Hillary & The Virgin: Oh, The Hillarity!!

It's so nice to see Obama's designated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stick her foot in her mouth ... and so badly, too. I wonder where her aides were that should have properly briefed her before this embarrassing encounter with our neighbors to the south -- Mexico (emphasis added -- source):

Hillary Clinton Leaves Flowers for Our Lady of Guadalupe, asks 'Who painted it?'

Mexico City, Mexico, Mar 27, 2009 / 04:59 pm (CNA).- During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe was miraculously imprinted by Mary on the tilma, or cloak, of St. Juan Diego in 1531. The image has numerous unexplainable phenomena, such as the appearance on Mary’s eyes of those present in the room when the tilma was opened and the image’s lack of decay.

Mrs. Clinton was received on Thursday at 8:15 a.m. by the rector of the Basilica, Msgr. Diego Monroy.

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Clinton then told Msgr. Monroy that she had previously visited the old Basilica in 1979, when the new one was still under construction.

After placing a bouquet of white flowers by the image, Mrs. Clinton went to the quemador –the open air area at the Basilica where the faithful light candles- and lit a green candle.

Leaving the basilica half an hour later, Mrs. Clinton told some of the Mexicans gathered outside to greet her, “you have a marvelous virgin!”

This evening Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to receive the highest award given by Planned Parenthood Federation of America -- the Margaret Sanger Award, named for the organization's founder, a noted eugenicist. The award will be presented at a gala event in Houston, Texas.

I snagged this from Babalú Blog, with him commenting:

Imagine if George W. Bush had done this.

Of course it doesn't matter if you believe in miracles. The fact is that "the smartest woman in America" should have been briefed about what the Virgin of Guadalupe represents to her devotees before injecting her into this situation.

Like I said, if Bush had done this it would have been listed as reason number 999 that he was dumb. By the way the MSM is ignoring this latest faux pas by Hillary.

I would like to point out the irony found in the final lines of the article: after placing flowers at the virgin's "painting", nitwit Hillary thereafter received an award from Planned Parenthood -- its Margaret Sanger award. I bet Margaret would have been in favor of aborting or sterilizing as many of those Mexicans as possible ....

It seems Hillary has really been burning up the runways with her whirlwind tour. Earlier in March, Hillary embarrassed US again ...

Some Friends: Hillary Clinton undercuts the
State Department's wwn human rights reporting

SECRETARY OF STATE Hillary Rodham Clinton continues to devalue and undermine the U.S. diplomatic tradition of human rights advocacy. On her first foreign trip, to Asia, she was dismissive about raising human rights concerns with China's communist government, saying "those issues can't interfere" with economic, security or environmental matters. In last week's visit to the Middle East and Europe, she undercut the State Department's own reporting regarding two problematic American allies: Egypt and Turkey.

According to State's latest report on Egypt, issued Feb. 25, "the government's respect for human rights remained poor" during 2008 "and serious abuses continued in many areas." It cited torture by security forces and a decline in freedom of the press, association and religion. Ms. Clinton was asked about those conclusions during an interview she gave to the al-Arabiya satellite network in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Her reply contained no expression of concern about the deteriorating situation. "We issue these reports on every country," she said. "We hope that it will be taken in the spirit in which it is offered, that we all have room for improvement.

...

... the State Department has documented, Turkey is retreating on freedom of speech. In Egypt, the human rights situation also is getting worse rather than better. By minimizing those facts, Ms. Clinton is doing a disservice to her own department -- and sending a message to rulers around the world that their abuses won't be taken seriously by this U.S. administration.

(Go here for the rest of the article.)

Boy, this administration continues to fill me with such dreams of Hope and Change. I feel warm and fuzzy all over. If I keep chanting it over and over, it will happen ... right?

Hope and change ... hope and change ... hope and change ... hope and change ... DOH!!!!!!

Obama's Growing Tax Burden: Now Let's Add Health Care!!

Ah, good ol' Barack was on TV the other night addressing his dear tax payers. I had the TV on, but I just couldn't focus ... I'm groggy from all the gloom and doom and the parroting of socialist slogans I hear from his minions. Our Big Government is destined to become even bigger.

I am angry at all this "stimulus" bunch of nonsense going on. Our politicians are going too far, overburdening those of us who have to foot the bill for all their over zealousness in "rescuing" the economy, bailing out immoral banks, investment firms, and the "innocent victims" who got themselves backed into a corner with their mortgages. (Well, I know there are some genuine "victims." I'm sarcastically referring to the ones that were just plain greedy and stupid and are now crying foul."

Now, Obama is harping on our nation's health care system. How much more do he and his cronies expect us taxpayers bend over and keep taking it from them? Terence Jeffrey of CNSNews made the observation that during Obama's speech, the President used the words "investment" or "invest" 18 times. Here are some of Jeffrey's remarks:

At different points in the press conference, Obama used forms of the words “invest” or “investment” to describe government spending on education, “renewable sources of energy,” health care reform, “health information technologies,” “American’s capacity for ingenuity and innovation,” science, technology and infrastructure. He referred to some of these items repeatedly as targets of the sort of government “investment” he wants to make.

In the beginning of his op piece, Jeffrey makes an excellent point of emphasizing the true meaning of "investment":

Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary the first meaning listed for the word “investment” is “the outlay of money usually for income or profit,” and the meaning of the word “invest” is “to commit (money) in order to earn a financial return.”

The idea is that investing money is something private individuals and businesses do on the calculation that they will get back more money than they put into a particular enterprise.

So, "health care" has now joined the list of things we Americans need to add to The Big Tax Bill. We're already starting to hear the same blah-blah-blah we heard back during the previous election when all the Michael Moore's and Liberals were on the bandwagon, trying to convince us to go "European" with universal health care.

The other day, I found a great posting over at Maggie's Farm. Check this out ... (emphasis added) ...

Top Ten Reasons For ObamaCare Are Based On False Information

George Bernard Shaw warned “Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance.” The major overhaul of American health care pursued by President Obama and his supporters is based on many false premises and is excessive and likely to do more harm than good. Tuning up and improvements already always dynamically occurs. Instead, ObamaCare is aimed at dramatically changing one-sixth of the US economy in ways that are untested or tested and found wanting, primarily involving huge increases in government direction of health care.

The details of ObamaCare are largely being left to Congress, the same body that stuffs the federal budget with earmarks, waste, and other programs that are not requested. ObamaCare is premised on claims for drastic changes in health care and major increases in government programs being necessary. Those claims are largely specious.

Below the fold, the top ten specious premises for ObamaCare are discussed:

1. Comparing US Health Care To Other Developed Countries
2. US Health Care Spending Is More Than We Can Afford
3. Reform Overhaul Will Yield Major Savings
4. Increased Evidence-Based Medicine And Health Information Technology Will Significantly Improve Care and Reduce Costs
5. Present Administrative Costs And Insurer Profits Are Too High
6. US Consumer Dissatisfaction Requires Drastic Health Care Changes
7. Health Care Costs Are So High They Are A Major Cause Of Personal Bankruptcy
8. The Number Of Uninsured Is So Large That Drastic Health Care Changes Are Necessary
9. More Preventive Care Will Better Serve Consumers And Save Costs
10. Health Care Consumers Are Being Served By Drastic Health Care Changes

(More could be added, such as that government restraints on prescription drug prices will not impede incentives for innovations, but they are so transparently false that the list below dwells on other ObamaCare premises more misleading.)

