October 1st, 2005... Grandpa John turns 59.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

I'm not sending a card until you start blogging again.

For several years I worked in a county health care facility. Since I ‘floated’, I often was called to work in one of the psychiatric units. (As a matter of fact, I met my wife on the geriatric psych unit. As I recall, she confused me for a patient and came after me with a syringe load of Thorazine.) At any rate, the conversations with patients on these units were quite strange. Quite often there was no connection at all, either between persons or with any discernable reality in the local environment.

Each of these patients had been seen by numerous psychiatrists and other professionals. Each had a specific diagnosis. It was no surprise, therefore, when their speech, logic, and rationale seemed to originate from a moon of Uranus.

It seems that somewhere along the line these people have been released from our county facility as well as similar facilities around the country. Many appear to have gotten jobs as journalists, blog regularly, and frequently protest loudly the issue de jour. Their environment has changed, but their speech, logic, and rationale remain intact. They are popularly termed moonbats and their speech overflows with emotion and volume, but cannot be understood or reasoned through by average Earthlings.

R.J. Rushdoony predicted their evolutionary arrival in Politics of Guilt and Pity, written 35 years ago. He goes into deep detail, but I would like to excerpt a few statements that would allow the reader to recognize the rise of the moonbats from Uranus.

“The fact of guilt is one of the major realities of man’s existence. Both personally and socially, it is a vast drain on human energies and a mainspring of human action.”

“The human race, in apostasy from God, is deeply involved in a rebellious claim to autonomy and in guilt which follows that claim. As a result of this omnipresent sense of guilt, there is an omnipresent demand for justification.”

“This concern is a demand for salvation: the sinking ego wants to save itself, to find justification by making atonement for its guilt.”

“A common recourse is to self-atonement and self-justification. A modern term for such behavior is masochism.”

“Unconsciously these people inflict punishments on themselves to which an inner court has sentenced them.” (Theodor Reik)

“Masochistic self-punishment in atonement for sin appears in a variety of ways...psychosomatic ailments are a common masochistic recourse... ‘If I suffer enough, I will pay for my sins.’”

“...gambling is a common and popular exercise in masochism.”

“...alcoholism is another form of self-punishment, and marriage to a known alcoholic is similarly masochistic activity.”

“...still another form of masochism is ‘burden-bearing’. The burden-bearer will play the role of public saint in order to atone for private guilt... and the guilty white men will show ‘love’ and ‘concern’ for Negroes and other such persons who are in actuality repulsive and intolerable to them.”

“...’injustice-collecting’ has been rightly described by Reik and Bergler as an important aspect of masochism. The injustice collector systematically finds ‘pleasure in displeasure,’ places himself in positions where he will be sure to feel offended, and then self-righteously sees himself as one sinned against...”

“...the will to failure ...”

“...suicidal activity. Many persons do not reveal their personal masochism, but they do participate in mass masochism through political and economic views and activities calculated to fulfill the urge to mass destruction.” “Victory through defeat becomes the goal.” (Warner) “The politics and the economics of the modern era are increasingly dominated by this ...”

“A form of activity closely related to masochism... is sadism... transfer of guilt to an innocent party. It is a form of revenge...”

“The need for atonement, the need for cleansing, and for purity,...the advertising industry is well aware of it. In 1959, a new soap became a best seller with a very direct television appeal to this hunger for cleansing: ‘For the first time in your life, feel really clean–Use Zest.’”

“In the politics of guilt... he will progressively demand of the state a redemptive role... so that the state, as man enlarged, becomes the human savior of man.”

“Communism has used moral nihilism to prepare the way for passive political slavery: guilty men are more docile slaves.”

“...the caretaker state masks its tyrannical love under the name of ‘social justice.’”

