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]

Friday, November 25, 2005

Tom Gross on The New York Times

Tom Gross on The New York Times

Melanie Phillips's Articles

Melanie Phillips's Articles

Melanie Phillips's Diary : Dark Days for Britain

Melanie Phillips's Diary Not safe to walk in Muslim section of London.

Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog -

Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog - referred to at A Constrained Vision... has some good posts...

Expat Yank: And they say Bush can't handle complexity?

Expat Yank: One American living in the south of England Background War on Terror, Iraq, etc., and media coverage. (Media not proving good at handling fairly straightforward stuff, much less more complex subjects...)

Hans Rosling: Media worse than WWF on dam reporting

Hans Rosling: Media worse than WWF on dam reporting

Dr. Sanity: Some Explaining To Do

Dr. Sanity: Some Explaining To Do re Jimmy Carter's brand of "peace".

hat tip: http://thetenoclockscholar.blogspot.com/2005/11/cultural-confidence.html

The Ten O'Clock Scholar: Depp

The Ten O'Clock Scholar: Depp re conditions in France, Sweden, Norway, etc., especially problems with immigrants.

hat tip: http://www.thebernoullieffect.com/archives/2005/11/johnny_depp_joi.htm

Stop The ACLU � Blog Archive � Christmas Under Attack

Stop The ACLU � Blog Archive � Christmas Under Attack

BBC NEWS | Tom Cruise buys ultrasound machine

From the BBC:

///start quote///

Tom Cruise has bought an ultrasound machine for his pregnant actress fiancee Katie Holmes so they can monitor their unborn child at home.

The Jerry Maguire star said the device - which costs up to $200,000 (£116,000) - would be donated to a hospital when they have finished with it.

[snip]

Cruise said the couple will do their own scans with the ultrasound machine which show fetus development.

But he said he would not reveal whether the child was a boy or girl to the media ahead of the birth.

When presenter Barbara Walters asked him, "So what do you see?", the 43-year-old actor said "A little baby"...

Townhall.com :: America 101

Townhall.com :: America 101

Thursday, November 24, 2005

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Conservative News, Views & Books

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Conservative News, Views & Books Pilgrims Beat ‘Communism’ With Free Market
by Mike Franc
Posted Nov 21, 2005

hat tip: http://www.townhall.com/

In Miss., Time Now Stands Still

In Miss., Time Now Stands Still post-Katrina update

US to consult with industry on Canada lumber aid

US to consult with industry on Canada lumber aid

Bookworm Room: A man redeemed or a con artist?

Bookworm Room: A man redeemed or a con artist?

open book: Disabled Babies

open book: Disabled Babies

Pain Management: Facial Pain

Pain Management: Facial Pain

Daddy's Roses: Happy Thanksgiving Birthday!

Daddy's Roses: Happy Thanksgiving Birthday!

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Conservative News, Views & Books

HUMAN EVENTS ONLINE - Conservative News, Views & Books Ben Franklin's Politically Incorrect Thanksgiving

hat tip: Charmaine Yoest

USATODAY.com - Toxic leak shuts down Chinese city

USATODAY.com - Toxic leak shuts down Chinese city

USATODAY.com - Polish newspapers black out front pages to protest Belarus

USATODAY.com - Polish newspapers black out front pages to protest Belarus

USATODAY.com - Maimed Lebanese anchorwoman returns to TV

USATODAY.com - Maimed Lebanese anchorwoman returns to TV

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

VERITAS! Sharon Hughes: CHRISTMAS OFFENSIVE UPDATE:: Safeway Stores & Liberty Counsel's "Friend or Foe"

VERITAS! Sharon Hughes: CHRISTMAS OFFENSIVE UPDATE:: Safeway Stores & Liberty Counsel's "Friend or Foe"

Computer Worm Poses as E-Mail From FBI, CIA

Computer Worm Poses as E-Mail From FBI, CIA

Wittingshire: Poem Sunday: Saint-Exupery

Wittingshire: Poem Sunday: Saint-Exupery poem Generation To Generation, about passing along heritage to one's children. Info on author.

Wittingshire: My Piece in Today's Seattle Times

Wittingshire: My Piece in Today's Seattle Times

The Dilbert Blog: Results of Why I�m Stupid

The Dilbert Blog: Results of Why I�m Stupid

The Dilbert Blog: Intelligent Design, Part 1

The Dilbert Blog: Intelligent Design, Part 1

Wittingshire: More Fallout from Dilbert Blogger's ID Post

Wittingshire: More Fallout from Dilbert Blogger's ID Post

Like Merchant Ships: Menu Math

Like Merchant Ships: Menu Math

Like Merchant Ships: My Old Fashioned Oats

Like Merchant Ships: My Old Fashioned Oats breakfast, starch, marriage-related books.

