Gloucester Teen Pregnancies

GLOUCESTER, Mass. - A pact made by a group of teens to get pregnant and raise their babies together is at least partly behind a sudden spike in pregnancies at Gloucester High School, school officials said.
Principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine in a story published Wednesday that the girls confessed to making the pact after the school began investigating a rise in pregnancies that has left 17 girls at the school carrying a child. Normally, there are about four pregnancies a year at the school.

What could have caused this?

Mayor Carolyn Kirk told The Associated Press on Friday that many factors are involved in the surge in pregnancies in her community, a hardscrabble fishing village which has fallen on tough economic times and cut teachers and services, including some health classes.

Yeah, that's it - lack of health classes.

W.B. Yeats "The Fisherman"

Although I can see him still.

The freckled man who goes

To a grey place on a hill

In grey Connemara clothes

At dawn to cast his flies,

It's long since I began

To call up to the eyes

This wise and simple man.

All day I'd looked in the face

What I had hoped 'twould be

To write for my own race

And the reality;

The living men that I hate,

The dead man that I loved,

The craven man in his seat,

The insolent unreproved,

And no knave brought to book

Who has won a drunken cheer,

The witty man and his joke

Aimed at the commonest ear,

The clever man who cries

The catch-cries of the clown,

The beating down of the wise

And great Art beaten down.

Maybe a twelvemonth since

Suddenly I began,

In scorn of this audience,

Imagining a man,

And his sun-freckled face,

And grey Connemara cloth,

Climbing up to a place

Where stone is dark under froth,

And the down-turn of his wrist

When the flies drop in the stream;

A man who does not exist,

A man who is but a dream;

And cried, 'Before I am old

I shall have written him one

poem maybe as cold

and passionate as the dawn.

Number 17, Finally!

(from left to right: Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce of the NBA Champion Boston Celtics)

It's been a long time coming. The world was "out of kilter" for 22 years! There now, finally fixed. I feel better already.

Yankee's Wang Out Until September

Sometimes headlines write themselves and no, this isn't about an incident in Central Park:

Yankees ace Chien-Ming Wang is expected to be sidelined until at least September after injuring his foot running the bases, prompting club co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner to chastise the National League for playing without a designated hitter.
An examination in New York on Monday showed Wang partially tore a tendon and sprained his right foot Sunday during the Yankees’ 13-0 interleague win at Houston. He will be on crutches and wear a protective boot for a minimum of six weeks, the latest blow to the team’s banged-up pitching staff.

I'll be surprised if he comes back at all this year. With out Wang, the Yankees have very little chance of making the playoffs this year.

Hemingway Liked To Drink

Fishing, writing, fist fights with Wallace Stevens and in between Ernest Hemingway liked to drink too.

Tim Russert, Rest in Peace

There are very few talking heads that I can stand, Tim Russert was one of them. If only every member of the fourth estate were as able, fair, tough and serious. May he rest in peace.

Shorter "Boumediene"

For those who don't want to wade through the entire 134-page (including dissents and concurring opinions) Boumediene v. Bush ruling here's the condensed version:

Justice Robert H. Jackson: "The Constitution is not a suicide pact."
Justices Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, et al.: "Oh, yes it is!"

If you do want to read the whole thing, here's a link to the pdf.

The Nanny State Rids Britain Of Slide With 50 Year Record Of Safety

It's hard to believe these people once had an empire and civilised the world:

For half a century youngsters have enjoyed the 10ft slide in the playground, with no more serious mishap than the occasional bruise or grazed knee. Many of the parents bringing their children had themselves played on the towering steel structure years ago. The tradition has, however, been brought to an abrupt halt by that modern scourge, health and safety.

What a bunch of pansies. There does seem to be at least one sane Briton left:

Local Conservative councillor James Hutchings said: ‘It’s completely mad the way we are being run ragged by the health-and-safety mafia. ‘Children are not going to learn how to judge risks - or how to have fun - if challenging play equipment such as this is denied them. ‘If there hadn’t been an accident in 50 years then the chances are there’s not much wrong with this slide.’

Conservatism, is there nothing it can't do other than successfully combat aggressive nannyism?

Pointy Comic: xkcd

Ouch.

Esquire: Snipers in Iraq

Esquire has a fine story about American snipers in Iraq. I know next to nothing about the particulars of the story, but something bothered me:

Hensley said, "If he pokes his head up again, I'm going to take him out." He did not have a high-powered sniper's rifle. He had the basic rifle of the American infantry, the M4. It is basically a .22. The guy across the river was anywhere from three hundred to four hundred meters away. It is not the kind of shot typically made with an M4.

Again, I don't know much about the particulars, but I do know that 5.56 mm is pretty damned different than a .22, as clearly illustrated in the picture above. I also know that shooting a man at three hundred meters or four hundred meters isn't all that hard to do with rifle, even an M4. Hell, I must have killed dozens of prairie dogs at nearly that distance with my civilian M4 and prairie dogs are a hell of a lot smaller than a man. The point is, this is a small detail easy to verify and understand, if the author is wrong on this little detail how are we supposed to believe the rest of the story?

Gyros

Every once in a while I get a hankering for a Gyro, preferably from a place called Dino's, George's or The Olympia - don't ask me why. With lots of fresh made tzatziki and an iced coffee, I'm in heaven.

Obama, Jim Johnson an Auspicious Beginning

CHICAGO (AFP) - Democrat Barack Obama was roiled by another campaign scandal Wednesday when a key advisor resigned amid damaging reports that he had received preferential home loans.
Although Jim Johnson, who has been leading the hunt for a vice presidential candidate, denies any favorable treatment for his home loan, the accusations could dent Obama's image as an untarnished newcomer who has vowed to clean up Washington politics.
Johnson, a former chief executive of mortgage giant Fannie Mae, resigned just hours after Obama took part in a round table in Chicago highlighting the impact of predatory lending on Americans.

Smooth move. Remind me again how Obama became the Democratic party's candidate for President? A willing, complicit press, identity politics and the inability of at least half of Americans to think critically. Now Obama will pick Lani Guinier as his running mate as further proof of his good judgement.

There's Someone For Everybody

How's your lovelife?

MONTERREY, Mexico - Manuel Uribe, who once weighed a half ton but has slimmed down to about 700 pounds, celebrates his 43rd birthday on Wednesday with a simple wish for the coming year: to be able to stand on his own two feet to get married.

He lost 300 pounds, he's a rail a veritable rail.

Fishing Monkeys

BANGKOK, Thailand - Long-tailed macaque monkeys have a reputation for knowing how to find food — whether it be grabbing fruit from jungle trees or snatching a banana from a startled tourist. Now, researchers say they have discovered groups of the silver-haired monkeys in Indonesia that fish.
Groups of long-tailed macaques were observed four times over the past eight years scooping up small fish with their hands and eating them along rivers in East Kalimantan and North Sumatra provinces, according to researchers from The Nature Conservancy and the Great Ape Trust.

How long can it be before they fashion bamboo fly rods?

Hit and Run in Hartford

Central Connecticut is in uproar over a hit and run incident that paralysed a 78 year old Hartford man from the neck down. If that wasn't bad enough, the incident caught on video shows that the good people of Hartford stood by and drove by without offering aid, although at least three people promptly called 911.
From the governor on down people are wringing their wrists wondering how we came to be this way. I'll tell you. When, from the governor on down, you let the little things slide don't be surprised when pernicious assholes drive through your streets as if in a shitty Vin Diesel movie. When more people are familiar with and believe the phrase "snitches end up in ditches" than know or believe Edmund Burke's well worn phrase "the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing", don't expect to be able to buy milk at the corner bodega with impunity.

