In the Pulpit: A Different Rowan Tells It Like It Is.

Here's something to set the mood for the weekend. I will be working at the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana Annual Convention tomorrow, which should prove very interesting. Very, very interesting.

More later.

The Mom Song Sung to William Tell Overture

My wife's day. Every day. As Bill Cosby once said, "I've seen her job. And I don't want it."

Onto A Greater Firing Line.

William F. Buckley, Jr., the founder of the modern conservative movement, a died today.

National Review remembers.

Be An Angel.

A Soldier's Angel, that is. My fellow Louisiana blogger, Greta Perry, is hosting an event in Mandeville, Louisiana, to collect funds and items for an R&R 'cafe' for a 4thID battalion in Iraq, . According to the press release, she is looking for:

"coffee, tea, specialty coffee machines, tea brewing items, aluminum mugs, board games, DVDs, snacks for a cafe', signs and decorations to make this cafe' complete."

If you want more info on how you can help her out, go here.

Dianetics Uber Alles.

We always suspected Scientology as being a bit of a rip-off, but now it appears it literally was - from a 1934 German treatise.

The original German author of 'Scientologie 1934', one Dr. Anastasius Nordenholz, co-founded in 1904 with Alfred Plotez a periodical called, 'The Archive for Racial and Social Biology, Inclusive of Racial and Social Hygiene'. With thinking like that, it's not surprising his treatise on "Scientologie" would appear in Germany in 1934, considering who came to power in Germany in 1933 with all of their wacky "scientific" ideas about biology and race. The English translator of 'Scientologie 1934', Woodward R. McPheeters, even says of Nordenholz' early writings, "I have since speculated that I was looking at the basic source point for the Hitler theories...."

The Voice For Chenge.

Remember that Che Guevara flag hanging in the Obama campaign office the other day? Well, someone got creative:


Hattip: Charlie Foxtrot.

And The Winner Is.....

How did I miss this? The incomparable Stephen Green at VodkaPundit "Drunkbloged" the Oscars, and gave probably the best review of this year's over-moneyed, over-indulgent love-fest of lefties, sorry, gala.

Read it all.

The More Someone Uses The Word "Change," The More Things Stay The Same.

Let's see now - a multi-million dollar loan from a corrupt foreign national. Check. Handled by a murky fundraiser currently under invsetigation. Check. Resulting in a sweet real estate deal for a Democrat presidential contender. Check.

Hillary? Not this time - it's Barak Obama, who is in a bit of, um, Whitewater over this questionable scheme to allegedly finance some property:

"A British-Iraqi billionaire lent millions of dollars to Barack Obama's fundraiser just weeks before an imprudent land deal that has returned to haunt the presidential contender, an investigation by The Times discloses.

The money transfer raises the question of whether funds from Nadhmi Auchi, one of Britain’s wealthiest men, helped Mr Obama buy his mock Georgian mansion in Chicago.

A company related to Mr Auchi, who has a conviction for corruption in France, registered the loan to Mr Obama's bagman Antoin "Tony" Rezko on May 23 2005. Mr Auchi says the loan, through the Panamanian company Fintrade Services SA, was for $3.5 million.

Three weeks later, Mr Obama bought a house on the city's South Side while Mr Rezko's wife bought the garden plot next door from the same seller on the same day, June 15."

UPDATE: As of 12:45pm CST, dead silence in reporting this story by the American Mainstream Media. ABC News. Check. NBC/MSNBC News. Check. CBS News. Check. The New York Times. Check. Not like this should surprise anyone.

Reason 8,658 I Am Glad I Live In The USA.

In the UK nowadays, it appears that protecting your own life is a crime:

"A shopkeeper could be charged with murder after an armed robber who tried to steal the day’s takings was stabbed with his own knife during a struggle.

Tony Singh, 34, described as a hard-working family man who often works 13-hour days, was ambushed as he shut his shop on Sunday evening by Liam Kilroe, 25, a career criminal who was armed with a knife."

And who does the Crown think the "victim" is in this case? This guy:

"Kilroe, of Billinge, near St Helens, who had convictions stretching back nine years, was in breach of bail conditions at the time of his death. He had failed to appear in court to answer charges that he carried out armed robberies at a shop and post office with an imitation firearm. In one raid a postmaster was hit over the head with a handgun but the robbers fled empty-handed. In a second robbery, at a general shop in Croston, Leyland, they forced a woman behind the counter to open the till at gunpoint and hand over £8,000."

