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Lex Communis 
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Long story short: Pro-Global Warming
Posted on November 20, 2009Long story short: Pro-Global Warming Scientists have been lying and suppressing contrary data Because that's the way science is done. Apparently, the Climate Research Unit at East Anglia University has been hacked with the result that e-mails of leading pro-AGW scientists being released to the public...
Everyone must Serve Baal Sen.
Posted on November 19, 2009Everyone must Serve Baal Sen. Reid?s Government-Run Health Plan Requires a Monthly Abortion Fee
Father Barron on "2012" This is
Posted on November 18, 2009Father Barron on "2012" This is a very interesting review of Roland Emmerich's latest effort in destroying the world. It is also very useful since it provides a forewarning that the 2012 is deeply anti-religious and anti-catholic. Father Barron points out that Emmerich does not miss an opportunity to kill off any character who has the temerity to pray...
Getting Scrod in Boston My dad
Posted on November 16, 2009Getting Scrod in Boston My dad just sent me a list of Boston distinctives, including: How to say these Massachusetts city names correctly: **Say it wrong, be shunned** Worcester : Wuhsta (or Wistah) Gloucester : Glawsta Leicester Lesta Woburn: Wooban Dedham : Dead-um Revere: Re -vee-ah Quincy: Quinzee Tewksbury : Tooks berry Leominster : Lemin-sta Peabody: Pee-ba-dee Waltham : Walth-ham
Democracy's Watchdog According
Posted on November 15, 2009Democracy's Watchdog According to Mark Steyn: If you wonder why American newspapering is dying, consider this sign-off: AP writers Matt Apuzzo, Sharon Theimer, Tom Raum, Rita Beamish, Beth Fouhy, H. Josef Hebert, Justin D. Pritchard, Garance Burke, Dan Joling and Lewis Shaine contributed to this report...
Caged (Teachers) Heat The pictures
Posted on November 12, 2009Caged (Teachers) Heat The pictures to the right are those of the Principal, Vice Principal and two teachers from Knightsville Elementary School in South Carolina who were arrested for physcially abusing special ed children or not reporting the "hundreds of instances" of physically restraining the students, dragging them by their hair or hitting the students...
Ruh Roh Is China's economy about
Posted on November 11, 2009Ruh Roh Is China's economy about to bubble out? Fortunately, we have just the right person to deal with it in our president. < /snark >
Bullard High Teacher Wins Prestigious
Posted on November 10, 2009Bullard High Teacher Wins Prestigious P.Z.Myers Award Discover Magazine tasked human toothache and uber-prick P.Z Myers to select the best video explaining evolution in two minutes. The winner is the current Biology teacher of Bullard High School in Fresno, which is my old alma mater, local evolution blogger Scott Hatfield...
Every year it's the same thing:
Posted on November 09, 2009Every year it's the same thing: some American Muslim goes nuts and kills a lot of non-Muslim Americans.... ...and then the American elites make dire warnings about "possible backlash" by average Americans...you know, those non-elite types who "cling" to their guns and religion...
Prejudices, or why does Nicole
Posted on November 08, 2009Prejudices, or why does Nicole Kidman work so much? According to Steven Sailor: A couple of decades ago, I began noticing that the leading lady in a movie was almost always fairer-skinned than her leading man. It appears filmmakers and their audiences subconsciously associate lightness of complexion with femininity...
We're in the very best of hands This
Posted on November 06, 2009We're in the very best of hands This is being described as Obama's "My Pet Goat" moment: "It took Obama almost two full minutes from the time he began speaking until he got around to mentioning the shooting at Fort Hood ? the reason everyone tuned into Obama?s speech...
This comment by Archbishop Dolan
Posted on November 05, 2009This comment by Archbishop Dolan was not fit to print in the New York Times: October is the month we relish the highpoint of our national pastime, especially when one of our own New York teams is in the World Series! Sadly, America has another national pastime, this one not pleasant at all: anti-catholicism...
If only Amish Bishops could marry.... 4
Posted on November 04, 2009If only Amish Bishops could marry.... 4 Amish bishops charged with not reporting abuse: Four Amish leaders in southwest Missouri who chose to "shun" an accused child molester in their community rather than report him to authorities were charged Tuesday with failing to report the sexual abuse...
How to take Notes This "how-to"
Posted on November 03, 2009How to take Notes This "how-to" tip sheet on how to take notes on philosophical texts is worth reading for any text. I like the John Newman approach on how to locate the point you want to find on a page. This would have been useful in law school. As I recall, many of the second text books I purchased had every line on every page highlighted...
In the Hell Dimension, Kurt Russell
Posted on November 02, 2009In the Hell Dimension, Kurt Russell Won the Oscar for his portrayal of Han Solo
The Reformation at First Things Apparently,
Posted on October 29, 2009The Reformation at First Things Apparently, self-described anti-Catholic internet blogger Frank Turk has been given guest status at First Things "Evangel" blog, so naturally he uses it to indulge in a pharisaic concern over whether he becomes "unclean" by posting on a site that has banner ads for a book by Pope Benedict XVI...
Goofing Off A recurring theme
Posted on October 28, 2009Goofing Off A recurring theme during the Bush presidency was the complaint that he was "goofing off" when the nation needed his attention. Needless to say, that theme won't make an appearance during this presidency, particularly by a media that looks on "date night" as the occasion to wax sentimental...
Cogito ergo Twitter Sum The 60
Posted on October 27, 2009Cogito ergo Twitter Sum The 60 Second Philosopher offers a summary of the great thoughts of the great philosophers via the medium of Twitter: Socrates: Drinking hemlock; toes tingling; legs getting numb. Maybe unexamined life worth living? Guard! Plato: Symposium 2nite 7pm, @ The Cave...
Right here in Fresno There's usually
Posted on October 26, 2009Right here in Fresno There's usually a prayer vigil outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Van Ness Avenue. When I've driven by the people are usually doing nothing more than standing there with signs, essentially exercising their First Amendment rights...
Creepy or Hoax or Both? Does "this
Posted on October 25, 2009Creepy or Hoax or Both? Does "this man" play a role in your dreams? Here's the alleged story: HISTORY In January 2006 in New York, the patient of a well-known psychiatrist draws the face of a man that has been repeatedly appearing in her dreams. In more than one occasion that man has given her advice on her private life...
If only teachers in Utah could
Posted on October 24, 2009If only teachers in Utah could marry The number 1 reason for the revocation of teaching licenses in Utah is inappropriate sexual activities with students: There are nearly 20,000 licensed educators in Utah, most of them hard-working professionals. But since 1992, the State Board of Education has suspended or revoked 313 teacher licenses, 208 of them (66 percent) for sexual misconduct...
Empty Suit with a Bad Attitude. This
Posted on October 23, 2009Empty Suit with a Bad Attitude. This is really bad. The Obama Administration has attempted to ban Foxnews from being included in the pool interviewing the White House "Pay Czar." In other words, it has attempted to ban the only media outlet that will take a critical position to its position...
Rome Rebuilt Without a time
Posted on October 22, 2009Rome Rebuilt Without a time machine, this is the best we are going to do right now with respect to actually visiting the ancient world.
Shut up, they explained A liberal
Posted on October 21, 2009Shut up, they explained A liberal climate professor gets borked by dissenting from the offiicial party line on Global Warming.
Arrived in the Mail God's Philosophers:
Posted on October 20, 2009Arrived in the Mail God's Philosophers: How the medieval world laid the foundations of modern science by James Hannam. I am looking forward to this. A quick glance of the book discloses a timeline, an index of characters and chapter titles like "Heresy and Reason" and "How Pagan Science was Christianized" and three chapters on Galileo, and a map of Europe to follow the action...
Faith and Works Ken Pulliam, Ph.d.
Posted on October 18, 2009Faith and Works Ken Pulliam, Ph.d. - a "deconverted" Evangelical - writes: Another reason for my de-conversion from evangelical Christianity was my realization that the Bible is a very ambiguous book, i.e., subject to many different interpretations...
The Self-Correcting Nature of Science....but
Posted on October 17, 2009The Self-Correcting Nature of Science....but not if the scientists had their way.Despite the paen of atheists to the marvels of science - its single-minded pursuit of the truth, the fact that it is based on facts, its ability to self-correct - it seems that scientists deliberately used bad data to develope the infamous "hockey stick" or "we are all going to die" model of climate warming and would
Aquinas on the ApocryphaOn the
Posted on October 16, 2009Aquinas on the ApocryphaOn the Commendation and Division of the Sacred Scriptures:Jerome mentions a fourth kind of book, namely, the apocryphal, so called from apo, that is, ?especially?, and cryphon, that is, ?obscure?, because there is doubt about their contents and authors...
If only teachers could marry.Nashville
Posted on October 15, 2009If only teachers could marry.Nashville teachers arrested on child pornography charges four years after his school district was notified that the teacher had committed child abuse as a substitute teacher.DCS said, "We have to determine whether a specific child is at risk...
Hot Babe and Etymology.This could
Posted on October 14, 2009Hot Babe and Etymology.This could be the end of any productive work for the rest of the day.This link comes from this article on "12 Hottest Geek Girls."
That Puzzling Erasmus.Erasmus is
Posted on October 13, 2009That Puzzling Erasmus.Erasmus is invariably cited as someone with the opinion that the "deuterocanonical books" - i.e., the books that were contained in the Greek Septuagint, but not contained in the Hebrew canon formulated after the destruction of Jerusalem, such as Maccabees, Wisdom, Judith, Tobit, etc - were or should not be part of the Christian canon...
If only Santa Clara High School
Posted on October 12, 2009If only Santa Clara High School Teachers could Marry17 year old girl, 41 year old teacher, 9,000 e-mail messages, and then a sexual relationship.The e-mails may have been reported to the High School administrators, who may not have grasped the full implications of the e-mails...
Woo-hoo!!!! We're number one!In
Posted on October 11, 2009Woo-hoo!!!! We're number one!In Upside-down land.Fresno ranked least intelligent city in America.One of the categories that Fresno under-achieves on is "purchase of non-fiction books." Based on my non-scientific survey of the single distaff side of the Fresno population via Match...
CelebrationTomorrow, Father Damien
Posted on October 10, 2009CelebrationTomorrow, Father Damien of Molokai becomes St. Damien of Molokai.Here is the Father Damien website.
The Affirmative Action PresidentThe
Posted on October 09, 2009The Affirmative Action PresidentThe soft bigotry of low expectations.
Error has no rights.Living advertisement
Posted on September 30, 2009Error has no rights.Living advertisement for secular atheism's Asperger's syndrome - P.Z. Myers - fires with all phaser banks at the notion that a mere Christian can give him suggesions about how not to act like a total walking pustule on the body politic of Christendom...
Tomorrow is "Blasphemy Day."From
Posted on September 29, 2009Tomorrow is "Blasphemy Day."From the Catholic League:The Center for Inquiry will launch the first International Blasphemy Day on September 30, the anniversary of the 2005 publication of the Danish cartoons that so inflamed Muslims worldwide. Billed as a free speech event designed to oppose such things as a Muslim-sponsored U...
Liberal FascismWintery Knight provides
Posted on September 27, 2009Liberal FascismWintery Knight provides this video of "eco-fascist celebrities" attempting to prevent a journalist from asking embarrassing questions, but looking like jerks while doing it.
Secular Atheist on AquinasAccording
Posted on September 26, 2009Secular Atheist on AquinasAccording to Jurgen Habermas:Habermas, who defines himself as "a methodical atheist", is a member of the Frankfurt School of philosophy. His most recent essay - A Time of Transition - was published in Italy this month.Sandro Magister, the Vatican affairs writer for the Italian news magazine l'Espresso quotes Habermas' confession that he is is "enchanted by the
If only Rabbis could marry.Rabbi
Posted on September 25, 2009If only Rabbis could marry.Rabbi charged with child molestation from the '70s.Apparently, Massachusetts, where the molestation allegedly occurred, has a statute of limitations that is tolled when the defendant leaves the state. California has a similar statute...
But at least they aren't being
Posted on September 24, 2009But at least they aren't being exposed to the 10 Commandments.Seeing this makes me regret overreacting about refusing to allow my children to become part of the Obama propaganda mill. The children in this video seem so happy.
A plan for studyFrom the Maverick
Posted on September 23, 2009A plan for studyFrom the Maverick Philosopher.
The dating lifeAn study in Indiana
Posted on September 22, 2009The dating lifeAn study in Indiana established that 40% of rape charges were false accusations. Not unsubstantiated, false.A study of rape allegations in Indiana over a nine-year period revealed that over 40% were shown to be false ? not merely unproven...
James Fennimore Cooper's Literary
Posted on September 21, 2009James Fennimore Cooper's Literary MistakesThis article collects "Dan Brown's 20 Worst Sentences" so you don't have to.Only 20?Some examples:17. Deception Point, chapter 8: Overhanging her precarious body was a jaundiced face whose skin resembled a sheet of parchment paper punctured by two emotionless eyes...
Great Moments in MediaRight up
Posted on September 19, 2009Great Moments in MediaRight up there with my favorite feature in National Lampoon - "English Aristocrats getting hurt," which features pictures of English Aristocrats falling off their horses in polo and foxhunting events - is this clip of Wolf Blitzer tanking on Jeopardy:If these people aren't knowledgeable about the kind of trivia that makes up the World, what are they good for?
The Irony of ProjectionMegan McCardle
Posted on September 18, 2009The Irony of ProjectionMegan McCardle follows up on her "fundamentalist" reading of Limbaugh with this:I know, I know--I'm a humorless west coast liberal who doesn't get an obvious joke. No offense, but Limbaugh's listeners are not known for their ability to appreciate maybe-sort-of-satire...
