Schiavo Redux

This is probably the best commentary on the Terri Schiavo case that I've read. And amazingly, it's from the usually unstable Joan Didion.

Big Bro' Was Right

My brother Greg used to tell me that Hollywood was filled with nothing but shallow, insecure, self-centered, moronic fools. I never believed him. How could Rodney Dangerfield or Keenan Ivory-Wayansk, who Greg knew all too well, be jackasses? They were so funny.

Alas, he was right.

Legendary movie maker STEVEN SPIELBERG has hit out at Hollywood for not rallying round for Democrat JOHN KERRY's election campaign last year (NOV04).

The SCHINDLER'S LIST director supported Kerry in his unsuccessful battle for US Presidency against GEORGE W BUSH, but he was outraged that the influential film industry weren't more vociferous in their support of the Democrats in comparison to the backing they gave to charismatic former leader BILL CLINTON in the 1990s.

In an interview on Australian chat show ENOUGH ROPE, he fumed, "I was disappointed that Hollywood didn't do enough for John Kerry's campaign, compared to what Hollywood did for Bill Clinton's campaign.

"The democratic Hollywood base, power base and money base, really didn't come out this year, and I was surprised about that.

"It might have been that Hollywood is very interested in charisma and I do not think that Hollywood felt that John Kerry had the kind of charisma that Bill Clinton had and that they didn't come out in force.

"I thought John Kerry would have been a wonderful world leader and an American president."

We Need More Eloria Noyesi Moths

I can honestly say I thought of this years ago, but nobody would listen.

BOGOTA,Colombia - A group of Colombian scientists believe they've found a way to wipe out cocaine production: unleash an army of hungry moth caterpillars. But critics of the proposal say the chance for "ecological mischief" is high.

The plan envisions breeding thousands of beige-colored Eloria Noyesi moths in laboratories, packing them into boxes and releasing them into steamy coca-growing regions of Colombia, the world's main supplier of the drug. The moths, about twice the size of a fly, are native only to the Andean region of South America.

Colombian Environment Minister Sandra Suarez told The Associated Press that the government considers the proposal an "interesting alternative" to existing eradication methods.

Carlos Alberto Gomez, president of the privately funded National Network of Botanical Gardens, made the proposal last week. He said the moths would naturally make a beeline for the coca plants and lay their eggs on the leaves. About a week later, caterpillars would emerge and destroy the plants by devouring the leaves.

A Mixed Bag

StrategyPage has good Iraq news...and bad. First, the good:

More towns in Iraqi's "wild west" are being pacified. The usual drill is not another Fallujah, but a government official meeting with local tribal and religious leaders, where an offer is made. Iraqi and American troops are coming. Neighborhoods that support the government will see little or no fighting as a search is made for weapons, bombs and the like. Neighborhoods that wish to resist will be hit hard. By now, everyone knows how smart bombs work. Increasingly, Sunni Arab leaders are being told, by their followers, that all this violence is not worth it. After Saddam fell, Sunni Arabs continued to believe in fantasies. For the last two years, the collective delusion was that the Americans had no stomach for guerilla war, and the Kurds and Shia Arabs could never get a government together. Today, Sunni Arabs who can get away on a little vacation, go north to the Kurdish north, or south to Shia Basra. In both places you can sit in an outdoor cafe without fear of a suicide bomb going off down the street. The Kurds and Shia have more jobs, more reconstruction and less crime. The Sunni Arabs don't want to live in their own mess any more. They don't want to live in a combat zone, especially while the Kurds and Shia are not.

Now, the bad:

The biggest obstacle to economic revival is not terrorism, but corruption. For example, over a third of Iraq’s potential oil revenue is lost to corruption and theft. . . .

Iraq may be free of Saddam, but it is not yet free of the corrupt practices that allow someone like Saddam to take power, and keep it. While much is made of the terror Saddam used to keep Iraqis in line, we forget that he often used corruption, and the willingness of too many Iraqis to take the money and look the other way. The corruption has gotten so bad, especially the oil thefts, that the government is planning on firing several hundred thousand government workers. The money simply isn't there to pay them. The money, instead, is in the pockets of local criminals, or foreign bank accounts belonging to corrupt officials. Until Iraq can confront and conquer this enemy, they will not be able to enjoy the benefits of their oil wealth.

Don't Say That Again

Funniest moment from Wily Mo's post-game comments after last night's Reds' game. I paraphrase:

Reporter: "How do you think your bobblehead looks?"
Wily Mo: "It makes me look like a fag."

