What? You Didn't See This Coming?

The reason.

Can A Bureaucratic Nanny-State Mentality Kill You?

Um, yes:

A pregnant woman, her husband and their three-year-old son were killed in a house fire early yesterday as police who arrived before the fire brigade prevented neighbours from trying to save them. The woman screamed: “Please save my kids” from a bedroom window and neighbours tried to help but were beaten back by flames and were told by police not to attempt a rescue.

By the time firefighters got into the house in Doncaster, Michelle Colly, 25, her husband, Mark, 29, and son, Louis, 3, were dead. Their daughter, Sophie, 5, was taken to hospital and believed to be critically ill.

Davey Davis, 38, a friend of the family, said: “It was the most harrowing thing I have ever witnessed. Michelle was at the bedroom window yelling, ‘Please save my kids’ and we wanted to help but the police were pushing us back and not allowing us near. We were willing to risk our lives to save those kiddies but the police wouldn’t let us.

They hate it when the sheep think for themselves.

Hattip: Samizdata.

Put On Your Cap And Trade...

... And celebrate your Hopenchange future. Yes, the article actually used the term, "dishwater-detergent smuggler."

Pop Quiz.

The Zo, he speaks. And you, should listen:

This Should Surprise No One.

The New York Times allegedly spiked a story last October on Obama-ACORN connections that would have been “a game changer.”

This story dares question the purity of the Hopenchange Revolution, so don't expect it to get much attention. Remember, ACORN is going to get rather a few Franklins from the "Stimulus" package.

Yeah. Me, Too.

Heinlein fan that I am, I'm slapping myself on the forehead for not thinking of this one before: I Am Simon Jester. It sure does fit with the current times. Kudos to Liberty Girl!

For the uninitiated, here's a bit of background.

I'm SO Going To Episco-Hell. (Wherever That Is...)

My Anglican / Episcopal readers my already know that someone seems to have come up with a cunning new plan to stop the bloody freefall steady decline in participation in The Episcopal Church (tm), and make it grow, all at the same time - cook the books. If the way you are counting isn't giving you the desired result, count something else as well:

Resolved, the House of _______ concurring, That the 76th General Convention request the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church to consider supplementing the definition of Average Sunday Attendance, so as to maintain the integrity and comparability of attendance statistics while also accounting for the regularly scheduled primary weekly worship services of missional, co-located or emergent congregations that occur on days other than Sundays or Saturdays; and be it further

Resolved, That the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church consider adding a quantifiable measure of mission to count the number of people served including, but not limited to, schools, soup kitchens, food pantries, campus ministries other ministries through which the congregation lives out its mission.

So if you walk into an Episcopal Church, you can be considered as having attended that church. Of course, why stop there? We can't be too inclusive, now can we?

Jaw, Meet Floor.

GM really is "Government Motors" now:

It is my hope that the steps I am announcing today will go a long way towards answering many of the questions people may have about the future of GM and Chrysler. But just in case there are still nagging doubts, let me say it as plainly as I can -- if you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always. Your warrantee will be safe.

In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warrantee.

Yes, dear readers, that was actually uttered by President Hopenchange. Maybe this lady wasn't so far off the mark after all.

FWIW, my next car will be German. Made by a private corporation. In America.

UPDATE: There's a crisp, new Twenty in it for the first reporter to call him "Presidnet Goodwrench" at a news conference.

Blut und Ehre!

The Obama Youth Government mandated 'volunteerism' for your kids is on the way. Can you say, 'Hoffnung und Änderung!?'

I knew you could.

Oh yes - ACORN gets a cut.

A Medicine For The Age.

I think I'll stay drug free, thank you.

Hattip: Maggie's Farm.

A Disturbance In The Search.

Looking through my recent Google referrals (I was bored), I've noticed a disturbing trend - folks Googling for RSR who can't seem to get the name of this little blog quite right. (Especially disturbing since most of the incorrect ones seem to be coming out of the Baton Rouge area. - ed.) I've had "Red Stick Ranter", "Red Stick Rants", "Red Stick Ranting", "Red Rant", or "Ranting Red Stick.". The best was a search for "stick ranting in Baton Rouge". And, yes, he seemed to be looking for RSR.

I'm always amazed what Google searches bring people to RSR. The most popular is still "clown communion", which gets RSR at least one referral a week. RSR apparently also pops up on searches for Episcopal church welcomes you" (that's gotta piss off 815 Second Avenue), "FEMA regulations", and even "nagin is an idiot". My favorite, though, is someone once got to RSR by googling "hot porn christian abba".

