Pre-election clean-up

Just trimming down stuff today. Pretty much leaving just links for the longer items.

Planned Parenthood lunacy: Birthcontroids game

Go read the Dawn Patrol's latest on Planned Parenthood's nutty "Birthcontroids" game. Take note that, as usual, PP leaves out any mention of the best, most effective and foolproof method of "birth control:" abstinence.

Orson Scott Card again shows his quality

Another sudden entry in my picks for must-reads:

The Death of Shame

From zero to felon in 4.3 seconds

This is really starting to get scary. Vandalizing and burglarizing Republican campaign offices is one thing. Trying to run Republicans down is another:

Police: Driver Tried to Run Over Florida Rep. Harris

Oh, I see. As long as you didn't run them down and just scared them, that makes it okay. And if someone shoots a gun at a Republican but doesn't actually hit him, that's okay too?

I've come to be more afraid of what will happen when Kerry loses more than what will happen if he wins.

Author and Democrat Orson Scott Card gets it

This just shot to the top of my "must read" list.

Why We Are Winning and How We Can Still Lose

Don't let DNA and physical gender put you in a "gender stereotype" box

The latest lefist lunacy:

To boldly go where no man has gone before

Well, considering how "progressive" the university is to not let such pesky and horribly prejudiced things as DNA and physical gender "put people in a box" of "gender stereotypes," one has to wonder when they will make their bathrooms and locker rooms "gender neutral."

Is motherhood a real job?

The following was sent to me (and others) by Laurisa White Reyes, the smart, talented and gracious author of the Right Idea, and is here with her permission. She writes, "My articles are written with the hopes that the messages they bear will reach as many people as possible. Blog on!"

IS MOTHERHOOD A REAL JOB?

by Laurisa White Reyes

On Wednesday October 20th Theresa Heinz Kerry, wife of Presidential candidate John Kerry, managed once again to put her foot squarely in her mouth. In commenting on first lady Laura Bush, she said, “I don’t know if she’s ever had a real job.” Despite her pitiful attempt at an apology in which she referred to Mrs. Bush’s experience as schoolteacher and librarian before her marriage to George W Bush., Kerry’s comment reveals the mindset of the $500 million heiress to the Heinz fortune that full-time motherhood is an inferior position.

A real job…

The term brings a smirk to my lips. Real jobs are what some would call what I did before I married my husband, when I answered telephones and filed paperwork for medical offices, sold women’s clothing, and filled styrofoam cups with frozen yogurt. Yep, those were real jobs, jobs that handed me a paycheck on a consistent basis with a dollar amount printed on it by which I could determine if I was working hard enough and long enough.

I remember the day clearly when I decided that I didn’t want a real job anymore. I was lying on the sofa in my supervisor’s office trying not to vomit all over my dry clean only suit. Two months pregnant, I had spent most of that week staring at my computer screen and munching on saltine crackers.

I announced to my supervisor that I was going to quit. I had just been given a promotion, a substantial pay raise, and health insurance coverage the week before, so this was probably not what she was expecting to hear, but I will never forget what she told me.

“I wish I could have stayed home to raise my kids.”

Eleven years and four kids later, I can honestly say I’ve never looked back. Sure, there are days when I wonder what could possibly have possessed me to give up an ordered, scheduled life for chaos, but it only takes an unexpected kiss from my seven year old, or a “Mommy, you’re my best friend” from my three year old to bring me back into focus.

Are there times when I pine over the fact that my college diploma is gathering dust in a box only who knows where? Sure. Sometimes I even envy the fact that when things get really hairy around here my husband can find refuge by going to the office, because, of course, he has a real job. The only place to which I can retreat is the bathroom, and even then I still endure the sounds of little fists pounding on the door and pleas of “Let me in! Let me in!”

I suppose Theresa Kerry is right. There are some things you really can’t put on a resume, things like eating the crusts from countless peanut butter sandwiches, picking chewing gum out of the carpet – or a child’s hair, scrubbing crayon off the walls because your son has finally learned to spell his name and is over enthusiastic about it, consoling a child over the death of a ten cent goldfish, wearing mismatched socks because your daughter helped fold the laundry and you don’t want to hurt her feelings, getting kids to eat their veggies by finding clever ways to disguise them as other foods, enfolding your arms around a baby that has just taken her first steps, or rocking her to sleep in the middle of the day just because you want to.

No, motherhood isn’t a real job. In fact, it’s not a job at all. It is far, far more than that. And believe me, if it were a job, no amount of money would be enough to compensate me for what I do. Being with my kids every day is reward enough for me.

I hope you can see now why she's become one of my favorite conservatives. She's so dead on target! As a father, I go through the exact same feelings. Had I not chosen to become a father, there's so much I could have had or done, but my kids remind me each and every day that I have made the right choice. It's difficult and challenging sometimes - quite a bit of the time with our three-year-old, in fact - but I wouldn't give fatherhood up for anything in this world.

