Whatever.

Yes, I know posting has been a bit sparse. But right now, I'm just fed up. On the political side, I'm fed up with our governor, Bobby "No Balls" Jindal; I'm fed up with our cleptocrat Legislature (Motto: "Yes, it does grow on trees"); I'm fed up with the Legacy Media's orgasmic ordination of Barack Obama as the returning Son of God next President; I'm fed up with John McCain's invisible Yugo-in-a-NASCAR-race campaign.

On matters of Faith, I'm fed up with The Episcopal Church's (tm) slithering around to purge - or at least silence - people like me who don't buy into "doing a new thing" morality; I'm fed up with the Anglican Communion for letting The Episcopal Church (tm) get away with it.

Work-wise, I'm fed up with FEMA for being so divorced from reality that reality is now asking for alimony and child support; I'm fed up with State recovery people who don't give a damn about the solution so long as it gets it "off their plate" and on to some one else's.

I'm fed up with cloudy days; I'm fed up with Ally Sheedy for letting herself go; I'm fed up that I STILL can't get a cherry pie with powdered sugar at Bud's Broiler; I'm fed up with cute fuzzy bunnies not being cute and fuzzy enough anymore.

In short; I've had enough. I need a Guinness. I'll post more after a few pints when I damn well feel better.

UPDATE 24JUNE08: Reason 23,896 why you shouldn't rant on an empty brain. A commentor asked about my comment about Ally Sheedy letting herslef go. I saw her on one the CSIs a while back, and did not look at all, um.... Sheedy-ish, but I see from this photo that I am in error. (Should have said Molly Ringwald?)

RIP George

George Carlin died yesterday of an apparent heart attack. He was 71. Carlin was one of the great comedians and, for better or worse, he picked up Lenny Bruce's mantle and kept pushing the edge of the envelope.

While I always found his early material funny, and his analysis of modern wordplay wonderful, with the hindsight of years I will remember him - as with Lenny Bruce - as someone fully of his age. In Carlin's case that was the 60's - with that adolescent "I wanna say poo-poo whenever I want! It's all about me!" mindset. Carlin, like so many of the 60's generation, broke barriers without thinking through if they needed to be broken, or what to do once they were. The repercussions of that era are still reverberating through our society today with mostly tragic, if well-intentioned, results.

Glengarry Glen Ewe.

Jeff Corriveau , a Hollywood writer whose credits include Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and cable's Talk Soup (a favorite in my house...) has been penning a new cartoon strip since January: Deflocked. I've read a bit of it, and it seems pretty well written and funny. (The main character is a sheep named 'Mamet.')

Deflocked is currently running on a trial basis in the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, 14 - 27 June. If you would like to see Deflocked continue in the Advocate, take the Morning Advocate's Comic Survey and give Jeff a vote.

I'm A Binomial Surd!

According to Cosmologist* Max Tegmark, we all are:

“there is only mathematics; that is all that exists.”

What a relief. Makes all that struggling over the "meaning of life" stuff pretty pointless, don't you think? Instead, I think just go and divide myself by 0. It may take a while, so I'll leave you with something to ponder:



Hattip: Instapundit.

* No Stephanie, a cosmologist doesn't sell lipstick and blush. And he is not related to Max Factor.

Wednesday Evening Distraction.

From Theo at Last Of the Few, this is just..... weird. Very Terry Gilliam.

The Honorable Louisiana Minority.

Fellow Bayou Staters, remember these names - the ones who opposed the recent pay raise AND are refusing to accept the additional cash. They have what someone seems to have lost.

Flipping and Flopping.

Bobby Jindal said he will not veto the 100% pay raise the Legislature just awarded themselves. Oops. That, apparently, is not what he said when was asking for my vote. Now I feel like, well.....

...hit it, boys:



Thanks, CB.

Now let me tell you how I really feel...

Somebody's Interested In John Medica.

Hmmm. Ever since this posting on FEMA (motto: "What? Me Hurry?") giving away $85 million in supplies for Katrina victims, and on John Medica, the (State?) person mentioned who said Louisiana had no need of the supplies, I've had a curious number of visits from folks at the State of Louisiana (O.T.M. ISP) Googling "John Medica."

According to StatCounter, the last one came from this IP address: 159-39-29-19, and had a Division of Administration (doa.la.gov) suffix.

Tuesday Morning Jaw Dropper.

Go read this post over at Billy Ockham, which links to this this article in the New York Daily News.

Words fail me. Which means, of course, that The Episcopal Church (tm) "doing a new thing" is somehow involved. Johnson's Third Rule of Episcopal Thermodynamics, indeed.

That's What They Want.

The Louisiana Legislature, put to song. Turn it up:




And Governor Bobby Jindal's performance? I think this is pretty accurate:



I can just hear Timmy Teepell now: "Perhaps a large wooden badger....?"

iPhone P0rn.

OK, it's not really porn in the normal (??) sense of the word, but it is to iPhone geeks - A roundup of new iPhone news, insights, and predictions enough to make your firmware, well.... you know.

Hattip: Instapundit.

(iPhone Porn. Hmmm. Has possibilities: "She opened her browser wide to accept the pulsing 3G....." Yep. That'd make the user manual much more fun...... -ed.)

UPDATE: ("...which swept her over the EDGE..." Goodness me. This stuff almost writes itself. -ed.)

Recalls, Anyone?

The Louisiana Legislature voted, without debate, to double their salaries. Starting next month. Our state is near dead last in everything; our education system stinks, as do our roads and bridges, the Recovery is stalled, and the State says they are broke. This is (generally) a SFW blog, so any honest comment I have on this issue most certainly could not be published here.

It appears my Representative, Hunter Greene, voted for it. Unless suddenly he walks on water or makes oil appear out of thin air, I will have a VERY hard time voting for him again. For anything. Peppi Bruneau once told me that Greene was one of the most capable people he'd ever seen in the Legislature. I'm not so sure about that anymore.

Look, I agree that the position of legislator in Louisiana is more than a part-time job, and worth more than $16,000 a year, plus expenses. At that rate, only those who can afford to hold office actually can. So I think some kind of increase is due. But it should only be enacted by a vote of their bosses, the people, be phased in, and only happen AFTER we see some results.

But the big surprise, and disappointment, is not greedy pols at the Capitol - that is nothing new - but how our new wizz-kid governor, the "next Ronald Reagan," has handled this.

He hasn't.

Bobby Jindal has utterly wimped out on this issue, and said that he will not veto the pay raise even though he opposes it, as this is the Legislature's issue. Wow. That's some leadership. He sounds more like the "next John Kerry" or maybe the "next Mary Landrieu" - not the "next Ronald Reagan." He has allowed the Legislature to tell him who's boss (not him), and define their relationship for the next three and one-half years. Jindal was tested. And he failed.

Because of the near unanimity of public opposition to this pay-raise, Jindal had a golden opportunity to go toe-to-toe with the Legislative leadership over this, and win. He would have come out a hero - a real man of action - and defined the relationship with the Legislature on HIS terms. But now he is looking like just another failed revolution; our "next Buddy Romer." Were it not for who would take his place, I'd say let McCain have him.

Bosom Comrades.

Another "Che'nge We Can Believe In" sighting. Here's the jaw dropper: the Che and Obama posters hang together in the office of an Ohio Judge.

Obama supporters seem to think these two belong together. I'd agree, but I don't see that as a positive thing. And neither, I suspect, will the critical swing voters Obama must get to win.

