The Left Is Gonna Hate This Movie

From a recent review of Cinderella Man:

Cinderella Man is not really a movie about boxing, it's a movie about what it means to be a man. In the character of Jim Braddock, we can read what today's audiences are wistful for: a man who works hard to support his wife and kids, who teaches his kids to be honest, who communicates his delight in his wife with every glance. As Mae says to Jim in a late scene, "You're the Bulldog of Bergen, the Pride of New Jersey, you're everybody's hope, you're your kids' hero, and the champion of my heart." Do they make them like that any more?

Somebody Stop It...And Stop It Now!

The red bandanna and the hunter's knife are back: Sylvester Stallone is set to reprise his role as Vietnam vet John Rambo, 17 years after his last outing.

Miramax/Dimension Films have sold Rambo IV's movie rights to a different production company, clearing the way for filming to start next January in Bulgaria, India and the US.

Stallone, now 58, will don combat trousers for a fourth time, this time to slug it out against American white supremacists bent on killing his wife and daughter. In the new film, the grunting killing machine has turned middle-class family man and has "assimilated into the tapestry of America," according Stallone, who is also the movie's scriptwriter. He promises a film in the vein of Straw Dogs and Deliverance.

Stop!

Do not read this. You're brain will go dead...that is, unless you've already seen this horrid movie.

Axel F is Back

The next time you read about "sophisticated" Europeans and their "hayseed" cousins in the States, just remember this article.

The Crazy Frog ringtone has held on to the top position of the UK singles charts for a second week.

The new version of Axel F - the theme to the Beverly Hills Cop films - is the first mobile ringtone to make it into the charts.

Coldplay's Speed of Sound single dropped from second spot to seventh.

Akon's Lonely is at number two, followed by Gorillaz track Feel Good Inc. Oasis are number one in the album chart with Don't Believe The Truth.

Last week, Robert Swift, from Jamster, the company that markets the Crazy Frog single promised more ringtone tracks.

Mr Swift insisted: "We didn't come along and change the music industry. "It's been changing for a while and people have been in denial. And this is the sort of thing that highlights that."

The Wisdom of Bob

Anarchists from around the world are planning to cause chaos at next month's G8 summit in Gleneagles as a row broke out last night between Bob Geldof and DJ Andy Kershaw over the absence of black musicians at events staged to benefit Africans.

With police fears mounting over Geldof's call for one million people to protest at the summit, Kershaw last night condemned the almost exclusively white line-up for the pop concerts to coincide with the summit. "If we are going to change the West's perception of Africa, events like this are the perfect opportunity to do something for Africa's self-esteem," he said. "But the choice of artists for the Live8 concerts will simply reinforce the global perception of Africa's inferiority."

Africa's self-esteem? If Bob thinks having a couple of Africans on stage will help Africa's self-esteem, he's delusional.

Newsflash

The people at the top of America's money pyramid have pulled far ahead of the rest of the population in recent years, an analysis of tax records and other data shows.

I'm no economist, but aren't the rich always getting richer, and the poor - well - always poor. I may be off base here, but it makes sense to me.

Great Weekend

We just returned from a great camping trip to Cumberland Falls. The highlights of the weekend were P-Man catching a snake (and a lizard), and my mate Peter Yates (an Aussie) dumping box after box of coal from the local river bed on our already roaring campfire. Priceless.

There was one lowlight. Saturday night a local radio station was playing hits from the 80s. As the master of useless knowledge, I rattled off artist after artist - no matter how obscure. Yet, late in the evening, I was doubted by all as to whether I knew who released this song:

If you leave, don't leave now
Please don't take my heart away
Promise me just one more night
Then we'll go our separate ways

We've always had time on our sides
Now it's fading fast
Every second every moment
We've got to--we've gotta make it last

I touch you once
I touch you twice
I won't let go at any price

I need you now like
I needed you then
You always said we'd still be friends someday

If you leave
I won't cry
I won't waste one single day

But if you leave
Don't look back
I'll be running the other way

Seven years went under the bridge
Like time standing still
Heaven knows what happens now
You've got to--you've gotta say you will

I touch you once
I touch you twice
I won't let go at any price

I need you now
Like I needed you then
You always said we'd meet again

My comrades insisted it was Simple Minds...but I knew better. They laughed at my answer (which it turns out was correct). Do you know the 80s group?

We Need More of This From the Courts

ST. LOUIS - Gillette Co. ads claiming its M3Power razor raises hair up and away from the skin are "unsubstantiated and inaccurate," a federal judge said in siding with Gillette's chief competitor, Schick-Wilkinson Sword.

U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall in Connecticut granted Schick a preliminary injunction prohibiting the use of the television and print ads. Gillette was also ordered to change packaging for the product and remove in-store displays that feature the false claims.

Wednesday's ruling said the depiction in Gillette advertising was "greatly exaggerated" and "literally false."

How many ads would be pulled because they "greatly exaggerate" or are "literally false"? Me thinks a lot.

Correction of the Day

From - you guessed it - the NY Times:

The Side Effects column in Science Times on Tuesday, about the gradual disappearance of the wooden fishing boats called dories from the Grand Banks of the North Atlantic, described the geography of Nova Scotia incorrectly. It is a peninsula, not an island.

What Does It Mean?

I'm not sure what this means. Should white coaches be hiring more black assistants? Should black coaches be hiring fewer? Vice versa? Since most of Div. I college basketball is black, should most coaches be black? Do good players make good coaches?

HOUSTON (AP) -- White head coaches are less likely than their black counterparts to hire black coaches as assistants, limiting black coaches' careers in schools with Division I basketball, a study released Tuesday suggests.

Texas A&M University's Laboratory for Diversity in Sport surveyed 191 Division I men's basketball programs and found that blacks make up 30 percent of assistants on the staffs of white head coaches and 45 percent of assistants to black head coaches.

"We have a long way to go before we can say there is fairness in some college hiring practices,'' said study author George Cunningham.

Democratic Party Politics...It's Fantastic!

Some East St. Louis Democratic Party workers told Mark Kern days before he was elected St. Clair County Board chairman that voters would have to be paid to support him, the first witness in a federal vote fraud trial testified today.

Dannita Youngblood, who worked at city hall and for the city party, told a jury that her boss, Kelvin Ellis, informed Kern of the political realities in a conference telephone call, heard by others as well, within a week before the Nov. 2, 2004, election.

She said Ellis, a party stalwart and then director of regulatory affairs, told Kern he was perceived in the predominantly-black community as a "racist' and might need to spend $10 per vote to get support. She said Ellis described a need "to pay the voters to come out."

...On Oct. 30, the St. Clair County Democratic Party provided $67,000 to Ellis and other East St. Louis Democrats to get out the vote. No county party officials are charged in the case.

NUTS!

ATHENS (Reuters) - Obesity, which already affects more than 300 million people and an alarming number of children, must be recognized and treated as a disease with deadly complications, a leading expert said on Wednesday.

Up to 8 percent of total healthcare costs in some Western countries are attributable to obesity and related problems. It is a leading cause of preventable death -- so shedding excess weight is not just about looking good.

"Obesity is not an aesthetic problem. It is a very complex problem tightly connected to diabetes, atherosclerosis (blocked arteries) and other major health problems and causes of death," Professor Constantine Tsigos, chairman of the 14th European Congress on Obesity, told Reuters ahead of the meeting.

"It has to be treated and confronted seriously."

The four-day congress with 2,000 experts from 80 countries will focus on all aspects of obesity. But much of it will be devoted to its consequences, which include cardiovascular disease, respiratory problems, diabetes, depression and some cancers.

"The emphasis has been put on the complications to increase the awareness of obesity as a disease and a serious condition with many risks associated with it," said Tsigos.

The Boy Can Sing

Go here.

Too Little, Too Late

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned the conviction of the Arthur Andersen accounting firm for destroying Enron Corp.-related documents before the energy giant's collapse.

In a unanimous opinion, justices said the former Big Five accounting firm's June 2002 conviction was improper. It said the jury instructions at trial were too vague and broad for jurors to determine correctly whether Andersen obstructed justice.

"The jury instructions here were flawed in important respects," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the court.

Quote of the Day

Passing affections easily produce words; and words are cheap; and godliness is more easily feigned in words than in actions. Christian practice is a costly, laborious thing. The self-denial that is required of Christians, and the narrowness of the way that leads to life, does not consist in words, but in practice. Hypocrites may much more easily be brought to talk like saints, than to act like saints. -- Jonathan Edwards

Great!

Who needs math and reading skills when you can have a teacher with a "commitment to social justice."

Brooklyn College's School of Education has begun to base evaluations of aspiring teachers in part on their commitment to social justice, raising fears that the college is screening students for their political views.

Why We Hate The Media

This morning's Today Show lineup:

• Katie got a hair cut
• Matt may be bald, but he's not impotent
• Spokane mayoral sex scandal
• Michael Jackson
• Paris Hilton getting married

Wow, hard hitting stuff.

I Think This Course Was Offered At Centre

Roger Kimball takes down the academy...again.

Readers will recall that the Greek hero Hercules was required to perform a series of twelve labors, each seemingly impossible for a mortal. The fifth of these labors was to clean the Augean Stables in a single day--a task of ablution that can truly be described as Herculean since the huge stables were home to thousands of cattle. He managed to do it by diverting two rivers so that they rushed through the stables, flushing them of the accumulated ordure.