But mothers really deserve the most praise. It almost goes beyond words to find a way to express what they mean to us. Words so often seem so insufficient. I don't know where I would be now without my mother and I don't know what direction my kids would be going without my wife. Mothers are just plain wonderous and it's unfortunate that society doesn't realize this more. God bless them all!

Elizabeth Edwards hospitalized with self-inflicted gunshot wound to foot

Courtesy of the Drudge Report:

EDWARDS WIFE: NO RIOTS IF WE WIN

To quote Inigo Montoya, "Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up." Democrats win = no riots. Republicans win = riots.

The Florida hijinx continue

First Coast News out of Florida reports on election officials cracking down on campaign rules violators, including a Democratic Congressional representative candidate who apparently is ignorant of the law. Pay particular attention to her lame excuse. Apparently, since the officials didn't actually mark where fifty feet was, that means you can just go wherever until they do. When you get busted, just plead ignorance. Riiiiiiiight. It's not that difficult to figure out what's outside of fifty feet. Just take fifty paces. Unless your stride is less than one foot, you will end up at or - more likely - past the fifty foot mark. If you know what the rule is, you have no excuse for not doing your best to comply with that law. Don't chalk it up to ignorance or blame someone else.

This is just cool as heck

Amazing Lego Art. The bottom half is particularly awesome.

The party of hate continues its violent ways

Straight on the heels of Solaman's report of another act of violence against Republican offices comes yet another report out of Oregon courtesy of Powerline:

Someone smashed the windows of the Multnomah County Republican office in Southeast Portland on Thursday, perhaps the latest sign some Oregonians have tossed out civility in their zeal to put their man in the White House.
Patrick Donaldson, volunteer chairman of the Bush campaign in Multnomah County, said the broken windows, discovered early in the morning, follow weeks of harassment, including threatening phone calls and people walking into the office and ripping up signs.

The executive director of the Oregon Democratic Party doesn't help the situation by pretty much rubber stamping the violence:

"But the fact is that the reason the Republican Party is feigning righteous indignation is because they don't want to talk about the 30,000 jobs lost and the 180,000 Oregonians who have lost health care," said Neel Pender, executive director of the state Democratic Party.

To be completely fair (and balanced), I realize that all Democrats aren't like this. (I happen to know a few.) The ones that aren't seem to be in the minority, however, which is unfortunate. When "anybody but Bush" and "because he's not Bush" become the party's major reasons to vote for Kerry, the general hatred of the party becomes evident. People are voting for Kerry for no other reason than that they hate President Bush (and the Republicans who support him). Couple that with the vicious slurs against President Bush and his administration, the lies, the four-year-old grudge for losing Florida fair and square (despite Gore's attempts to the contrary), and you've got a fertile ground for acts of violence like this to spring up. It's not President Bush's fault that these acts are occuring, as Neel Pender would have you believe. It's the Democrats' fault. Four years of Bush hating.

Another haiku

Saturday blogging

I guess it's okay for me

Better than the bar

Just in case you missed it the first time around

New York Times Special Report: The 2000 Election - Examining the Florida Vote

Study of Disputed Florida Ballots Finds Justices Did Not Cast the Deciding Vote
By FORD FESSENDEN and JOHN M. BRODER
George W. Bush would have won even if the Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount that the Florida court had ordered to go forward.

...

Who Won Florida? The Answer Emerges, but Surely Not the Final Word
By RICHARD L. BERKE
The comprehensive review of the uncounted Florida ballots solidifies George W. Bush's legal claim on the White House.

To summarize:

• Bush won the 2000 election
  
• Bush did not steal the election
  
• Bush was not selected president by the Supreme Court
  

End of story.

Israel kills Hamas bombmaker with appropriate name

Israel Kills Top Hamas Leader in Gaza Strike

Medics and witnesses said a missile from an Israeli drone slammed into the vehicle and killed Adnan al-Ghoul, a senior Hamas leader and master bombmaker for the Islamic militant group who has been on Israel's most wanted list for over a decade.

A haiku

Friday night blogging

I really don't have a life

Please don't weep for me

Would you hire this man?

This man hasn't shown up to work for 4 months, yet he still receives a considerable salary and draws praises from his family, friends, co-workers and supporters. In fact, he has been completely unreliable over the past 4 years (at least!), often not showing up for work for several days in a row. This man puts himself and his ambitions ahead of the people who hired him.

Well? Would you hire him?

The people of Massachusetts did.

His name is John F. Kerry.

