Quote of the Century

“It is important, however, that those engaged in terrorism realise that our determination to defend our values and our way of life is greater than their determination to cause death and destruction to innocent people in a desire impose extremism on the world.” -- Tony Blair

I pray he's right, but I fear he's wrong. Is our determination greater? Is our media's determination greater? Is our politician's determination greater? Is our academic leadership's determination greater? Is our cultural icon's determination greater?

From what I've seen since 9/11, our cultural institutions have neither the stomach nor the courage to adequately defend our values and way of life...and the barbarians know it. The only thing standing between us and them has been W, Blair, Rummy and all of the other "fascists" and "warmongers" in the West. But what happens when they're gone?

More on Africa

I agree with Anne Applebaum:

[A]mong those who work seriously on Africa, it has long been clear that what Africans need isn't only cash, which can be stolen or wasted, but the opportunity to trade their way out of poverty, just as Asians did over the past several decades. Yet the current regime of agricultural tariffs, quotas and export subsidies, whether for American cotton or European sugar, so reduces the price of African agricultural products that African farmers cannot compete. Each European cow costs taxpayers $2.20 a day, while half the world's population lives on less than $2 a day. Withdraw the subsidies for the cows, and Africans might even be able to make competitive cheese.

Yes!

The Frenchies lose...again.

SINGAPORE (AP) -- London was awarded the 2012 Olympics on Wednesday, defeating European rival Paris in the final round of voting to take the games back to the British capital for the first time since 1948.

After Moscow, New York and Madrid were eliminated in the first three rounds, London beat its cross-Channel opponent on the fourth ballot of the International Olympic Committee vote -- capping the most glamorous and hotly contested bid race in Olympic history.

W - Friend to Africa

Nick Kristof's column in the NYT begins:

Those who care about Africa tend to think that the appropriate attitude toward President Bush is a medley of fury and contempt.

But the fact is that Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, increasing the money actually spent for aid there by two-thirds so far, and setting in motion an eventual tripling of aid for Africa. Mr. Bush's crowning achievement was ending one war in Sudan, between north and south. And while Mr. Bush has done shamefully little to stop Sudan's other conflict - the genocide in Darfur - that's more than Mr. Clinton's response to genocide in Rwanda (which was to issue a magnificent apology afterward).

Now They're Fighting Each Other

American troops on the Syrian border are enjoying a battle they have long waited to see - a clash between foreign al-Qa'eda fighters and Iraqi insurgents.

Tribal leaders in Husaybah are attacking followers of Abu Musab Zarqawi, the Jordanian-born terrorist who established the town as an entry point for al-Qa'eda jihadists being smuggled into the country.

The reason, the US military believes, is frustration at the heavy-handed approach of the foreigners, who have kidnapped and assassinated local leaders and imposed a strict Islamic code.

Fighting, which could be clearly heard at night over the weekend, first broke out in May when as many as 50 mortar rounds were fired across the city. But, to the surprise of the American garrison, this time it was not the target.

If a shell landed near the US base, "they'd adjust their fire and not shoot at us", Lt Col Tim Mundy said. "They shot at each other."

The 800 Pound Gorilla In The Room

Cincinnati has had 37 homicides so far this year. Here are the stats:

Victims: 95% male; 89% African-American; 24% age 21 and younger.

Suspects: Of the 22 cases in which suspects are listed, 91% are male, 90% are African-American.

Locations: District 4, which includes Avondale, Bond Hill and Walnut Hills, has been the deadliest to date, with 13 killings, or 35 percent. District 5, which stretches from Clifton Heights to Winton Hills and Mount Airy, has the fewest, with five.

I'm noticing a trend here that everyone is afraid to talk about.

The Demise of the Church Festival?

Well, at least in Western PA:

For many Catholic churches in Western Pennsylvania and for volunteer fire departments as well, the summer carnival has been a mainstay of fund raising for generations, a big business that requires precision planning, attention to detail and months to organize.

But with rising costs, a shortage of volunteers and competition for people's time, money and attention, carnival stalwarts say it's becoming increasingly difficult to bring in the tens of thousands of dollars in revenue such an event can generate.

"In the past, a good church or fireman's carnival -- between what they did on the grounds, on their raffle and with their food -- could make over $100,000 in a week's time," said Dan Shefler of Penn Distributing, one of the area's largest carnival suppliers. "That's much rarer these days."
"At one point in time, we were netting $80,000 from the carnival," said Sid Haeck, business manager of St. Mary of the Mount Church on Mount Washington, where the annual carnival starts tonight and runs through Saturday. "Last year, it was between $30,000 and $35,000."

Just Heard This One

What's Spanish for "David Souter"?

"Alberto Gonzales."

This Guy Has Quite A Bit Of Free Time

TOKYO - A Japanese psychiatric counselor has recited pi to 83,431 decimal places from memory, breaking his own personal best of 54,000 digits and setting an unofficial world record, a media report said Saturday.

Akira Haraguchi, 59, had begun his attempt to recall the value of pi - a mathematical value that has an infinite number of decimal places - at a public hall in Chiba city, east of Tokyo, on Friday morning and appeared to give up by noon after only reaching 16,000 decimal places, the Tokyo Shimbun said on its Web site.

I Haven't Seen This Reported

This seems quite significant:

Gallup announced yesterday that it had taken a snap poll after the speech given by George Bush on the war in Iraq from Fort Bragg. The poll showed some movement bolstering support for the war. In fact, it showed Bush picking up ten points on whether we are winning in Iraq (up to 54%), twelve points on keeping troops in Iraq until the situation improves as opposed to setting an exit date for their evacuation (now at 70%/25%), and seven points on whether Bush has a clear plan for handling the war in Iraq (up to 63%/35%).

What Would Wesley Say? Probably "Get The Hell Out Of My Church"

Somehow I missed it when Jim Winkler first said it back in March. Then I let an e-mail from a reader collect dust in my in-box for over two weeks before I finally let this speech by the chief executive of the UMC's General Board of Church and Society sink in. I know he was speaking in Portland, but did he really think about how this sort of rhetoric would sound to mainstream Methodists who heard it later? Read it for yourself:

Now, it occurs to me that extremist, shall we say “Christianist,” forces have been encouraged in this country as well. Certainly, politicians work hard to curry favor with them and their increasing cries of persecution—they can’t get the 10 Commandments posted in public places or have crèche sets placed in the town square or have their floats entered in public parades and they have to put up with gay and lesbian people and so forth has created quite a stir. Meanwhile, they are building a virtual alternative society closing themselves off insofar as possible from the rest of us. In Pakistan, the United States is deeply concerned with the madrassahs, that is, the private fundamentalist Islamist schools. Here we have so-called Christian academies and home schooling, our own form of madrassahs.

My Choice to Replace O'Connor

How great would it be for W to nominate Bob Bork. That would make for an entertaining summer.

Nice, Objective Journalism

Reuters just looooooves America. Can't you tell?

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch woman who swears by a daily helping of herring for a healthy life celebrated her 115th birthday on Wednesday as the oldest living person on record.
Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper, a former needlework teacher, was born in 1890, the year Sioux Indians were massacred by the U.S. military at the Battle of Wounded Knee.

The passionate soccer fan celebrated her birthday in a nursing home in the northern Dutch town of Hoogeveen.

"She eats a piece of herring every day because it's good for the health," said Johan Beijering, director of the Westerkim nursing home. "She is still mentally full of vitality."

The daughter of a headmaster, Van Andel-Schipper was born in the town of Smilde in the northern Netherlands on June 29, 1890....

Ouch, That Hurts!

This is part disturbing, part hypnotic.

Shelby Foote, RIP

Civil War Historian Shelby Foote Dies
Tuesday, June 28, 2005

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Novelist and historian Shelby Foote (search), whose Southern storyteller's touch inspired millions to reads his multivolume work on the Civil War, has died. He was 88.

Foote died Monday night, his widow, Gwyn, said Tuesday.

Foote, a Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident, wrote six novels but is best remembered for his three-volume, 3,000-page history of the Civil War (search) and his appearance on the PBS (search) series "The Civil War."

He worked on the book for 20 years, using a flowing, narrative style that enabled readers to enjoy it like a historical novel.

"I can't conceive of writing it any other way," Foote once said. "Narrative history is the kind that comes closest to telling the truth. You can never get to the truth, but that's your goal."

That work landed Foote a leading role on Ken Burns' (search) 11-hour Civil War documentary, first shown on the Public Broadcasting Service in 1990.

Foote's soft drawl and gentlemanly manner on the Burns film made him an instant celebrity, a role with which he was unaccustomed and, apparently, somewhat uncomfortable.

Foote attended the University of North Carolina for two years and served in World War II, though he never saw combat.

Foote's first novel, "Tournament," was started before the war and published in 1949. Then came "Follow Me Down" in 1950, "Love in a Dry Season" in 1951, "Shiloh" in 1952 and "Jordan County" in 1954.

That same year, Random House asked him to write a one-volume history of the Civil War. He took the job, but it grew into a three-volume project finally finished in 1974.

In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Foote's "The Civil War: A Narrative" as No. 15 on its list of the century's 100 best English-language works of nonfiction.

Reading, he said, was as much a part of his work as writing.

After finishing his sixth novel, "September, September," in 1978, he took off three years to read.
Though hardly a recluse, Foote had long been known around Memphis as having little interest in parties and public gatherings. And he was often outspoken about his likes and dislikes.