It's Not Queen

The gayest album cover ever. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Papa Doble

This recipe is making me thirsty:

2 oz white rum
1 oz fresh lime juice
½ oz fresh grapefruit juice
¼ oz maraschino liqueur
1½ to 2 cups shaved ice
Combine in a blender and frappe until the drink is foaming. Serve in a large cocktail glass, champagne saucer, or goblet. Note: maraschino liqueur is NOT the same thing as syrup from a cherry jar. Fire any liquor store that tells you otherwise.

Thanks For The C-Note

I bet a friend $100 bucks last year that Hillary Clinton would not be the Democratic nominee for president. He, like Hillary apparently, thought it was a done deal. In my wildest dreams I would not have predicted Obama's victory, I just knew that no one stays on top for 12 months. I would rather have parted with the $100 than face the possibility of another Carter administration except this time the faux wizard behind the curtain is inoculated from criticism by a complicit press and white, liberal guilt. A third Clinton administration although horrible to contemplate, would be forced to govern from the center due to her inherent unpopularity and Velcro like ability to gather criticism.

Susan Sarandon Moving to Europe, We Hope

This is just stupid, Susan Sarandon says she will abandon the USA if jackbooted thug John McCain is elected president:

“If McCain gets in, it’s going to be very, very dangerous,” she says. “It’s a critical time, but I have faith in the American people. If they prove me wrong, I’ll be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don’t know. We’re at an abyss.”

Please. Please wake the hell up or at least keep your promise and take your wiener husband with you. What does it say about her politics when she finds John McCain, arguably center-left, so abhorrent? I was ambivalent about voting for McCain, but if Sarandon can get hubby, Sean Penn and Keith Olbermann to accompany her I may develop some enthusiasm.

loudQUIETloud A Film About The Pixies

Film makers, Pixie fans, Steven Cantor and Matthew Galkin accompanied the Pixies on their triumphant 2004 reunion tour. Using a fly on the wall perspective they show the Pixies off stage in all their dysfunctional, clay footed glory and on stage still the alt rock gods I fell in love with back in 1987.
The Pixies formed in 1986 and broke up in 1992, for reasons never fully explained. What is made clear in this film is the Pixies don’t sit around back stage and discuss their feelings much or anything else for that matter. As a group they seem entirely un-cohesive and uncommunicative. But somehow they’re still able to sync on stage and remain the coolest rock band still in existence. How is it possible for very flawed, even prosaic people to be so effing cool?

In 2004 they reunited to tour because, for starters, they needed the money. This shocks me. In case you had any doubts the world is entirely unfair, ponder the fact that Brittany Spears is worth over a hundred million dollars and Pixies drummer David Lovering has had to sleep on friends' couches. This injustice is right up there with P.K. Dick having to eat horse meat hamburger or Vincent Van Gogh selling one painting, to his brother Theo, while he was alive.
Another thing that I found kind of surprising is that the Pixies, particularly bassist Kim Deal, fresh out of rehab and sober for the first time in her adult life, seems genuinely surprised by the overwhelming enthusiasm of Pixie fans.
All in all a good flick and an absolute must see for Pixies fans.

Gender Neutral West Point

Priorities, some of them are important, others less so:

The head of the U.S. Military Academy thinks it's time to replace the ''men'' and ''sons'' in West Point's two most beloved songs with more gender-neutral lyrics.
Lt. Gen. Franklin ''Buster'' Hagenbeck, superintendent of the nation's oldest military academy, told a congressional oversight committee Wednesday that with more than 3,000 women graduating from West Point since 1976, the change is long overdue.

I'm glad everything else is perfect.

Little Stinker

Find one in every car. You'll see.

Movie Reviews: Indiana Jones IV and Iron Man

This weekend we carted up the kids, packed a picnic dinner a went to the drive in movies to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Iron Man. Quick review for those of you with attention spans spans developed since 1980, they're both pretty decent - go see them.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the third best Indiana Jones movie, behind the sublime Lost Ark and the decent Last Crusade, still way better than the abominable Temple of Doom.
Iron Man was a bit of a surprise to me in that I don't normally like or go out of way to see big screen comic book adaptations. There is probably some political hay to be made by looking at how this movie portrays the American industrial military complex, but considering it was made in Hollywood, I imagine we should be thankful Iron Man isn't a recycled aluminium, transgendered vegan who seeks to engage in multilateral dialogues and increased CAFE standards. No, even after Iron Man realizes weapons cause boo-boos, he still manages to kick ass and leave the name taking to someone who gives a shit.
Robert Downey, Jr. really is a fine actor in the right part and this roll is perfect for him. A bald headed Jeff Bridges and a skinny Gwyneth Paltrow are fine as well. Everything you ever wanted in a big budget Hollywood film, admirably executed.

What is CTF?

Doctors show us once again there is nothing so sad that cant be made fun of.

Clever Ad

The shit you find on the internet.

Michel Fournier's 130,000 Foot Parachute Jump

Most extreme activities are pretty lame, bungee jumping, street luge, paper clip chaining etc.. Jumping from 130,000 feet is quite another story.

He intends to climb into the pressurized gondola of the 650-foot balloon, which resembles a giant jellyfish, and make a two-hour journey to 130,000 feet. At that altitude, almost 25 miles up, Fournier will see both the blackness of space and the curvature of the earth. He will experience weightlessness.
Then he plans to step out of the capsule, wearing only a special space suit and a
parachute, and plunge down in a mere 15 minutes. If successful, Fournier will fall longer, farther and faster than anyone in history. Along the way, he can accomplish other firsts, by breaking the sound barrier and records that have stood for nearly 50 years.

UPDATE: Track his progress here.

M. Night Shyamalan and The Pixies?

Pretty cool, as long as it's better than oh so very lame Lady In The Water.

The World's Hardest-Working Countries

Forbes has a story about the world's hardest working countries. Supposedly, Koreans work ungodly hours, followed closely by the Greeks. I've never been to Korea, but I have been to Greece and all I can say from my limited experience there is "horse shit". Greeks may work a ton of hours, but I'll be damned if they work hard. Case in point; we were boarding a ferry in the Cyclades and there was a pile of luggage about the size of Ford Explorer sitting on the ramp. Six or seven uniformed ferry crew members stood around the pile with their hats in their hands, smoking, pointing to the pile and conversing as to the nature of the pile's existence and it's reluctance to move itself up the ramp. For at least thirty minutes the ferry and hundreds of passengers watched and waited as this kabuki show went on and on. Finally a senior guy came out and said, I assume being a barbarian, "Hey malakes, if each of you grab two bags and make two trips up the ramp so we can get the hell out of here." They did and we left.
Flash forward a month later arriving back in the USA at the zoo known as JFK international airport where gruff, young, primarily African American baggage smashers moved about with aplomb and efficiency. They didn't get to wear nifty naval uniforms or smoke or stand about conversing, but they sure as hell got their job done. It's weird, standing there with a bunch of foreigners watching these young American kids TCB, I was proud of them. There's nothing like travel to let you see your own country with new eyes.

NY Times: "Iraqi Troops Take Charge of Sadr City in Swift Push"

BAGHDAD — Iraqi troops pushed deep into Sadr City on Tuesday as the Iraqi government sought to establish control over the district, a densely populated Shiite enclave in the Iraqi capital.