What really matters.NPR writes:Through
Posted on September 17, 2009What really matters.NPR writes:Through the eyes of the H1N1 virus, a Catholic church is a playground. The font of holy water near the church entrance is a great place for the virus to leap from one person to another. The passing of the peace, during which parishioners shake hands, is yet another favorite place for the virus...
Even the fake journalists are offended
Posted on September 16, 2009Even the fake journalists are offended that they were scooped.The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cThe Audacity of Hoswww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full EpisodesPolitical HumorHealthcare Protests
Cool Internet StuffCheck out the
Posted on September 15, 2009Cool Internet StuffCheck out the reconstruction of the Bay Bridge with moveable cams.
Holding PaperPro-life activist
Posted on September 14, 2009Holding PaperPro-life activist Jim Pouillon was murdered because the killer was offended by Pouillon's pro-life message.The murderer sounds like a kook. He apparently killed a businessman because of some perceived grievance and had plans to kill another person before he was arrested...
Women's OrdinationClerical Whispers
Posted on September 13, 2009Women's OrdinationClerical Whispers has this interesting post about how a United Church of Christ minister apologized for UCC participation in a so-called ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood:Rev. David Runnion-Bareford, Executive Director of the Confessing Movement in the United Church of Christ, responded to the situation by sending an open letter to Boston area Catholics via Cardinal
Slouching towards GomorrahBody
Posted on September 12, 2009Slouching towards GomorrahBody Worlds plans cadaver show dedicated to sex.No, there's nothing wrong with secular culture. Nothing at all.From the article:The way a plastinate is exhibited can vary from country to country to reflect local sensibilities...
We are all Georgians now.Fossils
Posted on September 11, 2009We are all Georgians now.Fossils of early hominids found outside Tbilisi.Apparently, this might raise questions about the dating of the "Out of Africa" theory.
The Unmoved MoverHere is an excellent
Posted on September 10, 2009The Unmoved MoverHere is an excellent discussion of Aquinas' "First Way" proof of God - the argument from motion:The Argument from Motion is based on the observation that all change involves the transition from possibility ("potency") to actuality ("act")...
From the "Remember When?" fileDemocrats
Posted on September 09, 2009From the "Remember When?" fileDemocrats held hearings on George H.W. Bush's speech to students.
More Media MalpracticeHow the media
Posted on September 08, 2009More Media MalpracticeHow the media ignored the Van Jones scandal...and the Jeremiah Wright scandal...and the Edwards scandal.....and others.We have to feel sorry for those who rely on the mainstream media: they haven't a clue about what's going on in the world.
"Why I am not a Thomist"The Thomist
Posted on September 07, 2009"Why I am not a Thomist"The Thomist professor of philosophy at Marquette - Mark Johnson - confesses that he is not a Thomist: I told them that I didn?t feel that I could really consider myself a full student of Thomas?s teaching until I had a reasonable mastery of some basic texts and skills...
Raise the minimum wage during a
Posted on September 05, 2009Raise the minimum wage during a recession and what do you get?The highest teenage unemployment rate since the Great Depression.Big surprise.
Films and PhilosophyFather Barron
Posted on September 04, 2009Films and PhilosophyFather Barron on District 9:In ?District 9,? we see the master/slave dynamic on display: the characterization of the aliens by a derogatory nickname, their sequestration in a squalid ghetto and the violence?direct and indirect?that is visited upon them...
Another one - Hitler learns that
Posted on August 31, 2009Another one - Hitler learns that Americans are calling each other Nazis
Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached
Posted on August 28, 2009Mary Jo Kopechne could not be reached for commentsCarl Cannon reminds us about a part of the Kennedy legacy:First of all, he and two of the men, a cousin named Joseph Gargan and a friend named Paul Markham say they returned to the bridge to try and rescue Mary Jo...
Hitler learns that the "Avatar"
Posted on August 27, 2009Hitler learns that the "Avatar" trailer sucks
"Learning Ethics from Les Miserables."Everyday
Posted on August 26, 2009"Learning Ethics from Les Miserables."Everyday Thomist provides a wonderful reflection on the ethical dimensions on display in the musical Les Miserables. For myself, I have always been captivated by the disparity between Javert - incarnating the rule-oriented deontological ethic - and Jean Valjean - who instantiates, as Everyday Thomist points out, a "virtue ethics" based on love...
A cogent summary of Christopher
Posted on August 25, 2009A cogent summary of Christopher Hitchens' debate styleFrom a comment by Vox Day in the comments to this post: You clearly don't know Hitchens's style very well, because Hitchens doesn't actually make coherent arguments. His notion of an argument is to bitch about circumcision, or Mother Theresa, or bans on pork, or to tell some random anecdote about two guys he met in Zambia once, and then act as
But still competent to run both
Posted on August 24, 2009But still competent to run both the auto and health industries.Obama administration still hasn't filled half of administration posts.
More Business Heading Our WayThe
Posted on August 23, 2009More Business Heading Our WayThe Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has tossed in with the Episcopal Church and will now permit homosexuals living in a "committed relationship" to serve in leadership positions.No word as yet on whether the ELCA will allow polygamists living in a "committed relationship," or heterosexuals living in a "committed relationship," to serve as pastors...
A Presbyterian Take on hesterton's
Posted on August 22, 2009A Presbyterian Take on hesterton's The Ethics of ElflandCheck it out here.
The Passion of TarantinoWhen Mel
Posted on August 21, 2009The Passion of TarantinoWhen Mel Gibson released his "The Passion of the Christ," critics went wild with describing it as "violence porn." Now, Quentin Tarantino releases "Inglorious Basterds," which is described by its creators as "Jewish revenge fantasy" and "kosher porn...
The Scary Obama AdministrationYou've
Posted on August 19, 2009The Scary Obama AdministrationYou've got to give a lot of credit to Nat Hentoff. Republican administration or Democrat administration, he can be relied upon to put his civil libertarian convictions ahead of his political tribal loyalties. He has also been the rare Leftist voice who has spoken out against treating human beings like fungible units of commerce...
Strangely CaptivatingGirls in bikini
Posted on August 16, 2009Strangely CaptivatingGirls in bikini read Star Wars.I particularly like the dramatic tension in the scene where Han Solo encounters Greedo.
Liberals - Our intellectual masters,
Posted on August 15, 2009Liberals - Our intellectual masters, Part III.But wait! There's more!James Taranto also points to this classic example of the way that liberals become "our intellectual masters." The Orwellian Memory Hole whereby things that they said simply disappear from their memory:Two Speakers in One! "I say to the president, Mr...
Apologies to Everyone - The Old
Posted on August 14, 2009Apologies to Everyone - The Old Negro Space Program."As much as they feared losing the space race to the Russians, they were even more afraid of losing the race to the Negros."Ironically, NASA did lose when the Negro Space Program landed on the Moon in 1966, which, of course, was a story buried by the media of the time.
What a sucky mutationNo, it couldn't
Posted on August 10, 2009What a sucky mutationNo, it couldn't be the abiity to blast things with your mind or teleport or pick winning lotter numbers. It just had to be greater sensitivity to pain:A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine...
How is that transparency working
Posted on August 09, 2009How is that transparency working for 'ya"'Non-responsive' Justice Dept. pressed again on Panthers case":The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on Friday demanded for the second time that the Justice Department explain its dismissal of charges against members of the New Black Panther Party who disrupted a Philadelphia polling place during the November elections, saying a previous response was "
Liberal FascismAmidst reports that
Posted on August 07, 2009Liberal FascismAmidst reports that the Dems are packing Town Hall meetings with union members, comes this report that a conservative was assaulted by members of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) after handing out pins at a Town Hall meeting hald by Democrat Russ Carnahan...
Dean Koontz has his head screwed
Posted on August 06, 2009Dean Koontz has his head screwed on right.Catholic Exchange interviews Koontz:Describing Dean Koontz as a popular author of suspense novels is an understatement. His books have been published in 38 languages and sold more than 400 million copies worldwide...
Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!Let's hope
Posted on August 04, 2009Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!Let's hope this is just leg-pulling:GUY Ritchie's plan to put a gay spin on the relationship of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson in his new movie about the detective and his sidekick could backfire. Robert Downey Jr, who plays Holmes, has revealed the crimebuster will sleep with and have sweaty grappling scenes with Watson, played by Jude Law, in "Sherlock Holmes," due out
Most things will resolve themselves
Posted on August 03, 2009Most things will resolve themselves if you just ignore them.Being "proactive" is for suckers. Here's a great story about how this woman saved her marriage:Two decades later you have the 20 acres of land, the farmhouse, the children, the dogs and horses...
Bias in ScienceA majority of scientists
Posted on July 31, 2009Bias in ScienceA majority of scientists identify themselves as liberals. The public thinks the number is more like 20%.
The Real Question is, "Is it a
Posted on July 29, 2009The Real Question is, "Is it a coincidence that she's from Northern California?As Mark Shea observes, "A concerned citizen probes the sinister lawn sprinkler conspiracy and holds forth on the shocking changes which have take place in the laws of physics over the past 20 years...
A Book you should totally getGod's
Posted on July 28, 2009A Book you should totally getGod's Philosophers: How the medieval world laid the foundations for modern science.
Craig Ferguson on the Fall of CivilizationAt
Posted on July 27, 2009Craig Ferguson on the Fall of CivilizationAt least, the Widget, the Wadget and Boff are not fans of the Jonas Brothers.I'm raising the youngest curmudgeons in human history.
Reflections on "Angry CalvinistsBy
Posted on July 25, 2009Reflections on "Angry CalvinistsBy a former Calvinist. Fortunately, "angry Calvinists" seem to be an internet phenomena.This post from the same blog notes the resurgence in popularity of Calvinism, which raises the question of why this might be so. Calvinism - or Calvinist-like theologies - historically seem to wax when Christianity is faced with a threat from Islam...
Obama and the Post-Racial America
Posted on July 24, 2009Obama and the Post-Racial America - Hope and Status QuoVDH on the arrest of African-American Harvard professor - it "has everything to do with insider privilege and aristocratic disdain."Typically sensible:When the healer President Obama casually characterizes law enforcement as acting ?stupidly? and then blithely says we all know that African-Americans and Latinos are stopped disproportionately
Generation Narcissus tells their
Posted on July 22, 2009Generation Narcissus tells their parents to jump on that ice bergObama on changing the culture of how we deal with the medical problems of the elderly: take a pain pill.
Never go up against a car salesman
Posted on July 20, 2009Never go up against a car salesman when God, Guns and Guts are on the line.Run this guy for Congress.Auto dealer Mark Muller refuses to play the rube for CNN anchorbabe Carole Costello, who comes across as the teachers pet in high school. As Suzanna Logan observes, "Frankly, I'm suprised that CNN even aired the clip...
"Truer words have never been babbled."James
Posted on July 19, 2009"Truer words have never been babbled."James Lileks explains that we should be thanking Joe Biden for his "gaffes" - they reveal to us what the administration is really thinking.
Coming Soon to an America Near
Posted on July 18, 2009Coming Soon to an America Near You!Canadian Human Rights Commission files complaint against Catholic bishop for refusing to allow homosexual to serve as altar server.TORONTO, July 10, 2009 - The Catholic Civil Rights League commented today on the filing of a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Commission against the Bishop of Peterborough for discontinuing the service of two homosexual men as
You think?USA Today asks "Could
Posted on July 17, 2009You think?USA Today asks "Could we be wrong about global warming?Could the best climate models -- the ones used to predict global warming -- all be wrong?Maybe so, says a new study published online today in the journal Nature Geoscience. The report found that only about half of the warming that occurred during a natural climate change 55 million years ago can be explained by excess carbon
Bare, ruined choirsN.T. Wright:
Posted on July 16, 2009Bare, ruined choirsN.T. Wright: The American Episcopal church is choosing schism.
The Heckler's VetoWhat's Wrong
Posted on July 09, 2009The Heckler's VetoWhat's Wrong With the World has this incredible video of Americans being denied their free speech rights at a Muslim street festival in Deerborn, Michigan.The law is that the police must protect speakers from such "heckler's vetos." Let's hope that in Multi-cultural America, the right to free speech isn't nuanced in favor of favored minorities.
Economic malaise raises hope for
Posted on July 05, 2009Economic malaise raises hope for melanin-deficient redheadsEconomic malaise seems to be driving dating:Credit the recession for staycations and bringing us more game-night parties at home. But also give it a shout for spurring more first dates.Economic woes, it seems, unleash something practically primal in many of us who find ourselves without a partner: a hard-wired desire for
1974 Detroit is coming back with
Posted on July 03, 20091974 Detroit is coming back with a vengeance!
NominalismCraig wrote:In a message
Posted on July 01, 2009NominalismCraig wrote:In a message dated 6/29/2009 5:19:42 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, craigb@csufresno.edu writes:Here's why I'm wondering. If God is defined as "being itself," which I take it is Aquinas position, and being is inherently good, then God, and the moral structure of the universe, would just be good, baring enemy action...
Love and Economics From Vox Day:
Posted on June 30, 2009Love and Economics From Vox Day: "Is marriage worth it? Well, I should say it increasingly depends on the sex and religion of the individual. In its present state-dictated form, marriage is very much worth it for women, it is a tolerable and necessary risk for religious men, and it is an incredibly stupid gamble for non-religious men...
Remember when dissent was the highest
Posted on June 29, 2009Remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism?Dissent on global warming and you are guilty of treason! To the Planet!According to New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:So the House passed the Waxman-Markey climate-change bill. In political terms, it was a remarkable achievement...
