WordHurdle

Headlines I clicked on today: 7/12/2011

Bill Clinton has earned $75.6M in a decade of speeches -- Wow, being a ex-president at an early age can be a nice gig. Obama will get the same benefits when his day comes.

Afghan president's half brother killed -- Hamid Karzai's half brother has been assassinated by one of his bodyguards. That's big news because his half brother has been considered a strong corruptive force in the Karzai administration. On the one hand he's been accused of being on the CIA payroll, and on the other hand, he's been accused of drug trafficking. That's not a good combo.

New Bible gives Jesus a 'Human' touch -- A consortium of the United Methodist, the Disciples of Christ, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., Episcopal Church, and the United Church of Christ has created a new translation of the Bible, attempting to make it more accessible. Example of language usage: instead of "the Son of Man", Jesus is called "the Human One" and Adam is called "human" until Eve arrives and there's a need to distinguish between them. Associate publisher Paul Franklyn says, "There are a number of translations available for conservative churches. This is trying to make a bridge between conservatives, moderates and liberals." Unfortunately, from my experience, attempts to build bridges between conservatives, moderates and liberals ends up just running off conservatives.

Microsoft Wants Windows XP Shoved Out the Door -- Microsoft is so over Windows XP. Unfortunately for them, it works well enough that their users really aren't interested in switching to a newer Windows version. This article says that Microsoft's biggest frustration is IT professionals who still maintain XP on company computers. My company still uses XP. Does yours?

Headlines I clicked on today: 7.6.2011

7 Life Lessons from the Very Wealthy -- This article provides tips that seem very wise from those who have been there and done that in the financial world.

The Incredible, Edible Egg Yolk -- If you're eating eggs, don't skip the egg yolk. It has huge health benefits, including vitamins and essential fatty acids, and according to this article, the cholestorol impact is overblown.

How the Casey Anthony case came apart -- I've read a few of the stories regarding the Casey Anthony acquittal, and from the story the jurors are giving, the jury wanted to know how Caylee Anthony died, and the prosecutors never gave them enough evidence. The prosecutor acknowledged today that the jury didn't get what they wanted from the prosecution's case, specifically a means of death and a motive.  Without that information, they were unwilling to tie any person to her death because they weren't clear how she died. Without that piece of information, all of the other facts the prosecution gave them didn't add up to a conviction. But one thing that's clear from a fascinating ABCNews story is that Casey Anthony appears to be delusional and, at least according to her mom's testimony, has a whole imaginary life of made-up people who don't exist or who don't really know her.

Coffee percolates through Iraq's cultural history -- The customs that revolve around coffee in Iraq are astounding. For example, "If a man leaves his cup untouched, Saadi must walk quietly and inform the host his guest didn't drink. But this is not about the taste of coffee; instead, the man wants something more from his host" Also, "If a tribal leader gathered his family and asked who would drink his enemy's coffee, it meant he was asking someone to kill his foe. The one who volunteered had to fulfill the request or live in shame the rest of his life." A professional server of coffee in Baghdad lays out the customs for this L.A. Times story.

Dust storm swallows Phoenix -- A large dust storm rolled through Phoenix, Arizona, yesterday, limiting visibility, grounding flights, and also apparently knocking out electricity. A video of the event is below:

Google plans to unify Google branding in Google+ push -- In the next 6 weeks, Google plans to drop names like Blogger and Picasa and rebrand all of their products with a Google name, such as Google Blogs and Google Photos. The reports are that YouTube will not be rebranded. The speculation online is that Google+ will be publicly launched at the same time the name changes take effect.

10 Accessories to Cheer Up Your Office Break Room -- Maybe someday my company will be hip enough to be able to utilize some of these fun break room ideas.

A flying car is officially FAA-approved and road-approved -- A "roadable aircraft" called the "Transition" is now approved by the FAA to fly as a "light sport aircraft" and approved by the USTA to be on the roads. Using retractable wings, this vehicle manufactured by Terrafugia can switch from road to air and back again at the push of a button. If you're interested, you can get one for $200,000. A promotional video is below:

Giant Wombat Skeleton Discovered in Australia -- I have what may be a stupid question. Why does it seem like all prehistoric animals were giant versions of modern day animals? Why were the ancestors of today's animals so much bigger and what was so beneficial about shrinking to today's size?  Less food required maybe?  It seems like being a large monster animal would have its benefits in the food chain.

Headlines I clicked on today: 7.5.2011

Bin Laden's quiet nemesis, CIA analyst hunted the terrorist for nearly a decade -- Like Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan character, this CIA analyst called "John" (his middle name) worked in the background to get bin Laden.

2011's best -- so far! -- From Salon.com, a list of what to read, watch and listen to that you may not have heard about. It led me to the Tuscaloosa tornado video below shot by two high schoolers. It gets a little slow after the tornado gets past them, but keep watching because it's worth it after they pick up a local resident:

County Warns Residents of Zombie Invasion -- Cobb County, Georgia, is warning their residents that they may have zombie sightings and may hear intermittent gunfire.

Teen Straps Camera to Fireworks -- Also in the viral videos department is this YouTube video created when a 19-year-old strapped a mini-camera to his fireworks over and over. It's just fun:

Headlines I clicked on today: 7/3/2011

Space station lights up the sky for the Fourth of July -- If you have clear skies tonight or the next few nights, you might get sighting of the International Space Station. It's going to be making several passes during nighttime hours. The story links to several sites where you can find out exactly where to look in the night sky and when. The site I've used for years to track satellites and other celestial objects is Heavens Above.

Final NASA shuttle mission clouded by rancor -- The last Space Shuttle flight is scheduled to take off this Friday. Now what?  Another take on the subject is over at the New York Times: With the Shuttle Program Ending, Fears of Decline at NASA

The show is over for Glee star Chord Overstreet after a shake-up in the cast -- Chord Overstreet, son of "Christian country" musician Paul Overstreet, was a great addition to the Glee cast, and I'm sad the show decided not ot renew his contract. Sounds like he's working on a solo album (after he wraps up the Glee stage show currently in progress).

Tom's in the snoratorium: Mrs Cruise's key to a good night's sleep -- Apparently Tom Cruise snores. And his wife Katie hasn't slept in the same room with him since early in their marriage. (INSERT JOKES HERE.) They have converted a room in their house into a "snoratorium" -- a soundproof spare bedroom designed to keep all the snoring sounds in. From the way this story reads, this snoratorium idea is taking off in the celebrity world. There's also a nice exterior shot of Tom & Katie's $32 million mansion in Beverly Hills, California, along with the store.