Pie-throwing nitwits miss Ann Coulter, damage property

"Al Pieda" Targets Ann Coulter

OCTOBER 22--Meet "Al Pieda" disciples Phillip Edgar Smith and William Zachary Wolff. The Tucson men, both 24, were arrested last night after throwing custard cream pies at author Ann Coulter during her speech at the University of Arizona. Portions of the pies connected with the conservative commentator's face and shoulder, according to this police report, which quotes Smith saying that he and Wolff were "throwing the pies at her ideas not at her." Cops also noted that a post-arrest search of the assailants turned up "pieces of paper (propaganda) involving Coulter's name and the explanation of 'Al Pieda.'" Smith, a UA student, and Wolff were charged with criminal damage, a felony, and misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct, vandalism, and assault without injury. The felony charge resulted from damage to a backdrop that school officials estimated at $3000. The report describes the woven cloth backdrop as a "muslim scrim." The pie provocateurs were booked into the Pima County Jail--where the below mug shots were snapped--and scheduled for a court appearance today. If you're wondering about the sheets Smith and Wolff are wearing, they're not Bedouins. As a courtesy, the Pima jailers use them to cover the lockup's standard-issue orange jumpsuits.

Coulter's response?

"From that far away they can't even hit me?"

I wonder if they are thinking it was worth it now.

Why I'm voting for George W. Bush

Well, Hugh Hewitt ended his symposium tonight, but I just thought I'd share why I'm voting for President Bush on November 2nd. First, a picture that says an immeasurable amount of words:

Ashley Faulkner and President Bush on the "Ashley's Story" website

I've never seen a more powerful picture of President Bush. You can literally see in his eyes the depth of his love, compassion, care and concern.

Finally, when President Bush stood at Ground Zero in NYC on September 14th, 2001, and addressed the workers there, he spoke these completely unrehearsed words when someone shouted that they couldn't hear him:

"I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon."

I knew President Bush wasn't the perfect candidate when I voted for him. I knew he had his flaws. I knew he would say and do things that I would disagree with. But any apprehension I had was completely eradicated when he spoke those words in NYC. I thought, "This is the right man for the right job at the right time." I could not imagine Al Gore effectively leading this country as President Bush did during those awful, horrific days. I could not imagine Al Gore reaching out to people like President Bush reached out to Ashley Faulkner. And now I cannot imagine John Kerry being a better president than George W. Bush.

Should they have the right to vote, too?

Not even the nutty 9th Circuit Court of Appeals fell for this garbage:

The world's whales, porpoises and dolphins have no standing to sue President George W Bush over the US Navy's use of sonar equipment that harms marine mammals, a federal appeals court has ruled.

...

The lawsuit was brought against Mr Bush and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on behalf the Cetacean Community - defined as the world's whales, porpoises and dolphins - by their self-appointed lawyer, marine mammal activist Lanny Sinkin.

Democratic candidate's son caught stealing signs in Hawaii

I really don't need to comment much on this story (make sure to check out the pictures). It speaks for itself. I do want to say that I think someone's campaign is about to hit rock bottom.

This election season, thousands of dollars worth of political signs have been stolen, defaced or otherwise trashed at an alarming rate from people's homes and private property.

...

But recently, on Primary Election day in late September, an amazing thing happened. One of the "criminals" was caught in the act -- and caught on film.

Most interestingly, the culprit, Mike Golojuch Jr., is a frequent letter writer and spokesperson for his version of civil rights and free speech. He was caught stealing the signs of Rep. Mark Moses, R-Kapolei, for which Moses reported him to the police and filed a complaint.

Most relevant, Mike Golojuch Jr., who ran for state House in 2002, is the son of the woman who is currently the opponent of Moses in the state House race to represent Kapolei.

...

Meanwhile, Moses and his son, who are standing nearby waving to motorists passing by in traditional Hawaiian campaign style, ask Mike Golojuch Jr. to give the political signage back, but he refuses saying they are on public property, and then drives away, laughing at the Moses family.

Fifty Reasons Why [to vote for George Bush]

Solaman linked to this photo essay courtesy of Vanderleun at American Digest. It's powerful and disturbing (be aware that there are several pictures of the dead), but it's so completely true.

Associated Press LIES about Iran endorsing President Bush

Caught red-handed!

Here’s the latest blatantly false headline from the Associated Press, as they claim that Iran has "endorsed" George W. Bush: Bush Receives Endorsement From Iran.

Notice, however, that the actual quotes from Iranian official Hasan Rowhani do not contain an endorsement at all, just a statement that they don’t want Democrats to take over:

TEHRAN, Iran - The head of Iran’s security council said Tuesday that the re-election of President Bush was in Tehran’s best interests, despite the administration's axis of evil label, accusations that Iran harbors al-Qaida terrorists and threats of sanctions over the country’s nuclear ambitions.

Historically, Democrats have harmed Iran more than Republicans, said Hasan Rowhani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran’s top security decision-making body.

"We haven’t seen anything good from Democrats," Rowhani told state-run television in remarks that, for the first time in recent decades, saw Iran openly supporting one U.S. presidential candidate over another.

Though Iran generally does not publicly wade into U.S. presidential politics, it has a history of preferring Republicans over Democrats, who tend to press human rights issues.

"We do not desire to see Democrats take over," Rowhani said when asked if Iran was supporting Democratic Sen. John Kerry against Bush.

But as this AFP release at Turkish News shows, the Associated Press deliberately omitted a key portion of Hasan Rowhani’s statements that make it clear Iran does not endorse Bush at all: Kerry or Bush, makes no difference to us: Iran.