"Most people, if the truth be told, are gigantic bores," he once said. "There's no need to subject yourself to that kind of thing."

Invited to speak in 1995 at a conference on tourism in Greenville, Miss., Foote advised his audience to take care in holding on to their hometown ways.

"I never enjoyed the company of tourists," he said. "I do not go where they go, and I do not want them coming where I am."

Foote was born Nov. 7, 1916, in Greenville, a small Delta town with a literary bent. Walker Percy was a boyhood and lifelong friend, and Foote, as a young man, served as a "jackleg reporter" for Hodding Carter on The Delta Star. As a young man, he would also get to know William Faulkner.

During World War II, he was an Army captain of artillery until he lost his commission for using a military vehicle without authorization to visit a female friend and was discharged from the Army. He joined the Marines and was still stateside when the war ended.

"The Marines had a great time with me," he said. "They said if you used to be a captain, you might make a pretty good Marine."

He tried journalism again after World War II, signing on briefly with The Associated Press in its New York bureau.

"I think journalism is a good experience, having to turn in copy against deadline and everything else, but I don't think one should stay in it too long if what he wants to be is a serious writer," Foote said in a 1990 interview.

Early in his career, Foote took up the habit of writing by hand with an old-fashioned dipped pen, and he continued that practice throughout his life.

He kept bound volumes of his manuscripts, all written in a flowing hand, on a bookshelf in a homey bedroom-study overlooking a small garden at his Memphis residence.

Though facing a busy city street, the two-story house was almost hidden from view by trees and shrubs.

"If I were a wealthy man, I'd have someone on that gate," he said.

Foote said writing by hand helped him slow down to a manageable pace and was more personal that using a typewriter, though he often prepared a typed copy of his day's writing after it was finished.

Married three times, Foote has a daughter, Margaret Shelby, and a son, Huger Lee. He and Gwyn married in 1956, three years after he moved to Memphis.

Health Care Nonsense

Micky Kause rips Ron Brownstein a new one for this bit of foolishness:

LAT's Ron Brownstein on why General Motors' troubles show we need "national action" to control health care costs:

There's no silver bullet for controlling medical costs. The inability of even a massive consumer like GM, with its vast bargaining power, to hold down its bills belies the simplistic suggestions from Bush and conservative thinkers that transferring more of the cost to individuals will significantly reduce costs by making patients smarter consumers. [Emph. added]

Note to Ron: GM is maybe not your best example of the ineffectiveness of "transferring more of the cost to individuals," since GM has not even instituted the obvious deductible and co-pay measures with its hourly workers. The deductible for UAW workers at GM is ... zero.

UAW workers at GM and retirees don't pay monthly premiums or deductibles for health care, but white-collar workers and retirees pay both. GM says union employees pay 7 percent of their health-care costs and white-collar employees 27 percent. (Chicago Tribune)

Is your health care deductible zero? Mine's $2,000. ... P.S.: The key question, for Brownstein's cost-control argument, is whether the overall health care costs of GM's white collar workers are any lower than the costs for the zero-deductible hourly workers (forgetting, for a moment, the share of those overall costs paid by the workers). In other words, do the white collar deductibles and copayments actually discourage unnecessary doctors' visits, etc.? Presumably the answer is yes. If so, "Bush and the conservative thinkers" have a point--about GM, at least.

It Was Even Worse In 'Nam

Go here.

Iraq Military Casualties By Race

Interesting breakdown. If whites are now roughly half of the U.S. population, I'd say the crackers are doing more than their fair share.

This Is New To Me

For the past few nights the moon has appeared larger than many people have seen it for almost 20 years. It is the world's largest optical illusion, and one of its most enduring mysteries.

It can put a man in space, land a probe on Mars, but Nasa can't explain why the moon appears bigger when it's on the horizon than when it's high in the night sky.

The mystery of the Moon Illusion, witnessed by millions of people this week, has puzzled great thinkers for centuries. There have even been books devoted to the matter.

Not since June 1987 has the moon been this low in the sky, accentuating the illusion even further.

But opinion differs on why there is such an apparent discrepancy in size between a moon on the horizon and one in the distant sky.

"A Moderately Successful Chelsea Pimp"

British obits are, well, priceless.

Cracking obituary in the Daily Telegraph today for the author of the Henry Root letters. It begins like this:

"William Donaldson, who died on June 22 aged 70, was described by Kenneth Tynan as "an old Wykehamist who ended up as a moderately successful Chelsea pimp", which was true, though he was also a failed theatrical impresario, a crack-smoking serial adulterer and a writer of autobiographical novels; but it was under the nom de plume Henry Root that he became best known."

Classic Television

Newsweek Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas wondered, on Inside Washington over the weekend, whether the effort in the U.S. House to reduce funding for PBS and NPR through the CPB would "make NPR a little less liberal?" An indignant Nina Totenberg of NPR retorted: "I don't think we're liberal to begin with and I think if you would listen, Evan, you would know that." Thomas countered that "I do listen to you and you're not that liberal, but you're a little bit liberal." Totenberg insisted, "I don't think that's a fair criticism...any more than you would say that Newsweek is liberal." To which Thomas conceded: "I think Newsweek is a little liberal."

Who Said This?

Democrats "fumbled the seminal moment of our lives - the terrorist attacks of 9/11." President Bush "exemplified leadership at a time when America was desperate for a leader. He deserves credit, as do congressional Republicans, for recognizing the challenge of 9/11 and rising to it. Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, there was chaos... [Democrats] handled 9/11 like it was a debate over a highway bill instead of a matter of people's lives."

Rove? Nope, Andrew Cuomo.

Nino the Great

Scalia's dissent in the Kentucky 10 Commandments case:

What distinguishes the rule of law from the dictatorship of a shifting Supreme Court majority is the absolutely indispensable requirement that judicial opinions be grounded in consistently applied principle. That is what prevents judges from ruling now this way, now that thumbs up or thumbs down as their personal preferences dictate. Today's opinion forthrightly (or actually, somewhat less than forthrightly) admits that it does not rest upon consistently applied principle. In a revealing footnote, ante, at 11, n. 10, the Court acknowledges that the Establishment Clause doctrine it purports to be applying lacks the comfort of categorical absolutes. What the Court means by this lovely euphemism is that sometimes the Court chooses to decide cases on the principle that government cannot favor religion, and sometimes it does not. The footnote goes on to say that [i]n special instances we have found good reason to dispense with the principle, but [n]o such reasons present themselves here. Ibid. It does not identify all of those special instances, much less identify the good reason for their existence.

Rex Joins Casey

Rex Chapman is joining the Minnesota Timberwolves as their new general manager and top aide to team vice president Kevin McHale, ESPN.com's Marc Stein has learned.
Chapman, according to NBA front-office sources, will start working with McHale immediately to help Minnesota with its selections in Tuesday's draft.

The former University of Kentucky star and 12-year NBA veteran resigned his position as Phoenix Suns director of basketball operations on June 15. Chapman later called the move a "mutual decision," amid reports of tension with Suns president Bryan Colangelo.
Sources said Chapman landed his new job with the strong backing of longtime McHale ally Danny Ainge, vice president of the Boston Celtics.

Chapman, who was instrumental in helping Phoenix lure Steve Nash away from Dallas last July, also played for new Wolves coach Dwane Casey when Casey was an assistant at Kentucky.

Bush's Brain Wins Again

Rich Lowry, editor of National Review and familiar with White House insiders, writes today:

"White House reaction to the Rove controversy in case you're wondering. One word: delighted."

Suckers.

Give, But Verify

This is why unregulated aid to Africa - like debt forgiveness - is a very bad idea:

The scale of the task facing Tony Blair in his drive to help Africa was laid bare yesterday when it emerged that Nigeria's past rulers stole or misused £220 billion.

That is as much as all the western aid given to Africa in almost four decades. The looting of Africa's most populous country amounted to a sum equivalent to 300 years of British aid for the continent.

The figures, compiled by Nigeria's anti-corruption commission, provide dramatic evidence of the problems facing next month's summit in Gleneagles of the G8 group of wealthy countries which are under pressure to approve a programme of debt relief for Africa.

Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, has spoken of a new Marshall Plan for Africa. But Nigeria's rulers have already pocketed the equivalent of six Marshall Plans. After that mass theft, two thirds of the country's 130 million people - one in seven of the total African population - live in abject poverty, a third is illiterate and 40 per cent have no safe water supply.

With more people and more natural resources than any other African country, Nigeria is the key to the continent's success.

Africa's troubles - AIDS and famine and genocide - are not the result of bad luck. They are the result of decades and decade of corruption, vice, and unchallenged tyranny.

This Is Not A Ringing Endorsement

King Rex on Randolph Morris:

"In my mind, he's not a draft pick," Chapman said. "He doesn't have any post moves. He's not long. He's short. And he doesn't get off the ground.

"Where is he going to play? Most guys with a body like his have to play power forward in the NBA. Most power forwards his size have perimeter skills, which he doesn't have. Or they have to be athletic, which he isn't."

Of course, Chapman watched the same Randolph Morris whom UK fans watched last season. The one who grabbed fewer than five rebounds in 21 of 34 games. Rebounding is passion. Passion is a problem for Morris.