Clever chap, Hercules. And one, I have often thought, whose services would be of particular use to the contemporary university. Consider this newly posted "call for papers" from two professors, one at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the other at University College, London:

“Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets”

What could this possibly mean, you ask? Olga Gershenson (the U. Mass gal) and Barbara Penner (University College), the editors of this proposed contribution to the annals of scholarship, explain:

We invite contributions for the edited collection Toilet Papers: The Gendered Construction of Public Toilets.

Public toilets are amenities with a functional, even a civic, purpose. Yet they also act as the unconscious of public spaces. They can be a haven: a place to regain composure, to ‘check one’s face,’ or to have a private chat. But they are also sexually-charged and transgressive spaces that shelter illicit sexual practices and act as a cultural repository for taboos and fantasies.

This collection will work from the premise that public toilets, far from being banal or simply functional, are highly charged spaces, shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division. Indeed, public toilets are among the very few openly segregated spaces in contemporary Western culture, and the physical differences between ‘gentlemen’ and ‘ladies’ remains central to (and is further naturalized by) their design. As such, they provide a fertile ground for critical work interrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design.

Stop the presses! Public toilets are "shaped by notions of propriety, hygiene and the binary gender division." Have you ever heard of anything more startling? No wonder academics at the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts and one of London's most distinguished universities are excited. You see what new avenues of research our humanities departments are opening up!

What you really see, of course, is the pathetic intellectual and moral bankruptcy of the humanities. "Fertile ground," forsooth! It is certainly well-manured ground. "[I]nterrogating how conventional assumptions about the body, sexuality, privacy, and technology can be formed in public space and inscribed through design" -- what nonsense. And what clichéd nonsense to boot. Is there a computer program that inserts some form of the verb "interrogate" and "inscribe" every thirty words? Or are Ms. Gershenson and Ms. Penner so thoroughly indoctrinated in the rhetoric of lit-crit-speak that they naturally emit this sort of rubbish?

Johnny Don't Need to Read

From the Sacramento Bee:

Lawmakers voted Thursday to ban school districts from purchasing textbooks longer than 200 pages.

The bill, believed to be the first of its kind nationwide, was hailed by supporters as a way to revolutionize education.

This Is What I Call Moral Clarity

HOMOSEXUAL priests in the Church of England will be allowed to “marry” their boyfriends under a proposal drawn up by senior bishops, led by Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The decision ensures that gay and lesbian clergy who wish to register relationships under the new “civil partnerships” law — giving them many of the tax and inheritance advantages of married couples — will not lose their licences to be priests.

They will, however, have to give an assurance to their diocesan bishop that they will abstain from sex. The bishops are trying to uphold the church doctrine of forbidding clergy from sex except in a full marriage. They accept, however, that the new law leaves them little choice but to accept the right of gay clergy to have civil partners.

This is Surprising...Not

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. -- Oscar-winning director Oliver Stone was arrested for investigation of drug possession and driving while intoxicated, police said Saturday.

Stone, 58, was arrested Friday night at a police checkpoint on Sunset Boulevard after showing signs of alcohol intoxication, police Sgt. John Edmundson said.

A search of his Mercedes turned up drugs, Edmundson said. He did not specify what kind.

Ouch!

Phil Cox, the black Chairman of UC's Board of Trustees, to CNNSI:

"We're trying to upgrade every aspect of the university, including student-athletes," Cox said. "And I have to tell you, as a person who happens to be African-American, there is a concern for anybody who gives the impression that the only athletes you can find may be carrying a gun or face other charges from the police. Other schools find African-Americans who are good students as well. I hope we can do it too."

UC fans are going crazy, pointing out a number of past and current black Bearcats who have graduated or are on schedule to graduate. However, I think they're missing the point. Cox uses an important word - "impression" - in his statement. It only takes one or two fools to ruin a university's reputation - regardless of how many good kids are there.

Nancy Zimpher (UC's president) is an egghead geek - but I think she (and the Board) have the high ground on this one.

Take A Seat

From Doug Harris in the Dayton Daily News:

Adam Dunn is not letting the massage-chair controversy die.

Miley had recliners belonging to Dunn and Ken Griffey Jr. removed from the clubhouse Tuesday in an attempt to assert some discipline. But both have chafed at the decision, and Dunn picked a new song for his introduction during his first at-bat to show his disapproval.

The song?

George Strait's country ballad, The Chair.

It starts off, "Well excuse me, but I think you've got my chair."

If I'm Dave Miley, I'd give Dunn a chair right on bench for the next week.

Shameful!

If ESPN thinks it's news that Adolph Rupp may have been racist 50 years ago or Rex Chapman was discouraged from dating black girls, what about this?

The crosses were raised quickly at night, and by morning not much remained but ashes, pieces of burned burlap and some kindling.

Still, the three symbols of Southern racism that were lit Wednesday night at three locations across Durham seared the conscience of the community. It responded with vigils, hymns and candle-lit events intended to send a loud message: Cross burnings will not be tolerated here.

"People in Durham are not going to let this go down," said Theresa El-Amin, director of the Southern Anti-Racism Network in Durham, who organized a community breakfast at 8 a.m. today at the Mad Hatter's Cafe and Bake Shop on West Main Street. "This is a mean and evil thing."

Durham police were investigating Thursday, but a police representative said they had few leads into incidents that took place in the span of an hour. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into the possibility of a civil rights violation.

Let's see if ESPN reports on that cauldron of hate that is Durham, NC...home to Duke University. I'm not holding my breath.

Jimmy Carter is a Menace to the World

Ethiopia's electoral board appears to have lost control of the vote counting for the May 15 legislative polls, European Union election observers said in a report obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The confidential report went on to say the EU might have to make a public denunciation of developments to distance itself from "the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging" of the vote

"Ten days after the polling day, the situation is of political uncertainty and informational chaos regarding the results of the election," according to the confidential report.

...The EU report also said former U.S. President Carter, who led a team of 50 election observers, undermined the electoral process and EU criticism with "his premature blessing of the elections and early positive assessment of the results."

Unless there is a "drastic reverse toward good democratic practice" the observer team and EU "will have to publicly denounce the situation."

"Otherwise, the EU jointly with ex-President Carter will be held largely responsible for the lack of transparency, and assumed rigging, of the elections."

This man needs to be stopped.

Only Kill Yourself During Banker's Hours

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian province will shut its 24-hour suicide hotline and replace it with one that operates only during business hours.

Prince Edward Island, a small province on Canada's East Coast, says it is too expensive to operate the hotline around the clock. Starting June 1, it will be open only between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

The plan drew protest from mental health groups across the country on Wednesday.

I Hate to Say I Told You So...But I Told You So

From the BBC:

A&E doctors are calling for a ban on long pointed kitchen knives to reduce deaths from stabbing.

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

They consulted 10 top chefs from around the UK, and found such knives have little practical value in the kitchen.

None of the chefs felt such knives were essential, since the point of a short blade was just as useful when a sharp end was needed.

The researchers said a short pointed knife may cause a substantial superficial wound if used in an assault - but is unlikely to penetrate to inner organs.

Not A Great Idea

NEW YORK: Third baseman Alex Rodriguez is proud to be in therapy, calling it "an incredible thing" that has helped him discover a different life.

Rodriguez told the television show "Extra" in an interview taped to air Wednesday that he was reluctant to go to therapy because "in many ways, therapy is synonymous with a bad thing, and why let the train wreck come before you fix it?" But he credits his wife, Cynthia, for persuading him to go.

"I think it's a different life that I've discovered and I thank Cynthia for that ... because therapy is an incredible thing and you might get to know someone who you didn't even know was in there," he said.

Rodriguez donated $200,000 on Tuesday to the Children's Aid Society to benefit mental health programs that work with young students in Manhattan.

Rodriguez has said in the past that he was deeply affected when his father left his family when he was 9.

Good for A-Rod. If he needs therapy, then go for it. However, I probably wouldn't have shared this with the public. How do you think BoSox fans will react? For that matter, how do you think Yankee fans will react? Fans are brutal enough as it is...there's no reason to hand them a loaded gun.

The Spoils of Celebrity

AND you thought P. Diddy forcing Farnsworth Bentley to hold his umbrella was bad? Mariah Carey retains a "petite Colombian woman" whose duties include "keeping Mariah's long skirts from touching the floor and humping around a Louis Vuitton backpack filled with bottled water," reports Stuff magazine. Nelly keeps a "personal jewelry jockey" to ensure the safekeeping of all his carat-encrusted bling. Ludacris has a minion whose sole role is to make sure his boss' Gameboy is always loaded with fresh batteries. And rapper N.O.R.E. has a hype man, Ching Bing, who has just one job: to stand onstage and swing around a towel.

Hit Me Baby One More Time

This will be the biggest hit of the year.

It's Open

Fields set to serve up entertaining eatery
Former Truluck's managing partner to launch new upscale Plano venture

Sandra Zaragoza, Staff Writer

Steve Fields, a former managing partner with Truluck's Seafood Steak Crabhouse, is launching an upscale restaurant and lounge where the menu will share the spotlight with live entertainment.

Truluck's has restaurants in Uptown and Addison, and Fields, a veteran restaurateur, still holds a small interest in the Addison location.