TEHRAN, Oct 19 (AFP) - It makes no real difference to Iran whether US President George W. Bush or Democrat contender John Kerry wins the presidential elections, a senior Iranian official said Tuesday.

"It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran’s top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.

"We have not seen any good coming from the Democrats, so we won’t be happy if the Democrats win," he said.

And a few choice quotes from INDC Journal:

Of course, this generation's useful idiots at the AP seize on the comments in a bid to implicitly push the narrative that Bush's aggressive foreign policy plays into the desires of the rogue regime.

...

So the AP's "news" is really "analysis" that omits direct quotes that contradict their narrative, extrapolates endorsement from the context of some of the source's words and presents this extrapolation at face value, not even bothering to note Iran's previous prevarication that would indicate a tendency to try and game the political process with shifting positions. A google of the story reveals that many dailies in the West have some variation of the headline "Bush receives endorsement from Iran," without Rowhani's contradictory quote. Why? Because almost all of them feature the selective wire spin by Ali Akbar Dareini of the Associated Press. It's group-think at its worst, and highlights the reason why the "reporters" at the wire services are the most dangerous and influential commentators in the mainstream media.

...

To recap:

AP: "... Rowhani told state-run television in remarks that, for the first time in decades, saw Iran openly supporting one U.S. presidential candidate over another."

Rowhani's comments that were omitted from the AP's story: "It makes no difference for us which of the two parties wins the elections," Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani said in an interview on state television.

I don't use the term "lie" in reference to media bias lightly, but when an outlet omits highly relevant, contradictory quotes, it's an effective "lie."

The AP is lying to you.

If you think about this situation, though, it does make sense. I'm sure the liberals were desperate to find something - anything - they could distort to President Bush's detriment after all the Kerry endorsements by Arafat and other unsavory types.

THK: Diarrhea of the mouth strikes again!

Teresa Heinz Kerry did an interview with USA Today recently in which she made this remark:

Q: You'd be different from Laura Bush?

A: Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up.

THK really needs to do more homework before she mouths off about people. On the White House website, we find the following in Laura Bush's bio:

Inspired by her second grade teacher, she earned a bachelor of science degree in education from Southern Methodist University in 1968. She then taught in public schools in Dallas and Houston. In 1973 she earned a master of library science degree from the University of Texas at Austin and worked as a public school librarian in Austin.

How hard was that to find? Not very. You'd think that one of the things you'd do if your husband was running for the highest office in the land is to find out something about his opponent and his wife. That Laura Bush is a proponent of schools and teachers because she was once a teacher and school librarian is a pretty well-known fact. Plus, she's been the First Lady for nearly 4 years. Did THK learn absolutely nothing about her during all that time?

UPDATE: THK has issued an apology:

"I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a school teacher and librarian, and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children. As someone who has been both a full time mom and full time in workforce, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as First Lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past."

Jimmy Carter: liberal, crazy or stupid? Probably all three.

I typically try to avoid insulting people, but sometimes they just say or do things that bring out the worst in me. However, the worst in me is better than those things. Case in point, Jimmy Carter on Hardball:

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about—this is going to cause some trouble with people—but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we‘ve fought.

Say what? Okay, ignoring the obvious slight towards President Bush ("up until recently") for now, Carter is a little off on his thinking. (Big surprise, eh?) The Revolutionary War resulted in less than 5,000 American deaths. The Civil War and World War II resulted in the deaths of over 600,000 and over 400,000 respectively - 1 million total. Now, the war in Iraq and the subsequent acts of terror there have cost the lives of just over 1,000 Americans - not even close to the deaths in the Revolutionary War.

I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

ALL wars could have been avoided, but the Revolutionary War was not unnecessary.

Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive

BWOOOOOOP!!!! BWOOOOOP!!!! BWOOOOOP!!!!
RED ALERT!!! RED ALERT!!!
LIBERALESE DETECTED!!! LIBERALESE DETECTED!!!
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!!
BWOOOOOOP!!!! BWOOOOOP!!!! BWOOOOOP!!!!

"A little more sensitive." Yeah, right! And if we had been just "a little more sensitive" to Saddam's brutal, murderous dictatorship, we never would've had to have used military force to oust him. Why, he would've just handed over his keys just like that.

to the colonial‘s really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

No, we wouldn't have been a free country because the British would've crushed us.

I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.

You know, it sickens me that Carter is comparing the modern U.S. to late-1700s England and Iraq to Colonial America. It's like comparing apples to offal.

Ugh. I need to go bathe after reading that. Yuck.

Trying to appease terrorists doesn't work

Spain Seizes Islamic Militants Suspected of Plot

MADRID (Reuters) - Police arrested seven suspected Islamic militants in raids across Spain on Monday to foil a planned bomb attack on the High Court, judicial sources said.

The arrests came seven months after train bombs killed 191 people in Madrid.