The long-awaited military operation, which took place without the involvement of American ground forces, was the first determined effort by the government of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to assert control over the sprawling Baghdad neighborhood, which has been a bastion of support for Moktada al-Sadr, the rebel cleric.

link

The Belmont Club has more:

"It's getting harder and harder to maintain the fiction that the Surge has succeeded only because Moqtada al-Sadr has magnanimously allowed it to flourish..."

Arguing With Liberals

Some men are damned because they have hearts of stone, neither fire nor water has any effect on them. So it is with liberals and logic. From time to time I'll engage a liberal in conversation which is like translating Finnegan's Wake into Goldfish - there's no point to it.
There's this annoying accountant I know who defends Michael Moore's films as 100% factual and maintains that John McCain said we'd be in Iraq for 100 years. Pointing out that even a cursory fact check of Moore's films would show a level of prevarication not seen since Bill Clinton last got caught with strange, i.e. any, lipstick on his boxers or that in fact, John McCain never said we'd be in Iraq for 100 years falls on willfully deaf ears. Why bother? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but liberals want there own facts.
Another example, an attorney friend and I were discussing the election and a pleasant enough woman overhearing us asked if we supported Obama, my friend said no, I said hell no and she looked as if we bit off a chunk of a Baby Ruth floating in the pool or a chicken's head. "Aren't you concerned about global warming? It's the most pressing issue facing the world today". My friend, "No". Me, "Hell no it has nothing to do with us." She said, "I can't believe you think that" and walked away.
Then there's my favorite:
What should we do about Iraq?
Liberal: Pull out immediately.
Isn't that irresponsible?
Liberal: We shouldn't have been there to begin with.
I disagree, but let's assume you're right, what now?
Liberal: Bush lied, people died, we need our troops home immediately, do you know we spend $35 billion a day there? That money could be used to fight global warming or for the AIDS quilt.
I thought the AIDS quilt caused global warming.
Liberal: I can't believe you think that.
I don't, not really, what about the Middle East? If we leave, won't Iraq become a resource rich failed state - a perfect breeding ground for groups like Al Queda to stage attacks on the US, our allies and interests?
Liberal: There's no Al Queda in Iraq.
Jesus, who says that?
Liberal: Keith Olbermann.
You must be shitting me. Al Queda cells have been uncovered in nearly every country in the Middle East and Europe, why not Iraq?
Liberal: Saddam Hussein wasn't religious and Al Queda is. There's no way two groups so opposed could agree on anything.
Like Stalin's Soviet Union and Hitler's Third Reich could never agree on anything, such as dividing up Poland, Romania, Finland and the Baltic States?
Liberal: The Soviet Union fought the Nazis in the Great Patriotic War, they were enemies stupid.
Yeah I know, I saw the movie, but prior to the war they signed a non-aggression pact that Hitler later violated.
Liberal: Are you sure? I never heard of that.
I'm afraid so. It's called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. Your people at the time were outraged that the USSR would sully themselves by dealing with Hitler. As if one were worse than the other.
Liberal: What do you mean 'my people"?
Useful idiots on the left.

Lester is More

Red Sox left-hander Jon Lester, who was diagnosed with lymphoma a little over two years ago, pitched a no-hitter at Fenway last night.

Lester received a key assist from center-fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. Without Ellsbury's play in the fourth inning, there would have been no no-hitter.

It is very good to be a BoSox fan these days.

New Hartford Fishing Derby, May 24

This is the second year for New Hartford's Fishing Derby.

Last year was a lot of fun with a very good turnout. They stocked the Farmington River the evening before. The next morning kids (and their fathers) had some really impressive catches.

This year we'll be able to stock about six times as many fish as last year. We're looking to build on last year's success and create the kind of event anglers won't want to miss.

For the first 100 who pre-register, the kids get a free fishing pole. Call 379-1952 to pre-register. Fishing begins at 7 AM.

Click on the image for more info!!

Movie Review: Evan Almighty

We have kids, so I'm always looking for family films that we can watch as a family after my youngest child kept repeating "You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? You talkin' to me? Then who the hell else are you talking... you talking to me? Well I'm the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you're talking to?" after our last Scorsese film festival, which in hindsight may have been ill-advised. So anyway, if a movie looks like it might be unobjectionable and has some decent actors in it, we give it a shot. Since Morgan Freeman, John Goodman and Steve Carell were in Evan Almighty I ignored the poor reviews and let her rip. Big mistake. Even though I didn't pay a dime extra to see this crap fest, I want to demand my money and or time back from somebody, anybody. Unfunny - desperately so, cliched, preachy, predictable, lame and unfunny. I mention unfunny twice because there's a sequence where the usually droll Steve Carell is forced due to a lack of anything funny in the script to bang himself up in an vain attempt at humor, the result is deader than my sense of propriety.
One of my pet peeves in movies is the "dad works too much" meme. Not only is it cheap and easy and done to death, it's effing stupid. I'd much rather hang out with my family than work, but guess what? Groceries aren't free and neither are shitty movies unfortunately. It's particularly galling to be preached at by such a vacuous film. Miss it, even if it means sitting in the lav counting the paper towels for two hours on a cross country flight.

Awareness Test

Prius Owner

As I walked home from the office early this morning, I saw a silver Prius backing out of a Shell Station in a very odd fashion onto Trout Brook Drive. It continued across all four lanes, up over the curb, comming to rest on top of a shrub. Apparently no one was inside. It started to roll a little bit back onto the road, so I ran into the gas station and asked a blonde 30 something if she was driving a "Pry-us", she said "I have a 'Pre-us'", I said "Well that's great Gee-a, do they come with parking brakes, because yours has just rolled down the hill all the way across Trout Brook Drive". She said, "My name is pronounced 'Jy-ya'". True story.

Battle at Kruger: The Most Amazing Animal Video I Have Ever Seen

USB Humping Dog

Moderately funny in itself, but the blurring of the USB made me laugh.

This KILLS me...

A commenter named "Lord Locksley" over at RedState agonizes over his vote:

Hmmmmm... who to vote for this fall... Well on one side, you have a bitch who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer, and a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is a lawyer... On the other side, you have a war hero married to a total babe who owns a beer distributorship... Where I come from that is known as a 'no brainer'.

Sabrina M. Weiner

Sabrina M. Weiner was a USN Lieutenant who refused individual assignment to Iraq, not because she 's opposed to the war, but because she opposes the individual augmentee program which assigns Naval and Air Force officers to administrative, medical and legal posts in Iraq and Afghanistan so that Army and Marine Corps officers can concentrate on combat operations.
"It is not an against-the-war argument but a people-accountability argument, I was proud to say I was a Navy officer. My problem is the way they are using us as IAs. It minimizes the job and training we do for the Navy."
Well LT, that's why the call it the service. Do you think the anyone relishes these assignments?

Hillary Wins Pennsylvania

All joking and schadenfreude aside, the Democrats have a tough decision in front of them. If Clinton wins Pennsylvania as big as it seems she about to, she will lead Obama in the popular vote, depending on who's votes you count - the Democrats aren't all that great at running elections or anything else for that matter. Perhaps more importantly, she will have won 7 of the 8 most populous states. This on top of some recently revealed chinks in Obama's armor put the Dems in some interesting territory. Now, no one can reasonably ask her to step aside, or Obama for that matter. Perhaps this will make them join forces in some unholy amalgam of contextualization, bitchiness and identity politics. If this were to happen it wouldn't surprise me, but I wouldn't hold my breath for it either.
It would have been better for the Democrats to have some winner take all states to end this thing one way or another.