Ethnic CleansingBosnia's Catholics
Posted on June 28, 2009Ethnic CleansingBosnia's Catholics Nearly Gone:The Muslim population is growing in Bosnia to such an extent that Sarajevo is a "practically Muslim city," according to Cardinal Franc Rodé.The prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life affirmed this when he spoke with Vatican Radio about his June 19-21 trip to the Balkans...
Two atheists arguing over how enthusistic
Posted on June 27, 2009Two atheists arguing over how enthusistic an atheist has to be in "liquidating" non-atheists.This exchange at Sam Harris' website is rather chilling. It seems that Harris wants to purge Phillip Ball of his atheistic cum "rationalis" bona fides because he refuses to ascribe all Evil to believers...
The Global Warming ScandalThe consensus
Posted on June 26, 2009The Global Warming ScandalThe consensus - which was manufactured like the "Bolsheviks" manufactured their majority status - is breaking down according to the Wall Street Journal:Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting...
If only teachers could marry -
Posted on June 18, 2009If only teachers could marry - part of a continuing seriesThis time it's in Indiannapolis and involves a male teacher and a 13 year old boy.
Dialogue on Calvin, nature and
Posted on June 12, 2009Dialogue on Calvin, nature and the knowledge of GodFrom an online discussion with other "Fresno Bookies."Craig is the author of "The Trial of Man: Christianity and Judgment in the World of Shakespeare and writes at VDH, which is high up on the coolness index...
Sooner or later, the left is gonna
Posted on June 11, 2009Sooner or later, the left is gonna get ya'Carrie Prejean fired as Miss California.Toleration is not enough; you must express your unreserved support for the love which dares not speak its name but won't shut up.
Holding PaperNIPCC Report on global
Posted on June 10, 2009Holding PaperNIPCC Report on global warming.
Upcoming Science Fiction MoviesRemakes,
Posted on June 09, 2009Upcoming Science Fiction MoviesRemakes, Phillip K. Dick, and, for the those deeply into SF nerdiness, a movie based on E.E. "Doc" Smith's Lensmen series.Wow. Lensmen. That's hardcore.Speaking of hardcore, here is a radio interview between Harlan Ellison and Robin Williams...
Free Speech in America, or St.
Posted on June 06, 2009Free Speech in America, or St. Thomas More Call Your Office.Americans are free to discuss whatever they want so long as it involves pornography or art and does not get anywhere near politics or religion.Check out this story about Catholic Answers' claim that it has been subjected to intimidation by the IRS:The apologetics organization Catholic Answers has filed suit against the Internal Revenue
If only women teachers could marry
Posted on June 05, 2009If only women teachers could marry - part of a continuing series.According to AOL Wire News ServiceA former music teacher in Michigan accused of having sex with two students was sentenced to nine months in jail on Wednesday.Police say 42-year-old Ranee Proper had sex with boys ages 16 and 17...
Musical Treat of the DayA literalistic
Posted on June 04, 2009Musical Treat of the DayA literalistic treatment of a Bonnie Tyler music video.There are some very clever people out there with waaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.FYI - Here's the original music video.
Liberal Fascism AlertIt's amazing
Posted on June 02, 2009Liberal Fascism AlertIt's amazing how liberals permit themselves to traffic in the racism and misogyny that they seem to see on the right. I've pointed out the shamefully racist attacks on Michelle Malkin and the sophomoric Olbermann screeds about Carrie Prejean...
Sycophantic sheep bleat in protestFrom
Posted on May 27, 2009Sycophantic sheep bleat in protestFrom Poynter Online:WH correspondents file another complaint about background briefingsWashington Post | Los Angeles Times"We protest in the strongest terms the Obama administration's frequent use of briefings done on a background basis," says AP's Jennifer Loven, president of the White House Correspondents' Association...
Marriage DecisionHere is the decision.The
Posted on May 26, 2009Marriage DecisionHere is the decision.The California Supreme Court upholds the constitutional amendment but finds that it cannot be applied retroactively.From my brief skim of the decision, I'm amazed at the tone of the concurrences, i.e., the people can amend the Constitution, but they can't change the Court's decision; all that the people decided was the official designation used for gay unions
"So to sum up, the epistemological
Posted on May 19, 2009"So to sum up, the epistemological critique of religion ? it is an inferior way of knowing ? is the flip side of a naďve and untenable positivism. And the critique of religion?s content ? it?s cotton-candy fluff ? is the product of incredible ignorance...
Secularists have to keep repeating
Posted on May 16, 2009Secularists have to keep repeating the myth that there is a war between science and religionCatholics, on the other hand, just do science.Father Barron on "Angels and Demons."
Degrees of PerfectionCheck out
Posted on May 14, 2009Degrees of PerfectionCheck out this Roger L. Simon video about how confronting evil gave him a glimpse of God.In a way, Simon is gesturing at one of St. Thomas Aquinas' famous "five ways" for a proof of the existence of God:The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things...
What's there to worry about?It's
Posted on May 12, 2009What's there to worry about?It's not like members of the power elite lump us into ungoodthoughtcrimething status.Cybil Shepard channels her social class - which is a lot closer to power than those she stereotypes:Tennessee-born beauty Cybill Shepherd definitely isn?t one to waste words -- and had she no qualms in speaking out about who she thought was to blame for the passing of Proposition 8 in
The Outrage of the DayRemember
Posted on May 11, 2009The Outrage of the DayRemember when dissent used to be patriotic?Remember when a President publicly grinning at the prospective death of a prominent critic would be considered threatening?Remember when comedians "talked truth to power."All that is so last year in the Days of Hope and Change...
Pooh and Public Health PolicyI'm
Posted on May 04, 2009Pooh and Public Health PolicyI'm sure that my middle daughter - a fan of Pooh - wouldn't appreciate this reflection on the "Swine Flu Panic of 2009."[Via Protein Wisdom]
For some, it's not a symbolic issue.This
Posted on May 01, 2009For some, it's not a symbolic issue.This essay in First Things is simply amazing - and depicts the real issue in Notre Dame's decision to honor a president who could not bring himself to support a law against killing babies born alive.For many members of the Notre Dame Class of 2009, the uproar surrounding the university?s decision to honor Barack Obama with this year?s commencement address, and
BlogsAt Big Hollywood, actor Robert
Posted on April 25, 2009BlogsAt Big Hollywood, actor Robert Davi introduces his the blog of his conservative cousin Michael Rulle.A quick scan suggests its well worth reading.
Liberal FascismJohn Ziegler - a
Posted on April 21, 2009Liberal FascismJohn Ziegler - a conservative media critic - points out the embarrassing silence by the "free speech" community to his arrest at USC. Ziegler is the producer of "How Obama Got Elected" and was at USC because Katie Couric was getting an award in journalistic excellence...
Why mainstream media is circling
Posted on April 16, 2009Why mainstream media is circling the bowlDuring the Bush years, we never saw a reporter insult the wacky anti-Bush protesters and insinuate - much less assert - that protests were organized by "outside agitators."But for the "Tea Day" protests, CNN makes an exception:This video with CNN anchor Susan Roesgen is pretty unreal...
Liberal FascismProtesters Tuesday
Posted on April 15, 2009Liberal FascismProtesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo opposing in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.In the best tradition of the Brown Shirts.
A judge looks at PilateOne professional
Posted on April 13, 2009A judge looks at PilateOne professional critiques the performance of another and finds it wanting.In examining these facts objectively, I cannot imagine a more unjust judge than Pilate or a more unjust judgment than the one rendered by him. Unable to hold to the correct and just decision he initially made concerning Christ?s case, Pilate attempted to shift responsibility for making a decision,
If only Protestant pastors could
Posted on April 11, 2009If only Protestant pastors could marry - part of a continuing seriesThe former pastor of Sierra Baptist Church in Northeast Fresno has been sentenced to 36-years in prison. Bonine plead guilty to molesting two girls over several years.Tragic. Sad. Disappointing...
Behind the media wall: Report card
Posted on April 10, 2009Behind the media wall: Report card on Obama's foreign tripIt's not looking good according to this Newsbusters' post on a Charles Krauthammer column:In his major foreign policy address in Prague committing the United States to a world without nuclear weapons, President Obama took note of North Korea's missile launch just hours earlier and then grandiloquently proclaimed:"Rules must be binding.
50 things every 18 year old should
Posted on April 09, 200950 things every 18 year old should knowPretty good list.There ought to be one about "18 things every 50 year old should know," but it would be taken up with things like "get a colonoscopy."
"... the jaw-dropping spectacle
Posted on April 08, 2009"... the jaw-dropping spectacle of a president of the United States bowing to the king of Saudi Arabia."Even a leftist like Camille Paglia is stunned by Obama's missteps: Obama's staffing problems are blatant -- from that bleating boy of a treasury secretary to what appears to be a total vacuum where a chief of protocol should be...
Predictable - Newsweek is doing
Posted on April 07, 2009Predictable - Newsweek is doing its annual "Christianity sucks" piece for Easter.Here's the article.We see this every year.Not that it's bias or anything. Because every year at tax time they do "Government sucks" article and on the 4th of July they do an "America sucks" article and on Martin Luther King day they do a "Victimization-exploiters suck" article and on Valentine's Day they do a "Pop
Speaking "Austrian"......is like
Posted on April 06, 2009Speaking "Austrian"......is like speaking "Californian."President Obama explains how he doesn't know the word for "wheeling and dealing" in "Austrian."Most people think that the language spoken in Austrian is commonly known as "German."To be fair, everyone has these kinds of moments, but after years of jumping on every purported malapropism of Bush, Palin and Quayle as evidence of their "
Hitchens v. Craig Debate on GodDoug
Posted on April 05, 2009Hitchens v. Craig Debate on GodDoug Geivett outlines the debate between Christopher Hitchens and William Lane Craig and he concludes:Hitchens can have no excuse for dropping arguments when he knows?or should know?exactly what to expect. Suppose one replies that William Craig is a more experienced debater and a trained philosopher, while Christopher Hitchens is a journalist working outside the
Even left-wing European newspapers
Posted on April 04, 2009Even left-wing European newspapers are taking shots at Obama muddled communication styleThe Guardian notes: Barack Obama, the World's Greatest Orator (?all news organisations), didn't exactly cover himself in glory when the BBC's political editor Nick Robinson asked him a question about who was to blame for the financial crisis...
Oh, come on! Can't anyone teach
Posted on April 03, 2009Oh, come on! Can't anyone teach him anything about what it means to be an American?The flag does not dip to dictators and free born Americans do not bow to any monarch ever.But there is our President bowing to the Saudi King.Great way of giving away over 200 years of tradition that many Americans have fought to defend.
If only Little League coaches could
Posted on April 02, 2009If only Little League coaches could marry.Part of a continuing series on the fallacy of publicity.
"If people don't have Aquinas,
Posted on April 01, 2009"If people don't have Aquinas, they will follow any ass who comes along."Dawn Eden has a post on why it is a good idea to be careful in attending seminars to enhance one's spirituality. The post is worth reading for the final sentence.
Calvinist RomanceOf course, after
Posted on March 31, 2009Calvinist RomanceOf course, after that it gets totally depraved.
Speaking of FascismObama fires
Posted on March 30, 2009Speaking of FascismObama fires the president of General Motors, appoints a "Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers" and promises that the United States will stand behind GM's warranties.Speaking historically, what is the difference between this and what Mussolini advocated as "fascism"?
Socially Autistic AtheistsHere
Posted on March 26, 2009Socially Autistic AtheistsHere is Bill Maher trying to justify Obama's "Special Olympics" snipe while exposing the mindset behind the familiar "they'd be better off aborted before birth" trope.According to Maher, how dare Sarah Palin claim that the disabled are "the most special and unique people"! Doesn't she understand that the disabled aren't special or unique because...
The Glories of Rhetoric*Sigh*In
Posted on March 25, 2009The Glories of Rhetoric*Sigh*In America, the height of political rhetoric is to conscript an advertising slogan into a talking point.But in England, there is still some flair.[Via NRO]
Everybody's getting in on the action.The
Posted on March 22, 2009Everybody's getting in on the action.The Telegraph lists - and provides videotape on - Obama and Biden's Top 10 Gaffes.
Could you imagine the media reaction
Posted on March 21, 2009Could you imagine the media reaction if this had been said by Cheney?So, there was Biden, threatening local government about misapplying the manna from heaven provided through the "Porkulus Bill", and then when everything gets serious, he unloads pure comedy gold:JOSEPH BIDEN, Vice President of the United States: Because of the rules, the president and I can?t stop you from doing some things, but
Peggy NoonanFrom the WSJ:These
Posted on March 20, 2009Peggy NoonanFrom the WSJ:These are the two great issues, the economic crisis and our safety. In the face of them, what strikes one is the weightlessness of the Obama administration, the jumping from issue to issue and venue to venue from day to day. Isaiah Berlin famously suggested a leader is a fox or a hedgehog...
Cynicism RulesDown below, I wondered
Posted on March 19, 2009Cynicism RulesDown below, I wondered what the pay-off was for inserting the language permitting AIG to pay bonuses. Now it turns out that the person responsible for that language was Chris Dodd, who was notoriously in the pocket of the mortgage lenders...
Get to know your President better5
Posted on March 18, 2009Get to know your President better5 Myths about President Obama:I?ve concluded that much of the conventional wisdom about Obama is wrong. Here are five of the biggest misconceptions: 1. Obama is bold. Actually, he is overly cautious. It?s no coincidence the first bills he signed into law were the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and an expansion of the State Children?s Health Insurance Program, two
Quality in Fresno News ReportingNotice
Posted on March 17, 2009Quality in Fresno News ReportingNotice how often Fresno newspapers and television stations get things wrong in this post about "9 Things the Media Messed Up About the Obama Stem Cell Story".The Fresno media may get the facts wrong, but, at least, they are dependably in the tank for liberal rightthink...