I'm sure this will, too, be explained as a fluke, or this guy will be "disassociated" from the Obama camp. Reminds me of a good joke I heard the other day: Obama has a new campaign bus - you can put 36 people in the bus while throwing up to 6 more people under it....

Happy Birthday, Carole!

Finally - Change We Can Believe In.

Well, more likely to happen than the "change" that prophet from Chicago is preaching about. Creative Minority Report says we are all supposed to die today. Really:

A self-styled prophet from central Texas is giving doomsday predicting another shot by pegging Thursday as the start of a world-ending nuclear war.

"It could be turned loose before then," Yisrayl "Buffalo Bill" Hawkins told ABC's "20/20" for a report to be broadcast Friday night. "You are going to see this very soon, really soon."

In a sense, I'm relieved. It'll cut down on the wait times at the Wendy's drive-thru.

UPDATE 13JUNE08: I woke up this morning. I looked out my intact window and didn't see a scorched, irradiated back yard. Oh, well.

I'm Sorry, CB.

I should listen to my elders more often. I used to read CB Forgotston pretty regularly until he really started taking after Bobby Jindal not long after Jindal took office. I thought then that CB was being a bit cranky (give the boy space, I thought), and was somewhat annoyed at his (Forgotston's) stance.

I changed my mind - CB wasn't being cranky, he was spot on. Jindal has, IMHO, not lived up to the image he portrayed as a take-charge visionary wunder-kid. He seems far from that - weak, distant, distracted; and his staff seems to be calling the shots.

The current legislative pay-raise scandal (and there is no other word for it) is a case-in-point. Instead of putting his foot down and taking charge, the legislators are threatening him. If he was the person I voted for, I would have expected a reply of, "Make my day," or "Bring it on!" This pay raise is so unpopular Jindal would win any game of brinkmanship the Legislature could start. And look like a hero for it.

And what's even worse, all the "small-government, fiscal-conservative, citizen-legislator" Republicans voting for this. Bunch of hypocrites. The graphic on top of this Forgotston post says it all, IMHO.

Dangerous, Senile American Cowboy, 1; (The Other) Murderous German Philosophy, 0.

Twenty-one years ago today, the man who truly saved Western Democracy threw down the gauntlet.

And two years later, he won.

Hattip for the reminder: View From The Porch.

Image: 70,000 New Democrat Voters In Louisiana!

Reality:
"Louisiana's top election official met Wednesday with a Democratic group whose voter drive efforts have flooded urban registrars with registration forms, many of them fake and incomplete."

Result:
"VIP's voter drives in Shreveport, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Jefferson Parish resulted in piles of sketchy applications that had to be investigated — "busy work that is not leading to productive registration of voters," Dardenne said."

UPDATE: A little FYI about VIP, or Voting Is Power, the group that appears to be the one registering these 70,000 new voters,. Here is their website. VIP appears to be an arm of the Muslim American Society, which itself appears to have ties to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Look, unlike an Islamist state, we are still a free country. And VIP has the right to organize and register voters just like any political entity, and should be able to do so withour persecution. (Try THAT in Saudi Arabia! -ed.) But I also think we have the right to know who they are, and who is behind this effort. (Thanks for the heads-up, Charles!)

Profiles In Incompetence.

I have been working on a design project in New Orleans in which FEMA is involved. We got the project more than 18 months ago, and were this any other project of it's type, it would have been designed and be under construction by now. So let me say, from first-hand experience, that FEMA personnel are actually demons who inhabit a logic-free, reality-free level of Hell called the Stafford Act, and they have descended upon my fair State to sow inaction, indecision, and general bureaucratic regulatory exasperation with respect to the recovery. (And trust me, I'm being diplomatic here.)

The 'M' in FEMA stands for "management," not "solutions," and they take that charge very seriously. (If you solve something, it goes away. Where's the regulatory management opportunities in that??) So I thought I'd pretty much heard it all when it came to FEMA logic. But this story takes, or more accurately, gives away the cake (sit it down before you read this. -ed.):

"FEMA gave away about $85 million in household goods meant for Hurricane Katrina victims, a CNN investigation has found.

The material, from basic kitchen goods to sleeping necessities, sat in warehouses for two years before the Federal Emergency Management Agency's giveaway to federal and state agencies this year."

FEMA said they were excess to "their needs." But not apparently, to the needs of residents, which FEMA seemed to know about:

"(Martha) Kegel said FEMA was told in regular meetings that Unity (a non-profit) was desperate for household supplies and that the group has been forced to beg for donations. But she said FEMA never told Unity and other community groups that it had tens of millions of dollars worth of brand-new items meant for storm victims.

Put a towel on the floor, folks, 'cause your jaw is going to hit it again. It gets worse. Someone from the State of Louisiana got in touch with his inner Blanco and passed up getting any of these supplies:

"These items also were offered to all states -- yet Louisiana, where most of the people displaced by the storm live, passed on taking any of them.

John Medica, director of the Louisiana Federal Property Assistance Agency in Baton Rouge, said he was unaware that Katrina victims still had a need for the household supplies.

"We didn't have anybody out there who told us they wanted it," Medica said."

And you wonder why we're STILL in the shits down here???

Hattip: Carole. (Who, if she had a bloody blog, woud get a link.)

UPDATE 13JUNE08: Well, it appears somebody grew a brain - the Louisiana Recovery Authority is trying to recover that $85 million in supplies intended for Katrina victims so it can actually go to, y'know, the victims. What a concept. Welcome to FEMAworld.

Better Blogging Thru Chemistry.

The Naked Emperor is on a roll. A post-operative, drug-induced roll, but a roll none the less. So stop by for some great pearls of wisdom, such as:

"Only dogs and middle managers stick their nose up somebody else's butt to see who their friends are."

"Your dog loves you, it's an adoration relationship. With cats, it's more of a friendship based on common interest. Because you both love the cat"

Just keep scrolling down.

Fun With Weapons, Free Time, And Trick Photography.

While Iraq may be our war, it has been the Brits who have delivered the best wacky videos, such as a classic Peter Kay knock-off, and the RN ship lip-scynching Queen's Bohemian Rhaposody. But we Yanks are coming back, as this pretty cool entry attests:



Hattip: Last of The Few.

See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil. Eh.

I don't usually blog on things in The Great White North, since my Canadian readership is very small and mostly limited to Google porn searches with the term "red stick" in them. (I really don't have a dog on that sled team. Sorry)

But sometimes, you gotta say "WTF??" and wonder what they put in the beer up there. Freedom of Speech may be an American "concept", but it used to be a Canadian one, too. Not anymore, apparently:

"This is a breathtakingly broad prohibition, which extends far beyond the terms of the (already troubling) statute. Boissoin and his group aren't allowed to saying anything "disparaging" about homosexuals, which presumably would even extend to statements such as "homosexuals are acting sinfully" or "The Bible, which I believe should be our moral guide, condemns homosexuality."

Nor can they say anything disparaging (not just anything false or threatening, but anything disparaging) about Prof. Darren E. Lund of the University of Calgary Faculty of Education, a self-described "activis[t]" for "social justice issues in schools and communities," and his witnesses, who include Prof. Kevin Alderson of the University of Calgary, and Douglas Robert Jones, a recently retired Calgary City Police Service officer who has been Liaison to the GLBT Community. I would have thought that activist university professors were proper subjects for discussion, criticism, and even disparagement — but the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission forbids Mr. Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition from engaging in such speech."