Uh, I don't think Wily Mo's used to dealing with the activist groups down there in the Dominican.

The Gospel is Spreading...Even to Harvard and Yale

Fabulous article from the NY Times (yes, that NY Times) on Christians at Ivy League colleges. Will these universities once again become the bastions of Christian learning that they were created to be?

Is This Good, Bad, or Neither?

WASHINGTON -- Hispanics accounted for half the 2.9 million U.S. population growth from 2003 to 2004 and now constitute one-seventh of all people in the United States.

A Census Bureau report issued Thursday said that trend probably will continue because of immigration and a Hispanic birth rate outstripping non-Hispanic blacks and whites.

The agency estimated there are 41.3 million Hispanics in the U.S. The bureau does not ask about legal status so its numbers are intended to include everyone.

The population growth for Asians ran a close second. Increases in both groups are due largely to immigration, but also higher birth rates, said Lewis W. Goodman, an American University expert on U.S.-Latin American relations.

No Like Hillary

Interesting tidbit from Bob Novak:

At a dinner party in a private room of a Los Angeles restaurant attended by eight Democratic politicians, I was asked to assess the political scene. I concluded with a preview of the distant events of 2008. While there had not been so open a race for the Republican nomination since 1940, I said, Clinton was dominant for the Democrats. For someone who is neither an incumbent president nor vice president to have apparently locked the nomination so early is without precedent.

As I made this analysis, the liberal Democratic functionary across the table from me shook his head in disagreement. He left his seat between courses, and then returned with this announcement: ''There are eight Democrats in this room. I've taken a little poll, and none of them -- none -- are for Hillary for president. They think she is a loser.''

This is Comforting

Up to a third of scientists have engaged in ethically questionable practices over the last three years, according to a survey published in today's issue of the British science journal Nature.

The surveyed behaviors range from extremely serious acts such as fraud and plagiarism -- which were committed by only a fraction of a percent to 1. 4 percent, respectively -- to acts that are ethically far more ambiguous, such as ignoring data that contradict one's theory.

Dirt is Good

I've always thought that dirt is good and hyper-cleanliness bad. It just makes sense that your body strengthens it's immune system by being attacked - much like an athlete becomes more skilled by being challenged by better athletes. Well, there is a growing consensus in the medical community that asthma is caused by cleanliness.

There is growing evidence that asthma, like polio, is a disease of cleanliness. It is rare in farm children and seems to be related to a failure to expose very young children to dirt when their immune systems are sorting out friend from foe. Polio was the same and the epidemics first appeared in Sweden, in villages, where a combination of isolation and cleanliness isolated children from new pathogens. This was finally figured out in the 50s when Mexican children were tested, once the antibody test was available, and all the poor kids were found already immune even though none had paralysis. A similar mechanism is postulated for asthma although there is no proof yet. Epidemiology will probably prove it one day. In the meantime, asthma deaths are climbing steadily.

Quote of the Day

From Andrew Sullivan:

"Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead." - Howell Raines, former executive editor of the New York Times, last August.

That's classic.

The Hits Just Keep On Coming

University of Cincinnati basketball coach Bob Huggins said he first learned of the statutory rape charge against UC recruit Tyree Evans on Tuesday night after assistant athletic director Tom Hathaway was contacted by a newspaper reporter seeking a comment from a school official.

Evans, a 6-foot-3 guard from Richmond, Va., is one of five current or former members of the Winchendon (Mass.) School basketball team who are facing charges in connection with an alleged incident last fall at the prep school.

"We are shocked about it," Huggins said Wednesday from Chicago, where he and associate head coach Andy Kennedy were watching UC graduate Jason Maxiell compete in the NBA pre-draft camp.

"When we found out (Tuesday), we were dumbfounded. We started calling around trying to find out what's going on. If this happened, he'll never set foot on our campus."

Why I Love Chad Johnson?

In response to a comment made by his agent in a recent online report, Chad Johnson stressed Wednesday that a holdout is not in his plans.

Agent Drew Rosenhaus represents the Bengals wide receiver, who is under contract through the 2009 season. An ESPN.com story about Rosenhaus included a comment from the agent that Johnson was "sorely underpaid."

"My agent doesn't run me. I run myself," Johnson said after Wednesday's workout. "He works for me. Therefore, if there were any holdout going on it would be going on right now with the rest of those that are holding out for more money right now.

