Always Right

"I believe in God, but I don't believe, the way President Bush does"

Check out this relevation from John Kerry (via Drudge Report):

"Elizabeth Bumiller of the NEW YORK TIMES asked Kerry: "President Bush has said that freedom and fear have always been at war, and God is not neutral between them. He's made quite clear in his speeches that he feels God is on America's side.

"Is God on America's side?"

KERRY: Well, God will -- look, I think -- I believe in God, but I don't believe, the way President Bush does, in invoking it all the time in that way. I think it is -- we pray that God is on our side, and we pray hard. And God has been on our side through most of our existence."

"French theaters won't show 'Passion'"

Surprise, surprise....

"How the Judges Forced the President's Hand"

Also, check out this NYT op/ed piece from Lisa Schiffren...

Another outsourcing article...

Check out Thomas Friedman's latest in today's NYT...

"The high cost of self-defense"

Read this op/ed from the Washington Times. The plaintiffs in this case should be ashamed of themselves. Absolutely absurd...

Winner of the "Doh! I'm a moron" award

The Washington Times has named Pat Conroy its "Knave of the week." Here's why:

"Until last week, Mr. Conroy was an assistant principal and the dean of students at Michigan's South Haven High School. On the same day that he permanently left his office, he was called into another one — the courtroom of the district courthouse — where he pled not guilty to a charge of marijuana possession. Mr. Conroy claimed that he had a perfectly reasonable reason for having the substance on his person. He had tried to use it to get a student expelled. Specifically, Mr. Conroy said that he had planted the marijuana in the locker of a student he strongly suspected of being a drug dealer, hoping that a police dog would sniff out the drugs during a search of the school. However, the stuffy-nosed hound failed to find the materials. Meanwhile, police had a nose for Mr. Conroy. When officers raided his office earlier this month, they found ten plastic bags of marijuana and several assorted pills. If convicted, Mr. Conroy will be faced with a $2,000 fine and a year of detention. For a dumb plot and a failed plant, Mr. Conroy is the Knave of the week."

What a moron!!!

The gun manufacturers

I agree with Andrew's most recent post (found below this one). The manufacturer of a device whose product worked properly and was sold legally should not bear liability for its improper use. Following that logic auto manufacturers should be held liable each and every time a car or truck is involved in a fatal drunk driving accident, or in any accident involving an automobile for that matter.

Is that going to happen? No, I don't believe it will. Then why use the same logic with guns? More people can buy a car than can own a gun. How often are serious accidents caused by those driving without insurance or with a suspended or revoked drivers license? The answer: the quite often. As Andrew stated, the issue should deal with the "elementary concepts of causation." It's beginning to get tired, but the truth remains: "Guns don't kill people, People kill people."

Are there people out there that shouldn't own guns? Of course there are, but constitutionally they have that right (a little thing called the 2nd Amendment!!). OTOH, are there people out there that shouldn't be operating motor vehicles? Heck yeah! Have you ever driven in the State of Alabama. My guess is that seventy-five percent of drivers licenses in Alabama should be revoked for bad driving. An Alabamian has never met a yield sign to which they've yielded. BUT, the state still allows them to drive. There is an important difference between driving a vehicle and owning a gun though. That is owning a gun is a protected constitutional right, whereas driving a car is a privilege. Few people, and virtually no Democrat, understand this distinction.

Finally, with all of that said and to be "fair and balanced", I would be remiss not to pass along this story about the chairman of the board of gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson. It turns out that the chairman of the board of the world's second-largest gun manufacturer can not legally own, or even handle his own product. He spent time in prison for pleading guilty to a string of armed bank robberies and later, for attempting to escape from prison. Just thought I should be "fair and balanced" on this beautiful Saturday morning in Birmingham...

Interesting new legislation

The Senate has taken up legislation that would provide gun makers immunity from suit where a person is injured by a gun sold legally. Democrats, as you would expect, are tyring to use parliamentary manuevers to tack on all sorts of amendments (e.g., handgun locks, background checks, et al) to the bill. Interestingly, many of these amendments probably will far short due to Edwards and Kerry being absent from their jobs while on the campaign trail. In any event, this seems to be a logical measure in view of elementary concepts of causation. You may find the article here...

Refuting criticism of "The Passion"

Christopher Hitchens was a guest on this evening's Hardball with Chris Matthews. The discussion turned to the new Mel Gibson movie "The Passion of the Christ," and Hitchens took to ad hominem attacks on Mr. Gibson and other vitrolic tactics to express his disapproval of the movie. He described Mr. Gibson as a "sadomasochist" and disparaged Mr. Gibson's father, a Catholic author.

I was even more appalled by Hitchens' portrayal of film as "quasi-pornographic." Unfortunately, Hitchens isn't the first person to call the film pornographic. Andrew Sullivan wrote: "In a word, it is pornography. By pornography, I mean the reduction of all human thought and feeling and personhood to mere flesh."

I can't see it. Mr. Gibson has said time and again that his intent was to push the viewer beyond the edge of comfort when seeing Christ bloodied and torn. Mr. Gibson's vision was to show the world just a fraction of the pain through which Christ suffered for our sins. The weight that Christ bore, the sins of the world, can never be fully expressed through words, nor through celluloid. The message is not to show that the Jews killed Christ, nor to show the Romans and Jews lustful desire for his death. Our sins scarred Jesus far worse than any whip, nail, or thorn ever could, yet Jesus willingly suffered for us. This is Gibson's message. Is it violent? Yes. Is it pornographic? No.

I can't even begin to dechiper Hitchens' "quasi-pornographic" statement. What is quasi-pornographic? Is that like being a little bit pregnant? However, I can take issue with Sullivan's "porno" claim. Sullivan says, "The suffering of Christ is bad and gruesome enough without exaggerating it to this insane degree. Theologically, the point is not that Jesus suffered more than any human being ever has on a physical level. It is that his suffering was profound and voluntary and the culmination of a life and a teaching that Gibson essentially omits." Does he really omit it though? I disagree with Sullivan (surprise, surprise). I think Gibson is trying to portray in a literal sense the pain that Christ suffers each time we sin against God. The violence is merely the necessary mean to that end.

Finally, Sullivan calls it "absolutely unforgivable, vile, disgusting... No human being could survive it." With that I agree, no human being could survive it. But, fortunately for me, Christ did. He rose from the grave three days later.

One interesting point: Has anyone else noticed that the criticism has shifted from the "anti-Semitism" the fim supposedly engenders to one of shock and awe at the violence of the film? Interesting, no?

What Next??

FoxNews.com reports that the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials is urging state lawmaker to use the term "undocumented workers" instead of illegal aliens. ""We do find that term very offensive and liken it to the 'n' word as well," GALEO Executive Director Kerry Gonzalez said, referring to the derogatory term used to describe black people." I mean, seriously, get a grip people...