Birthday girl Ashley Tisdale gets a piggy-back from Zac Efron as they have fun in the California sun -- Since I've admitted above that I'm a "Glee" fan, I might as well get it all out and also acknowledge that I am/was also a "High School Musical" fan. Ashley Tisdale had a recent birthday (with dark hair instead of her typical blond) on a beach, and Zac Efron was there having fun with her, giving piggy back rides in the surf. That's enough it the celebrity world to get rumors started, and the story alongside the paparazzi photos wants to get those rumors started. Before you click the link, prepare yourself for pics of pretty people.

Cheap date! Bachelorette Ashley Hebert 'paid $70,000 LESS than previous contestants' -- To wrap up the celebrity coverage today, I'm amazed if it's true that Ashley from the current Bachelorette show took only $30,000 to be on this show's season. This season is a full-blown train wreck. There have been seasons in the past where the girl falls for the wrong guy who's talking bad behind her back, but this season goes above and beyond in that category.  We can't stop watching simply because it's going so horribly wrong for this girl who can't seem to get over the guy she was warned to kick off on the first episode.

What Bill Clinton thinks of GOP 2012ers -- Of course, he picks Obama for the win, but he has some interesting views of the current 2010 Republican candidates.

'Billions worth' of treasure found in Indian temple -- The estimated value of the treasure found in underground vaults below the Hindu temple is about $11.2 BILLION. Critics rip on American Christians for sinking so much money into buildings instead of giving it to the poor. At least we don't bury it in the ground.

Headlines I clicked on today: 7/1/2011

Panetta takes control of Pentagon -- Leon Panetta has run the Office of Management and Budget, served as Clinton's Chief of Staff, has served as CIA director, and was just unanimously confirmed by the Senate (that's a 100-0 vote) as Secretary of Defense. Talk about a powerbroker!

$150 Million Spelling Mansion Sold To 22-Year-Old Heiress -- "The 4.7 acre property has a bowling alley, movie theater, flower-cutting room and a wine cellar/tasting room, among other spaces. The house is believed to have more than 100 rooms. The home is the largest in Los Angeles County at 56,500 square feet, which is slightly larger than the White House." That's a big house for a 22-year-old.

Google+ invites halted due to 'insane demand' -- A friend sent me a Google+ invite last night, but somehow I never got it. And when I try to login as an invited party, it tells me they're temporarily over capacity and to try again later. This story explains that Google quietly opened up the invite option and it went so crazy that they had to shut down the invites.

Justice Ginsburg reflects on term, leadership role -- The US Supreme Court is an amazing institution, and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is celebrating her 18th year on the bench and is now the senior member of the left-leaners of the Court. I didn't realize that in� her time on the Supreme Court bench, she has survived two separate bouts with cancer, and a year ago lost her husband to cancer. At age 78, it sounds like she's still going strong, including twice a week personal trainer sessions, and she hopes to beat the record of Justice Brandeis, who retired after 23 years on the beach at age 82.

Headlines I clicked on today: 6/30/2011

Monster black hole driving cosmic beacon -- It stretches the mind to realize that when we're seeing the light from a distant star, the image we're seeing is "aged"; it's an image of that star at a previous time because the image has passed through space over vast distances at the speed of light.  When we look at stars, we tend to think of their light as "current" light that's happening right now (because it's happening right now for our eyes), but it would be better to  characterize what you see through a telescope as being much like a photograph or video of an actual cosmic moment that occurred long ago. Astronomers believe this black hole they're seeing is an image that has taken 12.9 billion years to get here.  That's a long time ago.  Under their premise, they believe they're seeing an image from the early days of the universe, and by studying what they're seeing, they can better understand the conditions that existed in the cosmos in a much earlier time. That's mindboggling.  The other amazing piece of this is that the quasar they're seeing has a mass 2 billion times the mass of our Sun.

Boarding Pass Arrest: Nigerian Slipped by JFK Airport Security -- Here's a scary story. A Nigerian national made it through JFK Airport security screenings with a fake student ID and a police report that said he'd lost his passport. He then made it through the gate, boarded a Virgin Atlantic flight, and flew from JFK to LAX. His stolen boarding pass had a day-old date on it, and listed a flight number 2 digits off from the actual flight he took, so it's obvious that airport and flight personnel didn't pay that much attention to those details. He told officials that he then spent the night inside the secured area at LAX airport and tried to fly from LAX to Atlanta on a Delta flight using another stolen boarding pass. This time, he was picked up by the FBI and they discovered he had 10 other stolen boarding passes on him under other names.  It appears, from the way the article cites the FBI affidavit about the incident, that the FBI discovered the issue when he was already in flight from JFK to LAX and that he was approached during that flight to present his boarding pass, and it also sounds like that FBI agents waere tracking him to some degree between the two flights because they were at the Delta gate at LAX as he was attempting to get access to the flight.

Officials tripling Afghan local defense forces -- Increasing funds to help Afghans defend themselves helps them also stave off Taliban influence. To me, that's a good thing.  Except that it's probably our money, but that's another discussion.

Barack Obama, tough guy -- According to this USA Today article, Obama blasted everybody yesterday in his press conference except himself. Fox News had a strong take on the press conference as is visible by their headline: Campaigner-in-Chief Scolds Congress for Work Ethic. Quite a bit of rhetoric and class warfare was thrown around. But as the USA Today article says, "Whether the new tough line works with Republican lawmakers remains to be seen." In related news, the U.S. Senate decided to call of their July 4 weeklong break as its Democratic leadership worked with the President's demands to put some pressure on the Republican-led House.  Nice political move.

Mark Halperin suspended over Obama remark on Morning Joe (video) -- MSNBC senior political analyst had some strong word in regards to what he thought of President Obama's press conference performance, and his words got him in trouble. He called the President a choice word after openly confirming with Joe Scarborough that there was the show wasn't live and that there was a 7-second delay that would bleep out his choice of words. Scarborough assured him the 7-second delay was in effect, Halperin said his peace, and then Scarborough got all shocked and told him he was just kidding that the 7-second delay being in effect. What?!?! Turns out there apparently was a 7-second delay in effect but the producer in the booth had no idea how to use the "bleep" button and the word went out over the air. Halperin apologized on the air, MSNBC has apologized formally (apparently after a call from the White House press secretary), Halperin has affirmed the MSNBC apology publicly and tweeted an apology, and Halperin is now "suspended indefinitely." Lesson learned: don't trust Joe Scarborough (and don't call the President stupid names on the air).

Stephen Colbert has a serious campaign finance issue -- This is interesting. Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert is making a serious attempt to "start a super PAC, a political action committee that would allow him to raise unlimited amounts of money from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals. The idea would be to influence the 2012 elections." He is in Washington, D.C., "testifying before the Federal Election Commission for an exemption that will allow him to use airtime, staff and other resources from The Colbert Report" in ways that influence the elections, but "wouldn't have to disclose them as in-kind contributions." Is this truly serious? Colbert is known for using satire to bright out the flaws in our campaign finance system.  My guess is Colbert jumping through all these hoops and jumping into the fray so he can once again show how insane our political system is.

