Best "Impeach on the Beach" video ever

This is hilarious! I just about fell over laughing.

Got an honorable mention in Wizbang's caption contest

See here.

Another "undeniable proof of evolution" goes extinct

Looks like the truth has yanked the football away from evolutionists yet again:

Israeli researchers: 'Lucy' is not direct ancestor of humans

Tel Aviv University anthropologists say they have disproven the theory that "Lucy" - the world-famous 3.2-million-year-old Australopithecus afarensis skeleton found in Ethiopia 33 years ago - is the last ancestor common to humans and another branch of the great apes family known as the "Robust hominids."

More proof that Iraq is a "quagmire" and "lost"

Iraqi Boy Scouts prepare for Jamboree

If this doesn't bring a little moisture to your eyes, check your pulse.

And just for some perspective, here's what Scouting was like under Saddam:

After the Baath party took control in 1968 and especially after Saddam Hussein seized power in 1979, youth groups were retooled to serve the state. One replacement program, Saddam's Cubs, offered "summer camps" where 10 to 15 year-old boys endured 14-hour days filled with hand-to-hand fighting drills. In 1990, during the period when the Iraq Boy Scouts and Girl Guides Council... was recognized by WOSM, the Mesopotamian nation had 12,000 Scouts, however by 1999, Iraq had been expelled from the WOSM.

That was then.

This is now:

In the autumn of 2004, Chip Beck, a former Navy commander, CIA operative, and Assistant Commissioner for Venture Scouting in the National Capital Area Council (NCAC) of Washington D.C., was serving a 6 month CPA tour of duty in Iraq, and had the idea to try and restart scouting in the country. The Iraqi Scouts Initiative committee was led by Co-Chairmen Beck and Michael Bradle, an Eagle Scout.

Beck and a quorum of 100 multinational Scouters informally established the Green Zone Council of Scouting in February 2004 as a loose fraternal organization for fellow Scouters serving in Iraq. Through various Scouting networks, the GZC as it was called, came to the attention of Bradle and his corporation, who offered their full support, suggesting both groups work to formally re-establish a legal, recognized, and fully functioning Scouting program in Iraq.

The Scout program is open to boys and girls of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and allows for local nuances to shape various regional program options.

A National Iraqi Scouting Headquarters is envisioned for Baghdad, and a former government establishment has been earmarked for this. Five national Scout camps are also planned.

Since the movement restarted in 2004, it has been taken over by Iraqis and is now run exclusively by them. Iraqi Scouts are involved in community service such as helping police with traffic control, giving first aid, cultivating cotton, planting trees and helping during natural disasters.

Big, fat surprise: "Carbon offsets" a big, fat scam

Industry caught in carbon ‘smokescreen’

The FT investigation found:

■ Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions.

■ Industrial companies profiting from doing very little – or from gaining carbon credits on the basis of efficiency gains from which they have already benefited substantially.

■ Brokers providing services of questionable or no value.

■ A shortage of verification, making it difficult for buyers to assess the true value of carbon credits.

■ Companies and individuals being charged over the odds for the private purchase of European Union carbon permits that have plummeted in value because they do not result in emissions cuts.

And Al Gore buying "carbon offsets" from himself.

This is just vindication for those of us who knew this "carbon offsets" garbage smelled, looked, sounded, tasted and felt like a scam.

Now the big question is whether or not the left-stream media will report this. And an even bigger question is whether or not liberals will care.

I'm guessing "no" for both.

More at Hot Air.

A couple of nice stories of hope in the face of terrorism

First, a victim of the London bombings gets married:

On the morning that Dan Biddle was blown apart by a terrorist's bomb, his fiance Lisa Flint was dreamily planning their wedding day.

She'd chosen her princess-style ivory gown, colourful bouquet and co-ordinating bridesmaids dresses and the home they shared was filled with bridal magazines.

But their fairytale exploded at 9.17am on July 7, 2005. On his way to work, Dan took the full force of a suicide bomb at Edgware Road underground station.

He lost both legs, his left eye, his spleen and 87 pints of blood, spending five weeks in a coma as Lisa sat by his bedside, urging him to survive.

Finally, after a year in hospital and months of adjusting to their new life together, Dan and Lisa had their big day on Saturday.

Looking like any other young couple as they stood at the aisle together to exchange their vows. The groom was handsome in traditional tails and cream carnation, while the bride wore a designer flowing white gown and veil.

But as Lisa walked down the aisle at the De Rougemont Manor in Brentwood, Essex, she wept openly. Dan - who was wheeled into the service earlier by his brother - stood painfully on his prosthetic legs as the wedding march struck up and his fiance walked in.