Basketball is serious business at UK, but it's serious business with a more expensive price tag in the NBA. Pro scouts rub their brows and look for the next big body when they see guys with marginal skills who have marginal enthusiasm for the game. That, Chapman said, is what he saw from Morris in Chicago.

"I was there for one private workout with (Memphis president of basketball operations) Jerry West and some of the top talent evaluators in the NBA," Chapman said. "(Morris) looked like he couldn't even fake it for an hour.

"It was like, 'I'm 6-9. I'm supposed to be a basketball player. But I don't necessarily enjoy it. I don't enjoy competing.' "

Holy Crap, What's Thad Selling Up There In Columbus

Greg Oden plans to play basketball at Ohio State University, a person close to Oden confirmed Thursday.

No immediate announcement is scheduled, but Oden and Lawrence North High School teammate Mike Conley are expected to make oral commitments to the Buckeyes in the near future. Oral commitments are nonbinding; the earliest players can sign a national letter of intent is Nov. 9.

Oden and Conley, both entering their senior years, could not be reached for comment Thursday night after playing in the Indianapolis Star Indiana All-Stars exhibition game in Richmond. Reached by phone Thursday night, Oden's mother, Zoe, said no official decision has been made.

A dominating 7-foot, 245-pound center, Oden this past year joined NBA star LeBron James as the only juniors to be named National High School Player of the Year.

He averaged 20 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots in leading the Wildcats to their second straight state championship. In one game, he blocked 18 shots.

Word of Oden's choice came two days after the NBA changed its rules for the draft, requiring that players need to be at least one year out of high school. Oden -- widely projected as the No. 1 pick in the 2006 draft before the rule change -- has said all along that he wanted to play college basketball, narrowing his choices to Ohio State, Indiana, Wake Forest and Michigan State.

Conley, one of the top-ranked point guards in the nation, averaged 10.7 points and five assists for Lawrence North last season. He had narrowed his choices to Ohio State and Wake Forest.
Earlier this month, Oden and Conley took part in the USA Basketball Youth Development Festival in San Diego.

Shooting guard Daequan Cook, an AAU teammate of Oden's and Conley's from Dayton, Ohio, also heading into his senior year, orally committed to Ohio State this spring.

My Adopted Colonels Rule the Bluegrass State

There is no fool-proof way to gauge which Kentucky high schools had the best athletic programs this year. One old-fashioned way is to measure success in the major team sports -- baseball, boys' and girls' basketball, fast-pitch softball and football. (Soccer and volleyball aren't played in some parts of the state, and/or the number of games they play in those sports vary widely.)

Using 20 wins as the standard of success in baseball, basketball and softball, and 10 wins in football, Dixie Heights was the only program to hit the mark in each of those sports this school year The Colonels won 10 games in football, 25 in boys' hoops, 20 in girls' hoops, 20 in baseball and 23 in softball.

Scott County just missed scoring across the board, coming up one win shy in softball. Corbin, Henderson County, Lexington Catholic and Owensboro Catholic also qualified in four out of five sports. Trinity, an all-boys' school, was 3-for-3 in baseball, basketball and football.

Quote of the Day

From the Tennessee Times, an official publication of the UT Athletic Department:

What are your goals for Tennessee Basketball?

Bruce Pearl (UT Head Coach) -- We're going to make progress right away. I don't know in terms of winning or losing what that's going to mean. My goal is for Tennessee basketball to once again become Kentucky's rival. There's no team in the SEC that's beaten Kentucky more than Tennessee. Tennessee has beaten Kentucky 62 times. Alabama is next at 37, so it's not even close, and right now Kentucky thinks their rival is probably Florida. I'm going to change that.

I like his moxy. Too bad it won't come true.

Dick Durbin, Call Your Office

I was wondering what the Maoist's have been up to.

Picture of the Day

Very classy.

American History of War

Victor Davis Hanson - next to Paul Johnson - is the finest historian writing today. Here's a little taste from his latest essay:

The second problem was that not only were we no longer clearly fighting a right-wing extremist ideology, but Texan, twangy, and conservative President Bush was hard to repackage into the reluctant liberal warrior in the image of Woodrow Wilson, FDR, Harry Truman, or Bill Clinton.

So there was never much room for error in this war. We are not talking in this postmodern era in terms of a past Democratic president invading Latin America, interring citizens in high-plains camps, hanging terrorist suspects, nuking cities, or bombing pharmaceutical factories in Africa, but, at least from the weird present hysteria, something apparently far worse — like supposedly flushing a Koran at Guantanamo.

In a leisured and liberal society, it is very difficult in general for a conservative to wage war, because the natural suspicion arises — as a result of the conservative's tragic view of human nature and his belief in the occasional utility of force — that he enjoys the enterprise far more than a lip-biting progressive, who may in fact order more destruction. George H. W. Bush barely pulled off freeing Kuwait, but only because he fought on the ground for only four days, used the aegis of the U.N., pulled back on televised images of the so-called "Highway of Death," and was able to avoid going to Baghdad and dealing with a murdering despot still in power.

This Was My Idea

Apparently, the next trend in reality shows is to involve celebrities. According to Variety, Fox is in talks of airing a spin-off of American Idol, where 10 celebrity singers compete to win $1 million for their favorite charity.

Actually, my idea was to take 10-12 washed up acts without high-profile recording contracts (say, Axel Rose, Loverboy, etc.) and let them duke it out for a new, big deal with Sony or another recording studio.

Expanding the Big Tent

Do you want to know why the Democratic Party is having trouble appealing to "normal" people? From today's Kentucky Post:

Twenty years ago, the Republican Party captured the American flag, said Erlanger resident Dan McGue.

Then, with Rush Limbaugh, Republicans captured the nation's radio stations.

During the 2004 presidential election, they captured Jesus, McGue said.

"They're the only people who can talk to God, and he guides George Bush in all he does," McGue said. That anyone would believe that is really upsetting, he said.

McGue was speaking at a meeting of voters in Independence on Thursday night, voters united by their anger at Bush.

McGue, a retired railroad worker, said he has voted for Republicans, but he's totally upset with the Bush "dictatorship."

"I can't believe he gets away with what he does," he said, and he blames the national media for not taking the president to task.

Former President Clinton could not get away with what President Bush has, he said.

McGue was among about 30 voters who consider themselves progressives who met at the home of Jenny and Jamie Jameson for a Democracy for America "house party" on Thursday.

It was one of at least 50 similar events held in homes across the U.S. on behalf of the national political action committee formed out of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean's presidential campaign last year.

The organization now works mainly to get candidates elected to local and state offices. Its state chapter is called Change for Kentucky.

Jameson told his guests he was looking for people who could put a political apparatus in place in Kenton County, one that could expand to all of Northern Kentucky.

"The power of the people can win elections and it will win elections," Jameson said, and many applauded.

The first priority for the organization would be to set up a communications system, he said, so that progressives could respond quickly to media attacks.

Too often, Democrats don't speak with a unified voice, he said. His prime example was their scattered response to accusations of partisanship in the Transportation Cabinet scandal.

Jeff Hampton of Morning View, wearing a "Please Jesus, save me from your followers" button, asked for pressure on local television stations to cover news they aren't covering.

"Whatever our first issue is, our second needs to be media reform," he said.

The guests spent most of their meeting getting organized and getting to know one another. Many talked about how isolated they feel as Democrats in a heavily Republican corner of the nation.

"I feel like a man without a country," said Roger Evans of Edgewood.

Frustrated at the direction the country's been heading in, he wanted to find a way to make a difference, and hoped the new group could provide that.

An ordained minister, he says he's very disappointed in the way the "religious right" has distorted the teachings of Jesus for political gain.

"How many people have to die to avenge 9-11?" he asked. "When will we realize that Jesus taught that we don't have an eye for an eye, but we forgive 70 times seven?"

The group will focus on organizing volunteers for local elections in 2006, when county officials and many city officials will be up for re-election.

Jeremy Horton, Change for Kentucky's co-founder and political director, told the guests he was encouraged that so many had come, with the elections more than a year away.

"Politics in Kentucky is in a very grave state," Jameson said. "We're going to do something about it."

Sigh

A classic case illustrating my stumbling block with Roman Catholicism:

Catholics are still welcome to attend, but the lack of official involvement amazed Graham biographer Bill Martin, who characterized the archdiocese's reasoning as a "change in policy" from Mr. Graham's 1991 Central Park crusade. Back then, he said, 630 Catholic churches cooperated with the crusade and information on the meetings was handed out at St. Patrick's Cathedral.

That 1991 stance had been a huge shift from Mr. Graham's first New York crusade in 1957, he said, when Catholics boycotted the event and Catholic clergy were instructed on how to counter Mr. Graham's preaching.

"So maybe something's come down from above saying not to be involved in this," Mr. Martin added.

Mr. Zwilling said he didn't remember any such cooperation from churches back then, but Catholic clergy in 1991 did receive names of Catholics who answered Mr. Graham's altar calls at the Central Park event.

In a column to be released Saturday in the diocesan newspaper the Tablet, Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio outlined the significant divide over how Catholics and Protestants understand salvation.

The bishop said he welcomed Mr. Graham into the area and promised to follow up on any names given to them by crusade organizers.

How do Roman Catholic commentators respond. Well, one of my favorites wrote this:

But I actually do see the dioceses' point. This is a Protestant evangelical event. Why should a Catholic diocese work hard to get its people out to it?