U.S. caught China buying more debt than disclosed -- Sneaky, sneaky! The U.S. changed its treasuries auction rules a couple years back with intentions of catching China making backroom deals to buy U.S. treasuries without disclosing those purchases to the U.S. And the change worked -- it was designed to bring to light the Chinese activity without actually calling out Beijing for their activity. Apparently, the Chinese have been buying up billions more at Treasury auctions than they've been disclosing. That can't be good.

Grunt control device lets Wimbledon fans turn down the volume of shrieking Sharapova and Co. -- The BBC audience watching Wimbledon via the Web now has the option of turning down overwhelming tennis grunts while watching matches. I love technology!

Headlines I clicked on today: 6/29/2011

Google+ Project: It’s Social, It’s Bold, It’s Fun, And It Looks Good — Now For The Hard Part -- This morning, a mysterious black bar showed up across the top of my Google homepage at work. I did a little Googling as to its purpose and discovered it's step one of rolling out the new Google+ concept. I found this great story in the Washington Post that gives a good idea of the concept and the approach to Google+. It sounds like it (or parts of it) could catch on, simply because they're integrating it closely into everything else you do on Google sites. It could theoretically be a gamechanger in the online social world, at least for those of us who regularly use Google products.

No Apple iPhone 5 or 'Baby' iPhone Until 2012, Wall Street Says -- If you're holding out for an iPhone 5 in the fall, you might just go ahead and buy an iPhone 4 because insiders are now thinking iPhone 5's won't be out until mid-2012. Apple may produce a 4S version in the meantime (like they did with the 3GS), but I wouldn't hold my breath.

U.S. cost of war at least $3.7 trillion and counting -- Obama recently cited the cost of America's current wars at $1 trillion, but the "Costs of War" study shows that number is closer to $3.7 trillion and possibly as high as $4.4 trillion. The comprehensive study takes into consideration longer-term obligations of war often overlooked, such as obligations to wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012 through 2020. The estimates do not include at least $1 trillion more in interest payments coming due and many billions more in expenses that cannot be counted. The article notes that, due to the continuing wars, for every person who died on September 11th, another 73 have since been killed. Was Osama bin Laden's real plan to bankrupt the US due to the costs of retaliation?

Chris Hansen Caught Cheating On His Wife In Undercover Sting Operation -- Ouch! That's gotta hurt!

Amid debt talks, Obama calls for stimulus -- I don't even know how to process this.

Headlines I clicked on today: 6/28/2011

Signing off -- Christian blogger Tullian Tchividjian has apparently been in a blogging conversation with another Christian blogger named Kevin DeYoung regarding sanctification and what actions and methods a pastor and church should use to help their church body grow in Christ. The question seems to be whether a pastor should focus on justification by faith alone in grace in Christ as the primary method to challenge people to take hold of their sanctification in Christ or whether it is more effective to teach the necessity of obedience to biblical imperatives of morality and life choices by "laying down the law".  Some refer to this as the difference between teaching "grace" and teaching "truth", but I think that's a misnomer. In blogger Tchividjian's final post on the issue, he makes a pretty compelling argument that bringing people to a point of living a life of santification is totally dependent on their truly owning their justification and its impact and that no amount of reminding them of the Bible's rules will truly bring them to authentic sanctified living.

A More Modern Craigslist: Real-Time Local Commerce Arrives via EggDrop's Mobile App -- OK, now this is cool, and intriguingly, it's app only, not a website. It allows you to sell and buy things, in what sounds like a combo of Craiglist (local), eBay (price negotiable) and FourSquare (badges & "game" feel) styles, all from your Android or iPhone. Take a pic, post an ad, find buyers' and sellers' proximity to you, and then there's an interesting "haggle free" concept that allows your asking price to automatically slide downward over time toward a minimum price you've preset if no one is buying. This could theoretically take off, but the app-only piece of it is really forward-thinking. Are we ready for app-only local commerce? Apparently, there's a predecessor called Zaarly, which the article claims is more "buyer-driven" while noting that EggDrop is more "seller-driven". Let's see if this concept works. I, for one, will download the app.

Microsoft Office 365 debuts with small-biz focus -- I've been using Google Apps for years at this point, and it's been a good experience, although admittedly not as fully-functioning as Microsoft Office installed on my computer. It will be interesting to see how Office 365 works out.  A side-by-side comparison at PCWorld seems to give Microsoft the advantage on everything but cost.

Google goes after Facebook with Google+ -- Google is taking another run at social networking after the failure of Buzz. It's a true uphill battle for Google to take on Facebook because it seems most users just aren't interested in running multiple repetitive social accounts these days and many are so branded with Facebook that it will take a big Facebook fail or a significantly more useful product to get people to switch.

Shia: Yep, I Totally Hooked Up With Megan Fox During 'Transformers' -- Article has the subtitle "She may or may not have had a boyfriend at the time..."

Disgraced former Congressman Anthony Weiner takes a hand at picking his potential successor -- Politics is such a scene. The Democrats sure don't want a Republican to get his seat, and I'm sure they're open to whatever tactics are necessary to pick the right person to win and hold the seat, including allowing input from Weiner.

Reuters Special Report: A little house of secrets on the Great Plains -- A look into corporate secrecy and shell corporations in America, focusing on a 1,700-square-foot brick house in Cheyenne, Wyoming, that is the registered address of over 2,000 companies.

Headlines I clicked on today: 6/27/2011

Red Alert! Your Marriage is in Danger From the Gays! -- One side of the gay marriage debate as provided by The Atlantic.  This discussion is now "for real" with the New York legalization of gay marriage.

Why Gay ‘Marriage Equality' Is Bad for America and Hurts Children -- Another side of the gay marriage debate, this article in the American Spectator actually sparked the Atlantic story.

TSA defends removing adult's diaper for pat down -- I know the TSA has a job to do, but sometimes their fact situations don't work out too well for them.

French Fries and fat cakes for U.S. First Lady in Botswana -- It cracks me up how the media tracks what the Obamas eat in contrast to Ms. Obama's healthy eating campaign.

Supreme Court: California can't ban violent video game sales -- Very interesting decision written by Scalia, citing examples of violence from children's fairy tales, that uphold's the 9th Circuit's determination that a California law that would have prohibited the sale or rental of violent games to anyone under 18 is unconstitutional because it violates the First Amendment rights of minors.  "No doubt a state possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm ... But that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed".  The decision did, though, uphold that government may restrict depictions of sexual content from children.  Justices Thomas and Breyer dissented, with Thomas writing "The practices and beliefs of the founding generation establish that 'the freedom of speech,' as originally understood, does not include a right to speak to minors (or a right of minors to access speech) without going through the minors' parents or guardians."