“In the United States, as the nation has departed progressively from God, it has indulged progressively in a ‘debunking’ of its history, in a general confession of many past faults, some often imagined. The hypocrisy of such confession is striking: by confessing the ‘sins’ of past generation, the present scholar or generation thereby implies its own superior virtues and its innocence of the sins. By the fact of such ‘debunking’ or confession, it confesses also, very modestly, that wisdom is now born to us and is among us, ...”

“...the development by systematic indoctrination of a bad conscience. The political cultivation of guilt is a central means to power, for guilty men are slaves; their conscience is in bondage, and hence they are easily make objects of control. Several instances... the white man is being systematically indoctrinated into believing that he is guilty of enslaving and abusing the Negro.”

“... repeatedly assure that American history is a long account of guilt, towards Indian, Negroes, minority groups, labor, Mexico, and ultimately, all the world as well for refusing to enter the League of Nations. This is defective history and perverse politics. Its purpose is the cultivation of guilt in order to produce a submissive populace.”

“... is guilty because he is a Christian... the Christian has no right to his identity. The principles of the atheist must govern state and school...”

“... second form of slavery, state ownership,...”

“The purpose of the U.S. Constitution was to confirm the freedom of the people by binding the new federal government by the chains of the Constitution. The federal government was to be chained so that the people might be free. Today, it is the people who are progressively enslaved.”

“Slave minds...are guilty ones as well, guilt-ridden, shame-ridden and hence hungry for refuge and security... and to have the people themselves demand an end to liberty... their greatest fear is liberty. Freedom imposes an impossible burden upon them.”

“When hell drops out of religion, justice drops out of politics.” (Storrs)

“...false responsibility... men are told that they are guilty if they fail to provide for all the needs of the world.”

“Rebellious man is characterized by what Spengler, with another context in mind, called the ‘dread of reality’... a fear of the real world of God and an insistence that the dream world of reason must supplant it because the dream is the reality... has been the blindest person of the modern world by his studied hostility to the real world...unwillingness to see...intellectual has been unequaled in his insistence on the total equality of all men, while at the same time maintaining that he constitutes the elite which should rule and remake all things.”

“But the claim to exercise universal jurisdiction and the wisdom and ability to exercise this prerogative are two different things. For a man with all the limitations of man to claim to be as God is to indulge in a dangerous fantasy; for a state, with all the limitations of man compounded, but the power of the sword added to it, to claim to be as God is desperately dangerous and suicidal as well.”

Now the moonbats have arisen, from muck to man (with vestigial muck for brains), like 17-year locusts, irritatingly loud in their irrational complainings as cicadas on a warm summer day. Watching their ranting is much like seeing an undisciplined, spoiled brat misbehaving in a grocery store, bringing shame to his mother while annoying all within a several city block area. Evolutionarily speaking, their only hope is passing on their genetics to the next generation under the security of womb-to-tomb government while striving to feel good about themselves and their amoral superiority.

I like Ann Althouse, but this post made me laugh from the moment I saw the title: Is there a squirrel in my house?

It would be brilliant comedy, except that I think she's serious.

UPDATE - the comments to that post are hilarious.

I often have used the phrase, '... and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee' quite regularly to illustrate the futility of some statements. For example, someone might have told me that BillyBob had a lot of potential. I would usually reply, "Potential and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee."

Today Limbaugh, in demonstrating the mighty strength of Senator Schumer's single vote said, "That and $5.00 will get you a cup of coffee at Starbuck's." Jeez, I really have to update my illustrations according to inflation. Either that or actually go to a Starbuck's. (And to some of you elders, I actually believed Mrs. Olson when she said that Folgers is the richest kind!)

Where is the ACLU when you need it?

I was able to listen to a portion of the swearing in ceremony of Chief Justice John Roberts this afternoon. I just caught the end of President Bush’s statement as he turned the rite over to Justice John Paul Stevens. Justice Stevens led Chief Justice Roberts in the oath of office. Stevens’ voice lowered (and I think he nearly choked) while delivering the final sentence, “So help me, God.” I didn’t realize that Justice John Paul Stevens was a dominionist.

