Saturday, December 31, 2005

Heavy Flooding Hits Northern California - New York Times

Heavy Flooding Hits Northern California - New York Times

Hard Sayings: The Verdict is In

Hard Sayings: The Verdict is In Anthony Tardiff reviews the Narnia movie (with side commentary on The Lord of the Rings).

My Domestic Church

"A victim of Vatican II"

Catholic Fire: My Top Ten List of Best Americans

Catholic Fire: My Top Ten List of Best Americans

Concerned Women for America - Evangelical Women of the Year 2005

Concerned Women for America - Evangelical Women of the Year 2005

Dreaming of Hanoi: Vietnam is Booming

Blogger Preya has an eyewitness account of how much Hanoi, Vietnam, has changed in the last decade or so.

A Circle of Quiet: Late Night Musings

A Circle of Quiet: Late Night Musings New Year's reflections, from "Circle of Quiet.

neo-neocon: Top 10 things New Yorkers can do to stay sane in '06

neo-neocon: Top 10 things New Yorkers can do to stay sane in '06 Some good advice, even for non New Yorkers. Includes///(5) Don't try to protect your children from all hurt. It won't help them, and it's impossible, anyway. But don't you be the one to dole out the hurt unnecessarily. There's plenty that will come naturally; your task is to help them get through it.(6) If you've sustained a loss, remember that grieving doesn't have a time frame. In fact, it can take many years, or even a lifetime. Loss changes you, and there's no going back, so don't expect to.(7) Visit flyover country at least once. Maybe Kansas City, for some BBQ?(8) Remember the words of Winston Churchill--almost any words of Churchill will do--but how about these, for starters: "Success is going from failure to failure without a loss of enthusiasm."

neo-neocon: To speak or not to speak: coming out as a neocon

neo-neocon: To speak or not to speak: coming out as a neocon

David's Daily Diversions

David's Daily Diversions Dissent Will Not Be Tolerated, re UK police being called, and subsequently warning, people who haven't committed a crime, but merely stated their opinion on something.

Medpundit

Medpundit A Christmas Card from Iraq / Letter to the editor from U.S. Air Force Maj. Jim RippleSpecial OperationsOperation Iraqi Freedom. See original, uncut at http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/editorial/13479660.htm.

hat tip:http://www.echo9er.net/blog/?p=602, which I found by following the link at http://arosebyname.blogspot.com/2005/12/echo9ers-daily-twain.html and browsing.

Writing and Living: What I did on my Indian Summer Vacation

Writing and Living: What I did on my Indian Summer Vacation On buying a piano on sale.

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England re the more covert aspects of the war against terrorists.

Dances with Kiwis: First Post!

Dances with Kiwis: First Post! New blog alert. Paddy and Yvonne, in their About Us description, say, "We have left our safe and secure jobs in the UK to work in New Zealand. We are having our first baby in February. It really sounded like a good idea..."

Started the blog December 16. So far, so good.

Friday, December 30, 2005

Semicolon

Semicolon Friday's Center of the Blogosphere. (Includes link to The Great Back Yard Rabbit Hunt.)

Semicolon

Semicolon Her year in review, first line of first post of each month version.

Semicolon

Semicolon The list of what Sherry's read this year, with grades.

Bookworm Room: A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox....

Bookworm Room: A paradox, a paradox, a most ingenious paradox....

Bookworm Room: The things we know and the things we don't know

Bookworm Room: The things we know and the things we don't know

Bookworm Room: A different view about coming out of the conservative closet

Bookworm Room: A different view about coming out of the conservative closet

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Keys to Rhein-Main Base Given to Germans

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Keys to Rhein-Main Base Given to Germans

The Chief Brief: Fake But Accurate

The Chief Brief: Fake But Accurate Post on Ted Kennedy and UMass, which includes link to "Rethinking Marxism" conference information. Direct link at http://www.rethinkingmarxism2006.org/index.html.

The Chief Brief: Iraq's Future, Our Past

The Chief Brief: Iraq's Future, Our Past excerpt from WSJ opinion piece by several East European ambassadors.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Fimble Fowl: Chai and Chekhov

Fimble Fowl: Chai and Chekhov

reading Ivanov by Anton Chekhov, and turning things over in her mind afterward...

Family.org: Pregnancy Resource Ministry

Family.org: Pregnancy Resource Ministry

Rape, Pregnancy and Restoration/

Focus on the Family Challenges Christians on Abortion in the Church

Focus on the Family Challenges Christians on Abortion in the Church

start quote/

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 29 /Christian Wire Service/ -- As churches prepare to celebrate Sanctity of Human Life Week, January 15-22, 2006, Focus on the Family has challenged clergy members to consider recent statistics on abortion in the church when addressing their congregations. A survey by The Alan Guttmacher Institute conducted among women who had abortions found that one in five self-identified themselves as Evangelical Christian.

Kim Conroy, Sanctity of Human Life Director for Focus on the Family believes that it's time for churches to be proactive on this issue. "Every post-abortive woman sitting in our churches needs to know that there is help and forgiveness available—and it's our hope during this Sanctity Week that pastors and other clergy will extend that to her."

Conroy added that while abortion is always a tough topic to discuss, especially when considering the emotions of someone who has experienced it firsthand, it is vital that churches prioritize talking about this growing problem. "Justice, mercy and compassion must be at the forefront of the conversation if we truly desire to extend healing to the women in our churches affected by abortion—both those who've already experienced it and those who are right now contemplating it," Conroy said.

Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI History - Famous Cases

Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI History - Famous Cases

OpinionJournal - Cross Country

OpinionJournal - Cross Country

//start quote//

Death of a Sawmill Environmentalists wreck small businesses--and do ecological damage while they're at it.
BY JIM PETERSEN Thursday, December 29, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

EUREKA, Mont.--My friend Jim Hurst auctioned his sawmill in August.

Jim's decision to pack it in after 25 years of beating his head on the wall made big news here in northwest Montana but, alas, not a peep from this newspaper or the New York Times. That's too bad, because the loss of our family-owned mills also signals the loss of technologies and skills vital to our efforts to protect the West's great national forests from the ravages of increasingly fearsome wildfires.

I was in Jim's office a few days before the auction. He told me he was at peace with his decision, but Jim has a good game face, so I suspect the decision to terminate his remaining 70 employees tore his guts out. They were like family to him....

RedState.org/ What Roe Really means

|| RedState.org Built around that New York Magazine article about the Haven Coalition, which provides free overnight home stays for women and girls getting late term abortions.

Matt Rosenberg...: Germans Get Serious About Laughing

From Seattle writer and consultant Matt Rosenberg...: Germans Get Serious About Laughingre: laughing classes...

2blowhards.com: "Time" Marches On ... Into the Ditch?

Donald Pittenger compares Time magazine's Man/Person of the Year selections decade by decade, scoring each decade.

2blowhards.com: Tacit Knowledge -- Writing a Book

2blowhards.com: Tacit Knowledge -- Writing a Book

Bookworm Room: Little pawns in politics

Bookworm Room: Little pawns in politics

Liberated women - Comment - Times Online

start quote//

Liberated women
The law that unleashed a social revolution

Long before the Sex Discrimination Act was passed, 30 years ago today, those who fought for it were already fond of noting that if men had babies most of its provisions would be unnecessary. Men still cannot give birth, but real life has proved a worthy substitute for biological fantasy...

How feminism began with shopping in the 17th century - Times 2 - Times Online

December 22, 2005///

start quote///

How feminism began — with shopping in the 17th century
Viewpoint by Celia Brayfield
In Stuart England women finally got hold of the purse strings, and they've been loath to let go of them ever since

Shopping is bad for women. It must be true, all the feminists say so. In fact, it’s the one thing they’ve always agreed on. In the first wave of women’s liberation, Germaine Greer and her sisters defined consumerism as just another face of patriarchal oppression, a way of tricking the powerless housewife into servicing the capitalist machine.

There followed a brief backlash,...

Comment: Brenda Power: Sisters, home-makers aren't traitors - Sunday Times - Times Online

November 27, 2005

start quote///

...The feminist movement is waning because we are too busy waxing our legs, our hardwood floors, our top lips and our silly pink Smart cars. Our pursuit of professional fulfilment has been abandoned in favour of a bubble-headed concept of femininity.



At least, that is what a growing number of feminist commentators would have us believe. Heading the campaign to get us back on message are two Irish women: former president Mary Robinson and Maureen Dowd, the New York Times columnist and daughter of west of Ireland emigrants.

In a polemic entitled Are Men Necessary?, Dowd complains that modern females are squandering the achievements of the women’s movement by carrying on like flibbertigibbets, obsessing about Botox and designer shoes and texting their boyfriends.

Last week Robinson took up the theme, arguing that well-educated women who stay home to look after their children are “copping out”. The most alarming aspect of this trend, according to Ireland’s high priestess of feminism, is not that women are being forced to become home-makers, but that they are choosing to do so....

Pretending that women aren't grown-ups - Sunday Times - Times Online

Janey Daley, November 27, 2005, start quate///

Do women want to be treated like grown-ups or don’t they? After 40-odd years of modern feminism the question remains unresolved: are women the equals of men as adults who can take responsibility for their own actions? Or are they vulnerable creatures who need unique protection and special allowances made for them? ...

Women feminism forgot - Comment - Times Online

Women feminism forgot - Comment - Times Online by India Knight, November 20, 2005

Having it all gives way to girdle girls - Sunday Times - Times Online

Having it all gives way to girdle girls
Equality is faltering as women opt for the constricted life of a 1950s housewife, writes Maureen Dowd

November 13, 2005

Times Online - Entertainment

Times Online - Entertainment A hard woman is good to find
Hollywood sells sex in feminist clothing - and leather boots - but Kevin Maher isn't buying it

//Oct. 6, 2005

Who knows what women want? - Entertainment - Times Online

Who knows what women want? - Entertainment - Times Online by Joe Joseph

//start quote///IT IS sometimes perplexing for men to watch programmes such as Big Ideas That Changed the World (Five) and to hear Germaine Greer still talking about how women need to become not just equal to men (“a profoundly conservative aim,” Greer reckons), but to achieve liberation. It’s perplexing because although she quotes Aristotle (“the male is by nature superior, and the female inferior”) and assures us that “feminism has hardly begun ”, as far as many men can see women have pretty much had the upper hand throughout history. When someone told Churchill that by the year 2100 women would rule the world, he replied, “Still?”....