"(Number) 85 ain't going nowhere."

Wily Moooooo!!

Wily Mo saved the day last night with 2 home runs, including the game winner in the 9th. But Eric Milton was - yet again - awful.

Even with the win, do the Reds dare to keep running Milton out there every fifth day?

Milton had his sixth awful start in seven outings, and his ERA rose to 7.46. He is in the first year of a $25.5 million, three-year contract.

The Reds have better options. Luke Hudson joins the rotation today. Matt Belisle (2-5, 4.76 ERA) and Randy Keisler (2-0, 1.93) both have pitched considerably better than Milton.

Given his performance over his last seven starts - 1-5, 9.16 ERA, 54 hits and 11 home runs in 361/3 innings - there's little to suggest that Milton is on the brink of turning it around. Any chance the Reds will take him out of the rotation?

"I can't comment on that," Reds manager Dave Miley said.

Nobody Knows, The Trouble I've Seen

I think it's time for Larry to go preach to his fellow inmates in prison.

COVINGTON - The Rev. Larry Davis purchased a Porsche with some of the more than $700,000 he stole from the First Baptist Church of Cold Spring - sometimes brazenly withdrawing the money at horse racetrack ATMs, a federal prosecutor says.

"The thought of somebody in a leadership position misappropriating funds for personal use is very troubling," said U.S. Attorney Gregory Van Tatenhove.

"We, as a community, need to take a strong stand to hold those individuals accountable."

A seven-count federal indictment returned Wednesday says Davis submitted a false loan application to Fifth Third Bank, evaded federal income taxes for four years, and transferred stolen church money across state lines to buy the Porsche 911 and a minivan.

The White Ho Reporter

This is classic.

The Worst Rug of All Time

Go here.

What a Bunch of Stiffs

What is the most underachieving professional sports franchise based on player salaries?

Without a doubt, the NY Knicks.

Ooooh! Ahhhhh!

SORRY, Richard Gere, but Owen Wilson (above) doesn't share your adoration of the Dalai Lama. Wilson tells Playboy that he went to hear the Tibetan spiritual leader speak at UCLA once to "impress a girl" and "the crowd made me want to throw up. At the end of his corny lecture, with a bunch of goofball utopian ideals, he opened it up to questions. Somebody asked, 'What's the answer to world hunger?' And his answer was like, 'Sharing!' And everyone oohed and aahed like he'd just solved the problem. Somebody else asked, 'What's the solution to racism?' And he came back with, 'We all have the same color of blood,' and everybody was swooning. I just couldn't believe what the big deal was."

Go, Deano, Go

When Howard Dean became Chair of the DNC, I suggested that this was Karl Rove's doing. I clearly had my tounge in my cheek at the time. After the past few weeks, I'm beginning to think the Rove angle may be true.

Many Republicans probably voted for George Bush dozens, if not hundreds, of times in 2004, according to Democrat party Chairman Howard Dean, "by taking advantage of the fact that Democrat poll workers have difficulty distinguishing individuals from among a crowd of white Christians."

"Thanks to their pale skin, round eyes and khaki trousers, Republicans just blend in," said Mr. Dean. "So they vote, get in the back of the line and vote again. And because they've never made an honest living in their lives, they could do that all day long."

No, It's Really Not

Leahy said too many legislators saw the United Nations as an "easy place to beat up" but that the United States should not be acting unilaterally "simply because the United Nations happens to be here within the borders of the United States."

"It is hard to think of a world without the U.N.," he said.

Come On In, Boys

In a way, this is very good news. All of the nutjobs across the Middle East are heading to Iraq and not Israel or the U.S. or France. Now it's a matter of staying the course and killing all of these bastards.

ALEPPO, Syria -- When the Americans led the invasion of Iraq, the men of Abu Ibrahim's family gathered in the courtyard of their shared home in the far north of Syria. Ten slips of paper were folded into a plastic bag, and they drew lots. The five who opened a paper marked with ink would go to Iraq and fight. The other five would stay behind. Abu Ibrahim drew a blank.

