering emphasis on innovation, unmatched search capacity, and vast computational resources.

Hell, just another step toward Google's ultimate goal of controlling the world.

I must say that I am a willing lackey in their nefarious plot, just look to the right (and upwards).

Demonstrations in the Arab World

For all of those who wonder "why doesn't the Arabic public protest their own repressive governments and Islamic terrorism instead of the US?" here's part of the reason.

Noooooooooo

Fox puts the kebash on Arrested Development, easily the best show on network televison. You suck Rupert Murdoch.

As If You Knew How to Write

Worst written opinon column ever. Never knew that it was ok to write like your stereotypical ditzy, high school girl.

Dennis Prager:

Instead of confronting these problems, too many of you deny them. Muslims call my radio show to tell me that even speaking of Muslim or Islamic terrorists is wrong. After all, they argue, Timothy McVeigh is never labeled a "Christian terrorist." As if McVeigh committed his terror as a churchgoing Christian and in the name of Christ, and as if there were Christian-based terror groups around the world.

Oh, wasn't there that IRA and UVF running around Ireland and blowing up buildings, cars, and people? Or don't they count as Christian terrorist groups?

Still Makes Me Laugh

There's my boy. In an old classic.

Hehe

Court TV:

Police in Lacey and Olympia, Wash., are looking for a serial bank robber who got into the spirit of Halloween for her latest heist.

According to Lacey Police Lt. Phil Comstock, the suspect was dressed as a witch when she targeted a local bank at about 4:49 p.m. on Oct. 31. The woman wore a purple cape and a purple witch's hat; instead of a broomstick, she had a note that she presented to a bank teller. The note reportedly indicated that the robber had a weapon and included a request for cash.

Wisco

George Will on Feingold.

Well Isn't That Nice

Kos:

We have bigger fish to fry than getting even against Bush for his misdeeds. Bush has three years of radioactive lame duck-ness left in his term. The key isn't to replace him with another Republican. The key is to use his every day in office to drive him to the American public the cost we pay as a nation for electing Republicans to office.
And as far as legacies go, what would be worst -- destroying his own presidency or destroying his entire party? Let's make sure it's the latter.

Ehh... compromise is overrated anyway.

(Demonstrates once again that fanatics on the left are just as bad as fanatics on the right... well maybe not as bad, but bad nonetheless)

Got Time?

Responses from leading intellectuals to the Bush Doctrine.

Waaaaaaahhhhh

Bush is taking heat for the mismanaged Iraq war. His approval ratings hover around 35%. What's his response? Whine about flag burning.

I've joined with the veterans groups to call on Congress to protect the flag of the United States in the Constitution of the United States. (Applause.) In June, the House of Representatives voted for a constitutional amendment to ban flag desecration. I urge the United States Senate to pass this important amendment. (Applause.)At this hour, a new generation of Americans is defending our flag and our freedom in the first war of the 21st century.

Gotta Love the RA Stories

To Zack and Leena you suck. Anything that insults/screws over/ etc. CAs I like. Tim F.:

A short story; bear with me. Picture a freshman dorm in Colorado. Two friends have to run out to the homebrew supplier so it’s up to me to watch ten gallons of boiling, stinking pumpkin beer mash. For those of you who aren’t brewers, that’s roughly what it would smell like if Halloween died in a hot, sealed room and stayed there for a week. Rachel, a feared RA who loved nothing more than to bust students doing outlawed things like brewing beer, wanders in holding her nose.

“Whad are you doing?”
“Uh, ”
“Cooking dinner.”
“Seembs like a lod…”
“Guests.”
“Whad is dat?”
“...Gazpacho. Ukranian pumpkin stew. It’s a family specialty. Want to try some?”
“Gick.”
“Your loss. Sorry about the smell.”

I like to think that some day in the future she grabbed a waiter at a fine restaurant and declared, “I’ve seen gazpacho, and THAT’S NOT GAZPACHO.” Or something to that effect. The beer was worth the wait.

Bill the Bastard Cont.

Media Matters:

O'REILLY: Hey, you know, if you want to ban military recruiting, fine, but I'm not going to give you another nickel of federal money. You know, if I'm the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, "Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead."