Like Merchant Ships

Like Merchant Ships frugal homemaker blog... :-)

FOXNews.com - Science - Japanese Asteroid Lander Did Touch Down After All

FOXNews.com - Science - Japanese Asteroid Lander Did Touch Down After All

FOXNews.com - Science - Biologists: Acid Killed Wyoming Elks

FOXNews.com - Science - Biologists: Acid Killed Wyoming Elks A few hundred elk in Wyoming died after eating lichen with usinc acid in it...

The Holy See

The Holy See

Cozy Reader: To Spank or Not to Spank...That Is the Question

Cozy Reader: To Spank or Not to Spank...That Is the Question

Daddy's Roses: Children and Boundaries

Daddy's Roses: Children and Boundaries

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Refinery bottleneck to ease | csmonitor.com

Refinery bottleneck to ease csmonitor.com

hat tip: http://www.brothersjudd.com/blog/archives/2005/11/floorless.html

The Baldwin Project: Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey

The Baldwin Project: Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey

MayflowerHistory.com

MayflowerHistory.com

AMERICAN FUTURE � Blog Archive � The New York Times on Iraq, 1993-2005

AMERICAN FUTURE � Blog Archive � The New York Times on Iraq, 1993-2005

Art De Vany

Art De Vany recommended at http://cafehayek.typepad.com/hayek/2005/11/the_return_to_e.html

The View from the Foothills

The View from the Foothills

Ruthlace: Are you planning on Getting Older?

Ruthlace: Are you planning on Getting Older?

Ruthlace: Cooking From Scratch.

Ruthlace: Cooking From Scratch.

Ruthlace: Think About These Things

Ruthlace: Think About These Things

Emily Brightwell - Mrs. Jeffries Mysteries in Victorian London

Emily Brightwell - Mrs. Jeffries Mysteries in Victorian London

Toward Tradition: Our Mission

Our Mission

http://www.towardtradition.org./localactivists.htm

Merry Christmas is NOT Offensive—Jews Should Protect Religious Freedom for Everyone.

Merry Christmas is NOT Offensive—Jews Should Protect Religious Freedom for Everyone. by Rabbi Daniel Lapin (author of America's Real War).

hat tip: http://www.alliancealert.org/

Monday, November 21, 2005

Desiderata poem, max ehrmann, go placidly amid the noise and haste, you are a child of the universe

Desiderata poem, max ehrmann, go placidly amid the noise and haste, you are a child of the universe

Terri Schiavo's family announces book plans :: News :: BlogsforTerri

Terri Schiavo's family announces book plans :: News :: BlogsforTerri

Terri Schiavo's Husband Will Co-Write Book About Killing Her :: News :: BlogsforTerri

Terri Schiavo's Husband Will Co-Write Book About Killing Her :: News :: BlogsforTerri

Cheryl Ford Releases New Book on Terri Schiavo :: News :: BlogsforTerri

Cheryl Ford Releases New Book on Terri Schiavo :: News :: BlogsforTerri

Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate: San Antonio Archbishop: Many Catholic Politicians Misunderstand Their Faith

Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate: San Antonio Archbishop: Many Catholic Politicians Misunderstand Their Faith

Mackubin Thomas Owens on Iraq on National Review Online

Mackubin Thomas Owens on Iraq on National Review Online Defeated by Defeatism: Why Jack Murtha is wrong.

NWCN.com | Nike jet lands safely after fixing landing gear in flight

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

New Jersey 'Choose Life' Plate Wins Second Victory in Federal Court

New Jersey 'Choose Life' Plate Wins Second Victory in Federal Court

A Rose By Any Other Name: Supporting Our Troops

A Rose By Any Other Name: Supporting Our Troops

Texas State Board of Education removes itself from National Association of State School Boards

E-mailed to me earlier today...


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 20, 2005

Contact: Terri Leo
Texas State Board of Education Member
District #6
1701 N. Congress
Austin, Texas 78701-1402
http://www.terrileo.com/

State Board of Education Votes 10-5 To Nix National Dues

In a bold move on Friday, the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE) in a 10-5 vote, which split down party lines, decided to remove itself from membership in the National Association of State School Boards (NASBE). The motion was put forth by member Terri Leo who said that many of NASBE's policies are out of touch with mainstream America and that NASBE has taken positions with which the majority of the SBOE disagrees.