But remaining in Syria did not mean staying clear of the war. For more than two years, by his own detailed account, the slightly built, shabbily dressed 32-year-old father of four has worked diligently to shuttle other young Arab men into Iraq, stocking the insurgency that has killed hundreds of U.S. troops and thousands of Iraqis. The stream of fighters -- most of them Syrians, but lately many of them Saudis, favored for the cash they bring -- has sustained and replenished the hardest core of the Iraq insurgency, and supplied many of its suicide bombers. Drawn from a number of Arab countries and nurtured by a militant interpretation of Islam, they insist they are fighting for their vision of their faith. This may put them beyond the reach of political efforts to make Iraq's Sunni Arabs stakeholders in the country's nascent government....

Keep Your Hands Off My KFC

Attacking an embassy or a consulate is one think, attacking the Colonel is quite another.


KARACHI, Pakistan, June 3 - Four times since Pakistan allied itself with the United States campaign against terrorism, a KFC outlet here has been attacked. Each time, the owner, Rafiq Rangoonwala, dutifully cleaned up and reopened for business. This time, with six of his employees dead, he's not so sure.

Last week, as evening prayers began at a Shiite mosque down the street, a suicide bomber believed to belong to a Sunni extremist group linked to Al Qaeda blew himself up inside the mosque compound, splattering his remains across the high courtyard wall. Minutes later, a mob, believed to be led by outraged Shiites, stormed Mr. Rangoonwala's KFC outlet, dousing its floors with gasoline, setting it ablaze and then blocking the entry of rescue workers.

Six hours later, the six bodies were hauled out. Four had been burned. Two had frozen to death in the walk-in freezer; their bodies were found only after a mobile phone belonging to one of the men rang. The dead had all worked at the KFC, and they were all local men in their mid-20's.

Quote of the Day

"By not-doing, everything can be accomplished." -- Tao Te Ching

Very Good Advice

Israel need not pay much attention to Europe, which is using its Middle East policy to separate itself from the US, has a tendency toward appeasement and is largely pro-Palestinian, former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar told The Jerusalem Post Monday.

"Europe likes appeasement very much; this is one of the most important differences between us and the States," Aznar said in an interview on the Bar-Ilan University campus. "Europeans don't like any problems. They prefer appeasement."

A Lot More of This is Coming Down the Pike

General Motors Corp. announced today it plans to cut 25,000 jobs in the United States over the next three years by closing various assembly and component plants, a move brought on by both a cooling of the American love affair with the mighty SUV and rapidly spiking health care costs.

Rick Wagoner, chairman and chief executive of GM, told an annual shareholder's meeting in Wilmington, Del., this morning that the undisclosed plant closings will save the world's largest automaker an estimated $2.5 billion a year once completed. He said the job losses were prompted by a "sudden downturn in performance" in the U.S. market.

I Have to Call B.S. on this One

A once-in-a-decade survey of the mental health of Americans has found that disabling mental illness is as common as such chronic diseases as heart disease and cancer -- but strikes people at a much younger age, with more lasting impact on their lives.

About half of Americans will develop a mental disorder at some time in their lives, the survey of nearly 10,000 U.S. adults found -- with half of those cases starting by age 14, and three-quarters by age 24.

I've Heard of Blind Umpires...

...but not this.

Love of the game means many things to many people, but more to Max McLeary than just about anybody else. A man who clings to the lowest rung of pro baseball as an umpire for 35 years, logging six nights a week and 45,000 miles a year crisscrossing the Midwest to lay down the law, can't be doing it for the money -- $125 per game, plus expenses. It has to be the work.

But even that doesn't explain McLeary's devotion. Because for the last 25 of those years, he's been doing it with one eye.

John Kerry...Idiot?

Well, if Bush is an idiot (remember his lackluster performance at Yale), then JFK must be an idiot -1.

Yale grades portray Kerry as a lackluster student
His 4-year average on par with Bush's
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff June 7, 2005

WASHINGTON -- During last year's presidential campaign, John F. Kerry was the candidate often portrayed as intellectual and complex, while George W. Bush was the populist who mangled his sentences.

But newly released records show that Bush and Kerry had a virtually identical grade average at Yale University four decades ago.

In 1999, The New Yorker published a transcript indicating that Bush had received a cumulative score of 77 for his first three years at Yale and a roughly similar average under a non-numerical rating system during his senior year.

Kerry, who graduated two years before Bush, got a cumulative 76 for his four years, according to a transcript that Kerry sent to the Navy when he was applying for officer training school. He received four D's in his freshman year out of 10 courses, but improved his average in later years.

The grade transcript, which Kerry has always declined to release, was included in his Navy record. During the campaign the Globe sought Kerry's naval records, but he refused to waive privacy restrictions for the full file. Late last month, Kerry gave the Navy permission to send the documents to the Globe.