The train bombings were, of course, a plot to affect the elections in that country. They worked and the people of Spain gave in to the terrorists in the false hope that it would end terrorism. Surprise, surprise - it didn't. It most likely had the opposite effect of encouraging the Islamofacists to commit more acts of terror. Does anyone honestly think that they wouldn't? That they would suddenly give up terrorism in favor of peaceful means to get what they want? If you do, then I've got a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, to sell you. (London Bridge!)

NAACP operative gives new meaning to "rock the vote"

Courtesy of the Drudge Report and verifiable through a simple Google News search:

The Defiance County Sheriff's Office arrested Chad Staton, age 22, of Stratton Ave., Defiance, on a charge of False Registration, in Violation of Section 3599.11 of the Ohio Revised Code, a felony of the fifth degree.

The Sheriff's Office alleges that Staton filled out over 100 voter registration forms that were fictitious. Staton was to be paid for each registration form that he could get citizens to fill out. However, Staton himself filled out the registrations and returned them to the woman who hired him from Toledo, Ohio. Deputies allege that Staton was paid crack cocaine for the falsified registrations.

Defiance Deputies along with Toledo Police Department detectives conducted a search warrant of a residence on Woodland in Toledo, believed to be the home of the woman who hired Staton to solicit voter registration. Officers confiscated drug paraphernalia along with voter registration forms from the home. The occupant of the home, Georgianne Pitts, age 41, advised law enforcement, along with Ohio B.C.I.&I.;, that she had been recruited by Thaddeus J. Jackson, II, of Cleveland, to obtain voter registrations. Pitts admitted to paying Staton crack cocaine for the registrations in lieu of money.

A business card provided by Pitts indicated that Jackson is the Assistant NVF Ohio Director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.

The initial complaint received by the Sheriff's Office came from the Defiance County Board of Elections. The Board had received the 100 plus registration forms from the Cuyahoga Board of Elections that had been submitted to the Cuyahoga Board by the NAACP National Voter Fund.

*sigh*

A hilarious response to wussy American appeaseniks

First, some background: Kaia Svien of Minneapolis has organized a project she calls the FOR Iraq Photo Project. This project's goal is to send to Saddam Iraq thousands of photos of American citizens (or groups of citizens) holding up hand-made signs with messages apologizing for the war that ousted the modern equivalent of Hitler and brought freedom and liberty to the country's citizens. The pithy messages include:

• "Our hearts are filled with grief and shame."
  
• "Iraq is your country!"
  
• "We are ashamed of the actions of our government."
  
• "We apologize for the killing and torture of Iraqis."
  
• "We apologize deeply for U.S. government atrocities."
  
• "Please forgive U.S. transgressions."
  
• "Our tears flow for the Iraqi people."
  
• "We have felt immense pain in our hearts over all this horrible insanity."
  
• "We are sad about this war. We hope your houses stop getting wrecked."
  
• "...we pray for an end to the suffering of the Iraqi people."
  
• "With deep shame, we apologize for the injuries, torture, and deaths of Iraqi prisoners."
  
• "We apologize for the United States' behavior in Iraq. We are outraged and ashamed of our current government."

And on and on and on. *urp* Um, excuse me one moment.

*vomitting sounds*

Sorry. Natural reaction to that stuff.

So my first reaction to these photos was to ask,

"Where were these people when Saddam and his government were killing, injuring, torturing, wrecking houses, and committing other atrocities and transgressions against the suffering Iraqi people with their horrible insanity? Where were they when Saddam was filling mass graves with the bodies of children who were clutching toys at the moments of their deaths? Where were they when the Iraqi people starved to death while Saddam lived as a king in his many palaces? Where were they when Saddam and his sons amused themselves by slowing lowering people feet-first into industrial shredders? Where? WHERE? WHERE?!?!?!?!?!"

Oh, we're SO, SO SORRY for removing a brutal, murderous, defiant dictator from power in your country! We're SO, SO SORRY that you are regaining control of your own country! We're SO, SO SORRY for bringing freedom and liberty to your country! Here, let's withdraw our forces, release Saddam, restore him to power and return all those things that you lost!

Idiots.

But I digress...

Artist and blogger Sean Glesson fired up his image editting program and has put together a hilarious response to all of this, which he has entitled "Apologizing to Saddam is groovy." Check it out and enjoy a few good belly laughs. Also, blogger Tim Blair has a page entitled THE TERRIFYING FACE OF FORGIVENESS with hilarious comments about some of the photos. If Gleeson's page doesn't have you rolling on the floor, Blair's page will. Well done, gentlemen!

An attractive trio

Laura, Barbara and Jenna Bush

It just cannot be avoided. These are three attractive, classy women. No wonder President Bush listens to them.

[Note: if the link doesn't take you directly to a picture of the Bush women, it might be because Yahoo likes to change their links for some ridiculous reason.]