Maggie then continues with a point-by-point dressing down of those 10 fallacies that are so blindly recited and repeated by "the experts." Here are some excerpts, although the article goes into much greater detail:

1. Comparing US Health Care To Other Developed Countries: Those pushing for government-run health care are fond of comparing the US unfavorably to other developed countries with heavier government-run or directed systems. Actually, the US is more successful on comparative costs, efficiency of resource use, and outcome.
...

2. US Health Care Spending Is More Than We Can Afford: As it has become more evidenced that the US does not compare unfavorably, the push for heavier government involvement has shifted toward saying we can’t afford the current and future costs. The affordability claim is exaggerated. We can afford more than previously, have chosen to, and benefited.

3. Reform Overhaul Will Yield Major Savings: Price Waterhouse analyzed the primary cost drivers in health care. Leading the pack are new technologies, public demand for broader coverage and access, and defensive medicine. ObamaCare is not proposing restraints on lawsuits, tort lawyers being a major constituency. Health care consumers’ demands for fast access to the latest and best is not contradicted.

...

4. Increased Evidence-Based Medicine And Health Information Technology Will Significantly Improve Care and Reduce Costs: ObamaCare proposes major increases in the use of evidence-based medicine. There is a strong case for increased analyses of the effectiveness of alternative treatments to have more evidence-based (also called performance-based or comparative-effectiveness) medicine. The above Price Waterhouse report cites a study that estimates as much as 30% of health care spending is excessive due to overuse, misuse and waste. It cites another study that defensive medicine increases health care spending by 10%. However, if major benefits are to emerge, they will be very expensive to find, seriously troubling and possibly dangerous to administer, and a long time coming. We should move very carefully and not faddishly rush pell-mell into this sphere.

...

5. Present Administrative Costs And Insurer Profits Are Too High: The above Price Waterhouse analysis finds 86% of premiums being paid out for claims and an additional 5% for consumer services like prevention, wellness, care coordination, education, and information systems. Government compliance and reporting requirements cost another 6%. That leaves 3% for profits and reserves needed to generate added investments.

...

7. Health Care Costs Are So High They Are A Major Cause Of Personal Bankruptcy: President Obama publicly claimed last week that “The cost of health care now causes a bankruptcy in America every thirty seconds." ABC News Director of Polling examined that claim and found it “simply unsupportable.” Examination of the basis for Obama’s claim and of other studies found the numbers vastly overstated.

...

8. The Number Of Uninsured Is So Large That Drastic Health Care Changes Are Necessary: That about 16% in the US are uninsured is repeated as cause for universal coverage schemes to cover them that at the same time grossly changes the health care system and costs affecting the other 84%. Even if the other 84% were not negatively affected, the uninsured count is actually an overblown statistic.

...

9. More Preventive Care Will Better Serve Consumers And Save Costs: The February 2008 New England Journal of Medicine contains a review of 599 peer-reviewed articles between 2000-2005. The conclusion: “Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money [and health] but in other cases can add to health care costs….[and] also sidesteps the question of whether such measures are generally more promising and efficient than the treatment of existing conditions.”

...

10. Health Care Consumers Are Being Served By Drastic Health Care Changes: News reports of Obama administration health care parleys say that consumers are at the table. In fact, there are various interest groups each protecting the interests and costs of their members, usually at odds with each other. The interest groups’ before and behind curtain maneuvering is intense and complex, and much of what they’re telling the public misleading of intent or outcomes. Not nefarious in a free country, but each is angling to profit and enlarge from a bigger pie of spending. The only reliable measure of consumer preference is in general polling which, as shown above (point 6), has consumers not dissatisfied with their present arrangements.

...

I highly recommend reading the article and doing some research on your own.

Get the facts. Just don't blindly drink the Kool Aid. I'm afraid we taxpayers are going to be pulling even more money out of our as ... er, wallets!

Parrot Saves Choking Child

Yep, I'm a softy when it comes to animals. They are so cool. I prefer the furry, four-legged kind, especially of the canine persuasion. I revel in stories of dogs who do heroic things or are trained for special needs individuals. I was shocked to read this story -- about a parrot saving a child who was choking by alerting the girl's mother. I never give much thought to our feathered friends, finding them a bit "uncuddly" with their claws and beaks. (However, I do loooove raptors -- eagles, hawks, owls, etc.) But, what a hero this little guy is!

Check this out from MSNBC:

Parrot gets award for warning about choking tot
Willie repeatedly yelled 'Mama, baby' and flapped wings
to alert babysitter

DENVER - A parrot whose cries of alarm alerted his owner when a little girl choked on her breakfast has been honored as a hero.

Willie, a Quaker parrot, has been given the local Red Cross chapter's Animal Lifesaver Award.

In November, Willie's owner, Megan Howard, was baby-sitting for a toddler. Howard left the room and the little girl, Hannah, started to choke on her breakfast.

Willie repeatedly yelled "Mama, baby" and flapped his wings, and Howard returned in time to find the girl already turning blue.

Howard saved Hannah by performing the Heimlich maneuver but said Willie "is the real hero."

"The part where she turned blue is always when my heart drops no matter how many times I've heard it," Hannah's mother, Samantha Kuusk, told KCNC-TV. "My heart drops in my stomach and I get all teary eyed."

Willie got his award during a "Breakfast of Champions" event Friday attended by Gov. Bill Ritter and Mayor John Hickenlooper.

I've heard that parrots are quite intelligent. I think this is a case in point!

Tea Party Goes Nationwide on April 15th (Tax Day, Of Course!)

St. Louis' talk radio station 97.1 FM sent out an e-mail today with information about the upcoming Tea Party -- it's goin' nationwide, baby! Breitbart TV will be covering the events from noon to the end -- coast-to-coast! So, they're looking for people with camcorders, such as HD Flipcams, and a laptop or netbook with wireless access cards. (Email bill.hennessy@stlouisteaparty.com if you help out with the tech aspects.)

Here's the info from 97.1 FM ...

Tea-Minus 24 Days: Save the Nation!

22 March 2009

TAX DAY TEA PARTY

KIENER PLAZA | 6:30 PM | WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2009

Only 24 days until the largest, nationwide, conservative protest in a generation! Join your neighbors and family in preserving the Republic, cutting taxes, reducing federal spending, and destroying Obama’s socialist plans.

No doubt, you’ve heard Senator Judd Gregg’s warnings about Obama’s proposed budget. If not, here are some highlights:

“The practical implications of this is bankruptcy for the United States,” Gregg said of the Obama’s administration’s recently released budget blueprint. — CNN

“It is as if you were flying an airplane and the gas light came on and it said ‘you 15 minutes of gas left’ and the pilot said ‘we’re not going to worry about that, we’re going to fly for another two hours.’