"Pol Pot Reborn"

Robert Mugabe continues his insane demolition of houses and businesses as he increasingly starts to look like Pol Pot reborn, seeking to depopulate the cites and drive the now homeless and unemployed population into the countryside to eke out an even more miserable living, thereby dispersing and isolating people from communities which might oppose his tyrannical rule.

And where are the marchers in the west? Where are the protesters calling for justice in Zimbabwe? Where is the outrage from those tireless tribunes of the Third World, the UN? Why can I not hear the snarls of fury from the alphabet soup of NGOs? What of the legions of Guardian readers finding out about all this? What are they going to call for? Amnesty International is getting a lot of (bad) publicity from having called Guantanamo Bay 'a gulag' whilst now admitting they do not actually know what is happening there, yet why are they not straining every fibre of their being in opposition to this African horror? There is tyranny aplenty to be opposed without having to invent any.

Heathen America?

I'd say the 26% figure is probably more accurate.

How many Americans go to church regularly?

If you listen to the answers provided by major opinion research firms, the answer usually hovers around 40%. (National Opinion Research Center: 38%; Institute for Social Research’s World Values: 44%; Barna: 41%; National Election Studies: 40%; Gallup: 41%.)

But in recent years this consensus has been challenged. It seems that it’s more accurate to say that 40% of Americans claim to attend church regularly.

In 1998, sociologist Stanley Presser at the University of Michigan—whose “research focuses on questionnaire design and testing, the accuracy of survey responses, and ethical issues stemming from the use of human subjects”—co-authored a study entitled: “Data Collection Mode and Social Desirability Bias in Self-Reported Religious Attendance,” American Sociological Review, v. 63 (1998): 137-145 (with L. Stinson). Comparing diaries with actual attendance, they made the estimate that the actual percentage of Americans attending church from the mid-1960’s to the 90’s was about 26%.

Quote of the Day

"I hate him. He talks too much. He talks too much, he doesn't make sense, he's fat, he's sloppy, he acts like he's the best thing since sliced bread, he's ugly, he stinks, his mouth stinks, his breath stinks and basically his soul stinks too.'' -- Carolina defensive tackle Kris Jenkins on Oakland defensive tackle Warren Sapp

I agree.

This Ain't Good

Cincinnati pitcher Eric Milton has allowed 63 homers in the 45 games he has pitched over the past two years.

Those Crazy Kids

The following clip is an excerpt of a report aired on Al-Arabiya showing children in Gaza playing “Jews and Arabs,“ a game in which the aim is to die as a martyr for Allah.

*Clip #700: The Death Games of Gaza Children

Reporter: Abd Al-Sattar's favorite game is "Jews and Arabs."

Boy: The Arabs are in the street. The Jews stand over there and we shoot at them, and throw rocks and grenades at them.

Reporter: To win the game, the player must die.

Boy: Burn the tank!

Boy: Martyrdom for the sake of Allah is our greatest desire. Oh God! Don't be afraid because fear hurts me. Don't be sad because sadness frightens me. Don't scream because screams kills me.

Hooray for Bishop Foys

Although I detest Stan Chesley (who filed the suit), I think Bishop Foys should be applauded. He's pretty much the first bishop in the country to take responsibility for what the Roman Catholic Church has been doing for the last 50 years. If only the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was as Christ-minded.

The Diocese of Covington has agreed to pay up to $120 million to those who were allegedly molested by priests and other church employees over the past half century, the largest payout yet from any diocese in America in the Roman Catholic Church's sexual abuse crisis.

The record-setting settlement, which eclipses those in abuse cases in much larger dioceses in Boston, Orange County, Calif., and elsewhere, comes in response to a lawsuit charging that church officials deliberately covered up the abuse for decades.

It also dwarfs the $3 million that Archdiocese of Cincinnati officials agreed to put into a victims' compensation fund to address sexual abuse allegations.

To help pay for nearly 50 years of abuse of children and teen-agers, the church will put the Catholic Center/Marydale property in escrow to help raise $40 million in cash for the settlement fund.

The remaining $80 million will come from insurance.

The settlement, announced Friday but subject to court approval, does not specify the number of victims or abusers.

But in a 2003 report, the diocese admitted that it had named 158 victims and that 30 of the diocese's 372 priests since 1950 had sexually abused at least one child.

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.