So let me, as an American, exercise a God-given Right: Professor Darren, E. Lund, I think your actions show you to be intellectually incapable of defeating your opponents in open debate, and therefore have dealt with the problem like a cowardly fascist - by suppression. Professor Kevin Alderson, I think you are no better. And Douglas Robert Jones, I think as an officer of the Law in a liberal democracy, you more than anyone should know better.

Ban that, you Hosers.

Vote!

Tamara K. over at View From The Porch is in the running to win a session at Blackwater shooting camp in North Carolina.

Swing on over and give her a vote!

UPDATE: And speaking of free speech kerfuffles (see post above), Tamara finds herself embroiled in one as well. With the Obama campaign. If Obama's people don't want their logo associated with satire, what do they want it associated with?


Oh, that's right: "Che'nge We Can Beleive In."

Blog Of The Day.

Link is here. Any religious site subtitled "We Laugh Because We Beleive" gets on my blogroll - especially after this.

Anglican Spine Alert!

Now here's a stunner:

"The Archbishop of Canterbury has demanded that the Government sit up and take notice of the Church of England, after a report disclosed how Christianity is being ignored at the expense of Islam."

More here:

"The policies of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown (heck, I'd go back to David Lloyd George! - ed.) have helped to generate a spiritual, civic and economic crisis, according to a report commissioned for the Church of England and to be published on Monday. It calls for the appointment of a "minister for religion" to be the prime minister’s personal "faith envoy" and who would recognize the contribution of faith communities to Britain across every government department."

Minister for religion? Isn't that what our Gracious Lord of Canterbury is supposed to be?? I'm just saying.

I predict this will be dismissed as "Islamophobic" by the usual, vocal crown of Islamofascists. And the Church of England will, by and large, return to it's default invertebrate state.

Hattip: Instapundit.

Some Numbers To Consider.

The junior Senator from Illinois, Barack Obama, has served in Congress since 2004, or 1,317 days. It is the only Federal office or service Barack Obama has ever done.

John McCain, the senior Senator from Arizona, served his country for 21 years as a military officer, spending 1,966 days in captivity because of it, and then went on to serve in Congress for 26 years.

Think about that - John McCain spent more time as a POW than Barack Obama has spent in Congress. Tell me again who has the experience to be the leader of the Free World??

Monday Morning Distraction.

Time to get in touch with your inner Trekkie:

Top 100 reason why Captain Kirk is better than Captain Picard.

A few of my favorites:

3. When Picard went back in time he brought back Data’s head. When Kirk went back in time he brought back a blonde.

33. Picard’s engineer wears goofy wrap-around sunglasses. Kirk’s engineer wears a kilt and can drink you under the table.

89. Kirk once taught an emotionless female android how to love. Then he broke up with her.

There are other such lists, re: Kirk/Picard, but this is the best, IMHO.

He Didn't Even Say "Please" First....

A short post over at Louisiana Conservative, pointing out a classic example of how representing us does not seem to be the primary interest of our Congressional representatives. And how it effects you at the gas pump.

UPDATE: This utterly proves The Naked Emperor's argument I linked to a few days ago.

UPDATE 10JUNE08: Oh, my. My little post made it here.

She's A......

The first part of defeating evil is calling it by it's real name. The same is true for defeating self-centered, 60's has-beens. (Oooo, they hate that!) So combine a song by South Park's Eric Cartmann with a photo montage of Hillary Clinton, and you get... this:



Hattip: Last of the Few.

Boston Part II - The Coolest iPhone Trick In The World, or Desperation Is The Mother Of Invention.

What with the new iPhone 2.0 phone and software set for release tomorrow, this seems like a pretty good time for my favorite save-your-ass iPhone story.

When were flying back the other week, I forgot to print my boarding pass at the hotel before we went to Logan Airport. So when we got to the terminal, instead of scanning my boarding pass at electronic check-in and heading on in, I was going to have to wait in a looong line. The wife was not at all pleased (she had printed hers earlier...). So with some sense of desperation, I opened the airline e-mail on my iPhone to the PDF boarding pass, looking for any number or code I could enter in the electronic check-in to save me from the long line. I found none.

Damn. But there was a bar-code on the PDF. Hmmm. I enlarged it to see if there was a code on it that I could enter - but again, nothing.

This is where the desperation part comes in, and what possessed me to do this I do not know - I stuck the iPhone, with the enlarged bar-code on the screen, under the electronic check-in scanner and......

...."Welcome Clifford!" said the electronic check-in screen, "Would you like to....." and it gave me a list of options - the last one was "Print another copy of your boarding pass."

The scanner read the bar-code from the iPhone screen.

Why yes! Yes I would like to print another copy of my boarding pass! I was saved. I got my boarding pass, went through security, and we were on our way.

So ask yourself - could you do that with your trendy RAZR? Or your size-of a-hamburger-bun Blackberry?? I didn't think so.

Sixth District Getting Interesting.

State Senator and Doctor Bill Cassidy, has now definitely thrown his hat in the ring to unseat newly-elected Democrat Don Cazayoux, and Woody Jenkins and Lauinda Calongne are hinting at it.

This last Friday night Lauringa Calongne, who lost her bid to be the GOP nominee last time round, gave a party In Baton Rouge as a thank you for her supporters (which included me). She also invited her two Republican opponents, Paul Sawyer and Woody Jenkins, and thanked them publicly for their participation, service, and for being worthy opponents. (Which was a pretty classy thing to do, IMHO. Very Reagan.)

Also in attendance, and saying some very good things about Laurinda, were Senator David Vitter and Congressman Charlie Alexander.

Does that mean Laurinda is running again in November? She still won't say. But with a lineup like that.......




......I hope Mr. Jenkins can read the handwriting on the wall.

Today's Required Reading.

The Naked Emperor points out the obvious - we don't have an energy crisis as much as we have a leadership crisis.

Well, duh. About 15 years ago one of the arguments used against drilling in ANWR was that it wouldn't benefit us for about....... 15 years. Remember that inconvenient truth when you go to the gas pump this week, and when you go to the voting booth in November.

My Inner Vogon Makes Me Famous.

Wow. Something I wrote actually made it onto Samizdata.net. Impressed? (I'm still not saying which one, though...)

Friday Palette Cleanser.

From Last of the Few (of course!), let's play 'guess the nationality'.

Once you get there, click on the image to reveal the answer.

The Longest Day.

Was 64 years ago today:



When some sanctimonious Lefty tells you that our country is the biggest threat to freedom, remember what happened on this day, and remember those men that had what took to face it.

And remember, too, that thousands of our fellow Americans, who still have what it takes, are today still facing down our enemies so that you, me, and that sanctimonious Lefty, are free to sleep in peace at night.

UPDATE: And what if today's press had covered D-Day? We'd have something like this:



And what if the 1944 press had had covered Iraq? We'd be home by now.

Bill Whittle......

...isn't dead. Really.

More Music From The Decade From Hell.

If you thought the last post was scraping the bottom of the 70's music barrel, au contraire. It went much lower. The aforementioned KISS, for example:



Such stirring social commentary in the lyrics. Actually, for the 70's it was, and we used to listen to it. Ugh.

A Song For Our 14-Year-Old Daughter Who Thinks Her Parents Are Weird.

See - we're all right; we just seem a little weird.

Now where are those old KISS records?....

Today's Required Reading.