Letters to the Editor The Times Sunday Times Times Online

Letters to the Editor The Times Sunday Times Times Online

Feminism and the 'eternal feminine'
From Dr Alistair J. Sinclair
/April 19, 2005/

The Times Online guest contributors Opinion

The Times Online guest contributors Opinion

"We've gone from being Amazons to can't cope, won't cope wusses"
by Carol Sarler.

North Coast Journal - November 1996: GARDENING - Air purifiers

North Coast Journal - November 1996: GARDENING - Air purifiers

Indoor Environment Notebook:Salvaging moldy books

Indoor Environment Notebook:Salvaging moldy books Yet another way to attack moldy books, and a warning about the improper use of air conditioning systems in the Midwest. start quote///

...The problem results from the improper operation of air-conditioning systems. The mostly-empty building is cooled to below 75oF, and then the system is shut down when administrators go home at the end of the day. Then warm, moist air enters the building passively and comes into contact with relatively cool surfaces. This can result in very high relative humidity, condensation, and even puddling. It produces optimum conditions for mold growth.

Mold especially loves to grow on much-handled books. It loves “hand grease” as one can see from the pattern of mold growth on infested books. Penicillium and/or Aspergillus are the dominant mold types present...

[snip]

All infested surfaces should be vacuumed with a HEPA vacuum. Follow this up by wet wiping all infested surfaces with isopropyl alcohol or 70% ethanol. Ventilate the room with outside air by opening windows (if openable windows are present) to minimize the buildup of vapors....

Indoor Environment Notebook: archives

Ball State Univerity site run by Thad Godish, Ph.D., answering questions on indoor air pollution, mold, more.

Indoor Environment Notebook:

Indoor Environment Notebook: re: Do houseplants improve the quality of indoor air? Thad Godish, Ph.D., cites Dr. B.C. Wolverton's research only to dispute it, claiming that botanical air cleaning may work under laboratory conditions, but in the real world the effect is minor. He does, however, praise Wolverton's work in using plants for wastewater treatment.

My take is that even if the effects are minor, that's no reason to not use them how you can, as long as you don't go overboard and raise the humidity beyond healthy levels and start growing mold. But then, I like houseplants in and of themselves...

Dobbing in dad the bank robber - World - theage.com.au

Dobbing in dad the bank robber - World - theage.com.au

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 246 -- Title IX & Collegiate Athletics.

WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 246 -- Title IX & Collegiate Athletics.

HistoryBuff.com -- P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"

HistoryBuff.com -- P. T. Barnum Never Did Say "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute"

Betsy's Page

Betsy's Page The battle of Trenton anniversary, David McCullough, David Hackett Fischer's book Washington's Crossing, Fischer's other books...

Cops seek "Indiana Jones"

Malaysian authorities don't agree with American Philip Greco about what constitutes "household goods." When they opened some freight containers of his headed for Dubai, they found swords, drums, antique weapons, and other things they didn't think he should be shipping out of the country.

Reading the top part of this article by Wani Muthiah in The Star (of Malaysia), one might think that Mr. Greco is only being sought to "help solve a case related to those artefacts" or that he is merely needed "to help local authorities authenticate some items."

Reading down -- and getting past the reassurances that the authorities are only interested in the "heritage items" found in the siezed containers -- one finds that Greco is "wanted by the Customs Department for false declaration and by the police for possession of serviceable firearms."

Greco is said to be a permanent resident of Malaysia under something called the "Malaysia My Second Home programme."

Perhaps he should consider becoming an ex-resident?

Just a thought.

WARD OF THE COURT - Christ A Leftist? - By Steven Ward

WARD OF THE COURT - Christ A Leftist? - By Steven Ward

Terri, We Will Never Forget You: Do As I Say - Not As I Do by Pamela Hennessy

Terri, We Will Never Forget You: Do As I Say - Not As I Do by Pamela Hennessy

Terri, We Will Never Forget You: Feeding tube bill filed for 2006 (Terri Schiavo)

Terri, We Will Never Forget You: Feeding tube bill filed for 2006 (Terri Schiavo) Georgia may move to protect the disabled.

Wittingshire: What Might Have Been

Wittingshire: What Might Have Been About a rumor about someone dying, who hadn't - and how easily it might have been true. With a poem by Emily Dickinson, which begins /

The distance that the dead have gone
Does not at first appear;
Their coming back seems possible
For many an ardent year.

Wittingshire: Learning by Heart

Wittingshire: Learning by HeartAbout the difference between committing to memory, and using automatic retrieval, using an excerpt from George Steiner's Real Presences.

Interesting point. What we learn by heart "constitutes the ballast of the self."

"He Wrote His Way to Freedom"

OpinionJournal - Leisure & Arts Tom Nolan reports on how Cuban novelist Jose Latour made it out of Cuba.

Semicolon

Semicolonre Benjamin Franklin and Poor Richard's Almanack

NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | NWCN Top Stories

New law would require passports at Canadian border.

Captain's Quarters

Captain's Quarters Poland Stands By The Coalition // Poland will maintain forces in Iraq throughout 2006, as requested by the new Iraqi government.

Considerettes

Considerettes On Morgan Freeman thinking Black History Month is ridiculous, and asking people to stop using the "white" and "black" labels.

I'd like to second that.

Stones Cry Out: Welcome to Self-Government, Iraq

Stones Cry Out: Welcome to Self-Government, Iraq

by Doug, on December 9/

start quote///
However, what's really the point is that it will be Iraqis deciding on how they want to be governed. This is, after all, self government, something they've not had in Iraq for a good long time. And no matter how it turns out, that's a win for them.

Will it be full of halting progress and missteps? Undoubtedly. This is all new to them, and the idea of governing by force is still too ingrained to be removed at the drop of a hat. We'll still hear of police overstepping their boundaries. But they are at least on the road, taking the journey, and not under the thumb of a ruling minority that would kill you if you looked at them sideways.

Will there be arguing and bad-mouthing and legislative logjams? Yup, just like here. That's part of being a representative democracy. Don't forget, this country was started because of an argument....

HappyNews.com - All The News That's Fun To Print

Real news, but postive.

hat tip: Doug at Stones Cry Out

ABC News: Texas Wildfires Blamed in 4 Deaths

Texas having worst drought in decades, bad grass fires. Oklahoma also suffering.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England

re: school prayer in Wales

Homeless for Over a Century, a Tribe Awaits U.S. Redemption - New York Times

Montana -- in brief, Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians wants federal recognition and money.

start quote/

...The recognition process was created by the government in 1978 to make reparations to tribes that had been forced to move from place to place throughout American history. There are now 562 federally recognized tribes in the United States.

Roughly 220 others have expressed interest in recognition, but such efforts are often strongly opposed. Some of that opposition comes from tribes, already recognized, that are eager to protect their vast casino gambling income, and from states that do not want recognized tribes within their borders, because a bid for recognition is occasionally a ploy of relatively few Indians with dubious historical ties simply to open a new casino....

[snip]

The Little Shell band is not claiming land. But with $3.5 million held in trust for it by the federal government until recognition is achieved, it would buy 200 acres of farmland here in Cascade County, where most tribal members live, and build a headquarters, a clinic and housing.

In November, Cascade County commissioners passed a resolution calling for the county to be the home base of the tribe, even though that would mean the removal of 200 acres from the tax base.

"We support them moving forward with official recognition," said Commissioner Lance Olson. "But if they aren't going to recognize them, they should tell them."

Federal recognition would also allow the Little Shell to apply for minority contracts and to have a government-to-government relationship with Washington.

Seed Savers

Seed Savers heirloom plants

My Bountiful Life: Cold enough fer ya?!

On, amongst other things, being the victim of fashionable window treatments...

My Bountiful Life: memememeeeeeeeeeee!

A 15 Things About Books meme -- and a blog I'm not familiar with...

hat tip: Semicolon

FOXNews.com - Politics - Network Aims to Help Harassed Campus Conservatives

FOXNews.com - Politics - Network Aims to Help Harassed Campus Conservatives

Abortions in Ill. hit 30-year low

Abortions in Ill. hit 30-year low Chicago Sun-Times article by Dave McKinney, Dec. 26, 2005, citing 2004 figures

BREITBART.COM - Abortions in Spain rise by 72 percent in 10 years

BREITBART.COM - Abortions in Spain rise by 72 percent in 10 years

Concerned Women for America - Skipping Christmas - by Official Order

Includes excerpt from The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (Image Books/Doubleday: 1957), by Maria Augusta Trapp, about how the Nazis moved quickly to de-Chrisitianize the public schools, and taught children not to tell their parents what they learned in school that day.

Our Blue Castle: It's all gone!

Links to "Locks of Love."

Suitably Flip: Terrorist Funpack Grows Legs

Four hundred pounds of high-powered plastic explosives have been stolen from a bunker in New Mexico. Includes 150 pounds of C-4 plastic, or "sheet explosive."

Not good.

The thieves cut through thick steel walls with blowtorches to get at the stuff.

Suitably Flip: 'Tis the Season To Be Learning

Suitably Flip: 'Tis the Season To Be Learning

Suitably Flip: Tsunami - A Year Later

Round-up of one-year anniversary blogger reaction.

La Shawn Barber's Corner : Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Unspent Funds

The CBCF has raised money for Katrina victims, but hasn't even begun distribution...