What a world.

Sunday Evening Distractions.

Why Architects, Technology, and Alcohol Don't Mix.

From the same site, why literalists shouldn't use computers.

Danke, Deutschland.

What?? A European not emulating The Messiah? The duce, you say!

Oh, no. Reality.

For my Anglican / Episcopal readers - it seems the light at the end of the tunnel really is an oncoming freight train:

There are some indications that what the committee describes as “tensions” are growing in congregations. In a similar survey undertaken in 2005, 37 percent of congregations reported serious conflict that resulted in at least some members leaving. About one-third of those responding in 2005 attributed the conflict to decisions made during the 2003 General Convention. In a similar survey conducted in 2008, 64 percent of congregations reported some level of conflict over the ordination of homosexual clergy, with most reporting such conflict to be serious.

“Overall, 47 percent of Episcopal congregations had serious conflict over this issue, 40 percent indicated that some people left and 18 percent indicated that some people withheld funds,” the committee report states. “Furthermore, the rate of decline in Average Sunday Attendance from 2003-2007 among congregations with serious conflict over the ordination of gay clergy was 35 percent higher than congregations with no conflict over the issue (and accounted for more than double the aggregate loss).”

Remember these recent words from our current Presiding Bishop:

But Bishop Jefferts Schori also said the fallout for the Episcopal Church, with 7,700 congregations in the United States and elsewhere, has been exaggerated.

"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.

and these as well,

"I think we're well past the worst of the crisis,"

Oops.

Anglican dhimmis...

...shouldn't cause offense: Only five of England's 44 bishops want the bells to ring out on St George's Day.

No wonder Rochester's Bishop, the brilliantly outspoken Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, is giving the Church of England the heave-ho.

Sunday Required Reading.

It's Sunday, so both Ten Years After and the Ten Commandments are involved. Enjoy.

The Thank God For Modern Technology Hour.

Tomorrow night (28 March) between 8:30 pm to 9:30 pm, we intend to turn on every light in Villa RSR. Turn down the AC to about 60, too. Here's why.

UPDATE 29MAR09: Via Glenn Reynolds, it seems some folks had another campaign at the same time called Celebrate Human Achievement Hour. I celebrated it. Did you?

Friday Required Reading.

Michael Yon, who I have not posted about in a while - and should have - has some new dispatches, here and here, about a great American. (Hint: There is a CSI-NY connection.)

If you haven't kept up with Michael's travels lately, here is his homepage. Take a few and see what he's been up to. I'm sure your employer won't mind - Obama says we're in the middle of this recession thingy, so your boss probably doesn't have too much for you to do anyway...

Your Honor Reverend Mother.

Now that The Messiah is calling the shots, I guess we don't need that "seperation of church and state" thing anymore:

Emily C. Hewitt, one of the first women ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church, was named March 23 by President Barack Obama to be the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

Not to worry, dear readers - she is an Episcopalian; which means she likely doesn't beleive in all that God/Savior twaddle anyway.

And what better person to put in as chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims than someone who ignores the rules when it suits her:

Hewitt was a leader of the effort to open Episcopal Church priestly ordination to women. She was one of the first 11 women ordained to the priesthood on July 29, 1974, before the church's canons allowed women to be priests.(emphasis mine.)

A Troll. In The Flesh.

Much has been written recently about the "buyers remorse" some elites are feeling with Team Obama, but tonight I got to witness first-hand a show of "buyers anger" by a true-believer, venting because "change" isn't happening fast enough for him.

In Cabela's tonight (yes, Cabela's) to pick up an order, I got into a conversation with a lady at the counter about the empty shelves in the firearms department, our new President's stand on the Second Amendment, and upcoming gun control measures that worried her. Just then a man who was also at the counter - 60-ish, pudgy, with what remained of his white hair in a rat-tail - started shouting about how it was Republican George Bush who ruined our country, how Republicans like me were responsible, and how people like me were at fault for Obama not being able to fix our problems. And, ooooh, he was tired of it! I replied that we were discussing the Second Amendment, not Bush or economics, and I wasn't a Right-wing Republican. But our geriatric hippie wasn't having any of that. He came over and started poking me with his finger as he continued his rant of frustratation, as if proximity and physical contact made his argument more persuasive. I... left.

So, to that temperamental ex-flower child, please know that your objection and your anger are noted. But since dissent is patriotic, get used to it.