Shoes Bad

Morosoph declares that shoes are bad for your feet. I've always suspected as much. Just last winter as I shovelled the 18 inches of snow and freezing rain that encrusted my truck and driveway, I thought that what really made things miserable where those damn insulated, breathable, waterproof snow boots I was wearing. If only our shoe-centric society would allow me to go barefoot.
Next: Fire over rated.

Charles Durning: Army Ranger, Dancer, Actor

You may remember Charles Durning from such pictures as Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Hudsucker Proxy, True Confessions and The Sting, but did you know that he was a boxer and as a 17 year old stormed Omaha Beach as a U.S. Army Ranger? I didn't. Read a blurb about his service here, all I can say is, wow. If a person can live what he lived through and go on to shake his ample ass so gleefully in such films as The Best Little Whore House in Texas, there is hope for us all.

Hat Tip: The Corner

HOMILY OF POPE BENEDICT XVI, SAINT PATRICK'S CATHEDRAL, 19.04.2008

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

With great affection in the Lord, I greet all of you, who represent the Bishops, priests and deacons, the men and women in consecrated life, and the seminarians of the United States. I thank Cardinal Egan for his warm welcome and the good wishes which he has expressed in your name as I begin the fourth year of my papal ministry. I am happy to celebrate this Mass with you, who have been chosen by the Lord, who have answered his call, and who devote your lives to the pursuit of holiness, the spread of the Gospel and the building up of the Church in faith, hope and love.

Gathered as we are in this historic cathedral, how can we not think of the countless men and women who have gone before us, who labored for the growth of the Church in the United States, and left us a lasting legacy of faith and good works? In today’s first reading we saw how, in the power of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles went forth from the Upper Room to proclaim God’s mighty works to people of every nation and tongue. In this country, the Church’s mission has always involved drawing people “from every nation under heaven” (cf. Acts 2:5) into spiritual unity, and enriching the Body of Christ by the variety of their gifts. As we give thanks for past blessings, and look to the challenges of the future, let us implore from God the grace of a new Pentecost for the Church in America. May tongues of fire, combining burning love of God and neighbor with zeal for the spread of Christ’s Kingdom, descend on all present!

In this morning’s second reading, Saint Paul reminds us that spiritual unity – the unity which reconciles and enriches diversity – has its origin and supreme model in the life of the triune God. As a communion of pure love and infinite freedom, the Blessed Trinity constantly brings forth new life in the work of creation and redemption. The Church, as “a people made one by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Spirit” (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4), is called to proclaim the gift of life, to serve life, and to promote a culture of life. Here in this cathedral, our thoughts turn naturally to the heroic witness to the Gospel of life borne by the late Cardinals Cooke and O’Connor. The proclamation of life, life in abundance, must be the heart of the new evangelization. For true life – our salvation – can only be found in the reconciliation, freedom and love which are God’s gracious gift.

This is the message of hope we are called to proclaim and embody in a world where self-centeredness, greed, violence, and cynicism so often seem to choke the fragile growth of grace in people’s hearts. Saint Irenaeus, with great insight, understood that the command which Moses enjoined upon the people of Israel: “Choose life!” (Dt 30:19) was the ultimate reason for our obedience to all God’s commandments (cf. Adv. Haer. IV, 16, 2-5). Perhaps we have lost sight of this: in a society where the Church seems legalistic and “institutional” to many people, our most urgent challenge is to communicate the joy born of faith and the experience of God’s love.

I am particularly happy that we have gathered in Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. Perhaps more than any other church in the United States, this place is known and loved as “a house of prayer for all peoples” (cf. Is 56:7; Mk 11:17). Each day thousands of men, women and children enter its doors and find peace within its walls. Archbishop John Hughes, who – as Cardinal Egan has reminded us – was responsible for building this venerable edifice, wished it to rise in pure Gothic style. He wanted this cathedral to remind the young Church in America of the great spiritual tradition to which it was heir, and to inspire it to bring the best of that heritage to the building up of Christ’s body in this land. I would like to draw your attention to a few aspects of this beautiful structure which I think can serve as a starting point for a reflection on our particular vocations within the unity of the Mystical Body.

The first has to do with the stained glass windows, which flood the interior with mystic light. From the outside, those windows are dark, heavy, even dreary. But once one enters the church, they suddenly come alive; reflecting the light passing through them, they reveal all their splendor. Many writers – here in America we can think of Nathaniel Hawthorne – have used the image of stained glass to illustrate the mystery of the Church herself. It is only from the inside, from the experience of faith and ecclesial life, that we see the Church as she truly is: flooded with grace, resplendent in beauty, adorned by the manifold gifts of the Spirit. It follows that we, who live the life of grace within the Church’s communion, are called to draw all people into this mystery of light.

This is no easy task in a world which can tend to look at the Church, like those stained glass windows, “from the outside”: a world which deeply senses a need for spirituality, yet finds it difficult to “enter into” the mystery of the Church. Even for those of us within, the light of faith can be dimmed by routine, and the splendor of the Church obscured by the sins and weaknesses of her members. It can be dimmed too, by the obstacles encountered in a society which sometimes seems to have forgotten God and to resent even the most elementary demands of Christian morality. You, who have devoted your lives to bearing witness to the love of Christ and the building up of his Body, know from your daily contact with the world around us how tempting it is at times to give way to frustration, disappointment and even pessimism about the future. In a word, it is not always easy to see the light of the Spirit all about us, the splendor of the Risen Lord illuminating our lives and instilling renewed hope in his victory over the world (cf. Jn 16:33).

Yet the word of God reminds us that, in faith, we see the heavens opened, and the grace of the Holy Spirit lighting up the Church and bringing sure hope to our world. “O Lord, my God,” the Psalmist sings, “when you send forth your spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the earth” (Ps 104:30). These words evoke the first creation, when the Spirit of God hovered over the deep (cf. Gen 1:2). And they look forward to the new creation, at Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles and established the Church as the first fruits of a redeemed humanity (cf. Jn 20:22-23). These words summon us to ever deeper faith in God’s infinite power to transform every human situation, to create life from death, and to light up even the darkest night. And they make us think of another magnificent phrase of Saint Irenaeus: “where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and all grace” (Adv. Haer. III, 24, 1).

This leads me to a further reflection about the architecture of this church. Like all Gothic cathedrals, it is a highly complex structure, whose exact and harmonious proportions symbolize the unity of God’s creation. Medieval artists often portrayed Christ, the creative Word of God, as a heavenly “geometer”, compass in hand, who orders the cosmos with infinite wisdom and purpose. Does this not bring to mind our need to see all things with the eyes of faith, and thus to grasp them in their truest perspective, in the unity of God’s eternal plan? This requires, as we know, constant conversion, and a commitment to acquiring “a fresh, spiritual way of thinking” (cf. Eph 4:23). It also calls for the cultivation of those virtues which enable each of us to grow in holiness and to bear spiritual fruit within our particular state of life. Is not this ongoing “intellectual” conversion as necessary as “moral” conversion for our own growth in faith, our discernment of the signs of the times, and our personal contribution to the Church’s life and mission?

For all of us, I think, one of the great disappointments which followed the Second Vatican Council, with its call for a greater engagement in the Church’s mission to the world, has been the experience of division between different groups, different generations, different members of the same religious family. We can only move forward if we turn our gaze together to Christ! In the light of faith, we will then discover the wisdom and strength needed to open ourselves to points of view which may not necessarily conform to our own ideas or assumptions. Thus we can value the perspectives of others, be they younger or older than ourselves, and ultimately hear “what the Spirit is saying” to us and to the Church (cf. Rev 2:7). In this way, we will move together towards that true spiritual renewal desired by the Council, a renewal which can only strengthen the Church in that holiness and unity indispensable for the effective proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world.