But do they give scholarships?

LONDON (AFP) - A British university has launched a three-year degree course in the hunt for life beyond the planet Earth.

The University of Glamorgan this week launched what it said was Britain's first undergraduate course in astrobiology, the search for extraterrestrial life.

It cited the recent excitement over the possibility of finding life on Saturn's moon Titan as an example of how the search for life beyond Earth is a "major driving force" behind current space programs.

About half a dozen people enrolled this week in the degree course, which will encompass topics like "Exploring the Sky," "Vertebrate Zoology," "Science and the Media," and "Life in the Universe", the university said.

Course leader Professor Mark Brake said there was massive interest in the topic. About 100 people in the local community are studying aspects of the subject.

Though the course will examine popular culture, including films like "ET," students will also study obscure texts, work in laboratories and conduct stargazing.

"People's interest in quite serious and scientific sober issues is often sparked by popular culture," Brake said.

An actor playing Chewbacca throws out the ceremonial first pitch prior to a game between the Boston Red Sox and Toronto Blue Jays Fenway Park in Boston, Wednesday Sept. 28, 2005. Chewbacca and an actress playing Princess Leia were promoting the Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination exhibit at the Museum of Science in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Brooks Bollinger is starting for the Jets on Sunday.

Dr. Sanity has excerpted an article by James Pierson concerning the changes in thinking within the ivory towered world of the university intellectual over the past century. Both Pierson and Santy have nailed it accurately. It briefly outlines the transformations of classic liberals as they have evolved into moonbats and paints a picture of entropy-powered intellectual de-evolution; the Poison Ivy League.

(Pierson)“In many important ways, the left university reversed or modified the assumptions and practices of the liberal university. The architects of the liberal university were optimistic about the prospects for the nation, and looked ahead to the progressive advancement of democracy and liberty, but the leaders of the left university are dour and pessimistic and view our history as a tale of oppression. The liberal academics believed in progress through the application of reason and knowledge, but the academic left asserted that reason and knowledge were masks for corporate or conservative interests. Yet, while the old liberals carved out a role in politics for experts and expert knowledge, the left disdained expertise and embraced the doctrine of diversity, which is based on the naked assertion of group interests. The liberals believed in academic freedom for all, but the academic leftists support academic freedom only for themselves, not for conservative or moderate faculty, not for speakers who disagree with them, and not for students who wish to learn from a nonideological standpoint. The liberals of a century ago took over the university with an intellectual vision grounded in 19th-century philosophy, while the radicals of our time seized control through politics and political pressure by organizing demonstrations and protests and by shrewdly leveraging assistance from governmental regulatory bodies.”

Dr. Santy adds: "This is one of the best articles I have read that evaluates the factors in the last 60 years or so that have transformed the intellectual pursuits of academic centers in this country into centers of politically correctness and oppression of free thought."

"As Pierson correctly notes, events have transpired in the world of reality that these so-called "intellectuals" have not been able to accept or even understand. In their minds, the collapse of the Soviet Union and communism was an unforseen disaster that they still are unable to comprehend or accept. The failure of socialism and the welfare state and the continued erosion of life in those nations that embrace it; as well as the rise and resilience of the U.S. and the market economy to world-wide dominance was not predicted by their ideologies (remember "we will bury you"?). That the policies of George W. Bush should unleash a storm of freedom and democracy across the world is the final insult to their intellectual aspirations, and has unleashed their rage as well as their intense anxiety and fear."

She goes on to point out, "This is not to say that there is, or should be, a movement to create a "university of the Right" -- that is not the goal of expunging the Left's pervasive and destructive influence; nor would it be a good thing. The cure for the sickness brought into academia by the Left is simply a return to the ideals of pursuing truth and knowledge--which is not held captive by either the "Left" or "Right" -- and a commitment to the only kind of diversity that matters--the diversity of ideas and thought."