His Truluck's partners are now his partners in his new restaurant. Stuart Sargent and Patti Turner of Truluck's Restaurant Group encouraged Fields to develop a new concept, in which he will handle operations.

They also persuaded Fields to put his signature on the new fine-dining establishment. Steve Fields Steak & Lobster Lounge, located at 5013 W. Park Blvd. and Preston Road in Plano, will have its grand opening the week of May 23.

Fields admits that the decision to launch an upscale steak and seafood restaurant was influenced by the success of Truluck's.

"Truluck's was a winning combination," he said. "We are taking what we learned there and are adding an entertainment element."

The new eatery will feature an extensive wine wall fitted with 266 bottles and a special dessert plate, "mini indulgence," that gives a sampling of the day's desserts. The restaurant will be open for dinner only, with average entrée prices ranging from $18 to $30.

A bar area, "Lobster Lounge," will help generate traffic and will fill a gap for entertainment in an area of Plano studded by chain restaurants, Fields said, adding that it will target a mature crowd.

Pianists will play every night of the week from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m., and there will be daily drinks specials.

"It will be foot-tapping, recognizable music, like Billy Joel, Elton John and Fleetwood Mac," Fields said.

Before Truluck's, Fields cut his teeth as a bar owner in Dallas. He co-launched Dallas Alley at the West End Marketplace in 1988 with Spencer Taylor and Billy Bob Barnett -- creator of Billy Bob's nightclub in Fort Worth -- and ran it until 1994. Dallas Alley has since closed.

The Lobster Lounge allows Fields to return to his pub roots, which is clear in the restaurateur's theme nights: Tequila Tuesday, Wine Down Wednesday and Thirsty Thursday.

Brad Belleto, of Dallas-based Vision 360, a restaurant design and development firm, says he is seeing a movement toward more restaurants making entertainment part of their evening's fare.
Locally there are a number of upscale restaurants offering live music, including Capital Grille at the Crescent Hotel, Nana Grill atop the Wyndham Anatole Hotel and Sullivan's Steakhouse. Sambuca considers itself a "modern-day supper club," and a new restaurant in Addison, Go Fish, also has plans to open a lounge.

"A fine-dining restaurant that has entertainment creates longevity," Belletto said. "It causes people that have dinner to stay -- it keeps them there a little longer."

Fields and his partners are spending about $700,000 to remodel the restaurant, which was formerly a Grady's American Grill. Most recently Truluck's Restaurant Group launched Florida Seafood Grill in the space, but it was later shuttered.

The new restaurant is expected to generate annual sales of about $3.2 million, about the same as a Truluck's, Fields said.

That Doesn't Look Like Worthless Garbage

Here's a picture of President Bush holding an excess embryo.

Good News from Iraq

This is the kind of small, minor, unsexy, really significant story that needs to be reported from Iraq:

Ministry of Interior in Iraq abolished Saddam's alcohol, night clubs and casinos restriction law which was introduced in the 90's. The law has been abolished because it interferes with and limits Iraqis personal freedom. Businesses, however, are required to obtain a licence from Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Health.

Hee! Hee!

AN ATHEIST teacher at a Roman Catholic high school yesterday claimed he was barred from promotion because of religious discrimination.

David McNab, 53, a maths teacher at St Paul's High School in the Pollok area of Glasgow, told an employment tribunal how he was made to feel like a "second-class citizen" when his headteacher told him he could not be considered for the post of principal teacher of pastoral care because the job required Catholic Church approval.

Glasgow City Council argues that it was an occupational requirement for the post and denies discrimination on the grounds of religion or religious belief.

Mr McNab told the tribunal, yesterday how he had taught at the school for 15 years, but, although it was a Catholic school, he was an atheist.

Where's Jesse?

PHILADELPHIA -- Maurice Cheeks is running the show again for the Philadelphia 76ers.

In a surprising move nearly three weeks following the end of their season, the Sixers fired Jim O'Brien on Monday after one season as coach and replaced him with Cheeks, one of the most popular players in franchise history.

So Jim O'Brien (white guy) was fired after one season in which he went 43-39 and made the playoffs with a very bad team (Iverson, and crippled Chris Webber, and some bad role players). He's being replaced with Maurice Cheeks (black guy).

So what's the problem? There isn't one. Apparently, the Sixers wanted to play a different style of basketball, O'Brien wasn't particularly liked by his players, and Mo Cheeks is available (a former beloved Sixer with head coaching experience).

But where are the shucksters (i.e. Jesse Jackson) who howled over the firing of Ty Willingham after "only" 3 seasons? Where are the reverends who blasted the firing of Ray Rhoades? Where are they? Where?

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol.

A man, aged 20, and a girl of 17 are believed to have been filming a mock duel when they poured fuel into two glass tubes and lit it.

The pair were rushed to hospital after one of the devices exploded in woodland at Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.

A third person present at the incident had been questioned, police said.

A Moment of Silence, Please

FULLERTON, California (AP) -- Thurl Ravenscroft, who provided the rumbling "They're Grrrrreeeat!" for Kellogg's Tony the Tiger ads and voiced a host of Disney characters, has died. He was 91.

Ravenscroft died Sunday of prostate cancer, said Diane Challis Davy, director of Laguna Beach's Pageant of the Masters.

I've Thought This Too

A Nigerian priest expresses one of my peeves with Roman Catholicism:

"Americans aren't very tolerant of these things," said Dr. Hoge, co-author of a soon-to-be-published book on foreign-born priests.

He said some priests have trouble adjusting to the less exalted status American priests have – both in society and in their churches, where U.S. lay leaders often take on decision-making roles reserved for clergy in other countries.

The biggest adjustments are often ceremonial. Nigerian Masses can feature hours of singing, swaying and dancing. Western services are, well, dull in comparison.

"When I came here, I asked: If I was a layperson, would I be going to church at all?" said the Rev. Ernest Munachi Ezeogu, a Nigerian-born priest who now works in Toronto.

"The answer was no. There is no life, no joy. People come to fulfill a duty, not because they want to celebrate Christ."

The Middle East is Bush Country

From FOUAD AJAMI:

To venture into the Arab world, as I did recently over four weeks in Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq, is to travel into Bush Country. I was to encounter people from practically all Arab lands, to listen in on a great debate about the possibility of freedom and liberty. I met Lebanese giddy with the Cedar Revolution that liberated their country from the Syrian prison that had seemed an unalterable curse. They were under no illusions about the change that had come their way. They knew that this new history was the gift of an American president who had put the Syrian rulers on notice. The speed with which Syria quit Lebanon was astonishing, a race to the border to forestall an American strike that the regime could not discount. I met Syrians in the know who admitted that the fear of American power, and the example of American forces flushing Saddam Hussein out of his spider hole, now drive Syrian policy. They hang on George Bush's words in Damascus, I was told: the rulers wondering if Iraq was a crystal ball in which they could glimpse their future.

Huh?

Is there a more foolish group of people than high school drama teachers (I'd probably lump librarians in there too).

Scene: A log raft floats down the Mississippi. Huckleberry Finn and the runaway slave Jim are journeying toward freedom -- and friendship, in an unlikely time. Together, they sing about the muddy waters of the mighty river.

In reality, this scene from the musical "Big River" took place in the auditorium of Glenelg Country School in Howard County, more than a century after Mark Twain penned the classic tale. In this retelling, Huck was played by senior Jay Frisby, who is black, and his classmate Nick Lehan, who is white, played Jim.

That untraditional reverse casting has provoked the ire of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, which licenses the rights to the musical created by Roger Miller. It forbade the teenagers to perform the song "Muddy Water" from the musical that was broadcast last night on C-SPAN. And it will prevent them from singing it at the annual gala for the Critics and Awards Program for High School Theater, known as the Cappies, scheduled for tomorrow night at the Hippodrome Theater in Baltimore.

Immigration and Labor

WHY ARE JOBS increasing, but wages falling? Mexican immigrants are changing destinations, bypassing high-cost cities on the coasts and flocking to small towns in rural America. There, they manage to find work in low-wage industries, but their greater numbers make it easier for employers to keep salaries low. "Fifteen years ago nearly 60% of Mexican immigrants worked in California," says Gordon Hanson, economics professor at the University of California at San Diego. "Today it's barely 40%." The "Mexicanization" of the U.S. job ladder's lower rungs raises important political and economic questions. Will support diminish for minimum-wage increases when most low-wage earners are immigrants who can't vote? As industries like construction, food service, lodging and landscaping grow dependent on imported labor, will they face labor shortages if border security is tightened.

But then there's this:

Harvard economist George Borjas, who is a Cuban immigrant, warns that the U.S. economy's dependence on imported labor obscures many costs. Besides the expense of assimilating immigrants, businesses may be slower to innovate if they can make do with cheap labor. Mr. Borjas cites Japan as an example of a developed economy that was forced to become more productive because of its anti-immigrant policies. Americans may delight at the Japanese mania for vending machine and other quotidian gadgets, but the economist says that shows a Japanese willingness to mechanize, in contrast to the U.S. choice to Mexicanize. "Japan chose to robotize," Mr. Borjas says. "Mexican immigration has given us a very labor-intensive economy.")