Of course, we already knew this. We also knew that the United States of America was never supposed to be a nanny state in which the President personally set salary limits, mortgage contract terms, and stock prices. But President Obama is using the economic downturn caused by government meddling in mortgages as an excuse to take over most of the economy.

Stop Him Now!

Our choice is stark: stop Barack Obama by wiping out his political capital, or live in a socialist country. If the laws and regulations Obama proposes make it to the books, if fills dozens of federal court vacancies with leftist judges, it will take several generations to restore the republic. The judges will simply order socialism from the bench.

The way to stop him is before us: destroy Obama’s political capital. We can do this through the Tea Party movement. As our events grow in size and seriousness, top political leaders from both parties will abandon Barack Obama. In their desire to hold onto their Congressional seats, these tax-and-spend fiscal liberals will start making mistakes–mistakes we can exploit to take back the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2010 or 2012.

Barack Obama is the Target

A movement must have a human target. Like it or not, abstract ideas like “liberty” and “freedom” work only with the converted. The large population that pays little attention must have a human face to rally for or against, not political theory.

Barack Obama is that face. He is the first socialist president in American history. For a decade, Obama has made no secret about his disdain for the Constitution and his desire to overturn the notion of limited government. He has earned our scorn and anger. Kathleen Parker points out the absurdity of Obama’s administration in today’s Washington Post:

there is a carnival air of unseriousness and grotesquery loose upon the land. Life has become one grand, comic burlesque, a vaudevillian game show where plumbers are journalists, war heroes twitter and the president hits the late-night circuit in the midst of crisis.

Join the Tea Party Movement

Come to the St. Louis Tea Party Protest at Kiener Plaza at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 15. Bring you neighbors, co-workers, and kids. Bring your friends. Help them to understand that our survival as a nation hangs in the balance.

Orlando Tea Party Draws Over 4,000 Angry Taxpayers!

“We’re really scared about what’s happening in our country,” said Debby Whisenand, 71, of Largo in Pinellas County. She waved a sign that read “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money” on one side, and “You can’t blame Bush anymore” on the other.

If we fail to destroy Obama’s political capital, our experiment in government of the people, by the people, and for the people will perish. You don’t want that on you conscience, and your children don’t deserve what might come after.

Toxic Assets: Our Politicians!!

Check out George Will's opinion piece in today's Washington Post (emphasis added):

The Toxic Assets We Elected

By George F. Will
Tuesday, March 24, 2009; A13

With the braying of 328 yahoos -- members of the House of Representatives who voted for retroactive and punitive use of the tax code to confiscate the legal earnings of a small, unpopular group -- still reverberating, the Obama administration yesterday invited private-sector investors to become business partners with the capricious and increasingly anti-constitutional government. This latest plan to unfreeze the financial system came almost half a year after Congress shoveled $700 billion into the Troubled Assets Relief Program, $325 billion of which has been spent without purchasing any toxic assets.

TARP funds have, however, semi-purchased, among many other things, two automobile companies (and, last week, some of their parts suppliers), which must amaze Sweden. That unlikely tutor of America regarding capitalist common sense has said, through a Cabinet minister, that the ailing Saab automobile company is on its own: "The Swedish state is not prepared to own car factories."

Another embarrassing auditor of American misgovernment is China, whose premier has rightly noted the unsustainable trajectory of America's high-consumption, low-savings economy. He has also decorously but clearly expressed sensible fears that his country's $1 trillion-plus of dollar-denominated assets might be devalued by America choosing, as banana republics have done, to use inflation for partial repudiation of improvidently incurred debts.

From Mexico, America is receiving needed instruction about fundamental rights and the rule of law. A leading Democrat trying to abolish the right of workers to secret ballots in unionization elections is California's Rep. George Miller who, with 15 other Democrats, in 2001 admonished Mexico: "The secret ballot is absolutely necessary in order to ensure that workers are not intimidated into voting for a union they might not otherwise choose." Last year, Mexico's highest court unanimously affirmed for Mexicans the right that Democrats want to strip from Americans.

Congress, with the approval of a president who has waxed censorious about his predecessor's imperious unilateralism in dealing with other nations, has shredded the North American Free Trade Agreement. Congress used the omnibus spending bill to abolish a program that was created as part of a protracted U.S. stall regarding compliance with its obligation to allow Mexican long-haul trucks on U.S. roads. The program, testing the safety of Mexican trucking, became an embarrassment because it found Mexican trucking at least as safe as U.S. trucking. Mexico has resorted to protectionism -- tariffs on many U.S. goods -- in retaliation for Democrats' protection of the Teamsters union.

NAFTA, like all treaties, is the "supreme law of the land." So says the Constitution. It is, however, a cobweb constraint on a Congress that, ignoring the document's unambiguous stipulations that the House shall be composed of members chosen "by the people of the several states," is voting to pretend that the District of Columbia is a state. Hence it supposedly can have a Democratic member of the House and, down the descending road, two Democratic senators. Congress rationalizes this anti-constitutional willfulness by citing the Constitution's language that each house shall be the judge of the "qualifications" of its members and that Congress can "exercise exclusive legislation" over the District. What, then, prevents Congress from giving House and Senate seats to Yellowstone National Park, over which Congress exercises exclusive legislation? Only Congress's capacity for embarrassment. So, not much.

The Federal Reserve, by long practice rather than law, has been insulated from politics in performing its fundamental function of preserving the currency as a store of value -- preventing inflation. Now, however, by undertaking hitherto uncontemplated functions, it has become an appendage of the executive branch. The coming costs, in political manipulation of the money supply, of this forfeiture of independence could be steep.

Jefferson warned that "great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities." But Democrats, who trace their party's pedigree to Jefferson, are contemplating using "reconciliation" -- a legislative maneuver abused by both parties to severely truncate debate and limit the minority's right to resist -- to impose vast and controversial changes on the 17 percent of the economy that is health care. When the Congressional Budget Office announced that the president's budget underestimates by $2.3 trillion the likely deficits over the next decade, his budget director, Peter Orszag, said: All long-range budget forecasts are notoriously unreliable -- so rely on ours.

This is but a partial list of recent lawlessness, situational constitutionalism and institutional derangement. Such political malfeasance is pertinent to the financial meltdown as the administration, desperately seeking confidence, tries to stabilize the economy by vastly enlarging government's role in it.

We need to start recalling our politicians -- the wankers who vote in ridiculous plans and pork up bills!!!! TEA PARRRRTTTYYYY!!!!!!

You Guilty Capitalist Pig!!!!

The People's Cube has a great Guilt Level Chart for you to check out to make sure you're not some scum-sucking capitalist pig ... or at least how guilty you should be feeling for being one.