Hattip: Samizdata.net

Today's Required Reading.

Bill Kristol unloads on Barak Obama and his incredible sense of self-importance, in of all places The New York Times:

"So we don’t have to work to improve our souls. Our broken souls can be fixed — by our voting for Barack Obama. We don’t have to fight or sacrifice to help our country. Our uninvolved and uninformed lives can be changed — by our choosing Barack Obama. America can become a nation to be proud of — by letting ourselves be led by Barack Obama."

But my favorite line is at the end of the piece:

"Paul Krugman is off today."

Just today??

The Trunk Monkey

Here's a great way to start the week - creative auto dealer ads. I don't know about you, but I'd buy a car from these folks.

Obama: Army Having To Capture Weapons To Fight.

That's a pretty explosive charge - which doesn't seem to be getting much attention. Were he a Republican saying that about a Democrat President, the Mainstream Media would be all over him to prove it.

UPDATE: It appears that ABC News talked to the officer in question, and says Obama's story is confirmed. But Ace of Spades says not so fast...

Having served, I tend to side with Ace. Units often deploy and operate under-strength, and sometimes (more than sometimes!) the equipment you need isn't there when you need it. But a good officer or NCO knows what to do in cases like that, and follows the old rule: "change, adapt, overcome." If that means mounting the DShK you have if you can't find an M-2 in time, you do it. Then you execute the mission and you move on.

Stephen Ambrose used to say that what made the American military so good was the ability of our personnel to adapt and be creative in a given situation. When we ran into the hedgerows in France in 1944, our soldiers didn't complain that Roosevelt had sent them into battle ill-prepared, they figured out how to weld up teeth to the front of tanks to cut down the hedgerows. And they took the metal for those teeth from German anti-tank barricades.

More than anything, what Obama mentioned illustrated that the ingenuity and level of professionalism of the soldiers in today’s Army remains that of the Greatest Generation. That, and the fact that there are always complainers in the military - even officers.

UPDATE "Walker," a veteran of Iraq in 2004-05, has left an excellent reply in the comments section. Well worth reading.

Friday Afternoon Time Waster.

I can handle 25. You?

25

Hattip: Locusts & Honey.

20 Years Ago Yesterday.

Jimmy Swaggart admitted he 'sinned' - or, more specifically, admitted he had been caught in a sleezy motel outside of New Olreans with a prostitute.

I was working in Back Bay Boston in 1988 when all this hit the news, and it was my first time seeing a major news event in my home state as others saw it. It was not pretty. But it did gave me an acute awareness of how others saw Louisiana and Louisianaians, and unfortunately how many continue to see us today.

Friday Morning History Lesson.

It's about as accurate as some of Hillary Clinton's history lessons, just a lot funnier. Plus, Eric Idle looks better in a dress.

Ray Nagin Hates Me.

Well, people like me, actually. From this interview with WWL-TV:

"Well because, your newscast, the local newspapers, are feeding these awful, ugly talk shows that are feeding these blogs. If you go look at some of these blogs out there and some of the stories that come from the paper and you read the comments, it’s some of the most vile, angry, people that I’ve ever seen in this community."

Ray, coming from you I take that as a compliment. Let me state for the record that I am not vile (I wash daily) nor am I angry (I am smiling even as I write this). I am certainly not a bigot. What I am, however, is someone who thinks you are utterly unfit to govern the city of my birth.

And each time you open your mouth, sir, you prove my point.

Clown Communion

For those who thought my link to Trinity Church's "Clown Eucharist" was a joke, watch the video.

They are actually proud of this service.

Send In The Clowns......

For pity's sake, do not let Trinity Episcopal Church, Wall Street, know about this list of the worst worship innovations. They won't know it's a joke. Really.

My Favorite:

Speed Lent - Combining Ash Wednesday, Lent, Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter, all in one hour.

Hattip: The Ontario Emperor.

Thank You, Ronald Reagan.

Back in the '80's, the all-knowing elites billed the "Star Wars" missle defense program as the wacked-out fantasy of a derranged old cowboy that was sure to trigger Armageddon. But if this story is confirmed, it is now a deployable American reality sure to make several leftist dictators world leaders crap their pants.

And if it does, I couldn't be happier.

UPDATE: Confirmed. Shot down by a guided missle cruiser. Let's see Putin's navy do that.

The Ultimate Geek Combination.

After that last post, I think we need to lighten things up a bit:
Star Trek Meets Monty Python.