I'm Glad the Boys are Trying

It seems silly, after this non-effort, to suggest the Reds' problems stem from guys not taking extra batting practice. But bear with me. It's always a mistake to apply real-world values to professional athletes. Every once in a while we do it anyway, in the mistaken belief it'll make a difference.

Like today. Today's real-world question: How come only three Reds showed up in Philly last week, for optional early hitting?

Did we miss the stat that has the Reds leading the league in offense? Leading the world in anything but lots of air moved and strikes taken?

Ken Griffey Jr., William Bergolla and Jacob Cruz came early. That's it. Griffey is a professional. Bergolla is a fresh face. Cruz appreciates what he has and understands how easily it could all disappear.

Real Life Question No. 2: If you are striking out every third time up ... if your idea of moving a runner from second base to third with less than two outs is calling him a cab ... if you're hitting less than your per diem ... if you're not the player you're paid to be ... How 'bout a little extra cage time?

You're not a child. Why should you have to be told?

Twelve Reds should have been there, not three.

That doesn't say it all about the state of the Reds. But it says enough.

Now the Rest of the Story

From Newsweek's Koran follow-up:

"In light of the controversy, one of these incidents bears special notice. Last week, NEWSWEEK interviewed Command Sgt. John VanNatta, who served as the prison's warden from October 2002 to the fall of 2003. VanNatta recounted that in 2002, the inmates suddenly started yelling that the guards had thrown a Qur'an on or near an Asian-style squat toilet. The guards found an inmate who admitted that he had dropped his Qur'an near his toilet. According to VanNatta, the inmate then was taken cell to cell to explain this to other detainees to quell the unrest. But the incident could partly account for the multiple allegations among detainees, including one by a released British detainee in a lawsuit that claims that guards flushed Qur'ans down toilets."

I Can't Wait To See This

John Podhoretz liked Cinderella Man:

Just to whet your appetite: The upcoming Cinderella Man, starring Russell Crowe and directed by Ron Howard, is a thrilling piece of work. No, more than thrilling. I left the screening room this afternoon exhilarated, moved, excited, stirred and overwhelmed, convinced that Cinderella Man is one of the best movies ever made. Since I've learned not to trust my early enthusiasms (I had forgotten until some merciless wags recently reminded me that I actually said nice things about the horrible Phantom Menace when it opened six years ago), I'm going to let a few weeks go by and see Cinderella Man again when it opens on June 3 before I say it a second time.

Cinderella Man is the true story of a boxer named James J. Braddock and how he was lost and then found again in the depths of the Great Depression. It's a great boxing movie -- Braddock's patented style of pugilism is here called "pop pop bang," and that little soundbite captures the vivid intensity of the scenes in the ring -- but it's not just a boxing movie. It's a terrific Depression melodrama, but it's not merely a Depression melodrama. It's a sterling biopic, but it's not a standard-issue biopic. It's, rather, the story of a family man and a portrait of a good marriage -- and it's the depiction of these simple phenomena that makes Cinderella Man so wonderfully powerful.

Howard has become his generation's answer to William Wyler -- a classic cinematic storyteller who can work wonders in any genre. As for Russell Crowe, there's almost no superlative that wouldn't be appropriate. Crowe hasn't made a full-on comedy yet. If it turns out he can do that too, Russell Crowe will then have proved himself unquestionably the greatest screen actor not only of our time, but probably of all time.

The God Science Takes Another Hit

Science is wonderful. It's provided many amazing discoveries (and many not so good) over the years. However, science is a human endeavor and, as such, is limited and many times wrong. This important fact is more often than not forgotten by our science worshippers.

Case in point:

Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing. If it bears out, it will challenge one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun. Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it prevents, some researchers think.

The vitamin is D, nicknamed the "sunshine vitamin" because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer. Now some scientists are questioning that advice. The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer.

In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

Many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic.

Classic Hillary

"We're seeing the slow and steady erosion of what made America great in the twentieth century," Clinton told her audience in an even tone. "When I got to the Senate I asked myself, What's going on here? At first I thought the President just wanted to undo everything my husband had done." Clinton waited a beat, then added, "And I did take that personally."
The audience laughed.

"But then I thought, Wait a minute. It's not just about turning the clock back on the 1990s.... They want to turn the clock back on most of the twentieth century. They want to turn the clock all the way back beyond Franklin Roosevelt. Back beyond Teddy Roosevelt. That's why they're trying to undo Social Security. Make no mistake about it.

"What I see happening in Washington," Clinton continued, "is a concerted effort by the Administration and the leadership in Congress to really create absolute power. They want to control the judiciary so they can have all three branches of government. I really don't care what party you are--that's not in the American tradition.... Right now young men and women are putting their lives on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan, fighting for the America we revere. And that is a country where nobody has all the answers--and nobody should have all the power.... We all need to stand up for what made America great--what created a wonderful set of values that we revere, that we exported and tried to really inculcate in people around the world!"

So what about the 40 or 50 years that the Democrats controlled the legislative and judicial branches, and many times controlled the executive? Was Democratic "absolute" power a problem? Nope. Hillary's a damn fool.

This Does Not Help Hugs

Another senior member of the University of Cincinnati's Athletic Department has been arrested on drunken driving charges.

Greenhills police confirmed today that Bruce Ivory, associate athletic director for academics and compliance, was arrested on a DUI charge Thursday night.

Officers on duty early this morning said Police Chief Thomas E. Doyle would provide more details later today.

Brian Teter, of UC's sports communications office, said early today he was out of town, had just heard about the incident and had not yet talked to Athletic Director Bob Goin.

Ivory, who joined the UC staff in 1984 as an assistant football coach, oversees the program that monitors the classroom progress of student-athletes, and oversees the operation of the office that make sure the university is in compliance with NCAA rules.

Ivory became assistant athletic director for academic services in 1995 and was promoted to Associate AD in 2002.

Brilliant Idea

NEW DELHI: A former politician in southern India has launched a "rent-a-crowd" company to recruit people to cheer at party rallies and said he has been deluged by would-be recruits.

"When all political parties and organisations are doing it discreetly, why can't we do it professionally?" the Hindustan Times newspaper quoted the company's founder, Devarajan, who goes by one name, as saying.

Indian political parties are known for paying people to show up for rallies, often transporting them in fleets of buses, but usually the recruitment is carried out by the parties.

Devarajan is offering recruits training, guaranteed wages and says they can be deployed when parties need a "decent-sized crowd" at a rally, the newspaper reported.

It's America's Fault

If a lake "disappears", it must be the Americans.

Officials in Nizhegorodskaya region, on the Volga river east of Moscow, said water in the lake might have been sucked down into an underground water-course or cave system, but some villagers had more sinister explanations.

"I am thinking, well, America has finally got to us," said one old woman, as she sat on the ground outside her house.

That old woman must be a Democrat...or at leasts a member off MoveOn.

Sweet!

A gun that spits out ball bearings after spinning them to extreme speeds is being developed by a US inventor. The novel design has already caught the imagination of some defence industry experts.

The weapon, called DREAD, was invented by Charles St George, a veteran of the US firearms industry who founded the company Leader Propulsion Systems to promote the idea. He claims a major US defence company has shown an interested in developing it further and has produced a promotional video showing a prototype in action, which can be seen here (Quicktime). He says a new prototype will be developed in August 2005.

The gun consists of a mounted circular chamber that spins the metal ball bearings to high speed. A release mechanism on one side spits the balls out one behind the other, a handful at a time.
St George says the projectiles travel at around 300 metres per second upon release from the weapon, about the same speed as a handgun round. He claims a fully developed DREAD gun would be quieter than a conventional gun, less prone to malfunction, and could contain more ammunition.

DREAD also releases its balls in extremely rapid succession, which allows it to unleash formidable firepower against a target. Promotional material for DREAD states: "Due to its extraordinary high rate of fire capability, it delivers its bullets 8.5 millimetres apart, thereby delivering more mass to the target than any other weapon."

Who Hates the French Besides Me?

Well, apparently the rest of Europe.

Language, history, cooking and support for rival football teams still divide Europe. But when everything else fails, one glue binds the continent together: hatred of the French.

Typically, the French refuse to accept what arrogant, overbearing monsters they are.

But now after the publication of a survey of their neighbours' opinions of them at least they no longer have any excuse for not knowing how unpopular they are.

Why the French are the worst company on the planet, a wry take on France by two of its citizens, dredges up all the usual evidence against them. They are crazy drivers, strangers to customer service, obsessed by sex and food and devoid of a sense of humour.

But it doesn't stop there, boasting a breakdown, nation by nation, of what in the French irritates them.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Britons described them as "chauvinists, stubborn, nannied and humourless". However, the French may be more shocked by the views of other nations.

For the Germans, the French are "pretentious, offhand and frivolous". The Dutch describe them as "agitated, talkative and shallow." The Spanish see them as "cold, distant, vain and impolite" and the Portuguese as "preaching". In Italy they comes across as "snobs, arrogant, flesh-loving, righteous and self-obsessed" and the Greeks find them "not very with it, egocentric bons vivants".

Interestingly, the Swedes consider them "disobedient, immoral, disorganised, neo-colonialist and dirty".

But the knockout punch to French pride came in the way the poll was conducted. People were not asked what they hated in the French, just what they thought of them.

"Interviewees were simply asked an open question - what five adjectives sum up the French," said Olivier Clodong, one of the study's two authors and a professor of social and political communication at the Ecole Superieur de Commerce, in Paris. "The answers were overwhelmingly negative."