Via Instapundit and Ed Driscoll, comes this piece by novelist Andrew Klavan where he points out the obvious - all "lifestyles" and "cultures" are not equal. Well, obvious to anyone who doesn't think Western Civilization in general, and America in particular, is a great failure:

"Beating poverty in America nowadays is largely a matter of personal behavior. Get a high school diploma, don’t have kids until you’re married, don’t get married until you’re 21, and you probably won’t be poor. It also helps if you work hard, show up on time, act courteously, and avoid anything felonious.

But where are these kids going to learn such things? It’s the stuff you just sort of absorb in a healthy, traditional, two-parent home, and that’s exactly what they’re missing. If they learn what they’ve lived, they’re done for—the girls too likely to “come out pregnant” like their mothers, the boys to be underemployed and maybe even do time."

He also chides Conservatives for allowing our culture to become a monopoly of the Left:

"Many conservatives often seem to have given up on culture or not to care. There’s a strong strain of philistinism on the right. When we talk about “culture wars,” we usually mean preventing the courts from redefining marriage or promoting abstinence instead of birth control: culture, in other words, as the behavioral branch of politics."

Read the whole thing.

And James Lileks has a related ideological test. (Just scroll down once you get there, and stop when you see the kid with the BB gun.)

Boston Part I - Trintiy Church Welcomes You Your Wallet, or Paying To Pray.

Boston's Trinity Episcopal Church is one of my favorite places - not just a favorite in Boston, but anywhere.


Image by Red Stick Rant

To me, there is not a better church building, Episcopal or otherwise, in the United States. Designed by the incomparable architect (and Louisiana native) H.H. Richardson, it is an icon of American architecture. Take one step inside and it is easy to see why.

So you can understand why all of the architects visiting Boston for the recent American Institute of Architects (AIA) convention would want to see it, including your humble blogger (though my reason was a bit different - read on). Not that I needed a tour of Trinity - I had been in the church hundreds of times before, and during the 1992 AIA convention I even gave tours of the church. I know the place pretty well.

At my home parish, I read Evening Prayer on the weekends. It is usually just me, alone in the church, and I find the time to be intensely spiritual. For weeks I had been looking forward to reading Evening Prayer at Trinity - a spiritual experience in one of the most spiritual spaces ever.

So imagine my surprise when I entered the vestibule and was greeted by two college-age kids at a table across the door to the nave, saying I had to pay $6.00 for a "self-guided tour" to enter. I told them that I was an Episcopalian, had been there many times before, and didn't want to tour - I wanted to say prayers. They told me that worship times were posted, this wasn't one of those times, and to go downstairs to get a ticket if I wanted to get in.

So downstairs I went. I asked the person behind the counter if, as an Episcopalian wanting to spend a few minutes in prayer, I needed to pay $6.00. Yes, I had to pay. So I ponied up $6.00, went upstairs, and quietly said Evening Prayer.

I figured that maybe this was something special, what with all of the architects in town. So I decided to let it pass.

Now page forward three days, after the convention. My wife and children are with me in Boston, and we go to Trinity Church. We open the great door and there, in the center of the vestibule, is the same little table blocking the main nave door manned by the same college-age kids during the AIA convention. And the kids tell me the same thing - $6.00 to get in. But we're Episcopalians, I reply, and we don't want a tour. Sorry, we need a ticket, they insist, or come back during "regular" service times. I ask if they normally charge to get in, and they said yes. So we left.

Travel all over Italy, or France, or the UK, and NOWHERE will you be required to pay a cover charge to enter a house of God. (I know, I've been there.) They often ask for a donation, but that is all. I think what Trinity is doing is unconscionable. At the least, it's not what their website indicates (See a A Place for Prayer). Nor is it very "welcoming" or "inclusive, to use the pop-theology catch-phrases of the day, and I must say I have a hard time seeing Trinity as a spiritual space anymore. I do not think Trinity is that hard up for cash - it is the 10th largest Episcopal Church in the nation (my parish is a mere 113th), so lack of funds is not an excuse. If they want to run guided tours and ask folks to pay for it, fine. If they want to offer folks self-guided tours for a price, fine. But to deny entry to all unless they pay, and to assume everyone who seeks entry to the church, outside of appointed worship services, is somehow only there to "see" the place, is insulting in the extreme. Doubly so when those seeking entry are their fellow Episcopalians.

Go There. Now.

The Naked Emperor is posting again, and which means you are missing some great stuff if you don't head over for a visit. Start at the top and scroll down!

Bad Habits.

Since coming back from my trip to New England I have been rather remiss in making regular postings. Which leaves you, dear readers, with nothing new to look at when you drop by. My apologies.

Since returning I have had a mountain of work to do, and a lot of tasks on the homefront. Which means my focus and my time has been elsewhere, and I've gotten out of the habit of regular posting. Most of my tasks are now done, which means I have more time in the day/evening/dark-of-night to spend with RSR.

I have started, but haven't finished, several posts on my sojourn to Boston and environs, and will try to get some of them up soon. I know some of you are waiting for them.

So don't despair, dear readers, I'm back on the Net... I think.

UPDATE At lunch today, one of my regular readers asked when my Boston posts will be up. OK, OK. First one's coming in a bit.

Why Barack Obama Won't Stand On His Legislative Record.

He doesn't seem to have one:



Bet you can't name any, either. And this man wants to be the leader of the Free World??

H/T: Last of the Few.

Today's Episcopal Church (tm) Theology, Put To Music.

I think I've found it:



Matthew will find a better one, of course. But I don't mind. I strongly suspect he has a basement full of nerds, chained to computers, who do nothing but wander YouTube 24/7 looking for all of those cool videos he posts. It's the only explanation.

UPDATE: Matthew and his basement full of chained minions did indeed find a better one. Though, I think it is more suited for the Scottish Episcopal Church..... (Oh, dear. That was a baaaaaaaaaad joke. I should be sheared for it, don't ewe think?)

UPDATE Welcome Stand Firm readers! And to those who will accuse me of anti-Scots bias for my little sheep joke, don't. I'm of Scots descent. Been there twice, even. I eat haggis, I love the sound of bagpipes, and the notion of going commando while wearing a scratchy wool skirt is, to me, the very definition of manliness.

Blankety-Blank Verse.

Ask any of my ex-girlfriends, or my wife, and they will tell you that writing really bad poetry is something that comes naturally to me. Really, really bad. Vogon bad. So when I saw that the crack young staff of The Hatemongers Quarterly was holding a nation-wide Horrible College-Student Poetry Competition, how could I resist?

The result? One of these is mine. And no, dear readers, I won't tell you which one.

Roof Is Falls In On Episcopal Church.

In this case, literally:

An unexpected ceiling collapse took place late Wednesday night at a New Iberia (Louisiana) place of worship.

A 20-by-20 foot section of the plaster ceiling of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, located at Main and Jefferson streets, peeled away and fell to the floor just in front of the altar. Plaster was strewn on the first few rows of pews. The collapse took place after Wednesday night services and there were no injuries.

Mommy and Daddy, Shouldn't You Be Dead?

From the Austrailian Braodcasting Corporation comes this bit of interactive eco-propaganda, aimed at children, called Prof. Schpinkee's Greenhouse Calculator.

It's subtitled, and I am not making this up, find out when you should die!, "so you don't use more than your fair share of the earth's resources." (According to Prof. Schpinkee I should have snuffed it at three and a half.)

For goodness sake, please don't tell The Episcopal Church (tm) about this - they'd make euthanasia in into a Rite. ("We'd like to welcome you to the Feast of St. Logan's Run....")

