A reason why it might make sense to vote for McCain ...
... kind of.

The next President will almost certainly be putting one or more people on the Supreme Court. The prime opportunity will come from Justice John Paul Stevens. Right now he is 88 years old. I suspect that, even if he doesn't have health issues, the thought of retirement must be on his mind. Also, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsgburg is 75. I also heard somewhere that she does, in fact, have health issues.

So, it seems probable that the next president will be putting one, maybe two, people on the Supreme Court.

The "kind of" comes in because who the president picks and what kind of Justice they turn out to be is not exactly a scientific process.

Ronald Reagan put Sandra Day O'Connor on the Court and she was considered moderate; he also put Scalia on the Court who is obviously a conservative. Same president, same criteria, different results. Then you have David Souter -- one of the most liberal Justices -- who was put on the Court by a Republican, the first President Bush. (I'll bet he's still not talking to the numb-skull (Warren Rudman) who vouched for him.)

Of course, the most famous Supreme Court nomination "gaffe" would be the infamous Earl Warren -- who never knew a criminal he didn't want to coddle. He was put on the Court by Republican President Eisenhower -- who is later alleged to say that nominating Warren was "the biggest damned-fool mistake I ever made" (I wonder if Warren Rudman was in the Eisenhower administration).

The bottom line is that a President Obama would nominate reliable liberals to the Court. A President McCain may or may not nominate a "conservative"; and, any Justice he nominates may or may not turn out to be conservative. However, there's zero chance of getting a solid Justice from Obama. At least there's a slight chance McCain could pick a good Justice (even a blind hog finds the occasional acorn).

The question then -- does this "slight chance" of a good Justice justify a vote for McCain?

How the Dems Intend to Get Tough on Terrorists

Thomas Sowell's 'Random Thoughts'

Some samples of why he is the best:

• A review of one of the many environmentalist books says that even if you can't do all you would like toward "living green," you can at least "congratulate yourself on taking small steps to improve the planet." That is what environmentalism — and much else on the political left's agenda — is really all about, self congratulation.
• Whenever I hear terrorists referred to in the media as "militants," it is a painful reminder that we have degenerated to the point where we no longer even have the courage to talk straight.
• One of the painful signs of years of dumbed-down education is how many people are unable to make a coherent argument. They can vent their emotions, question other people's motives, make bold assertions, repeat slogans — anything except reason.
• We all believe that people are innocent until proven guilty. Some on the left believe that they are innocent even after being proven guilty.
• Of all the presidential candidates in both parties, Barack Obama is the best performer on stage. He has the most presence, the most command of his words, the most quietly dramatic style. What he actually says, however, is mostly warmed-over 1960s ideas that have been failing ever since.

Put Me Out To Pasture

Boy, do I feel old. Just this week I learned of the "Rick Roll" meme, the "latest" Internet rage. Now, in the same week, I find out that "Rick Roll" is over, its passe, it's already 16 minutes into its 15 minutes of fame. Get the details here.

Remember the 'Zune'?
that's OK, neither do I

I saw this article in the Journal today and my mind starting wandering. The focus of the article is about the social networking site, MySpace, coming out with its own music service to try and take on Apple's iTunes. (Good luck guys).

What got my mind wandering was last part of the first paragraph:

MySpace and the music industry unveiled Thursday an online music service to challenge Apple Inc.'s iTunes Store, even as the digital retailer announced it has become the top music seller in the country after less than five years in the business.

I'd say that calls for a little more fanfare than an aside in an article about the latest pretender to the iPod/iTunes throne. I guess the reporter could be forgiven for taking world iPod hegemony for granted. But, perhaps someone could give this guy a little perspective.

Five years ago, Apple was a pc maker struggling just to stay afloat as a viable alternative to the nearly universal Windows monopoly. Then Apple introduces the iPod and ignites a world-wide digital music revolution. The iPod conquers the world and, by necessity and in consequence, iTunes creates an entirely new market for online digital music services. And don't forget, the wild success of the iPod has had no little impact on the success of subsequent Mac computers.

So, to summarize, Apple creates the iPod. Five short years after its introduction, it is the most dominant and unquestioned leader in the multi-billion dollar digital music device market it created. Can you even think of any viable competitors to it? The 'Zune'? Sure, yeah, right.

As a consequence of the success of the iPod, five years later, iTunes is the country's (and probably the world's) market leader, not just in the online music services market it created, but in the multi-billion dollar retail music services market. I take this to mean, iTunes sells more music than any other retail outlet: amazon, Wal-Mart, Tower Records, etc.

As a further consequence, Mac computers are selling pretty briskly as well, thank you very much.

That one iPod device created and globally dominates two industry markets and provides a significant boost to a third. Somehow I doubt that was even in the upside projections when the Apple folks put their business case to Steve Jobs 5 years ago.