According to Mr Clodong, the old adage that France is wonderful, it's just the French who are the problem, is shared across Europe.

"We are admired for our trains, the Airbus and Michelin tyres. But the buck stops there," he said.

Another section of the study deals with how the French see the rest of Europe.

"Believe it or not, the English and the French use almost exactly the same adjectives to describe each other - bar the word 'insular'," Mr Coldong said. "So the feelings are mutual."

Ouch!

Martin Peretz in The New Republic:

The journalistic establishment is circling the wagons, of course. Journalists usually blame themselves last and forgive themselves first. They are taking special umbrage at the White House's indignation about Newsweek's iniquity and insisting that this is the pot calling the kettle anti-Muslim. It is certainly true that the Bush administration, at Guantánamo and at Abu Ghraib, is responsible for a good deal of anti-Americanism in the Muslim world (see Noah Feldman, "Ugly Americans," page 23). The Bush administration is not perfectly qualified to give lessons in transparency. But, if Scott McClellan should not be allowed to hide behind Michael Isikoff, neither should Michael Isikoff be allowed to hide behind Scott McClellan. The subject this week is not the misdeeds of government. The subject this week is the misdeeds of journalism. No wonder many editors and editorialists want to change the subject.

"We feel badly": With those insultingly wan words, Whitaker thinks that he has wrapped things up. All of Newsweek's penitential protestations notwithstanding, what emerges from this episode is the image of a profession that is complacent, self-righteous, and hopelessly in love with itself. Is this a terrible generalization? Well, there are 17 people who lost their lives because of the state of journalistic practice at a U.S. magazine. When American journalists do not think of themselves as heroes, they think of themselves as victims; but here they are neither. They are--I mean Isikoff and his editors--simply scavengers.

Me No Like This

So I'm walking past the Palace loading dock Tuesday night, after the Pistons waxed the Pacers in Game 5 of their series, and there, standing by the bus, were Rasheed Wallace and Jermaine O'Neal, and they were talking and laughing and at one point they must have shared a joke so funny that Rasheed doubled over and shook his head in hysterics.

Now, as you know, these two do not play for the same team. An hour earlier, they had been battling on the court. They often guard each other in the blood feud known as Detroit-Indiana. They are "opponents" in every sports sense of the word.

Recently, it came out that these two men, friends since their days together in Portland, had spent last Saturday night, the night before Game 4, at O'Neal's house, watching a fight on TV.

Do what you want during the offseason. But during the playoffs, it's all business.

Strategic Recruiting

Michael Porter, a 6-foot-2 football and basketball player from Modesto (Calif.) Christian -- the same school that produced former University of Kentucky forward Chuck Hayes -- is the first recruit from the 2006 class to commit to the UK men's basketball team.

Porter, who averaged 16 points and seven assists last season, is the son of Modesto Christian basketball coach Gary Porter, who also coached Hayes.

"My son has always said that this was his dream, so when he was offered a scholarship to Kentucky, there was no use in messing around," Gary Porter said.

Porter won't be found on any recruiting lists, but fellow Modesto Christian guard Adrian Oliver can. Oliver visited UK with the younger Porter last weekend and also was offered a scholarship.

Oliver, who averaged 27 points and 11 rebounds and was named California's Division 5 Player of the Year, plans to visit Washington this weekend before making his decision.

What A Waste

A federal judge knocked Olympic boxer Ricardo Williams Jr. out of the ring for at least three years Wednesday.

The 23-year-old Williams, a silver medalist at the 2000 Olympics, was sentenced to three years in prison for his part in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Prosecutors accused Williams and two others of trying to pick up a package of drugs shipped to Cincinnati via FedEx. U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel could have sentenced Williams to 10 years or more.

Reds News

From the Dayton Daily News:

Minority owner and New York resident Bill Reik Jr., who has no function in Reds day-to-day operations other than being one of the team's biggest fans, wonders what is going to happen if the Reds continue to inhabit the lower regions of the National League Central.

"Carl Lindner authorized the team to spend $17 million more on players this year, and the team is in last place," he said."Last year at this time, there wasn't a nickel spent, and the team was in first place," he added.

When Reik was told about ownership elsewhere who have said, "We're in last place with these expensive guys, so we can be in last place without them, too," he smiled and said, "Yeah, that's certainly true."

Another Buckeye Arrested

OSU redshirt freshman tailback Erik Haw was cited by University Police Wednesday for possession of marijuana. His arrest comes on the heels of Jonathan Skeete's arrest a week earlier for drug trafficking. OSU coach Jim Tressel has issued a statement on what is at least the 16th brush with the law by one of his players since his arrival in January 2001.

Huh?

I'm still scouring the Scriptures for evidence of this belief.....I'm still looking.....still looking.

A group of Roman Catholic and Anglican leaders studying the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, said Monday that after years of talks they have agreed that Catholic teachings on the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of Mary into heaven are consistent with Anglican interpretations of the Bible....

The two sides issued a joint document, "Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ," which will now be examined by the Vatican and the Anglican Communion. If the terms of the new accord are eventually accepted by top church officials — by no means a certainty — it would overcome one of the major doctrinal disagreements dividing the world's 77 million Anglicans and more than 1 billion Roman Catholics.

Ditto

Christopher Hitchens on the terrorists and the NY Times:

The Bin Ladenists did have a sort of "governing program," expressed in part by their Taliban allies and patrons. This in turn reflected a "unified ideology." It can be quite easily summarized: the return of the Ottoman Empire under a caliphate and a return to the desert religious purity of the seventh century (not quite the same things, but that's not our fault). In the meantime, anyway, war to the end against Jews, Hindus, Christians, unbelievers, and Shiites. None of the "experts" quoted in the article appeared to have remembered these essentials of the al-Qaida program, but had they done so, they might not be so astounded at the promiscuous way in which the Iraqi gangsters pump out toxic anti-Semitism, slaughter Nepalese and other Asian guest-workers on video and gloat over the death of Hindus, burn out and blow up the Iraqi Christian minority, kidnap any Westerner who catches their eye, and regularly inflict massacres and bombings on Shiite mosques, funerals, and assemblies. . . .

The Bin Laden and Zarqawi organizations, and their co-thinkers in other countries, have gone to great pains to announce, on several occasions, that they will win because they love death, while their enemies are so soft and degenerate that they prefer life. Are we supposed to think that they were just boasting when they said this? Their actions demonstrate it every day, and there are burned-out school buses and clinics and hospitals to prove it, as well as mosques (the incineration of which one might think to be a better subject for Islamic protest than a possibly desecrated Quran, in a prison where every inmate is automatically issued with one.)

You Can Take The Boy Out Of Newport, But You Can't Take The Newport Out Of The Boy

Police Officer Accused Of Hitting Wife With Car
Officer On Unpaid Leave

CRESCENT SPRINGS, Ky. -- A Newport police officer was placed on administrative leave after being accused of threatening his wife, News 5 reported.

According to an arrest report, Officer Chad Cunningham was involved in an off-duty domestic-related incident in Kenton County at about 3:35 a.m. Sunday.

The report said Cunningham drove at his wife, Jessica, on the sidewalk and in the grass at 747 Buttermilk Pike. Cunningham allegedly told her he would have no problem running her over. According to the report, he hit her with the car and knocked her down.

Cunningham was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment. He was placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

He has been a Newport police officer since October 2001.

Officials said they believe alcohol may have been a factor in the incident.

And trust me, alcohol WAS involved.

King Rex

Interesting article on Rex Chapman and race when he was at UK.

Nice Benefits

Hmmm, now why is the City of Covington having budget problems? Oh, yeah.

Covington employees pay no deductibles for individual or family health costs, pay $10 for doctor visits, pay no more to visit doctors outside the city- approved network of physicians, and pay $5 to fill drug prescriptions - whether brand-name or generic drugs.

Why not just give them free health care?

Barney Frank, the Voice of Reason in the Democratic Party

Yes, that Barney Frank.

Howard Dean says: Tom DeLay ''ought to go back to Houston where he can serve his jail sentence."

Frank responds: Dean's remark, in a speech to Massachusetts Democrats at their party convention, drew an immediate rebuke from US Representative Barney Frank, the Newton Democrat and one of DeLay's harshest critics. ''That's just wrong," Frank said in an interview on the convention floor. ''I think Howard Dean was out of line talking about DeLay. The man has not been indicted. I don't like him, I disagree with some of what he does, but I don't think you, in a political speech, talk about a man as a criminal or his jail sentence."

The Lines Are Being Drawn

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (AP) -- A Roman Catholic priest denied communion to more than 100 people Sunday, saying they could not receive the sacrament because they wore rainbow-colored sashes to church to show support for gay Catholics.

Before offering communion, the Rev. Michael Sklucazek told the congregation at the Cathedral of St. Paul that anyone wearing a sash could come forward for a blessing but would not receive wine and bread.

A group called the Rainbow Sash Alliance has encouraged supporters to wear the multicolored fabric bands since 2001 on each Pentecost Sunday, the day Catholics believe the Holy Spirit came to give power to Christians soon after Jesus ascended to heaven. But Sunday's service was the first time they had been denied communion at the altar.

Archbishop Harry Flynn told the group earlier this month that they would not receive communion because the sashes had become a protest against church teaching.