A Selection of the Most Blogged-About Books of 2005 - New York Times

hat tip: http://lashawnbarber.com/archives/2005/12/26/time/

Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff : Federal Intelligence Security Act

...includes background and link for The Foreign Intelligence Security Act (FISA) and 50 USC 1801, et seq...

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Thursday, December 15, 2005

YOU DUPED ME LORD: Prayers Please--Nigeria Plane Crash

YOU DUPED ME LORD: Prayers Please--Nigeria Plane Crash Many of the people who died in the plane crash in Nigeria were from a Jesuit high school.

Our Blue Castle: Schooling through the holidays...

Our Blue Castle: Schooling through the holidays... includes holiday reading for kids

The New Underground Abortion Railroad: Destination NYC

Article about women who host women (and children) wanting late term abortions.

hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007683 Best of the Web

CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.15.2005

CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.15.2005Umbert, his first Christmas tree, and the PC police...

Betsy's Page: Journalists and Iraq

A journalist admits that she had the Iraq situation pictured in her head - wrong.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

A network of gangsters and Islamists dismantled

A network of gangsters and Islamists dismantled From the English version of Le Figaro. Suspects arrested throughout France in an anti-terrorist dragnet.

AMERICAN FUTURE � France: US Troops Should Stay in Iraq

Dominique de Villepin argues against haste, or a timetable, regarding US pulling its troops out of Iraq. From the English edition of Le Figaro...

The Catholic Report - December 14, 2005

The Tide Is Turning Towards Catholicism, by Dave Hartline

The Anchoress � Tide turning for Catholicism?

The Anchoress � Tide turning for Catholicism?

Expat Yank: Widening the probe

re: the killing of and funeral for Gebran Tueni, an anti-Syrian member of the Lebanese parliament and head of a prominent newspaper who was killed Monday in a car bombing.

The Common Room: Carnival of FRUGALITY!

The Common Room: Carnival of FRUGALITY!

Grove City College - The Center for Vision and Values

Grove City College - The Center for Vision and Values Book review of Jimmy Carter's book, "Our Endangered Values" and a countering of Carter's lack of economic understanding.

Grove City College - The Center for Vision and Values

Link is to The Christmas Wars: A Christian Response to the Culture Wars [audio - 23 min.], by Dr. F. Stanley Keehlwetter.

Our Blue Castle: Celebrate Saint Nicholas' Eve with The Dutch Twins

Links to the children's classic The Dutch Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins, as reprinted by the Baldwin Project.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Cafe Hayek: Property Rights Protect Trees

Much of Africa has been stripped bare of trees - but not where the trees are privately owned (and used for fodder, firewood, and building materials).

Cafe Hayek: Famine in Niger

The source of the famine in Niger.

Cafe Hayek: Outrage at Arnold

re the death penalty, AP coverage of European reaction to California execution of a murderer.

A Circle of Quiet: Narnia

A Circle of Quiet: Narnia

A Rose By Any Other Name: "Second Handers"

A Rose By Any Other Name: "Second Handers"
A passage from 1943, Ayn Rand writing on "second-handers":

start quote///...They have no concern for facts, ideas, work. They're concerned only with people. They don't ask 'Is it true?' They ask: 'Is this what others think is true?' Not to judge, but to repeat. Not to do, but to give the impression of doing. Not creation, but show. Not ability, but friendship. Not merit, but pull...

[snip]

...Notice how they'll accept anything except a man who stands alone. They recognize him at once. By instinct. There's a special, insidious kind of hatred for him. They forgive criminals. They admire dictators. Crime and violence are a tie. A form of mutual dependence. They need ties. They've got to force their miserable little personalities on every single person they meet. The independent man kills them--because they don't exist within him and that's the only form of existence they know. Notice the malignant kind of resentment against any idea that propounds independence. Notice the malice toward an independent man...

///end quote///

Touchstone Archives: Storied Houses

Touchstone Archives: Storied Houses

open book: Storied Houses

open book: Storied Houses About older houses, where other people have lived, and which weren't built around television sets and people gathered to chat...

open book: Venus and Mars

Analysis of Vatican diplomacy.

open book: In the Seminary

Vietnamese-American men are now the second-largest minority group in seminaries

open book: Canonically speaking

open book: Canonically speaking church law could have, and should have, dealt with abusive clerics; if only bishops had followed canon law there would have been no work for grand juries.

YOU DUPED ME LORD: Those Darn Jesuits . . . Baghdad College

The Jesuit legacy in Iraq... -- three alumni of the Jesuit-run Baghdad College in Iraq are vying for Prime Minister of Iraq.

Transatlantic Intelligencer :: Energy-"Hub" Germany?

by John Rosenthal
//start quote///Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s appointment as chairman of the supervisory board of the Gazprom-controlled North European Gas Pipeline Consortium has raised a number of eyebrows. Suggestions to the effect that the appointment reveals Schröder to be Vladimir Putin’s poodle, however, underestimate the importance of the German presence in the project and miss its strategic significance both for the German participants and Germany more generally. 49% of the consortium is, after all, controlled by the two German firms Eon and BASF....

Cozy Reader: WOW....It's amazing what you learn when you just read!

List of blogs Jane has added to her 'favorites' list.

bakingsheet

bakingsheet

Kathryn's Reliquary: DO IT RIGHT NOW!

Kathryn's Reliquary: DO IT RIGHT NOW! The gift of being taught to work.

Delta Mike Charlie: Schroder's Dirty Deal

re former Chancellor Gerhard Schroder taking a high position with a Russian-goverment-owned gas and oil company.

Betsy's Page

Europe, Israel, Iran, the UN, and what the UN charter actually says.

Reuters.com

"Experts dispute Tookie Williams claim of founding Crips." 12/12/05 by Dan Whitcomb

Bookworm Room: A very interesting argument in favor of the death penalty

Bookworm Room: A very interesting argument in favor of the death penalty

Bookworm Room: Murtha must really have a screw loose

Bookworm Room: Murtha must really have a screw loose

Calgary Bishop: �Too Many Catholics Have Become Too Complacent and Too Tolerant�

Calgary Bishop: �Too Many Catholics Have Become Too Complacent and Too Tolerant�

Abortion Toll for Planned Parenthood USA Hits 255,015 in 2004

Abortion Toll for Planned Parenthood USA Hits 255,015 in 2004

Seraphic Secret: Ushpizin

Seraphic Secret: Ushpizin re: the Israeli movie Ushpizin, and about making a movie universal:

start quote///

When I worked with Sidney Lumet on A Stranger Among Us, the studio was pressuring us to water down the specifics of the Hasidic life and make the film more "universal." Sidney stepped up and told the executives: "The more specific you make the culture in a film, the more universal does it become."

Ushpizin is so specific, so dead-on in its depiction of life in B'nei Brak, the Hasidic neighborhood in Jerusalem where the film was shot, that all people will glimpse their lives in the faith and love exhibited between Moshe and Mali.

Seraphic Secret: We All Have The Stupids

Seraphic Secret: We All Have The Stupids re: glamorizing AIDS instead of preventing it...

Monday, December 12, 2005

LIFE DIGEST: British buying stem cell gift certificates for Christmas; pharmacists favor freedom on �morning-after� pill - (BP)

For Christmas presents in the UK, some parents and grandparents are buying certificates for the storage of an infant's stem cells collected from its umbilical cord blood - for possible use if that infant gets sick later in life. It's being promoted as a variety of insurance policy. Tom Strode reports.

Do not confuse this with embryonic stem cells, the collection of which kills the baby (using it only as a growing medium, in essence), and the use of which has caused tumors in lab animals without proving useful to humans.

Non-embryonic stem cells, on the other hand, have been used to develop several promising treatments for a variety of ailments.

Today in History: December 13

Today in History: December 13 Mostly about Dartmouth College, chartered December 13, 1769, and the Dartmouth College Case, in which Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the college was a private, not a public, entity, and so was protected from the state's regulatory power because of the contract clause of the United States Constitution.

The Common Room: Interview with Walden Media Prez Michael Flaherty

The Common Room: Interview with Walden Media Prez Michael Flaherty

The Common Room: Carnival of Personal Finance

The Common Room: Carnival of Personal Finance

Semicolon : Poinsettia Day

Semicolon

Semicolon : To This Great Stage of Fools: Born December 11th

Semicolon ...Alexandr Solzhenitsyn, b. 1918, and John Kerry, b. 1943, share a birthdate...

THE MESOPOTAMIAN: 12/01/2005 - 12/31/2005

THE MESOPOTAMIAN: 12/01/2005 - 12/31/2005 Baptism of blood

Bookworm Room: Once again, the perfect is the enemy of the good

Bookworm Room: Once again, the perfect is the enemy of the good

Bookworm Room: Lovely Yiddish

Bookworm Room: Lovely Yiddish

Largest Religious Groups in the USA

Largest Religious Groups in the USA

Delta Mike Charlie

Delta Mike Charlie

Delta Mike Charlie: If Democrats aren�t anti-Christian, then I�m not sure who is�

Delta Mike Charlie: If Democrats aren�t anti-Christian, then I�m not sure who is�

re: anti-Christian car magnet for sale by Washington State Democrats.

hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007670 Best of the Web

OpinionJournal - Featured Article

OpinionJournal - Featured Article ///start quote///None Dare Call It Conspiracy
We've been hearing variations on "BUSH LIED!!!!" for at least 60 years.

BY MORTON KELLER
Sunday, December 11, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Variations of "Bush lied" have been part of the political scene ever since America plunged into its permanent overseas embroilment in the Second World War. Reviewing that record won't settle the current dispute over how and why we got into Iraq. But it should remind us that George W. Bush's accusers are hardly walking in fresh snow....

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail ///start quote///
Dr. Coburn, I Presume
Why does Barbara Boxer want to stop him from delivering babies?