Was not this unity of vision and purpose – rooted in faith and a spirit of constant conversion and self-sacrifice – the secret of the impressive growth of the Church in this country? We need but think of the remarkable accomplishment of that exemplary American priest, the Venerable Michael McGivney, whose vision and zeal led to the establishment of the Knights of Columbus, or of the legacy of the generations of religious and priests who quietly devoted their lives to serving the People of God in countless schools, hospitals and parishes.

Here, within the context of our need for the perspective given by faith, and for unity and cooperation in the work of building up the Church, I would like say a word about the sexual abuse that has caused so much suffering. I have already had occasion to speak of this, and of the resulting damage to the community of the faithful. Here I simply wish to assure you, dear priests and religious, of my spiritual closeness as you strive to respond with Christian hope to the continuing challenges that this situation presents. I join you in praying that this will be a time of purification for each and every particular Church and religious community, and a time for healing. I also encourage you to cooperate with your bishops who continue to work effectively to resolve this issue. May our Lord Jesus Christ grant the Church in America a renewed sense of unity and purpose, as all – Bishops, clergy, religious and laity – move forward in hope, in love for the truth and for one another.

Dear friends, these considerations lead me to a final observation about this great cathedral in which we find ourselves. The unity of a Gothic cathedral, we know, is not the static unity of a classical temple, but a unity born of the dynamic tension of diverse forces which impel the architecture upward, pointing it to heaven. Here too, we can see a symbol of the Church’s unity, which is the unity – as Saint Paul has told us – of a living body composed of many different members, each with its own role and purpose. Here too we see our need to acknowledge and reverence the gifts of each and every member of the body as “manifestations of the Spirit given for the good of all” (1 Cor 12:7). Certainly within the Church’s divinely-willed structure there is a distinction to be made between hierarchical and charismatic gifts (cf. Lumen Gentium, 4). Yet the very variety and richness of the graces bestowed by the Spirit invite us constantly to discern how these gifts are to be rightly ordered in the service of the Church’s mission. You, dear priests, by sacramental ordination have been configured to Christ, the Head of the Body. You, dear deacons, have been ordained for the service of that Body. You, dear men and women religious, both contemplative and apostolic, have devoted your lives to following the divine Master in generous love and complete devotion to his Gospel. All of you, who fill this cathedral today, as wells as your retired, elderly and infirm brothers and sisters, who unite their prayers and sacrifices to your labors, are called to be forces of unity within Christ’s Body. By your personal witness, and your fidelity to the ministry or apostolate entrusted to you, you prepare a path for the Spirit. For the Spirit never ceases to pour out his abundant gifts, to awaken new vocations and missions, and to guide the Church, as our Lord promised in this morning’s Gospel, into the fullness of truth (cf. Jn 16:13).

So let us lift our gaze upward! And with great humility and confidence, let us ask the Spirit to enable us each day to grow in the holiness that will make us living stones in the temple which he is even now raising up in the midst of our world. If we are to be true forces of unity, let us be the first to seek inner reconciliation through penance. Let us forgive the wrongs we have suffered and put aside all anger and contention. Let us be the first to demonstrate the humility and purity of heart which are required to approach the splendor of God’s truth. In fidelity to the deposit of faith entrusted to the Apostles (cf. 1 Tim 6:20), let us be joyful witnesses of the transforming power of the Gospel!

Dear brothers and sisters, in the finest traditions of the Church in this country, may you also be the first friend of the poor, the homeless, the stranger, the sick and all who suffer. Act as beacons of hope, casting the light of Christ upon the world, and encouraging young people to discover the beauty of a life given completely to the Lord and his Church. I make this plea in a particular way to the many seminarians and young religious present. All of you have a special place in my heart. Never forget that you are called to carry on, with all the enthusiasm and joy that the Spirit has given you, a work that others have begun, a legacy that one day you too will have to pass on to a new generation. Work generously and joyfully, for he whom you serve is the Lord!

The spires of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral are dwarfed by the skyscrapers of the Manhattan skyline, yet in the heart of this busy metropolis, they are a vivid reminder of the constant yearning of the human spirit to rise to God. As we celebrate this Eucharist, let us thank the Lord for allowing us to know him in the communion of the Church, to cooperate in building up his Mystical Body, and in bringing his saving word as good news to the men and women of our time. And when we leave this great church, let us go forth as heralds of hope in the midst of this city, and all those places where God’s grace has placed us. In this way, the Church in America will know a new springtime in the Spirit, and point the way to that other, greater city, the new Jerusalem, whose light is the Lamb (Rev 21:23). For there God is even now preparing for all people a banquet of unending joy and life. Amen.

(image via American Digest; text via Whispers in the Loggia)

AA Ball Game: New Britain Rock Cats

We took the whole family to see a New Britain Rock Cats minor league ballgame today, and what a perfect day to do it. After a fairly cold spring, today was in the high seventies, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. Perfect weather for sitting around in the sun and drinking an ice cold Sam Adams, and watch some baseball. It was a sublime experience.

Movie Review: The Painted Veil

I loved The Painted Veil starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts, co-starring Tobey Jones and Liev Schreiber in W. Somerset Maugham's story of betrayal, growth and forgiveness set in 1920s China. This film is one of those rare attempts, mostly successful, to show how people fail each other and how they can mature and learn to forgive.

All the acting in this film is first rate. The only bone I have to pick, is that I found Edward Norton's English accent unconvincing . I'm no Henry Higgins, but it drives me up the wall that even fine American actors can't develop a believable British Accent, while Aussies, Kiwis and Brits sound like they're from Flatbush or Savannah at will.

Naomi Watts is outstanding, in a role that any serious actress would tumble for. Tobey Green, fresh from impressing the hell out of me in Infamous, shines brilliantly again. Is there no end to fine actors from the British Empire?

By all means see it if you've grown weary of Blades of Glory genre of film making.

A Conservative Is A Liberal Who Has Been Mugged

Unfortunately not all of them survive the experience...

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.

Pat Condell Gets A Case Of The Ass Over Islamofascism

Hat Tip The Corner

Don't Go There: Honah Lee

I knew Honah Lee was not a place I ever wanted to go...

Obama's Kinseleyan Gaffe

So, Harvard Law Review is out in San Francisco winning the hearts and minds of his fellow travelers and he says this about the rubes in flyover country:

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, a lot of them — like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they’ve gone through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, and they cling to guns, or religion, or antipathy toward people who aren’t like them, or anti-immigrant sentiment, or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." Click here to hear it.

Translation: None needed, this is exactly what he thinks about the squirrel eatin, tobacco chawin, cousin humpin rednecks who have the temerity to exercise the first two amendments to the Constitution on a regular basis. Fair enough, but does he really think this will prompt the folks in dog patch to vote for him? This, in brief, is why HRC is staying in the race.

Christopher Hitchens Lesbian Gaffe

This is pretty funny, Hitch and Andrew Sullivan were bantering on Tim Russert's show when Sullivan lost his train of thought, Hitchens tells him "don't be such a lesbian, get on with it", presumably because Sullivan was tongue tied. Needless to say, this has ruffled some feathers.
Hitch responded to the controversy via an email to The Independent, "Don't know what came over me: the dear boy did suddenly seem extremely sapphic, yet I think my intuitions must have been scrambled all the same, since what I was actually thinking was: 'Andrew really wants to have Barack Obama's fucking child'. Clearly some confusion of categories on my part." As I said, pretty funny.