Earth's Date With Asteroid Delayed A Few Hours -- This rock is 15 feet by 60 feet and will come within 7600 miles of Earth. That's pretty close!  If you missed the flyby, there are some images here.

Olympic Hopeful To Sell Tattoo Space On Body -- I would think that tattooing your body with sponsors' logos would somehow be a violation of Olympic rules.

Among The Costs Of War: $20 Billion In Air Conditioning-- "That's more than NASA's budget. It's more than BP has paid so far for damage during the Gulf oil spill. It's what the G-8 has pledged to help foster new democracies in Egypt and Tunisia."

Make Prince Harry our king, say Canadian monarchists -- Canada and Australia (among others) are technically part of the United Kingdom but have no royal presence, so maybe these Canadians are onto something, and this would give Harry something to do instead of just hanging out second in line.

Confederate sub upright for first time since 1864 -- This submarine is considered the first in history to sink an enemy ship. The related article notes that the submarine was raised in August 2000 but has been kept in the same position (that it was found on the ocean floor) since then. This week, over two days, it was rotated to continue the conservation and restoration processes. I'm amazed by the photos because it's shocking how narrow this submarine is in relation the people standing nearby.

Is Obama really a Republican plant?

Is Barack Obama really just a Republican plant?  Has he spent his whole life to become a Democratic president all as part of a sinister scheme by Republicans to make Democrats look bad?  Bob Parks makes a strong tongue-in-cheek case for this notion. 

Obama's Convenient Fantasy

Here's a quote that is one of the most succinct explanations of the problems with the Democrat's plan for health care reform:

There is an element of convenient fantasy as well in Obama's health care statements to date. We are going to save money by spending money. We are going to solve our fiscal problems with a program that will increase the national debt by $1,000,000,000,000 over a decade. We are going to guarantee you can keep your current insurance with a bill that encourages your employer to stop offering it.

The list goes on. We are going to improve health care for seniors by cutting $500,000,000,000 from Medicare. We aren't going to insure illegal aliens, except that we won't have any verification provisions to see that they can't apply and get benefits.

You can read the entire article from Michael Barone in the Washington Examiner here.

Indestructible Mike Malloy

Mike Malloy lived during the Great Depression but had a problem with alcohol.  Four guys in New York City decided to run an insurance scam, take out life insurance policies on him, and then drink him to death in a speakeasy owned by one of the scammers.  The story only gets started there.  There's a Wikipedia entry on Malloy, a New York Daily News story from 2007, and a FindAGrave entry for him, which all provide the details of the different ways the scammers tried to kill Mike Malloy.  The NY Daily News version is very thorough but there are extra facts in the other entries as well.

The Wikipedia entry makes note that this story is clearly the basis for an episode of Steven Spielberg's television series "Amazing Stories" back in the mid-1980s.  I'm amazed to realize that I actually remember that episode.

Don't text and drive!

Let's all learn a lesson from this:  new research shows that texting while driving is more dangerous than driving under the influence of either alcohol or drugs.  In simular tests, response times were slowed by 35% while texting, while only slowed by 21% while under the influence of marijuana and 12% while under the influence of alcohol.  Also, steering control was actually worsened by a whopping 91% by texters while only 35% for those under the influence of marijuana.  The results of the study show that texting affects your hands, your eyes, and your thinking, thus compounding the negative effects.

Obama asked Iraq to delay the withdrawal of US troops?

Today's New York Post reports that Iraqi leaders are saying that when Barack Obama visited the country in July, he made a major point of asking the Iraqis to delay their negotiations to get U.S. troops out of Iraq.    He wanted the Iraqis to wait until after after the U.S. elections and the entry of a new U.S. administration before sealing a deal to end U.S. involvement in Iraq.

The left will say the Bushies and the Iraqis (and the NY Post, for that matter) are conspiring against Barry on this one.  The right will say that it's clear that Barry only wants to get political gain from this and isn't really as concerned about our troops as he acts.  Regardless, it's one of the more interested political stories of the day.  It's worth a read.

The Post makes a good case to say that any attempts to stall negotiations would work out badly and delay the process horribly, possibly putting off a new draft agreement into May of 2010 due to the political process in Iraq, the time it will take any new president to get an Iraq ambassador in place in Baghdad, and the time it takes to hammer out an agreement.  Obama says he wants troops out by 2010, so that timeline doesn't work very well for him.

Obama's votes to allow babies born alive to die?

I was forwarded this YouTube video today by a friend.  I found it disturbing.  It's the testimony of a nurse from Illinois (who has also testified before several legislative bodies to the same effect) who tells of an "abortion" procedure in which labor is induced prematurely, after which the baby born alive is intentionally set aside to die for a period of minutes to up to 8 hours or as long as it takes.  Most poignant is the story in which a fellow nurse didn't have time to oversee the baby's death, so the nurse was taking the baby to the utility closet to leave it there until it died.

According to the video, Barack Obama, while in the Illinois legislature, voted 3 separate times to keep this procedure legal.  Wow!

I haven't fact-checked any of this, and I'm slightly annoyed that the website noted at the video is called "nohussein.org" -- the guy can't help his middle name, so please leave it alone!  The site itself is actually a well put together anti-Obama site that's worth a look.  But regardless, I wanted to put this out there for your consideration.  I guarantee it will bother you regardless of your political bent.

Sarah Palin and McCain-Palin conservatism

I'm always amazed and how much the British media cover US politics, and this presidential election is no different.  And in some degree, the British media can cast the big picture and pull out the issues more succintly than the US press -- maybe that's why Matt Drudge often links to the British press on major US stories.

Today's op-ed piece in the UK Times by Gerard Baker is a great discussion of the Sarah Palin vice presidential pick and what it means.  I recommend you read it.

I also found one of the comments on the story -- written purportedly by someone in Singapore -- very interesting:  "In the weeks before the VP choice, I thought the McCain campaign was clever in planting a trap on the lack of experience, which pushed Obama to accept inexperience and choose experience. Then McCain [chose] change, pushing Obama into a hole still without real experience and change. Brilliant!"  I hadn't noticed that strategy, but it's a good point.

How not to use the drive-thru ATM

Wow -- that trip to the bank went way bad.

In the comments, there are links to a page no longer available that was a news story about this event in Shelby County, Texas, with photos attached.  One of the commenters posted the news article for our reading:

At approximately 3 PM, Tuesday, July 2, a 2008 Dodge Ram 2500, pulling a new travel trailer, hit the corner of the Texas State Bank Drive-In on Tenaha Street, causing the complete awning to come to the ground. Luckily, the driver of the Dodge, Mickey Miller, of Garrison and his 10 year old son were able to exit their vehicle uninjured.