Hattip: Wizbang via Murdoc.

Train Crash In Boston.

About an hour ago two Green Line 'D' trains collided in Newton, Massachusetts, with multiple injuries. The crash occurred between the Waban and Woodland stops. Just a week ago my family and I were riding on the 'D' line out to Riverside, where we were staying.

Prayers for the injured, please.

Run, Laurinda, Run.

According to The Rothenberg Political Report, Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District is still a "toss-up."

I would call it more than a toss-up, given the rather conservative political leanings of the district, but it all depends on who the GOP runs against Cazayoux. If Woody Jenkins, in a triumph of ego over experience, runs again - then you can put the Sixth in the 'D' column for sure.

UPDATE: Well, Rep. Cazayoux's seat is looking pretty safe, as Woody Jenkins is thinking about loosing all over again:

Jenkins said in a phone interview Tuesday Roemer’s decision to bow out is a factor in his own consideration to run. Jenkins said he wants to make sure there is a strong conservative candidate on the Republican ticket.

“I am close to making a decision, and that decision will probably be to run,” Jenkins said in an e-mail Tuesday.

Sad thing is, I support much of what Jenkins supports. Smaller government. Lower taxes. Eliminating terrorists. It's not a bad message, but Woody Jenkins is a very bad messenger. A Ronald Reagan he is not. (More like a lightweight Pat Buchanan, IMHO) What put Cazayoux in the winner's seat was not low voter turnout as Jenkins' claims, but high voter turn-off. Jenkins' has unique a ability to turn off a sizable enough chunk of the GOP base to make him a looser in every race he has entered outside of his statehouse district. Remember, Republican Woody Jenkins LOST in a district that voted 82% for the Republican just 18 months before. That takes some skill. Or lack thereof.

If Jenkins is really serious about the GOP recapturing the 6th District seat in the fall, he will not put his hat in the ring. It's time to let someone else, someone who has a chance of getting elected, carry the GOP banner this fall.

Why Democrats Should Never Be Trusted With History, Part II.

Or, Obama gaffe No. 2,318:



Oh.... really?? FWIW, Barack, the Soviets liberated Auschwitz. That's because it's in what is now called Poland. On the Eastern Front. Patton's Army never fought there.

Would someone PLEASE get this man a middle-school history book? (And some copies for the clueless, fawning media types who follow Obama around?)

This is embarrasing if he is the Democrat's best hope.

American Technology: Still Kicking Butt Without Breaking A Sweat.

Imagine this: you send a spacecraft on a multi-million mile voyage to another planet - the equivalent of hitting a beach ball in Boston with a grain of sand thrown from New Orleans - and oh by-the-way, while it's on it's final descent you take a picture of it with another spacecraft you have orbiting the above mentioned planet. Really:



That's the Mars Phoenix spacecraft under it's braking parachute as it descends to the surface, taken from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The technology and know-how necessary to do this is staggering; the ease with which the US does it, even more so.

And our closest competitors? They have a hard time hitting a planet 120 miles below. Not for the first time, either.

REMEMBER.

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
- John 15:13

Happy Birthday, RSR!

During my blogging hiatus in Boston I let slip a major milestone - on 23 May Red Stick Rant was a year old.

So.... Everyone sing along, now:

Happy Birthday to the blog mentioned below!
Happy Birthday to the blog mentioned below!
Happy Birthday dear Red Stick Rant!
Happy Birthday to the blog mentioned above!

For those who missed it, here is my very first post.

An Anglican Bishop Says Something Controversial That Does Not Concern Homosexuality.

Instead, the Bishop of Rochester, the Rt. Rev. Michael Nazir-Ali, touches the other third rail - Islam. Grabs it with both hands, actually:

The Church of England was accused by one of its most senior bishops yesterday of failing in its duty to convert British Muslims to Christianity.

The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, said Church leaders had rightly shown sensitivity towards Muslims as part of efforts to welcome minority faiths.

But he said: ‘I think it may have gone too far and what we need now is to recover our nerve.’

Dr Nazir-Ali, who faced death threats earlier this year after saying that some parts of the country had become ‘no-go areas’ for non-Muslims, said that it was important for faiths to talk to one another without diluting their core beliefs.

‘Our nation is rooted in the Christian faith, and that is the basis for welcoming people of other faiths,’ he said. ‘You cannot have an honest conversation on the basis of fudge.’

‘You cannot have an honest conversation on the basis of fudge.’ Which means that any 'conversation' entered into by the The Episcopal Church's (tm) House of Bishops is pretty much dishonest. Like that is a surprise anymore.

I'm Baaaaack.

Yes, dear readers (the three or four who are still checking), I have returned after an extended visit to Boston, my second home town, where I attended the American Institute of Architects national convention, visited old friends, went to Cabot's, went to the home of God's Team, saw some really cool new buildings, and wandered New England a bit with the family.

I have much to blog on, but I will make several shorter posts instead of a great big "how I spent my spring vacation" post that I'm sure no one will wade through. But that's for tomorrow - tonight we're gonna unpack, and crash.

It was great to go home. And it's great to be home.

Focus.

We've got lots happening these next few days work-wise and home-wise (end of school, projects due, yadda yadda...), so blogging will be light to non-existent. But do not, dear readers, wander off in the time being - there's still plenty of fun stuff in the archives, so set a spell and have a look round. And we will be back after we get these things knocked out, with more RSR excitement!

"Doing A New Thing" Posters.

From a local clerical friend, some "motavational" posters to get all my Anglican/Episcopalian readers in the mood for General Convention 2009. My favorite:

Brilliant.

Just Brilliant. Take 2 and a half minutes and watch this video Matthew found.

For my Episcopal / Anglican readers, without knowing it this gentleman sums up the whole "doing a new thing" theology of The Episcopal CHurch (tm) in a sentence:

"I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, I'm just, like, inviting you to join me on the bandwagon of my own uncertainties."

Throw in some boilerplate about cow farts, sporks, and the Millennium Development Goals, and you've got a pastoral letter from The Presiding Bishop.

Some Clarity? Why Yes, Thank You.

Um, what he said.

Obama Getting Covered. Oops.

They say you are known by the company you keep. And the Rev. Jeremiah Wright seems to have been good company for Barack Obama in recent years, with the good Senator appearing at least three times on the cover of Wright's Trumpet magazine - once in a montage with Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakahn sometime in 2005/2006 (the montage appears to be African-American leaders, so the placement was no accident).

If the facts that bizzyblog laid out are correct, this makes Obama's I-didn't-really-know-the-man excuse seem pretty lame. Why did Obama object and distance himself from Rev. Wright only now, and not back then? Especially when he was on the same cover as Farrakhan, who Obama claims to have denounced.

It's going to be interesting to see how Obama, and his cheerleaders the Mainstream Media, deal with this one. My money is on "not at all," as I think they'll dismiss anyone gets upset by this as a West Virginian bigoted, ignorant, redneck hayseed.

H/T: Little Green Footballs.

Get Down, Get Poultry!

Mark your calendars, dear readers, because tomorrow, 14 May 2008, is National Dance Like A Liberal Democrat Chicken Day. Really.

It seems it's much easier to do if you wear a pants-suit. And have a chicken-cackle laugh, too.

Priorities, Priorities...

The more promises of change, the more things stay the same. The Louisiana Legislature, while not wanting to give us, their employers, a pay raise (in the form of tax relief) are working hard to double their salaries.