Oh, I don't know. Maybe to help introduce people to their Savior. Apparently not everyone in "The Church" would agree.

Don't Mention That Name

One of the things I love about NASCAR is that the name of Jesus is mentioned at the end of every pre-race benediction. I guess if you're about to go out and put your life on the line, you're not too concerned about offending people's delicate sensibilities.

The Medical School of South Carolina is not NASCAR:

When the Rev. John Parker was asked to say the benediction at the graduation rite for the Medical School of South Carolina, he did what any Eastern Orthodox priest would do.

He went straight to "The Great Book of Needs," a four-volume set of prayers collected over two millennia for use during every imaginable kind of ritual.

It was easy to find prayers about Jesus and healing, including: "Do now, O Lord, give your grace to all those here gathered who have labored and studied hour upon hour, to go into all the world, and also to heal by the talent You have given to each of them. Strengthen them, by your strength, to fear no evil or disease, enlighten them to do no evil by the works of their hands and preserve them and those they serve in peace, for You are our God, and we know no other."

Then he received a letter from the president's office offering guidelines for prayers at this public school in Charleston, S.C. It required inclusive language such as "Holy God, Holy One, Creator, Sustainer" rather than prayers mentioning Jesus, Allah, the Trinity or other specific divine references.

Pope Palpatine?

This is creepy.

This Is Not Surprising

The WaPo puts the Karl Rove "controversy" on the front page today.

Hmmm. That's interesting. Sen. Dick Durbin's remarks never made the front page

• June 17, A-11
• June 18 in briefs, A-5
• June 19, A-6
• June 22 apology, A-6

We Must...I Mean, Have To...I Mean, Want To Destroy the Embryos!

Will this make the nightly news. Probably not.

PITTSBURGH, June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- In a ground-breaking study, scientists at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh have discovered that adult, or post- natal, stem cells have the same ability as embryonic stem cells to multiply, a previously unknown characteristic indicating that post-natal stem cells may play an important therapeutic role. Adult and post-natal stem cells are often overlooked in favor of embryonic stem cells in the national debate over the therapeutic use of stem cells.

Until now, it has been generally believed that embryonic stem cells had a greater capacity to multiply than post-natal stem cells, making them more desirable to research as a potential treatment, according to Johnny Huard, PhD, director of the Growth and Development Laboratory at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Nice Try

This was a rather weak effort on the part of the Diocese of Covington.

The $40 million the Diocese of Covington will put up as its share of a $120 million settlement with victims of priestly sexual abuse is the maximum it could afford without getting into dire financial straits, its lawyer said Wednesday.

"We were willing to put up virtually everything the diocese has that's not committed to a parish," said Chicago-based attorney Carrie Huff.

Huff and Stan Chesley - who filed the lawsuit on behalf of an unknown number of victims - said they came up with that figure after meeting with accountants for the diocese and examining financial and property records.

The settlement calls for the diocese to pay up to $40 million via cash on hand, securities and the sale of some of its property, including the Marydale retreat center in Erlanger. The remainder of the money will come from insurance payments - which may eventually cover the diocese's share as well.

I'll Be Right Back, I've Got A Phone Call To Make

WASHINGTON - Callers to Congressman Ben Chandler's office have left no doubt about where they stand on the a proposal to slash federal funding for public radio and television.

"Everyone is against the cuts," said Chandler's spokeswoman, Jennifer Spalding. "We've had no one call us who is for the cuts."

I enjoy PBS programming (well, most of it), but the public subsidy must go. I think Clifford and Arthur can make it on their own.

Those God-Fearing Docs

This doesn't surprise me at all:

CHICAGO — A survey examining religion in medicine found that most U.S. doctors believe in God and an afterlife — a surprising degree of spirituality in a science-based field, researchers say.

In the survey of 1,044 doctors nationwide, 76 percent said they believe in God, 59 percent said they believe in some sort of afterlife, and 55 percent said their religious beliefs influence how they practice medicine.

"We were surprised to find that physicians were as religious as they apparently are," said Dr. Farr Curlin, a researcher at the University of Chicago's MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics.

"There's certainly a deep-seated cultural idea that science and religion (search) are at odds," and previous studies have suggested that fewer than half of scientists believe in God, Curlin said Wednesday.

A previous survey showed about 83 percent of the general population believes in God.

But while medicine is science-based, doctors differ from scientists who work primarily in a laboratory setting, and their direct contact with patients in life-and-death situations may explain the differing views, Curlin said.

Clarification: It's not a "deep-seated cultural idea" that science and religion are at odds, it's a "deap-seated Leftist secularist idea." Big difference.

A Confederacy of Dun...Supreme Court Justices

More foolishness from the high court:

WASHINGTON (AP) - A divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will for private development in a decision anxiously awaited in communities where economic growth often is at war with individual property rights.

The 5-4 ruling - assailed by dissenting Justice Sandra Day O'Connor as handing "disproportionate influence and power" to the well-heeled in America - was a defeat for Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They had argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

The case was one of six resolved by justices on Thursday. Among those still pending for the court, which next meets on Monday, is one testing the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commands on government property.

Writing for the court's majority in Thursday's ruling, Justice John Paul Stevens said local officials, not federal judges, know best in deciding whether a development project will benefit the community. States are within their rights to pass additional laws restricting condemnations if residents are overly burdened, he said.

"The city has carefully formulated an economic development plan that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including - but by no means limited to - new jobs and increased tax revenue," Stevens wrote.

Stevens was joined in his opinion by other members of the court's liberal wing - David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer. The bloc typically has favored greater deference to cities, which historically have used the takings power for urban renewal projects that benefit the lower and middle class.

They were joined by Reagan appointee Justice Anthony Kennedy in rejecting the conservative principle of individual property rights. Critics had feared that would allow a small group of homeowners to stymie rebuilding efforts that benefit the city through added jobs and more tax revenue for social programs.

What this court needs is another Scalia or Thomas...or two.

The Brain Speaks

This, sadly, is right on the money:

"Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers," Mr. Rove, the senior political adviser to President Bush, said at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.

Citing calls by progressive groups to respond carefully to the attacks, Mr. Rove said to the applause of several hundred audience members, "I don't know about you, but moderation and restraint is not what I felt when I watched the twin towers crumble to the ground, a side of the Pentagon destroyed, and almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens perish in flames and rubble."

Told of Mr. Rove's remarks, Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, replied: "In New York, where everyone unified after 9/11, the last thing we need is somebody who seeks to divide us for political purposes."

Mr. Rove also said American armed forces overseas were in more jeopardy as a result of remarks last week by Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, who compared American mistreatment of detainees to the acts of "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others."

"Has there ever been a more revealing moment this year?" Mr. Rove asked. "Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals."

Enter the Twilight Zone

I'm posting this entire article because it is just sooooo weird:

Katie Holmes' Missing Days
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
By Roger Friedman

The newly engaged Katie Holmes still has some explaining to do to her friends and family.
There were 16 days in April during which no one seems to know where she was.

Holmes made a public appearance on April 4 at the premiere of "Steel Magnolias" on Broadway.
She came with her publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnick, and a couple of other friends. They were there to support Rebecca Gayheart, who was making her Broadway debut.

I know this because I spoke to Holmes at length during the play's intermission. She said she had just moved into her New York apartment and was looking forward to seeing the city.

I also know that on April 4, she had not yet made the acquaintance of Tom Cruise. She briefly dated Josh Hartnett after breaking up with actor Chris Klein.

Hartnett, Klein, Cruise: Which of these three is not like the others?

Klein and Hartnett are young and tall. Cruise is middle-aged and height-challenged.

On the other hand, he's the biggest movie star in the world. They are not.

Holmes was busy during that first week in April. On April 7, she was photographed at the Fragrance Foundation's FiFi event.

Four days later, Holmes was still in New York and was photographed at VH1's "Save the Music" concert. She still had not met Cruise.

Sometime that week, her friends say, she flew to Los Angeles for a meeting with Cruise about a role in "Mission: Impossible 3." The meeting took place after April 11.

The next time anyone heard from Holmes was on April 27, when she appeared in public as Cruise's girlfriend and love of his life.

Where was she during those 16 days?

Somewhere during that time, she decided to fire both her manager and agent, each of whom she had been with for years and who were devoted to her.

The manager, John Carrabino, also handles Renée Zellweger and is beloved by his clients.
Holmes also acquired a new best friend, Jessica Feshbach, the daughter of Joe Feshbach, a controversial Palo Alto, Calif., bond trader.

The Feshbach family, according to published documents, has donated millions to the Church of Scientology. Jessica's aunt even runs a Scientology center in Florida.

According to Richard Behar's now famous 1991 story in Time magazine about Scientology, the Feshbachs were the subject of congressional hearings in 1989.

Behar wrote: "The heads of several companies claimed that Feshbach operatives have spread false information to government agencies and posed in various guises — such as a Securities and Exchange Commission official — in an effort to discredit the companies and drive the stocks down.

"Michael Russell, who ran a chain of business journals, testified that a Feshbach employee called his bankers and interfered with his loans. Sometimes the Feshbachs send private detectives to dig up dirt on firms, which is then shared with business reporters, brokers and fund managers."
The risk-taking Feshbachs, known the world over for making their fortune "shorting" stocks, and the level-headed, conservative Holmeses would be a difficult mix at a dinner table.