C-SPAN callers from Hell

I keep doing it and I don't know why. I keep subjecting myself to listening - briefly - to the morning call-in program on C-SPAN. For the most part, I love C-SPAN, but I'm really starting to think they need to make callers take some sort of test before they are allowed to comment on air. This week, I heard people call President Bush a racist (which makes me wonder what Colin Powell and Condi Rice think about that) and accuse him of planning to take voting rights away from blacks during his second term. All I can really say to that is YEEEEEEEEEEEESH!

Two examples of liberal hypocrisy

While I don't condemn all liberals for these two things, I do find it interesting that they aren't being condemned by the left as far as I can tell.

First up, a racist cartoon by nationally syndicated and all-around Bush-hating "political cartoonist" Jeff Danziger:

October 4th cartoon

Not entirely surprisingly, the cartoon in question has been removed from Danziger's own website.

[drippingsarcasm]Gosh, I wonder why...[/drippingsarcasm]

Second, a flyer distributed by some Tennessee Democrats who, no doubt, consider themselves tolerant, sensitive, and caring:

TeamGOP Press Release: Dave Dahl denounces Fitzhugh’s attack of Republican voters

I work with developmentally disabled adults and this sort of underhanded, childish, moronic crap (and that's me saying the nicest and non-vulgar things I can about this) disgusts me. I simply don't have the words to fully describe how much it disgusts me, and the words that come immediately to mind aren't the least bit polite and it is very difficult for me to keep them in.


UPDATE: In a bizarre twist, the New York Times Syndicate has replaced the racist Danziger cartoon in their archive with a picture of some guy. I think the wonderous Michelle Malkin put it best when she asked, "What is up with that?"

UPDATE #2: The TeamGOP.com link above is acting weird. I had to change it because the original disappeared or changed or something. Now the image of the flyer is gone from the page. Oh, well. There's enough coverage elsewhere on this issue. No worries.

Kerry's "Nuisance Level Alert System"

Eric Siegmund of the Fire Ant Gazette has posted his take on Kerry's statement about returning terrorists to being just a "nuisance." I give you...

the "Nuisance Level Alert System"

Wizbang's Jay Tea on John Kerry

I found this interesting take on John Kerry's rhetoric on Wizbang today. This part was particularly good:

Whatever the issue is, all he can focus on is "George Bush was wrong" or "I would've done the same, but better." He has plans to do everything, probably including curing the common cold and ending the heartbreak of psoriasis, but won't tell us what those plans are. It's Richard Nixon's "secret plan to end the war" writ large, and we all know how well THAT turned out.

It's absolutely true, too. Kerry is short on details and long on contradiction. I'm reminded of the Monty Python skit about the guy who wants to have an argument, but gets only contradiction from John Cleese's character.

Germany's headscarf ban backfires

The Captain's Quarters blog shares a London Telegraph report about a judge in Germany ruling that the headscarf ban must also apply to nun's habits. Whoops! I seriously doubt Germany will be able to convince the Catholic Church to have their nuns not wear habits, so one of three things is going to have to happen here:

1. Nuns will have to be unfairly booted from the schools.
   
2. The law will have to be amended to provide an unfair exclusion for the nuns (and the Muslims will no doubt complain).
   
3. Germany will have to drop this stupid, stupid law.

I predict that number 3 will be the solution.

Iraq: a threat or not?

If you asked John Kerry his answer to the question, well... Judge for yourself from his statements in the second debate (as found on Wizbang's blog and Debates.org:

"Well, let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat. Believed it in 1998 when Clinton was president. I wanted to give Clinton the power to use force if necessary."

Alright. That's pretty clear. Saddam was a threat, Kerry always believed he was, and he would've authorized Clinton using force to get rid of Saddam. However, just a few statements later, Kerry says this about Iran:

"I don't think you can just rely on U.N. sanctions, Randee. But you're absolutely correct, it is a threat, it's a huge threat.

And what's interesting is, it's a threat that has grown while the president has been preoccupied with Iraq, where there wasn't a threat.

So within a matter of a few minutes, Kerry apparently changes his mind about Iraq. According to that statement, he believes there wasn't a threat in Iraq. These statements simply CANNOT BE RECONCILED!!! No excuse of "nuances" (a word I've heard to dismiss Kerry's constant contradictions) will ever reconcile them. Kerry is a flip-flopper and he would be a greater danger to this country than the liberals claim President Bush is now. It's so obvious. I wish more people would admit it.

BlogShares

This is an interesting idea. I've signed up, but I don't have the slightest idea what to do now. View my blog's profile here.

CB radios and blogs

A friend of Solaman sent him a personal story about CB radios and life lessons. Read it. Think about it. Think about yourself.

Democratic hypocrisy at the MN State Fair

Muzzy's got a great write-up of the Minnesota DFL's Wall of Hate at their booth at the state fair. The post-it comments really aren't that surprising (the same or similar can be found all over the web), but the man teaching his kids that it's okay to hate President Bush astounded me. I don't know how these people can sleep at night. I would NEVER teach my children that hating a person (or a group of people) is okay. Not Kerry, not Clinton, not Saddam, not bin Laden. You can hate the things they do or say, but as Christians, we are called to love the person. I will admit that it's difficult to do it sometimes, but it needs to be done. The chain of hate needs to be broken, and certain people just aren't going to do it themselves.