Stating that NASBE's policies continue to gravitate to liberal left, Leo cited three current policy decisions which she feels do not reflect a proper balance. Leo questioned the NASBE October 2004 publication on citizenship education. "Under the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights, the publication listed only the words 'Separation of Church and State,' a phrase that does not even appear in the Bill of Rights. Thomas Jefferson used the phrase 'separation of church and state' eleven years after the Bill of Rights was passed; he was writing to allay the fears of the Danbury Baptists who had heard a rumor that a national religion was going to be established. NASBE should promote correct information and not misinformation. Why didn't NASBE mention the rights guaranteed in the First Amendment for peaceable assembly, freedom of the press, and the petition of the government for redress of grievances? Are these no longer important for students to learn?"

Leo continued by saying, "Why should we entrust NASBE with developing and funding a national curriculum on civics education when the editors of the NASBE publication think that 'separation of church and state' is a proper condensation of what the Bill of Rights says?"

Leo also mentioned that NASBE's policy statements support comprehensive sex education, an approach which the majority of Texas voters do not support. "Texas has a law that requires abstinence-only education, a law which the Republicans on this board and the majority of Texans support; yet the SBOE is paying more than $40,000 in NASBE dues and travel expenses to attend NASBE meetings which promote positions with which we do not agree."

A third point of contention Leo brought out was that NASBE is continuing to push State Boards of Education to implement policies on bullying that have a special victim category for those who are homosexual. At the October 2005 NASBE symposium, the organization constantly referenced state bullying policies which are actually vehicles for social engineering promoted by the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender/Questioning (GLBTQ) lobby. "Bullying is wrong -- period," Leo said. "All bullies should be punished equally and all victims dealt with compassionately. I don't want a homosexual student bullied any more than I want a short chubby child bullied," Leo said emphatically. "Elevating homosexuals by giving them special rights has been used to silence freedom of speech from teachers and students who respectfully disagree with homosexuality. The NASBE position violates the concept of equal protection under the law." Leo stated that the NASBE bullying policy introduces the concept of "thought crimes" in which someone's actions are "more" illegal based on their thoughts or beliefs. Leo stated, "I know very few people who want to deny gays and lesbians the basic civil rights that the rest of society enjoys, but many people have a big problem with public schools forcing the gay agenda upon teachers and students."

Texas pays the highest NASBE dues ($40,600 per year) along with California and New York because NASBE bases its annual dues on student population. "It's not right that Texas is footing a large proportion of the bill, but Texas has really no more representation or say-so in policy decisions than the states which pay a much smaller amount. NASBE only pays half the cost for one member of each state to attend its annual convention. It seems to me that NASBE needs Texas more than Texas needs NASBE, so why are we paying them over $40,000? That is not wise stewardship on the part of the SBOE."

######

Saturday, November 19, 2005

A Rose By Any Other Name: The Soldiers

A Rose By Any Other Name: The Soldiers

ScrappleFace � Under Senate Pressure, Bush Reveals Iraq Strategy

ScrappleFace � Under Senate Pressure, Bush Reveals Iraq Strategy

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Is Wal-Mart a problem? by John Stossel

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Is Wal-Mart a problem? by John Stossel

hat tip: http://betsyspage.blogspot.com/2005/11/john-stossel-explains-some-economics.html

OpinionJournal - Wonder Land

OpinionJournal - Wonder Land

start quote///
Why We Went to War
What if people start believing that "Bush lied"?

BY DANIEL HENNINGER
Friday, November 18, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Would Senators Sam Nunn, Pat Moynihan, Bob Kerrey, Chuck Robb, David Boren or Henry M. Jackson have conducted their opposition to President Bush's war policies in Iraq as have Senators Harry Reid, Richard Durbin, Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer? The former group stood for the idea of a loyal opposition; the latter stand simply in opposition.

In the past week, President Bush, his vice president and defense secretary have begun to "push back" against the current incarnation of Democratic opposition. And so the political air drips with such edifying words as "lied," "dishonest" and Sen. Reid's conclusive "a vote of no confidence."

Yes, politics ain't beanbag. But there is a larger danger in the Democratic strategy of attempting to make George Bush into the Wizard of Oz, a man whose every statement about threats to American security is fantasy and falsity. Pounding through the media that the prewar intelligence was a conscious lie may incline the American people to believe the whole Iraq enterprise is false, and worse, that the very notion of weapons of mass destruction is also doubtful. The psychology of the big lie can sometimes run out of control....