Guilt Quiz & Guilt Level Chart: Tools for the Guilted Age

By Red Square 3/23/2009, 10:28 am

Now that the properly conditioned guilt-ridden voters have elected the first Certified-Oppressed-Minority™ president, America has officially entered a new Guilted Age. The Guilted Age is similar to the Gilded Age, only instead of being motivated by the acquisition of gold, the nation is motivated by the distribution of Guilt™. A guilty electorate is a less demanding electorate: beggars are not choosers. Collective remorse makes the masses more malleable. Workers toil harder for less pay and donate surpluses to progressive causes within the hope that it would offset their culpability for having the wrong color, ethnicity, religion, zip code, profession, hobbies, vehicles, grocery bags, communing and shopping patterns, taste in food, living standard higher than in Zimbabwe, and exhaling the CO2 while breathing.

~

The pursuit of happiness in the Guilted Age becomes to mean this: the stronger your guilt, the happier you are to give your stuff to us. We call it Sharing™.

We don't believe in chance, that's why we are disposing of capitalism. We can't leave Guilt™ to chance either - it is a fickle sentiment and, therefore, it must be systematically reinforced and replenished. In order to support a massive guilt-fueled American economy, both Guilt™ and Sharing™ must be institutionalized and managed in a planned, scientific manner from a central location by experienced professionals.

To rule over the guilt-driven nation more efficiently, the Obama administration needs to create the US Department of Guilt - a government agency intended to stimulate and enhance guilt complexes among the population through coordinated guilt-inducing campaigns in the media, entertainment, and public education.

Guilt czar is to be selected from among the best professional guilt trippers on the raster of Socialist International, to oversee the proper distribution of Guilt™ among all Americans in accordance with assigned quotas (see diagram below). Guilt czar will steer and support the transition from Conspicuous Consumption™ of the Gilded Age to Conspicuous Compassion™ of the Guilted Age, as mandated by government edict.

To this end scientists at Karl Marx Treatment Center developed the following Progressive Guilt Quiz. It is to be taken by all Americans at the start of each fiscal year, to estimate their position in the Guilt™ hierarchy. The level of Guilt™ they are required to feel is directly proportional to the money they are required to Share™ with the Party and its organs in order to receive their annual Guilt™ Offsets.

Brazilian Soldiers Killed In Iraq

The Dept Of Defense briefed the president this morning. They told President Obama that 2 Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq.


To everyone's surprise, all the color drained from Obama's face. Then he collapsed onto his desk, head in his hands, visibly shaken, almost in tears.

Finally, he composed himself and asked, 'Just how many is a brazilian?'


This is not surprising, since he obviously has no understanding of billion or trillion either.

Audacity of Hope ... really?

Drunk Drivers: Here's An "Interesting" Defense

Drunk driving is one of the topics that will quickly get my blood to boiling. My aunt and uncle were killed by a drunk driver and my cousin (their son) was burned terribly in the accident. The same drunk driver left my cousin and his two sisters orphans. After my mother had to endure the tragic loss of her brother, her daughter, yours truly, has been hit twice by drunk drivers. (Most gratefully, no serious injuries despite the severity of the accidents.)

When I ran across this story the other day, I had to shake my head in disgust -- both at another DUI driver and at the audacity of the schmuck for coming up with such an idiotic defense. [Source]

DUI Defendant Claims He Is His Own Country

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

EASTON, Pa. — A man accused of driving drunk said Pennsylvania courts have no jurisdiction over him because he's his own country. After seeing the paperwork that 44-year-old Scott Allan Witmer filed with the court claiming sovereignty, a Northampton County judge said Tuesday he cannot be released from jail until he gets a mental exam.

Witmer, who represented himself, said he believes police lack jurisdiction to pull him over. As he said in court: "I live inside myself, not in Pennsylvania." He said there is no victim in the crime and asked to go to trial.

Defense attorney James Connell, Witmer's standby counsel, said a challenge to the traffic stop would need to be filed as a pretrial motion.

I wonder if there might be some slimy DUI-specializing attorney who will defend this SOB ... hopefully not using the guy's defense. Well, at least the judge in the case seems to have some sense. I agree -- the defendant needs to have a mental exam.

Morons in the News: How Stupid Can A Person Be? (R-Rated)

I get a kick out of the occasional news story of some idiot who gets himself or herself into trouble. The stories that are about dumb criminals who get themselves into a jam are particularly funny, especially when their stupidity must give policemen a laugh when they arrive on the scene. The following story, however, is about an "innocent civilian" whose bedroom antics made the news last week.

Woman Seriously Injured in Sex Toy Accident

LEXINGTON PARK, Md. (WUSA) - A Southern Maryland woman was seriously injured in a mishap involving a sex toy over the weekend. The case was first reported on TheBayNet.com, and Saint Mary's county public safety sources confirmed the information to 9NEWS NOW.

The accident was reported to local fire and rescue personnel about 1:30 a.m. on March 7, from an address on Rogers Drive. The man who made the 911 call said he had placed a sex toy over a saber saw blade, and then used the power tool on his partner, but the blade cut through the plastic and injured the woman.

The victim, a 27-year-old woman, was reportedly injured and bleeding. She was later flown to Prince George's hospital center by Maryland State Police helicopter.

County law enforcement officials who were familiar with the media report about this case said, although they were not initially called to investigate the incident, they would likely follow up to determine it was just an accident and involved consentual behavior.

Written by Bill Starks
9NEWS NOW & wusa9.com

WUSA [source]

Didn't it occur to anyone that maybe bringing a saber saw anywhere near one's body, let alone near one's genitals, just the least bit threatening to personal safety?!? Fer cryin' out loud! I just hope that these morons at least use birth control so as to keep from procreating ... but, then again, that would involve thinking, too.

(Sometimes I expect too much from the human race ...)

Gone Fishin': Vacation Time!!!

Sorry I haven't been posting anything for these past couple of days. I've been frantically getting ready for a little R&R! I think a little beach time is needed, although I can't complain about the nice weather we've had here lately. In the meantime, I hope you'll check around this little blog of mine and peruse some of the older postings ... and maybe wax a little nostalgic about the good ol' days?

CNN Journalist Runs As Communist; Invokes Obama's Name

Ha! I've heard people jokingly refer to CNN as the "Communist News Network." Now, given a small headline I saw yesterday, maybe it's not a joke! A former CNN en español journalist, Mauricio Funes, is a frontrunner in El Salvador's upcoming elections.

FoxNews reports (emphasis added):

He has taken a page out of Barack Obama’s playbook and tried to draw a comparison between himself and the American president. One of his campaign ads, despite the U.S. Embassy’s protests, features images of Obama and points out that both he and Obama were attacked by conservative parties who accused them of being associated with terrorists and radicals.

But for Mauricio Funes, a former journalist for CNN en Espanol, ties to radical leftists are no mere accusation. It’s a fact: He is the candidate of Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), a former guerrilla group and by-product of El Salvador’s Communist movement that waged years of armed struggle before gaining legal status as a political party following a bloody civil war.

This Sunday Funes will face off against Rodrigo Avila, the former deputy director of the national police and the candidate of the National Republican Alliance Party (Arena), which has been in power for two decades. And while Avila has been gaining steadily in the polls, it is Funes who is provoking both inspiration and suspicion throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Latin American watchers wonder just what lies ahead for El Salvador, an American ally, if Funes wins.