Eh Tu, SNL?

Yep. Hillary is toast:



UPDATE 12MAY08: I guess somebody doesn't like it, as the video has aparrently been taken down at the link above. But fear not, dear readers, the intrepid RSR staff (plus the cat) will stop at nothing, except maybe at a Bud's Broiler, to keep you informed. So try this one.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is why we need to thank moms today - a description, in classical style, of what moms go through... every day:



(Yes, I know it's a repeat, but what better day to repeat it?)

Saturday Evening Palette Cleanser.

There are reasons, dear readers, reasons why those of us who came of age in the 1970's... wish we hadn't. James Lileks "catalogues" but one of them.

Read it all. If your eyes can take it.

And if your Saturday nights are as exciting as mine, don't forget to check out James' many other efforts. There's cultural gold in them 'thar pages!

Why Democrats Should NEVER Be Trusted With Numbers. Or Geography. (UPDATE: Or History.)

Barack Obama says he's visited all "Fifty....... Seven States." Really:



And note he says still had "one more left to go: Alaska and Hawaii..."

That Harvard education is really shining through, isn't it?

UPDATE: And Jack Kelly at RealClearPolitics suggests someone needs to get the man an American History book as well. I agree. If he does not know that Roosevelt's idea of talking with his enemies was to declare war and demand unconditional surrender, and that Truman's idea was to drop not one, but two, atomic bombs, what kind of foreign policy could we expect from an Obama Administration? I'd say this kind.

And you know if George W. Bush had made these kind of gaffes the Mainstream Media would have been all over them like beans on rice.

UPDATE: Like you couldn't see this coming: 57-star flag lapel pin. If Obama refused to wear one with the correct number of stars, I don't think he'll be sporting one of these, either. But I would.

Actually, I would prefer a bottle of Heinz 57 State Sauce. That works on so many levels, don't you think?

UPDATE: Also posted over at Louisiana Conservative, but with a MUCH better post title.

Rachel. Gets. Lewis.

I've been a big fan of Rachel Lucas' for years, as she is one of the most enjoyable reads in the blogosphere - salty language and dog props and all. My one criticism was that Rachel never thought much of religion, and couldn't understand why some of us did.

Well, someone recently sent her a copy of C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity. Read the result.

Every journey starts with one step. I'm just saying.

Easter Island Sunday!

I saw this video this over at Chris Johnson's site - call it The Eucharist of the Giant Heads. If you want to know what +Kate and her buddies see as "doing a new thing" in The Episcopal Church (tm), this is an excellent example. Not quite Clown Communion level, but darn close:



Couple of observations:

1) If you want to worship Him Her To Whom It May Concern in that way, knock yourself out. It's a free country. But please do not insist that I must worship that way, or deem me less of a Christian because I do not.

2) If I was six and saw a bunch of monstrous, stony-faced Jesus Christ looking giants wandering round my church like enforcers, with huge hands that could crush me like a bug, I'd pee in my pants and become a Baptist on the spot.

3) The giant heads were amusing, in a creepy sort of way, but the middle-aged, Alvin Ailey wanna-be's were an absolute hoot! Particularly the sensing of the Gospel, which looked like something out of a bad Chinese Cultural Revolution ballet. It was hard to tell if I was watching a church service, or the intro to "A Tribute To People's Collective Factory No. 814 Who Raised Tractor Production 11 Percent By Following The Words Of The Great Helmsman!"

4) The crowd looked like they were not only alive when Woodstock happened, but were old enough to have attended. After the incense, I bet the predominant smell in that room was Ben-Gay (with patchouli coming in a close thrid). Aren't such hip, relevant services supposed to attract the modern young people? So where were they? (Hint: See Church, Mega, down the street, or see Home, TV, watching)

UPDATE: I'm told that this is not a "New Thing" Episcopal service, but actually the service of a group of "progressive" Catholics. "New Thing" Episcopalians. "Progressive" Catholics. A distinction with out much of a difference.

iPhone 2.0: Don't Get Too Hot And Bothered.

Via Instapundit, comes this article on why the iPhone 2.0, due out in June, will be a letdown. And while I love my iPhone, I think he may be right. Apple has a nasty habit of not listening to it's customers, and of the 10 suggested improvements he mentions I think only two or three will actually make it onto the improved iPhone.

You getting this, Greta? You now have a whole new topic of endless discussion for your radio show: your new phone.

Friday Morning Distraction.

Via Ontario Emperor, a cool video from the early 80's:


Mea Culpa by David Byrne (of Talking Heads) and Brian Eno.

Reminds me a bit of Koyaanisqatsi, and (being an architect) I really like all the play with points, lines, and planes. (David Byrne started out studying architecture at RISD.)

Um, Nice Dunes.

How'd you like to be lost in them thar' hills?

(Somewhat NSFW)

From Last of the Few, of course.

Welcome to 2007, Greta!

Well, it's about time. The Princess of Positive, Greta Perry, has joined the iPhone club and has discovered "Will it Blend?"

Wait 'till you're a two-iPhone family, Greta. You'll never have to talk to each other over lunch again. Trust me.

Michael Yon.

Michael Yon is back in the States right now, but he'll soon be heading back to the Sandbox. Autographed copies of his new book Moment of Truth in Iraq' are still available. Non-signed copies are available at your local Barnes & Noble and BN online.

If you don't have a copy, get one.

More On The Sixth District Race.

Stephanie Grace at nola.com says that national Democrats shouldn't read too much into their victory here last Saturday, as the reason for their win was primarily local. I tend to agree, but would add that the national Republicans should read a few things into their loss, including:

1) All politics is local. Duh.

2) Get. A. Better. Candidate. (Preferably one who doesn't own a plastic fetus.)

Now how hard is that?

Unified Useful Idiot Theory. Confirmed.

(UPDATE 12MAY08: Welcome Stand Firm readers! I need to take a moment to say that the person who covered the Rachel Corrie story, and has truly kept up with it, is Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs. He deserves the investigative credit. All I did here was connect the dots with our Presiding Bishop.)

Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church (tm), writes about her recent trip to the Holy Land. And the first thing she mentions is this:

I was in the Holy Land during this last Holy Week. When we were there, by chance we met Cindy and Craig Corrie, whose daughter Rachel was killed by a bulldozer in Gaza five years ago.

She was protesting the Israeli government's destruction of a Palestinian home.

And who is this Rachel Corrie, you may ask?

This, is Rachel Corrie:




An American citizen, sporting an Islamic headscarf and burning an American flag in a rage for onlooking Palestinian children. These were taken a few days before she died. (image source unknown, via Little Green Footballs)

Rachel was a member of something called the International Solidarity Movement, a peaceful group just helping to protect some "peaceful" people. Here are a few ISM folks, holding instruments of peace in a group photo:


(image by Lionheart)

Rachel did indeed die after falling front of an Israeli Army bulldozer knocking down a Palestinian house. Why was the bulldozer there? Because the house aparrently hid the entrance to a tunnel for smuggling arms into Gaza from Egypt. Why was Rachel there? Apparently protecting the same.

And what of Rachel's parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, who +Kate met "by chance?" Their single purpose nowadays seems to be to get their daughter canonized as a Leftist saint. See this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this, and this. And, of course, this.

+Kate met them by chance? Fat chance.

UPDATE 12MAY08: As this post is getting a lot of exposure thinks to a link from Stand Firm, I think a couple of things need to be added.