She is absolutely right, but her requirement will find its difficulty in another 'evolution' that has also occurred during the past century. During this same period of time, our culture has 'outgrown' its Christian roots, with its stated ideal of serving others for God's glory, into a modernist/post-modernist amalgam of self-deifying individuals, with elastic ideals to serve with any means deemed necessary. Power is the god of the day and it has no greater preference for either left or right politics. Its adherents on the right will serve it in a similar way to those on the left, running over any boundaries suggested by those of Dr. Santy's ilk. There exists in Washington, D.C. a treasure trove of power and the battle to wield it will be fierce.

Had this environment existed after the American Revolution, George Washington would have served 7 terms and bequeathed the divine right of power so that we might have a President George Washington IX today. Fortunately, it didn't exist then, but in our evolution over the past century we have outgrown the reason for Washington's piety, integrity, and humility.

Adult Stem Cells Repair a Human Spinal Cord Injury?

Some months ago Korean researchers claimed to have allowed a paraplegic of 19 years, a 37-year-old woman, to walk again with a treatment that included an injection of umbilical cord stem cells into the injured area. At first I welcomed this development with open arms, then since nothing was appearing in a peer-reviewed medical journal I became skeptical. Well, it's appeared. Specifically, it's in the latest issue (Sept. 2005) of Cytotherapy. "The patient could move her hips and feel her hip skin on day 15 after transplantation," wrote the researchers. "On day 25 after transplantation her feet responded to stimulation. On post operative day (POD) 7, motor activity was noticed and improved gradually in her lumbar paravertebral and hip muscles." She could soon maintain an upright position by herself. "41 days after [stem cell] transplantation" testing "also showed regeneration of the spinal cord at the injured cite" and below it.

At a press conference, the woman demonstrated that she could walk with the help of a walking frame.

My thanks to Wesley J. Smith for bringing this to my attention, and he cautiously notes "one patient" doesn't equal "treatment." I also remain a bit skeptical because after 19 years, no matter how much physical therapy you get, your muscles atrophy to mush. A perfect repair of the spine can't overcome this although with enough time and effort a person could get her muscles back in shape. But we know that similar results in spinal repair have come from animal experiments. Whatever happens in this case, adult stem cells will eventually allow those with paralysis to walk again.

Far be it from me to stoke the fires of rebellion, but I am obligated to report the news. Please don't shoot the messenger, especially y'all at Badger Blog Alliance. Steve Stanek of the Heartland Institute has exposed one of the great evils of our time.

"President George H.W. Bush and Congress in 1990 raised a host of excise taxes on "luxury" items including expensive cars, fur coats, jewelry, yachts, and private airplanes. Included in the list of luxury items was beer, which at the time saw a doubling of the federal excise tax, from $9 to $18 a barrel."

"Fifteen years later, the taxes on expensive cars, fur coats, jewelry, yachts, and private airplanes have been rolled back. The beer tax remains, even though the main purchasers of beer are lower- and middle-income consumers. Taxes make up an astounding 44 percent of the retail price of beer, according to the Beer Institute."

Please, ladies and gentlemen, replace the pins in those grenades and holster those sidearms!

(H.T. to John Ray of Dissecting Leftism.)

On the front page of the Wisconsin State Journal today is a photograph entitled, "Hurricane Rita, The Predictions are Dire." This picture is of a lady in a long check out line in a Pasadena, Texas, convenience store, her arms full of food and drinks. Behind her in that long line are fellow customers also burdened with articles to purchase. The difference is, however, that all the others are loaded down with beer. Those wacky Texans. No wonder we love Owen, Jed, and Wendy of Boots & Sabers so much!

Wendy's got some good advice over at Boots & Sabers:

If you don't know how to hotwire a car, for crying out loud, don't try it because you ruin it for everyone else.