Like Obama, it seems that Funes' fellow countrymen find that his lack of experience is what makes him a good choice for his party, the FMLN -- the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front, a former guerrilla group and by-product of El Salvador’s Communist movement that waged years of armed struggle before gaining legal status as a political party following a bloody civil war.

“He is not an ideologue,” says Larry Birns, Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs. “He is a person who doesn’t mouth traditional political lingo. He’s a kind of a Schwarzenegger type. He’s a celebrity, and people have good feelings towards him, and most of all he carries with him very few negatives.”

Funes’ telegenic celebrity is a 180-degree turnabout from FMLN’s former presidential candidates, who carried the extreme leftist views on which the party was originally created.

“The party had run a series of ideologues who were very committed to the FMLN ideology, but they were never able to get beyond a certain minority of the vote,” Birns told FOXNews.com. “So this time, very much like in Nicaragua with Daniel Ortega, the decision was made by the electorate to basically back someone who could win.”

But many political analysts in the United States have their doubts that Funes will really govern the country if he’s elected.

“This is one of the big issues,” says Ray Walser, Latin American policy expert at the Heritage Foundation. “Is Funes a new force, or is he simply a face man for the older, hard-line FMLN, who are really sort of still the guerrillas, who want to go back to Marxist, Leninist views of society, who want to take it to a Cuba-style, Chavez-style system of government?”

Funes' possible election coupled with his party rising to the top might cause political difficulties between El Salvador and the United States, which has supported the ARENA party for some 20 years. In the future, could there be a rift beween our two countries?

While Funes has said during the campaign that he wants El Salvador and the U.S. to remain close friends and “strategic partners,” some Americans are skeptical.

“The foreign policy platform would probably be, look, we’ve been too dependent on the United States, we need to distance ourselves, we need to align ourselves with other forces in the world,” Walser says.

There have also been persistent rumors for years that if an FMLN candidate wins the presidency, the U.S. government will retaliate by deporting many of the 1 million Salvadorans who currently reside in the U.S. Last year about $3.8 billion was sent back to El Salvador from Salvadorans living in the U.S. Fear of these lost funds might explain why the polls -- which last summer so heavily favored Funes – have narrowed considerably.

“This is the first time you would have a left president in El Salvador and that’s creating I think a certain amount of consternation,” Walser said.

I wonder how many more countries are going to fall madly in love with inexperienced candidates and passionately hawk promises, much like a teenage girl, eager for love, willingly believes every cheap line a suitor tells her. Will all these lame lovers invoked The Obamessiah's name in order to stir their listeners' passions even more?

Another Victim of Bernie Madoff: Elie Wiesel Foundation

As Bernie Madoff and his attorneys prepare to reportedly enter a plea of guilty next week for Madoff's heartless conning of billions of dollars in perhaps history's biggest Ponzi scheme, it is sad to hear that one of his victims was The Elie Wiesel Foundation. This humanitarian organization, headed by the famed Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel, has lost nearly all its assets -- some $15.2 million were invested in Madoff Investment Securities.

But "victim" is not a word that Wiesel, the 80-year-old writer and humanitarian, likes to apply to himself.
...

"All my life has been about learning and teaching and building on ruins," he says. "That will not change."
...

"I don't want my name linked with that crook," Wiesel says, as soft-spoken as ever. "I don't want to be known as one of his victims. I want my name linked to peace and literature and human rights."
...

Wiesel and his wife, Marion, started the foundation in 1986 with a portion of his Nobel award. In December, it reported it had $15.2 million, "substantially" all its assets, invested with Madoff.

Authorities have identified 13,000 of Madoff's investors, including Wiesel's foundation, which sponsors conferences of Nobel laureates and centers in Israel for refugees from Ethiopia and Darfur.

The irony has been noted: "It takes an extraordinarily heartless conman to swindle a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and Nobel Peace Prize winner out of all of his charitable funds," wrote James Bone in The Times of London.

Wiesel shrugs and says, "People ask, 'How could he do it to you?' To me! As if I'm the only one. It's not about me."

Nor, he says, is it a particularly Jewish question, despite the fact that Madoff is an Orthodox Jew and that most of his investors were Jewish.

Wiesel says that in the past 20 years, he met Madoff only twice and briefly. "I was introduced by friends — friends that he also betrayed. It's repulsive."

He answers most questions about Madoff with his own questions that are left unanswered: "Was he a crook because he was a Jew? Was Ponzi a crook because he was a Christian?"

Since the foundation's financial loss was reported, Wiesel says, it has been flooded by unsolicited contributions — "big and small, from young and old, Jew and non-Jew. It's an expression of their outrage."

He says the foundation has received about $200,000 in such contributions — enough to keep its programs going. Among those who have offered to help, he says, is "my good friend Oprah Winfrey."

In 2006, Winfrey's book club chose Night, Wiesel's Holocaust memoir. In his office is a small photograph of him and Winfrey, huddled against the cold in the ruins of Auschwitz, which they visited for her show. In 2007, the Wiesel Foundation awarded its annual Humanitarian Award to Winfrey. [source]

Travel Tip: Watch Out for Body Scanners!!!!!

That's right -- body scanners at the airport. This is the latest wave in security technology for airports in their attempts to screen potentially dangerous passengers. Last month, Tulsa International Airport was the first to experiment with the scanners, which would substitute metal detectors for body scanners that looks through clothing for weapons. USAToday reported on this latest screening equipment (emphasis added):

... the $170,000 body scanners could replace $10,000 metal detectors that have screened airline passengers since 1973. Airports in San Francisco, Las Vegas, Miami, Albuquerque and Salt Lake City will join the test in the next two months, TSA spokesman Christopher White said.

The scanners aim to close a loophole by finding non-metallic weapons such as plastic and liquid explosives, which the TSA considers a major threat. The machines raise privacy concerns because their images reveal outlines of private body parts.

"We're getting closer and closer to a required strip-search to board an airplane," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Privacy advocate Melissa Ngo fears that passengers won't understand that the scanners take vivid images that screeners view.

White said each scanner has explanatory signs on how the machines work and posters showing the image they create.

Passengers at the test airports will be instructed to go through the new scanners. Anyone who doesn't want to go through will be allowed to refuse and instead go through a metal detector and receive a pat-down, White said.

People in the scanner will stand with their arms raised and their face will be blurred out in the metallic-looking image on a nearby screen. TSA screeners view the images from inside a closed room near a checkpoint and immediately delete them.

"We've struck a very good balance between security and privacy," White said.

Christopher Bidwell, security chief at the Airports Council International trade group, said the scanner "really does not reveal as much as some people might think."

The scanners aim to address problems exposed by government probes in which covert agents got liquid explosives and detonators through airport checkpoints. A 2005 Homeland Security report urged better checkpoint technology.

Security analyst Bruce Schneier, a frequent critic of the TSA, said the scanners should improve security but warned that they take longer than metal detectors — 30 seconds vs. about 15 seconds per passenger. "There will be pressure to do the screening faster, which will be sloppier," Schneier said.