According to Miller he was circling the bank to park on the other side when the corner of his travel trailer caught the corner of the bank awning. Next thing he heard was a rumble as the awning started falling against his driver’s side door. Somehow he was able to unbuckle the seat beat and exit the other side of his truck as it was falling.

Man finishes 13-year trek around the world using only human power

Wow -- check out this video.  This 40-year-old Brit, Jason Lewis, just finished a 13-year human-powered trip around the world.  13 years!  Think what you were doing 13 years ago, and that's when this guy started!

He has a pedal-powered boat he used to cross the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the Indian Ocean (capsizing once the entire trip in the North Atlantic).  Can you imagine the monotony of pedaling all the way across the Pacific?  He hiked, kayaked, and mountain biked his way 46,000 miles.  In the US, both legs were broken by a drunk driver while he was rollerblading, and in the interview, he says he was told one of his legs would have to be amputated, but he somehow made it out with both legs.  In Egypt, he was put in jail, charged with spying after he crossed over from Sudan without permission. 

Noah's Ark restaurant elephant statue causing a stir in St. Louis

Growing up as a kid, we loved to go to St. Louis and eat at the Noah's Ark restaurant.  It was a restaurant in the shape of Noah's Ark with animal statues everywhere.  I have no idea how the food was, but the place is emblazoned in my memory.

Last year, while in St. Louis, I ended up driving past the place.  I'd always wondered what happened to it.   It had been converted to a liquor store.

Now, apparently, it's been torn down.  One of the owners decided to move one of the animal statues to his house, and the neighbors aren't too happy.  Watch the video below and you'll understand why.

David Letterman puts Paris Hilton in the hot seat

If you haven't seen the video of David Letterman showing Paris Hilton for the fool she is, here it is.  It's a must see.  In this day and age when celebrities do stupid things but no one calls them on it, this interview is a breath of fresh air.  We live in a media culture where publicists rule the roost by making rules about what the media cannot ask, and celebrities then get to show up and talk about what they want to talk about with no fear of real questions.  Media types are afraid to break the publicists' rules because they fear they will then be blacklisted and won't have access to the celebrity. 

David Letterman threw that conventional wisdom to the wind and made a great show of it.  The crowd is right there with him as he makes Paris sweat.  Word is Paris was scheduled to appear on his show right at the time all her problems started in Los Angeles, and instead of making the trip to appear with Dave and talk about it then, she cancelled her appearance.  Dave gets his point across a couple of times in the interview when he makes vague comments about how she hasn't been on the show for a long tine and he wishes she could be on the show more often and that he would love for her to stop by more often when she's in town.

This interview is David Letterman at his best, doing what no one else will do and sticking to his guns.  I just wish he would have finished it -- he let her off at the end and did what was expected of him in order to keep his access to her.

60 story home for one family in India

India's richest man plans to build himself a 60-story home in the heart of Mumbai, completely with helipad, health club, hanging gardens and six floors of parking. 

The house is designed to house him, his mother, his wife, his 3 children, and the 600 live-in staff members who watch over them.   Hello?  600 staff members for 6 people? It'll cost about £500 million to build, which calculates out to about $990 million US.

You can click on the concept drawing to right to get a better view of the place.  Local authorities believe this project will inspire other megarich people to build personal skyscrapers. 

Forget "The Secret" and Think Negative

I don't pay much attention to Oprah, but I catch bits and pieces, and the commercials on XM for her channel feature sound bites about "The Secret" and the whole positive thinking cult going on.  Slate offers up another viewpoint and implores Oprah to step in and set the record straight to save the world.

Judges sue dry cleaners for $67 million lost pants damages

[UPDATE:  A DC panel, due to all the bad publicity over this matter, is now considering whether this administrative law judge should be reappointed.]

Stories like this make you embarrassed to be a lawyer.  This Washington, D.C. administrative law judge is suing his local dry cleaners for $67 million over a pair of lost pants.  Yes, what makes it worse is that this isn't some random citizen filing a horrific lawsuit, but actually a lawyer who someone decided had enough credibility and integrity to serve as judge.  Insane.  The article explains how he's calculating his damages, which is ridiculous, that he plans to call 63 witnesses at trial, and that he's even attempted (unsuccessfully) to turn this into a class action suit.

The article also notes the multiple settlement offers made by the dry cleaners, which includes offers up to $12,000 for a purported $800 pair of pants.  Also, the ABC reporting team has done some math of their own and calculated that this judge could get 84,115 pairs of similar pants for his $67 million in damages.  IMHO, based on the facts presented in this story, this ALJ should be removed from the bench for this frivolity.

Massage therapy for Israelis on the battlefield

I have been so disturbed by the Hillary Clinton bust photo that I decided that I must post about something else to calm my nerves.  What better to calm your nerves than this photo of an Israeli solder getting a moment of relaxation on the battlefield while volunteer massage therapy students work on his back.  Just the idea of these college girls wandering the battlefields with massage tables in hand, looking for a soldier to treat, cracks me up.  But, wow, can you imagine being all beat up, with no shower for days, battling the enemy in a crimped, cramped place like a tank with fear of missiles coming your way at any moment, and then these cute little things show up and want to rub your back and your feet.  Great idea!

Hillary's bust

Oh, this one must be a joke.  This photo is a bust (literally) of Hillary Clinton titled "The Presidential Bust of Hillary Rodham Clinton: the First Woman President of the United States of America" now on display at the Museum of Sex in New York City.  Who knew there was even a Museum of Sex in New York? Anyway, you can blame artist Daniel Edwards for this scary moment in American art history.

First day of potty training

Every parent of young children understands the joys and trials of potty training.  Zach is about to get on that train, and figuring out the timing of it all and being patient with it can be such a challenge.  I stumbled upon this funny article today detailing a moment-by-moment account of the first day of potty training with the writer's child.

Save Screech's house

Screech from "Saved by the Bell" fame is being kicked out of his house under a foreclosure.  The 29-year-old comic named Dustin Diamond, never afraid to ask for a handout, is selling t-shirts for $15 ($20 if you want it autographed) on a website called GetDShirts.com in an attempt to come up with $250,000 to pay off the note on his Wisconsin home.  Each shirt has his face on the front and says "I Paid $15 To Save Screech's House".  The concept is hilarious, but hey, if you've have $15-20 to spare, maybe you can help Screech.

Spiffy spy wing to advance possibilities of stealth incursion

This cool 6-foot strap-on wing setup is the latest and greatest way to send troops and spies (think: Alias) into foreign territory without being visible to radar and without using helicopters.  Traveling around 220 mph, special forces units can use these wings to dive into a territory from an airplane up to 120 miles from the target landing spot.  In tests (including a dive across the English Channel), gliders went six feet forward for every one foot drop and then used parachutes once arriving at the target, being virtually silent the entire trip.  Cool stuff!  The divers can also store all kinds of equipment and food inside the wing.  Military researchers are now trying to add minijets to the wings to increase the speed and distance even more.