Scrappleface, always a hoot, uses this faux quote, "...said public educators "pay lip service to 'survival of the fittest', but when it comes to the legal system, we put the best predators behind bars and play nursemaid to the weak, crippled and pathetic creatures who should be culled from the herd.""

Well spoken, Scrap! The 'science' of evolution should be such an inspiration to any aspiring young Hitlerian movers and shakers out there.

At least Uncle Leroy can still hold his liquor better that Cole!

Grandma Linda, Grandma Linda... Grandpa Steve taught me what to do if a boy tries to get fresh with me!!!

Float like a butterfly... bob and weave... feint with the left... overhand right... Hai-Yaa!

Kerr-Poww!

Da-da-DAAA... Da-da-DAAAA! Rocky... Rocky... Morgan... Morgan!

Thomas Sowell's Random Thoughts today is again very good. Here's a taste:

"When Ronald Reagan said that the government was spending money like a drunken sailor, he apologized to the sailors, who were after all spending their own money."

Ron Dayne made Tuesday Morning Quarterback!

Sweet Play of the Week No. 3: Game tied at 17, Denver faced fourth-and-1 on the San Diego 33 with 57 seconds remaining. Yours truly expected a 50-yard field goal attempt; kicks fly pretty well in the thin Colorado air. Instead, the Broncos faked up the middle and then did a backhand flip to Ron Dayne, whose 10-yard run not only positioned Denver for a shorter winning kick, but allowed the hosts to grind all but the final seconds of the clock.

There he goes!

We must teach the science of evolution only in our classrooms.

It's International Talk like a Pirate Day.

I know, because every single blog in the universe has announced it.

Does anybody know when "Talk Like a Yooper Day" is? I need to pick up a couple of cards.

I enjoyed this cartoon that I saw on Dr. Sanity's blog. I especially got a kick out of the caricature of Teddy Kennedy on the lower right.

"Text interpreted out of its context produces a pretext." "Text extracted from context yields a con." I have often heard these trite aphorisms in reference to Biblical interpretation, but similar principles also apply in assessing a culture or divisions within that society.

Compartmentalization and specialization are necessary and useful tools toward a culture’s progress as long as the total accumulation of these separate divisions of labor cooperate toward that success . Very often this cooperation is coerced by checks and balances operating between them. However, when one or more of these stake their parameters well beyond the reasonable boundaries of their specialized arena and inoculate themselves from the logically applied opposition of the others, that society begins to ‘balkanize’ and deteriorate. Text is taken out of context.

As balkans begin to form, the major motivation for each is a lust for dominion. In many cultures power accumulation is sought by means of weapons, in ours, by means of politics. The political sphere has become the compartment ‘expanding its tent’ through which it attempts to drive stakes into the hearts of competitors. The viciousness of the struggle for supremacy has increased in proportion to the growth of federal government, especially of the federal courts. ‘...One nation under Washington, with life for some and liberty for a few...’

This runs contrary to the desires of our country’s framers. They severed civil ties to England, risking life and property, to re-acquire that which ‘Nature’s God’ had entitled them and to reclaim the ‘unalienable rights’ with which they were endowed by their Creator. To them, this was the context by which all subsequent texts were to be interpreted.

Our modern political upstarts are battling to change this context; the context by which we have grown and prospered so admirably. Their actions are meant to redefine our longstanding Constitution and Declaration to parallel their own post-modern amorphous context. In order to do this they must destroy all rival gods, especially that of Christianity, America’s foundational underpinning.

The new secular dominionists major on certain strategies from which many minors follow. This is the dominant propulsion behind such strong support for separation of church and state, abortion rights, and teaching of evolution-based ‘science’ only. Any attempted alterations in these political-religious dogmas evoke squeals of protest reminiscent of a spoiled brat’s tantrum.