Sister Gabriel Herbers said she wore a sash to show sympathy for the gay and lesbian community. Their sexual orientation "is a gift from God just as much as my gift of being a female is," she said.

The Kids Will Love This

Put this on your Christmas list.

Where Did This Come From?

A Dobbs Ferry man who has admitted he extorted a White Plains con man testified yesterday that two NCAA Division I basketball programs made illegal payments to him to steer prize players to the universities.

His testimony was dismissed by officials from two schools.

Maurizio "Mo" Sanginiti, 39, made the statements at the federal trial of five Westchester men accused of extorting con man John Perazzo in 2001. The men — Angelo DiPietro, who until recently lived in Mount Vernon; Angelo Capalbo of White Plains; Michael Pizzuti of Eastchester; Harold Bringman of New Rochelle; and Joseph Genua of Mount Vernon — are charged with extortion, conspiracy and carrying a firearm in committing a crime. Some of the men are also charged with robbery, obstruction of justice, burglary and loan-sharking.

Perazzo, who is not expected to testify at the trial, pleaded guilty in state Supreme Court in White Plains to grand larceny charges stemming from a Ponzi scheme he ran. He was sentenced in 2003 to three to nine years in prison and ordered to pay more than $850,000 in restitution.

Some of the men accused of extorting Perazzo had invested with him.

Sanginiti, who worked in construction, invested with Perazzo and said he took part in the extortion after Perazzo fell behind in payments promised from bogus Iraqi oil investments.
Sanginiti became a cooperating witness shortly after he was arrested in February 2004. He pleaded guilty last year to extortion and other crimes stemming from the case. He admitted yesterday that in addition to those crimes, he also had assaulted his former wife, violated an order of protection, failed to file tax returns for most of the past 20 years, regularly used cocaine for a decade and committed perjury.

He also was the director of a basketball camp owned by former New York Knick Charles Smith and coached a traveling amateur team of Westchester County high school basketball players called the Bulls in the early 1990s.

He said he received payoffs from NCAA Division I schools "to steer one of my players to a big university."

He named the University of Louisville and the University of Cincinnati, as well as the Ohio school's coach, Bob Huggins, among those who allegedly made the illegal payments.

Sanginiti said one unnamed school left $20,000 in a hotel room for him. In all, he said, he
received about $150,000 in payments from schools and sneaker companies.

Are Tax Increases On The Way?

I'm afraid Bruce Bartlett is right:

I now believe that the best we can hope to do is make incremental improvements to the existing tax system and hopefully prevent it from getting worse. Unfortunately, because the current President Bush and the Republican Congress have allowed spending to get totally out of control, I believe that higher taxes are inevitable. In particular, the enactment of a massive new Medicare drug benefit absolutely guarantees that taxes will be sharply raised in the future even if Social Security is successfully reformed.

Too many conservatives delude themselves that all we have to do is cut foreign aid and pork-barrel spending and the budget will be balanced. But unless Republican lawmakers are willing to seriously confront Medicare, they cannot do more than nibble around the edges. With Republicans having recently added massively to that problem, and with a Republican president who won’t veto anything, I have concluded that meaningful spending control is a hopeless cause.

Therefore, we must face the reality that taxes are going to rise a lot in coming years.

The Olympic Boondoggle

So a $2.43 billion investment returns only $8.97 million. That would get you fired in the business world.

ATHENS, Greece -- The most expensive Olympics in history posted a surplus of $166.79 million for the Athens organizing committee. The committee, known as ATHOC, was only responsible for the organization and operation of the games last August.

Overall, the Olympics cost Greece more than $14.05 billion.

"We have not only succeeded in our goal of a balanced budget but at the same time posted a surplus," ATHOC said in a statement Thursday.

The task and cost of building sports venues and infrastructure fell to the government, which also paid for a record security bill of more than $1.53 billion. The high cost of the games pushed Greece's budget deficit to record levels. At 6.3 percent of GDP, Greece had the biggest budget deficit in the European Union last year.

ATHOC, a private body, said it had revenues of $2.67 billion and expenses of $2.43 billion. The committee gave the Greek state $157.85 million to cover the cost of some Olympic projects, leaving it with $8.97 million.

Television rights generated the biggest revenues at $739.06 million, or 27.6 percent. Money from international and domestic sponsors totaled $685.42 million, or 25.6 percent.

Ask Dr. Mengala

The folks at Planned Parenthood are either monsters or fools. I prefer to think of them as fools...but it's hard.

Ask Dr. Cullins

Dr. Vanessa Cullins is a board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist and vice president for medical affairs at Planned Parenthood® Federation of America.

Q: My friend says that life begins when the egg and sperm join together. I say that it begins when a baby takes its first breath. Which of us is right?

All kinds of people — theologians, philosophers, scientists, lawyers, legislators, and many others — hold very different views about when life begins. In fact, both the egg and the sperm are living things before they meet and join. There's no real argument there.

The really hot question is, "When does being a person begin?" Most medical authorities and Planned Parenthood agree that it starts when a baby takes its first breath.

Some of our oldest religions have changed their views about this question many times over the centuries. Today, some people sincerely believe that being a person begins when the egg is fertilized. Some, just as sincerely, believe that it begins with birth. And lots of others believe it begins somewhere in between.

What we are all sure about is that a pregnant woman is a person. We know for sure that she has morals, feelings, human needs, and a conscience. Because of this, we know that she is the only one able to make a decision about her pregnancy options. She does it based on her own needs, ethics, and religious belief about when being a person begins. It would be wrong to force her to observe someone else's religious belief.

Quote of the Day

"Conservative reform, in fact, turns out to be a lot like liberal reform. Each involves a whirlwind of government activity. Each is a formula for politics without end--splendid indeed for politicians and government employees, but a bit tiring for the rest of us. Who can blame the public for beginning to show its weariness? The fatigue came to a head in the Schiavo case, and the president's poll numbers have yet to recover ... A lack of modesty and self-restraint is one excellent reason Americans grew to despise liberals in the first place. The high-water mark of American liberalism came in 1993 and 1994, when President Clinton and his wife, under the guise of "health care reform," decided they would assume control of one-seventh of the nation's economy in order to make it more rational and fair. Voters responded by handing the federal legislature to the Republican party. History may record that what offended them wasn't liberalism but busybodyism - the endless, frenetic search by elected officials for ever-new ways to make the country more fabulous. Bush and his Republicans are close to proving that busybodyism can become a creature of the right as well as the left." - Andrew Ferguson

A Must Have

This is cool.

Republican Family Values

The Republican chairman of Seminole County, Florida says his bid to head the state party was sabotaged because a letter accused him of having been married six times.

He says the correct number is five.

Put Me In The Bioconservative/Bioluddite Camp

Ronald Bailey writes:

Politics in the 21st century will cut across the traditional political left/right rift of the last two centuries. Instead, the chief ideological divide will be between transhumanists and bioconservatives/bioluddites.

I Smell A Correction Coming

The NY Times is up to its old tricks. This time with marginal tax rates.

I Love Vigilante Justice

Two points: (1) This guy is my hero; (2) When it comes to their "little boys", mothers are freakin' clueless.

Ice cream vendor ordered to cool off

A Good Humor man was served 18 months' probation Tuesday for losing his cool with a foul-mouthed teenager.

Nazzareno Didiano, 44, stopped dishing out peanut butter bars and Blue Bunnies last May 12 and began pummeling a pudgy-faced Bloomfield teen during a meltdown.

The teen, now 14, told Allegheny County Judge John A. Zottola during a brief trial that Didiano grabbed him by the arm, yanked him from his bike, punched him in the face and slammed him into a wall.

The attack came after the boy berated and cursed Didiano over the cost of his cones.
"I wanted to tell him I didn't appreciate being talked to like that," said Didiano, who denied punching the boy.

Zottola ruled he did not believe Didiano and convicted him of simple assault. In addition to the probation, Didiano must take anger management classes and reimburse the teenager $20 for damage to his bike.

The teen giggled as Didiano recounted the obscenities directed at him.

Didiano, who worked for Paul's Ice Cream Co., served up his own frosty insults.

"I told him he didn't need any ice cream anyway because he's fat," said Didiano.

The teen, about 5-foot-5 and 140 pounds, responded by calling Didiano a "bald (expletive) ripoff." Didiano later attacked when he found the boy sitting on a bike two blocks away.

Assistant District Attorney Dan Regan presented photographs of a red-faced victim with a cut inside of his mouth.

"He instigated the whole thing," said Didiano, who is looking for a new job.

The teen's mother said she's satisfied with the verdict, but complained that her son is now self-conscious about his weight.

"This has been a nightmare," she said.

I Need This For My Crumbling Driveway

By mixing fiber in concrete scientists have created a bendable material that is lightweight, resists cracking, and lasts longer.

The newfangled concrete, already in use in Japan, Korea, Switzerland and Australia, will find its first application in the United States this summer, researchers said this week.

Fiber-reinforced concrete is not new. But this variety, developed at the University of Michigan, is said to be 500 times more resistant to cracking than what your sidewalk is made of. It's also 40 percent lighter.

Concrete is a mix of cement, water and sand or gravel. In bridges and buildings, it is typically reinforced with metal wire or bars.