Union Leader - Granite Status: Dems go to the mat over NH primary - Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005

Union Leader - Granite Status: Dems go to the mat over NH primary - Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005

Pontifications � Blog Archive � Finding True Love

Pontifications � Blog Archive � Finding True Lovere: new Pride & Prejudice movie

Flashback: William F. Buckley Jr. at West Point on John Kerry on National Review Online

Flashback: William F. Buckley Jr. at West Point on John Kerry on National Review Online

hat tip: http://acertainslantoflight.blogspot.com/2005/11/john-kerry-wed-be-in-different-place.html

NRA-ILA

NRA-ILA

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - ASPCA Wants Law Regulating Owners of Multiple Pets

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - ASPCA Wants Law Regulating Owners of Multiple PetsObjects to anyone other than shelters taking in strays and finding them homes?

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Some Critical of Women's Studies Chairman

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Some Critical of Women's Studies ChairmanI don't know whether to laugh or cry. This reads like ScrappleFace, but you know the folks involved in this are Very Serious About It.

Magnitude 6.5 Quake Strikes Off Indonesia

There was a local tsunami alert issued for the area around Simeulue Island and Sumatra earlier today. The quake was 6.5, meaning it was unlikely to cause a widespread tsunami by itself, but could trigger local ones because of landslides...

Our Blue Castle: Books for those who don't read books

Our Blue Castle: Books for those who don't read books

Friday, November 18, 2005

The Reading Teacher

The Reading Teacher

The Median Sib

The Median Sib

Ohio imposing moratorium on eminent domain

Ohio imposing moratorium on eminent domain

Capote's 'In Cold Blood' explored

Capote's 'In Cold Blood' explored

Business of Life�: Hurrah for Haider Sediqi

Business of Life�: Hurrah for Haider Sediqi

hat tip: http://www.osm.org/ Open Source Media

FOXNews.com - Your World w/ Neil Cavuto - Cavuto's Interview - Transcript: The Real Profiteers

FOXNews.com - Your World w/ Neil Cavuto - Cavuto's Interview - Transcript: The Real Profiteers

FOXNews.com - Your World w/ Neil Cavuto - Common Sense - Freedom From Religion?

FOXNews.com - Your World w/ Neil Cavuto - Common Sense - Freedom From Religion?

hat tip: Anna at A Rose By Any Other Name http://arosebyname.blogspot.com/2005/11/follow-up.html

The Common Room: Sizzingly Righteous Indignation

The Common Room: Sizzingly Righteous Indignation

How Appealing

How AppealingMuslim role-playing in school, 9th circuit split, more.

The Common Room: Self-Image

The Common Room: Self-Image

///start quote///A friend of mine once asked me what I was doing to promote a healthy self-image in our daughters. It was around holiday season and there were so many conflicting messages about looking beautiful, dieting, dressing for being the center of attention, and at the time promoting eating to excess. She wondered how to help children stay in shape, with all the problems kids are having these days with obesity, while not encouraging obsession with bodily image and giving the kids 'low self esteem.'

Here's what I said...

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Knights of Columbus

Knights of Columbus

Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor

start quote///


Notes on Msgr. Lane's Talk on the Passion of the Lord:


Christians have struggled with the Crucifixion since the very beginning, going back to the account of the men on the road to Emmaus. "What does this mean?". Some early Christian thinkers came up with a legalistic view, that humans errored and it makes sense that only God can appease God. But that's horrible. What kind of God sends His Son to die in order to appease Himself?

Another way to look at it is to recall that we are made in the image and likeness of God which is reflected in human freedom. Freedom is what makes us human and able to relate to God in a one-to-one in a friendship relationship rather than a dependent, destructive way. Look at families where a parent watches every thing the child does and forces obedience - that child is not free and ultimately bears a hatred towards his parents.

God intended Jesus as a gift. He said as it were, "go down and give yourself to them, put yourself in their hands." Gift, not appeasement. It is human nature to be threatened by holiness since we have constructed a world and are comfortable with it as it is.

Read the language describing moment of Christ's death. It is the triumph of chaos. It is the only way the Hebrew writers, who could not use an abstraction, could describe nihilism, nothingness. The darkness descending over the abyss, the wind over it, recalls Genesis before the creation of the world. The world was ending. God was dying in a very real sense, not just the harmless sense in which Jesus was just giving up a body that was a lot of trouble anyway....

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

OpinionJournal - Best of the Web Today

VirtueOnline-News - Viewpoints - PITTSBURGH: Orthodox Rally for the Faith...Ohio 4 leave diocese...ECUSA news...

VirtueOnline-News - Viewpoints - PITTSBURGH: Orthodox Rally for the Faith...Ohio 4 leave diocese...ECUSA news...