The scanners bounce harmless "millimeter waves" off passengers' bodies and use no radiation.

The TSA has done preliminary tests of the scanner on passengers who had just passed through metal detectors. Those tests found that the machines excel at finding hidden objects, White said.

Based on the results of the latest test, the TSA will decide at an undetermined date whether to use more body scanners in place of metal detectors.

This brings to mind scenes from "Total Recall" -- remember the airport scanners where you could see skeletons of the passengers. Except these real ones won't go bone deep but just to the skin ... better get working on the diet and exercise program! I hope everyone else follows suit. Otherwise ... eeeeeew!

Obama Statue: The Fundraiser!

I am so gleeful that my friend A forwarded this information to me. I, dear reader, now share it with you ...

Dear Friend,

We have the distinguished honor of being on a committee for raising five million dollars for placing a statue of Barack Obama in the Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.

This committee was in a quandary where to place the statue. It was not wise to place it beside the statue of George Washington, who never told a lie, nor beside Franklin D. Roosevelt, who never told the truth, since Barack Obama could never tell the difference.

We finally decided to place it beside Christopher Columbus, the greatest Democrat of them all. He left not knowing where he was going and, upon arrival, did not know where he was. He returned not knowing where he had been and did it all on borrowed money.

Over 5,000 years ago, Moses said the Children of Israel, "Pick up your shovels, mount your asses and camels, and I will lead you to the Promised Land." Nearly 5,000 years later, Roosevelt said, "Lay down your shovels, sit on your asses, light up a Camel, this IS the Promised Land."

Now, Obama is stealing your shovels, kicking your asses, raising the price of your Camels, and mortgaging the Promised Land. If you are one of the fortunate people who has any money left after paying taxes, we will expect a generous donation as a contribution to the worthwhile project.

Fraternally,

Obama Statue Committee

[By the way ... I just noticed that Blogger's spellchecker has finally started recognizing "Obama" rather than flagging it all the time.]

More Taxes For You, Comrade!

The Leftist Elite (and some dipstick Repubs) just seem to think that the American taxpayers' backs are unbreakable. First, there's this current monstrosity of STIMULUS -- the Movie! -- now in 3D! Added to that, the Obamanator is resurrecting "health care reform" (read 'socialized medicine that will add even more to the cost of health care itself as well as to our pockets'). Here are two more proposed taxes -- backed by Dems:

1) In Oregon, lawmakers including Rep. Ben Cannon, D-Portland, have proposed a 1900% tax increase (yeah, you read that right -- nineteen hundred!) on beer. It doesn't matter that brewers fear this increase could cripple them. Lawmakers pull out the usual "oh, this will raise millions of dollars for law enforcement, health care, and substance abuse treatment. (Gee, I wonder if it will also include dollars for education. That gets voters every time!) Here's what NBC reported (emphasis added):

Oregon ranks 49th among states in its malt beverage taxation rate, which has not been raised in 32 years.

Brewers say Oregon's low beverage taxation rate is what makes the state such an attractive place for crafting beers.

The state's brewery guild claims it would also amount to the single largest beer tax hike in the nation's history.

Laurelwood Public House & Brewing Co. owner Mike De Kalb said the tax may sound like a good idea in this economic climate, but he believes it would cost jobs and not raise enough new tax revenue to justify the increase.

"We're a family-owned, local Portland business. We don't want to see something cost taxpayers more than the revenue it would bring in," De Kalb said.

De Kalb said Oregon would potentially lose its prominence as a craft-brew destination and that some small breweries could potentially go out of business.

He said Laurelwood could possibly face job cuts as well.

Prior versions of the beer tax bill have exempted small breweries but this one does not, he added.

Job losses ... yeah, that will be great for the economy.

The next story: Democratic Governor of Massachusetts Deval Patrick is considering having a "Hummer Tax" on gas-guzzling vehicles. If implemented, it would be the country's first such tax. The economy is quite rough right now, and this guy wants to make commuting to your job even costlier. Genius ... shear genius. Here's the FoxNews story (emphasis added):

The plan to charge larger gas guzzling vehicles more has the backing of Democratic Governor Deval Patrick who admits there are some kinks to work out, like how to protect larger families from being unfairly impacted. The Governor is calling for a wide array of new fees and taxes to fund and fix the state's ailing transportation system, which he says has suffered more than a decade of neglect.

Among the most controversial elements in the plan, Patrick is calling for a 19 cent increase in the state's gas tax. He is appealing directly to voters, crisscrossing the state and holding town hall style meetings, listening to the fears and concerns of Commonwealth residents.

"For the average driver what we're talking about is the equivalent of a large cup of coffee per week, but still, for some people that's a lot." Patrick said, admitting the choices are hard. [A cup of coffee?!? At 19 cents per gallon?!? This guy is an idiot!]

As part of the package, Patrick is promising to streamline the state's transportation bureaucracy and put the breaks on government spending.

"I think a gas tax without the reforms is unacceptable. More to the point, I will veto that bill. But, I think reforms without the new revenue doesn't really get us very far."

The administration estimates that up to 19 billion dollars will be needed over the next 20 years to pay down debt and to maintain and update the Massachusetts transportation system.

Here's what a local car dealer reacted:

Tim Lerchenfeldt, general manager of Cadillac Hummer Saab Village, a dealership in Norwwood, argues now is not the time for another fee, when sales are down and the auto industry is struggling.

"It's a penalty for driving an SUV, which currently is not the popular choice. Or you're being penalized for a lifestyle choice, or maybe the fact that you have a large family and you need that size vehicle to put them in and it just doesn't seem fair," said Lerchenfeldt, who adds that a given SUV owner may spend less time on the road and burn less gasoline than a given hybrid car owner.

Under the new proposal, owners of more fuel efficient vehicles would pay less. The ultimate goal of the policy is supposedly to get consumers to buy those instead.

Gee, as if owners of such cars aren't already paying more taxes on gas just due to the difference in gas consumption. I imagine they also pay a bit more on sales tax due to the higher value of the cars. So, let's pile more taxes on them.

Coicidentally, I had been holding on to an article I found a while ago that reported that, due to the economy, certain makes of cars might soon be ready for the dinosaur heap: Saturns, Saabs, and Hummers. MSN MoneyBlog reported last month:

Unless buyers (a few million of us -- or maybe just a couple of really adventurous billionaires) step forward, three of General Motors’ eight brands are now destined to join Oldsmobile in the history books. A fourth will be relegated to “niche” status, says GM. The company, until last year the world’s largest automaker, announced plans Tuesday that would drastically scale back its operations in order to stay alive.

Production of Saturn cars would stop in 2011 if the brand hasn’t been sold, GM said. Execs will decide whether to pull the plug on Hummer at the end of March, though rumors of Chinese interest have emerged (and been discounted) several times. The company says Saab will be an “independent business entity as of Jan. 1, 2010.” Take that to mean “dead” unless a reluctant Swedish government can be convinced to step in. Pontiac will emerge as a “highly focused niche brand” sold through Buick and GMC Truck showrooms.