Many of the congregation cried as the couple kissed - and the couple tightly clasped hands as Dan's father read the poem, Our Love.

Dan had hoped to walk back up the aisle with his new bride - but in end the pain of the prosthetic limbs overcame him. Instead, he wheeled himself beside her. "At least I managed to just stand by her side. It was my vow to her - and myself," he says.

Later, they hugged at their reception as the song My Girl was played and more than 100 guests toasted this extraordinary couple.

It marked the end of a remarkable story of love, endurance and survival.

And in Iraq, students express their condolences to and their solidarity with Virginia Tech:

Students in Baghdad, where universities have been hard hit by violence, said Monday they were saddened by last week's massacre at Virginia Tech and hung up a banner to express their solidarity with "our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge."

"We want to let the whole world know that we do not support terrorism anywhere," said Yassir Nazar, head of the student union at Baghdad Technology University, who organized the hanging of the banner near the campus gate.

It reads, "We, the students of Technology University, denounce the attack at Virginia Tech. We extend our condolences to the families of the victims who faced a situation as bad as Iraq's universities do. The sanctity of campuses must be protected around the world."

"We have lost many friends and professors," said Nazar. "But in spite of our wounds, we want to show our solidarity with the students of Virginia Tech who are our brothers in humanity and in pursuing knowledge."

This never would've happened under Saddam and I have little doubt that it would never happen again if we cut and run from Iraq like so many on the left want.

Google maps Easter egg

My eldest sister sent this one along. Go to google.com, click on the Maps link, then at the top of the Maps page, click on "Get Directions". Type in New York to London and scroll down to look at #24.

New S&B; series: "Left Behind: Eternal Forces" in detail

In an earlier post, I addressed some of the false objections that people hostile to evangelical Christianity and Christians have against the PC game "Left Behind: Eternal Forces." I've decided now that I've been playing the game for a while, I'm going to address these objections in detail by going through the game step-by-step. I'll start out by addressing the game manual and subsequent posts will address the game from the tutorials to each of the missions. At the bottom of each post, I will keep track of the number of times violence is encouraged (with "VE"), the number of times "convert or kill" shows up in any way (with "CK"), and the number of times peaceful solutions are encouraged (with "PS"). I will also explain the goals of the missions as they are presented. I will try to avoid spoilers but will provide warning if I can't get around using them.

Now, never let it be said that I've nothing critical to say about the game, because I do. First off, I just want to preface this with the fact that my system, while newer, is probably below average. I think at least a couple of the problems I've encountered resulted from that and not the game itself.

BUGS

There are a few bugs in the game. This is not uncommon to games and it is really unfair for the critics to point them out as if they are somehow unique to LB:EF. Left Behind Games Inc. included free update checks with the game and has, in fact, already fixed many bugs via these updates. A couple of things I've encountered despite the updates is a bit of game hesitation when a character in the game finishes training and exits the training building, and a couple of isolated game crashes after certain events (but not always after the same events). However, as noted above, I believe these two issues are related to my system and not the game itself.

ADVERTISING AND SPYWARE

The advertising in the game is hard to miss, but does not detract from the game. The ads are presented as billboards on the sides of buildings. At certain angles, the ads suddenly vanish only to reappear again when the viewing angle changes.

As for allegations of spyware, all I can say is that my protection software - the software included in Windows and Norton - is up-to-date and I have not gotten a single spyware warning regarding the game. Perhaps other protection programs mistake the ad programming of the game for spyware. I don't know.

GAME PLAY, GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

While the game makers did a bang up job on recreating New York City (the buildings, contrary to the claims of some reviewers, are amazingly detailed and realistic - even down to awnings, fire escapes, water towers on the roofs, scaffolding and even air conditioners!), some aspects aren't particularly good. The vehicles have poor A.I. - they just go and go until they encounter an obstacle, usually a character in the game, and then they stop on a dime and just sit there if the character is doing something and can't move (which they can and will do if not doing something). Not very accurate to New York City drivers, I'm sure!

The limited character design, animation and voicing is kind of a downer, too. For example, Musician characters all look and sound alike, and when they sing, they do this weird sort of dance that reminds me of the dancing Santa toys. I realize that there's a point at which having a variety of designs, animations and voices can actually be detrimental, but they game makers didn't even try to reach that point. Another thing is when some special characters who have distinctive voices in voice-overs suddenly have their voices change to the standard generic voices when selected and moved.

Oh, and speaking of being selected and moved, every character always, ALWAYS says something when selected and moved. This gets a bit annoying, though the game makers did try to throw a little variety into the game by giving some of the voices different inflections to cycle through.

All in all, though, none of these things have detracted too much from the gameplay.