Pilot performs emergency landing while having heart attack

Here's a hero for you -- Jack Francis, aged 61, was flying a single-engine Cessna carrying his wife and another couple when he suffered a heart attack.  Mr. Francis, despite the heart attack, performed an emergency landing on Highway 30 in Utah.  He was then taken to the hospital where he later died. According to the Utah Highway Patrol spokesman,  "He basically saved these other three peoples' lives by landing the plane on the highway.''

Teens shooting exotic cars

It's rare for me to spend the time to read 3 pages of a news story on a website, but this story about the Los Angeles teens who videotape exotic cars is enthralling.  These guys, from ages 9 to 14, spend time together and with their parents, seeking out million dollar cars just to get them on camera and video.  That's a hobby I never imagined when I was a kid, but it sounds like it would be fun.  But, of course, you have to live in the right area to get those kinds of shots, and these guys are all about the location out in the wealthier digs of Los Angeles.

Tip: Don't write personal comments about customers on receipts that they will see

Did you hear about the lawsuits against Walgreens?  Apparently, Walgreens pharmacy staff were making personal notes about customers and their demeanor in their computer system, and these notes were accidentally printed off and stapled to their prescription bags.  Imagine reading that the pharmacy staff has noted that you are "psycho" or "crazy" or "shady" (or worse -- read the linked article) in their nationwide computer system.  Anyone in a service industry has had experiences with customers where you thought such things, but Walgreens actually made the mistake of writing down those thoughts.

New York Times seems to miss lots of facts

Ever read the New York Times corrections page?  Neither have I.  But today's made big news because it notes that their story about a Hurricane Katrina victim from Biloxi, Mississippi, who was pent up in a Queens hotel and frustrated about not being able to get her federal aid, was completely wrong -- she wasn't a Katrina victim, she's not from Biloxi, Mississippi, and she's been picked up by the feds for welfare fraud and grand larcency.

But read the rest of the corrections -- they're hilarious!  My favorite is the correction of the obituary of the doctor who was killed by a crocodile while on safari in Botswana.  They also reported that John Coltrane once lived somewhere when he never did in actuality, and they called Lincolns' SUV an Escalade.  Hello .... who doesn't know that an Escalade is a Cadillac?

IRS opens door for tax preparers to sell data

Wow!  Talk about privacy violation -- imagine your tax preparer being able to sell information from your tax return!  Some critics of new IRS regulations set to be promulgated say this is just what could happen when you sign a stack of papers your tax prepared puts before you as you're rushing to meet the tax deadline.  The new regulations, designed to help you protect your privacy rights, make it clear that your privacy rights are intact so long as you don't sign them away.  But privacy experts are saying that this language opens the door for tax preparers to get written consent to distribute your information by mixing the consent language into the shuffle of papers we sign for tax day.

Man Shot In Accident After Laughing At Cheney

"What goes around, comes around" -- isn't that what they say?

Gonzaga Students Asked To Stop Yelling 'Brokeback Mountain'

The students of Gonzaga University have been asked by faculty, staff and sports supporters to not chant "Brokeback Mountain" at opposing players during this weekend's televised game against Stanford.  In high school, we came up with all kinds of creative things to chant at basketball games, but whoever came up with "Brokeback Mountain" as a chant was very creative.  I thought it was funny, simply because it's such a random thing to yell at opposing basketball players, but apparently the politically correct educational institution crowd thinks it's discriminatory.  OK -- maybe it is -- but it's still funny.

A Question of Priorities

A ruckus has arisen in a quiet suburban Chicago high school because the school play was cancelled when the principal found out that the students had rehearsed in their underwear. The students at Glenbard West High School claim that they were using an old theater tradition designed to help one overcome stage fright.  You've got to wonder who put that idea in their head.  The girls wore togas, and the guys wore boxer shorts at the underwear rehearsal.  All four showings of the play were cancelled, and parents and students are up in arms because, comparing themselves to high school basketball players who get in trouble, the punishment has cancelled their whole "season" instead of just punishing them with a suspension of some sort.

The play they were performing is called Raised in Captivity, and is described as an "edgy play about homosexuality."  Shouldn't these parents, educators and administrators be just as concerned that their high school students are performing an "edgy play about homosexuality" at the encouragement of whoever is running their high school theater department?

Italian judge hears oral argument on case centered on the existence of Jesus of Nazareth

In the continuing saga of the Italian litigation that revolves around the question of whether Jesus Christ ever existed, the judge has heard oral arguments in a closed-door hearing as to whether the case should move forward.  An Italian priest is being accused by a local atheist of violating two Italian laws by perpetuating the idea that Jesus Christ existed and thus deceiving the people for personal gain. 

Oddly enough, the man with his hands raised to the sky here is NOT the priest, but it's actually the atheist, Mr. Cascioli.  For an atheist, this photo makes him look a little like a Christian charismatic.  He has a website where he tracks what's happening with the case, and he also shares some facts about himself and his atheism.  Also, I've noted here before that the atheist here does have a slight bias in the matter. He's recently published a book titled 'La favola di Cristo' (of "The Fable of Christ"),about this John of Gamala theory, and this whole lawsuit might just be one big publicity stunt to get attention.  If so, it's working.  You can find information about the book at his website as well, and you can also tell from the website that he's sucking up this publicity for all it's worth.

My legal read of this article is that the case appears to be at a pre-trial "motion to dismiss" or "motion for summary judgment" moment, where the attorney representing the priest accused in the case has filed a motion to stop the case before it goes to trial because the priest has sufficient facts to show that he would win no matter what evidence was presented against him.  These most recent arguments before the court were properly arguments by the priest's attorney that the facts to support the existence of Christ are so evident that moving ahead with the case and determining whether his client has done anything wrong under the law is unnecessary.

Central to the atheist's arguments are that Jesus of Nazareth as we know him through Scripture never actually existed, and that no such person was born to Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem or lived in Nazareth.  Instead, he argues that the Roman Catholic Church has perpetuated a myth that is actually stories based on the life of a man named John of Gamala, the son of Judas of Gamala.  The priest's attorney argues that the priest's stance is that Jesus of Nazareth was actually a human who did exist in history, but that the matters of what his name was, who his parents were and where he lived are secondary to the actual fact that he did live.  So, under this theory, they are arguing that even if the atheist's "John of Gamala" theory is correct, then the priest still wins because if the stories of Jesus are based on any one human's life (regardless of what that person was known as in his day), then he's not telling falsehoods.  That's a novel legal argument that might actually work.

Iranian president driven to fulfill Muslim prophecy

The Iranian president's wild and crazy statements and behavior are apparently driven by his desire to help fulfill a Muslim "messiah" prophecy.  I've never heard of such a thing, but this news story connecting the dots is very interesting.  The scary part is that this messiah's coming is preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed, which could easily be brought on by allowing this man to develp nuclear weapons.   