To say the iPod has exceeded their expectations would be a slight understatement. My guess is that business schools will be doing case studies on the iPod a hundred years from now and still get blown away.

Santo Subito!

Pope remembers John Paul as sainthood pleas grow

Wed Apr 2, 2008 9:55am EDT

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Catholics around the world on Wednesday marked the third anniversary of Pope John Paul's death and Vatican officials said they were receiving a steady stream of pleas from the faithful convinced he was a saint.

Pope Benedict, John Paul's successor, presided at a solemn Mass before tens of thousands of people in St Peter's Square, from the same spot on the steps of the basilica where John Paul's simple wooden coffin lay three years ago.

"For many days, the Vatican basilica and this very square were really the heart of the world," Benedict said in his sermon as members in the crowd waved flags of the late pope's Polish homeland and banners bearing his image.

Benedict did not use the word "saint" in his sermon but said John Paul had "many human and supernatural qualities" and was a mystic endowed with exceptional spiritual sensitivities.

Crowds at John Paul's funeral on April 8, 2005 chanted "Santo Subito" ("Make him a saint now").

In May, 2005, Benedict put John Paul on the fast track by dispensing with Church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate's death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can even start.

The first phase of the process for his beatification, the last step before sainthood, is now nearly complete. Church officials say they have found a miracle attributed to the intercession of the late pope with God.

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a 47-year-old French nun who had been diagnosed with Parkinson's -- the same disease that the late Pope had -- said it inexplicably disappeared two months after his death after she and her fellow nuns prayed to him.

If the pope approves the miracle then John Paul can be beatified. Another miracle would be required after the beatification in order to move on to canonization.

Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the archbishop of Krakow who was the late pope's secretary of nearly 40 years, told reporters his office receives daily letters from people who say they have received "graces" after praying to the late pope.

"Most of them are people who have been cured of cancer or couples who were considered infertile but had children after praying to John Paul," Dziwisz said. "We get so many of them we don't even pass them on to Rome anymore".

Three years is an unusually short time for the completion of the first phase of a sainthood cause, which can usually take decades or, in some cases, hundreds of years.

The evidence includes testimony from hundreds of people and scrutiny of John Paul's life, spoken words and writings.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican official in charge of the beatification process told reporters he has nearly finished a document of about 2,000 pages long summarizing evidence that John Paul should be made a saint.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella)

The Thomas Sowell
No Nonsense,
Plain Speaking,
Common Sense Award

I'm also awarding the Thomas Sowell No Nonsense, Plain Speaking, Common Sense Award to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

What do you mean I can't make a second award so soon after the inaguaral award? It's my award and I'll give out to whomever I please as frequently as I please. That's the beauty of having your own award to hand out. This isn't an awards democracy -- I make up the rules here.

The second presentation of the Thomas Sowell No Nonsense, Plain Speaking, Common Sense Award goes to Justice Thomas for his concurrence in the Adarand affirmative action case. If you've read many Supreme Court cases you're already painfully award of how pedantic, obtuse and bloviating they can be. Which is all the more reason to recognize and honor Justice Thomas for his no nonsense, plain speaking and common sense.

[T]here can be no doubt that racial paternalism and its unintended consequences can be as poisonous and pernicious as any other form of discrimination. So called "benign" discrimination teaches many that because of chronic and apparently immutable handicaps, minorities cannot compete with them without their patronizing indulgence. Inevitably, such [affirmative action] programs engender attitudes of superiority or, alternatively, provoke resentment among those who believe that they have been wronged by the government's use of race. These programs stamp minorities with a badge of inferiority and may cause them to develop dependencies or to adopt an attitude that they are "entitled" to preferences. ...

In my mind, government sponsored racial discrimination based on benign prejudice is just as noxious as discrimination inspired by malicious prejudice. In each instance, it is racial discrimination, plain and simple.

The Thomas Sowell
No Nonsense,
Plain Speaking,
Common Sense Award

I've been thinking about doing this for a while. I mean, why not? Liberals have dozens of meaningless awards recognizing fellow liberals in worthless, narcissistic ways. Why not have an award that actually means something? -- an award that recognizes someone who has their head screwed on straight, who says something that makes sense, who isn't "stuck on stupid"?

Now, I figured I'd be "presenting" the award to Thomas Sowell more often than not. (Who else speaks offers as much no nonsense, plain speaking and common sense as the great man himself?) However, to my pleasant surprise, a week or so ago I read a very interesting article by playwright David Mamet in which he tells of his discovery that he was a conservative (and not, in his words, a "brain dead liberal").

What was even more of a pleasant surprise, Mamet refers to Thomas Sowell in his article as: "our greatest contemporary philosopher".

Couldn't have said it better myself. And with that, David Mamet is the first recipient of my Thomas Sowell No Nonsense, Plain Speaking, Common Sense Award.