STORY

At no point do the game and its makers treat the background story of LB:EF (i.e. the "End Times," Rapture and subsequent events) as anything other than a possibility and not an absolute. In fact, on their website, they encourage people to search for their own answers regarding the issue of the "End Times."

Happy Hypocrisy Day!

Otherwise known as "Earth Day." Here's what the liberals have been up to, courtesy Right Wing News:

**Hillary Clinton arrives for a fundraiser in an 18-wheeler.

**Sheryl Crow wants you to use one square of toilet paper per bathroom visit while she tours with 3 tractor trailers, 4 buses and 6 cars.

**Al Gore is, of course, king of the enviro-hypocrites. Read about his mining-company sponsored trip to Chile and how he buys "carbon offsets" (ie: the rich person's way to avoid being environmentally friendly) from himself.

**And while I'm loathe to give Laurie "I'm married to someone famous" David any additional attention, she wants you all to drive hybrid cars while she and her meal ticket cruise around in their Beemer. Environmentalism for thee, not for me.

Par for the course for the "do as we say, not as we do" liberal elites.

Easter Bunny banned in Rhode Island... for being too Christian???

I honestly originally thought this had to be a Scrappleface spoof.

Sadly, it's not:

A Rhode Island public school has decided the Easter bunny is too Christian and renamed him Peter Rabbit, and a state legislator is so hopping mad he has introduced an "Easter Bunny Act" to save the bunny's good name.

Oh, yeah. Sure. Let me just open up my Bible to Egg-lesiastes. Here we go. Chapter 1, verse 1. "And the Lord did sayeth, 'Let us maketh a bunny in man's image. He shalt walketh uprighteth, haveth a zipper upon his back and his head shalt be removable. He shalt carryeth a basket filled with plastic eggs of many pastel colors. Many children will flee-eth from his presence and their terror shalt be sharedeth with the multitudes on America's Funniest Home Videos.'"

Stupid P.C. administrators. Man...

Crawford Peace House celebrates Good Friday...

...by protesting at President Bush's ranch.

The end of Holy Week, leading to Easter weekend, brings several events of religious and cultural significance to Greater Waco:

TODAY

* Church Under the Bridge will meet at 5:30 p.m. at the back of Fort Fisher Cemetery (Texas Ranger Hall of Fame complex) to recognize the suffering of Christ. The service of solemn reflection will include communion. To ask questions, call 753-4900.

* The Living Last Supper, a drama based on Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting, will take place at 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church of Waco, 4901 Cobbs Drive. The free public presentation will conclude with a religious service. To ask questions, call 772-5630.

* A Maundy Thursday service at 7 p.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 515 Columbus Ave., will include a foot-washing ritual and the stripping of the altar. To ask questions, call 753-4501.

* Evening Mass of the Lord’s Supper will take place at 7 p.m. at St. Louis Catholic Church, 2001 N. 25th St. in Waco. To ask questions, call 754-1221.

* First Baptist Church of Woodway will conduct an Easter celebration from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in the Worship Center at 101 Ritchie Road. There will be face-painting, crafts, games, bouncy houses, balloons and refreshments. Admission is one dozen plastic eggs filled with wrapped candy. To ask questions, call 772-9696 or visit FBCWoodway.org.

FRIDAY

* Holy Hour, Stations of the Cross and Holy Communion will take place at 7 a.m. at St. Louis Catholic Church, 2001 N. 25th St. in Waco. A commemoration of the Lord’s Passion is set for 7 p.m. To ask questions, call 754-1221.

* A Good Friday service at noon, with the Rev. Chuck Treadwell of St. Paul’s, will take place at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 305 N. 30th St. To ask questions, call 752-1773.

* Temple Baptist Church will sponsor an Easter egg hunt from 5 to 7 p.m. at Warren Park in Hewitt, featuring free food and drink, games, contests and special prizes. Warren Park is on Old Temple Road at Spring Valley Road. To ask questions, call 662-0400.

* Central Texas Metropolitan Community Church From the Heart will conduct a Good Friday worship service at 7 p.m. at 1601 Clay Ave.

* A Good Friday service at 7 p.m., with the Rev. Jeff Fisher of St. Alban’s, will take place at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, 515 Columbus Ave. To ask questions, call 753-4501.

* The Crawford Peace House will conduct a Good Friday civil demonstration from 2 to 4 p.m. at the checkpoint to President Bush’s Prairie Chapel Ranch, near Crawford. A dinner will follow from 4 to 6 p.m. at McGregor Hall on North Johnson Drive, off U.S. Highway 84, near the Brookshire Brothers grocery store in McGregor.

Any excuse, I guess.