They said that if I voted for McCain,
Posted on March 16, 2009They said that if I voted for McCain, taxes on employer provided health care would be taxed.......and they were right!Obama administration plans to tax employer provided health care benefits despite attacking McCain for proposing to tax employer provided health care benefits.
It's nice to hear this kind of
Posted on March 15, 2009It's nice to hear this kind of thing from the foreign press.According to this Telegraph article, Sir Gus O'Donnel, England's most senior civil servant, is having trouble finding out who to talk to in the Obama administration because "there is nobody there":But yesterday, Sir Gus O'Donnell, Britain's most senior civil servant, exposed transatlantic tension when he protested that Downing Street was
"Global Warming is a Fraud"The
Posted on March 14, 2009"Global Warming is a Fraud"The debate is over, according to Al Gore, but it never really got started. Reason Online reports:March 9, New York?The participants at the final lunch of the International Climate Change Conference in New York were in a celebratory and pugnacious mood...
More Obama Problems in StaffingH.
Posted on March 13, 2009More Obama Problems in StaffingH. Rodgin Cohen withdraws from nomination for the Treasury Department's "number 2" position. No explanation was provided for Cohen's withdrawal and the press is not interested in finding out:The party line, according to ABC?s This Week host and former Clinton administration adviser George Stephanopoulos, is that ?an issue arose in the final stages of the vetting
Hate SpeechMaureen Mullarkey describes
Posted on March 12, 2009Hate SpeechMaureen Mullarkey describes how she has been subjected to tactics that liberals normally condemns as "McCarthyite" but now apparently its "all good":Until now, donating to a cause did not open private citizens to a battery of invective and jackboot tactics...
Coming AttractionsAccording to
Posted on March 11, 2009Coming AttractionsAccording to NRO:ATLANTA ? An undercover state investigator told a right-to-die network that he wanted to kill himself. In response, he later testified, officials of the network planned to have him asphyxiate himself with a helium-filled face mask while holding down his arms...
Rules for destroying the economyHere
Posted on March 10, 2009Rules for destroying the economyHere they are.I particularly like these:5. Undermine the ability of those who create jobs by increasing their taxes so there?s less money available for investment.6. While you?re at it, offer to spread the income around by raising taxes, in the process, making it clear to those who work hard, invest in their educations, take risks, save, and delay gratification
What does it mean when only a liberal
Posted on March 09, 2009What does it mean when only a liberal Obama supporter can explain that class warfare is bad for America?It means that gutless Republicans have become whipped by the media and could take a few lessons in "manning up" from Jim Cramer.Cramer responds to the Obama/media complex:President Obama's team, unlike Bush's team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me...
Iceland - Europe's CaliforniaThis
Posted on March 08, 2009Iceland - Europe's CaliforniaThis is a great article on Iceland - where every man, woman and child is bankrupt to the tune of $330,000:Global financial ambition turned out to have a downside. When their three brand-new global-size banks collapsed, last October, Iceland?s 300,000 citizens found that they bore some kind of responsibility for $100 billion of banking losses?which works out to roughly
Foreclosure RatesThis is a very
Posted on March 07, 2009Foreclosure RatesThis is a very cool graphic about the change in foreclosure rates from 2006 to 2008.You will notice that Fresno County is - surprise! - in the top 35 counties by foreclosure rates, and that a lion share of the nation's top 35 are clustered around Central California...
Cal Supreme Court Modifies Episcopal
Posted on February 26, 2009Cal Supreme Court Modifies Episcopal DecisionThe Anglican Curmudgeon has been following this case.
"Wars are won by destroying the
Posted on February 24, 2009"Wars are won by destroying the enemy's will to fight. A nation is never really beaten until it sells its women."Spengler on Iranian whores and why Iran is passing as a nation.Fascinating.Here's Spengler's latest contrarian essay, which describes why a nuclear armed Iran is so very dangerous:Their efforts to isolate Iran from the cultural degradation of the American "great Satan" have produced
St. Damien of MolokaiFather Damien
Posted on February 23, 2009St. Damien of MolokaiFather Damien of Molokai will be canonized on October 11.The lepers of Molokai were true outcasts. Once they were diagnosed, they were immediately bundled off to the colony and no one ever spoke of them again. The colony was primitive and hopeless...
MismatchWho thought it was a good
Posted on February 21, 2009MismatchWho thought it was a good idea to match up flat-lining Joy Behar against Ann Coulter? Check out the clips and see how often Behar trotted out cliche and non-sequiturs as real arguments. I like the part where Behar interrogates Coulter for saying that Barbara Walters was reading her book like she was reading from "Mein Kampf" because "wasn't it insensitive" for her to say that to a Jewish
The unpopularity of Obama's lifting
Posted on February 17, 2009The unpopularity of Obama's lifting of oversea's abortion restrictionsGallup has this poll showing the relative popularity of Obama's early decisions:The unpopular decisions cater to his base, and may spell trouble for him in the future.
Well, as I always say, if we're
Posted on February 16, 2009Well, as I always say, if we're discussing indulgences, we are not discussing the ordination of active homosexual bishops.I like it that we set the tripwire of controversy at the 16th Century.Here is a round-up of views on the so-called re-emergence of indulgences...
Back at'cha, BarryCongressman Schock's
Posted on February 15, 2009Back at'cha, BarryCongressman Schock's explains why he won't vote for the Porkulus Bill despite the President's sophomoric grandstanding.
Not in your textbooksDon McLaren
Posted on February 14, 2009Not in your textbooksDon McLaren at American Catholic shares this anecdote about Lincoln and "separation of church and state":It's so good, I'm going to cut and paste most of it:On July 4, 1864 Abraham Lincoln had much to pre-occupy his mind. Grant?s drive on Richmond had bogged down into a stalemated siege to the south of Richmond around the city of Petersburg...
Where's the outrage? Mark Shea
Posted on February 11, 2009Where's the outrage? Mark Shea has this tagged under "If only teachers could marry" and gets some worthy insights about the human condition out of it. According to This article, teachers and coaches in the Chicago school system have been documened as engagung in physical abuse of children without job termination: CBS 2 informed former Chicago Public School CEO Arne Duncan of our investigative
What the hey??? I've been puzzled
Posted on February 09, 2009What the hey??? I've been puzzled by the interest in Nadya Suleman - the woman who has 14 children by in vitro fertilization - particularly the part about the state investigating the clinic responsible. Suleman doesn't strike me as a model for responsible motherhood, being unmarried without a husband or father to help in a herculian task of child-rearing...
Be like an atheist... ...and
Posted on February 08, 2009Be like an atheist... ...and make your own bus sign.
Satanic There just doesn't seem
Posted on February 05, 2009Satanic There just doesn't seem to be any other way to describe the way that Al Quaeda is allegedly using rape as a way of ensuring its supply of suicide bombers. "Al-Qaeda accused of using male rape to 'create' suicide bombers": The Sun quotes Algerian militant Abu Baçir El Assimi: "The sexual act on young recruits aged between 16 to 19 was a means to urge them to commit suicide operations...
Tragedy Tragedy is the father
Posted on February 04, 2009Tragedy Tragedy is the father of young children dying untimely. Please pray for the soul and family of Michael Dubriel, writer and husband of Amy Welborn, who passed away unexpectedly today at the age of 50.
There are narratives and there
Posted on February 03, 2009There are narratives and there are narratives Where's Obama during the Midwestern ice storm? More importantly, why isn't the media hanging this around Obama's neck, given what they did during the Bush administration?
California Dreamin' Well, what
Posted on February 02, 2009California Dreamin' Well, what does happen when the Left gets control. According to Victor Davis Hanson the result is social dysfunction: For years the open borders lobby accused ?them? (whites? The establishment? Conservatives? etc.) of racism in wanting the border with Mexico closed, an end to state entitlements to illegal aliens (remember the Satanic Prop 187?), and deportations of
Being the fruit of the vine which
Posted on February 01, 2009Being the fruit of the vine which is Obama Can you imagine Bush/a Republican getting away/doing this?
Nonetheless, I was promised flying
Posted on January 31, 2009Nonetheless, I was promised flying cars... The future as seen from 1981, when "2 or 3 thousand Bay Area residents" had home computers. [Via Mark Shea.]
Tipping her hand This merits a
Posted on January 27, 2009Tipping her hand This merits a "did I actually say that out loud?" moment by Nancy Pelosi: Let's be honest - for a change - abortion policy is more about reducing government cost by eliminating as many children of the poor and needy as possible than it is about "choice...
Disturbing Obama is already running
Posted on January 25, 2009Disturbing Obama is already running against the media - the small part of the media that isn't part of liberal hegemony. He's also sounding like a guy who believes that "bipartisan" means "do things my way": "You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package...
"For how many years must the planet
Posted on January 20, 2009"For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming?" Perhaps it's cooling in a spiritual sense? From this op-ed: If you're wondering why North America is starting to resemble nuclear winter, then you missed the news...
Is International Trade Collapsing? Shipping
Posted on January 19, 2009Is International Trade Collapsing? Shipping prices from Asia to Europe have fallen to zero or below costs because European demand for Asian goods have collapsed. Not good.
Obama Language Watch Obama on
Posted on January 18, 2009Obama Language Watch Obama on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial mentioned the "enormity of the challenges facing us." Alrighty then, "enormity" means "The quality of passing all moral bounds; excessive wickedness or outrageousness." He probably meant "enormousness" or "size...
There are dots, but if you connect
Posted on January 17, 2009There are dots, but if you connect them you are "un-American." Inside Catholic points to Tom Hanks' recent comment that those who voted for Prop 8 are "Un-American" and that Tom Hanks is the producer for the "Big Love", which subverts traditional companionate heterosexual marriage by depicting polygamy as normal...
Liberal Fascism Rod Dreher has
Posted on January 16, 2009Liberal Fascism Rod Dreher has a post on a map someone ran up that "mashes" the Prop 8 donor list with Google. I've spent a few minutes seeing who in Fresno donated to protect marriage in Fresno, and I spotted a basketball coach and the HR manager of the local Whole Foods...
The power to tax is the power to
Posted on January 15, 2009The power to tax is the power to destroy A few months after Prop 8 passes, San Francisco invokes a novel theory to tax Catholic property.
Another blow to the Fresno economy Gottschalk's
Posted on January 14, 2009Another blow to the Fresno economy Gottschalk's has filed bankruptcy. Sounds like a whole bunch of expensive office space in Riverpark is about to open up.
Grant him a holy death Father
Posted on January 07, 2009Grant him a holy death Father Neuhaus has received last rites.
Big Hollywood Andrew Breitbart
Posted on January 06, 2009Big Hollywood Andrew Breitbart launches "Big Hollywood", which he describes as: ...a big group blog that will feature hundreds of the big minds from the fields of politics, journalism, entertainment and culture. Big Hollywood is not a ?celebrity? gabfest or a gossip outpost - it is a continuous politics and culture posting board for those who think something has gone drastically wrong and that
The Death of Mainstream Protestantism The
Posted on January 05, 2009The Death of Mainstream Protestantism The California Supreme Court has essentially - as acknowledged in Justice Kennard's concurrence - returned to hierarchical principles for the determination of church property disputes. This means that California provides a major piece of persuasive authority for those declining Protestant denominations that have "departed from doctrine" and which are
Making the world new I've been
Posted on January 01, 2009Making the world new I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Raving Atheist's announcement of his conversion to Christianity. Hope is a transcendent Christian virtue, but not being taken in by a stupid prank - like that perpetrated by this dillweed - is a pragmatically human desire...
Why do polls show that people so
Posted on December 28, 2008Why do polls show that people so happy here, Mr. Hitler This is head-smacking stupid on the part of Matt Lauer, and totally worth remembering as one of the great moments in bad journalism for 2008:
Merry Christmas The Widget,
Posted on December 25, 2008Merry Christmas The Widget, the Wadget, Boff and I went to the Christmas Vigil mass last night. This morning, we opened presents and the Widget and the Wadget are learning how to make their new Wii work. The rest of the family will be over this evening...
If only teachers could marry... According
Posted on December 22, 2008If only teachers could marry... According to Worldnet Daily: According to a major 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education ? the most authoritative investigation to date ? nearly 10 percent of U.S. public school students have been targeted with unwanted sexual attention by school employees, and in those cases, 40 percent of the perpetrators were women...
Democracy? We don't need no stinkin'
Posted on December 20, 2008Democracy? We don't need no stinkin' democracy California's Attorney General Jerry Brown - aka "Governor Moonbeam" - asks the California Supreme Court to overturn Prop 8. Brown's last minute filing reflects an about face on his part and an abandonment of his duties as AG: Brown's argument on Proposition 8, contained in an 111-page brief filed at the last possible moment before the court's
An Improbable Life I've always
Posted on December 15, 2008An Improbable Life I've always been curious about the journey that took the son of John Foster Dulles into the Catholic Church, where he became one of Catholicism's preeminent theologians and a prince of the church. This New York Times obituary provides some background: His spiritual passage to Catholicism was like a fable...
Grant him peace Avery Cardinal
Posted on December 12, 2008Grant him peace Avery Cardinal Dulles has passed away.
Book Club Ayatollah A friend who
Posted on December 11, 2008Book Club Ayatollah A friend who know that I'm involved in a few book groups sent me this NYT article. Obviously, I'm smitten with the dissident member who quit because of the selection of the Da Vinci Code: The last straw came when the group picked ?The Da Vinci Code? and someone suggested the discussion would be enriched by delving into the author?s source material...