Santo Subito!

HOLY MASS ON THE SECOND ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH
OF THE SERVANT OF GOD, THE SUPREME PONTIFF JOHN PAUL II

HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI

St Peter's Square
Monday, 2 April 2007

Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Two years ago, at a slightly later hour than now, beloved Pope John Paul II departed this world for the house of the Father.

With this celebration, let us first of all renew our thanksgiving to God for having given him to us for well near 27 years as a father and reliable guide in the faith, a zealous Pastor and courageous prophet of hope, a tireless witness and passionate servant of God's love.

As we offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice in suffrage for his chosen soul we remember the unforgettable devotion with which he celebrated the Holy Mysteries and adored the Sacrament of the Altar, the centre of his life and of his untiring mission.

I want to express my gratitude to all of you who have wished to take part in this Holy Mass. I address a particular greeting to Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, Archbishop of Krakow, imagining the sentiments that must be filling his heart at this moment.

I greet the other Cardinals, Bishops, priests and men and women Religious present; the pilgrims who have come here expressly from Poland; all the young people whom Pope John Paul II loved with a unique passion and the many members of the faithful from every part of Italy and the world who have gathered here in St Peter's Square for today's appointment.

The second anniversary of the departure of this beloved Pontiff is taking place in a particularly favourable context for recollection and prayer.

Yesterday, in fact, with Palm Sunday we entered Holy Week and the Liturgy makes us relive the last days of the Lord Jesus' earthly life.

Today, it takes us to Bethany, where, precisely "six days before the Passover", as the Evangelist John notes, Lazarus, Martha and Mary asked the Teacher to supper.

The Gospel account impresses an intense paschal atmosphere on our meditation: the supper at Bethany is a prelude to Jesus' death in the sign of his anointing by Mary, a homage she pays to the Teacher which he accepts as foretelling his burial (cf. Jn 12: 7).

However, it is also an announcement of the Resurrection through the very presence of Lazarus restored to life, an eloquent witness of Christ's power over death.

Not only pregnant with Paschal significance, the narrative of the supper at Bethany is imbued with an anguishing resonance filled with love and devotion, a mist of joy and pain: festive joy at the visit of Jesus and his disciples, at the resurrection of Lazarus and at the Passover now at hand; deep sorrow because this Passover might be the last, as they were led to fear by the scheming of the Jews who desired the death of Jesus and by the threats to Lazarus whose death they were also planning.

One action in this Gospel passage is drawn to our attention, and which even now speaks to our hearts in a special way: Mary of Bethany, at a certain point, "took a pound of costly ointment of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair" (Jn 12: 3). This is one of those details of Jesus' life which St John cherished among his dearest memories and which is charged with inexhaustible feeling.

He speaks of love for Christ, a superabundant, wondrous love like that "costly" ointment poured over his feet. This event symptomatically shocked Judas Iscariot: the logic of love clashed with the logic of profit.

For us, gathered in prayer in memory of my Venerable Predecessor, the gesture of the anointing of Mary of Bethany is full of spiritual echoes and suggestions. It evokes John Paul II's shining witness of love for Christ, unreserved and unstinting.

The "house", that is, the entire Church, "was filled with the "fragrance" of his love (cf. Jn 12: 3).
Of course, we who were close to him benefited from it and are grateful to God, but even those who knew him from afar were able to enjoy it because Pope Wojty³a's love for Christ was so strong, so intense, we could say, that it overflowed in every region of the world.

Was not the esteem, respect and affection expressed to him at his death by believers and non-believers alike an eloquent witness of this?

St Augustine wrote, commenting on this passage of John's Gospel: ""The house was filled with the fragrance'. The world is filled with the fame of a good character: for a good character is like a sweet scent.... Through the good, the name of the Lord is honoured" (In Io. Evang. tr. 50, 7).
This is really true; the intense and fruitful pastoral ministry and, even more, the calvary of the agony and serene death of our beloved Pope showed the people of our time that Jesus Christ was truly his "all".

The fruitfulness of this witness, as we know, depended on the Cross. In Karol Wojty³a's life, the word "cross" was not merely a word. From his childhood, he was familiar with suffering and death. As priest and Bishop and especially as Supreme Pontiff, he took most seriously the Risen Christ's last call to Simon Peter on the shore of the Lake of Galilee: "Follow me... Follow me!" (Jn 21: 19, 22).

His whole life, particularly with the slow but implacable advance of the disease which gradually stripped him of everything, became an offering to Christ, a living proclamation of his passion in hope brimming with faith in the resurrection.

He lived his Pontificate in the sign of "prodigality", generously spending himself without reserve. What motivated him other than mystical love for Christ, for the One who, on 16 October 1978, had him called with the ceremonial words: "Magister adest et vocat te - the Teacher is here and is calling you"?