Trying to follow the logic of or define those in this modernist/post-modernist compartment is virtually impossible. If God is dead, leaving no authoritative instructions, and life developed through the mindless caprice of random chance, authoring no authoritative instructions, then there exist no universal morals or ethics, except, perhaps, survival of the fittest, might makes right, and whatever happens to exist at present is right. From this political philosophy, support for abortion on demand makes sense. The strong are superior in this scheme, so can take any available liberty in actions toward the weak. But where does the precept of ‘social justice’ come from? Under evolutionary tenets it is meaningless. Minority rights, women’s rights, compassion for the families of the dead soldiers in Iraq, sorrow for the dead and evacuees through Katrina, and any nature of victimhood, etc, ad infinitum, just become ad nauseam levels of goose farts in a high wind within this pseudo-context.

This incongruity provides no difficulty for the post-modernist, however. Truth and falsehood are understood to be ultimately meaningless- feeling and emotion rule the debate. The assertion of any ‘truth’ is only used as a means to their end of increasing control. Parading victims and other hard cases before the public is not primarily meant to help improve the conditions that they expose. It mainly serves the purpose of swaying feelings and emotions of the masses of ‘lower intellect’ in order to garner support for the elite’s power grab. The success of achieving their ends is more than abundant justification for any means applied. They assume their own superiority, their god-like natures, and believe that they are the fittest of the species and should not only survive, but dominate. So to all of those whom they purport to defend they ultimately say, "Stand up and speak up loudly for your rights as long as you remain our mascots, but stay out of OUR way, bee-utch!"

The post-modernist analyzes the text out of any reality based context and perpetrates a major con job. Since their means have been in existence for long periods of time and have proven to provide adequately for few of their claims, their stated, intended ends must also be rejected.
Muckraking claims of others’ evil, followed by assertions of their own abilities to build a Utopian dreamworld are cultic characteristics fitting only for the Jim Joneses and Charles Mansons of the world.

I witnessed a most remarkable, albeit trivial, occurrence during any sporting event that I have ever seen. During the Brewer/Diamondback game, two straight pitches produced back-to-back home runs by Carlos Lee and Geoff Jenkins. That is perhaps unusual, but not rare. What was remarkable was that they were both caught by the same fan. Lee’s homer was a line drive into the D’backs bullpen in left field that bounded to the right into the stands in left-center. Jenkins’ drive was much farther toward center and struck seating that sent it far toward the left into that same fan’s hands. Both home runs had initially landed at least 50 feet from him. Two pitches, two home runs, two souvenirs. Wow!

The young man was interviewed by the announcing crew for FSN and all he talked about was supporting the Katrina relief effort. Asked if he were now going to play the lottery because of the ‘luck’ he was having, he said that he was too young. The broadcaster asked if he would then give him the numbers. Not a bad idea.

You cannot be serious.

A gallery of the biggest, grandest playing card buildings ever.

And I'm still happy when I can get two of them to lean against each other.

I really like George Will, in part because I find his writing challenging. Sometimes that means I finish a column not really understanding his position, and have to go back and read it again, but I can live with that.

Still, beginners beware: Will can get away with sentences like this:

America's always fast-flowing river of race-obsessing has overflowed its banks, and last Sunday on ``This Week'' Sen. Barack Obama, Illinois' freshman Democrat, applied to the expression of old banalities a fluency that would be beguiling were it without content.

...but the rest of us can't.

Okay, okay... you've been clamoring for me to share my thoughts on that super-hero Mephibosheth. Here it is, at last.

Marvin Olasky points out more ACLU troubles.

Do not read this. It's gross. I'm warning you, do not click on this link.

Hey, I posted this last night, and now it's gone.

Well, here it is again. Good news.

Higher Commodity Prices Already Fading - Yahoo! News:

Even if all the coffee in New Orleans - a major import and roasting center - turns out to be destroyed, 'it looks like the market is going to absorb it without a rise in retail prices,' said Nick A. Nickols, president of NK Commodity Brokers Inc. He said that the harvest in Brazil was just starting and that roasters could tap the South American nation's stockpiles to replace lost beans.