Monday, December 12, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

It is often said that Congress is disconnected from reality. No kidding. It funded a "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska to the tune of $225 million until Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma led a crusade to transfer the money to Katrina victims. His effort failed, but not before Alaska's Sen. Ted Stevens, a 37-year veteran, vowed to resign if his state was shortchanged. Still, Sen. Coburn's effort generated enough publicity that the bridge was quietly defunded last month, even though the money will go to other projects in Alaska.

But senators weren't happy about having their pork-addicted ways held up to ridicule. Few doubt that wasn't part of the motivation a couple of days later for refusing to allow Dr. Coburn, an obstetrician, to earn just enough outside income so he could pay the expenses he incurs in delivering babies one day a week back home. Meanwhile, other senators continue to have carte blanche to earn outside income by writing song lyrics and novels that few believe would see the light of day were it not that they were famous as elected officials....

The Common Room: Contradictory Textbooks (long post)

The Common Room: Contradictory Textbooks (long post) The Head Girl at The Common Room is having some "Gee whiz!" moments with the history textbook being used in her class.

Townhall.com :: Columns :: The unliberal left by Burt Prelutsky

Townhall.com :: Columns :: The unliberal left by Burt Prelutsky

Townhall.com :: Columnists :: Burt Prelutsky

Townhall.com :: Columnists :: Burt Prelutsky author of Conservatives are from Mars (Liberals are from San Francisco: A Hollywood Rightwinger Comes Out of the Closet.

Bio, credits, links to articles, IMDb listing.

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Protecting life by taking it away by Jeff Jacoby

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Protecting life by taking it away by Jeff Jacoby disagreeing with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops about the death penalty.

Note to self: check with Seraphic Secret, re Talmud/death penalty post.

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Racist liberal media by Marvin Olasky

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Racist liberal media by Marvin Olasky

The Anchoress � Katrina and the Racism Rehash

The Anchoress � Katrina and the Racism Rehash

Gateway Pundit: Cynthia McKinney Brings Show to Capital, Media Laps it Up!

Gateway Pundit: Cynthia McKinney Brings Show to Capital, Media Laps it Up!

WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 243 -- Katrina Victims.

WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 243 -- Katrina Victims.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Victor Davis Hanson on War on Terror on National Review Online

Victor Davis Hanson on War on Terror on National Review Online

ScrappleFace � Nobel Prize Group Drops Writing Requirement

ScrappleFace � Nobel Prize Group Drops Writing Requirement

Bookworm Room: Enjoying some continuity in an ever-changing world

Bookworm Room: Enjoying some continuity in an ever-changing world

Warning Label on Darwin Sows Division in Suburbia

Warning Label on Darwin Sows Division in Suburbia

Daddy's Roses: A Young Brain

Daddy's Roses: A Young Brain

Oregon - LOCATION, SIZE, AND EXTENT, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, FLORA AND FAUNA

Oregon - LOCATION, SIZE, AND EXTENT, TOPOGRAPHY, CLIMATE, FLORA AND FAUNA

Oregon Bigger Cities (over 6000 residents)

Oregon Bigger Cities (over 6000 residents)

Two Talent Living � Practicality and the Death of Beauty

Two Talent Living � Practicality and the Death of Beauty

Two Talent Living : Thoughts on Truths I've Reaffirmed Recently

Two Talent Living : Thoughts on Truths I've Reaffirmed Recently Quotes, and more quotes... Including one at the end by Dorothy Sayers:

I believe it to be a great mistake to present Christianity as something charming and popular with no offense in it….We cannot blink at the fact that gentle Jesus meek and mild was so stiff in his opinions and so inflammatory in his language that he was thrown out of church, stoned, hunted from place to place, and finally gibbeted as a firebrand and a public danger. Whatever his peace was, it was not the peace of an amiable indifference.
Dorothy Sayers

bardseyeview: Mark Antony and Furtive Conservatives

bardseyeview: Mark Antony and Furtive Conservatives

Seraphic Secret: Weekend Roundup

Seraphic Secret: Weekend Roundup

Seraphic Secret: Orthodox Mystery

Seraphic Secret: Orthodox Mystery re Robert Krich's latest Molly Blume novel Now You See Me, going into a second printing.

E-nough!: The French not-working and working poor

Some background on homeless people, shelters, socialism, and trying to find a home in France...

Note: includes reference to an emergency shelter run by the Secours Catholique.

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Elephants in Academia: The Town Crier, Saturday Morning style

Elephants in Academia: The Town Crier, Saturday Morning style Collection of links and commentary

South Dakota National Guard gets full-time chaplain

The Black Hills Pioneer, Newspapers, South Dakota, SDFrom AP:

///start quote///Maj. Lynn Wilson, who started his job last month as the South Dakota Guard's first full-time chaplain, was deployed in Iraq from December 2003 to February 2005 as part of the 147th Field Artillery's 2nd Battalion.

''Our duty was to provide security for transportation along the road and destroy enemy ammunition,'' Wilson said. ''It was amazing to see the sheer arsenals of weapons. Saddam Hussein was so paranoid about his neighbors that he accumulated enough arsenal for three lifetimes.''

[snip]

The hiring of full-time chaplains is a trend, Wilson said. ''With so many Guard deployments, there is a need for someone full time,'' he said. ''A lot of states are doing it now.''

AP Wire | 12/09/2005 | Johnson's office flooded with calls from abortion groups

AP Wire | 12/09/2005 | Johnson's office flooded with calls from abortion groups

hat tip: http://www.redstate.org/ (Joe Cella)

They're desperate to kill the magic lion - Sunday Times - Times Online

They're desperate to kill the magic lion - Sunday Times - Times Online Minette Marrin commentary on liberal intelligentsia reaction to Narnia movie///

//start quote///
Above all, I can’t help wondering why the instincts of secular liberals should be so repressive. It is odd, when one considers that a major part of post-enlightenment secularism is supposed to be enlightened tolerance. Their response strikes me as similar to the response of the British Muslims who burnt The Satanic Verses or the British Sikhs who demanded that a play offensive to their religion be closed.

What both groups have in common — one extremely religious, the other extremely opposed to religion — is a reductive cast of mind. They all suffer from extreme literalism. This is perhaps understandable with religious fundamentalists, including Christians; they all see themselves as people of the book and of the literally true word. With secular fundamentalists it is harder to understand; they have no book or word to refer to; they have no cultural excuse.

///end quote///

BrothersJudd Blog: CHALK UP SC:

BrothersJudd Blog: CHALK UP SC: Christmas at the Hanoi Hilton

Two Talent Living : Some fun stuff for the weekend

Sallie at the Two Talent Living blog has some "fun stuff for the weekend".

No Left Turns : Calling all military geeks

No Left Turns Archive Link to lengthy article at Popular Mechanics, with a hat tip to Instapundit.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy Dies at 89

FOXNews.com - Politics - Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy Dies at 89

Mommy Life: Another Curtis Christmas Tradition: Good King Wenceslas

Mommy Life: Another Curtis Christmas Tradition: Good King Wenceslas

Mommy Life: My Christmas present to you

Mommy Life: My Christmas present to you Illustrations in the public domain.

Mommy Life: What I've been putting off for a week

Mommy Life: What I've been putting off for a week Barbara Curtis now gets to compare her ms of her new book with her editor's version, page by page, word by word...

This one, probably out next summer, has the working title of Reaching the Left from the Right: Talking About Social Issues with People Who Don't Think Like You.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Exultate Justi: Christianity in The Swamp

Exultate Justi Christianity and Japan, writer Shusaku Endo, more...

Book World

Book World

Peggy Noonan: The American Way

Peggy Noonan brings something into focus that needs to be in focus - earning the right to live in a country means something to the human heart.

Amazon.co.uk: Simply Give This Christmas

Many moons ago I needed a really good UK-English dictionary, and couldn't find one this side of the pond. So, being resourceful and having the Internet, I went shopping online, and bought from amazon.co.uk.

That's all I've needed that they had (that I couldn't buy somewhere else with less shipping cost), but they keep sending me interesting e-mail offers (hope springs eternal in the marketer's breast... No, wait, that's not quite right somehow...).

Anyway, the PC-weary might like to know that amazon.co.uk is currently slathering its website with "Christmas" offers and references. No shyness and squeamishness there, apparently...

A Lady's Ruminations: Narnia is Here

Lady Jane has more Narnia links, for anyone who isn't into Narnia-overload yet :-).

Independent Online Edition > Asia

Independent Online Edition > Asia //The elephant whisperer: A haven for mistreated animals//They are scarred by years of abuse. Their forest domain has shrunk, and their numbers along with it. But one woman has taken on the task of protecting the animals Thailand once held sacred///

Winds of Change.NET: Burning Cars, Burning Girls

Winds of Change.NET: Burning Cars, Burning Girls

Evangelism Today!: Listener comment on radio program

Evangelism Today!: Listener comment on radio program

Evangelism Today!: Happy holidays!

Evangelism Today!: Happy holidays!

The Daily Demarche: Change of Address

The Daily Demarche: Change of Address The explaining post at The Daily Demarche

AMERICAN FUTURE � Blog Archive � Don�t Call it a Comeback, or the Pinstripe-Wearing, Appletini-Sipping Wuss Who Came in from the Cold

While I wasn't looking, Dr. Demarche and Smiley both started doing an occasional post at American Future. OK, so Dr. Demarche has done two already, and Smiley one...

BrothersJudd Blog: SURE, GRANDMA'S FIRST ACT WAS VAGRANCY, BUT THAT'S TOTALLY DIFFERENT.... (via Paul Cella):

BrothersJudd Blog: SURE, GRANDMA'S FIRST ACT WAS VAGRANCY, BUT THAT'S TOTALLY DIFFERENT.... (via Paul Cella): re: Peggy Noonan article

Classical Authors Library

Classical Authors Library

Essay on Comedy, Comic Spirit by George Meredith

Essay on Comedy, Comic Spirit by George Meredith

BrothersJudd Blog: COMEDY AND THE IDEA OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP:

BrothersJudd Blog: COMEDY AND THE IDEA OF GOOD CITIZENSHIP: Reprints a lengthy bit of An Essay on Comedy by George Meredith, 1897.