Katie's father, Martin Holmes, is the senior partner in a large and respected Toledo, Ohio, law firm. His son, Martin Jr., has recently joined the firm. He's a Harvard graduate. Katie's mom, Kathy, is frequently cited in Toledo for her charity work.

There is some fear among Holmes' close circle that her instant romance with Cruise is not as organic as portrayed.

For one thing, Holmes was raised a strict Catholic. Also, gone from the picture are two close Holmes friends who used to be with her when she did publicity for a film.

One of these is Meghann Birie, a childhood friend who has suddenly disappeared from Holmes' world. Another, a local TV producer here in New York, was too afraid to discuss the situation with me.

We know that Cruise auditioned several actresses for this role before settling on Holmes. This column reported a story about Jennifer Garner. There have been published stories about Kate Bosworth, Lindsay Lohan and Jessica Alba being approached.

A newer one involves Scarlett Johansson, who ran for her life when presented with a fait accompli dinner at the Scientology Celebrity Centre in Hollywood.

And history has been rewritten since the April 27 unveiling.

Curiously, since the Cruise-Holmes situation popped up, we have heard over and over again that Cruise was the young actress' idol when she was growing up.

That's certainly interesting because all of the publicity that used to run on Holmes — still found all over the Internet — lists another Tom as her favorite actor.

That would be Tom Hanks.

The Fertility Timebomb

Britain is facing an infertility crisis, with the number of couples who experience problems conceiving expected to double within the next 10 years.

A leading fertility expert warned yesterday that, by 2015, one in three couples may need IVF treatment or similar fertility procedures. The low success rates of such treatments means soaring numbers will be left childless. Professor Bill Ledger predicted a looming "infertility timebomb", with thousands of couples forced to go through physically and mentally draining treatment, at a cost of millions of pounds to the NHS each year.

He blamed the soaring rates of fertility problems on modern lifestyle factors such as obesity, women delaying starting a family, falling sperm counts among men and rising rates of sexually transmitted infections, particularly chlamydia. Smoking is also a main factor in infertility in men and women. Professor Ledger, of the University of Sheffield, called for the Government to recognise infertility as a "disease".

James Lileks on Gitmo

Q: What is Gitmo?

A: Contrary to what some suggest, it does not stand for "Git mo' Peking chicken for Muhammad, he wants a second portion." It stands for "Guantanamo," a facility the United States built to see if the left would ever care about human rights abuses in Cuba. The experiment has apparently been successful.

I Killed This Guy

From Tucson.com:

Corwyn (Cory) William Zimbleman
Tucson, AZ (formerly of Champaign, IL)

Age 53. Born April 18, 1952 to the late Willard and Gilda (Ebert) Zimbleman, died June 10, 2005. Throughout his life Cory was an extraordinary artist. His artistic talent and imagination would bring awe to all who viewed his work. His works grace an LP cover and numerous books; using Computer Aided Design (CAD) he designed home and business exteriors, interiors, and furniture for several architectural firms. His talent went beyond the fine arts as he added sculpturing, woodworking, metals, and other mediums to his repertoire. Having never gained the recognition he deserved in his own lifetime his family hopes to publish a book of his works. Another of his passions was herpetology. As a child he was always bringing home reptiles. His friends nicknamed him "Snake." He even built a turtle pond in his backyard. An avid atheist, he studied the bible and religion with more fervor than most Christians. He had strong political opinions and followed Amy Goodman's radio broadcast "Democracy Now." Alas the stolen election of 2000 and living with right-winged Americans finally brought him to his early demise. Stress from living in this unjust country brought about several heart attacks rendering him disabled. Cory, a great man, so very talented, compassionate and intelligent, dedicated to the arts and humanities and the environment, will be greatly missed by his wife, family, and friends. He is survived by his wife, Patricia Montiel; his step-daughter, Esperanza Hernandez both of Tucson; his brother, Mike (Dana) of St. Louis, MO; his sisters, Susan St. Claire of San Jose, CA and Laura Zimbleman of Ypsilanti, MI, and his turtles Heidie, Skinhead and Studley and many other pets. A memorial service will be held Tuesday, June 21, 2005 from 6:00 p.m.- 9:00 p.m., please call 883-2862 for information. Cremation has taken place.

Top 10 Ways to Destroy the Earth

Go here.

O'Conner Out?

Bill Kristol - who sometimes is in the know - has this little nugget concerning the Supreme Court:

(1) There will be a Supreme Court resignation within the next week. But it will be Justice O'Connor, not Chief Justice Rehnquist. There are several tea-leaf-like suggestions that O'Connor may be stepping down, including the fact that she has apparently arranged to spend much more time in Arizona beginning this fall. There are also recent intimations that Chief Justice Rehnquist may not resign. This would be consistent with Justice O'Connor having confided her plan to step down to the chief a while ago. Rehnquist probably believes that it wouldn't be good for the Court to have two resignations at once, so he would presumably stay on for as long as his health permits, and/or until after Justice O'Connor's replacement is confirmed.

(2) President Bush will appoint Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to replace O'Connor. Bush certainly wants to put Gonzales on the Supreme Court. Presidents usually find a way to do what they want to do.

And his aides will have an argument to make to conservatives (like me) who would be unhappy with a Gonzales pick: Bush would not, after all, be replacing a conservative stalwart like Rehnquist with Gonzales. Gonzales would be taking O'Connor's seat, and Gonzales is likely to be as conservative as, or even more conservative than, O'Connor. Indeed, Karl Rove will continue, Gonzales is as conservative a nominee to replace O'Connor as one could find who could overcome a threatened Democratic filibuster. Bush aides will also assure us privately that when Rehnquist does step down, Bush will nominate a strong conservative as his replacement. They might not tell us that nominee would be as an associate justice, for Bush would plan to then promote Gonzales to chief justice--thus creating a "Gonzales Court," a truly distinctive Bush legacy.

W Is A Fiscal Fraud

Today, we know that compassionate conservatism is really just big government and changing the tone means his veto pen is buried under the ground. The last four years, total spending has risen 33 percent - a figure larger than Clinton's two terms combined. Adjusted for inflation, one would have to go back to Lyndon Johnson to find a larger increase. Moreover, real discretionary spending increases in FY2002, FY2003, FY2004 and FY2005 are 4 of the 10 biggest annual increases in the last 40 years.

Happy Father's Day

Some belated Father's Day wisdom from Homer Simpson:

The code of the schoolyard, Marge! The rules that teach a boy to be a man. Let's see. Don't tattle. Always make fun of those different from you. Never say anything, unless you're sure everyone feels exactly the same way you do.

Son, when you participate in sporting events, it's not whether you win or lose: it's how drunk you get.

Kids, you tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.

Lisa, if you don't like your job, you don't strike: you just go in every day and do it really half assed. That's the American way.

Kids, just because I don't care doesn't mean I'm not listening!

When I look at the smiles on all the children's faces, I just know they're about to jab me with something.

I never apologize Lisa, I'm sorry but that's just the way I am.

Marge, don’t discourage the boy. Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It’s what separates us from the animals … except the weasel.

I won't lie to you, fatherhood isn't easy like motherhood.

Do It For "The Children"

I'm all for keeping the kids safe, but isn't this going a bit too far.

The Campbell County High School football field could be a safer place to play and march next season thanks to some old tires and a new surface.

The field is being refurbished using a product called crumb rubber, made from recycled waste tires, providing more cushion than traditional dirt fields.

"The process serves kind of a two-fold purpose," said Cathy Guess of the Kentucky Division of Waste Management. "It is a beneficial reuse of waste tires, and we have found there are fewer injuries to students after this is incorporated."

Now, even the dirt and grass are a danger to "the children."

If Only the Pigs Had Restrained Themselves

This piece from The Scotsman starts off great, but ends with a sigh:

IT IS one of the big, untold stories of the global economy. America's public finances are improving at last, to the great relief of the White House but to the puzzlement of much of the commentariat, which cannot fathom how tax cuts can possibly go hand in hand with a smaller budget deficit.

The US budget shortfall fell to $35.3bn (£19.4bn) in May, down 43.5% on the $62.5bn seen during the same month last year, thanks to a continuing surge in tax revenues. This year's deficit was the smallest May shortfall since the $27.9bn seen in May 2001, which was also the last year the government ran a budget surplus. This is a much better outcome than almost anybody was forecasting; it follows a series of US tax relief packages between 2001 and 2003, making the lower deficit all the more surprising to most analysts.

This apparent paradox has a simple explanation: President Bush's 2003 tax cuts played an important role in boosting economic growth and share prices; in turn, this triggered an explosion in tax receipts which is now compensating for the revenue lost originally. Of course, there are other reasons why the US economy has bounced back, including the strong international recovery and normal cyclical effects. But there is no doubt that the tax cuts helped a great deal.

Another explanation for why mainstream forecasters got it so wrong is that they attributed the deficit almost exclusively to the president's tax cuts. But the deficit's primary cause was the economy's poor growth after the collapse of the dot.com bubble. President Bush's decision to throw caution and principle to the wind and embark on an astonishing spending binge - much of which had nothing to do with his military or security policies - was an equally important reason.

The deficit could easily be abolished entirely by freezing spending for 18 months or so. Bush now seems likely to meet his campaign pledge to cut the deficit in half as a percentage of GDP by 2009; but if he had the guts and the support of the supposedly conservative Congress, he could easily eradicate the deficit simply by not spending more.