O'Reilly to San Francisco: "And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.

Bush on Iraq

Something he said that finally agree with (although he has said it before and will say it again).

"And our troops deserve to know that, whatever our differences in Washington, our will is strong, our nation is united and we will settle for nothing less than victory.”

No withdrawal until peace and a stable government is established.

And Then God Will Smite You

Seattle PI:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they "voted God out of your city" by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.

All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce "intelligent design" - the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power - as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club."

Jordanian Response to Terror

NY Times:

"AMMAN, Jordan, Nov. 10 - Thousands of Jordanians staged protests in the heart of the capital today against the terrorist bombings that killed 59 people and wounded about 100 when they ripped nearly simultaneously through three popular hotels on Wednesday night."

Makes me feel good.

Suicide Bombing Kills 29 in Baghdad

Another installement in the "we're fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them at home" series.

Worst justification ever for the continued occupation of Iraq, and I support the occupation.

Just Talked About it

Class intersects with reality. HDTV and consumers.

1996 Telecomm Act. Gave away a gift worth 70 billion dollars to broadcasters. If Clinton would have kept his pants on this would have been Clinton's biggest domestic mistake.

What a Wonderful Day

Results of many victories. Corzine and Kaine win. Good stuff. Now the momentum just has to keep going until 2006. As long as Bush and the Admin keep their good work up, things will be looking good come congressional election time.

2008

Howard Kurtz:

The WP [Washington Post] focused on a possible '08 contender, saying Kaine's win "presented an intriguing campaign model for Democrats, in which religious faith plays an important role. And most of all it demonstrated the appeal of Gov. Mark R. Warner (D), for whom this could become the first stop of a presidential campaign."

Us Dems need to get "more religious" in order to win presidential elections. Haven't heard that one before.

Bye Bye Judy

NY Times:

"The New York Times and Judith Miller, a veteran reporter for the paper, reached an agreement today that ends her 28-year career at the newspaper and caps more than two weeks of negotiations."

US Using Chemical Weapons

Is the claim of a documentary.

Here's a response from a former combat veteran stationed in Iraq.

This is hardly a scandal or something meriting outrage, but image is everything. Abu Gharib, secretive prisons, and now accusations that we are using chemical weapons. Not helping the win the hearts and minds aspect of our Middle East policy.

Them Cornfields

Mess with a man's mind. Kansas once again has resorted to injecting creationism in the evolutionary debate. Its Kansas what more can I say?

I echo John Cole's response condemning the teaching of ID and creationism in schools:

"I tend to agree, and there should not be a debate. The attempts to inject ID into public school science classes should not be met with debate. It should be met with brute political force."

Update: Go science! At least ID lost in Dover.

New, Non-lethal Weapon

That "dazzles" and confuses the enemy.

The New Scientist:

The US government has unveiled a "non-lethal" laser rifle designed to dazzle enemy personnel without causing them permanent harm. But the device will require close scrutiny to ensure compliance with a United Nations protocol on blinding laser weapons.

Why does the UN ban non-lethal potentially blinding weapons? What causes more harm an M-16 that can kill and maim or PHASR laser that might only cause blindness?

Watching the Daily Show Repeat

And Barack Obama was Jon Stewart's guest. He stated something to the effect that we need to begin to withdraw our troops and let the Iraqis figure out their governing situation. Obama uses December 15 (parliamentary elections) as a stepping stone.

Made me think of a book that I am currently reading about Afghanistan, the CIA, and Terrorism. US foreign policy after the Soviets withdrew in the late 80s consisted of ignoring the fledging Afghani nation in favor of "letting them figure it out." Islamic radicals seized control. Remember how that worked out?

Update: Nir Rosen looks at what would would transipire in Iraq if we left now. (I don't by the Iraq is hopeless to repair attitude)

Cheney Most Powerful VP in History?

Duh.

FOX 9 News

Delivering you the hard hitting investigative journalism day in and day out. Those damn hacks have milked this "Gopher Hockey Underage Drinking Scandal" to no end. At least 15 minutes of the 9-10 newscast so far (Its only 9:38 as of yet, and we're promised more later on) has been spent on this horrific incident that threatens my fellow Minnesotans well being and safety. Here's the latest, the responses from the public about this ridiculous waste of time.