First, I think our Presiding Bishop should at least be honest about who she sees as the "good guys" in the Middle-East struggle and who she sees as the "bad guys," and not slip it in en-passant. It is clear she sees folks like Rachel Corrie as one of those "good guys," and the Israelis - and the US government - as the "bad guys." Did she "by chance" happen to run into the family of Rami Ayyad, a Palestinian Christian who was executed because he owned a Christian bookstore? Didn't think so.

Second, please do not condemn Rachel Corrie's parents for why they are doing what they are doing - pray for them. They are trying to bring some value to their daughter's life and make some sense of their daughter's death, as any parent would struggle to do. In today's world, that is very hard. In the past, people could turn to their Faith for strength and answers. But Faith, especially current American "progressive" Christian Faiths, does not provide answers or a safe harbor anymore - they provide "space," "the ability to question," "an invitation to dialogue," etc., ad nausium. Say what you want about Evangalicals, or Roman Catholics, or Mormons - or even Islam - at least they provide answers to hard questions. Which is why, IMHO, they are growing.

And last, but certianly not least, pray for the soul of Rachel.

Surprise!!

My Anglican/Episcopalian readers will remember the Pope criticizing "so-called 'prophetic actions" in other Churches , and the Episcopal Bishop of New York Mark Sisk's response:

Asked whether he thought Benedict had singled out the Episcopal Church in his remarks, Sisk responded, "It's possible--but I would be rather surprised. I don't think he was trying to send shots across the bow at particular churches. I think he spoke in a respectful way and I didn't see that as a shot at the Episcopal Church."

Well, here is a followup and...

SURPRISE BISHOP SISK!!!!!!

That is EXACTLY who(m) our Roman friends were shooting at. And they didn't miss, either:

Speaking on the day that the Archbishop of Canterbury met Benedict XVI in Rome, Cardinal Walter Kasper, the president of the Pontifical Council of Christian Unity, said it was time for Anglicanism to "clarify its identity".

He told the Catholic Herald: "Ultimately, it is a question of the identity of the Anglican Church. Where does it belong?"

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for an answer, Your Grace. I'm an Anglican, and I've been waiting for an answer to that question since 2003. Heck, since 1976.

Hattip: Chris Johnson.

UPDATE 07MAY08: Thanks for stopping by, Bishop.

Tuesday Evening Required Reading.

Sage advice for graduates, from P. J. O'Rourke.

Where were people like this when I graduated? I had to listen to Bill Bennett.

What He Said.

(Warning: A few bad words - NSFW) (Use headphones...)

Hattip: Last of The Few.

Learning From Our Mistakes.

My thoughts about Louisiana's Sixth Congressional District race, and what happened last weekend, are up at Louisiana Conservative Dot Com.

UPDATE: Aparrently, someone isn't learning. These jaw-droppers from an article at Politico.com:

Jenkins, who said he may run again for the seat in November...

They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again the same way, and expecting a different result.

And they say stupidity is backing someone who you know can't win:

(NRCC Chairman) Cole’s supporters, for their part, are laying the blame for Saturday’s loss directly at the feet of their candidate, former Louisiana state legislator Woody Jenkins, calling him a “flawed candidate” who failed to raise enough money or come up with a message to beat Democrat Don Cazayoux.

Maybe Chad is right - we Republicans are totally screwed if we don't get our act together. And fast.

Yes, That Was Me....

Go here for the podcast of my interview last Saturday on Greta Perry's radio show in New Orleans. (Scroll down to 'Kiss My Gumbo', and it's the 05.03.08 link.)

Two additional things from the show:

First, I'm gonna start a "Six Degrees of Greta Perry" heading where you can email me and I will post how you are connected to Greta Perry. Drinking game rules will be developed shortly.

Second, I wasn't kidding about that "Save the Inspector General Fund." Since I don't have time right now to set up the PayPal account, email me your pledge and how I can contact you to collect. I'm serious, folks.

Something You Can Feel Good Voting For.

Because of the ever-optimistic Greta Perry, my family has become involved with Soldiers' Angels - a wonderful group that supports Americans in uniform with a variety of programs.

Instapundit has this post saying the founder of Soldiers' Angels, Patti Patton-Bader, is one of the fifteen semi-finalists in NBC’s “America’s Favorite Mom” contest, and on 11 May you can vote for her as “America’s Favorite Mom." If she wins, it puts a nice chunk of change in the coffers of Soldiers' Angels, so I don't think our own moms will mind. Not this time, anyway.

Sunday Morning Distraction.

Helping you Handel the day with a smile:



Hattip: The Last of the Few.

Woody Doesn't Do It. Again.

Woody Jenkins has delivered Louisiana's solidly republican Sixth Congressional District to the Democrats. Raw results are here. He couldn't even carry his home parish (East Baton Rouge).

I said his running was a bad idea from day one, and in this case I hate being right. I hope Mr. Jenkins has finally learned his lesson - he can not win elections outside of his local constituency - and he will finally leave the stage to younger, more capable candidates. Though, I highly doubt it.

Hell, maybe I'll run in November.

Hold Your Nose And Vote.

Tomorrow is the General Election here to find a replacement for 6th District Congressman Richard Baker, who resigned several months ago. Baker is a Republican, and I believe this seat has been in GOP hands for at least 25 years, maybe 30.

That could change.

The current contenders are former GOP state representative Woody Jenkins, a slick, uber-social conservative; and current Democratic State Representative Don Cazayoux, a tepid, lightweight nice-guy. Not exactly stellar choices. (The candidate I supported, Laurinda Calongne, lost in the primary to Woody Jenkins.) I said after the primary election that this would turn nasty, and it has. The national parties and PACs have lit up the airwaves here with negative attacks in the past two weeks (go here and here for two examples. YouTube doesn't seem to have any of the DCCC ads posted, but they are equally as bad.) Not to mention the persistent pre-recorded telephone calls.

But the Democrats have a real chance here, IF they can turn out their base. Jenkins turns off a lot of folks with his hard (and I mean HARD!) right brand of conservatism. (Reagan conservative he ain't.). More than a few Republicans (me included) are likely to either vote third-party, vote for Cazayoux (the NRA gave him an 'A' rating, too), or stay home. Other GOP voters may think the race a forgone conclusion (it's a "Republican" district...) and not bother to vote. Both senarios favor Cazayoux.

And the sad thing is we have to do this all over again in November.

What Is Greta Thinking?!?

A sure sign that the Apocalypse must right around the corner: Your humble blogger will be a guest on Greta Perry's radio show in New Orleans tomorrow.

Greta, of Kiss My Gumbo fame, is on WIST AM 690 from 3:00-4:00pm, and I should be on sometime around 3:10 or so. You can listen to it over the 'Net by going here.

What are we going to talk about? I have no earthly idea as I'm really not that interesting. Even my kids don't like to listen to me. But maybe I can talk up my new hobby - making holiday-themed dust-bunny topiaries - or maybe we can discuss how many FEMA personnel it takes to change a light bulb. (Have a calculator handy for that last one...)

If you want to call in, the numbers are 504-260-0690 or 888-880-WIST. Immediate family is prohibited, alas, and I can't comment on politics or the Church.

UPDATE 03MAY08: Well, I survived Greta's show, but weather Greta's show ratings survived me is another matter. I'll link to the podcast when it gets posted.

Friday Afternoon Distraction.

Truly a classic: An Engineer's Guide To Cats.



Hattip: Baby Blue.

For TS.