But Bush's and Congress's profligacy remains largely unchecked, with government spending in May hitting $188bn, up 5.7% from the same month of last year. But this was swamped by improved revenues of $152.7bn, up 32.3% from May 2000, led by an exceptional performance from income tax and corporation tax - thanks to, rather than despite, the 2003 tax cuts.

Quote of the Day

"America doesn't have a lack of empathy; they just don't know the issues as well. Actually, today I had to defend the Bush Administration in France again. They refuse to accept, because of their political ideology, that he has actually done more than any American President for Africa. But it's empirically so." -- Live 8 (and Live Aid) organizer Bob Geldof in Time magazine

Elections in Lebanon

From the NY Times (and you know they hated publishing that last line):

Opponents of Syrian domination claimed a stunning majority victory in the final round of Lebanon's parliamentary elections on Sunday night in a rebellion touched off by the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri four months ago.

An anti-Syrian alliance that tried to bridge religious lines and was led by Mr. Hariri's son, 35-year-old Saad Hariri, a Sunni Muslim, won at least 21 of 28 contested seats in northern Lebanon, the last polling area in the elections that have been staggered over the past four weekends. That gave the alliance a majority in the next 128-seat Parliament.

It was a startling change in the way politics have usually been carried out here - along strict clan and religious lines and long under the control of Syria - and perhaps an example of a greater yearning for democracy in the Arab world.

Go Away

Amnesty International does much good, but much harm as well. Check out this story from Pavel Litvinov in the WaPo:

Several days ago I received a telephone call from an old friend who is a longtime Amnesty International staffer. He asked me whether I, as a former Soviet "prisoner of conscience" adopted by Amnesty, would support the statement by Amnesty's executive director, Irene Khan, that the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba is the "gulag of our time."

"Don't you think that there's an enormous difference?" I asked him.

"Sure," he said, "but after all, it attracts attention to the problem of Guantanamo detainees."

Good for Deano

It's good to see Dean repudiate this crap, but this sort of nuttery is now the mainstream of the Democratic leadership.

WASHINGTON -- A handful of people at Democratic National Headquarters distributed material critical of Israel during a public forum questioning the Bush administration's Iraq policy, drawing an angry response and charges of anti-Semitism from party chairman Howard Dean on Friday.

"We disavow the anti-Semitic literature, and the Democratic National Committee stands in absolute disagreement with and condemns the allegations," Dean said in a statement posted on the DNC Web site.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, organized the forum on Thursday at the Capitol to publicize and discuss the so-called Downing Street memo. That document suggests that the Bush administration believed that war with Iraq was inevitable and that the administration was determined to use intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The Sunday Times of London has reported that the prewar document, which recounts a meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair's national security team, was leaked from inside the British government. The White House has rejected the memo's assertions.

Conyers' event occurred in a small Capitol meeting room, and an overflow crowd watched witnesses on television in a conference room at DNC headquarters. According to Dean, some material distributed within the DNC conference room implied that Israel was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

One witness, former intelligence analyst Ray McGovern, told Conyers and other House Democrats that the war was part of an effort to allow the United States and Israel to "dominate that part of the world," a statement Dean also condemned.

"As for any inferences that the United States went to war so Israel could 'dominate' the Middle East or that Israel was in any way behind the horrific September 11th attacks on America, let me say unequivocally that such statements are nothing but vile, anti-Semitic rhetoric," Dean said.

"The inferences are destructive and counterproductive, and have taken away from the true purpose of the Judiciary Committee members' meeting," he said. "The entire Democratic Party remains committed to fighting against such bigotry."

Master Yoda Stern

I still think David Stern is the best commissioner of any professional sport, in part by wielding his Jedi-like powers over the player's union every couple of years. But the following has occurred on his watch:

The NBA has lost about half its network TV audience in seven years, according to Nielsen Media Research.

Newsflash!

Danny Graves still sucks...even with the Mets.

Iraq Report

From Austin Bay:

I find that this return visit to Iraq spurs thoughts of America– of American will to pursue victory. I don’t mean the will of US forces in the field. Wander around with a bunch of Marines for a half hour, spend fifteen minutes with Guardsmen from Idaho, and you will have no doubts about American military capabilities or the troops’ will to win. But our weakness is back home, on the couch, in front of the tv, on the cable squawk shows, on the editorial page of the New York Times, in the political gotcha games of Washington, DC. It seems America wants to get on with its wonderful Electra-Glide life, that September 10 sense of freedom and security, without finishing the job. The military is fighting, the Iraqi people are fighting, but where is the US political class?

Bring In The White Coats

There's only one thing that will keep goofs like Tom Delay in power...Democrats. Check out
Dana Milbank today in the WaPo. Democrats held a mock impeachment (is this high school?) trial yesterday in the United States Capital, with John Conyers as chairman.

The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration "neocons" so "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world." He said that Israel should not be considered an ally and that Bush was doing the bidding of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

"Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation," McGovern said. "The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic." Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.), who prompted the question by wondering whether the true war motive was Iraq's threat to Israel, thanked McGovern for his "candid answer."

At Democratic headquarters, where an overflow crowd watched the hearing on television, activists handed out documents repeating two accusations -- that an Israeli company had warning of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and that there was an "insider trading scam" on 9/11 -- that previously has been used to suggest Israel was behind the attacks.

In the past, I thought that John Conyers and his ilk had wandered off the Democratic Party reservation. I'm beginning to think that they are the Democractic Party reservation.

You Are Now A Ninja

Yes, it's possible. Thanks to Rusty for this beauty.

Is He Crazy...Or Brilliant?

The World According to Carl Everett

Noted paleontologist Carl Everett of the Chicago White Sox is back to feed us more of his astounding views on life, this time in a Maxim article that is sure to be a big hit in the John Rocker household. Having successfully disproven the existence of dinosaurs, Jurassic Carl now turns his attention to gays, Wrigley Field and Tiger Woods. Here are some of his latest "findings" straight from the July 2005 issue, which I bought strictly for, uh, work-related purposes:

• Wrigley Field needs to be "imploded."
• Tiger Woods is not an athlete.
• "Gays being gay is wrong. Two women can't produce a baby, two men can't produce a baby, so it's not how it's supposed to be. ... I don't believe in gay marrages and I don't believe in being gay."
• "It's proven that 99 percent of baseball fans have no idea what they're watching."

Quote of the Day

"Continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit." -- Franklin Roosevelt

Why Only Attractive, White Girls?

Here's some food for thought:

At the same time, I am often amazed at how brazen the MSM can be in selecting what types of missing persons reports it selects as leading stories, especially on websites and TV. The missing person is almost always young; always a woman; always white; and always attractive. Right now the CNN.com home page is leading with this missing persons story, featuring (of course) a photograph of the attractive young woman front and center . . .

I can't stress enough that I am not saying this story isn't newsworthy. Every missing persons report is potentially newsworthy. Still, a person who followed the MSM uncritically might think that the only missing people in America are young attractive white women.

On Keeping the Sabbath

From the Christian Century:

With sundown on the Sabbath, I stopped seeing the dust balls, the bills and the laundry. They were still there, but they had lost their power over me. One day each week I lived as if all my work were done. I lived as if the kingdom had come and when I did the kingdom came, for 25 hours at least. Now, when I know Sabbath is near, I can feel the anticipation bubbling up inside of me. Sabbath is no longer a good idea or even a spiritual discipline for me. It is an experience of divine love that swamps both body and soul. It is the weekly practice of eternal life, marred only by the fact that I do it alone. In its community form, Sabbath is not only about rest but also about resistance. Each time it appears in Torah, the commandment limits the exploitation of others as well as the exhaustion of the self. When you stop working, so do your children, your animals and your employees, even if they do not believe in your God. You believe in your God, so they get the day off. By interrupting our economically sanctioned social order every week, Sabbath suspends our subtle and not so subtle ways of dominating one another on a regular basis. The lion is restrained from making a profit on the lamb, who may still choose to lie down for a Sabbath nap alone but is free from the fear of waking up as lamb chops on this one day at least.

Come On, Bono

U2 frontman BONO was horrified during a visit to Ethiopia, when he saw local women pelting a breast-feeding aid worker with stones.

The American woman was oblivious of the offence she was causing, and had to escape the angry onslaught from female Muslims who had no qualms about injuring her or her baby.Bono recalls, "I remember one vision of the people who are with WORLD VISION, which is an American aid agency.

"One of the women was breast-feeding a child on the horse. She was so comfortable. She didn't mean to be insensitive."

Uh, Bono, she wasn't being insensitive. She was breast feeding her baby. For some reason, the "peaceful" Muslim women took offense.

This Is Great News

Dwane Casey was, in my opinion, unfairly ostracized over the whole UK/Emery package recruiting scandal in the 80's. He was clearly set up...and sacrificed by the university and that snake Eddie Sutton. Here's hoping he succeeds in Minnesota.

The Minnesota Timberwolves are negotiating with Dwane Casey after offering their vacant coaching job to the longtime Seattle assistant.

Casey, according to NBA coaching sources, beat out San Antonio Spurs assistant P.J. Carlesimo and deposed Cleveland coach Paul Silas in the race to succeed Flip Saunders as Wolves coach. Sources said Casey and the Wolves began exchanging contract figures Tuesday and are progressing toward an agreement.