The Church of England Newspaper: Canadian Church loses half of members

The Church of England Newspaper The Anglican Church of Canada has lost 53 percent of its membership over the past 40 years.

hat tip: http://aacblog.classicalanglican.net/archives/001364.html

Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture

Behind the Screen: Hollywood Insiders on Faith, Film, and Culture

'The War on Christmas' - Acton Institute PowerBlog

'The War on Christmas' - Acton Institute PowerBlog

Pascal Wagers, Kant Bets - Acton Institute PowerBlog

Pascal Wagers, Kant Bets - Acton Institute PowerBlog

Thursday, December 08, 2005

Cafe Hayek: Rather than Conscript, Why Not.....?

Cafe Hayek: Rather than Conscript, Why Not.....?

RealChoice: Words from Albert Camus

Words from Albert Camus // "On the day when crime dons the apparel of innocence -- through a curious transportation peculiar to our times -- it is innocence that is called upon to justify itself."

Bookworm Room: Tooting my own horn

Bookworm Room: Tooting my own horn

The American Thinker

The American Thinker Confession of a Crypto-conservative Woman (another article by Bookworm).

The American Thinker

The American Thinker Why the left fears Christmas (by Bookworm of the Bookworm Room blog)

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England ANOTHER WITHOUT A TIMETABLE (How A.P. might have covered George Washington rallying troops to stay on another month.)

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England IF ONLY THERE WERE NO GUNS

The Corner on National Review Online

The Corner on National Review Online by Andy McCarthy

re: state civil jury blames New Yorkers for 1993 World Trade Center bombings, sends bill to victims...

(OK, it's a little more convoluted than that, but that's what it amounts to...)

World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views

World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views Creative ways to support—and reform—your alma mater

World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views

World Magazine - Weekly News | Christian Views Interview by Marvin Olasky with author Rodney Stark. Stark's latest book is The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism, and Western Success (Random House, 2005).

note: another ref. to "The Dark Ages" as a hoax.

Celebrating Advent - Apologia Christi

Celebrating Advent - Apologia Christi

Secondhand Smoke: This Makes Sense to Me

Secondhand Smoke: This Makes Sense to Me re: "in-home hospitalization"

Secondhand Smoke: Good Article on Adult Stem Cells, But Can We Please Get the Science Right?

Secondhand Smoke: Good Article on Adult Stem Cells, But Can We Please Get the Science Right?

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

The Moral of the Story: An Interview with Ralph Winter

The Moral of the Story: An Interview with Ralph Winter

hat tip: http://www.acton.org/blog/index.html?/archives/612-RL-Autumn-Issue-Features-Winter.html

Elephants in Academia: More thoughts on Rumsfeld v. FAIR

Elephants in Academia: More thoughts on Rumsfeld v. FAIR

Elephants in Academia: A question for Senator Kerry

Elephants in Academia: A question for Senator Kerry

Abortion issue & Schaeffer influence pushed evangelicals to engagement, Land says - (BP)

Abortion issue & Schaeffer influence pushed evangelicals to engagement, Land says - (BP)

Amy�s Humble Musings � A tribute to church pianists everywhere

Amy�s Humble Musings � A tribute to church pianists everywhere

Amy�s Humble Musings � Home stretch

Amy�s Humble Musings � Home stretch

RealChoice blog: Don Ho

Don Ho gets stem cell treatment

from JAYMES SONG/AP/

///start quote///(from near end of article)

There were no other medical options for Ho and he did it as a "last resort," Brown said.

He called the singer's heart condition, "extremely serious."

"It wouldn't hurt if the millions of his fans would start to pray for him," Brown said. "Don, as do I ... believe in the power of prayer."

The "VesCell" technology Ho underwent was developed by TheraVitae Co., which has offices in Thailand and laboratories in Israel, where Ho's stem cells were sent to be multiplied.

Dr. Robb MacLellan, associate professor of cardiology at UCLA, said a similar stem cell procedure has been used in Europe for a couple years and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved studies are currently being conducted.

"The difficulty with any new therapy, no matter how promising it looks in animal models and even in small controlled human studies, we're never really sure if it's really safe or effective until rigorous controlled studies are done," he said.

Dr. Ralph Shohet, a molecular cardiologist at the University of Hawaii medical school, said there's a lot of excitement in the medical community surrounding stem cell therapy but the risks are not yet known.

"It's entirely an experimental procedure at present," he said.

Brown noted that Ho was not participating in controversial procedures involving embryonic stem cells.

"Don did not take stem cells from a fetus. He doesn't believe in that," he said. "He took blood from his own body and re-injected that into his heart."

Latino Issues, A Conservative Blog: Wizbang: Passenger shot by air marshal in Miami

Latino Issues, A Conservative Blog: Wizbang: Passenger shot by air marshal in Miami

Michael Schiavo To Start PAC in Terri's Name :: :: ProLifeBlogs

Michael Schiavo To Start PAC in Terri's Name :: :: ProLifeBlogs

Marlowe's Shade: Busy news day

Marlowe's Shade case of an 11-year-old comatose girl in Massachusetts, India and gender selection (and female infanticide), and a Ugandan official wondering why, when his country has reduced AIDS through a successful abstinence program, that the UN is trying to impose methods that have resulted in higher rates of infection elsewhere....

UK Students for Life

UK Students for Life

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News Agency Catholics demand pro-abortion mayor disinvited from Christmas dinner (Boston)

Tampabay: Pinellas ACLU to honor judge in Schiavo case

Tampabay: Pinellas ACLU to honor judge in Schiavo case

BrothersJudd Blog: AND THEY WERE EXECS WHEN FOLKS ACTUALLY WATCHED TV (via mc):

BrothersJudd Blog: AND THEY WERE EXECS WHEN FOLKS ACTUALLY WATCHED TV (via mc): Network officials told Charles Schulz that Linus reading the Christmas story on network television wasn't going to fly...

BrothersJudd Blog: W THE LION:

BrothersJudd Blog: W THE LION:

BrothersJudd Blog: WHAT THE...?:

BrothersJudd Blog: WHAT THE...?: 'the right of children to have abortions'

BrothersJudd Blog: I'LL GET YOU YET, MY PRETTY:

BrothersJudd Blog: I'LL GET YOU YET, MY PRETTY:

ABC News: Iranian Plane Rips Into Building; 128 Dead

ABC News: Iranian Plane Rips Into Building; 128 Dead Trying to make emergency landing, hit apartment building.

Bookworm Room: More Watergate fallout

Bookworm Room: More Watergate fallout

Bookworm Room: Playing the hand war deals you

Bookworm Room: Playing the hand war deals you

Monday, December 05, 2005

The Roamin' Roman

The Roamin' Roman nice photos inside churches, etc., as well as posts.

open book: Closed for Christmas

open book: Closed for Christmas Several evangelical megachurches plan to close for Christmas so staff and volunteers can spend more time with their families... This in a year that Christmas falls on a Sunday, no less...

A Constrained Vision: Cow college comeback

A Constrained Vision: Cow college comeback

A Constrained Vision: More obsolescence

A Constrained Vision: More obsolescence

OpinionJournal - Five Best

OpinionJournal - Five Best 'Books that convey the tragicomic sense of life,' by John Simon

CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.04.2005

CULTURE OF LIFE - Umbert 12.04.2005 Umbert makes a snow globe...

Reading Kids' Books Without the Kids - New York Times

Reading Kids' Books Without the Kids - New York Times by Edward Rothstein

The 10 Best Books of 2005 - New York Times

The 10 Best Books of 2005 - New York Times

John Courtney Murray, S.J. (1904-1967)

John Courtney Murray, S.J. (1904-1967)

Daddy's Roses: The Twelve Days of ...uh...er....huh?

Daddy's Roses: The Twelve Days of ...uh...er....huh?

Bookworm Room: Break it first. Complain about it later.

Bookworm Room: Break it first. Complain about it later.

Bookworm Room: Acting more and more locally on the Left

Bookworm Room: Acting more and more locally on the Left

Bookworm Room: It really makes one wonder why we send our kids to college

Bookworm Room: It really makes one wonder why we send our kids to college

Sunday, December 04, 2005

Commentary: God and Man in the Environmental Debate

Commentary: God and Man in the Environmental Debate

Who receives farm subsidies? - Acton Institute PowerBlog

Who receives farm subsidies? - Acton Institute PowerBlog

Power Line: The parallel world

Power Line: The parallel world

'Andy Griffith' fan snares squad car

NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | Nation/World //start quote///By DONNIE JOHNSTON / The Free Lance-Star



WARRENTON, Va. — This story is hard to write without some whistling in the background and a freckled-faced, barefoot boy with a fishing pole throwing a rock into Myers Lake.

To get yourself in the proper frame of mind, first picture that opening scene from "The Andy Griffith Show" and then recall Gomer Pyle screaming "Citizen's arrest!" as Deputy Barney Fife makes an illegal U-turn on Main Street in Mayberry, N.C.

Finally, fantasize that you are actually behind the wheel of a black-and-white police cruiser ("This baby's a real emergency vehicle!") like the one America's best-loved deputy sheriff was driving in that classic episode.

Ricky Brown doesn't need to fantasize. All the Warrenton man has
to do is go into his garage, open the car door and crank the engine....