Isn't there a war going on?

ps.
I have a definite problem with the 1700 student deaths per year due to alcohol being reported in the context of the news report. This statistic includes drunken driving, which vastly inflates the number of deaths per year. This incident is not about drunken hockey players cruising around the city, but rather, about them having a beer at a bar. Since 1996, college students have died because of alcohol poisoning or alcohol-related injury. Slightly different than 1700 deaths per year.

Damn

Losing 230 pounds just to qualify to enlist in the military? Very impressive.

Via: NR Corner.

Mars and Venus

Even in humor the sexes differ. Greater implications anyone....?

Who Knew?

That beer drinking is good for the body, and not just the spirit. Who needs to exercise when you can just get sloshed all day?

Oh Poor News Media

Hated by all.

Howard Kurtz:

"Some on the left believe that if only the press had done its job -- not that it was easy to challenge murky intelligence about a dictator's arsenal -- there wouldn't have been a war. That view seems to envision an almost all-powerful press corps, given President Bush's determination to topple Saddam Hussein. But the sentiment is fueling the liberal anger at the media, even as some conservatives contend journalists delight in trumpeting negative news from Iraq, to the point of over-dramatizing the 2,000th American death there. Talk about feeling unloved by both sides."

Sage Advice for Everyone

Not just Law Professor Candidates. Help comes from unusual sources in life. Its best not to burn bridges when young. (Or so I hear)

What in the Hell

Is going on in France? 10 officers shot on Sunday by rioters with shotguns.

Hack Journalism at its Finest

Some great investigative journalism, FOX 9. Sending "investigative" reporters in to a bar over the course of two month, accumulating 50 hours of surveillance tapes just to schmear some college hockey players. Unbelievable. Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein would be proud.

Damn

Poor, poor man.

Al-Jazeera

People love to hate the Qatar based news organization, but remember that al-Jazeera is the most honest and open source for political viewpoints in the Arabic world. People may whine about the Anti-American aspect of its news broadcasts, but in reality it is much more nuanced than the popular viewpoint that al-Jazeera is the enemy of the United States.

Marc Lynch:

The neoconservative Weekly Standard’s call for America to “find a way to overcome the al-Jazeera effect” gets things exactly wrong. The United States needs to find ways to work constructively with the “al-Jazeera effect.” The station is as witheringly critical of Arab regimes as it is opposed to certain pillars of American foreign policy. In its urgent desire to promote democracy and other reforms in the Arab world, al-Jazeera shares important aspirations with America. Though no friend of U.S. foreign policy, it is perhaps the single most powerful ally America can have in pursuit of the broad goal of democratic change in the Middle East. In the words of Egyptian dissident Saad al-Din Ibrahim, al-Jazeera has “done probably for the Arab world more than any organized critical movement could have done, in opening up the public space, in giving Arab citizens a newly found opportunity to assert themselves.

Economist:

Particularly appealing to the Arab public was a programme called “The Opposite Direction”, a 90-minute showdown between guest opponents, where viewers were encouraged to call and join in. A recent trailer for the programme posed typically blunt questions: “Why is it that when an Arab leader dies, people moan and wail as if the nation can't live without him? What have these leaders ever achieved for us? Aren't they symbols of corruption and backwardness and tyranny?”

Al-Jazeera is hardly CNN or NBC news, but its much more accurate, honest, and influential than any of the official state run Arabic news networks (except for possibly al-Arabiya).

Death Row

A man brutally murders four innocent people in cold blood, gets sent to death row where he writes kids books ("Tookie Speaks Out Against Gang Violence"), and is now hailed as some sort of hero deserving clemency. Umm no.

He's even a Nobel Peace Prize nominee!

Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them

Allan Ryskind:

"This is unpatriotic mud-slinging, with a touch of Black Helicopter looniness tossed in. To believe that the White House concocted a fable about WMD in Iraq, you would have to believe in a massive conspiracy involving not only the Bush people, but both Bill Clinton’s and George Bush’s CIA director, George Tenet; Bush’s first term secretary of state, Colin Powell; Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright; Clinton’s key NSC Persian Gulf adviser, Kenneth Pollack; and numerous WMD experts at the United Nations."