Muse: Starlight (Live)

Or So He Was Told...

Legally blind golfer gets hole in one.

No Wonder Why The Democrats Still Like Him

JFK was on drugs.

More Film Reviews: Serenity, Infamous, Crusaders

• I'm not huge scifi fan, but I was pleasantly surprised by Serenity, the feature length movie based on the culty Firefly T.V. series. You won't be impressed by the budget or the effects which are minimal, but sufficient. You may be surprised by the quality of the dialogue, writing and the libertarian themes of the story line, I sure was. I love it when my meager expectations are exceeded.
• You my astute reader will remember that I enjoyed Truman Capote's In Cold Blood very much, so I was glad to see that a quality movie was made about the writing of Capote's most in/famous novel. Infamous stars Toby Jones, who is just perfect as Truman Capote. Sandra Bullock is Harper Lee, yes that Harper Lee, who accompanied Capote to Kansas to assist in his writing. Well worth your time, with fine performances and an outstanding cast.
• Crusaders is a European mini series that somehow made it on to DVD and into my home. Would that it had stayed in Europe. Despite the presence of the aways fine Armin Mueller-Stahl, this film is everything one should avoid; schlocky dialogue, improbable character development, shitty audio track, poor editing, etc. Man this movie sucked, perhaps the best parts were lost in translation.

Five Pounds A Year?

See if you can find me. Answer in the comments.

U2 Pride

Another Home Invasion In Connecticut

Two elderly ladies sharing Sunday coffee were assaulted at home by a convicted child molester paroled by the Connecticut Department of Corrections. One was shot in the head and left for dead and is recovering at a local hospital, the other was murdered and dumped in gravel pit.

At the risk of stating the bleeding obvious, why do we need a Department Of Corrections if they continue to release rapists and murderers who continue to rape and murder? Any group of six people picked at random couldn't make worse decisions than the alleged experts at the DOC. Somebody needs to do some explaining, better yet, find out who is responsible and shit can the lot of them.

At the very, very least keep those who have demonstrated their malicious intent behind bars. If this means building new prisons, so be it. I'd rather have an effective new prison than dozens of ineffectual parole officers and murdered families.

Christopher Hitchens On Hillary Clinton's Bosnian Lies

I think Hitch expected more of Clinton than I did, he's certainly takes Hillary to task for her latest mendacity:

Yet instead of preserving a polite reticence about this, or at least an appropriate reserve, Sen. Clinton now has the obscene urge to claim the raped and slaughtered people of Bosnia as if their misery and death were somehow to be credited to her account! Words begin to fail one at this point. Is there no such thing as shame? Is there no decency at last? Let the memory of the truth, and the exposure of the lie, at least make us resolve that no Clinton ever sees the inside of the White House again.

Read the whole thing.

Five Film Reviews in Brief: The Good German, The Lives of Others, The Good Shepherd, Black Book and Joyeux Noël

• The Good German with Tobey Maquire, Kate Blanchett and George Clooney. A decent film, well worth your time if only to watch Kate Blanchett, who seems like a goddess among men in this WW2 drama. Poor George Clooney acts like he's George Clooney trying to act in big time movie, it doesn't really fly. See him in Michael Clayton, he's perfect for that role. Tobey Maquire plays quite the little bastard, he does it surprisely well.
• The Lives of Others with a bunch of fine German actors you probably never heard of. There's a reason why this film was somewhat widely distributed in the Anglo-sphere, it's an excellent, excellent film, a must see. The late Ulrich Mühe plays an East German STASI agent monitoring the lives of others, a playwright played by Sebastian Koch and his actress girlfriend played by Martina Gedeck. Set in the GDR before the fall, everyone is watched and a harmless joke could cost you your career. Big brother is listening, but why? Watch Ulrich Mühe's performance carefully, it's a study in less is so much more.
• The Good Shepherd with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie and Robert Deniro in Robert Deniro's study of the CIA as experienced by a promising young Yale man, Damon. Well worth your time. I can't believe I used to think of Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as the same sort of actors, Damon proves himself about 87.5 notches above Afflecks finest work in this role. Coincidentally, Martina Gedeck has a minor part in this film, look for her.
• Black Book or Zwartboek by Paul Verhoeven, I know, but try to forget everything you know about Show Girls and Starship Troopers, this is his best film, that I have ever seen, by far. It depicts the struggles of a young Jewish girl, played very well by Carice van Houten in Nazi occupied Holland. Sebastian Koch from the Lives of Others plays her Nazi boyfriend. An engaging and complicated plot, well executed. By all means see it.
• Joyeux Noël, I wanted to like this movie I really did, but I didn't. It's about an implausible, impromptu truce between German, French and Scottish troops on the Western Front during WW1. You would think that the fact the story is based on actual events would make the story more believable, but it didn't. That's not the real problem, the film maker took pains to show how insane it is to shoot a man after you shared a meal, a smoke and a soccer match with him. Give your audience some credit, the Christmas eve soldier's truce of 1914 and it's subsequent rescission and repercussions are perhaps the greatest and most easily demonstrable condemnation of senseless war in the last 200 years. A less maudlin approach would have served the subject matter better.

Spiders On Various Drugs

The Pixies' Gouge Away In Haiku Form

You can cut his hair

and gouge out his eyes, but he

can still kill you all.

by Earl

Read all of them.

A Part Of Me Really Likes This

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton adviser James Carville is refusing to apologize for comparing New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to Judas.
Carville made the comparison to The New York Times after Richardson, once a member of former President Bill Clinton's Cabinet, endorsed Clinton rival Barack
Obama last week for the Democratic presidential nomination. Carville called it
an "act of betrayal," and pointed out that it came around Holy Week.
"Mr. Richardson's endorsement came right around the anniversary of the day when Judas sold out (Jesus) for 30 pieces of silver, so I think the timing is appropriate,
if ironic," he said.

OK, I admit it. I completely dig it that foaming at the mouth asshats like Carville are going to go at their liberal brethren with hammer and tongs.

Clinton Misspoke

WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign said she "misspoke" last week
when she said she had landed under sniper fire during a trip she took as first lady to Bosnia in March 1996. The Obama campaign suggested it was a deliberate exaggeration on Clinton's part.

So when a Democrat lies it's misspeaking. When a Republican president goes to war on faulty intelligence, which every intelligence agency in the world believed at the time, it's a lie.
The liberal main stream media is an enemy of our republic.

As Sure As Day Follows Night

Muslim baptized by pope says life in danger
A Muslim author and critic of Islamic fundamentalism who was baptized a Catholic by Pope Benedict said on Sunday Islam is "physiologically violent" and he is now in great danger because of his conversion.

Who could have possibly foreseen this eventuality?

The Obama Speech, Take 2

I disagree with the Dude. It wasn't a great speech. Barack Obama certainly is an above average orator but a great speech would have required Mr. Obama to say great things. He did not.

And as for believing him, what's not to believe? I believe he's not going to disown his minister. I also believe he truly, sincerely wants to change the subject. Does anyone doubt he'd much rather talk about Geraldine Ferraro or his own white grandmother than answer questions about his long association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright?

For a voter like me, Senator Obama offers one thing: a candidacy that supposedly trancends race. A few days ago in the Wall Street Journal  Shelby Steele asked, "How does one 'transcend' race in this church?" The answer is, you don't.