On 2 April 2005, the Teacher called him again, this time without intermediaries, in order to take him home to the house of the Father. And once again he promptly responded with his brave heart in a whisper: "Let me go to the Lord" (cf. S. Dziwisz, Una vita con Karol, p. 223).

He had been preparing for a long time for this last encounter with Jesus, as the various drafts of his Testament reveal.

During the long periods he spent in his private chapel he spoke to Jesus, abandoning himself totally to his will, and entrusted himself to Mary, repeating the Totus tuus. Like his Divine Teacher, he lived his agony in prayer. On the last day of his life, on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, he asked that the Gospel of John be read to him.

With the help of those who were nursing him, he wanted to take part in all the daily prayers and in the Liturgy of the Hours, he wanted to do adoration and meditation. He died while he was praying. He truly fell asleep in the Lord.

"And the house was filled with the fragrance of the ointment" (Jn 12: 3).

Let us return to this most evocative annotation by the Evangelist John. The Pope's sweet scent of faith, hope and charity filled his house, filled St Peter's Square, filled the Church and spread throughout the world.

What happened after his death was for believers an effect of that "fragrance" which reached everyone near and far and attracted them to a man whom God had gradually conformed to his Christ.

For this reason, we can apply to him the words of the first Song of the Servant of the Lord which we heard in the First Reading: "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations..." (Is 42: 1).
"Servant of God": this is what he was and this is what we in the Church call him now, while the process of his Beatification continues.

This morning, the diocesan investigation into his life, virtues and fame of sanctity was concluded. "Servant of God", a particularly appropriate title for him. The Lord called him to his service on the path of the priesthood and little by little unfolded before him ever broader horizons: from his own Diocese to the universal Church.

This dimension of universality reached its apex at the moment of his death, an event the whole world lived with a participation unprecedented in history.

Dear brothers and sisters, the Responsorial Psalm has placed words full of trust on our lips. In the Communion of Saints, we seem to hear them spoken aloud by our beloved John Paul II, who, from the Father's House, we are sure of it, never ceases to accompany the Church on her way: "Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; yes, wait for the Lord!" (Ps 27[26]: 13-14).

Yes, let your heart take courage, dear brothers and sisters, and burn with hope! With this invitation in our hearts let us continue the Eucharistic Celebration, already looking at the light of the Resurrection of Christ that will shine out in the Easter Vigil after the dramatic darkness of Good Friday.

May the Totus tuus of the beloved Pontiff encourage us to follow him on the path of the gift of ourselves to Christ through the intercession of Mary, and may she herself, the Virgin Mary, obtain it for us while we entrust to her motherly hands this father, brother and friend of ours, that he may rest in God and rejoice in peace. Amen.

© Copyright 2007 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

My New Hobby

This Should Be an Interesting Meeting

Pope Benedict XVI, President Bush To Meet At White House

WASHINGTON, D.C. (USCCB)—Pope Benedict XVI will visit the White House, April 16, as part of his visit to Washington and New York.

This is the second visit of a pope to the White House. Pope John Paul II visited President and Mrs. Carter at the White House in October 1979 on the final leg of a six-city United States tour. Pope Benedict will visit President and Mrs. Bush on April 16, the pope's birthday and the first full day of his six-day visit to the United States.

The White House announced that the pope and president will continue discussions they began during President Bush's June 2007 visit to the Vatican, when they discussed their shared commitment to "the importance of faith and reason in reaching common goals." These goals, said the White House, include "advancing peace throughout the Middle East and other troubled regions, promoting inter-faith understanding, and strengthening human rights and freedom, especially religious liberty, around the world."

Pope Benedict XVI will be greeted by President and Mrs. Bush at the South Portico. The president and pope will deliver prepared remarks on the South Lawn and then enter the White House for a private meeting in the Oval Office.

In 1979, Pope John Paul II was greeted by President and Mrs. Jimmy Carter at the North Portico. The pope and president made a few brief "informal" remarks, then proceeded indoors to the Blue Room for a welcome reception held in the manner reserved for visiting heads of state. Following the reception, Pope John Paul and President Carter adjourned to the Oval Office and the Cabinet Room for private meetings.

Historical notes from President Carter indicate that he and the pope discussed international affairs, in particular, situations then underway in the Middle East, Philippines, South Korea, China, and Europe.

I'm sure the Holy Father and W. will have some good discussion about a number of topics of common interest. I'd really be interested in hearing if their discussion extends to personal spiritual matters. You never know -- Tony Blair recently converted to the Church. And, as you might know, W.'s sister-in-law is reportedly a devout Catholic. She's likely been availing herself of some pretty powerful intercessors on the president's behalf. In fact, I seem to recall -- why, yes, here it is -- a picture of Bush with then-Supreme Court nominee John Roberts that shows (though its hard to see here) an icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the table between them.