The dangers of hibachi

Cause of death: ducking flying shrimp. 

Now for something completely diferent ....

This Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie stuff is hilarious -- no soap opera writer could have imagined such a twisted web.  I'm not really that much of a celebrity watcher, but this one cracks me up.

Brad leaves Jennifer for Angelina (which at the time, I truly thought was just a promotional tool for their movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, but the divorce killed that theory).  Then, Brad and Angelina whoop it up for a while.  Now, as I saw in the grocery store aisle this morning, Brad is apparently making a move to formally adopt Angelina's adopted children.  But, then, just today, we get notice from the British press that Angelina has a lesbian lover from the past who considers their relationship as ongoing.  What?!?!?! 

I mean, I don't doubt that Angelina is bisexual or has had a lesbian lover -- anyone who knows anything about Angelina would not be surprised by such a revelation.  But this whole thing just can't get any crazier.  Not to mention the fact (I guess I'm mentioning it, aren't I?) that this purported lesbian lover is definitely not the most attractive woman.  I remember that Calvin Klein ad she was in, and I truly couldn't determine back then whether she was a man or a woman.  Now she's apparently a pretty well-known model, and she definitely has a feminine side that she's shown in some shots (although some are VERY not safe for work), but at the same time, this same model got "married" on reality TV to another woman last year.

Stay tuned, folks!  This could get fun.

Woman mistakes cheese for cocaine -- hilarity ensues

Words to the wise: 1) don't mistake Mexican cheese for cocaine, and 2) always confirm credentials when hiring a hitman  Follow this advice, and all will go well for you in this world.  Thanks to my friend Clayton Waldie for this link.

Some SBU clarifications

I just wanted to make a few clarifications regarding the Reacher's blog entry and my responsive blog entry (which has been surprisingly popular and led to the most comments I've received on any blog post).  I think there's a little confusion about my stances as well as the facts about the happenings at Southwest Baptist University, plus I also hear that some other blogs are spreading some mistruths.

1) Dr. Huser was offered early retirement last year along with three other faculty members.  No one was being "forced out" but instead an opportunity to step out gracefully was offered.  Dr. Huser declined that offer.  At least one, Dr. Dan Cochran, one of my favorite professors in my time at SBU, did accept the offer and retired early from his position at SBU, although it's odd that there's no mention of a "Dr. C" in the Reacher's original post.

2) Dr. Huser was again offered early retirement this year along with three other faculty members, and this time, he accepted.

3) Dr. Huser was not fired.  He accepted an offer to walk away gracefully, and I respect his willingness to do so.

4) Dr. Huser's Darwinist beliefs had nothing to do with his leaving.  While his beliefs and his teachings have fueled debate for many moons at SBU and within the local Baptist community, my understanding is that those beliefs and his teachings did not lead to the offer for early retirement.  And, to be clear on my stance with Dr. Huser, I totally respect the man's intellect, but I do believe he is/was teaching at the wrong institution.   And as for those who, in his case, are arguing for academic freedom, who fear that Christian universities allow no room for free thinking, and who are taking this opportunity to beat the drum of oppression of liberal thought, I must dissent.  Although I had only one class with Dr. Huser, which was "Earth Science", the most basic of science courses, I found his teaching and his curriculum to be one of the most regurgitative courses of my university years -- if anything, his class was the fulfillment of every fear of the "thought police" in that he would consistently rebuff any attempts to bring any opposing ideas into the classroom that did not skew with his naturalist worldview.

5) Dr. Huser is not filing any type of grievance against the university.  I don't know where this rumor came from, but it's come up, and it's not true.

6) The "powers that be" at SBU are in no way seeking out or hunting down those who express "academic freedom" outside the realm of what one would consider conservative Baptist thought.  Academic freedom is alive and well at SBU, as is evident in that the Reacher's identity is no secret on campus, but he maintains his faculty role with no limitations whatsoever.  If the "liberals" feel oppressed and alone, they should try walking a mile in the shoes of a "fundamentalist" on the SBU campus -- it is just as lonely an experience.  The semantical and theological battles within the Southern Baptist Convention appear to be here to stay, and until the day everybody can get along (which I don't see happening when basic theological points are in question) or one side walks away, there will always be both "fundies" and "libs" in every Southern Baptist institution.

7) I in no way "condemn" the Reacher himself, or for that matter, Dr. Huser.  The Reacher commented on my last post as follows:

I'm glad to see that you don't condemn me or Dr. H, even though you think we're full of bull, should be purged from the University, and have no regard for the denomination's view of science.

Smile, God loves you.

I read this as a tongue-in-cheek statement that he believes that I do actually condemn him and Dr. Huser.  This is completely untrue, and if he believes this, I encourage him to rethink this belief.  In law school, one of the biggest things we learned was how to "disagree without being disagreeable", and while in law school and since in the legal profession, I have experienced that maxim in reality. 

I am great friends with people I wholeheartedly disagree with on many issues, and I have many a head-to-head intellectual battle, in political, religious, and legal discussions.  But simply because I disagree with someone, especially a Christian brother, does not mean I condemn them. 

Condemnation is an outright expression of absolute disregard for another person, and  I have not expressed this about the Reacher or Dr. Huser.  Heck, I don't even know the Reacher, so I honestly have no opinion whatsoever on him.  I just responded to his polarization of fundamentalists and his attempts to show Dr. Huser as an innocent in these matters, but I know nothing of him beyond that and his apparent association with Dr. Huser's views through his blog post. 

The Reacher is correct -- I do believe some of Dr. Huser's scientific views are bull, and I do believe that Dr. Huser's evolutionary teachings (with no expression of or room for balance in a Christian educational environment) should be purged from the university, and I believe that he has no regard for the denominations view of science.  But, in no way does that mean that I "condemn" Dr. Huser or the Reacher.  I can disagree wholeheartedly and express my disagreement strongly, but that's not condemnation by any means.

And, lastly, I would like to make one more point about Dr. Huser.  I mean Dr. Huser no ill will.  And if I have characterized his views incorrectly, I do apologize.  In my experiences with Dr. Huser in both education and personal settings, it was clear to me that his views of origins theory were that of a "Darwinian naturalist," meaning that the universe was formed through random and unguided processes.  At the same time, I will acknowledge that in those years of time around him, I was a staunch young earth creationist, and I could have easily misinterpreted his views.  Dr. Huser may actually be an old earth creationist, and if so, I have no qualms with him in the realm of Christian orthodoxy.  While I still don't feel he offered any balance of thought in his classroom for any views other than his own, which is my real issue with Dr. Huser in the one semester I took part in one of his courses, I hold nothing personal against Dr. Huser and I wish him the best.