The new mix contains mostly the same ingredients as regular concrete minus the coarse gravel, explained engineering Professor Victor Li. It looks like regular concrete, but under intense strain it gives instead of breaking because fibers slide within the cement. The fibers behave somewhat like your body's ligaments, holding things together in a flexible manner.

The stuff is called Engineered Cement Composites (ECC).

The Best Commercial I've Ever Seen

This is good.

The Modern Mind

Sarah Loomis, 32, of Great Neck, N.Y., agreed. "I think it's good for the church to have rules against killing and things like that," she said. "But I was really hoping the new pope would loosen up on things like abortion and homosexuality. This is the 20th century, after all. Or 21st. Whatever."

NBA Evaluation

If all Morris wants is an evaluation, I could oblige him: he can't shoot, play with his back to the basket, dribble, or play defense. I think that about covers it. But in the NBA, it's all about upside.

Kentucky freshman Randolph Morris will enter the 2005 NBA Draft but not sign with an agent, leaving open the option of returning to the Wildcats for his sophomore season, CBS SportsLine.com has learned.

The 6-foot-11, 265-pound Morris averaged 8.8 points and 4.2 rebounds in 19.8 minutes as a freshman. He's not ready for the NBA from a skill perspective, but his size and back-to-the-basket inclinations will merit a look from NBA scouts.

Morris will be the second UK underclassman to enter the draft. Junior Kelenna Azubuike has entered and signed with an agent.

Four Stories That Should Be Huge...

...but have been underreported.

*Al Zubaydi—The Pentagon keeps catching 'important lieutenants' of Zarqawi's, and we all yawn (mainly because the car bombs keep happening at a terrifying rate). This one is different though. Most of Zarqawi's who have been captured to date have been Ansar al-Sunnah graduates from pre-war Kurdistan or foreign Jihadis. Ammar Adnan Mohammed Hamza Al Zubaydi, on the other hand, was a high ranking, trusted apparatchik of the Baath regime and part of a family that was very close to Saddam. Just the kind of person who would have been given the directive to foment a post-invasion insurgency with the help of Al Qaeda. Now that we have him, we can ask him: Did Saddam order you to liase with Al Qaeda? If the answer is yes, then we have first-rate proof that the war was justified for the simple reason that Saddam had aligned himself with our number one enemy. Even if we had found a few beakers of Yersenia pestis in Saddam's underpants, few Americans would really have cared. But it would be hard to find an American outside of Manhattan who would disagree with the invasion if he knew that Saddam and bin Laden were rowing the same boat. Of course this is all hindsight, but as we have seen with the issue of WMD, hindsight matters in our pop culture.

*I Spy with My Little Eye in the Sky—The New York Times reported that U.S. Satellites observed a massive tunnel being dug in North Korea, and then being backfilled with concrete. And then they saw what looks like a reviewing stand. Either it's a makework program for North Korean pep squads or...In fact there is not other explanation besides the one that says: They're going to test a bomb. This has been mentioned in many news sources, but the gigantism of this fact is understated. North Korea is about to test a nuclear bomb! If it happens, that means that the whole world is about to change in huge ways. Why isn't the front page of every newspaper covered with think pieces, news analysis and preparatory graphics? Why is any journalist assigned to cover the Michael Jackson trial instead of being sent to Beijing, Moscow, Tokyo and the Chinese/North Korean border?

*GM and Ford are Junk—Downgrading corporate bonds to junk status is not done lightly. It takes a huge amount of ill will, bad management and poor decisions to get so low. Yet Ford and GM were both downgraded last week to junk by the major credit rating agencies. One of the sharpest investors out there, Kirk Kerkorian, is amassing GM stock. This all points to one thing: GM is on the auction block. In fact, who wouldn't want to buy a company where you get more than $10 in annual sales for every dollar you spend on stock. And maybe Ford is acquirable too (although family control issues make that a much harder sell). The most likely winner? Toyota. Imagine the headlines such news would make. But anyone who doesn't read the business pages regularly (which is about 95% of the population), have no inkling that such a bombshell might drop. Stay tuned because this one is going to get ugly.

*Nano for the Masses—Product launches don't usually have Earth-shattering implications, especially when the 'product' is only a prototype. Motorola's announcement of a carbon nanotube-based television is enormously important, and it has nothing to do with televisions. Sure, it drops the price of an HD monster TV to less than $500 (that's a factor of 10). But the more important implication is that this will be the first consumer killer app that can be attributed to nanotechnology research (no, pants that stain less don't count). It also opens up the door to dirt-cheap computer monitors, which in turn make the $100 laptop that runs for a week eminently achievable. And this is just the beginning of the nano-age.

Condign, Congruous and Supererogatory Merit

Ok, I'm not Roman Catholic, but I'm pretty familiar with the doctrine. The following fits with what I know of the Roman Catholic view of works and salvation, but I've never seen these specific terms used before. Any Catholics out there who can enlighten me? If this is correct, it explains a lot.

Catholics speak of three types of merit, each of which plays a role in salvation:

• Condign Merit. This is merit attributed to our works for which God is obligated to give reward. This is like paying a laborer his due wages.
• Congruous Merit. This is merit that is “reasonable”, but not obligated. In secular terms, it is something like a waitress’ tip. It is attained through works and penance.
• Supererogatory Merit. This is the stuff of saints. It is their “excess” merit and it is deposited in a treasury of supererogatory merits. It can then be drawn upon to free people from purgatory. Attaining supererogatory merit is also possible for a priest living a life of celibacy in devotion to Christ. A layman can accrue supererogatory merit through regular church attendance and constant attention to the sacraments. Mary is thought to have contributed enormous excess merit into the treasury.

Illegal Immigration Is Not Good

From a recent GAO report:

In our population study of 55,322 illegal aliens, we found that they were arrested at least a total of 459,614 times, averaging about 8 arrests per illegal alien. [Good grief!] Nearly all had more than 1 arrest. Thirty-eight percent (about 21,000) had between 2 and 5 arrests, 32 percent (about 18,000) had between 6 and 10 arrests, and 26 percent (about 15,000) had 11 or more arrests.

Bad Move, Lebron

Lebron's made all the right moves...until now.

They hammered out the details for a landmark, $90 million deal with Nike. They leveraged another $12 million from Coca-Cola. And a collection of other deals totaled millions more.

But Aaron and Eric Goodwin couldn't keep their biggest deal from falling apart, as the NBA's biggest power brokers have lost the NBA's biggest star.

LeBron James fired the Goodwin brothers as his agent representatives on Monday, severing his relationship with the team responsible for structuring more than $120 million in endorsement deals before he ever stepped foot on an NBA court.

It is expected that Maverick Carter, James' close friend and a former high school teammate, will be part of a team that will take over deal-making responsibilities for the Cleveland Cavaliers' rising star, who ranks as the fourth-highest-paid athlete endorser in the world. Only golfer Tiger Woods, at $90 million per year, Formula One driver Michael Schumacher ($50 million) and soccer star David Beckham ($35 million) are paid more off the playing field.

Bad Review

John Podhoretz did not like Revenge of the Sith:

It opens next week. I saw it, and here's the thing: It's unbelievably bad. O I'm telling you this because movie critics won't. So far all the early reviews -- all of them, from Variety to the Hollywood Reporter to Time magazine -- have been favorable. Why? Because while the movie critics of my long-ago youth were middlebrow snobs suspicious of populist entertainment, today's critics have turned into toadies. They are afraid of being on an audience's bad side, afraid that a movie they will pan might really strike a chord. Since it's a foregone conclusion that the final Star Wars is going to make a jillion dollars, the safe thing for critics to do is say nice things about it. The only nice thing I can think to say about it is that it's not quite as mindspinningly wretched as its predecessor, Attack of the Clones, but it's plenty awful anyway. Even Yoda gives a rotten performance. Go see it if you must when it opens next week, but at least you got one fair warning here.

The Persecution of Christians Continues

Now Jesus can't even get a driver's license.

CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) -- Even Jesus Christ can't circumvent the rules for getting a driver's license in West Virginia.

Attempts to prove his name really is Christ have led the man born as Peter Robert Phillips Jr. through a lengthy legal battle and a recent victory in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

"This all started with him expressing his faith and his respect and love for Jesus Christ," attorney A.P. Pishevar told The Associated Press. "Now he needs to document it for legal reasons."

Described by his attorney as a white-haired businessman in his mid-50s, Christ is moving to West Virginia to enjoy a slower lifestyle. He bought property near Lost River, about 100 miles west of Washington, and has a U.S. passport, Social Security card and Washington driver's license bearing the name Jesus Christ.

But he still falls short of West Virginia title and license transfer requirements because his Florida birth certificate has his original name on it and he has been unable to obtain an official name change in Washington.

This Is Not Good News

SAN FRANCISCO, May 9 - The incident seemed alarming enough: a breach of a Cisco Systems network in which an intruder seized programming instructions for many of the computers that control the flow of the Internet.

Now federal officials and computer security investigators have acknowledged that the Cisco break-in last year was only part of a more extensive operation - involving a single intruder or a small band, apparently based in Europe - in which thousands of computer systems were similarly penetrated.

Investigators in the United States and Europe say they have spent almost a year pursuing the case involving attacks on computer systems serving the American military, NASA and research laboratories.