Team vice president Kevin McHale coached Minnesota to a 19-12 record after Saunders was fired in mid-Feburary, but the 44-38 Wolves missed the playoffs just one year after ending a run of seven consecutive first-round exits by reaching the conference finals.

McHale maintained from the start that he didn't want the job on a permanent basis, and Casey materialized as a leading contender early last week.

A finalist for jobs in Toronto and Atlanta last summer, Casey is also a finalist for the coaching vacancy in Portland. Barring an unexpected breakdown in Casey's talks with the Wolves, Portland is expected to turn to Suns assistant Marc Iavaroni.

A Nation of Wimps

I'm not one to reference Psychology Today, but this is one of the finest articles I've read in a long time.

More Social Security

From John Tierney in the NY Times:

Men in their 70's raced on bikes for 40 kilometers in this month's National Senior Games in Pittsburgh. A 68-year-old woman threw the discus 85 feet, and a 69-year-old man hurled the javelin nearly half the length of a football field.

Is it possible that people this age are still physically capable of putting in a full day's work at the office?

I realize I'm being impolitic. In the Social Security debate, the notion of raising the retirement age is the elephant in the room, as Robin Toner and David Rosenbaum reported in The Times on Sunday. Both liberal and conservative economists favor the change, but politicians are terrified to even mention it to voters.

Americans now feel entitled to spend nearly a third of their adult lives in retirement. Their jobs are less physically demanding than their parents' were, but they're retiring younger and typically start collecting Social Security by age 62. Most could keep working - fewer than 10 percent of people 65 to 75 are in poor health - but, like Bartleby the Scrivener, they prefer not to.

Amen brother. And I'd add this:

Today's notion of "retirement age" is a fairly recent one. Otto von Bismarck is often credited with craftily setting the retirement age at 65 because most people wouldn't live that long -- though in fact, Bismarck set it at 70, and it wasn't lowered to 65 until later. But the justification for retirement has always been that by retirement age people were nearly used up, and deserved a bit of fun and then a comfortable and dignified decline until death. Get rid of the decline and death, and you've given up the justification for living -- as Social Security recipients, at least, do -- off other people's efforts on what amounts to a form of welfare . Logically, retirement should be put off until people are medically old, or perhaps just replaced with disability, and those who are able to work should do so, while those desirous of not working should save up as for a long vacation.

Some Things...and People...Never Change

An interview with Gloria Steinem from that new teen feminist rag:

Melody: I keep on reading about how you believe in the inherent goodness of humanity, and I was just wondering how someone like Bush fits into that world view... if he does, at all.

Gloria: Well, yeah. He wasn't born that way. As a baby, he probably had a whole person inside him! But that family is enough to turn anybody into a raving power maniac, and they certainly did it with him.

Melody: When I saw the picture, the famous picture of him, with a bunch of other white guys, gleefully signing away our rights as women... all I could think was, "ok, how is that not just pure evil?" [Talking about the signing of the partial-birth abortion ban.]

Gloria: Well, you know, there is certainly evil effect. There are certainly going to be millions of women and a lot of men who simply are not alive because he's in the White House. There are going to be whole species of animals, and living things, and plants that are not alive anymore, and will never come back, because: he killed them. So, that's an evil impact. I don't think it's inevitable. He wasn't born that way.

This is chalk full of dumb comments, but the dumbest: "I keep on reading about how you believe in the inherent goodness of humanity." Who in the world - other than Gloria and her Leftist comrads - believes in the "inherent goodness of humanity." Please.

Say What?

ANDREW Bogut is getting a crash course in the cutthroat world of US sport, with the NBA draft hopeful forced to deny rumours he is going blind.The Australian basketball sensation is coming under increasing scrutiny from the US press ahead of the June 28 draft.

Bogut and former North Carolina forward Marvin Williams are expected to be picked No.1 and No.2 in the draft, held in New York, with NBA clubs Milwaukee and Atlanta holding the first two selections.

Williams, 18, is considered the player with the most potential following one season at Chapel Hill. College player of the year Bogut is viewed as the safest choice after a dominant sophomore season at the University of Utah.

But with only two weeks remaining until he is thrust into the international spotlight, doubts have been raised over Bogut's quickness, his overall potential and even his eyesight.

Former Utah coach Rick Majerus, who enticed Bogut to Salt Lake City and coached him in his first college season, reportedly told NBA executives recently the 213cm centre had a degenerative eye disease.

Bogut denied the accusation as well as any speculation of a rift between himself and Majerus.

Two Trillion Ways...

...to tie a shoelace.

On Wealth and Fame

From Andrew Sullivan:

Some may find it hard to feel pity for someone as wealthy as Jackson, but if you view wealth, as I do, as a potential prison of pitiless isolation, then the damage to the man's psyche and soul must have been and still is immeasurable. And damaged people damage others - even in the pathetic, sick way in which Jackson obviously wounded some of the children who foolishly came into his care. The parents of these boys should have known better, but they too were mesmerized by the fantasy of eternal wealth and youth. What you see in this case, then, is the cold, heartless core of American celebrity: a Faustian trade-off between instant, fathomless attention and the maintenance of any sort of psychological or spiritual perspective.

Meanwhile, fame moves on. No one cares much about Jackson's music any more. No one cares about his soul or those of his alleged victims. What the culture of celebrity builds it also destroys - casually. In this case, the wreckage is a husk of a human, the detritus of a culture that feeds on exposure and then, bored, moves on to the next victim. It is because we do not want to look at this too long that we finally look away. The world that created Michael Jackson is also the world that will happily forget him.

Mother of the Year

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- The mother of Nicholas Faibish, the 12-year old San Francisco boy killed in a dog mauling attack, says she left the child locked in the basement to protect him from the dogs.

Maureen Faibish tells Sunday's San Francisco Chronicle she used a shovel on the door to lock her son in the basement while she went out to run errands.

"Typical Nicky," Mrs. Faibish told the Chronicle, "he wouldn't listen to me."

Faibish says she locked her child in the basement because the female dog Ella was in heat. She believes Nicholas got out of the basement and interrupted Ella and Rex, the family's male dog, while they were mating.

"My younger dog was in heat and anyone who came near her, Rex saw as a threat," Faibish told the Chronicle. "He may have been trying to mate. It was a freak accident. It was just the heat of the moment."

She sounds all broken up about the brutal death of her son. This woman should be shot.

More "Scientific" Hogwash

In his review of Michael Shermer's new book, Science Friction, George Scialabba writes that Shermer...

...is less patiently evenhanded on the subject of intelligent design. It rouses the full-throated skeptic in him. His chapter called "The New New Creationism" aims to blow intelligent design theory out of the water, and, in this reviewer's opinion, it succeeds. With the exception of Pope John Paul II's 1996 encyclical "Truth Cannot Contradict Truth," conservative Christians' hostility to evolution has been unremitting. They have therefore championed (Shermer would say concocted) intelligent-design theory, according to which evolution's chief explanatory mechanism, natural selection, is unable in principle to account for irreducibly complex phenomena. (An irreducibly complex phenomenon, like the eye, is a system of interacting parts, every one of which is essential to successful functioning.) Very few scientists, Christian or non-Christian, have been persuaded by this argument. Shermer thoroughly explains why and offers a more tentative but still useful account of scientists' best current answer to the question of how life originated. "The answer can be found in the properties of self-organization and emergence that arise out of what are known as complex adaptive systems. . . . As a complex adaptive system the cosmos intelligently designs itself. It is one giant autocatalytic (self-driving) feedback loop that generates emergent properties, one of which is life." That may not be immediately intelligible, but non-scientists who want to understand the natural or social world had better get used to hearing about complex adaptive systems.

May we ask if science can demonstrate how such systems are created without the participation of any intelligence? Maybe a system evolves complex adaptive powers by employing . . . its complex adaptive powers.

Steve Fields Steak and Lobster Lounge Is Here!

The new restaurant has officially opened, and now the website is up. Looks good. A little pricey for my Newport bloodlines, but still good.

This is Frightening

Where do these people come from?

Another Bad Movie Idea

Quentin Tarantino has reportedly signed up to bring Eddie Murphy back as Beverly Hills Cop legend Axel Foley.

The movie-maker came up with the idea for a fourth Beverly Hills Cop film while writing Murphy a part in his upcoming war movie Inglorious Bastards.

Murphy tells website joblo.com: "There's been talk. Nothing solid yet. Quentin is insane but good insane. He came to me with an idea for another Cop, and we've been talking about that.

"If it comes off, great - he's one crazy guy worth working with."

The Rest of the Story

Nixon was a cancer, but the whole lovefest with Mark Felt over the past few weeks has been sickening. Felt was no hero - he was a lawbreaking crook, just like the President he helped bring down.

One former federal prosecutor remembers Felt:

The news that W. Mark Felt, former deputy director of the FBI, is "Deep Throat" -- that it was he who played a key role in exposing and bringing to justice the people who authorized the 1972 Watergate break-in -- came as an unexpected revelation to many. But it was particularly unexpected for me, because, together with others, I prosecuted Mark Felt for a series of illegal and unconstitutional break-ins that he had authorized.

In late 1972 and early 1973, during the same period when he was investigating the Watergate break-in, Felt authorized FBI agents in New York and New Jersey to break into and search the homes of friends or relatives of fugitives associated with the Weather Underground, a radical, violent antiwar organization. These friends and relatives were innocent of any wrongdoing. There was no probable cause to conduct the searches. There was no search warrant authorizing them. And they were clearly illegal.