TheDenverChannel.com - News Archive - Woman Uses Birthday Party To Collect Donations For Soldiers

TheDenverChannel.com - News Archive - Woman Uses Birthday Party To Collect Donations For Soldiers

United Press International�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

United Press International�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

start quote///Scientists are worried about the future of Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. The academy, which has been struggling financially for more than a decade, is the home of one of the world's most valuable collections of biological specimens, critical to understanding life on Earth, the Philadelphia Enquirer reports.///end quote///

Kim casts North as movie magic�-�World�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Kim casts North as movie magic�-�World�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Bush a boon, not bust, for Steele camp�-�Metropolitan�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Bush a boon, not bust, for Steele camp�-�Metropolitan�-�The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Seraphic Secret: Action, Adventure, Romance

Seraphic Secret: Action, Adventure, Romance

Seraphic Secret: Munkatch 1933

Seraphic Secret: Munkatch 1933

Seraphic Secret: Murderous Peaceniks

Seraphic Secret: Murderous Peaceniks

Semicolon: Scandanavian Christmas on the Great Plains

Semicolon quote from book Hunter’s Stew and Hangtown Fry: What Pioneer America Ate and Why by Lila Perl, and invitation to share Christmas traditions...

WILLisms.com: Good News GOP

WILLisms.com: Good News GOP

WILLisms.com: Pundit Roundtable

WILLisms.com: Pundit Roundtable

start quote///
Hello hello, welcome back to PUNDIT ROUNDTABLE, our weekly gathering of perspicacious pundits. I am your host, Ken McCracken.
Our topics this week are these:

Topic 1: If you could go back in time to September 10, 2001, knowing everything you know today, how would you have prevented the hijackings that day? Who would you have told? How would you have warned the appropriate people without seeming like some sort of crackpot alarmist? Would your warnings have mattered, or would they have been drowned out in a vast sea of chatter?

Topic 2: We have not had a terrorist attack in the US since 9/11. Has this been due to luck, or is it due to improved countermeasures? Are we missing warning signs? Are our strategies and tactics solid? ///end quote///

WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 235 -- Leprosy.

WILLisms.com: Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 235 -- Leprosy.

12/01/2005: �Ending life� or �suicide�? Words matter

12/01/2005: �Ending life� or �suicide�? Words matter

11/25/2005: Veteran abortion clinic protester enduring as he nears 100

11/25/2005: Veteran abortion clinic protester enduring as he nears 100

Expat Yank: Various hobbies

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England military history enthusiasts re-enact the Battle of Austerlitz... Robert wonders about the guys playing the guys who drowned in the lake...

Monfort College of Business: Student traders learn by seat of their pants

Monfort College of Business

Betsy's Page - propaganda in wartime...

Betsy's Page

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � It�s A Christmas Tree In Georgia!

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � It�s A Christmas Tree In Georgia!

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Today Would Have Been A Birthday.

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Today Would Have Been A Birthday.

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Mary Hayley Bell Dies

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Mary Hayley Bell Dies

Israelis weigh shift in values - baltimoresun.com

Israelis weigh shift in values - baltimoresun.com

Demolition plan collapses in S.D. - baltimoresun.com

The Zip Feed Mill tower in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was stronger than it looked, and stayed standing when demolition crews tried to implode it. The tower was considered the tallest building in South Dakota. The demolition was set up as a fundraiser for the Dakota chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society, with tickets sold for $1 each for a chance to trigger the blast. The winner, a loan office, gave the honor to a man who suffers from MS.

The tower operated from 1956 to 2000.

The Burr in the Burgh: It's Festivus for the Rest-of-Us

The Burr in the Burgh: It's Festivus for the Rest-of-Us

Mere-Orthodoxy: ID the Missing Link?

Mere-Orthodoxy: ID the Missing Link? - to restoring relations between the Muslim world and the West?

Mere-Orthodoxy: Pre-Modern Worldview

Mere-Orthodoxy: Pre-Modern Worldview

Solo Femininity: Courtship Is a Community Project

Solo Femininity: Courtship Is a Community Project

wind scraps

wind scraps

Neil Cavuto - Common Sense - Why the Doom and Gloomers Got It Wrong

FOXNews.com - Your World w/ Neil Cavuto - Common Sense - Why the Doom and Gloomers Got It Wrong

FOXNews.com - The Big Story w/ John Gibson - Interview - Defending Christmas

FOXNews.com - The Big Story w/ John Gibson - Interview - Defending Christmas Comedian Jackie Mason is one of the founders of Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation...

Friday, December 02, 2005

Merry Christmas: Quote of the Day

Merry Christmas: Quote of the Day Winston Churchill on private enterprise

The American Enterprise: �Tis the Season

The American Enterprise: �Tis the Season

No Left Turns Archive

No Left Turns ArchiveAbortion: the road not taken

A Rose By Any Other Name: The Numbers That Really Count!

A Rose By Any Other Name: The Numbers That Really Count!

A Rose By Any Other Name: Washington Democrats Do Not Speak for Me!

A Rose By Any Other Name: Washington Democrats Do Not Speak for Me!

A Rose By Any Other Name: More Than She Appears To Be

A Rose By Any Other Name: More Than She Appears To Be

Elephants in Academia: The Town Crier

Elephants in Academia: The Town Crier

Elephants in Academia: Dempsey update

Elephants in Academia: Dempsey update

Have I got a story for you...: Shoes

Have I got a story for you...: Shoes

The Bernoulli Effect: Tammy Bruce On The Psychology Of The Left

The Bernoulli Effect: Tammy Bruce On The Psychology Of The Left

The Urban Grind � Blog Archive � Abortion News

The Urban Grind � Blog Archive � Abortion News

Bookworm Room: A useful analogy for those who are thinking about quitting

Bookworm Room: A useful analogy for those who are thinking about quitting

Bookworm Room: Churchill also saw his ratings drop

Bookworm Room: Churchill also saw his ratings drop

Gateway Pundit: Another Democracy in Mideast, UAE to Hold Elections!

Gateway Pundit: Another Democracy in Mideast, UAE to Hold Elections!

From The Word Go: Why Teaching Religion in School is a Bad Idea, Part 312

From The Word Go: Why Teaching Religion in School is a Bad Idea, Part 312

It's away with the manger-Novi subdivision tells family to get baby Jesus off lawn; homeowners say Christ belongs in Christmas.

It's away with the manger-Novi subdivision tells family to get baby Jesus off lawn; homeowners say Christ belongs in Christmas.

News-Sentinel | 12/02/2005 | Let�s get real; the ACLU isn�t out to steal anyone�s merry Christmas

News-Sentinel 12/02/2005 Let�s get real; the ACLU isn�t out to steal anyone�s merry Christmas

Execution shows friction between Australia and Singapore - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune

Execution shows friction between Australia and Singapore - Asia - Pacific - International Herald Tribune

The Common Room: Cuba

The Common Room: Cuba

The Common Room: Movies You'd Never Watch Again

The Common Room: Movies You'd Never Watch Again

Star-Telegram | 12/02/2005 | Officer's funeral set for Monday

Star-Telegram | 12/02/2005 | Officer's funeral set for MondayFort Worth police officer Henry "Hank" Nava, shot Tuesday, died today.

From an article by Alex Branch of the Star-Telegram:

start quote///
...Dozens of officers were at the hospital when Nava died. Afterward, officers trickled out, some putting their arms around each other's shoulders or wiping tears from their eyes.

Police Chief Ralph Mendoza broadcast news of Nava's death to on-duty officers on a police radio channel with the declaration that officer Nava was "Signal 62" -- meaning "his unit is secure."...

The Burr in the Burgh: Anne Rice's Website

The Burr in the Burgh: Anne Rice's Website

Daddy's Roses: Quotes to ponder

Daddy's Roses: Quotes to ponder

Daddy's Roses: Self-Esteem in Real Life

Daddy's Roses: Self-Esteem in Real Life

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Silent No More Awareness Campaign

Silent No More Awareness Campaign

The Revolution: Father's rights to their unborn child

The Revolution: Father's rights to their unborn child

The Burr in the Burgh: Flannery O'Connor Shouts to the Morally Hard of Hearing

The Burr in the Burgh: Flannery O'Connor Shouts to the Morally Hard of Hearing

Two Talent Living � Merry Christmas, Darling

Two Talent Living � Merry Christmas, Darling about being single at Christmas time...

The Scotsman - Business - Hurricanes blow away Lloyd's profits

The Scotsman - Business - Hurricanes blow away Lloyd's profits

Mommy Life: Anne Rice

Mommy Life: Anne Rice

Mommy Life: Advent Music: The Messiah

Mommy Life: Advent Music: The Messiah

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Completing The Circle

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Completing The Circle

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � USO Operation Phone Home

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � USO Operation Phone Home

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

Slobokan�s Site O� Schtuff � Blog Archive � Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

Obituary Central - An obituary database and headquarters for finding obituaries

Obituary Central - An obituary database and headquarters for finding obituaries

For all who have never climbed a tree | csmonitor.com

For all who have never climbed a tree | csmonitor.com
re: book Last Child in the Woods, by Richard Louv

hat tip: http://fromwomb2tomb.blogspot.com/2005/12/for-all-who-have-never-climbed-tree.html

Catholic News Agency

Catholic News AgencyDefiant Michigan family wins fight to keep front yard Nativity scene

open book: Dueling Pope Biopics

open book: Dueling Pope Biopics

A Face Made 4 Radio, A Voice Made 4 the Internet

A Face Made 4 Radio, A Voice Made 4 the InternetTwo Columnists Support Jean Schmidt

Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Two Talent Living � 2005 Blogs of Beauty Awards - And the finalists are�

Two Talent Living � 2005 Blogs of Beauty Awards - And the finalists are�

Like Merchant Ships: New To Merchant Ships?

Like Merchant Ships: New To Merchant Ships?

A Rose By Any Other Name: An Interesting Comparison

A Rose By Any Other Name: An Interesting ComparisonRamsey Clark reminds Anna of a specific fictional character...