10,000 hours over 10 years That's
Posted on December 10, 200810,000 hours over 10 years That's all it takes to succeed at anything. [Via Wanderers]
Water is wet: Chicago politician
Posted on December 09, 2008Water is wet: Chicago politician arrested for corruption Illinois Governor Blagojevich arrested for attempting to "sell off" Obama's senate seat. The complaint alleges: Rod Blagojevich has been intercepted conspiring to trade the senate seat for particular positions that the President-elect has the power to appoint (e...
Merry Advent Christmas season
Posted on November 30, 2008Merry Advent Christmas season doesn't start until later this month and then lasts until Epiphany. Joseph Bottum points out something unsettling about the modern approach to Christmas that starts - it seems - sometime before Halloween: These days, by the time Christmas actually rolls around, it feels as though this is very nearly what we?ve had: Christmas every day, at least since Thanksgiving.
The Iron Age and the Plastic Age If
Posted on November 29, 2008The Iron Age and the Plastic Age If you have an MP3 player, or preferably an Ipod, and you like history, you should check out Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Carlin is a self-proclaimed "history fan" rather than a history scholar and his aim is to take the events of history and make them real to us as actual events lived by people like ourselves...
Very Politically Incorrect, but
Posted on November 28, 2008Very Politically Incorrect, but Absolutely True According to Victor Davis Hanson's list of ten politically incorrect truths: 1. Four years of high-school Latin would dramatically arrest the decline in American education. In particular, such instruction would do more for minority youths than all the 'role model' diversity sermons on Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X, Montezuma, and Caesar Chavez put
Hubris What is this nonsense
Posted on November 26, 2008Hubris What is this nonsense about the "Office of President-Elect???? There is no such thing under the Constitution and I can't recall any prior President-elect pretending that there was. This is like the "Obama official seal." The guy seems to have some real issues with reality or modesty.
Too Funny Apparently, in Scranton,
Posted on November 21, 2008Too Funny Apparently, in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Syracuse, New York, if you want to evoke the image of the exotic, Southwest, rootin'-tootin' cowboy lifestyle, the thing to do is name your restaurant "Fresno's."
A theory of moral sentiments Freedom
Posted on November 20, 2008A theory of moral sentiments Freedom is not for everyone. It is for those who have the habits that make living free possible. As Daniel Heninger observes: What really went missing through the subprime mortgage years were the three Rs: responsibility, restraint and remorse...
Good Advice Dr. Helen quotes Ted
Posted on November 19, 2008Good Advice Dr. Helen quotes Ted Nugent: You don't need tough love in America, you need tougher love. Around the water cooler, at the church, at school. At the work place, at the picnic, and the bowling alley. You should be pounding the desk with your fist, raising hell, and take this beautiful state back from the pimps, and the whores, and the welfare brats, and the gang-bangers who seems to
The love that dares not speak its
Posted on November 17, 2008The love that dares not speak its name won't shut up, but if you want to say "one nation under God" you have to go into a closet. An elementary school in Woodbury, Vermont forbids the saying of the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary schoolrooms; those who want to say the Pledge have to go to a second floor gymnasium...
Christmas Christmas gifts through
Posted on November 16, 2008Christmas Christmas gifts through Amazon.
If only University of Iowa college
Posted on November 15, 2008If only University of Iowa college professors could marry. Second University of Iowa professor commits suicide after sexual harassment charge is upheld.
Artistic director forced to resign
Posted on November 14, 2008Artistic director forced to resign because of support of Prop 8 This story was mentioned previously, but the situation played itself outwith Scott Eckhern resigning his position because of his exercise of his political and religious rights. Eckhern is a Mormon.
Exactly P.J. O'Rourke, lamenting
Posted on November 13, 2008Exactly P.J. O'Rourke, lamenting the self-immolation of conservativism, nails this point, which I've been wondering about: The left has no idea what's going on in the financial crisis. And I honor their confusion. Jim Jerk down the road from me, with all the cars up on blocks in his front yard, falls behind in his mortgage payments, and the economy of Iceland implodes...
Liberal McCarthyism Opera director
Posted on November 12, 2008Liberal McCarthyism Opera director blacklisted for contributing to Yes on 8 campaign. Blacklisting - good or bad? It depends on whether it's Communists or regular Americans, apparently.
Pluralism A classy clip on the
Posted on November 11, 2008Pluralism A classy clip on the importance of religious liberty and tolerance. Via Jennifer Roback Morse.
If only teachers could marry Salinas
Posted on November 10, 2008If only teachers could marry Salinas teacher accused of molestation.
I am unendorsing McCain. This
Posted on November 09, 2008I am unendorsing McCain. This post by Andrew McCarthy crystalizes my McCain conundrum: Sen. McCain did not allow a nanosecond to go buy without issuing a sanctimonius, full-throated condemnation of any Republican who dared use Sen. Obama's middle name, mention Jeremiah Wright, or otherwise trash The One...
Washington Post ombudsman acknowledges
Posted on November 08, 2008Washington Post ombudsman acknowledges that Washington Post was in the tank for Obama Convenient that this comes out three days after the election when it can do no "harm." In other words, even this mea culpa story is "in the tank for Obama." Amazing...
Love and Economics Steve Sailer
Posted on November 07, 2008Love and Economics Steve Sailer engages in some thinking outside the box. His speculation is whether the heavy credit card debt of some women of a certain age who are still seeking marriage might deter their marriage prospects as a kind of "reverse dowry...
Wall Street endorses Obama economic
Posted on November 06, 2008Wall Street endorses Obama economic policy Stock Market has record 500 point fall for day after election.
Seven things you can't do if you're
Posted on November 05, 2008Seven things you can't do if you're a moral relativist This is a nice list by Greg Koukl.
Election 2008 McCain leads in
Posted on November 02, 2008Election 2008 McCain leads in Ohio and North Carolina in recent polls. Again, the question in my mind is how much the pollsters have skewed their calculations in favor of Obama. Also, consider the media malpractice in the "Joe the Plumber" case and the situation of Obama's aunt who is in America illegally and has made illegal contributions to her nephew...
The War on the Normal continues Wonkette
Posted on November 01, 2008The War on the Normal continues Wonkette and her fans take time out of their busy schedule to ridicule Trig Palin again: Little baby Trig must be so glad he wasn?t aborted for this, his first Halloween, because his parents dressed him up like a political party symbol to be carried around at snarling political events...
Lest We Forget Obama has no accomplishments
Posted on October 31, 2008Lest We Forget Obama has no accomplishments and four years as President will be the longest time he's ever held a job.
Beatification of Japanese Martyrs 188
Posted on October 30, 2008Beatification of Japanese Martyrs 188 Japanese martyrs to be beatified in Nagasaki. According to the link: The 188 Japanese martyrs killed in the seventeenth century for their faith include priests, religious and lay people: their cause is referred to as the "beatification of Fr Petro Kassui Kibe and his 187 companions"...
Patterns Victor Davis Hanson writes
Posted on October 29, 2008Patterns Victor Davis Hanson writes about a strange patern in Obama's campaigns: Individually, the extra-electoral efforts are irrelevant. But in the aggregate, they start to add up. In 1996 Obama goes to court, challenges the petition signatures of mostly African-American voters, and gets all his rivals eliminated from the ballot and so de facto runs unopposed...
Biden's Bishop responds Bishop
Posted on October 28, 2008Biden's Bishop responds Bishop Malooly says: In his interview with The News Journal published Oct. 19, Sen. Joe Biden presents a seriously erroneous picture of Catholic teaching on abortion. He said, ?I know that my church has wrestled with this for 2,000 years,? and claimed repeatedly that the Church has a nuanced view of the subject that leaves a great deal of room for uncertainty and debate.
There beats in the heart of liberalism
Posted on October 27, 2008There beats in the heart of liberalism a deep contempt for the average American Check out this regional opinion essay from the Philadelphia Inquirer entitled "White people shouldn't be allowed to vote." The precis of this piece by a "lifelong Caucasian" is that the people he has "broken Kielbasa with" are so stupid and beset by fear that they will believe that Obama "going to fire all the white
Spiritual India Catholic nun raped
Posted on October 26, 2008Spiritual India Catholic nun raped and paraded through the streets.
Poll places McCain within 2 points
Posted on October 24, 2008Poll places McCain within 2 points of Obama IBD/TIPP was supposedly the most accurate pollster in 2004. The poll shows McCain with a 9 point lead among Catholics, and, weirdly, a 52 point lead among 18 - 24 year old voters. What's with that?
Holding Paper CNN's biased use
Posted on October 23, 2008Holding Paper CNN's biased use against Palin of Byron York's criticism of media bias against Palin reaches of almost palindromic level of absurdity. There's no apology and CNNC is making York's complaint about their biased use of his criticism of their bias a reason for making the biased reporter, Drew Griffin, a profile in courage...
The next right that some court
Posted on October 22, 2008The next right that some court will find in the Constitution Check out this Times Online (UK) article on the Brave New World of incest. Or not, if you don't feel up to it. Let's see, we have a constitutional right to privacy, which means keeping the government out of our bedrooms, and that constitutional right means that we can't stigmatize the way that people want to pair off - for now -
Enough already.. I get the message Checking
Posted on October 21, 2008Enough already.. I get the message Checking out at Whole Foods, I noticed the two magazines facing the check-out line. One was Atlantic magazine with a stern visaged McCain next to a teaser about "War is the Answer." The other was Men's Health magazine with a smiling, relaxed Obama next to a teaser about "Health and Fit...
Well, of course, he's not Muslim.
Posted on October 20, 2008Well, of course, he's not Muslim. His pastor was a Black-Nationalist, America-hating Christian. Zero Updates points out that the quickest way to dispel Colin Powell's claim that McCain's camp is spreading a rumor that Obama is Mulsim would be for it to start talking about his real pastor...
Media Malpractice Instapundit
Posted on October 19, 2008Media Malpractice Instapundit posts this from a CNN broadcast from "Reliable Sources": On media coverage of money raised during the campaign KURTZ: Mark Halperin, we learned this morning that Barack Obama in the month of September raised $150 million, the early estimates had been about $100 million...
The media has spent more time reporting
Posted on October 18, 2008The media has spent more time reporting on "Joe the Plumber's" tax problems than on Obama's ethical violations. The Volokh Conspiracy documents the ethical violations that Obama's tax returns show, but which the national media have zero interest in reporting.
Not there yet, but getting closer Science
Posted on October 17, 2008Not there yet, but getting closer Science Fiction author Jerry Pournelle writes: It doesn't take a Ph.D. in political science to realize that those getting an earned income credit "refund" are likely to vote for those who offer to increase that payment...
More Trials and Tribulations for
Posted on October 16, 2008More Trials and Tribulations for Generation Narcissus More weirdness among the Generation Narcissus clergy. Did you hear the one about the Catholic priest at Fresno's Newman Center who told the parishioners during his sermon that he was going to vote "no" on Proposition 8 - the Marriage Restoration Initiative? Fresno's Bishop Steinbock removed him from his ministry at the Newman Center,
The trials and tribulations of
Posted on October 14, 2008The trials and tribulations of Generation Narcissus Episcopal Church moves to defrock its Muslim priestess. Here's the weird thing - as if that wasn't weird enough - she doesn't understand why the Episcopal Church is being so non-embracing: "I'm saddened and disappointed that this could not be an opportunity" for the church to broaden its perspective and talk about what it means to adhere to
Vote Dead in Ohio Via Red Tide
Posted on October 13, 2008Vote Dead in Ohio Via Red Tide - which has an Acorn fraud map, which is worth looking at.
The Episcopal Church Cases Go
Posted on October 09, 2008The Episcopal Church Cases Go here for the briefing. Go here to watch the oral arguments.
Bill Clinton - Hypomanic Monster According
Posted on October 08, 2008Bill Clinton - Hypomanic Monster According to Stever Sailer, Bill Clinton was born off the charts in three of the five basic "axis of personality." There is also this, which is news to me: Nobody is too sure who Bill Clinton's genetic father was, but Gartner makes a strong case that it was a hard-working local doctor whose legitimate children have grown up to be successful professionals as
Authenticity Sarah Palin puts
Posted on October 07, 2008Authenticity Sarah Palin puts down an Obamanoid anti-war protester. Gateway Pundit points out that you won't be seeing that on the evening news.
Stigmatization Apparently, I'm
Posted on October 06, 2008Stigmatization Apparently, I'm not the only one for whom Liz Trotta's description of Trig Palin as "it" and "distasteful[ly]" "being dragged around stage" was disturbing. Michelle Malkin has some reader comments on the subject.
"Dragging it around on the stage." I
Posted on October 05, 2008"Dragging it around on the stage." I like Liz Trotta on Fox News. I think she generally has some fairly objective and insightful things to say about the media, so I usually delay heading off to Mass until she wraps her just-before-9 a.m. segment. Liz definitely is not in the tank for Sarah Palin, and I was disturbed by her final observations about her view of Palin's perceived lack of depth by
The love that dares not speak its
Posted on October 04, 2008The love that dares not speak its name I pointed out in an earlier post how surprising the level of family connections and incestuous back-scratching there is between the political class that regulates industry and the industry that it regulates. It is a proof of Gabriel Kolko's thesis about how industries capture their regulatory agencies to stifle competition...
Botox Joe - A man you can trust On
Posted on October 03, 2008Botox Joe - A man you can trust On his support for coal power.
Ah, so Biden was BS'ing My debater-senses
Posted on October 02, 2008Ah, so Biden was BS'ing My debater-senses were tingling by the way that Biden is coming up with just too pat quotations that are just a bit too dead-on in support of his points. When I hear that kind of thing, I want to see the support. One thing he said is that "our commander" in Afghanistan said that "surge principles will not work...