The unbelievable truth of government-run health care

Quite frankly, this shocked and sickened the hell out of me and I hope it does the same to you, too:

Judge to rule on baby's right to life

The parents of baby Charlotte Wyatt are expected to hear this afternoon whether a high court judge has supported their case for their daughter's right to life.

Darren and Debbie Wyatt from Portsmouth tried to convince Mr Justice Hedley that their 11-month-old child has a right to life. They argued their daughter should be provided with every aspect of medical care available.

Charlotte was born three months premature, weighing only 1lb and measuring five inches. She has already stopped breathing three times due to serious heart and lung problems; she is fed through a tube because she cannot suck from a bottle and she needs a constant supply of oxygen.

Portsmouth hospitals NHS trust argues that resuscitating Charlotte again would lead to further damage to her lungs and cause her further suffering.

It has asked the court for an order allowing its doctors not to ventilate her again if she has life-threatening breathing difficulties.

And the ruling:

Judge in London gives okay to let premature baby die

LONDON (AFP) - Doctors caring for a critically-ill premature baby, Charlotte Wyatt, were given permission by a British judge to allow her to die if her condition seriously deteriorates and her breathing stops.

In handing down his judgment, Hedley said Charlotte -- who has already stopped breathing on three occasions, and revived each time -- should be given three things:

"As much comfort as possible, as much time as possible to spend in the presence and in contact with her parents, and she should be allowed to meet her end, in the words of Mr Wyatt, with the TLC (tender loving care) of those who love her the most."

This is why I oppose government-run health care in the U.S. I don't want anyone else but me and my wife to make decisions regarding the lives of our children or ourselves like this. It absolutely sickens me how human life - and especially the most helpless and innocent of human life - has become so worthless these days and how the rights of parents are slowly being eroded away.

Baby Charolette doesn't have much chance to survive, but she should be given that chance. Doctors have said that her chances of survival over the next year are "approaching zero," but "approaching zero" is not zero. While rare, there are stories of premature babies who have beaten the odds. Every life is precious. Every life should be fought for. Parents should have every right to fight for their child's life and they should never have those rights taken away from them.

Blogrolling

Trying to figure this stuff out. Blogroll link is to the right underneath the archives box.

Never a doomed man

Just something I felt moved to share:

In Februrary 1998, my father died of cancer. For 3 months before that, he spent his last days at home with his family thanks to the local Hospice program. He knew he was going to die and that it would be soon, but at no point during this time was he ever a doomed man. Never. Why? Because he had the assurance of salvation and eternal life through Jesus. Death and pain stalked him every day, but he did not fear them. He looked them right in the eye and knew they had no power over him because he was a Christian. His faith in and love for Jesus was displayed more profoundly than I had ever seen before, and I now truly believe that Jesus' love for my father was equally displayed. When he died peacefully early one morning, my mother was right there beside him, too. I mean right there. She was moistening his lips, which were very dry because he was in a coma, when he smiled and then died. I have no doubt that it was not a coincidence that he died at that moment. Through thick and thin, good and bad, they were together because they were joined as one through God.

I was not a Christian at that time. In fact, I was an atheist. I had no belief in God. Those 3 months changed me, however. My father's memorial also had a great impact on me. Hundreds of people attended - the church was literally overflowing, and it's not a small church, either. It was really astounding to see all these people - some of whom barely knew my father and some of whom had not seen him in years - come from far and wide to bear silent witness to the love he showed people. That love was, of course, a reflection of his love for God and was the best witness for his faith.

Because of all this, I began to re-examine that which I had rejected for so long. I opened my mind and heart, and I came to question and then reject the beliefs I had as an atheist. From "the Bible is full of errors and contradiction" to the claims that Jesus "never existed" and "was a copycat savior," I found it all to be lies invented to justify unbelief and reject any critical thinking about Christianity. I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior and was baptized ("dunked") soon afterwards.

Death stalks me, too, as it stalks everyone. I don't know when, why or how, but I will die someday. But like my father, I am not a doomed man.

Parents demand Kerry be added to presidents montage

Out of Monmouth Junction, New Jersey, comes the report of middle school teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz, who was recently kicked out of school for refusing to kowtow to the ridiculous demands of a small group of Bush-haters. Her "offense?" Displaying a picture of President George W. Bush on a bulletin board collage of U.S presidents:

On Thursday, there was a back-to-school night for parents of students. Veteran English teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz says she was shocked when three parents confronted her. The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry's photo to the montage of presidents or remove the Bush photo.

Next up for the 3 Bush-hating knuckleheads: demanding that Kerry's photo be added immediately to current textbooks and encyclopedias in the school or remove President Bush's photo from them.

[BTW, yes, I did notice the typo before the bolded text. It's on the news webpage, so it's not my doing.]