Uh.. remember those weapons inspectors? Didn't the White House explicity ignore their recommendation that Saddam probably had not resumed its nuclear weapons program with Cheney saying, "We believe [Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. ElBaradei [Nobel prize winning director of the IAEA], frankly, is wrong." The inspectors wanted more time. Bush didn't give time to them. We went to war under the premise that Iraq was a threat to our country. No WMDs found.

The reason we had inspectors in Iraq was to prove or disprove the allegations of the very people Ryskind mentioned. Obviously those allegation have been proved to be wrong. No more crying about people who question the motives for why we went to war with Iraq.

Battle of the Titans

Rove v. McClellan.

"Today did see Scott McClellan direct press-delivered tacnukes against Karl Rove. Rove burned McClellan by sending him out to tell the press that Rove had nothing to do with the leaking of Valerie Plame Wilson's covert CIA identity--and now that this is well-known McClellan's credibility with journalists and his career are both over unless he can get Rove fired. No press secretary can survive if people think the rest of the White House regards him as a patsy to be fed lies."

McClellan's career being over because of his lies? Come on. How many people actually think that White House press secretaries speak the truth?

Hehe

From the hippie protest. MN Daily:

"Continuing education graduate student Will Marean stood outside the offices with a sign that said, “Get your ass back to class.”

My thoughts exactly. Maybe instead of protesting outside of the recruiting center, the hippies should go to downtown MN and protest outside the Capitol Building. Hmmm interesting though.

Never Thought

I would see someone accuse the Ragin' Cajun of becoming a softie on Republican misdeeds. Sigh... If only Crossfire was still on... Carville, Begala, Novak, and bow tie boy, what a crew...

Iowa Sucks Anyway

No more trips to Iowa. CS Monitor:

Are blogs the new Iowa? Conventional wisdom holds that the main geopolitical focus of any nomination campaign should be the first caucus state, Iowa, and the first primary state, New Hampshire. Yet, if the blogosphere is a place, then it is the real "first in the nation" testing ground. And yet candidates must work the blogosphere through old- fashioned retail politics: one blog at a time. Like visiting coffee shops and town halls in Nashua, candidates must also have a personal interaction with bloggers.

Hey, the Daily Kos had almost the same amount of visitors as the nytimes online in September. Whether for good or bad the online world has begun to exert influence on political affairs.

Roll Them Doobies

Up in Denver. This is interesting:

" Voters here approved making Denver the first major city to legalize small amounts of marijuana, but the mayor warned that state law still makes possession of the drug illegal."

So Denver citizens can still be arrested under state law, but the local permits the same activity? Strange.

Hey

A mistake has been rectified. How unusual.

CNN Shakeup

Drudge has insider scoop about Aaron Brown leaving CNN.

(Why I'm putting this up, I don't know,)

Islam in Europe

Francis Fukuyama's take. The root cause Muslim riots in France, the murder of the Dutch filmmaker, amongst others is the poor job the European nations have done assimilating Muslims into their countries.

Interesting...

Rove's dream dying? Last time I checked the GOP still controlled the both houses of Congress, the Presidency, and have appointed most of the members of the current Supreme Court. The GOP might not have implemented all the policies they have wanted (abortion, gay marriage), but they haven't done so bad either (tax cuts, war in Iraq).

Wishful thinking. The political discourse in our country has shifted to the right, even if the general populous's political views have not, and that is a direct result of DeLay and the rest of the GOP shaping the debate.

Terrorists, Secret Prisons, and the CIA

This Washington Post article is sure to bring resounding cries against CIA tactics of holding al- Qaeda members captive "as long as necessary and without restrictions imposed by the U.S. legal system" indefinitely throughout a system of secret prisons around the world.

Let me start by saying this is not a black and white issue. To unequivocally state that torture is always wrong would be naive and foolhardy. There are certain instances where torture is necessary to protect national security. In the event that another large scale terrorist attack on American soil was imminent and the CIA had a high ranking freshly detained al-Qaeda officer in custody wouldn't it be their duty to prevent the attack at all costs?