Thoughts on the Credit Crisis The
Posted on October 01, 2008Thoughts on the Credit Crisis The Maverick Philospher links to an essay by Jeffrey A. Miron, senior lecturer at Harvard University, that makes a case against the bailout. Miron observes: Talk of Armageddon, however, is ridiculous scare-mongering...
The fundamentals of the economy
Posted on September 30, 2008The fundamentals of the economy are sound ...says Barrack Obama. I'm certain that he is right, but if expert opinions are correct, then we have a replay of John Maynard Keynes dictum that "people don't eat in the long run." * ___ * Or something like that...
The Diversity Speaker and the Diversity
Posted on September 29, 2008The Diversity Speaker and the Diversity Recession James Geraghty writes: Pelosi, moments ago: "The Democrats more than lived up to their side of the bargain." Horsepuckey. Pelosi has 235 members. She needed 218. She could spare 17 members and still pass the bill...
More Democrat Weirdness One may
Posted on September 28, 2008More Democrat Weirdness One may not call that Democrats who actively demoralize our troops with al Quaeda talking points "unpatriotic." But Democrats may call Republicans "unpatriotic" for not attending a meeting they were never told about. Weird indeed.
The Pius Wars John Cornwell modifies
Posted on September 27, 2008The Pius Wars John Cornwell modifies his position about Pius: "While I believe with many commentators that the pope might have done more to help the plight of the Jews, I now feel, 10 years after the publication of my book, that his scope for action was severely limited and I am prepared to state this," he said...
Life with Dignity John Peyton
Posted on September 26, 2008Life with Dignity John Peyton is dying of Lou Gehrig's Disease. In the final months of his life, he wants to defeat the Washington Death with Dignity Law. [Via The Curt Jester]
Still a Conservative William Vallicelli
Posted on September 25, 2008Still a Conservative William Vallicelli offers some very useful thoughts in this time of confusion on what it means from a philosophical standpoint to claim to be a conservative. Good stuff.
The insane man has lost everything
Posted on September 24, 2008The insane man has lost everything but reason. The walking human cold sore - Bill Maher - has a movie coming out where he replays the role of brave village atheist lampooning the irrationality of other people's belief. (*yawn*) As this essay by Mollie Hemingway at the Wall Street Journal points out, Maher is hardly a shining example of enlightened reason: But it turns out that the late-night
The Diversity Recession Living
Posted on September 23, 2008The Diversity Recession Living through the third year of the collapse of the housing bubble, and seeing the fallout on a daily basis, this Steven Sailor article makes a lot of sense. Sailor writes: More than a negligible amount of the blame for the mortgage meltdown can be traced back to multiculturalism: government-mandated affirmative-action lending, demographic change, illegal immigration,
Great Moments in Atheism Remember
Posted on September 22, 2008Great Moments in Atheism Remember - oh so long ago - when Minnesota state employee P.Z. Myers was using his taxpayer funded sinecure to encourage bigotry and intolerance? One of the things that Myers found unacceptable!!!! was that his livelihood was threatened and, he claimed, one or two "God-botherers" had "threatened his life" by offering to punch him in the nose if he ever wanted to stop
Democrats for McCain In Ohio,
Posted on September 21, 2008Democrats for McCain In Ohio, it is a former local AFL-CIO president. And from the Hillary Campaign, McCain picks up endorsements from Hispanic leaders. Interesting. Realignment election? Some more Hillary supporters breaking ranks, including this Rothschild woman who stands up for redneck values, which is, on its face, pretty weird.
A letter from the Supreme Knight... ...to
Posted on September 20, 2008A letter from the Supreme Knight... ...to Joe Biden. It's worth reading. [Via Catholics against Joe Biden.]
America's Crazy Uncle Check out
Posted on September 19, 2008America's Crazy Uncle Check out this non-stop stream of blather from Joe Biden on his visit to the NFL Hall of Fame. E.g.: "As a kid, you have all kinds of dreams," Biden said. "I dreamed that someday I'd get here to the Hall of Fame, I really did...
Privacy Rights for Terrorists but
Posted on September 18, 2008Privacy Rights for Terrorists but not for Republicans. Welcome again to bizarro-world, where privacy rights are protected in direct relation to how they impact Democrat party talking points. James Taranto points out: Let's step back for a moment and consider what this says about the press's attitude toward privacy...
Most people alive today weren't
Posted on September 17, 2008Most people alive today weren't aborted Which is why abortion supporters aren't confronted by the victims of abortion. Gianna Jessen is the rare exception. [Via Army of Martyrs]
The Swing Set Catholics support
Posted on September 16, 2008The Swing Set Catholics support McCain 59% to 36%. That's an impressive statistic and may explain McCain's surprising strenth in the Northeast.
The Shape of Things to Come Sharia
Posted on September 15, 2008The Shape of Things to Come Sharia courts established in England. They are being set up under the rubric of "arbitration", but the novelty is the application of foreign legal principles to a sub-community of the English people. Not good.
Every time a liberal gives to charity
Posted on September 13, 2008Every time a liberal gives to charity an angel gets his wings What is it about liberals and charitable giving? Do they think that giving to charity amounts to extracting quarters from their flesh? It is absolutely amazing that every time some liberal presidential contenders opens up their tax records, we find out that they are miserly skin flings...
How niggardly of those Republicans Vox
Posted on September 11, 2008How niggardly of those Republicans Vox Day summarizes the inanity of the Sarah Palin "lipstick on a pig" kerfuffle thus: It is unbelievable how right-wing bloggers have spent the last 24 hours chucking spears at Senator Obama when he was doing nothing more than calling a spade a spade the other day while attacking those Republican blackguards attempting to carjack his message of change...
Least Common Denominator Alright,
Posted on September 10, 2008Least Common Denominator Alright, I am more than willing to chalk up the "lipstick on a pig" statement as a fairly innocuous turn of phrase, but what the hey...isn't it weird that the same person gets into a lot trouble with sneaky double-intendres that make you wonder about his general maturity level...
Media Bias Chris Matthews and
Posted on September 08, 2008Media Bias Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann may be out as "news" anchors. The NYT reports: MSNBC tried a bold experiment this year by putting two politically incendiary hosts, Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews, in the anchor chair to lead the cable news channel?s coverage of the election...
Another Dispatch from the Porn
Posted on September 07, 2008Another Dispatch from the Porn Belt Bill Maher does his "bit" against Governor Palin. It's not very noteworthy - or funny - except the last part his schtick is revealing: he refers to Trig Palin repeatedly as "it" and mocks the size of her family, as if having five children was as bizarre as killing children to avoid the indignity of shopping at Walmart...
Sally Quinn Apologizes Newsbusters
Posted on September 06, 2008Sally Quinn Apologizes Newsbusters have the story. But she denies the charge of arrogance and elitism. Ridiculous. SALLY QUINN: You pointed out the other night that you thought I was being unfair and that I had judged her before I heard her speak and that I knew anything about her and I think you were right...
Dispatch from the Porn Belt The
Posted on September 05, 2008Dispatch from the Porn Belt The naked ugly elitism of liberalism is on full display in this Marty Peretz post. He writes: Let's face the truth: If Bristol were Joe Biden's daughter or, worse yet, Barcak Obama's, the epithet "slut" would be on everyone's tongue in St...
Peggy Noonan I like Peggy Noonan.
Posted on September 04, 2008Peggy Noonan I like Peggy Noonan. I think that she has the rare ability to look at people with whom she is not in sympathy and still find something to be sympathetic about. Here is her explanation of the "open mike" gaffe.
If you're getting flack, you're
Posted on September 03, 2008If you're getting flack, you're over the target. Newt hammers the Palin "experience" meme. There is something fundamentally disconnected in the liberal mind when they can raise experience as a reason to vote against the Republican ticket.
"She has a life." Steve Sailer
Posted on September 02, 2008"She has a life." Steve Sailer nails the average person's view of the charges leveled at Sarah Palin much better than the chattering class. Check it out. I like this in particular: Overall, what we can say for sure about Palin is: she Has A Life. In contrast to undersexed Hillary Clinton's cautious, cramped biography, Palin's life story just makes you feel sorry for poor Hillary.
More Collateral Damage from the
Posted on September 01, 2008More Collateral Damage from the Ugly Left The Daily Kos is peddling the spurious notion that Sarah Palin's baby is really the baby of her sixteen year old daughter. So, typical of the Left to complain when an issue is made about the substance of statements made by Michelle Obama, who is an adult and campaigning for her husband, but then to turn around and smear a child with a fantastic
Speaking of Projection Let's be
Posted on August 31, 2008Speaking of Projection Let's be honest, we've always had the sense that the Democrats want bad things to happen to America so that they can rush in with their nostrum of "more government." Likewise, their constant harping on alleged Republican indifference to the suffering of Americans seems to bespeak a calculating projection of their own feelings...
The experience issue Here is thoughtful
Posted on August 30, 2008The experience issue Here is thoughtful discussion asking what "experience" is and whether any of the four contenders for leadership really have it.
Palin Speaks She's good. Check
Posted on August 29, 2008Palin Speaks She's good. Check out this Youtube clip and listen for the part where she testifies that she wants her son - a young serviceman going to Iraq - to serve under McCain (and presumably not the "Empty Suit Guy.") Wasn't it the Democrats who bashed Bush with the "unique moral authority" of Cindy Sheehan because she was the mother of a serviceman killed in action, at least until she
Who Obama's friends really are Those
Posted on August 28, 2008Who Obama's friends really are Those '60s Leftists are so cute and cuddly. All they wanted was peace, love and understanding. And to murder 9 year olds. This is an essay by John Murtagh worth reading so that we don't forget who these people really were...
Now for something a little different Funny! Should
Posted on August 27, 2008Now for something a little different Funny! Should have worked in something about "pay grade". [Via Mark Shea]
"Uncle Tom" Biden Catholics against
Posted on August 24, 2008"Uncle Tom" Biden Catholics against Biden. Biden was pro-life before Democrat orthodoxy required that he convert to a belief in the licity of killing the unborn. The spectacle of so many Catholic Democrat politicians selling out their conscence for political advantage is sad...
Great Moments in Representative
Posted on August 23, 2008Great Moments in Representative Government Joe Biden as Senate Judiciary Chair questions nominee Ginsberg about her judicial philosophy.
Revenge of the Lizard Queen Hillary
Posted on August 22, 2008Revenge of the Lizard Queen Hillary supporter files suit to block Obama nomination. The putative basis of this purported lawsuit is that under some very arcane laws, Obama is not a "natural born" citizen. [Vox Populi.]
Obama, the Democrat Platform and
Posted on August 20, 2008Obama, the Democrat Platform and Abortion The Wall Street Journal's Naomi Schaefer Riley has this post-mortem on Obama's performance before the evangelicals at Saddleback Church: Mr. Obama's flip-sounding response did not go over well with the evangelicals in the audience of Saturday night's presidential forum...
And now for something completely
Posted on August 18, 2008And now for something completely different Imperial fleet over San Francisco. [Via Ghost of a Flea.]
Justice Thomas was not exper....strong
Posted on August 17, 2008Justice Thomas was not exper....strong enough Obama definitely wants to stay away from any discussion of experience.
And now for something completely
Posted on August 16, 2008And now for something completely different. I think that going after televangelists is like going after low hanging fruit or fishing with dynamite. It's just way too easy. But it's easy for reason, and here is a video that does a good job of it. And, hey, want to spice up your ministry? How about raising the dead?!?!!! This video - particularly the weird enthusiasm of the main speaker,
"With a grateful tip of the hat
Posted on August 14, 2008"With a grateful tip of the hat Mr. Bowers from an American born in the wrong place." Canadian blogger Ghost of a Flea offers this reminder that "America is not a place": Ghost of a Flea also offers this perspective on the Georgian conflict to those of us who often forget what America means to Americans of all nations: On the contrary, fundamental American interests are at stake...
Abortion in New York High abortion
Posted on August 13, 2008Abortion in New York High abortion rate worries NY experts: Higher cost and health complications lead to concerns How did that headline get past the media filters? From the article in Crain's New York Business: In most of the United States, 24 abortions are carried out for every 100 live births...
The Leftist commitment to free
Posted on August 12, 2008The Leftist commitment to free speech is like the Leftist commitment to tolerance.... ...purely a matter of strategy. According to the Washington D.C. Examiner: WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Tom Matzzie is mailing threatening letters this week to nearly 10,000 people with whom the liberal political operative vigorously disagrees...
Please, Lord, let the 60's end
Posted on August 11, 2008Please, Lord, let the 60's end sometime in my lifetime. Obama is definitely a "Herbert"! Mark Shea - who still has me banned from his comments - makes an important cultural connection between Star Trek's "space hippies": And Obama's "Sign of the Circle": I am sure that it is not important that this latest bit of overwheening Obama symbolism is being put out by a group that calls itself "
Snow in August Ozzie blogger David
Posted on August 10, 2008Snow in August Ozzie blogger David Schutz left Mass today and walked into a snow storm. That sounds really good in light of the fact that the temperature today in Fresno should hit 105 degrees.
Compare and Contrast You will
Posted on August 09, 2008Compare and Contrast You will not reading a book that has been described as: The novel is a luridly written amalgam of bodice-ripper and historical fiction centred on Aisha, the favourite wife of the prophet Muhammad. "Married at nine to the much-older Muhammad, Aisha uses her wits, her courage, and her sword to defend her first-wife status even as Muhammad marries again and again, taking 12
Proving the rule that pastors and/or
Posted on August 07, 2008Proving the rule that pastors and/or their wives get one free murder. Dr. Helen notes that Mary Winkler received custody of her victim's children: Killer Mary Winkler gets her kids back. I have no words to describe how unfair the justice system is towards men who are slaughtered by their wives...