Mr. Steele continued, "What could he have been thinking? Of course he wasn't thinking. He was driven by insecurity, by a need to 'be black' despite his biracial background. And so fellow-traveling with a little race hatred seemed a small price to pay for a more secure racial identity." Mr. Steele has written a book about Mr. Obama that describes him as a "bargainer". (Read the article or, better yet, Mr. Steele's new book to see what he means.)

Maybe, probably, this whole post-racial thing was a false hope. Maybe, probably, Barack Obama was destined to disappoint us. The race issue couldn't so easily be solved by voting for the first African-American President in history.

I was thinking the other day, "We could use another MLK right about now." Of course, we could have used another MLK just about every day since he was assassinated almost 40 years ago. And it's probably unfair to Senator Obama to compare him to Dr. King but there it is.

Martin Luther King Jr. made great speeches. Senator Obama - not so great.

The Obama Speech

Great speech, well delivered, but I just don't believe him.
Barack Obama has listened to and supported Jeremiah Wright for twenty years and it's just now that he disavows some of the hateful things Wright has said? Is this because of some change of heart or is it naked political necessity?
We do need to have a national discussion on race, but it needs to be conducted by sincere people who have the best interests of the entire nation at heart. As it stands, Obama is not one of those people.

"Obamaganda"

Gerard Vanderleun explains.

As Glenn Reynolds Would Say... "Heh"

Client 9, Eliott Spitzer

Top Ten angles of the Spitzer Sex Scandal:

1. The hypocrisy. This man made a career of sending criminals to prison.
2. Stand by Me. There's Mrs. Spitzer hanging on to her to man and the perks therewith like grim death.
3. Hillary Clinton. Where have we seen the spouse done wrong hold on like grim death for the perks therewith before? 2008 may be the fruition of all that bitter anger.
4. GOP/DEM divide. Dems are apt to forgive, GOPs want his head. Fill in your own reasons why.
5. Sex, Seeeeex. Sex sells papers and ad time. If you don't want your screw up on national TV and in the Times and tabloids, do something boring like 403b fraud.
6. Feminist. Have ax, have grindstone. Yet another powerful horny toad gets it caught in his own zipper, expect the stout ankle crowd to have some unimaginative commentary.
7. Spitzer was an ass to begin with. This will be a somewhat rare angle. Those of you who have been paying attention don't really need a new reason to strongly dislike Spitzer.
8. The other woman. It's only a matter of time before the working girl in question becomes a household name, perhaps even a celebrity of sorts.
9. Legalization of adult consensual, cash based, behavior. One day, not now, not here.
10. Were There Others? Other working girls, other occasions, other prominent and powerful men?

Chicken, Egg, Chicken, Egg, Etc.......

Are creation and evolution incompatible? I never thought so. They seem to me to be answers to two different questions. Evolution answers pretty convincingly, but far from perfectly, how creatures came to be the way they are. Creation answers pretty convincingly, but far from perfectly, how there could be anything to evolve to begin with.
A creationist and an evolutionist go to a museum. The creationist looks at a painting of the world and says "Wow, what an incredible artist!". An evolutionist looks at the same painting and says "Look here at this brilliant brush work, the amazing design which took tens of thousands of millenia there's no artist, just an inexorable process from which the best survives from the average".
Pretty ham handed I grant you, but dispute these arguments if you can:

Some things are moved.
Everything that is moved is moved by a mover.
An infinite regress of movers is impossible.
Therefore, there is an unmoved mover from whom all motion proceeds.
This mover is what we call God.

Some things are caused.
Everything that is caused is caused by something else.
An infinite regress of causation is impossible.
Therefore, there must be an uncaused cause of all caused things.
This causer is what we call God.

Rush Limbaugh Wins One For Hillary

Whoever said politics make strange bedfellows probably had something like this in mind.

Give Me Shelter: Mick Jagger Targeted For Assassination

Who knew Hells Angels shouldn't be trifled with?

A documentary covering the history of the FBI set to air on Britain's BBC Radio 4 has made public for the first time revelations that legendary rocker Mick Jagger was once the target of a failed assassination attempt.

Update: Related news that is apparently not satire.

Et Tu Allemania

I often think that we are are not the men our parents and grandparents were. Thank God the Germans are fatter and more useless than we are:

Berlin - German soldiers are overweight, smoke too much and do not engage in enough sports, according to a report published Tuesday by the parliamentary commissioner for the defence force. "Male and female soldiers are too fat, partake little in sports and pay too little attention to what they eat," Reinhold Robbe said in his official report to parliament. He called the situation "shocking."

Most of them, 70%, are smokers too. Our military after seeing soldiers huffing to hump gear up the hills in Grenada enacted fairly strict fitness standards. Hell, even in the Air Force we had to run from time to time. Of course this was on a level track, in running shoes, once a year, but still.

None of this really matters because the Germans are unlikely to actually fight any time soon.

I especially liked the binary solo

Flight Of The Conchords - The Humans Are Dead



(link via Technorama)

Gerald McBoing-Boing

Tomorrow my son's school celebrates Dr. Seuss' birthday, which is actually today. I have an appointment to read Gerald McBoing-Boing or reasonable facsimile to his class @ 9:15 a.m.. Wish me luck, five year olds can be a tough crowd.

UPDATE: It went well. I showed up a little early, just as the last parent reader was leaving and sat in front of the crowd of five year old students. El Segundo and La Princesa sat at my feet and spent the entire morning tossing elbows that would make a NHL defensemen proud. I read about the boy Boing-Boing and because that went quicker than expected and the next parent hadn't shown up yet I read Imogene's Antlers as well. It was fun, kindergartners are adorable but there's no way in hell I could do it for a living.

Gloria Steinem Stumps For Clinton

Gloria, glad to see you're still alive and bat-shite crazy as ever::

• “Suppose John McCain had been Joan McCain and Joan McCain had got captured, shot down and been a POW for eight years. [The media would ask], ‘What did you do wrong to get captured? What terrible things did you do while you were there as a captive for eight years?’” Steinem said, to laughter from the audience.
• But she also opined that “a majority of Americans want redemption for racism, for our terrible destructive racist past and so see a vote for Obama as redemptive.” Then, using a term for the mass killing of women, she added, “I don’t think as many want redemption for the gynocide.”

An American service man tortured in Vietnam is funny, funny stuff. Gynocide? Who knew?

Alien Scare

Roommate Alien Prank Goes Bad - Watch more free videos

Just for you Scooter.

The View From My Window...

I know. I know. Everybody's sick of winter. Still is awfully pretty.

I took this shot this morning. It's snowing again as I'm writing this.

My Chosen Line Of Work

How we got into the sub-prime mortgage mess, demonstrated by stick figures.
Anyone in the industry who acts surprised by this debacle is either stupid, lying or both. As the stick figures show, a major assumption in the underwriting of these loans and the securities that back them, was that real estate prices would continue to rise. I'm no economist but it seems that when you make credit super available and relatively inexpensive, the price of the commodity being purchased will rise based on the excessive demand alone.
Last October the sub-prime house of sand began to collapse as lenders either closed their doors or stopped doing ALT A and sub-prime deals. All of a sudden homes that had three or four buyers bidding against each other only had one. Or none. Who would have though it possible?
Hat Tip Jonah Goldberg

Dubya Congratulates the Champs

Irish Joke

Two Irish hunters went on holiday to Canada and got a pilot to fly them to the wilderness to hunt moose. They managed to bag 6. As they were loading the plane to return, the pilot said the plane could take only 4 moose.

The two lads objected strongly.