So, it appears that as car manufacturers beg for federal hand-outs, paid for by the taxpayer, some state governments are proposing special fuel taxes ... paid for by the taxpayer. Oh, and if that taxpayer wishes to drown his troubles in a nice frosty glass of beer, perhaps crying because he's a beer brewer or autoworker who has lost his job, he'll have to pay more for that little indulgence, too. But, he'll have improved roads, more money for law enforcement to arrest him when he goes berserk, and substance abuse counseling for when the taxpayer's beer habit becomes too much. Oh, and the improved health care will also pay for his cirrhosis treatments.

Genius. Shear genius.

Work harder, comrades! Work harder!

Bail Out Bull: John Stossel Report Next Friday, 3/13

I've recently discovered a nice online magazine: Reason -- "Free minds and free markets" is its motto. Today I saw this ad about ABC's 20/20 reporter John Stossel -- next Friday ("tentatively scheduled", as the ad says) he will report on our nation's current economic crisis and "plan."

Bailouts, Big Spending, and Bull!

An ABC News John Stossel Special produced in partnership with Drew Carey and Reason.

In his next special, "Bailouts, Big Spending, and Bull," John Stossel
examines the huge bailouts, medical marijuana, universal preschool, private highways, border walls, and the myth of the struggling middle class. The special was produced in partnership with Drew Carey and Reason.tv.

Tentative Air date: Friday, March 13 on ABC (check local listings)

[You can go to Reason to see some interviews with Stossel and Carey on such topics as the bailouts, medical marijuana, border walls, etc.]

I'm looking forward to this! Stossel has done great reporting in the past, blowing by all the urban legends and general PC bull and getting to the heart of different issues. You'll see one of his books listed to the right under "Recent Reads" -- "Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity." Great information!!!!

Ashokan Farewell: A Melody That Still Haunts

I haven't heard this song in ages ... maybe more than 10 years. I first heard "Ashokan Farewell" as the theme song back in the 80's of Ken Burns' series "The Civil War" on PBS. I don't what it is about the song, but it clutches at my chest every time I hear it. This evening, as I was surfing the Internet -- on what topic, now, I no longer remember -- I heard it again for the first time in many years. It promptly brought me to tears.

Shortly after the series aired ... I hate to say some 20 or so years ago (ouch!) ... I bought the CD of the series' music. The purchase was spurred by hearing an excerpt of it and the show on NPR as I drove home one day. Actually, what I listened to were the listeners' letters that poured in to the broadcaster after the original show aired the week before, many writing of how moved they were by one particular piece: Sullivan Ballou's letter, read upon the backdrop of "Ashokan Farewell." It was a forlorn letter he had written to his wife Sarah shortly before heading into the first battle of Bull Run ... and to his death. I, as well as many listeners who had written to NPR, nearly had to pull my car over to the side of the road, having been brought to tears while listening to the story. Ballou's passionate and moving words with the haunting melody playing softly underneath were so ... haaaaahhhhh! ... something I am still looking for.

Here are Ballou's words to his wife Sarah:

July the 14th, 1861
Washington D.C.

My very dear Sarah:

The indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days—perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write lines that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

Our movement may be one of a few days duration and full of pleasure—and it may be one of severe conflict and death to me. Not my will, but thine O God, be done. If it is necessary that I should fall on the battlefield for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American Civilization now leans upon the triumph of the Government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution. And I am willing—perfectly willing—to lay down all my joys in this life, to help maintain this Government, and to pay that debt.

But, my dear wife, when I know that with my own joys I lay down nearly all of yours, and replace them in this life with cares and sorrows—when, after having eaten for long years the bitter fruit of orphanage myself, I must offer it as their only sustenance to my dear little children—is it weak or dishonorable, while the banner of my purpose floats calmly and proudly in the breeze, that my unbounded love for you, my darling wife and children, should struggle in fierce, though useless, contest with my love of country?

I cannot describe to you my feelings on this calm summer night, when two thousand men are sleeping around me, many of them enjoying the last, perhaps, before that of death—and I, suspicious that Death is creeping behind me with his fatal dart, am communing with God, my country, and thee.

I have sought most closely and diligently, and often in my breast, for a wrong motive in thus hazarding the happiness of those I loved and I could not find one. A pure love of my country and of the principles have often advocated before the people and "the name of honor that I love more than I fear death" have called upon me, and I have obeyed.

Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me to you with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break; and yet my love of Country comes over me like a strong wind and bears me irresistibly on with all these chains to the battlefield.

The memories of the blissful moments I have spent with you come creeping over me, and I feel most gratified to God and to you that I have enjoyed them so long. And hard it is for me to give them up and burn to ashes the hopes of future years, when God willing, we might still have lived and loved together and seen our sons grow up to honorable manhood around us. I have, I know, but few and small claims upon Divine Providence, but something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little Edgar—that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not, my dear Sarah, never forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battlefield, it will whisper your name.

Forgive my many faults, and the many pains I have caused you. How thoughtless and foolish I have often been! How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little spot upon your happiness, and struggle with all the misfortune of this world, to shield you and my children from harm. But I cannot. I must watch you from the spirit land and hover near you, while you buffet the storms with your precious little freight, and wait with sad patience till we meet to part no more.

But, O Sarah! If the dead can come back to this earth and flit unseen around those they loved, I shall always be near you; in the garish day and in the darkest night—amidst your happiest scenes and gloomiest hours—always, always; and if there be a soft breeze upon your cheek, it shall be my breath; or the cool air fans your throbbing temple, it shall be my spirit passing by.

Sarah, do not mourn me dead; think I am gone and wait for thee, for we shall meet again.

As for my little boys, they will grow as I have done, and never know a father's love and care. Little Willie is too young to remember me long, and my blue-eyed Edgar will keep my frolics with him among the dimmest memories of his childhood. Sarah, I have unlimited confidence in your maternal care and your development of their characters. Tell my two mothers his and hers I call God's blessing upon them. O Sarah, I wait for you there! Come to me, and lead thither my children.

Sullivan

From the Civil War series as a whole, and Ballou's letter in particular, I was struck by how beautifully, poetically and passionately such "everyday" people wrote back then. I'm not much for schmalz ... but this ain't schmalz. These are words that truly evoke the stirrings of life and love.

You can get the music on iTunes just by typing "civil war" in the search bar. Look for Ken Burn's documentary "The Civil War." Download both "Ashokan Farewell" and "Ashokan Farewell/Sullivan Ballou Letter." They are more than worth the cost. And, if the letter doesn't bring you to tears, then, my friend, you have a heart of stone.

And, let us not forget the many heroes who have laid down their lives for our country ... and left behind widows, widowers, and orphans in their wake.

The Marines: Bush or Obama?

This is friggin' hilarious!

Lent: A Technology Fast?

The Lenten season started last week with Ash Wednesday. Many people take on the personal challenge of giving up something during this season of reflection on the sacrifice of Christ. Personally, I am too weak and poorly disciplined to take on such a challenge. Some acquaintances pledge to not each chocolate, do service community, go without a meal and give the money to a hunger program, etc.