You know, Ronald Reagan, though not a Catholic, was reportedly tight with JPII. I'll bet they were -- they were two giants of the 20th century and collaborated in bringing down one of the greatest evils of the century. I'm sure defeating Communism gave them ample opportunity to take each other's measure and form the basis for a relationship of mutual respect and friendship. I'm sure it was not often JPII encountered a man of similar stature to himself.

Reagan was also very fond of Mother Teresa. She visited Ron and Nancy after the assassination attempt on Reagan. According to Dinesh D'Souza's biography of Reagan, entitled "Ronald Reagan: How an Ordinary Man Became an Extraordinary Leader", the assassination attempt "infused Reagan with a sense of mortality and mission." ... The late Mother Teresa, who visited the White House that June, told Reagan, "you have suffered the passion of the cross and received grace. There is a purpose to this. Because of your suffering and pain you will now understand the suffering and pain of the world. This has happened to you at this time because your country and the world need you." Reagan was speechless. Nancy Reagan wept."

See What Love Can Do

Despite what movies, tv and just about every cultural information says, they don't have a clue what real love is. Meet some folks who do.

Couple, married 83 years, share their secret
Minnesota duo’s longevity earns them a place in ‘Guinness World Records’
By Mike Celizic
TODAYShow.com contributor
updated 12:52 p.m. CT, Mon., March. 17, 2008

The year was 1925. Calvin Coolidge was president, Adolf Hitler released the first part of his book, “Mein Kampf,” Charlie Chaplin’s big movie was “The Gold Rush,” flappers were singing and dancing to “Sweet Georgia Brown” and “I’m Sitting on Top of the World,” the Scopes Trial played out in Tennessee, the first television images were broadcast, Al Capone ruled the streets of Chicago, flagpole sitters were all the rage, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington were the newest recording artists, the price of a first-class stamp hit 2 cents.

And in Hugo, Minn., an 18-year-old man named Clarence Vail married his 16-year-old sweetheart, Mayme. They had met in the eighth grade, and marriages at such young ages were more the norm than the exception back then. Unremarkable at the time, that union, now 83 years old and still as strong as ever, has finally claimed a place among the historic events of the year.

NBC’s Kevin Tibbles reported for TODAY on Monday that Clarence and Mayme Vail are going into “Guinness World Records” for being married longer than any other living couple on earth.

They don’t have a magic formula to explain the success of their marriage. They just took seriously what they said to each other when they stood at the altar.

“You take your vows, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer,” Mayme said. “I guess you just stick to it, come what may.”

They say they haven’t had an argument since 1946, something that Mayme attributes to the fact that her husband, who is 101, is the strong, silent type who isn’t given to argument. “That’s why we got along so well,” joked the 99-year-old Mayme. “He never spoke out of turn. I didn’t give him a chance.”

The 1920s were in full roar when they were married and moved into their first home — a one-room house. They survived the Great Depression and World War II, raising six children along the way. But their biggest challenge came in 1948, when Clarence was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

‘Look to the future’
According to “The Catholic Spirit,” the newspaper of the archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Mayme promised that if her husband survived, she would attend Mass every day for the rest of her life.

She kept it up for nearly 60 years, until the couple moved into a retirement home within the last year. Now, she’s down to two Masses a week, but she still says the rosary regularly — another daily ritual for nearly her entire life. She offered few secrets to long life and a long marriage, other than to say they never smoke or drank — both seemed a waste of money.

Their faith told them to stay faithful through thick and thin, and they did that. It also told them to be fruitful and multiply, and they did that, too.

Their six children — three have been married for 50 years or longer — begat 39 grandchildren, who begat 101 great-grandchildren, who have so far begotten 40 great-great-grandchildren. If you’re keeping score at home, that’s 186 descendants.

One of those great-great-grandchildren, David, has been married for two years to Christine. He was asked if he was shooting for the record.

“Two down, 81 to go,” he said. “Yes, yes, absolutely we’re working on it. Look to the future — no matter how old you are.”

Clarence and Mayme are still doing just that. He’s slowed down considerably and spends much of his time napping, but Mayme, who looks a decade or more younger than her age, continues to make quilts as she has all her life. And she takes care of her husband.

Just as she vowed to do 83 years ago.

© 2007 MSNBC Interactive

Nice to Know There's Still Some
Sanity Left in the Midwest

Despite the best efforts of the uber-liberal Chicago Tribune, there's still some folks left in the Chicago area who not only haven't become environmental wackos, they've even managed to retain their sense of humor.