Dewey's Treehouse: Remembering grandparents

Dewey's Treehouse: Remembering grandparents

Stones Cry Out: The Iraq Not Seen

Stones Cry Out: The Iraq Not Seen

Stones Cry Out: The Economics of Profits

Stones Cry Out: The Economics of Profits

Justices Take Up Rule Against 'Tying' Products - Los Angeles Times

Justices Take Up Rule Against 'Tying' Products - Los Angeles Times

Offering Abortion, Rebirth - Los Angeles Times

Offering Abortion, Rebirth - Los Angeles Times

The Common Room: God is Not Your Vending Machine

The Common Room: God is Not Your Vending Machine

Upbeat Signs Hold Cautions for the Future - New York Times

Upbeat Signs Hold Cautions for the Future - New York Times

Synopsis: The economy looks great, but you should worry anyway...

hat tip: http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110007616

Reasoned Audacity: Alive and Kicking Campaign: Run, Gianna Run!

Reasoned Audacity: Alive and Kicking Campaign: Run, Gianna Run!

Reasoned Audacity: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood

Reasoned Audacity: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood

They Call it an "Anti-Choice Crisis Pregnancy Center"�

They Call it an "Anti-Choice Crisis Pregnancy Center"�

Insight into the pro-abortion mind -- a woman seeking an abortion finds a CPC - Apologia Christi

Insight into the pro-abortion mind -- a woman seeking an abortion finds a CPC - Apologia Christi

New Scientist Breaking News - Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age

New Scientist Breaking News - Failing ocean current raises fears of mini ice age

Wizbang: Ice Age Predicted, Blamed on Global Warming

Wizbang

Some scientists have noted that some recent data from the Atlantic Gulf Stream didn't match expectations, and now they're, uhm, reacting... Now they're predicting that Europe might suffer a mini ice age. (If drastic action isn't taken, of course.) Sigh.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Press Releases

Press ReleasesActon Institute Announces 2005 Spanish Homiletics Award Winners

FOXNews.com - Politics - FCC Warns Cable, Satellite: Clean Up TV Raunch

FOXNews.com - Politics - FCC Warns Cable, Satellite: Clean Up TV Raunch

Weblog: Rethinking Fetal Anomalies - Christianity Today Magazine

Weblog: Rethinking Fetal Anomalies - Christianity Today Magazine

Kicking Over My Traces � Thomist or Augustinian?

Kicking Over My Traces � Thomist or Augustinian? re: book Aristotle's Children by Richard E. Rubenstein.

FOXNews.com - Foxlife - Stan Berenstain Dies at 82

The co-author/illustrator of the Berenstain Bears books has died.

FOXNews.com - Politics - Capitol Holiday Tree Is a Christmas Tree Again

FOXNews.com - Politics - Capitol Holiday Tree Is a Christmas Tree Again

(Well, again, yes and no.)

NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | NWCN Oregon News

NWCN.com | News for NW Cable News | NWCN Oregon NewsOregon legislative error weakens handgun law

(Well, yes and no.)

The Volokh Conspiracy - - Ava Maria response to WSJ "Jonestown" smear

The Volokh Conspiracy - -

Webmonkey: The Web Developer's Resource

Webmonkey: The Web Developer's Resource

Webmonkey For Kids

Webmonkey For Kids

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more

Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Encyclopedia, Dictionary, Thesaurus and hundreds more

Reference: Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Thesaurus - Yahoo! Education

Reference: Dictionary, Encyclopedia, Thesaurus - Yahoo! Education

The Weblog Awards: Get Your 2005 Weblog Award Logos Archive

The Weblog Awards: Get Your 2005 Weblog Award Logos Archive

Help. I don't know how to add a logo to a link.

testing, testing

Books & Culture Corner: Taize in the Fall - Books & Culture

An update on the Taize community, a few months after founder Brother Roger's murder, by a man who took students there this month.

Telfer: Young women have different outlook toward abortion

John "Jack" Telfer, editor of the Midland Daily News, notes that there seems to be a shift in attitudes of young women toward abortions. The trend has "pro-choice" supporters worried, if you're wondering. (Title link)

hat tip: http://www.covenantnews.com/abortion/archives/016485.html Pro-Life News via http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/aggregator.php?filter=1 ProLifeBlogs Aggregator

On the other side of that, I've seen several young women around here under pressure to have an abortion, if everything wasn't lined up just so. Mustn't have to change career plans or get married or be out of pocket on finances, you know. Mustn't be encumbered. (For that matter, a lot of guys seem to think that they should be able to avoid child support payment by any means at hand...) So I think we have a long ways to go - but that more and more young people are willing and able to see unborn children as unborn children even when they're seen as inconvenient for one or more of the baby's relatives, that women are seeing through the hypocrisy of a baby only having rights if circumstances are jolly or the mother has religious convictions - these I think are trends in the right direction.

See also http://themediansib.blogspot.com/2005/11/abortion-right-to-choose.html The RIGHT to choose? over at the Median Sib.

Carol at The Median Sib seems to be coming at this from a perspective with which I'm all too familiar. I was pro-choice, more or less parroting the party line - and then I stopped to think it through on my own. It was not a happy awakening, because I felt I'd been wrong, wrong, wrong. But it was an awakening, and I don't envision any way of going back.

WorldNetDaily: Swedish minister acquitted of hate speech charges

WorldNetDaily: Swedish minister acquitted of hate speech charges

ADF: Swedish pastor beats "hate crime" conviction - Alliance Defense Fund - Defending Our First Liberty

///start quote////

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - In a unanimous 5-0 decision, Sweden's Supreme Court today acquitted a pastor of a "hate crime" for presenting the biblical view of homosexual behavior in a sermon.

"Voicing one's conscience is a fundamental human right," said Alliance Defense Fund Chief Counsel Benjamin Bull. "This is a huge victory for religious liberty everywhere. In this contest between religious freedom and the radical homosexual agenda, religious freedom prevailed."

The pastor, Ake Green, received a one-month jail sentence last year under a Swedish "hate crimes" law that forbids criticism of those who participate in homosexual behavior. In February, the Goeta Appeals Court overturned the decision. The government appealed the case to the Swedish Supreme Court, but today it ruled that Green did not break the law.

///end quote////More at link

Osman article at Crosswinds Weekly (cached version)

Monday, November 28, 2005

Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq�s forgotten GI heroes - Sunday Times - Times Online

Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq�s forgotten GI heroes - Sunday Times - Times Online

hat tip: http://drsanity.blogspot.com/2005/11/quotes-of-day.html Dr. Sanity Quotes of the Day

The Black Hills Pioneer, Newspapers, South Dakota, SD

The Black Hills Pioneer, Newspapers, South Dakota, SDDeadwood Main Street construction surging


The Ottumwa Courier--Poppas returns home as Delphi E&S exec

The Ottumwa Courier--Poppas returns home as Delphi E&S exec

Thomas Hibbs on Harry Potter & Virtue on National Review Online

Thomas Hibbs on Harry Potter & Virtue on National Review Online

hat tip: http://noleftturns.ashbrook.org/default.asp?archiveID=7704 Movies and moral education, which has some other links, too.

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail

OpinionJournal - John Fund on the Trail

///start quote///
Power to the People
Washington policy makers stand in the way of sensible energy policies.

Monday, November 28, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

After Hurricane Katrina temporarily knocked out 30% of America's oil refinery capacity and caused gasoline prices to spike, it became dramatically obvious that the nation needed to build more refineries away from the vulnerable Gulf Coast. But when a bill to streamline the permitting process and provide incentives to build refineries on closed military bases was headed for the Senate floor, Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R., R.I.) joined with every Democrat on the Senate Environment Committee and blocked the bill.

[snip]

But on other energy issues it's Republicans standing in the way of progress. This month, House leaders had to bow to the demands of some two dozen GOP moderates and strip a budget bill of provisions to allow exploration for oil on Alaska's North Slope and permit states like Virginia that wanted to opt out of moratoriums on oil and natural gas exploration off their coasts to do so. Sen. Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican, has been touting a "windfall profits" tax, even though the net profit margin of oil and gas companies on the Standard & Poor's 500 is 9%, barely above the S&P average of 8%.

Some members of Congress still believe their demagoguery somehow restrains prices. Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) told CNBC's Larry Kudlow that "the energy companies push [prices] to the ultimate limit until Congress is raging mad on both sides of the aisle and then retreat with their prices."

In reality, high energy prices are often the direct consequence of misguided government policy. After House leaders were forced to remove natural gas drilling provisions from the budget, Jack Gerard of the American Chemistry Council said he was "flabbergasted that some in Congress continue to live in a fantasy world, in which the government encourages use of clean-burning natural gas while cutting off supply, and then they wonder why prices go through the roof." Natural gas prices recently spiked at $14 per million BTUs, the highest in the world and the equivalent of $7 a gallon gasoline.

Not only will such price spikes increase the cost of heating homes this winter, but they are already costing jobs. Andrew Leveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, testified before Congress this month that high energy prices were a major reason that Dow has closed 23 of its plants in North America, shedding 7,000 of its 25,000 U.S. jobs. Out of 120 chemical plants currently under construction around the world, only one is being built in the U.S. More than 50 are going up in China, where natural gas costs half of what it does in the U.S.



[snip]

The Movie Reporter - Movie Reviews from a Christian Perspective

The Movie Reporter - Movie Reviews from a Christian Perspective

FIRST-PERSON: Reviewer finds new mission field - (BP)

FIRST-PERSON: Reviewer finds new mission field - (BP)

BPNews.net - SBC Baptist Press News - Witness the difference

BPNews.net - SBC Baptist Press News - Witness the difference

YOU DUPED ME LORD: Researching the Research on Young Catholics

YOU DUPED ME LORD: Researching the Research on Young Catholics

AP Wire | 11/28/2005 | San Diego-area Rep. Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery, resigns

AP Wire | 11/28/2005 | San Diego-area Rep. Cunningham pleads guilty to bribery, resigns

The Weblog Awards

The Weblog Awards

Camp Katrina: New York Times: U.S. Candy Convoy "May Have Been Parked"

Camp Katrina: New York Times: U.S. Candy Convoy "May Have Been Parked"

Sunday, November 27, 2005

Peace and Goodness: The Spiritual Aftermath of Katrina

Peace and Goodness: The Spiritual Aftermath of Katrina

<$Roma Locuta Est$>

<$Roma Locuta Est$>

Heretics (vi)

Heretics (vi)VI. Christmas and the Aesthetes

WWE 2006 | 3rd Annual Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis and Dynamics

WWE 2006 | 3rd Annual Workshop on the Weblogging Ecosystem: Aggregation, Analysis and Dynamics

Intelliseek's BlogPulse Newswire

Intelliseek's BlogPulse NewswireNovember 21, 2005

Call for Papers for Third International Workshop on Weblogging Ecosystems

Escape to the past at Historic Barnsley Gardens | Georgia Backroads Magazine

Escape to the past at Historic Barnsley Gardens | Georgia Backroads Magazine actually should link to a story about "Doc" Holliday's early life...