Today, I read with keen interest about Italian archbishops urging their parishioners to abstain from technology: texting, surfing the Internet, listening to their iPods, etc. Accepting that some people must use technology for their jobs, the Bishops urge people who can to forego using technology, focusing instead on the importance of concrete versus virtual relationships.

Here's the USAToday story (emphasis added):

Dioceses and Catholic groups in Modena, southern Bari and other cities have called for a ban on text messaging every Friday in Lent, which began last week with Ash Wednesday.

"It's a small way to remember the importance of concrete and not virtual relationships," the Modena diocese said in a statement. "It's an instrument to remind us that our actions and lifestyles have consequences in distant countries."

The diocese said the "no SMS day" seeks to draw attention to years of conflict in Congo fueled in part by the struggle for control of coltan mines. The mineral is an essential material in cellphones. [Interesting!]

The Turin diocese is suggesting the faithful not watch television during Lent. In the northeastern city of Trento, the church has created a "new lifestyles" calendar with proposals for each week of Lent.

Some ideas: Leave cars at home and hop on a bike or a bus; stop throwing chewing gum on the street and start recycling waste; enjoy the silence of a week without the Internet and iPods.

Italian laity and clergy have reacted cautiously to the proposals. Some say Lenten abstinence should be a personal matter, and others contend that people who need technology to work shouldn't be asked to do without.

"What does giving up mean? If the use is capricious, then abstinence is welcome, but if technology is needed for work it makes no sense," said the Rev. Giancarlo Angelo Andreis, a priest at a Rome basilica.

Feeling rather overwhelmed these days with the inundation of new technology in my classroom, school building, career, and personal life, I kinda like this idea of fasting from non-essential tech stuff. But, give up my iPod .... no way! (Hey! I do listen to Christian podcasts in the morning as I get ready for work. So, at least half the time I use mine in a devotional manner.)

Pork: McCain Crusades Against Disastrous Earmarks

Even liberal journalist Maureen Down is shocked at the actions of congressmen to tack on billions of earmarks onto pending legislation. She writes of former presidential candidate (sniff!) John McCain's vain attempts to squash the mindless spending being tacked on to bill proposals that will heavily burden taxpayers. Here are some excerpts from Dowd's op-ed piece published today in The New York Times (emphasis added):

There was a bit of King Lear in the scene on the Senate floor, a stormy, solitary John McCain on “this great stage of fools,” as the Bard wrote, railing against both parties and the president in fiery speeches and rapid-fire tweets.

“He’s mad that trusts in the tameness of a wolf, a horse’s health, a boy’s love, or a whore’s oath,” the Fool told Lear.

And he’s truly mad that trusts in the promise of a presidential candidate to quell earmarks.

The 72-year-old senator who seemed hopelessly 20th century when he confessed during the campaign that he didn’t know how to use a computer or send an e-mail has now mastered the latest technology fad, twittering up a twizzard to tweak his former rival.

Before the Senate resoundingly defeated a McCain amendment on Tuesday that would have shorn 9,000 earmarks worth $7.7 billion from the $410 billion spending bill, the Arizona senator twittered lists of offensive bipartisan pork, including:

• $2.1 million for the Center for Grape Genetics in New York. “quick peel me a grape,” McCain twittered.

• $1.7 million for a honey bee factory in Weslaco, Tex.

• $1.7 million for pig odor research in Iowa.

• $1 million for Mormon cricket control in Utah. “Is that the species of cricket or a game played by the brits?” McCain tweeted.

• $819,000 for catfish genetics research in Alabama.

• $650,000 for beaver management in North Carolina and Mississippi.

• $951,500 for Sustainable Las Vegas. (McCain, a devotee of Vegas and gambling, must really be against earmarks if he doesn’t want to “sustain” Vegas.)

• $2 million “for the promotion of astronomy” in Hawaii, as McCain twittered, “because nothing says new jobs for average Americans like investing in astronomy.”

• $167,000 for the Autry National Center for the American West in Los Angeles. “Hopefully for a Back in the Saddle Again exhibit,” McCain tweeted sarcastically.

• $238,000 for the Polynesian Voyaging Society in Hawaii. “During these tough economic times with Americans out of work,” McCain twittered.

• $200,000 for a tattoo removal violence outreach program to help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past. “REALLY?” McCain twittered.

• $209,000 to improve blueberry production and efficiency in Georgia.

“When do we turn off the spigots?” Senator McCain said in his cri de coeur on the Senate floor. “Haven’t we learned anything? Bills like this jeopardize our future.

Dowd continues with a harsh criticism of Obama's passivity and lack of following through on his campaign promises:

In one of his disturbing spells of passivity, President Obama decided not to fight Congress and live up to his own no-earmark pledge from the campaign.

He’s been lecturing us on the need to prune away frills while the economy fizzles. He was slated to make a speech on “wasteful spending” on Wednesday.

“You know, there are times where you can afford to redecorate your house and there are times where you need to focus on rebuilding its foundation,” he said recently about the “hard choices” we must make. Yet he did not ask Congress to sacrifice and make hard choices; he let it do a lot of frivolous redecorating in its budget.

He reckons he’ll need Congress for more ambitious projects, like health care, and when he goes back to wheedle more bailout billions, given that A.I.G. and G.M. and our other corporate protectorates are burning through our money faster than we can print it and borrow it from the ever-more-alarmed Chinese.

Team Obama sounds hollow, chanting that “the status quo is not acceptable,” even while conceding that the president is accepting the status quo by signing a budget festooned with pork.

Obama spinners insist it was “a leftover budget.” But Iraq was leftover, too, and the president’s trying to end that. This is the first pork-filled budget from a new president who promised to go through the budget “line by line” and cut pork.

On “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, dismissed the bill as “last year’s business,” because most of it was written last year.

But given how angry Americans are, watching their future go up in smoke, the bloated bill counts as this year’s business.

It includes $38.4 million of earmarks sponsored or co-sponsored by President Obama’s labor secretary, Hilda Solis; $109 million Hillary Clinton signed on to; and $31.2 million in earmarks sought by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood with colleagues.

(Even Barack Obama was listed as one of the co-sponsors of a $7.7 million pet project for Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Vocational Institutions until he got his name taken off last week.)

And then there are the 16 earmarks worth $8.5 million that Emanuel put into the bill when he was a congressman, including money for streets in Chicago suburbs and a Chicago planetarium.

Blame it on the stars, Rahm, or on old business. But as Shakespeare wrote in “Lear”: “This is the excellent foppery of the world, that, when we are sick in fortune — often the surfeits of our own behavior — we make guilty of our own disasters, the sun, the moon, and the stars.”

OUCH!!! And that's coming for a (former) Obama supporter. (Check out this humorous bit by Jennifer Rubin of Pajamas Media about such former supporters now needing a support group: "I'm Maureen Dowd and I've Been Had!")

McCain ... criticized for being so "hopelessly 20th century." But, common sense, intelligence, and balls are timeless.