Here's some comments to the story gushing about preparing for Earth Hour from the Trib's website:

I'm gonna turn on all of my lights to celebrate earth day. I set all of my timers to go ON at 7:30 PM and then OFF at 9:30 PM. I don't usually run all yard, porch and flood lights at one time because everything running at once makes the wheel in the meter spin like a hopped up gyroscope. My house will probably been able to be seen from satellites as it will be one of the bright spots in northern Illinois.

What are we gonna celebrate next?

I'm already ready for July 4th with my red, white and blue Christmas light strings.
__________________________________________________________

for my end of the celebration, I'm going to turn on all of my lights. To boot, I'm going to make a further financial sacrifice and let my two cars run in the driveway all day. Then while that's happening, I'm going to burn the large pile of dead brush out in my back yard.
___________________________________________________________

Bet the gangbangers can't wait until Daley does this nonsense in Chicago. The unarmed citizenry will be sitting ducks and in the dark, they can't ID the bad guys.
___________________________________________________________

Should we all just give up on progress and live like freaking Quakers?
Life is good. We feel guilty for living longer than at any time in history.
____________________________________________________________

Move to North Korea. Satellite photos show an almost entirely dark country. They certainly have a progressive green leader!

Moonbattery Nails It

My favorite "new" blog is Moonbattery. I just love their wit and sarcasm in tweaking noxious liberals and bloviating PC types. Here's their take on this worthless, feel-good, Earth Hour idea:

Idiot Hour

It's not often that I advise people to visit Google, a company that uses its immense power to close off traffic to sites not conforming to its leftist ideology. But you really have to check out its home page today:

Don't you just love trying to read white type on a black screen?

The idea is that Google has "turned the lights out" for Earth Hour, an event that entails moonbats pretending they have attained their dream of dragging humanity back to the Dark Ages.

A still more precious dream to militant moonbats is total conformity. We are to turn our lights off from 8:00 to 9:00 this evening per our local time zones, not because anyone who doesn't live in a padded room thinks it will improve the weather, but to demonstrate our obeisance to envirokooks' antihuman ideology.

This is why all reasonable people are called upon to turn on every light in their house during Earth Hour. Any hardship this imposes upon the polar bears will be more than made up for by all the energy Google is saving with their sanctimonious black screen.

Actually, Google admits that the black screen saves no energy at all. But it does cause eye strain. So long as we suffer for Gaia, that's the important thing.

Moonbats turned the lights off on Syndey Harbor Bridge. The planet is safe now.

By the way, here's an indication of how I'll be showing my solidarity with Earth Hour tonight :-)

Global Warming -- The Perfect Storm of Political Correctness, Worthless "Feel Good" Gestures, and Liberal Nuttiness

Got this e-mail at work this week:

To All Corporate Personnel/Corp/xxxx@xxxx
Subject Lights out on March 29 at corporate offices

This Saturday, March 29, the parking lot lights at our corporate offices in xxxx will be turned off from 8 to 9 p.m. We're voluntarily doing this in conjunction with the city of Chicago, along with hundreds of other companies and millions of people for Earth Hour, a global movement to conserve energy. We’ll also turn off the exterior signs, including readerboards, at our Chicago city stores.

Isn't that nice. Let's waste untold hours of time and resources to participate in a meaningless gesture to show solidarity in the fight against the myth of global warming. In the meantime, let's try to ignore the fact that, even though it's the end of March, it 20 degrees and we've had several inches of snow this month!

After getting this e-mail, I couldn't resist. I forwarded it to our exec in charge of energy management with this comment:

From: Richard Ryan
Sent: 03/28/2008 09:18 AM CDT
To: xxxx xxxx
Subject: Fw: Lights out on March 29 at corporate offices

I can't help but wonder how much energy could really be saved if people would quit wasting time, effort and resources on worthless gestures like this.

Just a thought. ;-)

Regards,
Richard Ryan

Richard F. Ryan
Senior Attorney
Law Department

I don't think they'll be adding me to our corporate "Earth Hour" liason team any time soon. :-)

Check Out 'Fitna' at this Site
Oops, guess not.

Clicking on the link http://www.fitnathemovie.com/ produces this message of undaunted courage in the face of violent threats for exposing the lies about the "Religion of Peace":

	This site has been suspended while Network Solutions is investigating whether the site's content is in violation of the Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy. Network Solutions has received a number of complaints regarding this site that are under investigation. For more information about Network Solutions Acceptable Use Policy visit the following URL: http://www.networksolutions.com/legal/aup.jsp Hosted by Network Solutions.

"Religion of Peace" Yeah, Sure, Right.

Anti-Islamic Film Taken Offline Following Threats

LiveLeak.com said it removed the film Fitna from its servers after serious threats to its employees.

By Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek
March 28, 2008
URL: http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207000505

Fitna, an anti-Islamic film made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders that equates Islam with violence, debuted on Thursday at Web site LiveLeak.com, only to be taken down a day later following threats to LiveLeak's staff.