You already know who is #1 Top
Posted on August 06, 2008You already know who is #1 Top 50 Hottest Sci-fi Girls. Cool. Argue among yourselves if they got the top ten right. Personally, I think that Ellen Ripley deserved to be in the top 10. Plus, as an added feature, here is some dating advice from three "dating gurus", so if you ever have a shot at 7 of 9 you won't blow it...
Conversion Stories Gypsy Scholar
Posted on August 03, 2008Conversion Stories Gypsy Scholar has a post on Masab Yousef, the son of a Hamas leader, who has converted to Christianity. From the news article: I used to travel to the Ramallah hills, to places like the Al Tira neighborhood, and to sit there quietly with the amazing landscape and read the Bible...
The Compassion of Medical Euthanasia
Posted on August 02, 2008The Compassion of Medical Euthanasia means "hop on that ice flow" I posted back in June about how Oregon had told a cancer patient named Barbara Wagner that while it would not cover her cancer treatment, it would pay for her to kill herself. In a letter...
"History is a set of lies agreed
Posted on August 01, 2008"History is a set of lies agreed upon" - Napoleon Bonaparte All history before 1000 A.D. has been faked according to Anatoly Fomenko. Professor(!!!) Fomenko's thesis is that what we now know as "accepted history" was forged in the 15th Century and re-arranged into the conventional chronology that we now accept in the same way that we accept the idea of gravity...
Is Google making us stupid? The
Posted on July 28, 2008Is Google making us stupid? The failure of memory, the starvation of imagination, the ennervation of reason. Well, yes, according to this Antlantic essay. Disengagement from reading is one example: I?m not the only one. When I mention my troubles with reading to friends and acquaintances?literary types, most of them?many say they?re having similar experiences...
Joe Bob Briggs Goes to an Atheist
Posted on July 27, 2008Joe Bob Briggs Goes to an Atheist Convention This is as good as what we would expect from America's number one outdoor movie theater reviewer. A few choice graphs: Instead what we get is the god of Science. Not just the scientific method?although that was ever on display, with the assumption that if it can?t be proven by objective testing, then it has no reality?but the idea that the whole
"Isn't that just...delicious irony?" Stephen
Posted on July 26, 2008"Isn't that just...delicious irony?" Stephen Colbert on the Anglican schism.
Concerning the Sacred and the Social
Posted on July 25, 2008Concerning the Sacred and the Social Autism of Certain Atheists The socially autistic Universtity of Minnosota Biology Professor - and cult figure for internet atheists - P.Z. Myers has made good on his promise to desecrate the Eucharist. Although his venom is aimed at Catholics - who he refers to as "F*ckwits" - he included a few pages of the Koran and Dawkin's "The God Delusion" in the act.
Empty Suit Alert It is amazing
Posted on July 23, 2008Empty Suit Alert It is amazing that we are so close to electing someone so inexperienced. As Powerline reports: Obama continued: Now, in terms of knowing my commitments, you don't have to just look at my words, you can look at my deeds. Just this past week, we passed out of the U...
3 things that you should never
Posted on July 21, 20083 things that you should never mix: Vodka, Wicca and Indiana From Ruth's Blog "Lebanon police investigated an overnight incident in which a woman stabbed herself in the foot with a sword during a Wiccan ritual at a local cemetery. "Police were called to the Witham Hospital emergency room around 2:00 a...
"A Cloud No Bigger than a Man's
Posted on July 20, 2008"A Cloud No Bigger than a Man's Fist" The Widget and the Wadget and I spent the latter part of last week in San Francisco doing the tourist thing. San Francisco is a wonderful city full of great restaurants, views and activities. We did a harbor cruise, toured the submarine Pampinito, walked to Coit Tower, rode the cable cars, did Dim Sum in Chinatown and a bunch of other stuff...
They almost make me a creationist I'll
Posted on July 15, 2008They almost make me a creationist I'll admit that I have no time for creationists. I think they positively ignore the data - lots of old bones of animals that haven't been around for a long time - in favor of a reading of the bible that isn't strictly compelled by the text...
Tony Snow Tony Snow passed away
Posted on July 13, 2008Tony Snow Tony Snow passed away yesterday after a valiant fight against cancer. He seemed like a genuinely decent man. Stories like this one from NRO, among many others, seem to confirm the fct that he was one of the rare indiduals who had the integretation of public and private personnas which makes for a "life well lived...
Atheist Professor P.Z. Myers asks
Posted on July 11, 2008Atheist Professor P.Z. Myers asks his blog readers to provide him with some paint so he can desecrate the local Jewish Synagogue with Swastikas. No, that's not right. Everyone knows that would be wrong. Actually, he's asking his readers to give him the Consecrated Host from a Catholic Mass so he can desecrate it on YouTube...
Woohoo!!! More business Good news
Posted on July 10, 2008Woohoo!!! More business Good news for those of us who practice the developing area of "church disaffiliation" law, the PCUSA has taken steps to eliminate the idea of "marital fidelity" and "chastity" from its ordination standards. According to this PCUSA report on the actions of the 218th General Assembly (and let's not forget the 217th GA's yeoman efforts to change the baptismal formula to "
Wrćtlic is ţes wealstan, wyrde
Posted on July 08, 2008Wrćtlic is ţes wealstan, wyrde gebrćcon "This masonry is wondrous; fates broke it" I'm listening to a podcast by Oxford professor Stuart Lee. Lee is a professor of Old English at Oxford and his lectures on Old English are really interesting and entertaining...
Extra Ecclesia, Nula Salus. The
Posted on July 07, 2008Extra Ecclesia, Nula Salus. The paper by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith defining Protestant denominations as not being "churches" had a number of ecumenically minded Protestants up in arms. So, this post at former PCA blogger "You are Cephas" was interesting...
Secret Histories Christianity,
Posted on July 05, 2008Secret Histories Christianity, Catholicism and the West are often confronted with the excesses of the Crusades as a way of undermining their morale and moral claims. It is certainly the case that descriptions of Christian knights wading through blood to capture the sites sacred to the religion of the Prince of Peace serve as a useful lesson in humility...
Marxists, Socialists and Communists
Posted on July 01, 2008Marxists, Socialists and Communists for Obama Or is that redundant. Here is the Barack Obama website. And the "mission statement": This group is for self-proclaimed Marxists/Communists/Socialists for the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency...
Being a liberal isn't as much fun
Posted on June 28, 2008Being a liberal isn't as much fun when you can't rely on Big Media to cover your flip-flops Check out this side-by-side comparison of Obama's contradictory position on whether there is a Constitutional right to gun ownership. This comes from Hot Air, which asks "he really doesn't get YouTube, does he?" Well, why should he? Prior to this campaign, when has he had any experience of truly
Scholarly Malpractice After the
Posted on June 26, 2008Scholarly Malpractice After the success of the Historians in providing a basis for the court to pretend that homosexuality didn't exist prior to 1930 now it's the Linguist's turn to churn out some scholarly nonsense in an effort to make liberal social policy...
Liberal Fascism Time Immortal
Posted on June 25, 2008Liberal Fascism Time Immortal publishes Bishop Fred Henry's letter to Alberta's Premier on the Canadian Human Rights Commissions decision to strip Free Speech rights from critics of the homosexual agenda. The Bishop writes: Each judgment emanating out of our various human right commissions seems to be more brazen and bizarre than the one that preceded it...
Anglicans having fun First, N.T.
Posted on June 24, 2008Anglicans having fun First, N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop of Durham and author, historian and theologian, went on the Colbert Report. Then, Anglicans weighed in on their Bishop's performance. Then, the Bishop weighed in on their comments. Showing that you can never tell who is reading your snarky comments...
Othodoxy and Authority Boarshead
Posted on June 23, 2008Othodoxy and Authority Boarshead Tavern has a new Catholic contributor, so it's time to play the game of denying that there is any such thing as "orthodoxy" or arguing that a Church that is now castigated for not changing its positions on a variety of traditional Christian positions that have been abandoned by virtually all Protestant denominations couldn't be recognized as "orthodox" by
Hilarious Makes me want to buy
Posted on June 22, 2008Hilarious Makes me want to buy a pick-up truck with a gun rack. [Via Cranky Greg]
Teetering on the precipice and
Posted on June 18, 2008Teetering on the precipice and looking back Now that same-sex marriage has started in California - with its implicit rejection of the principle that "two" is a non-arbitrary number for marriage - it may be time to reflect on how important the number "two" was for advancing the status of women...
Another California County is out
Posted on June 10, 2008Another California County is out of the marriage business ...but it has nothing to do with the imminent gay marriage onset date. Central Valley Business Times: Butte County Clerk Candace Grubbs says she?s done with marrying people. But, she says, her decision has nothing to do with the June 17 date set for implementation of legal same-sex marriages in California...
Setting the Record Straight The
Posted on June 09, 2008Setting the Record Straight The Iraq National Museum was not looted during the liberation of Baghdad. But it's a meme that will live in infamy.
Message Sent: Hop on the ice flow Bio-ethicist
Posted on June 06, 2008Message Sent: Hop on the ice flow Bio-ethicist Wesley Smith's primary concern with doctor assisted suicide is the message that it sends to the disabled, elderly and ill that it is somehow their duty to solve everyone else's problem with the condition by voluntarily killing themselves...
Science, History and Religion Medievalist
Posted on June 05, 2008Science, History and Religion Medievalist James Hannam has a Bulletin Board on those three great topics. It should be a great site for intelligent discussion....and whatever I contribute.
Breaking News Episcopal Denomination
Posted on June 04, 2008Breaking News Episcopal Denomination sues Diocese of San Joaquin. Complaint here.
What ever happened to the AIDS
Posted on June 02, 2008What ever happened to the AIDS crisis? Remember AIDS? Remember how it was going to rip like a wildfire through the heterosexual population? Remember how AIDS wasn't a "gay" disease but everyone's? This was serious stuff back in the 80's. In 1987, Oprah Winfrey claimed that a fifth of heterosexuals would be dead of AIDS by 1990 and Surgeon General C...
How were we supposed to know???? Colleen
Posted on June 01, 2008How were we supposed to know???? Colleen Carroll Campbell - a columnist for St. Louis Today - points out the bitter irony that the feminist commitment to abortion has resulted in sex selective abortions of females that amounts to a "holocaust." She writes: Consider the situation in India...
Speaking Truth to Power Here is
Posted on May 29, 2008Speaking Truth to Power Here is a real nice "Q and A" on Archbishop Naumann's request that Kansas Governor Sebellius not present herself for Communion.
Church Property Blog The Anglican
Posted on May 28, 2008Church Property Blog The Anglican Curmudgeon. Aren't all Anglicans pretty much curmudgeons these days? Just joking.....
Scholarly Malpractice The Chronicle
Posted on May 27, 2008Scholarly Malpractice The Chronicle of Higher Education has an interesting article on how the National Geographic's carefully selected team of Bible scholars managed to "screw the pootch" when it came time to translate and explain the Gospel of Judas...
CGI: The closest we are ever likely
Posted on May 25, 2008CGI: The closest we are ever likely to get to time-travel Check out this video that demonstrates how the visual effects were inserted around the live actors in the HBO series "John Adams." Pretty cool.
A brave new Brideshead Revisited Ignatius
Posted on May 24, 2008A brave new Brideshead Revisited Ignatius Insights is reporting on a remake of Brideshead Revisited, which definitely loses the singular message of Evelyn Waugh. According to Ignatius Insights: This autumn, a film of Brideshead is released for the first time, a predictably ravishing, dreamy, aristocratic swoon of a movie, directed by Julian Jarrold...
An Objectivist's Take on Christianity
Posted on May 23, 2008An Objectivist's Take on Christianity and the Rise of the West This is an e-mail I sent out in response to a friend who sent me a link to The Tragedy of Theology: How Religion Caused and Extended the Dark Ages A Critique of Rodney Stark?s The Victory of Reason by Andrew Bernstein...
Man bites Dog This is different;
Posted on May 22, 2008Man bites Dog This is different; a liberal concerned about democracy being eroded by the gay marriage decision. Benjamin Wittes, a Brookings Fellow and Research Director, is concerned that cautious liberal politicians have been unfairly branded as "bigots" for favoring domestic partnership laws, but he is also concerned about democracy: Another cost is that slow drip-by-drip accretion of power
The Democrat Party at Prayer Here
Posted on May 19, 2008The Democrat Party at Prayer Here is the statement by the Episcopalian Bishop of Los Angeles on last week's California Supreme Court gay marriage ruling: Today's Supreme Court decision on same-gender relationships is important because it reflects our baptismal vow to "strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being" and our commitment to justice and
Odd Thomas Dean Koontz is coming
Posted on May 18, 2008Odd Thomas Dean Koontz is coming out with a new Odd Thomas novel - "Odd Hours" - this Tuesday, May 20. Here is a "trailer" for the book: There is also a graphic novel - In Odd We Trust - coming out in June.
It is not a flying car or lunar
Posted on May 17, 2008It is not a flying car or lunar colony, but it is pretty cool. The 21st Century has mostly been a bust from the perspective of what Walter Cronkite promised us back in 1965. In my opinion, however, the Amazon Kindle goes a long way to redeem Cronkite's promises...
Yikes! The 5 Creepiest but true
Posted on May 16, 2008Yikes! The 5 Creepiest but true urban legends.