Still.

The Most Popular Toys-R-Us In America.

Suddenly, Dad wants to take the kids shopping. For the third time this week!


Hattip: Why Last of the Few, of course!

Wednesday Morning Little Known Fact.

How they make Raisinets:


From here.

And all you Stand Firm readers make sure you see this one.

Inch By Inch (At A Time), Row By Row, I'm Gonna Make This Church Not Grow.

The Great Helmsperson of The Episcopal Church (tm), Presiding Bishop Katherine Jefferts Schori, was in Dallas yesterday to dedicate a garden. The Dallas Morning News has the story:

Why would the busy, some might say embattled, leader of the 2.4 million-member Episcopal Church travel to Dallas for a 300-member congregation's garden blessing service?

"Well, I was asked," said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the first woman to lead the Episcopal Church.

Actually, she would travel to any city because a 300-member congregation is pretty big for an Episcopal Church anymore. We're not like those "breeder" religions, you know.

+Kate then runs through all the hits. First up, the MDG's:

"Coming here to bless a garden, especially at this time in the history of humanity, when we're focused on how the church can be a more proactive voice in caring for the rest of creation, is an important message," she said before the service.

So don't forget your sporks, boys and girls! And make sure to lick 'em clean!

Next, the Current Unpleasantness:

"We're struggling over the appropriate place of gay and lesbian Christians in the church," Bishop Jefferts Schori said, adding that previous eras had seen conflict over integration and the ordination of women priests. "This is simply the issue God has presented us with in this age."

Really? And when did He present you with this issue +Kate? Was a burning bush involved?

And of course, fun with numbers. It is said there are lies, damn lies and statistics. You can put the following in whichever one of those categories you wish:

"We know of about 55 or 60 [congregations] which have had a majority of members decide to leave the Episcopal Church. That's well under 1 percent," she said.

The Episcopal Church (tm) is loosing hundreds of individual members per week, on average, and +Kate talks about loosing "congregations". Skip the wash cycle and go straight to spin. Even the reporter noticed that disparity:

The Diocese of Dallas itself has had departures, including what had been one of the Episcopal Church's larger congregations – Christ Church in Plano.

But worry not, dear readers. There were plenty enough people at the event - Some of +Kate's Fan Club came in from Fort Worth:

Two buses came from Fort Worth, and many of the visitors wore stickers saying, "Fort Worth Episcopalians Honor Katharine."

"We want to make it clear that the Diocese of Forth Worth is not monolithic," said Katie Sherrod, adding that she considers Bishop Jefferts Schori "fabulous."

Quick note to Ms. Sherrod - The Episcopal Church is not monolithic, either. But to dissent against the views and values of The Great Helmsperson and her fellow travellers is to leave oneself open to being tagged with such labels as "abandoning Communion," "homophobe," "thief," "bigot," "misogynist," or a host of other lovingly Christian titles the Left bestows upon those of us who do not believe in scrapping 2,000 years of Christian teaching for a "new thing." And the "fabulous" description of an Episcopal minister seems pretty apropos these days, don't you think?

UPDATE 30APR08: From the Comments - Phil Snyder said that there was a clergy meeting with the Presiding Bishop during the same trip. He attended, and his report is here. Interesting that the Presiding Bishop is basing her entire "new thing" theology - that homosexual practice is no longer a sin - upon the implied relationships in two biblical passages: one in the Old Testament about Jonathan and David's relationship, and another in the New Testament about the Centurion and his slave. So the Presiding Bishop is willing to destroy our Church over an implication based on interpretation. Swell.

UPDATE 02MAY08: This should come as no surprise - the church +Kate visited in Dallas is a "predominately gay parish."

The Sky Is Falling, Freezing Up, Silting Up, Burning Up.

Another reason not to trust Harvard types. Ontario Emperor links to this post looking at past Earth Day predictions, such as:

• “...civilization will end within 15 or 30 years unless immediate action is taken against problems facing mankind,” biologist George Wald, Harvard University, April 19, 1970.

• By 1995, “...somewhere between 75 and 85 percent of all the species of living animals will be extinct.” Sen. Gaylord Nelson, quoting Dr. S. Dillon Ripley, Look magazine, April 1970.

• Because of increased dust, cloud cover and water vapor “...the planet will cool, the water vapor will fall and freeze, and a new Ice Age will be born,” Newsweek magazine, January 26, 1970.

• The world will be “...eleven degrees colder in the year 2000. This is about twice what it would take to put us into an ice age,” Kenneth Watt, speaking at Swarthmore University, April 19, 1970.

I think we should officially rename 'Earth Day' (which was itself renamed from Lenin's Birthday), 'Chicken Little Day.'

If you're an Episcopalian, know that your church is out in front when it comes to Earth Day, and knows God's answer to THE IMMEDIATE AND IMMINENT THREAT OF GLOBAL WARMING!!!!!! And that answewr is: sporks. Really.

Louisiana 2005

We saw Randy Newman in concert last night in Lafayette, Louisiana. It was a small venue - a lot smaller than when he plays New Orleans' Jazz Fest this coming Thursday - just Randy and a piano. And yes, he played 'Rednecks.'

But the last song he played was 'Louisiana 1927,' about the famous Mississippi River flood. Strange as it may seem, I had not thought of that song at all post-Katrina (my Katrina song was Grateful Dead's 'Touch of Grey'), and to hear it again, now, was quite moving. Here it is, from a performance in 2006:

How Many Clarifications Must One Candidate Issue, Before You Call Him A Nominee?

Via Instapundit, this Dylan-channeling gem:



I guess you really do need an (ex-)Weatherman to know which the wind blows.

I'm Baaaaaak.

I spent the last three days on a father-son camping trip on Lookout Mountain in northern Alabama with about 80 other fathers and sons. 8-hour drive each way, and several days of some really intense fun. Every time I am back there I remember why it meant so much to me when I was his age - and I hope he gets the bug, too.

I'll post some images tomorrow, but right now I am beat and off to bed.

UPDATE 28APR08: A few images from the weekend:


View down Little River. (image by Red Stick Rant)


Dogwoods in bloom . (image by Red Stick Rant)

I Want One.

Dalek helmet with Dalek voice.

I mean, my wife does (still!) look a lot like Sarah Jane Smith.....

RSR Headline Contest.

This story about a new Jersey cop, some cows, and some alleged, um... "contact" screams for a better headline.

Are you up to it, dear readers? If so, place your suggested headline in the comments section.

Busy week here at the office, and so I haven't had much time today to get into anything bloggy. Besides, this is much more fun than talking endlessly about what happened in Pennsylvania yesterday, don't you think?

Happy Lenin's Birthday!

Sorry. Happy Earth Day. An odd coincidence, don't you think, considering how much Lenin and his little experiment did for the environment.



I know, I know; Soviet policies may have caused the Aral Sea to dry up and destroy an entire regional ecosystem, but everyone had free healthe care!

Why I Can't Be A Lefty Democrat.

I actually paid attention in history class.


Image by "dead-ro"

Doublly ironic as this fellow was protesting at the Olympic torch run, which was started by.....

Anyone? Anyone?

UPDATE 22APR08: While I posted this image above, it is certianlly not mine. I can't remember where I got it from, but the original image appears to be from one 'dead-ro', who took it along with several other pictures of the 9 April torch protest in San Francisco. Jonathan Kay gives some context. If the image is fake, I hereby invoke the Dan Rather rule: "Fake, but accurate."