LiveLeak on Friday afternoon issued a statement explaining its decision: "Following threats to our staff of a very serious nature, and some ill-informed reports from certain corners of the British media that could directly lead to the harm of some of our staff, LiveLeak.com has been left with no other choice but to remove Fitna from our servers.

"This is a sad day for freedom of speech on the net but we have to place the safety and well being of our staff above all else. We would like to thank the thousands of people, from all backgrounds and religions, who gave us their support. They realized LiveLeak.com is a vehicle for many opinions and not just for the support of one.

"Perhaps there is still hope that this situation may produce a discussion that could benefit and educate all of us as to how we can accept one another's culture. We stood for what we believe in, the ability to be heard, but in the end the price was too high."

Initial efforts to detail the film proved less successful. Network Solutions on Saturday suspended the Web site where Wilders had been planning to premiere the film, citing complaints about the then unseen film's content.

During the day that the film was available, it prompted widespread condemnation. On Friday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon decried Fitna as hate speech.

"I condemn, in the strongest terms, the airing of Geert Wilders' offensively anti-Islamic film," said Ban in a statement. "There is no justification for hate speech or incitement to violence. The right of free expression is not at stake here. I acknowledge the efforts of the Government of the Netherlands to stop the broadcast of this film, and appeal for calm to those understandably offended by it. Freedom must always be accompanied by social responsibility."

Ban said that the real fault line is not between Muslim and Western nations but a minority of extremists eager to stir strife.

The Organization of The Islamic Conference also denounced the film as blasphemy. OIC Secretary General Prof Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said, "The film is a deliberate act of discrimination against Muslims, incitement for hatred and an act defamation of religions which is solely intended to incite and provoke unrest and intolerance among people of different religious beliefs and to jeopardize world peace and stability."

In the day that Fitna played, it was viewed over 420,000 times. More than 280 comments were posted on LiveLeak.com. And many chose to reply through countervideos, which are still online.

The word "fitna" in Arabic means strife or conflict within a group.

The film may also generate a lawsuit. The BBC reports that Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, known for his cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed wearing a bomb-shaped turban, plans to sue Wilders for using his cartoon in the film without permission.

Berkeley: Home of the Moonbats

He's Not Laughing

Oregon man's property ransacked after Craigslist hoax
10:29 AM PDT on Monday, March 24, 2008
Associated Press

JACKSONVILLE, Ore. -- A pair of hoax ads on Craigslist cost an Oregon man much of what he owned.

The ads popped up Saturday afternoon, saying the owner of a Jacksonville home was forced to leave the area suddenly and his belongings, including a horse, were free for the taking, said Jackson County sheriff's Detective Sgt. Colin Fagan.

But Robert Salisbury had no plans to leave. The independent contractor was at Emigrant Lake when he got a call from a woman who had stopped by his house to claim his horse.

On his way home he stopped a truck loaded down with his work ladders, lawn mower and weed eater.

"I informed them I was the owner, but they refused to give the stuff back," Salisbury said. "They showed me the Craigslist printout and told me they had the right to do what they did."

The driver sped away after rebuking Salisbury. On his way home he spotted other cars filled with his belongings.

Once home he was greeted by close to 30 people rummaging through his barn and front porch.

The trespassers, armed with printouts of the ad, tried to brush him off. "They honestly thought that because it appeared on the Internet it was true," Salisbury said. "It boggles the mind."

Jacksonville police and Jackson County sheriff's deputies arrived but by then several cars packed with Salisbury's property had fled.

He turned some license plate numbers over to police.

Michelle Easley had seen the ad that claimed Salisbury's horse had been declared abandoned by the sheriff's department and was free to a good home.

"I can't stand to see a horse suffer so I drove out there and got her," Easley said. "The horse didn't look abandoned. She is in good shape for being 32 years old."

But it looked odd, so she left a note on Salisbury's door explaining the ad. She then decided to call to make sure the ad was legitimate when the second similar ad appeared.

"I feel bad because I was a part of it," Easley said. "It felt right to call the police."

Fagan praised Easley's honestly but said prosecution was likely for anybody caught with Salisbury's property.

Items can be returned with no questions asked, Fagan said.

Detectives have contacted Craigslist's legal team to try to trace the ad.

Meanwhile, Salisbury could not even relax on his porch swing.

Someone took it.

"The reality differs from the cartoon."

Liberals are already generating their spin and preparing their template in an attempt to paint Bush as responsible for our current economic woes by casting him as Herbert Hoover and Democrats as F.D.R. and the 'New Deal'. The problem with this scenario is the current effort is just as much of a lie as the previous one. F.D.R. was not our nation's Great Depression savior, to the contrary -- his 'New Deal' policies were significantly responsible for exacerbating and dragging out the effects of the Great Depression.