Tuesday, November 15, 2005

People of the Book � Authors in Disguise

Some authors are writing under new names to evade bad sales figures from earlier books, according to a recent news article discussed at People of the Book.

I don't know how to tell the reporter this, but this is nothing new. Writing under various names, either to keep your different types or styles separate in the minds of consumers, or to give yourself a clean slate, goes waaay back. Trust me on this.

OK, what is new is that now there are new ways of tracking actual sales, or at least actual sales tracked by Bookscan, and so a writer might have to change names in situations where in the past he might have slid through unscathed on a bluff.

Anglicans urge disgruntled Episcopalians to join them

Anglicans urge disgruntled Episcopalians to join them

News and Commentary - Top Stories - American Anglican Council Live Website

News and Commentary - Top Stories - American Anglican Council Live WebsiteSouth Riding Church Disaffiliates from the Episcopal Church, Joins Anglican Province of Uganda

Against a dictatorship of relativism: Is the embryo a human person?

Against a dictatorship of relativism

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Peter Drucker, RIP

Rough Type: Nicholas Carr's Blog: Peter Drucker, RIP

Religion Clause

Religion Clause

The New Editor

The New Editor

OpinionJournal - Extra

OpinionJournal - Extra

///start excerpt///
Who Is Lying About Iraq?
A campaign of distortion aims to discredit the liberation.

BY NORMAN PODHORETZ
Monday, November 14, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Among the many distortions, misrepresentations and outright falsifications that have emerged from the debate over Iraq, one in particular stands out above all others. This is the charge that George W. Bush misled us into an immoral or unnecessary war in Iraq by telling a series of lies that have now been definitively exposed.

What makes this charge so special is the amazing success it has enjoyed in getting itself established as a self-evident truth even though it has been refuted and discredited over and over again by evidence and argument alike. In this it resembles nothing so much as those animated cartoon characters who, after being flattened, blown up or pushed over a cliff, always spring back to life with their bodies perfectly intact. Perhaps, like those cartoon characters, this allegation simply cannot be killed off, no matter what.

Nevertheless, I want to take one more shot at exposing it for the lie that it itself really is. Although doing so will require going over ground that I and many others have covered before, I hope that revisiting this well-trodden terrain may also serve to refresh memories that have grown dim, to clarify thoughts that have grown confused, and to revive outrage that has grown commensurately dulled...

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Japanese princess weds

BBC NEWS | In Pictures | In pictures: Japanese princess weds

USATODAY.com - Japanese princess gives up title to marry commoner

USATODAY.com - Japanese princess gives up title to marry commoner

////excerpt///
Sayako referred to the radical change in her life in a statement released after the ceremony, in which she said her father had told her their relationship would remain unchanged and urged her to respect her husband and his work.

"The emperor told me to continue to polish the virtues I have gained in my life so far. There are many things I still do not know about my life ahead, so I'm not sure how exactly to follow these instructions," she said.

"But I feel very happy that the emperor regards my new life as a continuation, not as a complete break," Sayako added.

Bookworm Room: Making it too expensive to hire people

Bookworm Room: Making it too expensive to hire people

Eutychus Fell: Becoming Catholic, An RCIA Blog

Eutychus Fell: Becoming Catholic, An RCIA Blog

Saturday, November 12, 2005

NPR : Checking in at the Texas Pretty Mule Contest

NPR : Checking in at the Texas Pretty Mule Contest

OpinionJournal - Taste

OpinionJournal - Taste

Bringing a Law School Down
Should Ave Maria be part of a "Catholic Jonestown"?

BY NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY
Friday, November 11, 2005 12:01 a.m. EST

Last Saturday, members of the alumni association of the Ave Maria School of Law met in Ann Arbor, Mich. They had learned, in the weeks before, that one of the school's most beloved professors was being kicked off the board of trustees and that the school might relocate to rural Florida. They weren't happy about it. In fact, they were angry.

And little wonder. Why, after all, quibble with success? In September, only five years after the school's founding, the American Bar Association granted full accreditation to Ave Maria, whose mission is to offer "an outstanding legal education in fidelity to the Catholic Faith." Last year a higher percentage of the school's graduates passed the bar exam than the University of Michigan's. But there is more at stake than one school's record. The controversy playing out at Ave Maria echoes a larger debate within Catholic conservatism--over how much to engage with the secular world....

Plexus Publishing, Inc.

Plexus Publishing, Inc.

Independent Publishers Group - book distributor for publishers in the US and worldwide

Independent Publishers Group - book distributor for publishers in the US and worldwide