"Last year we shot six. The pilot let us take them all and he had the same plane as yours."

Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded. However, even on full power, the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down.

Somehow, surrounded by the moose bodies, Paddy, Mick & the pilot survived the crash. After climbing out of the wreckage, Paddy asked Mick, "Any idea where we are?"

Mick looked around. "I think we're pretty close to where we crashed last year."

Racism At Planned Parenthood

Don't look now Planned Parenthood, but your eugenicist past is still showing:

Idaho donor: The abortion—I can give money specifically for a black baby, that would be the purpose?
PP Rep: Absolutely. If you wanted to designate that your gift be used to help an African-American woman in need, then we would certainly make sure that the gift was earmarked for that purpose.
Idaho donor: Great, because I really faced trouble with affirmative action, and I don’t want my kids to be disadvantaged against black kids. I just had a baby; I want to put it in his name.
PP Rep: Yes, absolutely.
Idaho donor: And we don’t, you know we just think, the less black kids out there the better.
PP Rep: Understandable, understandable.
Idaho donor: Right. I want to protect my son, so he can get into college
PP Rep: Alright. Excuse my hesitation, this is the first time I’ve had a donor call and make this kind of request, so I’m excited, and want to make sure I don’t leave anything out.

Hat Tip: Brothers Judd

Three Schools of Philosophy

An excellent post by Richard Vigilante on the Buckley legacy over at The Corner:

Jacques Maritain famously said that there were never more than three schools of philosophy:

The idealists who believe that getting the truth was easy. These are the conventional liberals, whom Bill gently mocked.

The nominalists, the Sophists, who deny truth altogether; these are the hard Left,
the true enemy he rallied us against.

And finally the realists, who accept that the truth is out there but is fiercely difficult to lock down.

Soccer Player Dresses As Hitler

How do things like this happen? Did a conversation like this occur?

Hans: Hey Andre are you going to the Grand Final ceremony?

Andre: Yeah, I think so.

Hans: Is it a formal thing?

Andre: I don't know, I'll probably dress up like Hitler.

Hans: What?

Andre: I'll probably dress up like Hitler, I have a Hitler outfit I've been meaning to wear out.

Hans: Is it a costume party?

Andre: Not that I know of, I just wanna dress like Hitler.

Hans: Do you think that's a good idea?

Andre: Why not, it's a great outfit, it fit's real well and besides Hitler was like sixty years ago.

Hans: Would you mind if I wore my Heydrich ensemble?

William F. Buckley Jr. Has Died

Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that my favorite and perhaps only William F. Buckley Jr. quote is when he said "Life can't be all bad when for ten dollars you can buy all the Beethoven sonatas and listen to them for ten years. " While the quote itself has little or nothing to do with the great man's life long vocation of promoting conservatism, it contains something rarer than brilliant political acumen for which he is so fondly remembered. There, in brief, is truth and beauty and the appreciation of both. There are those who will tell you that we live in dour times, that there has been nothing to be proud of, that we are surrounded by ugliness. William F. Buckley Jr. knew better. We live in the best possible time and in the best possible place, if we have the wisdom, courage and strength to make it so. It begins with knowing that despite whatever else may plague you, there are beautiful things readily available to assuage and lift you.

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

DailyTech - Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling
Whoops :

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or
down.

Obama: Clueless on Iraq

Barack Obama has brilliantly managed to say next to nothing on his way to defeating the not so inevitable Hillary Clinton on his way to clinching the Democratic nomination. He should stick to that, because he's clearly out of his mind when he says:

• That Al Qaeda wasn't in Iraq until we invaded.
• We need to bolster NATO in Afghanistan with additional American troops - Why don't we DEMAND that our useless NATO allies actually fight? Obama thinks their resistance is because we "blundered" in Iraq? Did they say that Senator or did you? Couldn't it be that they're just a bunch of poltroons?
• If Al Qaeda builds a base in Iraq??? Where has this man been the last four years?

Hillary couldn't attack Obama from the right, McCain is under no such limitation. I wonder how Obama will fare when hope and change, change and hope no longer cut it?

It's also ironic that a man who platform is entirely focused on the future, or so he says, can't get his agile Harvard mind around the fact that the war in Iraq is reality. Whether or not we should be there in the first place could not matter less, we're there now. What would he do as president to ensure the best possible outcome for the US and our interests?

Do You Think I Need To Get Out?

Obama In A Turban

That's it, now I won't vote for him. The once inevitable Clinton candidacy has really screwed the pooch if this is the sort of crap they think will work. Either that or people are much more stupid than I imagine.

Run Ralph, Run!

Ralph Nader is running for president, bwahahahahaha?

A Shit Sandwich

A woman kills herself after aborting her twins. Who is responsible for this feast of despair and death? There's no shortage of likely candidates. A better question might be, why wasn't there one person who could of done something, could of said something, could of offered some encouragement or some bit of hope to forestall this orgy of despair? Are you that person?

The Best Argument For Drinking

From Modern Drunkard Magazine:

What the Drys don’t seem able to grasp is that a drinker can walk into a bar, and a handful of transactions later, attain the same level of euphoria that the teetotaler would have to strangle a half dozen or so kittens to achieve.

O.C.M.S. - Wagon Wheel

Voice, bass, fiddle, guitar, banjo and guitjo, yeah I'd call that a string band.

John Kerry's Helicopter Incident

A helicopter carrying three us senators, Democrats John Kerry and Joe Biden and Republican (In Name Only) Chuck Hagel made an emergency landing in the mountains of Afghanistan this morning because of a snowstorm.

No one was hurt, but somehow John Kerry and only John Kerry was awarded yet another Purple Heart, three Air Medals and a South West Asia campaign ribbon.

When asked for comment, Joe Biden in a completely original, extemporaneous remark said that "We had nothing to fear, but fear itself." Chuck Hagel agreed wholeheartedly at first, then upon of further reflection with his pollster decided to disagree in a principled stand.

More Stupidity

Speaking of Antics

Read about the whole story, spring training is here "with its pregame ballyhoo, antics, rhubarbs, scheming, luck; its look as if little or nothing is going on."

Oh Boy

Believe it or not my kids think this is clever, but it's very possible that they're just humoring me.

Sam Adams Is Sharing Hops

This sounds like a very decent thing to do.

I Got The Fever

That's right, it's a 19 inch German Brown caught on a size 12 Hares Ear Sulphur "Usual" at a secret location last May. He was the only trout I kept last year and he was delicious.
I need to go fishing.
The other night I spent six hours inventorying my rods, reels and spools. I even created a color coded Excel spreadsheet. The next night I replaced all my backings, as if I'll ever see one, and cleaned all my lines.

Secret Prejudice, Overt Stupidity

And it's not just race. A large and growing number of psychologists now argue that a welter of prejudices are simmering just below the surface of society: prejudices against many ethnic groups, against women, gays, the elderly, and outsiders like the homeless and drug addicts. The big question is whether these unconscious animosities are potent enough to actually shape our actions, to make us do things we ourselves find shameful. A new study suggests that, unhappily, the answer is yes.

Would you hire a drug addict? Let a homeless person to baby sit your kids? No? Then you sir/madam are worse than Hitler. I joke of course. Disliking someone because of their parents place of birth or the color of their skin without any knowledge of their character is prejudice. Disliking or avoiding somebody who continually does something untoward is not, it's common sense. I think Martin Luther King may have described making this distinction as "...not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Continued drug abuse and homelessness are character issues. Being born Hungarian is not. You would think that Wray Herbert, the author of the tripe above, would know the difference.