Their outlook on oil isn't quite as positive. I'm not sure I agree, and neither is Steve Forbes.

One can do nothing but admire the courage of those who continually attack President Bush, his cronies, and those who believe similar doctrines. In many ways they are like little David, armed only with a slingshot, running directly toward the giant Goliath, bearing weapons of mass destruction, on the battle front. Or Samson attacking a thousand Philistines with a donkey’s mandible.

These modern Davids and Samsons, in attempt to save the little people, helpless victims, from utter subjection to Bush, Halliburton, and other big oil interests, risk their lives and liberty by this strategy. They are the modern day brethren of the signers of The Declaration of Independence, who, by their mere signature risked a blind date with the hangman’s noose with this treasonous activity in the face of the mighty British.

In standing against and speaking out against Bush today, these modern heroes realize the danger. Bush, although as stupid as a box of rocks, has somehow coalesced power in unimaginable ways. He fudged his college grades, IQ test scores, and military record through his powerful daddy. He blatantly attacked Iraq for its oil while causing much of the world to believe that there were weapons of mass destruction. He used UFO technology from Area 51 to entice the electorate to vote him into office for a second term after getting away with stealing the 2000 election. He even caused the development of Katrina by his global warming policies and was able to direct its path into an area that heavily voted Democratic. He delayed assistance to NOLA to punish them because of their race. Courageous men and women speak against him only at their great peril.

These modern day Davids, the true heroes of our generation, have only made one slight mistake in their method of attack on the Philistine– that of armament. With a well directed slingshot in one hand and a jawbone of an ass in the other, they did not consider that mud is not a lethal projectile and that Samson’s jawbone was literally that of a donkey.

It is still an inspirational sight, however, viewing men braving an attack without stones in their bags (detestes scrotus), and women charging with temerity having feet in their mouths and heads inserted where the sun don’t shine (pedis mentis rectus). (That really points to the difficulty in Biblical translation, especially Hebrew-to-English, even in the use of prepositions. Most translations and paraphrases render ‘jawbone of an ass’ while their’s has it, ‘jawbone up an ass’. Easy mistake.)

Hat’s off to these modernist heroes. May the farce be with you.

Hey, Lance, here's a bumper sticker you might like. Terse, but obviously very intelligently thought out. Wash your hands, big boy. (The Anchoress)

The ACLU sure has its work cut out for it in purging the public square of evil, unconstitutional religious components. Our national anthem is surely on this list bearing a 4th stanza such as this:

"Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand

Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!

Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land

Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.

Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,

And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."

And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"

T-shirts seen at the Bristol Renaissance Faire yesterday:

You can't drink all day...if you don't start first thing in the morning!

and

The liver is evil and must be punished!

I'll drink to that.

Lileks is on today:

At some point, you realize that the Internet's promise of instant access to any fact can be rather annoying, since you feel obligated to find out the answers to the most banal or useless question. How often do manatees ovulate? Which unsung industrial designer invented the Pez dispenser? Or, that one nagging question, what was I thinking? I hate to plug that one into Google for fear it'll tell me.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: where does he come up with this stuff?

More:

I can’t imagine what my brain would feel like if I’d gone to grad school, spent half my time trying to screw small wet chunks of literature into the ears of undergrads and the other half researching some misbegotten thesis whose impenetrability was matched only by its utter uselessness in the world beyond.

I couldn't leave Uncle Matt out of the photo mix...

...And that Morgan Marie has eyes that actually open!

Whatever you do, don't read this.

It'll only depress you.

I don't know why this post disappeared. I had another one do that once before. Anyway, here it is again, from the inestimable (and taller than I thought) Walter E. Williams:

Few people realize that the U.S. is also a major oil-producing country. After Saudi Arabia, producing 10.4 million barrels a day, then Russia with 9.4 million barrels, the U.S. with 8.7 million barrels a day is the third-largest producer of oil. But we could produce more. Why aren't we?