I am hardly advocating a willey nilley approach to torture. I believe that it should be banned unless under the most dire of circumstances, and even then it should be at all times subject to closed door Congressional and Judicial oversight. The regular army should not be allowed to practice torture, rather, it should be under the exclusive control of the CIA, akin to the SAPs that Seymour Hersh wrote about. By no means should the U.S. practice torture on anywhere near a widespread scale.

This is most certainly one of the rare instances where the slippery slope argument applies. Just look at the torture at Abu-Ghraib that was a direct result of allowing limited torture elsewhere.

My inner conscience tells me that torture is always morally wrong. My realist thought process tells me, however, that in the most dire of circumstances it is necessary for our national security. I most certainly do not want another Abu-Ghraib, but I also am terrified about the prospect of another 9/11. Can we prevent another 9/11 without resorting to torture? Or even if we do implement torture on a limited basis can that even be successful in the fight against al-Qaeda? These are questions that I just don't know the answer too.

Read more about torture at the Atlantic.

Almost Forgot

Tomorrow's Crazed Ignorant Hippie Day where students are supposed to cut class and protest the war. I see posters for this rally all around campus. On a more positive note I see signs for a support the troops rally right after the worldcantwait protest (support rally not affiliated with the leftist, worldcantwait organization).

No matter what your thoughts about the war (I don't think we should have invaded) support the troops, not the leftists.

Wow

DeLay truly has the entire Texas governing apparatus, judicial system wrapped around his fat little finger.

CW Duncan (the judge who made the ruling) basically insinuated that the judge cannot do his job professionally and in a non-partisan manor because of his campaign contributions. I think a little more evidence is necessary than just reviewing a judge's political donations before forcing a judge off the case. Unbelievable.

Hehe

About Frist's press conference regarding the current state of the Senate:

"Tellingly, what seems to most infuriate Frist is that Reid showed him "a lack of respect." In a real sense, you see, the US Senate plays by hip-hop rules: Respect is all. Disrespect is the ultimate crime, and must be avenged swiftly and mercilessly. And so when Frist says that he's been "slapped in the face by Reid," and that "[t]his is an affront to me personally," you can bet he's already plotting his revenge."

Reminds me of the East Coast vs West Coast rap wars back in the day. Tupac vs. Puff Daddy, Frist vs. Reid. The battle continues.

Just Saw

Frist whining about this move by the Dems on Fox News. Finding the truth about how the US was lead into the Iraq war. Good or bad? I am going to say good. And probably better that the Senate doors remained closed for right now.

Update: Here are Reid's remarks as to why he called for a closed door meeting to evaluate the intel debacle leading up to the Iraq War.

Getting Scared?

Ehh Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart's new "war room" designed to rebut charges that they are sucking the American worker dry. Why not just improve conditions in your stores? Then all your problems will go away. (I am sure the Waltons can afford to give up some of their millions, when you've got billions whats another million or two?)

Lord I hate Wal-Mart. Shop at Costco.

Andrew Wonders

Where's Dick Cheney?:

"When was the last time he held a press conference? I ask these obvious questions because reasonable and fair people, having read the indictments against his chief of staff, have reasonable and fair questions. Did Cheney direct Libby to out Valerie Wilson's identity? Why did he order an inquiry into her role? Does he condemn the leaking of her identity? Why has he held back important documents from the Senate that would help explain his role in formulating what turned out to be flawed intelligence before the Iraq war? That's just for starters. The issues here are profound ones: they suggest that the vice-president has abused his own power and put the nation's security at risk to pursue a political opponent. Maybe that's not true. Maybe there's an innocent explanation for all of this. So why cannot the vice-president explain? It seems at times as if he does not really regard himself as answerable to the people he represents - that once every four years is enough for him. But having the second most powerful man in the country refuse to be accountable for his actions is dangerous for democracy. He is not above this process. You and I pay his salary. It's time for the press to get angry about his silence and avoidance. And it's time for him to tell us the full extent of what he knows.