Historian Amity Shlaes has a great piece in the New York Sun today refuting the liberals revisionist histories.

Ghosts of 1929

BY AMITY SHLAES
March 21, 2008
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/73421

No question, Bear Stearns Cos. evokes the crash of 1929 and the Great Depression that followed it. Politicians are already making analogies to Herbert Hoover, the demon of that period, and Franklin Roosevelt, the angel.

On March 16, Senator Schumer of New York said on television: "We're in the most serious economic problem we've been in a very long time — much worse than 2001. The president's hands-off attitude is reminiscent of Herbert Hoover in 1929 and 1930."

Within 24 hours, Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a Democrat of Illinois, was weighing in with his own 1930s comparison. Roosevelt had pulled a country out of Depression and united it; President Bush was doing the opposite, he said.

You get the picture: Mr. Bush is like Hoover, the do-nothing. Democrats are like Roosevelt, the activist.

It's worthwhile to go back to that Depression period to see what people actually did or didn't do and who resembles whom. The reality differs from the cartoon.

Come October 1929, and the first big drops in the Dow, President Hoover pleaded for market confidence. "We are undoubtedly in a plane of prosperity, and we wish to hang on to prosperity," he told the New York Times.

On March 14, Mr. Bush made a similar pitch before the Economic Club of New York: "We're a resilient economy, and I believe that the ingenuity and resolve of the American people is what helps us deal with these issues." So far, so Hoover-ish.

To help homeowners and homebuilders, Hoover created the Reconstruction Finance Corp. Together that agency and the states poured billions of dollars into helping troubled banks and farm mortgage associations. Here, too, Mr. Bush, with his FHA Secure and other mortgage projects, recalls Hoover.

Yet Hoover made other moves — he was more of an activist than the stereotypes about him allow — and they resemble Bush policies not at all.

Hoover was a mining engineer, and to him the most real wealth was wealth in the ground — copper, gold, coal.

He distrusted financial markets as ephemeral. When Wall Street crashed, he blamed the messenger. Specifically, he spent the early 1930s chastising short-sellers.

"Bear raids," he scolded, were "not contributing to the recovery of the United States." The president sought new restrictions on short-selling, pressuring officials from the New York Stock Exchange to the Chicago Board of Trade to curtail the practice. This meddling caused more uncertainty.

Who is doing such pressuring these days? Not Mr. Bush, but that Hoovermonger, Mr. Schumer. Mr. Schumer used the Bear Stearns collapse to call for "a greater degree of regulation" in the industry that is relevant this time, investment banking.

Hoover knew free trade was beneficial. But his party, the Grand Old Party, was the tariff party. So in spite of himself, he signed a big new tariff, the Smoot-Hawley act, triggering retaliation from U.S. trading partners.

For many decades now, Democrats have contrasted Hoover's concession to protectionists unfavorably with free-trade legislation written by Roosevelt and his globalization guru, Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

Today it is the Democrats who are doing wrong, and they know better. Candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both internationalists by temperament, yet they seem to be in a race to see who can repeal the North American Free Trade Agreement first.

Mr. Bush, by contrast, was channeling Hull when he called a plan to reject a new trade accord with Colombia "a terrible signal."

Finally, there was Hoover's tax policy. Today every fool, right or left, knows that imposing a tax increase in an economic downturn is like kicking a wounded man in the stomach.

Yet in the dark days of 1932, with unemployment at 20%, Hoover perversely signed an increase that reversed the multiple cuts by his predecessor, Calvin Coolidge.

Hoover more than doubled rates at the bottom of the tax schedule. He also increased the top marginal tax rate to 63% from 25%. The effect was predictable. That tax error has haunted economists ever since.

Yet today it is not Republicans but Democrats who are preparing to replicate it. Senator Obama has suggested a payroll tax increase and an income tax increase; together they would just about offset all the breaks created by President Bush. Senator Clinton is scarcely different. Who's Hoover now?

All the Hoover-izing has obscured a disturbing resemblance — that of Bush to Roosevelt on currency. FDR knew that the dollar needed reflating, but monetary policy wasn't his area, so he was at a loss for a method.

At one point, he even tried to turn himself into a one-man reflation machine, buying commodities — each morning at a different price — in the hopes of moving the greenback.

His uncertainty kept the market down in the fall of 1934. You don't hear Democrats these days racing to claim the currency component of the Roosevelt legacy.

Mr. Bush, too, is no dollar expert. He has bumbled his way to trouble on money. The one risible line in his presentation last week was "we believe in a strong dollar." You can't say that after all the drops in the currency that President Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson have allowed.

So the 1930s have plenty to tell us, yes. But the real challenge isn't deciding who resembles Hoover. The challenge is for both parties to figure out how to avoid a whole era of mistakes.

Miss Shlaes, a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a columnist for Bloomberg News.