The break-ins exploited security holes on those systems that the authorities say have now been plugged, and beyond the Cisco theft, it is not clear how much data was taken or destroyed. Still, the case illustrates the ease with which Internet-connected computers - even those of sophisticated corporate and government networks - can be penetrated, and also the difficulty in tracing those responsible.

Dumb Luck

This morning, I remembered reading this on one of my favorite blogs:

Despite having worked as a hot walker at Belmont Park one Summer, I know next to nothing about horse racing. But my Dad loves the ponies, and offers these picks for Saturday's Kentucky Derby: Here are my picks for the Derby:

• $12 Triple Box 10,15,16
• $10 Win and Place on 10
• $5 Place on 15

Remember who the #10 horse was? Yep, Giacomo.

They've Come Unhinged

From Hugh Hewitt:

A day after Senator Uriah Reid (D-Nev) brands the president a "loser" and then apologizes, a week after Senator Ken Salazar (D-Colo) labels Focus on the Family as the anti-Christ and then apologizes, and a month after Senator Robert Byrd (D-WVA) brands the Senate GOP as Hitler's heirs, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) appeals to President Bush to bring moderation to the Republican side of the debate on the filibusters. Now that is rich. Wildly amusing and ineffective, but rich.

Especially when you consider this account of Senator Reid's appearance before high school students yesterday:

"Reid took students through a primer of the five most-disputed judicial nominees, arguing some were opposed to the 1973 Roe v. Wade case legalizing abortion. He charged others with trying to dismantle government programs like Social Security.

'I don't want them. I think they're bad people,' Reid said of the nominees.

He described California Supreme Court Justice Janice Rogers Brown, one of the Bush nominees Republicans will probably float first for approval, as an African-American opposed by the Congressional Black Caucus.

'She is a woman who wants to take us back to the Civil War days,' Reid said."

Tired of Blaming the U.S.

From Strategypage:

The Sunni Arab media in the Middle East has gotten tired of blaming the United States for everything that doesn't work in Iraq. More and more stories blame Iraq's Sunni Arabs for the terrorism, corruption and tyranny in Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East. This is part of a trend, the growing popularity of Arabs taking responsibility for their actions. This is a radical concept in Middle Eastern politics. For several generations, all problems could be blamed on other forces. The list of the blameworthy was long; the United States, the West, Colonialism, Infidels (non Moslems, especially Jews), Capitalism, the CIA, Israel, Democracy and many others too absurd to mention. Giving up this crutch is not popular in the Middle East. Oil wealth has made it possible to sustain, for decades, the belief of all these conspiracies to keep the Arab people down and powerless. But the invasion of Iraq, and the overthrow of Saddam, forced Arabs to confront their long support for a tyrannical butcher like Saddam. Here was a dictator who knew how to play the blame game, and position himself as an Arab "hero." Saddam's supporters turned to terrorism to restore themselves to power. Two years of killing Iraqis has shamed an increasing number of Arabs into admitting that this is an Arab problem, not the fault of the United States.

More Good Government

This time from Detroit, the mecca of good government:

DETROIT (AP) - Would you like fries with that? Either way, the Detroit city treasury would like a bite. Faced with a $300 million budget hole, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is hoping people in this already heavily taxed city won't mind forking over a few extra cents for their Big Macs and Whoppers.

Kilpatrick wants to ask Detroit voters to approve a 2 percent fast-food tax - on top of the 6 percent state sales tax on restaurant meals. The mayor says consumers will barely notice the extra cents at the cash register, but critics say the tax would unfairly burden the poor and hamper economic development.

"Just tell him we're going to go to Bloomfield Hills to McDonald's if he puts a tax on it," said 18-year-old Ebony Ellis, referring to an affluent Detroit suburb, as she and four friends ate at a Golden Arches in Detroit. The high school classmates eat at McDonald's every day after school because their schedule doesn't leave them time for lunch.

Other cities and states have special taxes on prepared food, and some have tried "snack taxes." In New York, Assemblyman Felix Ortiz has proposed a 1 percent tax on junk food, video games and TV commercials to fund anti-obesity programs.

But if approved, the Detroit tax would be the country's first to target fast-food outlets, the National Restaurant Association said. The tax would apply to anything sold at a fast-food restaurant - even salads.

When Hal Speaks, You Should Listen

Hal McCoy, the dean of Red's beat writers (and a Hall of Famer), on various topics (hat tip to Lance McAlister):

On the NBA
What's that, the National Ballet Association? I'd rather watch a dog hike his leg on a fire hydrant than watch the NBA without Michael Jordan, Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.

On Red's Pitching Coach Don Gullett
Gullett is right up there with Atlanta's Leo Mazzone in knowledge and expertise. But you can't make Cy Young out of Cy Old and Cy Done and Cy Bad. The minor-league system has produced nothing and there is no money to buy top-shelf products. Gullett can only show them and tell them. He can't do it for them. If he hadn't ruined his rotator cuff at a young age, he might still be the best on the staff.

On Trading Sean Casey
Casey is an excellent defensive first baseman. And why would you trade a yearly .300 contact hitter and a team leader? I have a whole bunch of other trade suspects.

On Danny Graves
OK, I'll say it. If Graves doesn't get 30 saves this year, I'll eat this column. I've already written that I'd eat a column if Ken Griffey Jr. doesn't hit 30 homers, so I guess I'll make it a paper banquet.

On Second Base
Freel, Freel, Freel. Did I mention Freel? He has Jimenez beaten in any category you can mention, including the way he wears his hat."

A MUST SEE!!

If you've got $20 and a few hours to spare on May 18th, you've got to go to this. There was only one C.S. Lewis...but Ravi Zacharias is the next best thing.

What I Like About Tennis

You wouldn't see this in the NBA...or NFL...or major league baseball.

Double take on double fault
Verdasco reverses Roddick's fortune
By Bud Collins, Globe Correspondent May 6, 2005

ROME -- Though the storied pines of Rome, fluffy and billowing, have been sentinels at a tennis pit called Il Foro Italico for seven decades, they may never have overseen such a bizarre reversal of fortune as overtook Andy Roddick in the gloaming yesterday.

For five seconds, Roddick thought he'd won his way into the quarterfinals of the Italian Open, ever a hazardous venture on European dirt for American guys. So did everybody else in the joint, about 4,000 leftovers from the full-house crowd of 8,000, including the umpire, Fergus Murphy. The sun had fled, leaving the matinee chilly and grimly clouded, and the witnesses seemed satisfied to head for home, too.

"Yeah, for five seconds I was the winner," shrugged top-seeded Roddick, "but . . ."

Hearing Murphy declare, "Game, set, and . . ." Roddick was walking toward the net to shake the hand of the seemingly vanquished Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco.

Verdasco, a gangling 21-year-old lefthander, had double-faulted on match point. Or had he? The outstretched arm of the line judge signaled the ball wide of the center line at 3-5, 0-40. Roddick concurred, pointing toward the landing spot, and Murphy began his conclusive statement.

"Game, set, . . . but I never got to `match,' " he said. "Because Andy got to the mark and said the ball was good, and conceded the point to Verdasco."

What price, sportsmanship?

Answer: at least $22,000 in prize money, and a shot at the title.

The five seconds turned into another hour, as the match turned in Verdasco's direction: 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

"I don't think it's anything extraordinary," Roddick said, playing down his match-point gift. "Verdasco hit the serve and everybody went nuts, but I thought it was closer. So I went up and checked it, looked, and couldn't tell. Then I looked again, and it was in. I don't think it was anything spectacular on my part."

Think again. But it tells you the kind of guy Roddick is.

The Dumbest Man in America

In the course of a discussion on filibusters and Senate rules, Washington's top Democrat gave the 60 juniors a lesson in partisan politics, particularly about the commander in chief.

"The man's father is a wonderful human being," Reid said in response to a question about President Bush's policies. "I think this guy is a loser."

"I think President Bush is doing a bad job," he added to a handful of chuckles.

"He's driving this country into bankruptcy," Reid said, referring to the deficit. "He's got us in this intractable war in Iraq where we now have about 1,600 American soldiers dead and another 15,000 injured."

Republican National Communications Director Brian Jones issued a statement calling the senator's comments "a sad development but not surprising from the leader of a party devoid of optimism, ideas or solutions to the issues people care about most."

After the statement was released, Reid phoned the Review-Journal to acknowledge he thought he crossed the line. "You know the president is in Europe, probably sleeping," Reid said in an interview this afternoon. "But I called (Karl) Rove and apologized for what I said."

Yes!

Al-Libbi's Notebook Believed to Contain Valuable Contact Information, Source Says

U.S. officials are working feverishly to decipher numbers and apparent codes in a notebook retrieved from suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Faraj al-Libbi, ABC News has learned.

Al-Libbi -- believed to be third in command of al Qaeda leader after Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri -- was arrested by Pakistani authorities on Monday.

He is suspected of leading two failed assassination attempts on the life of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

Sources said officials believe al-Libbi's seized notebook contains "hot" contact information. They said officials are hopeful the notebook contains useful information because al-Libbi was stunned when he was captured.

One senior official described al-Libbi as "shocked" and enraged.

"He thought he was invincible," the source said. "He was caught with his pants down. This was not the time and place of his choosing."

Al-Libbi was trying to destroy the notebook when he was apprehended, multiple sources said.

Don't Know Much About the Crusades?

Here's a quick primer.