Cozy Reader: Georgia Backroads

Cozy Reader: Georgia Backroads

Oops

I tried to delete something from my sidebar and add something else at the same time (will I never learn?) and wound up totally messing up both the sidebar and the bottom of the page...

So I decided to go with a new template, and see what I can learn from experimenting with it for a while. The links should be restored shortly...

ThePolitic - Canadian Political Weblog

ThePolitic - Canadian Political Weblog

adn.com | alaska : Cutter Storis to be decommissioned

///start quote/// this is article in full///

Cutter Storis to be decommissioned
Voyage comes to an end after six decade of service

By MEGAN HOLLAND
Anchorage Daily News

Published: November 27, 2005
Last Modified: November 27, 2005 at 07:35 AM


The Coast Guard cutter Storis is so old it was built with cork insulation instead of fiberglass. The tangle of pipes and wires wandering the 63-year-old vessel's hidden regions can pose a mystery to crewmen.


And if its engine were to break down, the only place to look for a replacement would be in a museum, the Coast Guard says.

The Kodiak-based Storis, the oldest ship in the service's fleet, will be decommissioned in 2007, the Coast Guard announced last week. The cutter Munro, currently homeported in Alameda, Calif., will fill in for it as a faster, better-equipped fisheries enforcement and search-and-rescue vessel until a new ship is built for Alaska waters, the Coast Guard said.

The upgrade is part of the Coast Guard's multiyear $19 billion to $24 billion modernization of its aircraft and cutters that began in 2002.

Retiring the Coast Guard's oldest ship does not come as a surprise to people who have served on it, including 71-year-old Gil Cragen, who was a gunner's mate on the Storis from 1954 to 1956 and who now lives in Anchorage. "A ship that old should be decommissioned," he said.

Cutters, which are what the Coast Guard calls its bigger vessels, have relatively long service lives compared to other military machinery and vehicles. According to a recent U.S. Government Accountability Office report, medium-endurance cutters like the Storis have average service lives of 30 to 49 years, depending on their size. But "The Queen of the Fleet," as the Storis is called, has been in service more than six decades.

No decision has been made as to what will happen to the 230-foot cutter after it is decommissioned, the Coast Guard said. The Storis could be mothballed, scrapped, sold or donated to become a museum.

In a press release, Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, commander, Coast Guard Pacific Area, said, "Storis has been a gallant workhouse for the Coast Guard since World War II and has earned an honored place in Coast Guard history."

Launched in September 1942, the vessel played a role in World War II, and the stories accumulated in the decades since. Thousands of Coast Guardsmen have served on it.

"The Storis is one of a kind," said Cmdr. Jim McCauley, current captain of the ship, reached on phone while on patrol in the Bering Sea. "I've been on other boats built in the 1940s and '50s, but none like the Storis. Its rich history is unbelievable."

For nearly 50 years, the one-time icebreaker has patrolled thousands of miles from the Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea to the North Pacific Ocean.

"I sit around here and think, 'If only these walls could talk.' I'm sure there'd be some interesting stories," Ensign Andrew Munoz, currently serving on the Storis, said in a telephone interview from the vessel.

During World War II, the Storis guarded the coast of Greenland to keep the German military from establishing weather stations. In 1957, along with the Coast Guard cutters the Bramble and the Spar, it ended the 450-year search for a Northwest Passage, a route for large ships to cross the top of North America. Then, the Storis became the first U.S. vessel to circumnavigate the North American continent.

Cornelius Farley, 83, was an officer on the ship during the Northwest Passage trip. Now living near San Francisco, he said he remembers being stuck in ice near Canada for 2 1/2 days, cruising and sweltering through the tropics without a porthole in his cabin, and patrolling near the Arctic Circle to protect a radar system during the Cold War.

"If the Russkies flew a plane over, we'd know about it," Farley said.

But while the Spar was sunk off the coast of North Carolina to become an artificial reef and the Bramble became a museum in Michigan, the Storis has continued patrolling Alaska waters.

When the Storis is decommissioned, the Ketchikan-based Acushnet will be the oldest cutter in the fleet, having been in service since 1944.

But the GAO report notes that the Coast Guard fleet is aging. The service's cutters are approaching their maximum life expectancy, the report said.

The GAO report was in response to Coast Guard complaints over several years that the existing fleet, especially the cutters, has been failing at an unsustainable rate. In response, the report found, "cutters are generally declining" and "to help meet mission requirements, Coast Guard staff are performing more extensive maintenance between deployments, but even so, aircraft and cutters continue to lose mission capabilities."

On the Storis, replacement parts for the vintage equipment have been expensive and, sometimes, nonexistent, Munoz said.

"Sometimes, when things break, we have to fabricate it from scratch," he said. "Our engineers have to be a lot more resourceful in resolving problems, overcoming obstacles and finding spare parts."

Munoz said the technical manual used for the main motor is from 1941.

"You're holding a piece of history," he said. "For being 63 years old and being passed down by engineers, it is pretty clean and in good shape."

Munoz said parts of the motor are irreplaceable, except for parts that could be found in a museum.

"There would be no going out and getting a new one," he said.

The Coast Guard plans to save an estimated $4.7 million by decommissioning the Storis, it said.

While the Storis travels at top speeds of 14 knots, or about 16 mph, the Munro cruises at twice that, Munoz said. The Munro, with 20 officers and 150 enlisted people on board -- nearly double the personnel of the Storis -- also has a flight deck that can handle helicopters. The upgrades mean faster searches and rescues, Munoz said.

The Coast Guard said the Munro will be homeported in Kodiak until a new offshore patrol cutter in 2011 will replace it.

Both Farley and Cragen want to see the Storis turned into a museum.

"It would be nice if it was preserved someplace," Farley said.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Daily News reporter Megan Holland can be reached at mrholland@adn.com.

adn.com | alaska : Cutter Storis to be decommissioned

adn.com | alaska : Cutter Storis to be decommissioned

The State | 11/27/2005 | 'Like living in the country, in the city'

The State | 11/27/2005 | 'Like living in the country, in the city'

Playing by THE RULES

Evergreen Newspapers, Inc.Editorial by Steve Jackson of the Canyon Courier, Evergreen, Colorado. A bit whingey, but makes a few points in spite of that... on whether kids' extracurricular activities are more for the kids or for the parents, for one thing.

Anti-war and pro-Bush rallies round out Thanksgiving in Crawford

Anti-war and pro-Bush rallies round out Thanksgiving in Crawford Is it just me, or is it funny that so many in the press see people as "anti-war" versus "pro-Bush"? At least in headlines?

I hate to give Mrs. Sheehan any more air time, but some of this is interesting:

///start quote///

By Tim Woods Tribune-Herald staff writer

Sunday, November 27, 2005

CRAWFORD – The Thanksgiving weekend came to a close Saturday with opposing rallies in Crawford and a march through the town by a group seeking the United States' support in Africa.

Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war activist and mother of a fallen soldier, led a rally Saturday at Camp Casey II while a pro-Bush group held a rally supporting the president. Sheehan gained notoriety in August when she camped out in a ditch near President Bush's Crawford ranch, demanding a meeting with the president. Her 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq last year.

Sheehan's afternoon “Bring Troops Home Now” rally drew about 200 people to the site – a one-acre plot donated by a sympathetic Crawford resident – and featured music, much of it anti-Bush, testimonials from people who have lost family members in the Iraq war, and an oration by Sheehan herself.

The gathering met resistance, however, as about 200 to 300 Bush supporters gathered in the middle of Crawford, about one block away from the Crawford Peace House, and held up signs of support for the president, his decision to stay the course in Iraq, and the troops.

[snip]

Gary Qualls, whose request to have a cross bearing his fallen son's name removed from a Camp Casey I memorial in August sparked a pro-Bush movement in Crawford, was on hand Saturday for the Bush supporters' rally.

“We're here for truth and justice,” said Qualls, whose son, Louis Qualls, was killed in Fallujah last fall. “To stand up for the difference between what is right and what is wrong. We just had a congressional vote, and the ones that (Sheehan supporters) thought were supporting them voted to stay the course in Iraq. The for (votes) was 403, the ones that voted against was only three. So, you have three for protesters, 403 for those that believe in truth and justice.”

Qualls also expressed disdain for the Gold Star Families for Peace, an organization founded by Sheehan and her sister, Dede Miller, composed of family members of soldiers killed in action that oppose the war in Iraq. He said that the organization disgraces members of the Gold Star Families organization and taints the memory of family members killed in battle.

“She's a pawn for all the people that don't really respect what America's all about. And yet, they say that they're representing our troops and our people,” Qualls said.

In addition to Sheehan's group and the Bush backers, a group of about 150 Ethiopians, many of whom came from Dallas, marched from Crawford High School through town to draw attention to their request for Bush to send troops to Ethiopia to stop the warring and bloodshed in their country. The group arrived on a charter bus and left peacefully shortly after their march through the town.

Despite the tension in Crawford between Sheehan supporters and the pro-Bush group, Sheehan said she had no choice but to remain upbeat.

After dancing to some protest music, Sheehan predicted that opponents would criticize her cheerfulness....

[snip]