Next up....Polygamy as a Constitutional
Posted on May 15, 2008Next up....Polygamy as a Constitutional Right? Despite the several times that California voters have rejected gay marriage in California, a fairly conservative Supreme Court has enacted it into law...or, more properly, discovered that the framers of the California Consitution always intended that men could marry men...
Wipe the smile from Osama's face. Beer
Posted on May 14, 2008Wipe the smile from Osama's face. Beer with Demos has a plan. I'm going to run it past my Rotary club.
Cats and Dogs Sleeping Together... Hagee
Posted on May 13, 2008Cats and Dogs Sleeping Together... Hagee apologizes: The Texas megachurch pastor whose past comments about the Catholic Church have caused headaches for John McCain for over two months will issue an apology to Catholics later today, according a top Christian conservative...
Established Churches in America. We
Posted on May 12, 2008Established Churches in America. We are doing a "Reformed Church of America" property case, and I just learned that the reason that the Reformed Church of America ("RCA") does not have a "trust clause" in its "Book of Church Order" seems to arise from the fact that the RCA, which derived from the Dutch Reformed Church, may have been one of the "established churches" of New York state.
Strangely, from a "right to choose"
Posted on May 08, 2008Strangely, from a "right to choose" perspective this almost makes sense. According to the Telegraph, Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her imprisoned in his cellar, has complained of receiving a bad press and not being given credit for keeping his dungeon family alive for more than two decades...
They walk among us.... James Taranto
Posted on May 07, 2008They walk among us.... James Taranto discovers a sinister plot - the Canadians are sending "high risk pregnancies" to America because of the inadequacy of their "socialized medicine." He explains: Aw, look at the cute little Canadian babies! It's all very sweet and innocuous, right? Don't believe it...
Satellite and other data points
Posted on May 05, 2008Satellite and other data points to cooling earth... ...and that climate change isn't "anthropogenic." "New Jason Satellite Indicates 23-Year Global Cooling": Now it?s not just the sunspots that predict a 23-year global cooling. The new Jason oceanographic satellite shows that 2007 was a ?cool? La Nina year?but Jason also says something more important is at work: The much larger and more
"Presb. Church USA launches ambitious
Posted on May 02, 2008"Presb. Church USA launches ambitious plan to lose only 5% of members." The Minus 5 Campaign aims to lower the attrition rate in spite of the denomination's continued struggle with moral issues, which has led to even greater exodus of members. Instead of losing 12 to 15 percent of members every decade, the group will now "work in great unity and joy to lose only five percent...
On the subject of atheists who
Posted on May 01, 2008On the subject of atheists who have never killed in the name of an atheist future... Check out this story on how the Soviet Politburo - including Michael Gorbachev - signed an "informal death warrant for Pope John Paul II. It's perfectly understandable because JPII was undermining the Soviet hegemony over Poland, and how dare he - a mere "clever ape" - stand in the way of dialectical
Soon to join Paul Ehrlich's "Famine
Posted on April 26, 2008Soon to join Paul Ehrlich's "Famine -1975!" on the remainder tables... Remember 1975? Hundreds of millions starved to death! Remember how the civil government collapsed under the pressure and we had that military junta in Washington? And only one man saw it happening ? Paul R...
Bloggers in the News Hey, look!
Posted on April 20, 2008Bloggers in the News Hey, look! I'm quoted.
It's Art! It's a Hoax, but it's
Posted on April 19, 2008It's Art! It's a Hoax, but it's still Art! It's not a Hoax and it's Art! Anyway you look at it, it's disgusting and it's NOT Art. First, there was the story about the Senior at Yale whose "performance art" consisted of repeatedly self-inseminating herself, inducing self-abortions and displaying the menses...
Crocodile Tears Pope Benedict's
Posted on April 17, 2008Crocodile Tears Pope Benedict's visit to America has refreshed interest in the "pedophile priest" scandal. I have a post on Bill Maher's obnoxious comments below. Likewise, JohnMark at Beggars All - a "Reformed" blog - blogs about a movie on the Catholic scandal which he said "My wife and I watched this movie in disbelief with our jaws dropped...
The "Sacramental Principle." Question:
Posted on April 16, 2008The "Sacramental Principle." Question: Catholicism being a culture and involving a sacramental world view? Could you elucidate that paradigm? I have some idea what you are talking about, but it's very interesting and I want to know more about what you mean...
Provocative Comedian Calls Islam
Posted on April 15, 2008Provocative Comedian Calls Islam a Whacky Religion Where the Religious Leaders Wear Funny Hats and Whose Founder was a Pedophile... Ha! Made you look! Nope, no such story here...because that kind of "political incorrectness" is dangerous! Instead, we have "Mr...
"The Mask Slips." Bill Kristol
Posted on April 14, 2008"The Mask Slips." Bill Kristol ask whether it is unreasonable to think that a person who matured in an environment of academic Marxism hasn't incorporated Marxist views about "bourgeouis" Americans. My occasion for spending a little time once again with the old Communist was Barack Obama?s now-famous comment at an April 6 San Francisco fund-raiser...
Make mine a SKYY Vodka!! SKYY
Posted on April 12, 2008Make mine a SKYY Vodka!! SKYY Vodka proudly supports the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. America?s Most-Popular Domestic Vodka Decries Absolut® Vodka?s Suggestion to Redraw North American Map SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In 1848, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican-America War (1846-1848)...
Remember the 90's? Remembering
Posted on April 11, 2008Remember the 90's? Remembering how we all learned how to deconstruct everything President Clinton said? Remember how words had no fixed, invariant meanings because they were the living skin of thought of a mercurial narcissist? Jake Tapper catches the perfect post-modern president in 6 or more lies in trying to spin Hillary's sniper hoax...
Fresno Blog! Fresno Zionism, which
Posted on April 10, 2008Fresno Blog! Fresno Zionism, which focuses on, well, Zionism. From Fresno. There probably won't be a lot of cross-linking, but, hey!, it's another Fresno blog. Cool.
Must have looked good on paper. Quick
Posted on April 09, 2008Must have looked good on paper. Quick trial presentation tip: if you are going to provide a demonstration, practice it so that it looks fluid. Second tip: don't threaten your opponent with a 220 volt bare copper wire. I don't know where this Creation v...
"Some chicken: some neck. I've
Posted on April 08, 2008"Some chicken: some neck. I've heard that Churchill quip, which was made in response to a statement that the Germans would wring England's neck like that of a chicken. I didn't realize the full context of the speech, which involved a fascinating "alternative history" angle: On top of all this came the great French catastrophe...
Reasons to drink Grey Goose. Check
Posted on April 07, 2008Reasons to drink Grey Goose. Check out this ad campaign that Absolut is running in Mexico. Absolut explains: We have received many comments on an ad showing what an ABSOLUT world would look like from a Mexican point of view. We are sorry if we offended anyone...
The "Omega Man" is gone. R.I.P.
Posted on April 06, 2008The "Omega Man" is gone. R.I.P. Charlton Heston. Heston's wife of 64 years, Lydia, was at his side at the time of his death, according to the family statement. Heston is survived by a son, a daughter and three grandchildren. "We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather, with an infectious sense of humor," the family said...
"It's gotten to the point where
Posted on April 05, 2008"It's gotten to the point where if I don't think that New York City will be submerged in 20 feet of water by 2057, I'm considered delusional." Dennis Miller on Global Warming. Buy an SUV and promote the health of the planet! Speaking of which, Mark Steyn observes: Meteorologists puzzled by snowball in Hell [Mark Steyn] A headline from the BBC: Global Temperatures "To Decrease"
Rudyard Kipling A real nice retrospective
Posted on April 03, 2008Rudyard Kipling A real nice retrospective on the author at the New Criterion.
"Bill Clinton's tirade stuns some
Posted on April 02, 2008"Bill Clinton's tirade stuns some delegates. The mainstream media continues to discover that Bill Clinton is a classless narcissist. The Bill Clinton who met privately with California's superdelegates at last weekend's state convention was a far cry from the congenial former president who afterward publicly urged fellow Democrats to "chill out" over the race between his wife, Hillary Rodham
Mirror Image A lot of my posts
Posted on April 01, 2008Mirror Image A lot of my posts have to do with the break-up of denominations in the Protestant world. My interests are essentially professional in that the Penner & Bradley megafirm represents local Protestant churches who want to have done with the luch of their denominations into Gnosticism...
"I was born and raised a Catholic...":
Posted on March 31, 2008"I was born and raised a Catholic...": Nature's way of warning you that whatever will be said next will be a raving farrago of nonsense.* Funny stuff...Jesuit assassins, the Vatican's long-range plan to destabilize the United States, our rights as members of the "corporation" founded by the Constitution...
In a parallel universe, where Spock
Posted on March 29, 2008In a parallel universe, where Spock has a goatee... ...I'm hip.
If only gays could marry.... ...uhm...
Posted on March 28, 2008If only gays could marry.... ...uhm... never mind. Sean P. Daily reports: Craig Faunch and Ian Wathey were one of the first homosexual couples in the country to be officially approved as foster parents. They looked after 18 children in only 15 months...
Bare, ruined choirs, Canadian division. One
Posted on March 25, 2008Bare, ruined choirs, Canadian division. One congregation in Canada's United Church has taken Christian liberalism to its logical conclusion - they have completely eliminated Christ from their Christianity: That triumphal barnburner of an Easter hymn, Jesus Christ Has Risen Today ? Hallelujah, this morning will rock the walls of Toronto's West Hill United Church as it will in most Christian
In the merry land of whatever-you-say-three-times-is-true,
Posted on March 24, 2008In the merry land of whatever-you-say-three-times-is-true, you can fall from the top of a skyscraper and land on your feet and pretty unicorns eat rainbows and poop butterflies.... ...you can sensibly have a news article report that a "man" became a "woman" "but kept his vagina...
Brace for riots. Italy's most
Posted on March 22, 2008Brace for riots. Italy's most prominent Muslim commentator is converting to Catholicism by being baptized by the pope at an Easter vigil. Apostasy from the religion of peace is punishable by death.
Good Friday To excite our love
Posted on March 21, 2008Good Friday To excite our love towards God, there was no more powerful way than that the Word of God, through whom all things were made, should assume our human nature in order to restore it, so that he would be both God and man. First of all, because the strongest way God could show how much he loves man was his willing to become man for his salvation; and nothing can provoke love more than to
Newt Gingrich: "I am deeply worred.
Posted on March 20, 2008Newt Gingrich: "I am deeply worred. It is interesting that Gingrich talks about people who hate America and preach sermons against America. Clearly, he was referring to Wahabi clerics, but apparently he could have been referring to certain American Christian clerics just as easily.
Cognitive Dissonance. I'm gratified
Posted on March 19, 2008Cognitive Dissonance. I'm gratified to see that even a lib like Slate's Mickey Kause can see that the Obama's "Pastor Problem" speech deserved a "flag on the play" for blatant violations of the principle of non-contradiction: The most disastrous sentence in the speech...
Happy St. Patrick's Day. Next
Posted on March 17, 2008Happy St. Patrick's Day. Next Year in Dublin!: Some 3.5 million Irish citizens live outside the country, but the greater Diaspora is considerably bigger - 70 million strong. These are the people who keep the Irish flag flying in the remotest parts of the world, the people who suffered most under our colonial past, who sent money home to Ireland when we hadn't a bean and who took other destitute
Religion and Politics. As the
Posted on March 16, 2008Religion and Politics. As the many apostasizing Catholics - who jettison a life-long Pro-life commitment once they enter a Democratic presidential primary - have proven, a devout Catholic is simply not a viable candidate for the Presidency in modern America...
Relativism and Literature. James
Posted on March 15, 2008Relativism and Literature. James V. Schall's book on the Regensburg Address has been recommended by a friend as the most concise discussion on faith and reason that he's ever read. That recommendation makes Schall's book a "must get." It is interesting how Benedict's speech - particularly the part about the anti-philosophical effect of a "voluntaristic" view of God - has had such a profound
The Bible - It's amazing what's
Posted on March 14, 2008The Bible - It's amazing what's in there when you read it! One of the the traditional arguments in favor of the doctrine of the Perpetual Virginity of Mary (PVM) is that Mary had taken an oath of perpetual virginity prior to her betrothal to Joseph. The Protoevangelium of James written in the early Second Century tells a story that Mary had been consecrated to the Temple, and had thereby taken
The Fall of Spitzer and the Continuity
Posted on March 12, 2008The Fall of Spitzer and the Continuity of History. With St. Patrick's Day coming up, this post on the Nineteenth Century Archbishop "Dagger" John Hughes is well-worth reading. I'm certain that my kids, who are taught about every other oppressed group in American history, will be surprised to found out about their ancestors...
Hack Reporting Alert. It turns
Posted on March 11, 2008Hack Reporting Alert. It turns out that the media got it wrong on both the "Luther rehabilitation" and the "New 7 Deadly Sins" stories.
NY Governor publicly confesses
Posted on March 10, 2008NY Governor publicly confesses "error" in a "personal matter." Here is the video. The "personal matter" is paying $50,000 per weekend to a prostitution "ring." Politics is pretty lucrative.
Luther the Crypto-Protestant. I
Posted on March 06, 2008Luther the Crypto-Protestant. I really liked Professor Philip Cary's lectures on Luther from the Teaching Company. Here is Cary's essay on "Why Luther was not quite Protestant", which ought to provide be a useful corrective to anachronistic readings of Luther...
A Discussion on "Christian" Politics. This
Posted on March 04, 2008A Discussion on "Christian" Politics. This is something that I posted on Thomisticguy's website. Timbo wrote: Finally, in my view, some of these issues, as a practical matter, don't get us very far for the amount of capital that is expended. Gay marriage is an example...
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