And one last thing about myself.  Please, if you choose to comment, don't talk down to me about liberal thought or academic freedom or about the "grey areas" of Christianity, and please don't treat me like you know me and make assumptions of my beliefs or opinions if you haven't sat down and worked through a practical theological discussion with me. I'm a much broader personality than I can express in one or two blog entries, I will readily admit that I don't have it all figured out, and if you don't know me, don't turn me into a "strawman" you can knock down.  In the same way that I've really not expressed any opinions about the Reacher himself because I don't know him at all except his posts (and yes, I do know his identity), please give me the same grace.

Ouch!

Ouch!  This link gives you one more reason to not expose yourself in public (like you needed another reason).

This Christmas' top 10 most dangerous toys

CNN has catalogued the top 10 most dangerous toys this Christmas season, and has provided a photo gallery of them as well.  The list includes a crossbow, a paint gun, a beam blaster, anti-gravity boots, giant fighting hands from the Thing of Fantastic Four fame, some cute little horses and several baby dolls.  Fun stuff!

The Passing of a Great Man: Kyle Lake

Kyle Lake, a friend of mine from my Kids Across America days and a frontrunner in the postmodern "emerging church" movement, died this morning, electrocuted while using a microphone during a baptism in front of about 800 people.  I was very upset to read this story on the Internet, which I happened upon simply because the Drudge Report linked to the story.

Kyle went to Baylor University, and afterwards pastored at University Baptist Church there in Waco, Texas.  Many people know University Baptist Church because it's also the church where David Crowder leads music.  Crowder is the leader of the David Crowder Band, one of the freshest, most creative and energetic bands in contemporary Christian music today.

As I said, we worked together in my days at Kids Across America, a camp in southwest Missouri for inner-city kids, and back then, he was a college soccer player (like me, but he was better than I) who lived with integrity and wisdom and knew Scripture well.  He had a great smile and a great attitude about life, and he was good at connected with the kids we worked with. We spent some fun time together on our time off a few times, and I always enjoyed my time around Kyle.

This year, I reconnected with Kyle after about 10 years.  Recently, I started noticing that Relevant Magazine repeatedly quoted and published well-written articles by a Kyle Lake, pastor of University Baptist Church.  I was intrigued and wondered if it was the same guy.   I did a little Internet research and finally discovered a photo of the University Baptist Kyle Lake and was excited to discover it was the same guy (looking a little hipper than he did in college).  I then did some hunting and found an email address for him, and we exchanged several emails of catching up on what's going on with each other. 

I had hopes of sometime making it to Waco to see the exciting things at University Baptist and catching up in person.  I'd even picked up one of his books -- he'd published two, Understanding God's Will: How To Hack The Equation Without Formulas and the just-released (Re)understanding Prayer: A Fresh Approach to Conversation With God -- and it's sitting on my nightstand right now, half-read.  Now, tonight, I sit here shocked to hear that my friend has died, sitting amazed at the odd circumstances of our world, being reminded by God of the shortness of this life -- even my life and the lives of those I know.

Kyle, age 33, leaves behind a wife he loved dearly, three children, and an awesome church, all of whom will deeply grieve his death.  I pray that his children will remember him and will grow up hearing from others how excellent of a man their father was.  And I pray peace for his wife, knowing that her husband is in heaven and that he loves her and their children very much.  Though none of them will likely ever read this, I'm sending my prayers out for them tonight.  I hope you'll do the same.

A Category 5 coming to Missouri?

If you look closely at this computer model of possible paths of Hurricane Rita, there is a chance that we here in southwest Missouri might actually get a sampling of a Category 5 hurricane, or at least its aftermath.  That would be wild!

Yes, Hurricane Rita is now a Category 5 storm, and the press is loving it.  Opie & Anthony, on XM Radio 202, were laughing this morning at how the networks are actually running realtime satellite imagery of the hurricane in a little window during the network morning shows, keeping close watch on this hurricane moving VERY slowly at 3 mph and not even expected to hit land until Saturday.  By the time the hurricane hits, they will have actually been talking about this storm for over a week.  Talk about overkill!  Yes, the media can tease a hurricane as a story for over a week.  O&A were laughing, comparing this to the "oldern" days when people had no idea a hurricane was on the way and then ended up strapping themselves to a tree mid-storm once the 100-mph winds hit.  How times have changed!  Now, the oil companies even have an entire week of advance notice to jack up oil prices just in case the storm thinks about affecting any oil refineries in the Gulf.

Tie for Moron of the Week

Well, the votes are counted, and there is a tie this week for Moron of the Week:

1) First is New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who wants to move one-third of New Orleans' residents back in the next week.  The city has limited clean water for drinking and bathing and has severe problems in other areas, and all the citizens returned would have to be trained in ways to make sure they don't get sick from water problems.  The feds are urging the mayor to extend his timeline.

2) Second is Cindy Sheehan, the anti-war protesting mom, now being employed by the Speaker's Bureau and using Arianna Huffington's and Michael Moore's websites as soapboxes, who has called has called on President Bush to, among other things, "pull [US] troops out of occupied New Orleans."

Egyptian university student arrested after discovery of pilot's uniform

These types of story are just scary, aren't they?

On the one hand, this guy was most likely planning a terror attack some other form of wrongdoing.  If not, why else would someone not a pilot have a pilot's uniform, a map of the Memphis airport, and the DVD "How an Airline Captain Should Look and Act" in his possession.

On the other hand, this scenario is the perfect way to destroy the life of a Middle Eastern person you hate. If you planted those three items in any Middle Eastern student's apartment and then made an anonymous tip to the FBI, he would have little or no chance of ever getting out from under suspicions.

Great response to the left's attacks on Bush

Here's one commentator's response to the left's vulturous attacks on President Bush and his administration.  It's a great overarching response to the full-blazes fire of the left, taking advantange of peoples' suffering (once again) for political purposes.  This one is worth reading.

New Orleans to Now Be Treated as a Combat Zone

Now that all the law-abiding citizens have been evacuated, the Army is now treating New Orleans as a combat zone, much in the mold of the Somalia urban warfare street gang engagements. It is wild to think that New Orleans has descended into such anarchy that the Army is now sending troops in Humvees, Black Hawks and Chinooks to take the city back from the thugs who are left behind. Say Spc. Philip Baccus of the 527th Engineer Battalion:

“I never thought that as a National Guardsman I would be shot at by other Americans. And I never thought I’d have to carry a rifle when on a hurricane relief mission. This is a disgrace.”

And Spc. Cliff Ferguson of the 527th Engineer Battalion repeated similar sentiments:

“This is making a lot of us think about not reenlisting. You have to think about whether it is worth risking your neck for someone who will turn around and shoot at you. We didn’t come here to fight a war. We came here to help.”