With Felt's authorization, teams of agents clad in old clothes picked locks or bribed landlords and searched these people's homes. They searched thoroughly: desks, beds, closets, etc. Using a document camera, they photographed a diary, a love letter, a Valentine's Day card, statements of personal philosophy and other documents. When they were done, they put everything back in place so that no one would know they had been there.

This is Torture?

From CNN:

The U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay is drawing fresh criticism following a magazine report on a logbook tracing the treatment of a detainee who officials believe was intended to take part in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Time magazine said the interrogation techniques included "standing for prolonged periods, isolation for as long as 30 days, [and] removal of clothing."

They have a name for this: it's called fraternity hazing.

Every Life is Valuable

Ms. Mamitu was exceptionally lucky in that she was brought to a hospital here in Addis Ababa that offered free surgery by a saintly husband and wife pair of gynecologists from Australia, Reginald and Catherine Hamlin. Reg is now dead, while Catherine is the Mother Teresa of our time and is long overdue for a Nobel Peace Prize.

After that operation, 42 years ago, Ms. Mamitu was given a job making beds in the hospital. Then she began helping out during surgeries, and after a couple of years of watching she was asked by Dr. Reg Hamlin to cut some stitches. Eventually, Ms. Mamitu was routinely performing the entire fistula repair herself.

Over the decades, Ms. Mamitu has gradually become one of the world's most experienced fistula surgeons. Gynecologists from around the world go to the Addis Ababa Fistula Hospital to train in fistula repair, and typically their teacher is Ms. Mamitu.

Not bad for an illiterate Ethiopian peasant who as a child never went to a day of school.

This very "worthless" child grew up to be quite "worthfull."

Kenneth Taylor, RIP

One of the most influential men in the world has died...someone most people have never heard of.

Kenneth Nathaniel Taylor, who founded Tyndale House Publishers after he had been unable to find a company willing to publish his Bible paraphrases, died at age 88 on Friday. Tyndale House is now a leading publisher of Christian books and resources. Taylor's biblical paraphrase, which became The Living Bible, sold more than 40 million copes in North America alone. In 1950, Taylor also founded the Christian Booksellers Association, a trade association of Christian stores, publishers, and other retail companies now known simply as CBA. He also created the missions organizations Evangelical Literature Overseas and Short Terms Abroad (which merged with Seattle-based Intercristo in 1976).

Social Security CRISIS!!!

WASHINGTON, June 11 - Americans turning 65 this year can expect to live, on average, until they are 83, four and a half years longer than the typical 65-year-old could expect in 1940. And government actuaries predict that American life spans will just keep growing.

This demographic trend - by 2040, the average 65-year-old will live to about 85 - has major financial implications for Social Security and major political implications for the lawmakers now trying to overhaul the system.

So what's the response from the dolts in Washington: "What crisis?"

Here's the problem. The original Social Security program was designed 65 years ago in 1937. But it was fatally flawed because it did not adequately anticipate future rates of inflation or life expectancy. In 1937, CPI averaged 1.4% per year over the previous 25 years. Since then, it has averaged 4.0% per year. Life expectancy then was 60 years. Today it is 77. Any remedy to the present retirement system must comprehend and solve the unpleasant unpredictability of both these factors.

The Solution: Pay promised benefits to those 58 and older. Bump the retirement age for younger workers to 75 or 76 (and index based on life expectancy). Cut benefits for younger workers (pre-58). Allow younger workers to invest a small percentage in private accounts.

Now Why Don't I Take The Left Seriously...Oh Yeah

A group of naked cyclists took part in a bike ride to protest against oil dependency and to "celebrate the human body."

Crowds gathered as about 100 people set off from Hyde Park corner, London, in the World Naked Bike Ride past some of the capital's most famous landmarks.

Most of them stripped fully naked for the 10km (6.2 miles) cycle past Piccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Covent Garden, Oxford Street and the United States Embassy.

Some bikes were decked out with banners reading 'Oil is not a bare necessity but a crude obsession' and 'Support the trade justice movement'.

Others have slogans painted on their backs and some were on roller-skates.

Indian Dominance of the Spelling Bee

One possible explanation:

But Nehru would have approved of spelling bees. Indian pedagogy relies heavily on rote memorization--the result of a fusion of Victorian teaching methods imposed by the British and ancient Hindu practice, in which the guru (or teacher) imparted his learning to pupils via an oral tradition. (The Victorians, for their part, regarded correct spelling almost as a moral virtue, and certainly as a caste "signifier," to use a clumsy anthropological term.)

So the act of sitting down for months with dictionary on lap, chanting aloud the spellings of abstruse words and then committing them to memory probably taps into an atavistic stream coursing through the veins of Indian bee-children. A friend tells the story of how, in his childhood, he'd had an Indian boy home for a sleep-over. He awoke in the middle of the night to find his guest poring over the host family's Random House dictionary. "I own an Oxford dictionary," the boy had said, by way of bizarre, nocturnal explanation. "This American dictionary is so different!

Single Payor System Struck Down Up North

Canada's Supreme Court struck down a Quebec law outlawing private health insurance. Here's the money quote:

"In the case of certain surgical procedures, the delays that are the necessary result of waiting lists increase the patient's risk of mortality or the risk that his or her injuries will become irreparable," Justice Marie Deschamps wrote for the majority. "Many patients on non-urgent waiting lists are in pain and cannot fully enjoy any real quality of life. The right to life and to personal inviolability is therefore affected by the waiting times."

Amen, sister.

Not All Democrats Are Goose-Stepping Behind Dean

From the Don Imus show:

June 9, 2005

Imus: "On another note here, speaking of the Democratic Party, which you are a member of, how's Howard Dean working for you?"

Rep. Harold Ford Jr.: "(Laughing) I won't have him down so many times in Tennessee on the campaign trail with me. He has made some comments as of late that really speak to a lack of understanding I think, of the country, a lack of understanding of faith and values. I'm a Democrat and I'm a God fearing one. I grew up in church. Christianity is not reserved for white males. I think perhaps Governor Dean sometimes gets a little excited at the mouth, and says things that are simply not true. It may reach a point where if he can't find a way to kind of control some of his comments, and temper his comments, it may get to the point where the party may need to look elsewhere for leadership, because he does not speak for me, and I know he does not speak for a majority of Democrats and I dare say Republicans in my home state. I know that other, even Senator Biden and others, have made some stronger comments about him. I look forward to having a chance to sit with him here in the next day or so. I think he's going to be here in Capitol Hill a little later today to meet with us. I want to ask him directly. Can he contain himself in a lot of ways, and what is his thought process in a lot of these issues because it is not representative of where the party is."

Encouraging News from Saudi Arabia

Conservative Islam is the foundation of Islamic radicalism, which is Islam carried to a murderous extreme. This movement is weakening in the place where it originated; Saudi Arabia. One of the most telling signs has been the decline and fall of the religious police. The Mutawwain -- national "religious police" – or "Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Suppression of Vice" has long been a force in Saudi Arabia, acting against any perceived "un-Islamic" behavior in an attempt to preserve religious purity (e.g., it's better that women should burn to death in a fire than that they appear without their veils). Over the past few years, however, the Mutawwain have come under increasing pressure. Long regarded not only as arbitrary, but also corrupt, the organization is under investigation by the official state prosecutor, and its budget and personnel have been cut repeatedly; from over 2000 officers just five years ago there are now apparently only some 700.

Shame on Bishop Foys

I take back all of my previous praise of the Bishop. It turns out the Diocese is only paying $40 million, with the remaining $80 million hinging on their successful lawsuit against their insurance carriers. Oh by the way, the Diocese is self-insured, which means they're essentially suing themselves.

BURLINGTON - Calling the $120 million Covington Diocese settlement "a sound bite," Senior Judge John Potter rejected it, saying both sets of lawyers were fooling victims of sexual abuse.

Potter, of Louisville, said that while the proposed settlement was a good first step, it could collapse and end up in a trial - because only $40 million is immediately available for the claims.

Potter didn't discount the chance that the remaining $80 million could be collected through litigation with insurers. "It may, in the future at some point, become a $120 million settlement."

The judge said he wanted to make sure that no victim of sexual abuse by a priest became dispirited about his comment, but that it was better the victims understand up front that there isn't yet $120 million to be doled out.

The diocese is suing its insurance carriers to force them to contribute $80 million to the victims of the nation's only class-action suit alleging sexual abuse by priests.

Church investments and diocesan real estate will cover the diocese's $40 million part of the settlement.

A Roman Catholic self-insurance program released a public statement while Potter conducted the hearing, saying the Covington Diocese never consulted with its agents about the proposed settlement, despite the fact that the insurance group had paid $1.6 million for lawyers to defend the diocese.

Catholic Mutual Group, whose chairman is the archbishop of Omaha, said it was "saddened that the diocese has chosen to sue the church's self-insurance fund without prior notification or consultation."

The diocese has participated in Catholic Mutual's self-insurance company since 1968.

The statement said the carrier has "scrupulously abided by its obligations" to the Covington Diocese and does not understand how the diocese could expect Catholic Mutual to fund a settlement in which it wasn't consulted and hadn't approved.

Regardless, the statement said, Catholic Mutual will work to help resolve the situation in a way that's fair to all involved.