Update: I did a quick search and found the school's website with a page listing the administrators' email addresses. It's a free country, so I've already emailed my opinion to them and I encourage everyone reading this to do the same. Don't be harassing or abusive, but just let them know how ridiculous this situation is.

You just can't make this stuff up, folks

As reported by CNN, a Newsweek poll conducted after the debate showed President Bush with 45% of the vote and John Kerry with 47%, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4%. This, of course, is interpreted by many liberals as Kerry leading, even though CNN reported it as "a virtual tie." One liberal in particular, "Busheses" on the Theologyweb.com forums, made these amusing comments:

"[A] plus-minus margin also means that he could have a bigger lead (6 points) than what they are giving him."

"I know the plus-minus margin of error could work on either way, so do the people who conducted the poll, that is why Kerry's lead still stands."

I really wish he were kidding, but he's not.

Oh, yes, they call him "the Cheat..."

The Drudge Report has reported that Kerry has been caught orange-handed cheating during the first presidential debate. As he approached the podium, Kerry was caught by a reverse-angle camera pulling something out of his jacket and unfolding it at the podium. According to the debate rules:

"No props, notes, charts, diagrams, or other writings or other tangible things may be brought into the debate by either candidate.... Each candidate must submit to the staff of the Commission prior to the debate all such paper and any pens or pencils with which a candidate may wish to take notes during the debate, and the staff or commission will place such paper, pens and pencils on the podium..."

[Section 5, pages 4-5 of the rules]

This was a "tangible thing" and it was not placed at the podium beforehand. Whatever it was - and it was very likely some piece of paper - violated the rules. Many Kerry supporters have, of course, dismissed this obvious and gross violation as "meaningless" at best and, at worst, "a lie" used either to distract people from Kerry's "win" or to get some sort of "revenge" due to President Bush's supposed sag in polling numbers.

"So what?" you may ask. It's about trustworthiness. This was a simple rule to follow: DON'T BRING ANYTHING TO THE PODIUM. Kerry chose to ignore that rule. Rules apparently don't matter to him. He's a cheat now and he'd be a cheat as president.

Democratic hypocrisy

Just a short time ago, John Kerry's campaign attacked the Bush campaign ad showing Kerry windsurfing as "juvenile." Yet it's apparently quite alright for the DNC to produce an juvenile attack ad called "Faces of Frustration" which makes fun of President Bush's facial expressions during the first debate.

"Do as we say, not as we do."

Why did Gallup even bother?

On this page we find the results of a post-debate poll conducted by Gallup. I really have to question the reporting of these numbers. At the bottom of the report we find the following:

All results are based on telephone interviews with 615 registered voters, aged 18 and older, who watched the presidential debate Sept. 30, 2004. Respondents were first interviewed Sept. 28-29, 2004, when they indicated there was some chance they would watch Thursday's debate and were willing to be called back. For results based on the total sample of debate watchers, one can say with 95% confidence that the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.

In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

Polls conducted entirely in one day, such as this one, are subject to additional error or bias not found in polls conducted over several days.

So not only are these numbers affected by the typical sampling error (which is typically between 3 and 5 percent), but they're affected by "additional error or bias" because they were done in such a short amount of time. Apparently Gallup doesn't know what that error percentage would be since they didn't report it. It could be anything! So why bother? Is Gallup jumping on the "report it no matter how suspect" bandwagon with C^BS?

"Skeptical" song lyrics

Every once in a while, I browse through James "the Amazing" Randi's website just to see what the die-hard skeptics are talking about. Today, I found this thread about "skeptical" songs (i.e. atheistic/agnostic songs critical of religious belief) in the forum. In reading through the posted lyrics, it became obvious how negative, dark and despairing the lyrics are. They just drip with depression and hopelessness. I find it strange that anyone could say that they enjoy these songs.

C-SPAN callers

I don't know why I torture myself by tuning in to C-SPAN when they are taking calls. I know that there will eventually be some boneheaded comments made. It happens without fail everytime I watch. Today it was a guy who couldn't understand why Bush's podium was higher on his TV screen during last night's debate. (C-SPAN presented the debate in split-screen.) The host tried to explain that the podiums were the same height and because Kerry is taller than Bush, the cameras need to zoom out more to get him all in frame. This resulted in his podium appearing lower. The caller was convinced that this was some sort of plot by the media to make President Bush look better than Kerry. Yes, you read that right. The caller claimed that the media was biased in favor of Bush.

I have to wonder if the caller came from either the evil alternate "Star Trek" universe (where President Bush no doubt has an evil-looking goatee) or Bizarro Superman's homeworld.

A notable website

Please check out Laurisa White Reyes's The Right Idea, a little-known (it apparently runs in just 4 newspapers) but very well-written conservative newspaper column out of California. While the column is focused mainly on issues pertaining to California, sometimes Laurisa writes about national issues (or things that are closely related to national issues). Go. Check it out. Now. Right now. I mean it. Don't make me come over there.